From the Archive: A British Television Blog

Radio Times Wednesday Bonus: Five Faces of Doctor Who Logopolis

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:05:00 +0000

We just celebrated the 40th anniversary of DOCTOR WHO "Logopolis" Part Four but remember it will soon be the 40th anniversary of THE FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO! Part Three of "Logopolis" from the week of 28.11.81.

Radio Times Wednesday: Hi-De-Hi Series 2 Premiere

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 14:03:00 +0000

Lots of lovely coverage for the second series of HI-DE-HI in the 28.11.81 issue including a front cover! Check it out!

TV Times Thursday: Liz Fraser

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 14:03:00 +0000

TV Times Thursday: A nice article about one of my favourite actresses from past television Liz Fraser. This article appeared in the issue from the week of 29.04.72.

Radio Times Wednesday: The Eventual Launch of BBC2

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 13:46:00 +0000

The issue from the week of 09.11.63 was all about then eventual launch of BBC2. This article is real interesting to read about the original plans for the station. In the first pic, that is surely is the East Tower of BBC Television Centre under construction? I love the 1960s art created to portray each of the day's programming! I also love these nice huge clean images of the BBC logo!

TV Times Thursday: The Army Game

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 14:43:00 +0000

It's TV Times Thursday: This is from 08/06/58. Pre Doctor Who William Hartnell gets a call out in the listing for an episode of THE ARMY GAME. The episode is called "Poetry Prize"; it went out live and is missing-probably never recorded. #ITV #Missingepisodes #Granada #ArmyGame

From the Archive Episode 10: Tales of Television Centre & ITV Archives

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 12 Nov 2018 03:27:00 +0000

BBC Television Centre has a place in many of hearts that adore British television. When news came about its closure, it upset many that the BBC would leave such an iconic location. A wonderful documentary was produced before it closed. Directed by Richard Marson, Tales of Television Centre, brought together a wide spectrum of people who worked most of their careers there to bring us some of the warmest memories of our “concrete donut”. We talk with Richard about the making of this documentary and what it was like making it, creating the tone of the piece and an insight on what the BBC wanted to name it just prior to transmission! This is the first of a few conversations with will have with Richard and this is a fun one to listen to about Television Centre!

We also talk to Andrew Gavaghan who is the Archive Manager to the ITV archives. Conducted on location at the ITV Archive in Leeds in December of 2017, Andrew gives is an insight into the workings of the archives. It’s a great conversation!

If you have feedback or questions you would like to have read on the podcast or general inquiries, please contact us at feedback@fromthearchive.co.uk. We would love to hear from you! This podcast is a co-production between From the Archive: A British Television Blog and Kaleidoscope. Thank you for listening.

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/fromthearchive/10-From_the_Archive-Marson_ITV_Archive.mp3

Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fromthearchives-podcast/id1182742747

RSS Feed: http://fromthearchive.libsyn.com/rss

For more info on Kaleidoscope’s Parkside Christmas Party:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-parkside-christmas-party-tickets-51614782203?fbclid=IwAR3sMi26uhlIv74AXh_GuTkeQrboJMBOr8yVRM4fCCyzcHZjIYb5sPJBUdE

To get Richard’s book Upside Down go to TV Brain:

www.tvbrain.info

To pick up Richard’s other wonderful books from Miwk Publishing:

http://www.miwkpublishing.com/

TV Times Thursday: John Steed Picks the Pools

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 16:45:00 +0000

It’s time for this week’s “TV Times Thursday” where I take an article or something of interest from a past issue of the TV Times (TV listings of ITV programming) and post it here to share with you. This week, John Steed himself aka Patrick Macnee, makes his choice on the pools. This comes from the 11.06.65 issue of TV Times from page 49.

If there is an article you remember and want to see from the TV Times, drop us a line at fta13867@gmail.com or leave a comment below.

Podcast Round Up - Easy Guide to Listening Vol. 1

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 03:19:00 +0000

I have been getting a lot of people wondering where to listen to the From the Archive: A British Television Podcast. I thought I would put the first handful of episodes here in an easy to find list.

First off, anyone could always subscribe to the podcast though iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fromthearchives-podcast/id1182742747

or catch it through the RSS feed: http://fromthearchive.libsyn.com/rss

BUT here is direct links to the episodes:

Episode 1:

Introducing the new British television podcast, From the Archive! We celebrate all things British television with an emphasis of television preservation, locating missing material and restoration. Our first episode is the first part of an interview with Chris Perry, CEO of Kaleidoscope. We talk about Kaleidoscope’s inception but really focus on their role as a preservationists of British television plus their role in finding missing material. There is a lot of discussion about missing material plus so much more which is why it can’t be contained in one episode! We hope you enjoy!

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/fromthearchive/From_the_Archive_Ep.1-Chris_Perry_Pt_1.mp3

Episode 2:

Episode 2 of our podcast, From the Archive, picks up with the second part of our interview with Kaleidoscope CEO Chris Perry. In the previous episode, we talked at great lengths about missing episodes, television preservation and archives. This episode is no different! We talk a lot about the finds that Kaleidoscope announced this year including a streak of ABC/BBC material announced in October, we talk a little about the double-edge sword a prominent series like DOCTOR WHO does to the overall publicity of missing episodes and we talk a lot about the famous Bob Monkhouse archive. We have a lively and controversial discussion about TILL DEATH US DO PART that may go against the norm. There may be some language used in historical context on this program. The views and opinions of this conversation are those of people on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect those of Kaleidoscope or From the Archive. After the interview, there is reflection about 80 years of BBC television and some letters are read from the RADIO TIMES regarding the public taking to the new Doctor Patrick Troughton during the broadcast run of POWER OF THE DALEKS.

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/fromthearchive/From_the_Archive_Ep.2-Chris_Perry_Pt_2.mp3

Episode 3:

We celebrate one of the most influential comedies that has ever come out of the BBC, HANCOCK’S HALF HOUR but even more so we celebrate Tony Hancock himself. This episode features the first of a two part interview with the Archivist of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society, Tristan Brittain-Dissont. He brought some incredible audio to share over the course of the two episodes. This episode we hear a recently discovered crystal clear clip from THE HORROR SERIAL that has only previously existed as a very poor audio copy and an audio clip from the recently found soundtrack to THE ITALIAN MAID. Plus information of how it was found.

We then catch up with Chris Perry over the recently announced discoveries that have been announced by Kaleidoscope including some exclusive audio clips to the recently recovered Z CARS episode TRUTH OR DARE and a clip from MY PAL BOB. We also talk about Kaleidoscope’s new online research tool culminating in over 30 years of research into British television, TV Brain and how everyone can have access to this powerful database.

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/fromthearchive/From_the_Archive_Ep.3-Tristan_Birttain-Dissont_Pt_1.mp3

Episode 4:

We are very excited to present an EXTENDED LENGTH edition of this podcast. We have many rare clips included in it that we are proud to be able to present here. First and foremost, we continue our conversation with Tristan Brittain-Dissont. Tristan is the archivist for the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society. He brought a ton of wonderful and rare Tony Hancock audio clips that put some perspective not only on his career and his work habits but also the rise of the comedy writing legend duo Galton & Simpson. Some of the clips included are bits cut out of HANCOCK HALF HOUR radio episodes such as “Fred’s Pie Stall”, we have audio recorded by Tony himself that he used for learning his lines and we include a wonderfully long segment clocking in over 7 minutes from the rare radio series CALLING ALL FORCES that features Tony in this clip. There are some great clips from the series HAPPY GO LUCKY featured too.

Just as we were working on this episode, we got call from Tristan who told us more material of interest had been found and would we mind talking about them on this podcast? The answer was, of course, YES! So, we have a quick conversation with Martin Gibbons who is the Social Media Manager for the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society. He dazzled us with audio clips recorded from the original transmission of the first broadcast episode of THE BLACKPOOL SHOW from June 1966 where Tony does a little singing and then forgets the first act he is supposed to introduce! We share an audio clip from another recently found domestic audio recording of COMEDY PLAYHOUSE starring Harry H. Corbett. Perhaps the most baffling is the material discovered from off-air audio recordings of STEPTOE AND SON from 1963. This is really worth listening to and makes you wonder about the completeness of the versions released on DVD.

Finally we say farewell to Alan Simpson who has given many of us so many laughs over the years with his writing partner Ray Galton. We put together a little tribute to him using audio in his own words along with audio from Ray Galton and even Dennis Main Wilson. Equally exciting is we tie it all back to where their career started by playing a recording of the first joke they ever sold to the BBC. We are extremely proud to present this episode and we hope you enjoy it! It may not be able to all be heard in one sitting and it certainly needs listening to more than once!

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/fromthearchive/04-From_the_Archive-Tristan_Brittain-Dissont_Pt_2.mp3

Episode 5:

We are pleased as punch in this episode of our podcast as we are able to have a conversation with Sue Malden! Sue was named the first BBC Archive Selector back in 1978 and her work revolutionised the way programs have been selected and kept in archives for not only the BBC but the UK and beyond. Our conversation goes a lot into the archive selection process she put together plus we talk about the work she is doing in the field now. Of course we touch on her project she initiated to track down what might have happened to episodes of lost BBC series. She eventually chose DOCTOR WHO but she talks about some of the other series she considered looking into first. It’s a not only a great conversation about archive television but it’s a great conversation about television archiving.

We next move onto a quick conversation with BBC South Producer Richard Latto who recently returned an episode of HUGH AND I called “The Girl on the Poster” from 1964. He talks about where the print has been and how this isn’t the first time the film collector who owns this print has helped out the BBC Archives. We talk with Oliver Crocker who wrote “All Memories Great & Small” from Miwk Publishing about the passing of Robert Hardy. He not only shares great memories of interviewing Robert Hardy for his book but also shares some personal audio of the two talking. Finally, we check in with Chris Perry who gives us all the information for the upcoming Kaleidoscope event on 2/9/17 at Birmingham City University. It’s going to be a fantastic event with great guests and rare material. We share all the information!

