It’s been a rough week in the entertainment world, the deaths of David Bowie and Alan Rickman filling news channels, while in the last few days we also heard of the passing of veteran TV screenwriter/producer, Robert Banks Stewart.

Born here in Edinburgh in 1931, Banks Stewart’s lengthy career included work in newspapers and magazines before he moved in screenwriting for series such as Danger Man, Lovejoy and Doctor Who – there’s an obituary over on The Guardian that goes into more detail.

Although I own many of Banks Stewart’s work on DVD, it was a series of his that isn’t currently available to buy that I contacted him about back in 2010, the 1979 STV production of Charles Endell, Esquire.

I was working with STV at the time on a project to bring various archive series back to life via YouTube. They were in the process of uploading shows such as Take the High Road, Dramarama and some top-notch Hogmanay specials, and I got in touch to offer my services as a freelance…well, freelance archive TV fan, if such a thing exists.

During our first chat I mentioned a series I’d read about in dusty corners of the internet, a spin-off from 1970s ITV drama Budgie, which starred Adam Faith as small-time crook Ronald ‘Budgie’ Bird, and Iain Cuthbertson as dodgy Soho businessman, Charlie Endell.

Seven years after Budgie‘s last episode, Charles Endell, Esquire arrived on STV screens, a comedy-drama that took Endell out of Soho and sent him back to Glasgow to try and rebuild his empire that had fallen while he was in jail. Robert Banks Stewart was a key part in its creation, setting the tone for the scripts.

As part of my role at STV I was building up some additional material for the website, a kind of DVD extra for when Endell arrived on YouTube. I contacted Banks Stewart for an interview and he was happy to discuss his time working on the show. I also spoke to series star, Tony Osoba, and filmed an interview with director David Andrews about the series.

Sadly, six years on, STV has seen fit to remove all traces of Charles Endell, Esquire (and almost all of the shows they uploaded) from YouTube and their website, so the Banks Stewart interview was gone when I went to find it earlier today. Thankfully, some traces of it remain on the internet if you know where to look, and I’ve retrieved the following for anyone interested in the development of a six episode Scottish TV series that few seem to remember.

I still have hopes Endell appears on DVD one day as I think it’s a terrific piece of TV that deserves a place on our shelves. STV has repeated the show on its STV Glasgow channel in recent years, but it needs a wider audience. You can read more on the show on this blog, over on Cathode Ray Tube and on Lady Don’t Fall Backwards.

In the meantime, here’s that interview with Bob Banks Stewart – I feel privileged to have spoken to him and can heartily recommend checking out his recently published autobiography if you want to know more about his life and work.

Jonathan Melville: The character of Charles Endell originated in 1971’s Budgie – did you watch the original series on its first transmission?

Robert Banks Stewart: Certainly. I didn’t know Iain Cuthbertson personally then, but I enjoyed his brash, blustering Soho gangster/porn merchant. It was, as a TV series, a very clever idea and brought Adam Faith into the realm of acting.

Of course, for television of the time, it was very much filmed/video recorded as a series of interiors and there wasn’t a lot of Soho, especially Soho by night. It was good, lively, grown-up entertainment, and never actually as prurient as people imagined.

I’d registered a number of TV performances of Iain Cuthbertson’s and he was always eye-catching. He once played a pushy West Indian character in the days when white actors donned curly black wigs along with mahogany complexions. But his Caribbean accent was splendid!

How did you come to develop Charles Endell, Esquire as a series? Did STV approach you?

Well, as far as “developing” it, it was more a case of pitching Charlie Endell back into Glasgow and thinking up surrounding characters and the stories.

Yes, STV’s Bryan Izzard, then Head of Entertainment, approached me, because as well as having directed an episode written by me of New Scotland Yard, starring John Woodvine, he knew me as a writer of several episodes of Sutherland’s Law for BBC, which also starred Iain Cuthbertson – I believe that Iain plumped for me to launch Endell.

It was Bryan Izzard’s idea to bring Charlie Endell back in his own series, and Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, the creators and writers of Budgie, didn’t feel they knew enough about Glasgow to take on the idea. Sutherland’s Law was in fact the second Scottish TV series I’d worked on since I ‘emigrated’ to London in the mid-Fifties (as a magazine writer on Illustrated), then as a film and TV writer.

I wrote the first few scripts of Doctor Finlay’s Casebook, but the story editor, Vincent Tilsley, then wrote an episode which was, naturally, to become the first on air, thus gaining for himself both the initial good reviews and apparent credit as the creator. An old BBC story editor’s trick! Anyway, the character was A.J. Cronin’s.