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/fromthearchive/05-From_the_Archive-Sue_Malden.mp3

DVD Review: Three Classic Charles Dickens BBC Productions

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 03 Jul 2017 07:01:00 +0000

As a fan of British television, especially programs from the 1960s & 1970s, I have been keeping my eye on what Simply Media has been outputting especially over the last couple of years. I have seen programs such as Softly, Softly: Taskforce, Doomwatch, Hugh and I, and Dr. Finlay’s Casebook get a DVD release. Pretty much all of the releases above, I would have never thought any of those would have received a release in a physical format. It’s great to be wrong about this sort of thing because Simply Media keeps putting out content that features some of the heyday of BBC production.

Monday, July 03 sees the release of the first set of Charles Dickens classics all produced by the BBC. Three separate titles have been released for the first time on DVD and it has been a treat to watch these: Our Mutual Friend (1958), Great Expectations (1967) & Dombey And Son (1969). I guess what I am really pleased about with this set of releases is that these programs were not released on a streaming services but that we are able to own the physical discs. These are really special productions.

I have never sought out anything Charles Dickens. I am not disinterested in his work at all and obviously I am well aware of A Christmas Carol. So I came to these with a very fresh perspective. I am not a big reader of Fiction. I generally turn my attention to the more factual when I do my reading. I tend to like my books as television adaptations. I am not sure if that makes me lazy or not. I am also a scholar (of sorts) of British television of the 1960s and 1970s. I am intrigued by how the programs were made, who produced them, who acted in them and how these programs were archived. I have no doubt in my mind that these are faithful adaptations of the programs.

Our Mutual Friend
2-DVD set (Main Feature: 360 min)
Released by the Simply Media on July 3^rd, 2017. SRP £19.99 (DVD)
Subtitles, 1.33:1, Mono Black & White

This is a Region 2 DVD only available from the UK and in the PAL format.

To me, this is one of the most exciting release for a couple of reasons. Our Mutual Friend is the oldest production of the three that have been released this month and I use trepidation when I say that because there is some viewers out there that equate old with “not good”. Let me tell you that is not the case.

There is a thought that a lot of the output if BBC television in the 1950s were just plays that were televised and that changes when the likes of “The Quatermass serials” were produced or perhaps of people like Rudolph Cartier helmed productions. The reason I bring this up is to verify something like Our Mutual Friend is anything but a play on television.

Taking up 12 parts and broadcasting into 1959, this serial is tremendously thorough with its story. It takes us to many locations and the characters are well fleshed out. The Dickens characters often feel like caricatures to me; they are slightly over the top but filled with life. Their intentions becoming very obvious normally from when we first meet them. A lot of times, someone learns a lesson.

I think what surprised me the most about this serial (apart from that it all exists) are some of the cast who is in it. First and foremost, I was surprised by David McCallum who plays Eugene Wrayburn. He seems like a much more contemporary actor than someone who appears in a production from the 1950s. Amongst us British television fans, I am sure McCallum is mostly remembered for playing Steel in Sapphire & Steel in the 1970s or Illya Kuryakin in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. but is now seen on NCIS. He is now 83 years old and apparently is still going strong.

Other names that leaped out at me was Rachel Gurney from Upstairs Downstairs and Wilfrid Brambell who played Mr. Dolls. Brambell is well known for his iconic role as Albert Steptoe in Steptoe and Son. What I have found interesting in how many of these programs he turns up in during the 1950s. Just of ones that I have seen apart from this one, he is in the 1954 adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four and also in Quatermass II. Also seen in this is Barbara Lott, Melvyn Hayes and William Mervyn who I have always enjoyed in such series as Mr. Rose and All Gas & Gaiters.

The overall production for Our Mutual Friend is sleek yet simple. Things like the opening credits are very simple yet engaging. I think it can be said for all of these productions, I am easily engaged with what is happening. As a live production it is not all studio bound as there is a great amount of pre-filmed sequences to not only keep the story moving but to allow a greater breathe of scope to the production. It has been fun to see how BBC production changes throughout a span of 10 years with these releases.

Great Expectations
2-DVD set (Main Feature: 250 min)
Released by the Simply Media on July 3^rd, 2017. SRP £19.99 (DVD)
Subtitles, 1.33:1, Mono Black & White

This is a Region 2 DVD only available from the UK and in the PAL format.

The story of the growth and development of Pip Pirrip adapted by Hugh Leonard. Produced in 1967, this to me, gives us a great example of how a series made in black & white really serves the production well rather than colour. This is a story that has some gritty moments. These are played out very well in this production. Just in the very beginning alone, Pip is accosted by escaped convict, Abel Magwitch. It is frightening and escape seems hopeless. Of course, there is Miss Havisham whose story is tragic on a number of different levels. In fact, being the softy that I am who doesn’t always like watching some of this grittiness, I came to this production with some trepidation. What I found was a production with innovation without being too slick. It’s still a BBC production of its time but there are a couple of things that really stood out for me.

Like I said, some of the grittiness and violence. Violence done to other people. The sets are gritty, even the ones that feature Miss Havisham. She is older and a wealthy spinster but time has stood still for her and everything around her has sort of died. Even the dress she wears shows that there once was a better life to it. In fact, the first scene to feature her is her just her speaking from the other side of the room with the camera slowly dollying up to her. It makes an impact right away that she is someone important. Then we meet her adopted daughter Estella played by the beautiful Francesca Annis. She is a cold young lady who can be extremely harsh as we see when her and the younger Pip meet for the first time. Speaking of gritty, the opening credits may be the most depressing and interesting that I have seen from the BBC. Once again, simple yet very memorable.

One of things I love about these programs especially when we get to the mid to late 1960s are the cast that make it into the production. Simply Media’s one sheet about these programs will point out the better known cast but I like to point out the cast that are not as well known but have made a major impact on television in general. As I mentioned Francesca Annis who has been in many things but one that has always leaped out to me was when she played Lillie. Neil McCarthy played Joe Gargery, Pips Brothr-In-Law. Neil has turned up in many great programs. Basically think of all the great programs of the 1960s into 1970s such as The Saint, The Avengers, Danger Man, Doctor Who, etc and he would have made an appearance. I have enjoyed everything I have ever seen him in. Other notables in this production is Peter Vaughn, Richard O’Sullivan, Hannah Gordon, Bernard Hepton, and Kevin Stoney. Honestly, this is an outstanding production. It is very well-realised.

Dombey And Son
2-DVD set (Main Feature: 325 min)
Released by the Simply Media on July 3^rd, 2017. SRP £19.99 (DVD)
Subtitles, 1.33:1, Mono Black & White

This is a Region 2 DVD only available from the UK and in the PAL format.

Just like Great Expectations, this is adapted by Hugh Leonard in 1969. Paul Dombey is a wealthy owner of the shipping company called Dombey And Son whose dream is to have a son to continue his business. The story begins when his son is born, and Dombey's wife dies shortly after giving birth. Following the advice of Mrs Louisa Chick, his sister, Dombey employs a wet nurse named Mrs Richards (Toodle). Never reading the book, this serial did not go the way I expected to from the very beginning. Paul Dombey starts off as a successful business man but is extremely flawed by his stubbornness of only acknowledging one of his children; the son he wants to take over his business and refuses to acknowledge his daughter who wants his love. That is a major mistake for him. One of the stories here is the journey of Paul Dombey and his eventual redemption.

If you have not read the book or seen any version of this, I will not go any further into it. That being said, it is a very great serial that in terms of production takes us all over the place to create this world from a long time ago. Not as gritty as Great Expectations it does take us into some Victorian seedy places. Once again, the opening credits are really interesting as it looks like one thing from the first episode but reveals to mean something different by the time we get to the later episodes.

I think in all three productions in this grouping of releases have strong characters but some of the characters in Dombey And Son really are outstanding. Possibly my favourite is Captain Cuttle played by William Moore is a blusterous personality who has a hook for one hand. On the other end of the spectrum is Lucretia Tox played by Pat Coombs. Pat, in my opinion, is one of the most under appreciated actors of the 1960s and 1970s. She has appeared in so many programs such as Hancock’s Half Hour, Up Pompeii, Till Death Us Do Part and many more. She is outstanding in this and your attention immediately moves to her when she is on the screen. Also in this adaptation is John Carson, Gary Raymond, Clive Swift, Moris Fahri, and John Scott Martin. Of course Roland Pickering who plays young Master Paul Dombey looks as though he was born to play a child in a Charles Dickens production.

The one question that hit me immediately about these productions was going to be video quality. These productions are obviously older. I don’t know if any restoration work has been done to them. My guess is that there isn’t but that doesn’t mean these don’t look good, in fact I am very impressed with what I found. Our Mutual Friend is a telerecording of a live broadcast. If you have ever seen the release of the Quatermass serials, these episodes are better looking than Quatermass II but maybe not quite as strong as Quatermass and the Pit. I am just using those as examples. These are extremely watchable and to be honest, looks better than I expected it to look. Great Expectations is a telerecording from the videotape masters that no longer exist. Any of us who enjoy this type of television from this period of time knows what this will look like. The picture is very strong and sound is very clear. I guess what surprised me the most was Dombey And Son. These are from the 625 videotaped masters. It’s so much easier to assume that videotape masters do not exist for BBC programs from the 1960s but they exist in this case. They look great. There are some tape drop outs which I can understand but from the standpoint of someone who has a deep appreciation for television of this era and one who is keenly interested in how things are archived, this is unique. I love it! To me, this has been the highlight of three discs not just for the video quality but also I like this story the best. (EDITED TO ADD: I was corrected on a forum and double checked on TV Brain that 3 of the episodes are from the original videotape but the rest are telerceordings.)

These are fantastic discs. I think they work on multiple levels. The stories are very well realised and compelling. I think I would prefer these adaptations to anything made in later years. I think they are more realistic and in some cases they are filmed in some of the locations that would either have been around at the time the stories were written or what Dickens had in mind. So many of these old locations are long gone now but they weren’t in the 1960s. Plus just as a side note, I think the covers for all three of these releases are really stylish and stand out!

The other level is one that I personally look at as someone who loves this type of television from the 1960s. I treasure the fact that these are being released. I fear that programs from this era will either be forgotten or just released as a streaming service at lesser quality. If you are a fan of Dickens work, these are a must for your collection. If you are a fan of drama made by the BBC in their heyday of producing outstanding television….this is also a must for your collection. These three discs (sold individually) are Highly Recommended.

Who knows…..seeing that Simply Media released these three Dickens BBC productions including the wonderful 1958 Our Mutual Friend, perhaps they may be coaxed into releasing a set of Rudolph Cartier plays including one I really want to see in good quality, It’s Midnight, Dr. Scweitzer!

My next DVD review for Simply Media will be The Prince of Denmark starring Ronnie Corbett and Rosemary Leach and I can’t wait to watch it!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

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TV Times Thursday: Coverage for LWT's Lillie

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 02:58:00 +0000

It’s time for this week’s “TV Times Thursday” where I take an article or something of interest from a past issue of the TV Times (TV listings of ITV programming) and post it here to share with you. This week we post coverage of the London Weekend Television production of Lillie. One article discussing Oscar Wilde (in the production he was played by Peter Egan) and the other article about Cheryl Campbell playing Sarah Bernhardt. This is from the 28/10/78 edition of TV Times. The episode running that week was episode 6 Let Them Say.

TV Times Thursday bonus: Ronnie Barker is a shill and a frightening one at that! Here’s an ad for Vernons Pool with Barker in drag. Enjoy!

If there is an article you remember and want to see from the TV Times, drop us a line at feedback@fromthearchive.co.uk or leave a comment below.

We switch back to Radio Times listings in July.

TV Times Thursday: Michael Praed talks Robin of Sherwood

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 24 Jun 2017 14:39:00 +0000

It’s time for this week’s “TV Times Thursday” where I take an article or something of interest from a past issue of the TV Times (TV listings of ITV programming) and post it here to share with you. This week we post an article about Michael Praed and how it has been going playing Robin in Robin of Sherwood. This article is published in the 26/05/84 edition of the TV Times and coincides with the final episode of Series 1, The King’s Fool.

If there is an article you remember and want to see from the TV Times, drop us a line at feedback@fromthearchive.co.uk or leave a comment below.

A Ghost Story for Christmas in June

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 18 Jun 2017 18:55:00 +0000

I could be wrong but I feel that between the US and the UK, the UK is much more interested in the telling of haunting Christmas stories; ones with ghosts with dire consequence. In the US it feels like we still just want warm stories of Christmas miracles or redemption plus lots of cute. Let me tell you right now which I prefer.

There is something really exciting about a good ghost story but one that takes place around Christmas is even more exciting. A while back I did an article about A Christmas Carol and there I did a look at the history of such stories. They certainly existed prior to Charles Dickens ever wrote the story but he made one of the most famous stories of the genre.

Then there is M.R. James. M.R. James was a writer who was known for writing some of the best ghost stories ever. Period. One of the hallmarks of what James wrote included characters that had antiquarian tendencies. These are people who studied or was aficionados of things past. This is very true of the program I am writing about today. His stories were put into a number of collections over the years but a lot of these ghost stories were written as Christmas Eve entertainment that would be read out loud on that evening. The thought of it is really very cool. The BBC decided to take the idea a little further.

The Treasure of Abbot Thomas TX: 23/12/74

From 1971 to 1978, the BBC created a collection of these stories from M.R.James called A Ghost Story for Christmas. Other stories were done before and after this run but this is the main run of the series. Every year focused on a different story. Each story’s approach was different to the one the year before. The first one made in this series was The Stalls of Barchester in 1971. The Treasure of Abbot Thomas was the 4^th entry in this series.

What I enjoyed about this story is how straight forward it is. The story starts off with a séance. To be honest, I would have thought this would have been a big part of the story but as it turns out this is just a prop to show some arrogance to one of the characters. Rev. Justin Somerton has a close friendship with the younger Lord Peter Dattering. Lord Dattering looks up to Rev. Sommerton and is his mentor. Lord Dattering invites Rev. Sommerton over to his mother’s house as he is sure that his mother has no respect for him. The hope is that Rev. Sommerton can show her what a good, intelligent person Lord Dattering can be.

Lady Dattering has been using the talent of a medium, Mrs Tyson, to hold séances to get a hold of Lady Dattering’s late husband. Most nights she has success but tonight will not be a good night for her because of Rev. Sommerton. Rev. Sommerton accomplishes two things with this visit. First, to bolster the reputation of his friend Lord Dattering to his own mother but also to show Lady Dattering that the séances are faked. This is obviously horrible for Lady Dattering but it is best that she knows. There is something else that both Rev. Sommerton and Lord Dattering are interested in more than séances.

The research that Rev. Somerton has put into the monastery has uncovered that the Abbot Thomas had a treasure hidden somewhere currently at the monastery and also the possibility that he dabbled in alchemy which is the attempt of turning ordinary metal into gold.

Rev. Somerton is intrigued to find this, not for the money but for the quest. What he doesn’t care about is the warning that the treasure is guarded and something bad will happen to him if he takes the treasure. The two get a lot of clues in Latin but the real break though comes when they find some hidden writing on a stain glass window in the monastery. This is leads them to the roof of the church.

From the top, they can see where the treasure could be located. One night, Rev. Somerton goes out there alone which leads him into underground catacombs on the monastery grounds. He paces himself off to make sure he gets to where he needs to go to get the treasure based on the clues he received. He gets to the right place and as he bursts the stone wall, a ton of black sludge and slime pours out plus someone is down there in the catacombs ready to attack him. He makes a hasty retreat to go back up to his room but something else happens. The black slime follows him to his room. It starts seeping under his doorway. It appears to do this nightly which makes the Rev never wanting to leave his room.

Once Lord Dattering is able to see Rev. Somerton, the Rev. begs Dattering to take the treasure back thinking that once the treasure is returned, he will be left alone and his health will return to normal. Lord Dattering returns the treasure and the two go to Lord Dattering’s mothers place where they await for a doctor to care for Rev. Somerton’s illness resulting from the ordeal in the catacombs. As we see a doctor make his way up the path, his friends leave him to the doctor but we find out it is the Abbot, himself from the dead, coming to collect him.

Rev. Somerton suffers from greed. Not greed of monetary value but of knowledge. He wants to solve the mystery of where this treasure is located. This is a great example of someone of the M.R. James books who is an antiquarian. He is interested in finding out what happened to it. It’s interesting, without knowing this story at all, I really thought Lord Dattering was the one who was extremely interested in the treasure for monetary gain. That wasn’t the case at all.

One of the things I really liked about this production was that it was short. What I mean by that is that it was a tight story that moved quickly. Shot on film, there is a lot of great touches to the production. One thing which stood out for me was every time a clue was revealed, we would get a glimpse of a presence that was foreshadowing what would happen to Rev. Somerton. When they figured out the hidden writing on the stain glass window, something shadowy flew by on the other side of the window. Later something attacked Somerton on the roof of the monastery.

Original Radio Times Listing

With the whole production on film, there is this sort of foreboding feel with the events that are taking place. I touch on this a little in my article for Count Dracula. It’s how there might be a sunny day but it still feels very ominous. Something nasty lurking in the background. It might just be the film stock used but it adds so much atmosphere to the production. What also adds a lot to the production is the location used for this. It is grand and very beautiful. The DVD for this set was put out by the BFI and includes a filmed introduction by the director, Lawrence Gordon Park, who said the church was unsure if they wanted the BBC back as the year before the production of Canterbury Tales was shot there and they shot all sorts of naughty things within the church and Park needed to assure them that wasn’t going to happen in this production.

Park’s direction of this production is very strong. Like I mentioned before, this script is very good and Park was really happy with the script as delivered. The music adds a great deal of atmosphere to everything. It was composed by Geoffrey Burgon who created a soundtrack that had a lot of eerie chanting to it. It is along the same lines of what he would go on to write for his soundtrack for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. He also did the music for the Doctor Who stories Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom.

As for the cast, Rev. Somerton was played by Michael Bryant. He was in another ghostly Christmas stories of sort as he played Peter Brock in The Stone Tape. Paul Lavers played Lord Peter Dattering. This appears, at least from IMDB, to be his first television role. It is curious to see Mrs. Tyson, the fake medium, was played by Sheila Dunn who was Douglas Camfield’s wife. I guess curious because I personally haven’t seen her in much else other than her appearances in Doctor Who. Her husband, in the production, was played by Frank Mills which puts a smile on my face. He would later play the character Fig Newton the private detective in Rumpole of the Bailey, which is always one of my favourite series. Finally, the Abbot was played by John Harrington. Those who have seen this, the scholar in the library that we would briefly see in some scenes is also the Abbot, right? It feels like great pains are made for us to catch a glimpse of him.

This production has many of my favourite elements in a production to evoke this kind of gloomy atmosphere in plain sight. I love the clerical setting of churches or monasteries, chanting music and just a ghost story. Although it is A Ghost Story for Christmas, there are no Christmas elements to the proceedings which I am quite alright with. What we end up with is very good production moves at a good pace and is a great story.

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

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TV Times Thursday: Guest Editor John Le Mesurier

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 02:47:00 +0000

It’s time for this week’s “TV Times Thursday” where I take an article or something of interest from a past issue of the TV Times (TV listings of ITV programming) and post it here to share with you. I thought this was rather fun. It is from 28-12-68. It is a weekly piece in TV Times called “It Makes Me Laugh” where they bring in weekly guest cartoon editors. This week’s editor was none other than John Le Mesurier. At this point his ATV series George and the Dragon ended in October but another series started earlier that year in July on the BBC for him called Dad's Army.

If there is an article you remember and want to see from the TV Times, drop us a line at feedback@fromthearchive.co.uk or leave a comment below.

From the Archive Podcast Episode 2 Is Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 01:06:00 +0000

Subscribe to us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fromthearchives-podcast/id1182742747

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/fromthearchive/From_the_Archive_Ep.2-Chris_Perry_Pt_2.mp3

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From the Archive Podcast Episode 1 Is Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:21:00 +0000

Introducing the new British television podcast, From the Archive: A British Television Podcast! We celebrate all things British television with an emphasis of television preservation, locating missing material and restoration. Our first episode is the first part of an interview with Chris Perry, CEO of Kaleidoscope. We talk about Kaleidoscope’s inception but really focus on their role as a preservationists of British television plus their role in finding missing material. There is a lot of discussion about missing material plus so much more which is why it can’t be contained in one episode! We hope you enjoy! We are working on getting the iTunes feed going and will pass along that link when it’s ready.