The Charlie of this series is much mellowed from the Soho boss of Budgie, where he was very much into “adult entertainment”. Here, he’s more of a wheeler-dealer. Was it necessary to tone down his character for the spin-off?

To my knowledge at least, there might have been a red light district of Glasgow, but there was nothing like Soho. In any case, Charlie Endell wanted to rehabilitate himself – as if he could! – and that’s why he chose to try and be a businessman and fix deals. Needless to say they were mostly on the wrong side of the law.

You have to remember that until Endell came along, there hadn’t been many drama series (unless historical) set on the streets of Glasgow itself. There was a “stairheed” soap opera which later turned into the scenic Take the High Road.

After Charles Endell, Esquire, and after Bryan Izzard’s reign as Entertainment boss, a new Head of Drama, Robert Love, had the idea of turning William McIlvanney’s novel character, Laidlaw, a tough, streetwise Glasgow cop, into a drama series. Negotiations weren’t too helpful: McIlvanney was convinced that Laidlaw was a feature movie and apparently Sean Connery did toy with the idea of playing him, and a film script was written.

But it came to nothing (Connery was just too busy internationally) and so Robert Love’s patience gave way, and he commissioned a talented young writer, Glenn Chandler, to write a pilot script called Taggart, which is still STV’s biggest success on the ITV network after almost three decades.

It is, many people claim, Laidlaw by another name. But few can argue against STV’s, Love’s and Chandler’s skill and devotion to making the series one of the great landmarks of UK television.

What was Iain Cuthbertson like to work with?

He was a very intelligent actor, with degrees from Aberdeen University, where he later became Rector. I enjoyed every moment of working with ‘Big Iain’ as he was known to his friends and colleagues.

Of course he had an input to scripts and stories, as he had done on Sutherland’s Law.

Some years later, after his stroke and his recovery, I wanted him to come to Jersey to play the good role of a French Inspector in an episode of Bergerac with John Nettles. At the last minute (well, a week before) Iain phoned me to say he just could learn the words. He was distraught, gutted.

So was I, but I remember pointing out to him that his health was much more important than any role in a television series episode. And so, some time afterwards, he came and played a delightful part of a Scottish Sheriff declaiming on a balcony (it was meant to be in a Scottish town, but was actually shot in Corfe Castle in Dorset.)

Iain was wonderful, and I fondly remember dinner afterwards in a fine hotel with Iain and Phyllis Logan also in the cast.

Were you involved in the casting of the supporting characters and actors, including Rikki Fulton and Tony Osoba?

Well, yes, I did suggest some of the supporting characters, especially Tony Osoba and Rikki Fulton’s gangster, Vint, and made suggestion over the casting of both.

Rikki Fulton was called Vint because a few years before, as a young, green National Service officer in the Army, I had a batman from Glasgow called Vint, who gave me lots of scares and headaches, not least by my discovery that he had bits of razored bicycle chain sewn into the lapels of his battledress tunic.

He was a tough little “keely”, but very entertaining. He’d end up in the guardhouse, and keep calling for me to come and get him released on some pretext or other.

I so enjoyed Rikki Fulton’s drama performances (does anybody remember his Russian in Gorky Park?) that he was cast in Bergerac, albeit as a fading Scots comedian doing Summer Season, his wife played by the talented Scots actress, Jan Wilson. One of the best Bergerac episodes ever.

I introduced a young side-kick, actor Tony Osoba, whom I had admired as a fellow inmate in Porridge, a West Indian with a Scots accent! I made him the son of a jailbird father in Barlinnie called the Rifleman, not because he’d served heroically in the Forces, but because he was an expert at blowing open safes and rifling them.

Tony Osoba as Hamish McIntyre – photo copyright Tony Osoba

Also a pretty, upper-class female Probation worker played by Rohan McCullough, plus an old girl-friend played by the singer Annie Ross. I couldn’t resist calling the opening episode “Glasgow Belongs to Me”, and having Endell endlessly targeted by the Glasgow police.

Did you outline the six storylines to the writers? How did you choose them?

No, I only wrote my initial two episodes, then occasionally talked with either Rex Firkin, the producer, or a director, but I was in London at the BBC developing Bergerac (after Shoestring) and was never, therefore, fully free for an overall story editor role, nor was I paid to do this, though credited as Story Adviser.

Though, of course, I knew other writers quite well, especially Bill Craig and Alastair Bell, and we’d maybe chat sometimes by phone.

We didn’t meet to discuss scripts, nor did I have any final say over them. Budgie creators, Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall were never involved. Possibly paid some kind of royalty fee, and why not? Apart from the first episode, I never attended rehearsals or casting sessions.