If you have feedback or questions you would like to have read on the podcast or general inquiries, please contact us at feedback@fromthearchive.co.uk. This podcast is a co-production between From the Archive: A British Television Blog and Kaleidoscope. Thank you for listening to it.

Direct Download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/fromthearchive/From_the_Archive_Ep.1-Chris_Perry_Pt_1.mp3

RSS Feed: http://fromthearchive.libsyn.com/rss

Michael Kitchen is Christopher Foyle!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 21 Aug 2016 15:21:00 +0000

If you have not seen any of Foyle’s War, please note that this article is very spoilerific and I will give away plot points to not only this episode but the series. If you do not want to be spoiled please do not read further or read at your own risk.

It is a little rare that I am writing about a series from the 21^st century. I am actually quite serious about this point and there is a reason for it. When I started writing this blog at the end of 2007, I was really not well-versed in anything that was made past the mid-1990s and I was OK with that. I had pretty much discounted everything from that period on and as more programs were coming out, I was getting further and further behind. At one time when my friends thought I really knew something about British television but now I was someone who completely lost track and just knew the “old programs”. Then Foyle’s War came along.

Although Foyle’s War started in 2002, it wasn’t until 2012 or so that I really ever gave it a chance and even that was not by choice. I had been writing this blog for some time and created a backlog of articles that are still available to read if you choose. I had decided that I wanted to get into the game of reviewing DVDs. I felt I had something to say and could write reasonably well. I didn’t want to do reviews on everything out there, I wanted to do reviews on British television releases, after all that is what the focus of this blog is, British television. That narrows things down a bit. I sent out letters to whoever’s name I could find that was related to companies that released British television media. I wanted to send them all examples of what I could write and see if they would be interested in letting me review their material.

I sent a note to the editor of DVDTalk to see if he would ever consider having me as reviewer on his site. He wrote back and had a better idea. He had wondered if I would be interested in starting my own article on their site and write about streaming British television. That was amazing; this was what I wanted. We called it Brit-Streaming and the first studio we worked with was Acorn Media. They just launched Acorn TV and wanted us to write for them. I looked through their vast catalogue of material we could watch but there was a problem. All of these were new series! Nothing in it was archive vintage television which I knew so much about and it was outside my comfort zone. These were all contemporary series that were just made. What was I going to do with that? Then I saw Foyle’s War.

Being a consumer of Acorn Media’s output for some time, I couldn’t go far without seeing something about Foyle’s War in their advertising. Whether it was at a start of the DVDs or whatever, there was Michael Kitchen staring at me. Since I have been “followed” by Foyle’s War for so long, I decided to give it a shot for my new columm. New episodes were available for streaming. My first article of Brit-streaming was going to be about the World War II espionage series Foyle’s War. Series 6 was just released and I chose to write about the first episode of that series, The Russian House. The only problem was that Series 6 was the first series that took place after the war. They were mopping everything up, getting back to their lives. I missed the war! Whatever was I to do?

Plan of Attack TX: 06/01/08

We can get back to my dilemma in a little bit. Clearly, I have since seen all the episodes of Foyle’s War by now so for this outing, we randomly go to the start of Series 5 which is the series before my first outing with Christopher Foyle. At this stage in the series, it is clear that the war is ending soon. There is still much to do but the British government and its people know that Germany and Hitler do not have a lot of time left.

If you have not seen Foyle’s War, I would strongly suggest to take a look at it. To me Series 1-5 are the best. This deals directly with the war. The series is about Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle who is in charge of a station. What is unique about this series is that although it takes place during the war, it is not necessarily about battles and soldiers. It about Foyle capturing criminals who take advantage of the wartime through profiteering and other offenses. The city under his jurisdiction is seaside and it is active with the war effort with multiple facilities built there to combat the enemy. His second in command is Sergeant Paul Milner and Foyle’s driver is young girl named Sam. The only thing about all of this is that Foyle resigned from the police force at the end of Series 4, so what is going on?

There is a new DCS who has taken over since Foyle’s retirement, John Meredith, who doesn’t seem nearly as engaged as Foyle would have been. This is distressing enough for Milner to put in for transfer at another precinct. Foyle in the meantime has been working on a book he has been writing. With the help as Sam doing the typing, they are slowly getting through it. It appears Sam may not be the best typist around but Foyle is loyal to his friends and wants to make sure that she has some money coming in since she was let go from the station after Foyle resigned.

There is something else going on. There is a secret base near town doing some of the most top secret work of the war. The work is map making of parts of Germany using what information they have from the 1930s and any kind of reconnaissance imagery. No one knows it exists and no one is allowed to talk about it. Henry Scott, though, is one person who works in this facility and he is a talented map maker but the problem is that he has a very hard time with the morality of working on maps that will kill people. In fact, he has befriended Father Keppler. Father Keppler can help him ease that pain of what he is doing for the war. The interesting thing about Keppler is that he is German. Came over to England during the late 1930s. He was running from speaking out about what was happening in his country with the Nazi influence. He had to give up his life and parish in Germany to be able to stay alive. Henry will sometimes share what he knows because he feels bad that this priest is having his country blasted away by the allies.

This is an interesting perspective that I never really heard of before I’d seen this episode. There is certainly a remorse from soldiers who kill their enemy or even having to kill innocent people for many different reasons, but I had never seen someone relatively removed from combat feel such remorse for what he had done. As mentioned above, he was very close to his faith and that is what was important to him. Even Father Keppler was more sympathetic to the Allies cause and understood innocent people sometime had to die, Henry was still resolute with his feelings. This theme goes a little deeper.

By the time this episode happens, we are very close to D-Day. This is the start of the final push to Berlin. There becomes a bigger theological discussion of the ethics of what is happening and how to punish one’s enemy. This “conversation” is being led by Bishop Francis Wood. This isn’t a popular stance in the UK during this period but he is holding a conference in Foyle’s area and bringing in other priests to discuss the ramifications of what he is doing.

Henry is not only over wrought by what is now happening in the war, he is unstable. He cannot look the woman he was close to, Jane, for something she had done; he refuses to even consider to forgive her for infidelity. Finally, it all weighs on him too heavily and it appears Henry has taken his on life. Christopher Foyle is no longer a commanding officer. His replacement, DCS Meredith, is now in charge. Milner has a suspect in for racketeering but is threatened by this person for arresting him. After that, Milner is nearly run down by a car but even worse, a night later, someone attempts to kill Milner by firing a gun at him. It just so happens that DCS Meredith gets in the way of the shot and is killed.

At the end of Series 4, AC Parkins (played by Michael Jayston) was making things difficult for Foyle which is why Foyle retired. Now, Parkins tracks Foyle down at the priestly summit that he is attending asking him to take up his old job. There is something really wonderful watching Michael Kitchen play Christopher Foyle. It was commented on Wikipedia that Foyle speaks with precision. I love that description and it is very true. Foyle doesn’t display a ton of emotion but you know what he is thinking, whether he is kidding or not or whether your opinion doesn’t matter to him. Foyle is very fair but don’t cross him. I don’t mean that as in he will come out to gain revenge but more like if you let him down or disappoint him, there is no return.

The plot for this story has a lot of layers to it. On the top layer, it looks like Henry is unstable and commits suicide while a racketeer boss ends up killing Meredith. What really is going on is that Henry knew a lot that was going on at Beverly Lodge which is where the map making is taking shape. Milner doesn’t think Henry committed suicide for a variety of reasons and when Foyle is back on then force, he seeks permission to start investigating at the lodge, which up to that point had been off-limits. There Foyle uncovers that the commanding officer, Foster, was covering up for someone else. This is not directly connected to what happened to Henry but it leads Foyle to the truth.

Foyle has this way of interrogating people almost in a similar vein as Columbo. What I mean by that is I feel there are a lot of times where Foyle knows the truth well before he let’s everyone else know.
In some way, the line of questioning “toys” with the person who did the crime. It’s a mind game that’s fun to watch. Now, I’m not sure if that is true but it is a hypothesis of mine. So, when Foyle is at Beverly Lodge, he is talking to Richard Waterlow who was also doing an investigation at the lodge and looks through a binocular type object that shows two slightly different angles to a picture, making it look three dimensional. This is the clue that shows Foyle what is going on to solve the case.

Before Henry left Beverly Lodge to kill himself, he grabbed one of the photos of the location Father Keppler came from in Germany. He took the picture from the lodge which is illegal. Foyle realized what Henry did. Foyle goes to the church that Keppler is the priest at and confronts him. Foyle tells Keppler that he knows Keppler is not a priest but a German spy. Foyle explains that he knows Henry had trusted Keppler and gave him sensitive information on bombings as a way to clear his own conscience with God. Then, when Henry saw the photograph of the village Keppler is from, he notices one thing on the photo…..there is no church. Henry knew that Keppler was a fraud and that is why Keppler had to kill him but do so in a way that made it look like suicide. How does this tie in with DCS Meredith’s death? Everyone thought it was the racketeers that orchestrated this murder but this was also Keppler. Keppler had tried to kill Milner and not Meredith because Keppler had given the wrong information of where he was from and what parish he led in Germany while he was being questioned by Milner about Henry’s death. He knew this was easy to cross check and he needed to eliminate Milner.

Keppler called himself a patriot to Germany which is another call out to the messages we have been hearing all through out the episode. The idea of nothing is black & white or straight forward. We live on the side of what the Nazis and the rest of the Axis did during World War II was abhorrent, they believed what they were doing was correct. As Foyle arrests Keppler to bring him out of the church, Keppler pulls a gun on him to shoot Foyle. Foyle literally turns around to walk out telling Keppler to get his affairs in order, Keppler did and commits suicide.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed Foyle’s War. This is a tremendously well-made series that has a lot of great detail in the design and history of lesser known aspects of the war. It’s interesting with the direction the episode goes. It starts out about a man’s faith, I noted when I watched it that faith is very important to people during the war but there is a flipside to it. During the episode, DCS Meredith is having dinner with his wife. He is trying to have a conversation with her but she is unresponsive and uncaring. It isn’t until after his death we find out that their two young sons were killed in the line of duty just months apart. Later in the episode, Rev Stuart (Sam’s uncle we meet earlier) checks in on Meredith’s wife to see how she is doing after her husband’s death. She explains in no uncertain terms that faith is no longer important to her since both of her children were killed and has no compassion at all for the general population of Germany and what is coming their way. I am fairly confident that this is one instance of many.

The characters and cast are quite good in this. Apart from the regulars, we have Malcolm Sinclair playing Father Keppler. I have seen Sinclair in a number of things but most notably for me he played Freddy Fisher in Pie in the Sky, and was also in the opening to the James Bond film Casino Royale. As mentioned earlier, he played the German priest though sometimes his accent sounded more French than German to me. Henry’s girlfriend Jane was played by Fiona Glascott. She is somewhat tortured by what happened to Henry and it looks like she has been permanently crying through out the episode. We have such great actors as Michael Jayston and even Clifford Rose as Bishop Francis Wood who himself played in another famous wartime series as Kessler in The Secret Army.

One thing I forgot about these episode is that they were shot on film at this time of production. On DVD, you can see the grain and with the production values being so high, watching this episode is a very enjoyable experience. The music is wonderful and was composed by Jim Parker. Jim had done music for such series as The House of Cards and Midsomer Murders. I am a big fan of the work of Jim Parker and I will be listening to the Foyle’s War soundtrack soon. I want to do so for a couple of reasons: I know the music is good but at the same time, apart from the actual theme, I can’t actually remember what I hear that makes me say it is so good and I want to be able to do so. That being said, my favourite work of his is the music for The House of Cards. Every last note. It is incredible and I am really disappointed that we never got a soundtrack of that music.

I watched this from the SD DVD. Like I said above, it looks great but with it being shot on a film, it would be nice to see it in HD. The series was shot on 16mm. It looks like the set is sold on Blu-ray from Australia but I don’t know if it is true HD or an upres of the existing SD masters. When I go to a retailer like Amazon in Australia, it doesn’t show up there. There is a just a dealer selling it on Amazon.co.uk so I think I will stick to my DVDs.

What about Brit-streaming on DVDTalk? Even though I picked an episode of the series that took place after the war was over, I still enjoyed it though I wouldn’t recommend that is where people start their viewing of the series. Things started moving for me. At the same time that DVDTalk gave me the opportunity to write, Acorn Media got in touch with me to write reviews of their discs. Once I accepted, they sent me my first title which was the new version of the Forsythe Saga. Then I started reviewing the Agatha Christie's Poirot episodes. At the time this was happening, the BBC got back to me and said they loved my writing and said I could review their content too. The only problem was that I was in the US as I contacted the UK arm. I did more research to find contacts in the US for the BBC and they allowed me to review their content. Then if that wasn’t enough, BFI and Network allowed me to review their material.

The funny thing is that I’ve read people comment to me saying they didn’t know that studios let “blogs” do reviews. Well, why not?The sad thing is now I don’t have time to do the reviews like I used to have back in the day. I turn down opportunities to review because I want to make sure I do good thorough reviews and not run through them quickly. Maybe I will one day soon. I only tell this story because it’s the old adage, “when it rains, it pours” or “careful for what you wish for as it might come true”. It was an amazing, exciting time as I did the research of who to talk to at the studios to allow me to review and sent about 10 of my favourite articles I wrote as examples. Since then, I’ve had many people e-mail me and ask for the names of my contacts at these studios so they can do reviews too. I go to their sites and they have no articles written. Right or wrong, I never reply. I did the due diligence of researching who I should talk to and also had a large catalog of articles even before I reached out. Sometimes you need to work hard to get what you want.

I am extremely proud of my reviews and it all started with John at DVDTalk who gave me a chance. Thanks John! If you have never read one of my actual reviews of a DVD site, why not try reading my review of the massive Foyle’s War Homefront Files set.

Next time: For some reason we celebrate Christmas in August with an episode from the Ghost Stories for Christmas Collection: The Treasure of Abbot Thomas.

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

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Nigel Kneale: Always Against the Crowd

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 16:37:00 +0000

The following article was written at the time I wrote Classic Nigel Kneale: Beasts - During Barty's Party in December of 2011. I often write additional articles at the time I view a program that somehow tie into that program I am watching. Whether it is a DVD extra, soundtrack or even a whole other program these articles are kept back get published when I do not have time to write a new article or if I want to take a week off. Enjoy!

In 1975, Nigel Kneale wrote a script for the ATV series Against the Crowd. The series’ premise was about society’s outsiders. Produced by Nicholas Palmer, this episode serves as an unofficial pilot to the ATV series Beasts. Kneale enjoyed the process of writing the episode and working for ATV. His relationship was again souring between the BBC and himself and he enjoyed working with Nicholas Palmer.

Murrain TX: 27/07/75

Murrain simply means a plague and that is exactly how the episode starts out. Vet Alan Crich comes out to a rural village to look in on Farmer Beeley’s pigs. The pigs are dying and the water that is up the hill which comes from the spring has dried up. Crich doesn’t know why. Beeley and his farm hands know. They believe that an old woman who lives up the road from Beeley, Mrs. Clemson is a witch and they hate her. They believe that she is killing off the pigs through witchcraft, messing with the water supply and also making people sick.

Beeley has organized the village to retaliate to the perceived witchcraft. She is old and not very mobile anymore so the village refuses to allow her to buy any food from the local store which is literally across the street from her. They also believed her cat was spying on them, so they killed it. What Beeley wants Crich to do is to go inside her house and purify her house. Of course, Crich is absolutely not going to do it. Even when forced and threatened to do so, he refuses. Instead, Crich goes to Mrs. Clemson on his own to meet her just by himself because he knows that they are starving her out and wants to help.

Meeting Mrs. Clemson, he realizes that she is an old woman who can do very little about the situation she is in. She even has money to buy food but they refuse. Crich decides to take matters into his own hands. In his mind, she is no witch, just someone who needs his help. Crich, taking Mrs. Clemson’s money, goes to the local store to buy food for her and tells the owner Mrs. Leach that he is buying the food for himself. Once Beeley and his men meet up with Crich in the store, the truth comes out that he is buying to food for Mrs. Clemson. Mrs. Leach screams and is horrified that she has touched money that came from a witch. She is scared because her son is very sick and she thinks this is because of Mrs. Clemson.

Crich comes back the next day with groceries for Mrs. Clemson who is very appreciative for the groceries. It is there that Crich realizes that Mrs. Clemson is a little crazy. Saddened by a little girl who she used to think of as her daughter but eventually was told could never see her again. As Crich leaves the house, Beeley and his men are back. They forcefully take Crich into the store to show him what happened to Mrs. Leach. She is now sick and her hands, which she used to touch the money, are extremely swollen. Beeley is very angry and they have decided to go to Mrs. Clemson and kill her. Crich runs up to the house first to warn her and as the gang come up to confront her, she comes out of her door, says a spell and Beeley drops dead right in his tracks.

Murrain is highly enjoyable and quite atmospheric. On the surface, the setting looks like something that could be seen on something like All Creatures Great & Small. Small village, country side and hard working villagers. The accents for some of the people from the village was sometimes difficult for me to follow. The entire production was shot on video, the same as Beasts. Generally, I prefer film for the exterior scenes but this works very well for this story. It gave a great sense to a small village feel. British television has always been great at capturing this side of British life and whenever I see it, I absolutely love it. One things I noticed about this story too is that the scope of the episode isn’t grand. It is confined to just a few locations and a few characters. It literally is the village against Mrs. Clemson.

I think the one thing that really stands out for me is the character Beeley. Beeley is played by Bernard Lee. If you are a fan of the James Bond film franchise, I absolutely do not need to tell you who he is but I will anyway. He was the original M character. He was in the film series from Dr. No through Moonraker. It’s funny, these people are actors. The reason Lee would be in the Bond franchise is because he is an excellent actor. Yet, I am still surprised to see him in this role as he is not in a sophisticated position high up in her majesty’s government but he is a narrow-minded farmer in this. For some reason that is odd for me to accept because I am surprised to see him in television. It’s weird that I even think this way because he is an actor, his job is to act and to act in as many different things as possible. He is tremendous in this. I think it’s probably because this is the first thing I have ever seen him in outside playing the role of M but he is really good in it. David Simeon plays Crich. I recognized Simeon from playing the role of Alistair Ferguson in the Doctor Who story, The Dæmons. He is also very good in this episode playing rational character vs the irrational superstitious Beeley.

In the DVD viewing notes for Beasts which this episode is an extra on the DVD set, Andy Murray says the outcome of the episode is ambiguous whether or not Mrs. Clemson is actually a witch or not and that Kneale left it up to the audience to decide for themselves. Thinking about it, I guess that makes sense. I actually assumed she was a witch but the way it is laid out, maybe not. The only thing we see Mrs. Clemson do that could be considered witch like is her saying some kind of spell before Beeley falls down dead. It could very much be power of suggestion and when Beeley heard the “spell”, it may have been too much for him and he had a heart attack. In regards to the sick kid and his mom, it could be the effect of the murrain. The kid was probably hanging around where the pigs were ill and ended up getting the sickness. Mrs. Leach had been attending to the kid and it is possible she got sick too. Or it could be that Mrs. Clemson was a witch. Have you ever seen this episode? Do you have any thoughts?

I think we are lucky with Against the Crowd. This ATV series was around for one series in 1975. It appears that two out of seven episodes are missing. Luckily Murrain is not one of them. I don’t mean that in the sense that any of the other episodes are worth being missing, it is more down to the fact that this episode is a nice forerunner to Beasts. It is interesting to note that as I said above that all episodes of Beasts were shot on video and that is how they all exist, one of the episodes of Against the Crowd exists as a 16mm colour film print taken from a 2” master tape. I would assume basically a colour telerecording. It’s shocking that material was still being wiped as late as 1975! As of writing this article, Murrain is the only episode of Against the Crowd that is available on DVD and I do not have any other episodes of this series in my own collection. That being said, I would love to see the 16mm film recording with the 2” videotape source. If you ever seen The Best of Benny Hill film from 1974, it will probably look a little like that.
Of course, no article would be complete unless I included a shot of the VT Clock since it is available:

Next time: For some reason we celebrate Christmas in August with an episode from the Ghost Stories for Christmas Collection: The Treasure of Abbot Thomas.