Charles Endell debuted on ITV at the end of July 1979 but a major ITV strike began within a week and ran until the end of October. Do you remember the strike and its effect on the series? Had it finished filming by this point?

So far as I can recall, only the first episode of Endell, “Glasgow Belongs to Me”, was shown on the ITV Network on a Saturday night, at the beginning of what used to be called the Autumn Season. There was lots of chortling about Iain Cuthbertson’s reprise of his character from Budgie, and the fact that, at the end, he was almost blown up in his hotel room, phoning down to Reception, and grumpily asking for a room change.

Production of Charles Endell, Esquire, then in progress in Glasgow, was halted by the strike. During the strike period until October, Rex Firkin and directors Gerry Mill and David Andrews continued to work in their offices at STV in Cowcaddens on pre-production of scheduled further episodes.

It is said that strikers called them “scabs” and that at least one director threw a typewriter through a window in his rage at the strikers’ attitude towards them. The typewriter crashed down several floors into a well at the STV building. The management were secretly pleased by this spontaneous gesture, but officially not pleased because they wanted agreement with the unions.

However, peace was restored in late October. What I remember was this: the first episode, was re-shown on ITV to reintroduce the series (wasn’t I lucky – a writer getting an almost instant repeat fee!) and the rest of the series followed.

Was it always intended to run for just six episodes?

I’ll never know the answer to that. So far as I’m aware the ratings were pretty good for a Saturday night transmission. But there was always a complete silence at the top-floor of STV about a second series.

Consequently, nobody was (even at a distance in my case) thinking about what the further development of the series would be. I don’t think that the eventual decision to not do another series was due to the budget. Iain Cuthbertson would have loved to do more Charles Endell, Esquire.

Oddly, I was told that Gus Macdonald (Programme Controller) and the STV Board felt that Endell brought no credit to Glasgow, with its seamy hero, local gangsters and low-life stories.

Also, it was claimed he was extremely peeved at a scene in episode three, “Slaughter on Piano Street”, in which Charlie Endell came to try and sell a young pop group, was rebuffed by a ‘Mr Izzard’ and came out of the STV building at Cowcaddens and started kicking the tyres of a sleek Jaguar with the registration “STV 1”, Gus’s personal, chauffeur-driven car. I swear I never wrote that scene.

In “Slaughter”, I worked in the names of my three sons and various nieces and nephews as member of the pop group, Blunt Instrument. Hence, for example, Charles Alexander Endell, Andy, Angus, Duncan, Sheonagh. Just a bit of fun for all the kids in the Banks Stewart family.

Did you enjoy your time working on Charles Endell?

It goes without saying that I enjoyed my involvement with Charles Endell, Esquire. The final product was a bit patchy in places, but there was always a pressure there over the budget. But I don’t think the failure to do a second series was a financial matter.

Finally, what about the theme tune? A forgotten classic or a disaster?

For some it was a complete and utter disaster, a daft cacophony. Cuthbertson and Izzard cooked this up on their own, but I think Dennis Waterman always had the edge with Minder.

Big Iain…well, he sounded a bit like a Saturday night, Glesgae’s-goin’-roon-an’-roon, wailer. But a great many people thought it was a terrifically original, not to understand a word of what Charlie was singing, and mostly off-key at that.

He’d never have been on The X-Factor. Or maybe he would? Not a classic. But not a disaster.

Back in March I mentioned on this blog that one of my favourite films in recent years, How to Train Your Dragon, had been spun-off into a TV version, Dragons: Riders of Berk. Airing on the UK’s Cartoon Network, the series has proved to be a fine addition to the Dragon universe and I was keen to find out more about one its most important aspects, the score by composer John Paseano.

Here, Paseano explains his musical background and inspirations before going on to discuss his work on Riders of Berk, which will soon have a sequel series in Defenders of Berk.

Jonathan Melville: Over the last few years you’ve worked on a number of TV and film projects. How did you come to work in this area? 

John Paseano: I really love it all. I have wanted to be a film composer as far back as I can remember. It really hit me about the age of 10 after seeing Steven Spielberg’s Empire Of the Sun. I was so drawn to that film, and of course to John Williams amazing score. There was just something very magical about that film, which sounds strange considering the content of the story. A young English boy who struggles to survive after being separated from his parents during Japanese occupation during World War II.

The main character in that film, Jim Graham (young Christian Bale), had a fantastic imagination, and had uncanny ability to always find adventure in whatever task or circumstance he was put too or up against. I was so amazed how John Williams was able to use his music to show the viewer how a 10-year-old boy would view the events of that war say vs. an adult.