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

I am on Twitter: @FromtheArchive Please follow and re-tweet these article if you like them.

Also please subscribe to my From the Archive: British Television Blog Facebook Page for updates about new articles. You can also just click "like" on the top of the right sidebar too!

Beane's of Boston Should Have Been A Series!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 21:04:00 +0000

Garry Marshall was known as a comedy genius. He was a writer on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Joey Bishop Show, The Danny Thomas Show and The Lucy Show. Marshall was a prolific filmmaker with such films as Young Doctors In Love, The Flamingo Kid, Beaches and of course Pretty Woman. He created some of our favorite TV series such as Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. Marshall was a funny guy and was a powerhouse in Hollywood. For this site, it may seem odd to pay tribute to someone who is not British or was a part of a British television series. Yet, for Garry Marshall, he was close enough and many of us have never seen it.

It’s probably odd to pay tribute to someone who has had such a distinguished career making some of the best film and television ever to look at a failed television pilot from 1979. Yet, that is precisely what I am going to do. One of the “holy grail” for Are You Being Served? fans is a chance to look at the only attempt at making the series in the US. This series was called Beane’s of Boston.

Beane’s of Boston Pilot TX: 5/5/79

“Remember our motto: if at first you don’t succeed, you’re out on your butt!”

I am not going to pretend to know really what transpired to create this pilot or even what discussions took place to get it made to go on the air. A number of years ago, I wrote to Garry Marshall’s people in a few different places he was associated with to see if he could talk to me at all about this pilot. This man was directing some of the great comedy films of the time and for some reason I thought he would respond to me and talk about a pilot for a show that didn’t make it in 1979. That beings said, I felt that he always came across so down to Earth that if he did respond, I wouldn’t have been surprised. He came across as someone who was accessible to everyone. I remember watching a Happy Days reunion special where all the cast were in director chairs on the set of Arnold’s and Scott Baio was sitting at the end of the row. Garry Marshall was moderating the interview with the cast and when he got around to addressing Baio, he looks at him and says, “Scott, why don’t you move your chair a little closer to us. You are so far away you are on the set of Charles in Charge!” I don’t know why but I always found this really funny!

Original TV Guide Listing from 1979

It was on a Saturday night in May 1979 that CBS did a one-time airing of this pilot episode. If you watched any of the series Garry Marshall created and produced from the 1970s, Beane’s of Boston has that same feel. It was shot on film and made before a live studio audience. The series starts off with a song that is sung by old Mr. Beane. Of course this is not to be confused for Young Mr. Beane who is affectively the replacement of Mr. Rumbold in this series or even confused for Mr. Bean played by Rowan Atkinson. The elderly Mr. Beane is played by Tom Poston. He does the “younger man dressed as an old man” for the series yet plays it a lot better than Kenneth Waller played Old Mr. Grace in the BBC series. Back to the theme music, there is something sweet about the theme with nuances of the theme played throughout the entire episode.

Original TV Guide Listing from 1979

Beane’s of Boston is just like Are You Being Served?, a department store that is set in its old-fashioned ways while the rest of the world around it is changing. This is, in fact, depicted in the opening credits for Beane’s of Boston. As Mr. Beane sings his song, we see paintings of the exterior of the store from 1888 when it opened to present and the last few paintings show all the skyscrapers growing up around the store.

Tom Poston as Mr. Beane

Where we have Mr. Rumbold from the BBC series managing the Men’s and Ladies department, we have Mr. Beane’s nephew Franklyn running it….apparently into the ground. Ever since he took over the department, sales have been plummeting. Literally. The revenue chart shows such as downward spiral that old Mr. Beane says the sales figures for October are probably under the rug! Luckily, Franklyn has a plan. Even luckier for the elder Mr. Beane, he has a new secretary Ingrid who is very German. Unluckily for Ingrid, Mr. Beane is a dirty old man.

Larry Bishop as Mr. Lucas and Charlotte Rae as Mrs. Slocombe

We get to the ladies and gentlemen floor and it is immediately recognizable to what we are used to in the BBC series. We have the entire cast and although it is surreal to see these iconic characters played as Americans and by different people, at least to me, it is mostly right. Captain Peacock becomes Mr. Peacock and is played by John Hillerman. Mr. Peacock does not seem particularly pretentious like Captain Peacock could be in the series. In fact, he kind of reminds of the Captain Peacock we get by the end of the BBC series. One who is no longer “drinking the Kool-Aid” and now has no problem saying what’s on his mind. I really enjoy what Hillerman brought to the episode. Mrs. Slocombe is played by Charlotte Rae. This is an inspired choice. Rae has great range and has the right look to play the part of a senior person in the ladies department. It is Miss Brahms’ first day and after Mr. Peacock introduces Brahms to Mrs. Slocombe, Slocombe says to Mr. Peacock, “She is wearing better clothes than I am” to which Mr. Peacock responds, “No, she just wears them better.”

It’s interesting to see the series started with Miss Brahms’ first day and it feels like to me that the series would have probably focused more on Franklyn and his struggles to try and keep his department afloat as a young executive. I really think that the series would have moved to a stronger relationship between Miss Brahms and Franklyn. Alas, we will never know…..unless we start writing fanfic.

"Men's Wear!" Alan Sues as Mr. Humphries

I bring up this fact because when the BBC series started as an episode of Comedy Playhouse in 1972, the “star” of the show at that point would have been Trevor Bannister as Mr. Lucas. It soon became apparent that for the British original, that the cast could not be contained as just an ensemble and eventually Mollie Sugden and John Inman would come out as the leads. Here Larry Bishop plays Mr. Lucas as a true blue Bostonian but really has very little to do in the episode. Of course, what about Mr. Humphries? This is truly an iconic character made famous by John Inman. Here the role is played by Alan Sues most famously known from Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. It’s interesting to watch Sues’ take on Mr. Humphries because Sues is a bigger man than Inman. I think this is an important distinction. Inman seemed like he could be blown away by the wind. Sues seems taller and bulkier but they kept in a lot of the gay innuendo. He has a deeper voice than Inman which makes some of the gags not work as well such as Mr. Humphries going on about something to Mr. Grainger or Lucas as the phone rings. Humphries then answers the phone with the famous lower voice, “Men’s wear.” Because of Sues’ voice, the gag just doesn’t work here. I think Sues almost plays it a little heavy handed where Inman did innuendo really well. Granted it was a pilot so it is a little unfair for comparison and the cast could have changed if the series went to air. It would have been interesting to see how far they would have taken it with Sues playing the role.

John Hillerman has very little authority as Mr. Peacock in his German gear

It’s also interesting if Inman was ever considered for the role for the US series. It’s highly doubtful that was even a thought but there is precedent for it since Inman went over to Australia for 2 series of their version of Are You Being Served? in 1980 & 1982. Plus, as the story goes, John Hillerman was late for the reading of Mr. Peacock so Jeremy Lloyd read for the part and was offered the role by Garry Marshall. Lloyd was talked out of doing it by David Croft which is also interesting as Croft also did the same thing to Jimmy Perry while they were casting for Dad’s Army. Perry wrote the character of Private Walker for himself but Croft talked him out of that too. I wonder if the choice of Alan Sues was in any way suggested by Jeremy Lloyd as the two of them were both on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In?

Miss Brahms was played by Lorna Patterson. Even though she plays it a little ditsy, I don’t feel that’s how the character would have progressed. If Lorna looks familiar to you, she appeared in Airplane! and Airplane II as the woman who would play the guitar to the kid who was sick and would accidentally suffocate the child by sitting on her tube of oxygen, etc. We even get a Mr. Harman like character in the form of Mr. Johnson played most splendidly by Don Bexley. Mr. Grainger is played by Morgan Farley and Franklyn Beane is played by George O’Hanlon Jr.

It's German week at Beane's

So, what is this great plan of Franklyn’s to save his department? Well, have you ever seen the Are You Being Served? episode German Week? Well, it’s a little like that. Ok, I lied. It is exactly like that. This is where things become interesting as I always thought that idea of a department store selling just one country’s goods was a strange idea but I thought maybe that sort of thing was done in the UK but seeing that script translate over in the US is even odder. It is clear that they remade this episode for the very same reason the Dad’s Army US adaptation, The Rear Guard, remade The Deadly Attachment. It’s a good script, visually funny and was a famous episode from the series.

Why are Mr. Humphries' eyes watering?

The problem is that I think what made German Week from the British series so good may have been lacking a little here. In the UK, there was a strong anti-German feeling still lingering from World War II to certain generations of the population. The characters from the series would have all been affected by the war in some way, whether seeing combat or just the fear of bombing, rationing or evacuation. Remember there is a melancholy sort of reminiscence to the war near the end of Camping In. This was still fresh in their minds and very close. This is not to say no one in the US had horrible struggles while fighting during the war but as a country, we really didn’t live under the constant threat of being invaded which is where the difference lies.

“I’m not selling German sex panties!”

From this point on, the episode takes on a very similar tone to the BBC version. There is the exchange between the cast about the funny names of German goods, the idea of dressing Mr. Peacock as Hitler, even the exchange of Mrs. Slocombe being flat on her back during the war but in the US version it was caused by the French and she was in the WAC (Women’s Army Corp)! When Franklyn says he wants the store to have a more German atmosphere after a day of horrible sales numbers, Mr. Peacock responds very deadpan, “Well, there must be some barbed wire in the Hardware department.”

It was supposed to be a light tap!