I was amazed how the music functioned in that film, and how integral it was in order to help the viewer see this story through Jim’s eyes. The score really grabbed me and I remember having a conversation with myself and said “that’s what I want to try to do when I get older!”, and I stress the word TRY.

So private music lessons started around the age of 12-13 (Piano), music school after formal school (Berklee College Of Music), and then out to Los Angeles to start the long road to become a film composer. So it was a very premeditated music journey, it was never about anything else besides scoring film. People always say “oh you are in the music business”, and always have to correct them and say “actually, I consider myself more a part of the film business”.

Do you have a preference for live action or animation?

Live action, animation, video games, commercials, trailers…anything where you write music to moving pictures, I love.

Which one is more difficult?

Sometimes doing a 20 second advertisement can be more challenging than doing a 10 minute action sequence. I think that is the beauty of this job. It’s never about the complexity of the music, or elaborate counterpoint and harmony. It’s about what fits the picture. Sometimes intricate counterpoint, harmony, rhythm, orchestration works great in a scene, other times three piano notes work much better.

How did you get involved with Dragons: Riders of Berk? Were you approached or did you audition?

I have always been a huge John Powell fan going pretty far back as well. When I heard that they were doing a TV series based on How To Train Your Dragon I called my agent and said “let’s try to go after this”. I had worked on another Powell property prior to this, an Ice Age short called Ice Age: Mammoth Christmas, so it just seemed like Dragons might be a pretty good fit.

So, we started working the channels to try to get music in front of the right folks at DreamWorks. They interviewed a couple of composers that they were interested in. I am sure from that point they developed a “short list” of composers that they liked, based off music reels and interviews, then we all had to demo a couple of scenes for show, and by some miracle I ended up with the show.

Ad for Dragons: Riders of Berk

Had you seen How to Train Your Dragon before you discussed working on Riders of Berk?

Let’s see…about 1,000 times.

John Powell’s original score for the film is one of the finest in recent years, winning various awards and being nominated for an Oscar.

Was it daunting knowing you would be effectively “inheriting” the score?

I remember when I booked the Ice Age short. I said to myself “sweet i get to try to be like John Powell” and then almost immediately after that thought i said “Oh shit, I have to try to be like John Powell”. Nothing makes you feel smaller than listening to John’s Ice Age scores, How To Train Your Dragon and some of John’s other scores.

He is one of the best in the business live action or animation, and when it comes to animation, in my eyes, he is the best.

As far as inheriting the score, I would almost consider it borrowing the score. TV shows function differently from films. The content of a television series is much broader. One week a show might be about Hiccup trying to find his father a dragon, another week it’s about Fishlegs finding magic dragon eggs. So the score has to have a great deal of variety in it.

We try to borrow themes from HTTYD for big dragon moments in the show, but we also try to do a lot of music in the “spirit” of the original score. If we just used the Dragon themes note for note in every episode I would worry that the viewer might grow tired, although I feel like I could listen to that score 1,000 times over and never grow tired, it is truly a masterpiece.

Also, the series is a little different then the movie, there is a touch more of comedic interplay between the characters, which has been one of the greater challenges of the show from a musical perspective.

Did you speak to Powell at any point?

I have. I spoke to him right before I started episode one. He gave me some great words of encouragement/advice and definitely let me know that he was not envious of the share amount of music I had to write under the super tight post schedule. Season 1 had over 400 min of music! I would touch base with him periodically throughout the season. Great guy! Each episode includes the original theme but with your own variations and additions.

Do you compose a set amount of new music for each episode, or does it vary?

It always varies. Just whatever fits the moment. It’s nice to be able to grab those themes and use them, but sometimes they just don’t fit certain scenes in the TV show, as crazy as that sounds!

Watch a trailer for Dragons: Riders of Berk

Can you give me an idea of how your involvement in the series works, from script to transmission? How far in advance of transmission do you work?

I never get to work to finish picture and usually write to animatics (60% finished). I usually have around seven days per episode, around 19-22 minutes of music per episode. It moves fast!

How important is it that you understand each character?

It’s really important. The other relationship that is important is the one between the kids and their respective dragons. Each character has a unique relationship with their dragon. That relationship plays a big part in determining the tone when that relationship is at play in certain scenes. The quality of this animated series is exceptionally high, from the scripts and cinematic look through to the presence of many of the voice actors from the film.

Does it feel like your part of something special?

It does. This is a very important property for DreamWorks, they really wanted to do as much as they possibly could do within reason to try to get this show as close to the feature as possible. Obviously we don’t have the same budget as the feature, and time is much tighter on this show as well.

It really is an amazing production considering how quick we have to churn these episodes out. Everyone from the writers all the way to the guys mixing the final production work extremely hard to make it happen.

John Paesano at the Annie Awards

You’ve already won an Annie (an American award for accomplishments in animation) for your work on the series. What was it like going on stage for that?

It was exciting, any time you get recognition for hard work it feels great. I really felt like I was accepting that award for a couple of people not just myself. Obviously John Powell created this whole world that I get to play and explore in every week, but also I work with a team of guys at my own studio, there is no way one person could get this show out all on their own.

It truly is a team effort, that is how film scoring is these days, schedules are tight, budgets are smaller and more music is required. It takes a village to get these projects out the door. So that Annie is shared by myself and my whole team, and of course, John Powell…but it was fun being able to be acknowledged, although I hate speaking in public!

Will a soundtrack from the series be released?

Yes, we are working on editing down 489 min of music into 60 min, it’s hard!

Have you started working on season 2, Defenders of Berk?

I am two episodes in, it’s going to be a fun season.

Can you reveal much about the second season?

I can’t…watch and see!!

With How to Train Your Dragon 2 due for release in 2014 does that mean John Powell is working on a brand new score just now? Have you discussed the second or third film?

Not sure what stage John is in as far as his production of HTTYD 2. I will tell you this though, the one thing that I know for sure about HTTYD 2, I guarantee the score will be incredible!

What’s next for you?

Well, of course season 2 of Dragons. I will be doing a feature for 20th Century Fox called The Maze Runner based on the New York Times best seller by the amazing author James Dashner, for a brilliant young director named Wes Ball. It’s going to be special project. A lot of really talented people are involved.

Thanks to John Paseano – follow him on Twitter at @jpaesano or visit his website.

Dragons: Riders of Berk airs on the Cartoon Network on Saturdays at 10.30am and 6.30pm.

There was some good news at the weekend for British fans of 2010’s animated film, How to Train Your Dragon, as the TV spin-off arrived on the Cartoon Network.

Dragons: Riders of Berk picks up a short time after the events of the Dreamworks film, when (and this is a spoiler if you haven’t seen How to Train Your Dragon) the Vikings of Berk and their dragon neighbours are living in harmony.

Well, as harmoniously as can be expected when you’re talking about flying beasties that breathe fire.

Now it’s up to the humans to stop killing the dragons and train them to help them in their daily chores, with the first double bill of episodes neatly reminding fans what had gone before while informing newbies what they’ve missed.

The young voice cast from the film has been retained for the TV series, including Jay Baruchel as lead Hiccup, while the adult actors are now Americans pretending to be Scottish as Gerard Butler and Craig Ferguson are off doing bigger things.

Thomas Wilson (Biff from the Back to the Future series) is Bucket while ex-Doctor Who David Tennant is also due to pop-up in a future episode as Spitelout Jorgenson, recreating his role from the movie.

The series retains the computer generated look of the feature film and much of John Powell’s terrific score, a soundtrack I’ve been listening to regularly for a few years now. Composer John Paesano joins the series for weekly scoring duties.

Two seasons have been commissioned and 40 episodes are in the works, with season two to be called Defenders of Berk. Season one began in the US in August 2012 so we’re a bit behind, but judging by these first episodes it’s a programme worth sticking with and I can’t wait to follow the adventures of Hiccup, Toothless and co.

We’re also promised two new feature films in 2014 and 2016, meaning the How to Train Your Dragon franchise should be a long and fruitful one, something worth celebrating in this world of soulless sequels.

Dragons: Riders of Berk airs on the Cartoon Network on Saturdays at 10.30am and 6.30pm.

It was over a year ago that I mentioned the Network DVD release of 1960s oddity, The Strange World of Gurney Slade, a title I soon came to cherish and recommend to anyone who’d listen.

Having become slightly obsessed with the work of the series star, Anthony Newley, since that release, I decided to join with some friends to record a podcast celebrating his career.

The podcast was hastily recorded – we made the decision over Twitter one morning and recorded it the same night – but if you’re a fan of Gurney Slade, The Small World of Sammy Lee, Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? or a number of other titles, you may enjoy this hour of chat.

Head over to the first Four Men Just Anthony Newley podcast to hear it.

With most old TV shows I find it hard to believe I was watching them 25 years ago; surely I was far too young to even know what a TV was 25 years ago?! Sadly, I was probably happily watching telly 35 years ago, I just don’t like to admit it to myself.

Anyway, the point of this brief post is to point you in the direction of a nice little reminder of days gone by, when after school TV consisted of series like Blue Peter, Tony Hart in his gallery, Grange Hill and some teenage reporters on the Junior Gazette (I will get around to a Press Gang post one day).