The end of the episode results in a song and dance number very much like the British version with Peacock and Slocombe getting into a fight about how hard they should slap each other. This time it ends in more chaos as the drunken Slocombe hits Franklyn instead of Peacock accidentally but hard enough for him to get knocked into a table where the whole thing falls down. At that point Mr. Humphries looks at old Mr. Beane and asks, “How do you like it so far?” That was a laugh out moment for me. Of course as with the UK version, the dance number takes place with the cast not facing the customers who are on the floor in the store watching this but to us the viewers. So the customers and Old Mr. Beane would have just seen their backs during the whole dance number. What saves Franklyn from being fired is that although it was a disaster, Ingrid (Mr. Beane’s secretary) loved it which means Mr. Beane loved it!

Instead of Mr. Harman, we get Mr. Johnson

The bottom line to this episode is that it is funny. A lot funnier than I would have thought. By the time the episode was over, I was quite sad. I knew there was no more made after this and I would never see this “alternate universe” Are You Being Served? again. I obviously don’t know why it was never picked up by CBS. I don’t know if a decision was made to not pick it up before it was aired. It seems to me that if it was going to be picked up that it would have done so with a whole set of episodes in motion. Showing something like this in May is a really strange time to do something like that. Perhaps the humor itself had something to do with it? The humor in this episode has a lot of sexual innuendo to it. It has a dirty old man in it in the form of old Mr. Beane.

Mr. Beane: “I’m going to the club.”

Franklyn: “Oh, the bridge club.”

Mr. Beane: “No, the strip club….its amateur night!

It may have been a little “naughty” but it was harmless comedy. It was probably on par with something like Three’s Company. They did try to use the “Mr. Peacock, are you free?” line but like the “menswear” line, it fell flat. I would have loved to see a full series of episodes of this series. I think it would have been very funny; I felt the cast was already gelling together. That being said, how long would they have based the series on scripts of Are You Being Served? or would the series have gone a different direction? It lists David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd as writers and producers of Beane’s of Boston in the credits, would they have stayed on? Like I said above, I could easily see them developing a possible romantic storyline between Franklyn and Miss Brahms. She was the only one who showed him any kindness and believed in him but, it was just her first day.

The German dance makes Ingrid very happy which bodes well for Mr. Beane!

We were robbed that this pilot did not going to series. We missed out on them all coming back together years later for a reunion series. They could have called it Beane’s of Boston….Again! or maybe they retire to a pig farm and called it Beane’s & Bacon or something. Alright, I’ll get me coat!

To me, this is one of Garry Marshall’s forgotten masterpieces.

I would like to thank Mark Little for hunting the TV Guide listing for Beane’s of Boston from 1979. He runs a Facebook group where he shares TV Guide listings from his massive collection www.facebook.com/MyTVGuides/ and also has a podcast devoted to TV Theme music called Tube Tunes and you can listen to that here: www.tubetunes.net/

Next time: I will take an unpublished article I wrote from 2011 talking about a Nigel Kneale story starring Bernard Lee concerning a witch. We will look at Against the Crowd: Murrain.

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

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The Box of Delights Part One!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 18:17:00 +0000

Last week I mentioned how Christmas specials from our favourite television shows didn’t need to have a Christmas theme to it to still be special. What about when you really want to watch something with a wonderful holiday spirit? After all, tis the season! There is something about a Christmas serial that is magical, full of fantasy and takes place in the 1930s. It is children letting their imaginations run wild and there is a beautiful innocence with a great spirit of adventure that is held before the outbreak of World War II. It features wonderful countryside and steam train engines, plus Patrick Troughton. This is The Box of Delights.

The novel for The Box of Delights was written by John Masefield in 1935. Little did I know that this is actually a sequel to a novel he wrote in 1927 titled The Midnight Folk. I personally am glad I didn’t know this because I think this story is perfect on its own. The Midnight Folk also featured Kay Harker who is our main character in The Box of Delights.

The Box of Delights was originally made the BBC as a radio production in 1943. It was made no less a total of 6 more times on radio between 1943 and 1995. I will touch on the radio adaptations in a later article on this series. In 1984, the BBC decided to make its most ambitious children’s serial to date. This is the start of a fantastic serial.

When the Wolves Were Running TX: 19/11/84

The story starts with Kay Harker, a young boy, returning from boarding school and is on Christmas holiday with his Aunt. Things get moving pretty quickly on this episode as he meets an old Punch and Judy man named Cole Hawlings and the the two have an immediate rapport together. Strange things happen from the start such as Kay losing his train ticket for his next train but as soon as he tells Cole that it is gone, Kays finds it on the ground by his feet, which is probably the first place that Kay would have looked.

Kay is back on the train for the final leg of his journey and meets up with apparently two men of the cloth who turn out to swindle the young Kay in a game of chance as well as possibly pickpocketing him after they get off the train.

The first thing I notice is that poor Kay is wearing shorts in this cold December weather but there is no snow on the ground…so far. That will all change soon. The whole opening with the trains is always a soft spot for me and as someone who grew up in the US in the 1970s, I am envious about this means of travel. We have it in the US but never did it seem like an everyday convenience as it is in the UK.

When Kay arrives and after he gets pickpocketed, he sees Cole again. Cole needs his help to tell a lady that the wolves are running and that he insinuates that the two “clergy” men are the wolves. What I like about this story is the counter balance between everyday life and a wonderful fantasy world. Of course, everyday life in this instance is perhaps more privileged and takes place in the 1930s. That being said, anything about the manor house or the servants is not a really big deal to the story but rather what I would expect from an English period piece that brings to it a lot of charm.

Right from the start of the production, I am hooked. The title sequence is whimsical with lots of shots of the characters we will be seeing in the program. Some that we may not see within the first episode too. What brings it all together is the theme music which is an orchestral rendition of The First Nowell (Noel) which in itself actually kind of sneaks up on you. The sequence ends with a synthesized sting that sounds like it comes straight out of the Doctor Who story Arc of Infinity. Yes, I know I am being very specific. Sure, enough Roger Limb did the music for this production and Arc of Infinity. To me, it’s a little off-putting since that bit sounds just like the moment an Ergon is going to come out of a room a zap someone….but I digress.

Within this episode Kay is tasked with finding the lady to tell her the wolves are running. He actually finds her fairly quickly as he stops of at a bakers to get some pastry. It all happens rather fast. I am actually surprised with how quickly Kay accepts all that happens to him within a short amount of time but also surprised with how much freedom Kay gets to do what he wants. I do understand it’s a different time period to now. One moment that actually freaks me out for his safety and I am not even a parent, is when he asks the driver to take him into town at night to do some last minute Christmas shopping. He tells the driver not to worry about waiting for him as he will find his own way back. What is even more alarming is that the driver is OK with this. What is funny about that is although it seems alright in the story, actor Devin Stanfield who plays Kay says in the Radio Times article which is attached here that he wasn’t thrilled shooting at night so far away from everything!

Kay’s aunt is very easy going too. When I originally saw this production (and having never read the book) I thought she was going to make a big deal out of thinking that Cole would have been the one to pickpocket Kay’s money. When Kay tells her no, she drops it. In fact, she is OK with letting Cole come to the house to perform Punch and Judy. As an American, I have never understood the point of Punch and Judy. That being said, I can certainly appreciate just on the merit of the long history its had. To my UK friends, is this still a tradition that can be seen? How is it received these days?

The Punch and Judy show goes well with Cole doing an amazing job of it. Cole is a little uneasy about something; he is uneasy about the wolves. He works in old magic and not new magic like the wolves. At the party, we meet up with the Bishop and their church will be celebrating its 1,000 Christmas service and the Bishop would like Cole to attend to perform Punch and Judy there for the celebration. The Bishop is played by John Horsley. John also played Doc Morrissey in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. As you could imagine, I was very disappointed when the Bishop didn’t ask Cole if he was feeling a bit chesty.

Cole takes his leave of Kay but leaves with his dog through a painting which is done in a pretty awesome sort of way. The painting enlarges and a donkey comes down the road in the painting to meet him. He gets on the donkey and buggers off. This is one of the things that really stands out for this production. There is a great use of animation alongside live action throughout the whole production. This production is very complex and kind of reminds me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in terms which how ambitious it is compared to other BBC productions.

In the middle of the night, Kay awakens and realises he needs to go to King Arthur’s Camp. He finds a horse waiting for him in the backyard. He takes the horse and goes to King Arthur’s Camp which he has never seen before. It is lively as he sees lit campfire from the inside and he can hear people. He realizes he can jump the horse but when I say jump, it is more like flying. When he gets in the camp, he can see people are being terrorized by the wolves!

I had last seen this production maybe 2 or 3 years ago. I do not remember any of When the Wolves Were Running after the point Kay gets to his Aunt’s house. In fact the stuff that happens in the second part is what I thought was in Episode 1. It’s a clear sign that my memory is slipping away……

Where Shall the ‘nighted Snowman Go? TX: 26/11/84

This second part picks up with the action at King Arthur’s Camp. We see Kay weilding a sword and he is swiping and stabbing wolves. Well, to be honest we don’t see that but it is inferred. I think it is inferred. It actually looks like Kay is having the time of his life. He is literally taken away from the action as we meet up again with Cole who has more to discuss with Kay. Cole gives Kay the Box for safe keeping. It turns out that it is not Cole’s box either. He explains a little more of what is going on plus how to use the box to either go small or go swift. As Cole leaves him, Kay is already facing an impossible situation and is told by Cole to go swift which is turning the knob on the box to the right.

Kay is with a friend as they are outside near the forest in a field. They see Cole trudging through the snow. Making his way to somewhere. What ends up happening is that Fox Faced Charles and Chubby Joe kidnap him and throw him into their car which becomes and airplane. The airplane takes off to the amazement of the two boys.

As one could imagine, if the boys see a crime where else should they go except to the police. There, they speak to the Inspector played by James Grout. I may have mentioned it before but James Grout was one of my favourite character actors who had memorable roles in such series as Rumpole of the Bailey and All Creatures Great and Small. I wrote about him in a role he has in an episode of Dixon of Dock Green. The Inspector is a nice man who cares about the two boys and apparently shares an enjoyment of magic with them but he was not taking their story very seriously. Finally, he gets a call from another station that has Cole there and Kay is able to speak with Cole on the phone. Well, there is a bit of luck and a big coincidence! It sounds like Cole but there is no warmth to him at all. Is it really him or is he being forced to be on the phone? Also, why is it in the UK people say good bye twice on the phone? Goodbye, goodbye. I have noticed this before when speaking to people from the UK but never understood why.