Joining their ranks was ITV’s Knightmare, a fantasy adventure game which took invited children to don a helmet and make their way through a cunningly designed dungeon, under the guidance of Treguard (Hugo Myatt), a friendly(ish) dungeon master.

Each week a team would move from room to room, with the helmet-clad child, the dungeoneer, taking instructions from his or her teammates in another room. They watched proceedings from a monitor and advised their friend which direction to take or how best to interact with the various denizens of the dungeon.

It was a simple enough premise but one which was captivating. Judging from an article on Knightmare.com, I probably watched every season of the show, I certainly remember most of the characters and changes to the basic set-up. I’ve not seen an episode years but would welcome an extras-laden DVD set of the first series if anybody fancies making one.

In the meantime, the owner of Knightmare.com, James Aukett, has done fans proud by making his own documentary to celebrate the programme’s 25th anniversary. James has interviewed many of the cast and crew, including Myatt and creator Tim Child, for this internet-only production, and he’s done a grand job with zero budget and a lot of love for the subject.

Thanks James, you’ve made an old(ish) fan very happy!

“I sit down and I try really hard to do something I’d want to go home and watch myself. How could I know what 30 million people want? I didn’t, but I know what Steve Cannell wants. If I sat in a screening room looking at an hour of television that was really good I’d go “yes, that’s what we’re trying to do!” Stephen J Cannell, Pioneers of Television

Stephen J Cannell was the guy who brought us such TV classics as The A-Team, The Rockford Files, 21 Jump Street, Hunter, Wiseguy and The Greatest American Hero back in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Here are a few more of his series to jog your memory:

Cannell knew he wasn’t writing Shakespeare but he also knew that popular hour-long dramas didn’t have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. He entertained the masses and is still doing so years after his biggest hits have left prime time TV schedules, these days through DVD releases, cable channel reruns and YouTube clips.

Sadly, Stephen J Cannell passed away on 30 September 2010 at the age of 69, soon after a film adaptation of The A-Team had hit cinemas and a 21 Jump Street adaptation was being mulled over in another part of Hollywood.

I’ve written on this blog before about Cannell’s influence on my life and my love of TV and film, with one of my earliest memories involving the watching of The Greatest American Hero on Australian TV in 1982, at the age of five. Those memories mainly involve Ralph (William Katt) flying into walls and hearing the incredibly catchy theme tune over and over again…

With The A-Team pulling in audiences around the globe during the mid-80s, Cannell cemented the reputation he’d built up with his earlier award-winning drama, The Rockford Files, as one of the most successful, and most prolific, creator/writer/producer/directors in the business.

He not only made deals with the networks to make his shows, he made a deal with the viewer. We gave him an hour of our time and he gave us some dramatic, funny, smart, knowing and memorable TV in return. Everyone was a winner.

OK, so what’s the point of this lengthy preamble?

Well, with Sunday marking the second anniversary of Cannell’s passing, I wanted to celebrate his life by rewatching some old episodes of his TV series, as I’ve got a fair few in the house…

Part of my Cannell collection

But, in this age of social media (if Cannell was making The A-Team now you could probably tweet the guys for help), I realised I could spread the word a bit further than my living room, alerting a few others to the fact that Sunday is a day for sticking on an episode of a Cannell production, effectively tuning it into the Cannell Channel for 50 minutes.

As a result, I’ll be sending out a few tweets from now until Sunday using the #cannellchannel hashtag, advising that anyone with a passing interest in Stephen J Cannell take some time to remember his legacy by creating their own Cannell Channell.

Perhaps you have The A-Team on DVD (TV show or film) or fancy downloading an episode from iTunes, have Netflix in the US to watch The Rockford Files or want to sample an episode of his series via YouTube, including:

• The Greatest American Hero pilot
• The Hardcastle and McCormick pilot
• The Riptide pilot
• The Hunter pilot

Then simply tweet your thoughts on the show using the #cannellchannel hashtag or leave a comment below, including suggestions for any other videos worth checking out. On the off chance that anyone who worked with Cannell is reading this, please feel free to leave a memory of him in the comments.

You can also find out more about Cannell over on IMDb or hear him discuss his career on the excellent Archive of American Television website.

In the event that nobody else wants to join in on Sunday I’ll watch a few episodes of Cannell series I haven’t got around to yet, mainly from the Prime Time Crime Collection.

Of course I do hope a few others can find the time to remember Cannell, after all I love it when a plan comes together…

In the case of Fraggle Rock, Jim Henson’s 1980s series which brought weird puppets and conflict resolution to teatime telly, something seems to have gone badly wrong in those archives.

Henson’s dream was to have series that appeared to be small-scale to the casual observer, but which underneath was a complex network of international co-production deals and filming schedules. The theory was that children would react better to a series made in their language and with references they understood.

Each episode would start in the “real” world with some business about an old man called The Captain (Fulton Mackay) living in Fraggle Rock lighthouse with his dog, Sprocket. After a few minutes the scene would then switch to an underground world of Fraggles, led obstensibly by young Gobo (Jerry Nelson). There would then follow an adventure in which one Fraggle would get into trouble and the others would save him/her while learning a valuable lesson about life.

If you watched Fraggle Rock in the UK then the lighthouse “wraparound” bit will sound familiar, though Fulton Mackay was replaced by John Gordon Sinclair and Simon O’Brien in later years. If you lived in America, Australia, Scandinavia, Spain or numerous other countries you would have seen Doc (Gerry Parkes), an inventor, interact with Sprocket. Doc’s mini-adventures took place in his garage.

French and German audiences again got their own wraparounds with local actors playing Doc.

Though Fraggle Rock went on to become a huge success around the world, spawning 96 episodes in total, that simple idea involving co-production deals would be the series downfall when it came to repeats, at least it was here in the UK thanks to TVS, a now defunct TV station, producing the UK wraparounds.

When TVS lost their licence in 1992, their back catalogue, and the documentation detailing it, was a victim of massive upheaval behind the scenes, resulting in only 12 episodes of the UK Fraggle Rock now officially remaining in the vaults. These were released on DVD a few years ago from HIT Entertainment on Region 2.

A bit of research (well, Googling) over the years from yours truly leads me to believe that, despite HIT contacting The Jim Henson Company to enquire about the episodes, the original master tapes are indeed missing. As is usually the way of these things, the fans are also doing a bit of digging around and, according to some recent posts on a missing episodes forum, we can add a further 17 broadcast quality episodes held by the BFI to the 12 that came out on DVD.

According to that post, fan Alex Taylor has a further 28 episode recorded off air (on his own video recorder), bringing the total number of Fraggle Rock UK episodes known to exist up to 57 – he’s kindly listed them all over on his own website.

I was fortunate enough to interview the producer of the UK wraparounds, Victor Pemberton, a few years ago and he mentioned that he at one time had every episode on VHS but that he wasn’t sure if he still had them in the basement.

The reason for my summing all of this up is that this week saw The Jim Henson Company upload six new clips to their excellent YouTube channel featuring Fulton Mackay as The Captain. Of the six clips, three now only exist as fan owned, off air, non broadcast quality episodes – The Trash Heap Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Sir Hubris and the Gorgs and The Garden Plot – and yet they all look in perfect condition to me:

So what does this mean for the existence of more UK episodes at The Jim Henson Company? Are these merely clips that have been lying around that have now been put online in isolation? Or are these excerpts from full episodes held by Henson that could, theoretically, be released in full? Do they have more clips still to be put online?

I’ve been holding back publishing this post for a few days as I’ve emailed the team at Henson to ask what the situation is, but assuming they’re busy with more pressing issues I may not hear back for a while.

It’s also useful to raise the subject once again in case any reader of this post has an episode on VHS that is missing, presumed gone. If so, feel free to let me know in the comments and we can try to get it into some new archive…

The ads were made in 1997, long before the return of the show to BBC One in 2005, and I wonder how much they had to pay for the rights to use the character and the music.

Tom’s on fantastic form and it’s evidence, if it was needed, that he’s still got what it takes to play the role. Here’s hoping the BBC decide to bring him back for next year’s 50th anniversary celebrations…

Building up a loyal following in its mid-1980s Saturday teatime slot, Robin of Sherwood, Richard Carpenter’s bold reimagining of the Robin Hood legend, could do no wrong. That is until Robin himself, Michael Praed, decided to abandon Sherwood for Hollywood, leaving the Merrie Men without a leader and the fans without a hero.

Carpenter returned once again to the legends that had originally inspired him, deciding that if they told of more than one origin for the Robin Hood character, so would he. Series three saw the introduction of Robert of Huntingdon (Jason Connery), a wealthy member of the gentry chosen by Herne the Hunter (John Abineri) to take on the mantle of Herne’s son and lead the fight against injustice.

Just as Robert’s background was the polar opposite of Robin of Loxley, so Connery was very different to Praed, both in hair colour and personality. While Robin had the classic brooding hero character down pat, Robert seemed to be more of a spoiled rich kid rebelling from his parents, at least in the opening episodes.

The two-part Herne’s Son sets things in motion once again, reminding viewers of the tragic events that closed season two before introducing Robert properly. With the old gang of outlaws now scattered far and wide, only Tuck (Phil Rose) left living in Sherwood, Robert must gather them together when Lord Owen of Clun (Oliver Cotton) takes up residence near Nottingham and sets his sights on the Lady Marion (Judi Trott).

Also back on the scene is the scene chewing Sheriff of Nottingham (Nickolas Grace) and his dimwitted assistant, Gisburne (Robert Addy), while Clun gains something of a right-hand man in Gulnar (Richard O’Brien), a sorcerer with an evil streak.

With much to pack in to these episodes, Connery isn’t given a lot of space to prove himself other than in the action stakes, where he does a good job of showing the character’s physicality.

Luckily the young actor is surrounded by performers such as Ray Winstone and Clive Mantle; while Connery reads his lines well, Winstone and Mantle ensure you believe they’ve lived wild and killed out of necessity.

This 13 episode run takes the characters into new territory, introducing them to a once and future king, a village that spells danger for Robin and his men, an increasingly desperate Sheriff whose methods get more inventive every time.

This year saw Carpenter divide writing duties with Anthony Horowitz, episodes such as Cromm Cruac, The Betrayal, Adam Bell and Rutterkin  pushing the characters and giving guest stars, including Phil Davis, Bryan Marshall and Ian Ogilvy, something to get their teeth into.

The downside to this need to try new things, not dwelling too much on the Sheriff’s failure each week to kill any of the outlaws, does mean that plot points are introduced and forgotten about with haste, more so than in the first two seasons. The Sheriff gains a nephew one week while Little John suddenly plans to get married another, while characters who aid Robin are seemingly forgiven as soon as they escape from the Sheriff’s clutches.

While it may sound churlish to complain about the writers’ trying something new, one wonders how the proposed fourth season would have played out had it followed the same pattern. Sadly we’ll never know.

We’re left with a season that proved Robin of Sherwood could evolve and still remain as exciting, well written and enjoyable as ever, providing action scenes one moment and smart dialogue the next. Clannad are also back to provide the atmospheric score to the series, as much a character as any of the Merries.

As with the Michael Praed Blu-ray release last year, episodes look even more like mini feature films, the 16mm prints given a scrub and polish that bring out the greens of the forest and give new life to the ageing series. For owners of the previous DVD sets this is an invaluable purchase; Robin of Sherwood has almost certainly never looked this good before.

Extras are ported over from the DVDs, with a multitude of commentaries, documentaries, outtakes, photos and scripts offered up to enhance enjoyment of the series. With hours of material at hand, the Robin of Sherwood fan shouldn’t have to look anywhere else for background on one of Britain’s most unique and important TV series.

Story ★★★★★
Extras ★★★★★

Robin of Sherwood – Jason Connery is now available from Network DVD.

Called in to investigate sightings of ghosts at the home of diplomat, Sir Reginald Styles (Wilfrid Carter), just ahead of a world peace conference, the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo (Katy Manning) become involved in a plot to change the course of history thanks to guerillas from another time.

As if that wasn’t enough to cope with, the Daleks turn out to be part of the 22nd century plot, with the Doctor forced to move back and forth between modern-day Earth and the future as the safety of the universe hangs in the balance.

Running to just four episodes, writer Louis Marks manages to set up the story and involve viewers in the action with little delay, ensuring that time travelling soldiers of fortune, Ogron bodyguards and a dystopian future are introduced without anybody really missing the Daleks, who finally pop up at the close of episode one.

Jon Pertwee glides through the story with ease, clearly relishing the opportunity to be a man of action, while the regular UNIT cast don’t hamper things too much. Aubrey Woods’ Controller is a decent match for the Doctor, though the assorted guerillas don’t make too much of an impact.

Let down by the Daleks themselves, who neither sound as scary as they should or mark themselves out as being worthy of ruling the universe, the adventure does benefit from frequent pauses to contemplate the merits (or lack-of) of time travel and the consequences it can bring. The episodes also look good, in both time periods, the odd duff effect forgivable when everything else works so well.

Extras

The main “extra” on this double disc set is the opportunity to watch all four episodes as a Special Edition, with various effects and add-ons beefing up the original story. Thankfully, while some previous attempts at sprucing up an old adventure have failed spectacularly, Day of the Daleks has had much time and love lavished upon it.

As well as a new range of voices for the Daleks and time travel effects sprinkled throughout, new scenes have been shot at the original locations, giving the battle sequences an added oomph that doesn’t look out-of-place on 2011 televisions.

A raft of new documentaries and featurettes, including a fascinating one on the problem of the memory cheating and another on the problem of trying to date UNIT stories, back up the commentary, moderated by Toby Hadoke and featuring Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks alongside actors Anna Barry and Jim Winston.

Story ★★★★★
Extras ★★★★★