After going back home, Kay takes the Box and goes into his room. He opens it up and has a big adventure with Herne the Hunter as they become dear, birds, fish, etc. It’s a really enjoyable sequence as Herne is experienced with knowing there are bad things in the forest with Kay being too taken by everything that is going on around him. Once Kay returns to real-life only about 2 and a half minutes have passed. He knows he needs to go to a room at a pub to see what is really going on and possibly get more information on Cole. Kay uses the Box by turning the dial to the left to make him go small.

He becomes really small and gets under the floor to beneath the house. There he meets Mouse. Well, he doesn’t meet Mouse because it is clear that he knows Mouse. They are very friendly with each other. Mouse is kind and is actually ice skating. Kay wants to go to the room in the pub but it is so far away plus there is the fear of pirate rats! Mouse really doesn’t want to go. Kay tells Mouse not to worry as it won’t take as long as he thinks. Along their journey they run into Pirate Rats. These are nasty mean rats who want to cause trouble but as always Kay has a plan.

While taking Mouse’s hand he turns the knob on the Box to the left and they go swift. They take off and fly through the cracks and passages until they stop at the room they need to go in this pub. In this room, there is Abner Brown, Foxy Faced Charles, and Chubby Joe in a room at the pub discussing about how they want to get Kay out of the way.

If you look through the Radio Times articles that are attached to this article, there is an interview with the Director of this production, Renny Rye who says that this is the most expensive children’s serial made to this point costing £1 million for the BBC. This incorporates animation, Quantel video effects, practical costumes and masks. Once again, just like The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which was ground breaking for its time. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has been re-done and so could The Box of Delights. The question becomes, should it? It would be really easy to make updated effects but do I want that? I am fine with serial as it is. I love the performances of the actors. It’s probably too outdated now to be shown on mainstream television which would be a shame. Everything about this production is magical and fun.

Also reading the Radio Times articles, it mentions how Devin Stanfield (who plays Kay) grew 3 inches during production and I think it is really obvious just in the two episodes I watched. When Kay and his friend is watching Cole being taken by Chubby Joe and Foxy Faced Charlie outside in the snow I thought that it was a different younger kid than Kay out there. He looked younger and shorter, at least to me and I remember thinking that well before I even read the article. I guess that’s bound to happen making long-term television with growing boys!

In the US, The Box of Delights aired as part of the series over here called WonderWorks. It was co-produced by the Walt Disney Company and a few PBS stations and showed a few television classics such as Anne of Green Gables and The Chronicles of Narnia. It was co-produced by the local PBS station in my area KTCA. The image of the opening title sequence to WonderWorks sums up my feeling of PBS and in the 1980s. It seems so PBS to me because it looks experimental but literally full of wonderment. It’s just what I thought PBS stations were like in the 1980s. I shouldn’t get too nostalgic for it, I never watched an episode of WonderWorks. That’s hardly surprising. That being said, somehow I am still nostalgic for that time.

Next week: We continue on with our look at The Box of Delights. We look at episodes 3 and 4 In the Darkest Cellars Underneath and The Spider in the Web. We will look at the episodes but also take a look at the numerous radio adaptations from over the years and how they are link in some way. Plus the usual addition of Radio Times materials.

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

I am on Twitter: @FromtheArchive Please follow and re-tweet these article if you like them.

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No Christmas in Portwenn

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 23:30:00 +0000

Every year we all watch episodes of our favourite shows during the Christmas season doing Christmas themes. This can be a good thing or it can be very mundane. If a show has been going on for a long time, a Christmas themed episode every year can be very monotonous. Granted, I understand that I am more than likely in the minority on this. Some series, such as Steptoe and Son we looked at last week had done 8 series with only 2 episodes given to Christmas episodes. Something like The Simpsons have many episodes over its 25 + year run.

Now it may sound like I don’t like Christmas themed episodes. That is not true. That being said, I like it in moderation. Honestly, I tire of the yearly Doctor Who Christmas special because Christmas gets shoe-horned into it somehow. I enjoy a series that can tangentially include Christmas. It may not overpower the plot but it still makes an impression. I think good examples of this would be the Yes Minister episode Party Games or the episode of Sherlock A Scandal in Belgravia which happens to be my favourite episode, thus far, of that series.

There is also another scenario for the something running in a Christmas slot. Make the episode of the series special but don’t feature Christmas in any of it at all. Only Fools and Horses did this the best. Once the series got big they started to do movie length episodes of the show. It expanded the characters and made the episode feel really special. In fact, so special because doing it this way spawned probably my favourite episode of that series, The Jolly Boy’s Outing. I think another great example is that All Creatures Great & Small did 2 other Christmas specials that had nothing to do with Christmas (the 1983 & 1985 films) and 1 that had it in the background Brotherly Love.

Once I found out I was going to watch an episode of Doc Martin, I had wondered if they would tackle Christmas in PortWenn but when I watched it, I appreciated that there didn’t need to be anything about Christmas in the episode. It could just be a good episode.

On The Edge TX: 25/12/06

Maybe there is something wrong with me. Doc Martin has all the right elements. Its eclectic ensemble of characters, the main character is really interesting, the locations are outstanding, and it boasts an amazing supporting cast. That being said, I have never really taken to Doc Martin as a series.

Not being the Doc Martin aficionado like others, I had wondered if the previous Series (Series 2) ended on a cliffhanger because the film starts with Martin and Louisa tied up in Martin’s office and sounds like someone is going through his house. Louisa is very sorry for all that has happened.

We go backwards to 3 days previous with Martin visiting his aunt Joan. On the way he runs into Colonel Spencer who has a rifle as if he is protecting a rare species of birds. Martin visits his Aunt Joan because she sprained her ankle. The Colonel comes in to join the conversation and leaves his gun lying up against the kitchen table. By the end of the conversation, Martin grabs his bag which makes the gun fall to the ground going off and shooting Aunt Joan. It’s kind of a frightening start to the episode because she just doesn’t really move. I wondered how bad she been shot. As it turns out it braises her leg.

This is one of the reasons why I have such a problem with this series. It’s not Martin’s fault that Joan was shot. The Colonel brought the gun into the house and Martin even questioned the Colonel if it was loaded. I am sure it all comes back to how people in these areas live and how they are used to firearms but these sorts of things really annoy me.

A main plot point to this film is that Martin has been cited as being rude to his patients and his being investigated on whether any action should be taken. One thing I do like about Doc Martin is his ability to alienate just about anyone and unlike someone like Gordon Brittas, Doc Martin is fully aware that he is doing it. This is just how he is; he doesn’t suffer fools gladly and I actually really respect that.

That is important because regardless of the situation, you can count on Martin to treat most people with some sort of contempt. When Gavin Peters stops by to tell Martin he will be investigated, it takes him about 3 times to get to him because Martin has no interest in talking with Gavin and it is very obvious. Even when Martin’s secretary Pauline tells him and a very un-straightforward way that she is leaving, he barely lifts his head from his paperwork to acknowledge it. In fact, Pauline has a separate storyline in this as she is trying to get into school to become a nurse. Her boyfriend Al, part of the plumbing team with his dad Bert, is really sad that he will be losing the love of his life. That being said, he offers to drop her application in the mail for her. What would happen with that is pretty obvious. All I would say is that if you want something done right, then do it yourself.

“I thought he was dead!”

While Martin is ignoring the problem of this inquisition, Louisa is shocked to see her Dad show up after years of not being around. Clearly there is some bad blood between Terry, her Dad, and all of Portwenn. We don’t know exactly what that is at the start but something more interesting happens. As Terry and Louisa go for a drink later at the pub, they run into Terry’s friend Jonathan played by Chris O’Dowd. There isn’t something right about Jonathan from the start. He really conveys an energy of creepiness. At least creepiness for something like Doc Martin. It could be worse but it’s the right amount for a series like this.

Just as we don’t really know what Terry is doing in Portwenn, we are not sure what Jonathan’s friendship with Terry really means. We are given small hints that they are both in Portwenn for the same reason. What is clear is that Jonathan needs medication to help a bipolar disorder that Martin catches on to immediately. One other thing that is clear is that Jonathan doesn’t want to take the medication even when he has it. The problem is that Jonathan thinks that the government is listening to him everywhere. In his room at the B&B, at Martin’s office, and even beaming a signal into his head. Have you ever known someone like that? I have!

Things come to a head as Louisa has been defending her father because, as it turns out, he was thought to have stolen some cash from the town. Louisa had been defending against this accusation for years and erupts at Martin because he matter of fact points out that her father was a thief. He thought that was a fact opposed to Louisa thinking the town had something against her father. Later that night, Louisa asks her father point blank whether he stole the money. Apparently Joan had told Martin that she saw Terry take the money. Terry finally admits to in which a tearful Louisa asks Terry to leave in the morning.

Maybe I am not giving the town of Portwenn much credit but if they suspected Terry of taking any money, I am actually really surprise they took Louisa on her own merit and allowed her to be a teacher and eventually a head master in the school of the town. I would think the town would hold a grudge and make anything difficult for anyone related to Terry if they suspected something, even if they are just guilty by being related him.

The next day Terry leaves and Louisa decides to go over to Martin’s place to talk with him. Little does she realize that Jonathan has followed her to Martin’s practice. As she is talking with Martin Jonathan gets into the practice and along with Pauline, Martin and Louisa are tied up and held at knife point. Although this sequence gets long, it is pretty amusing. Basically we get the entire story from Jonathan. There is a ship that is coming up near the village. Jonathan and Terry were supposed to meet this ship to get explosives. They were going to use it on a bank. So, Jonathan doesn’t want to go meet the ship on his own because of all his phobias so he needs Terry there and threatens Louisa’s life if Terry doesn’t return to go to the boat.

When Terry shows up, Martin is freed so he can bring him in to the practice but suddenly Martin has a moment of heroism as he takes a lamp on his desk and throws it at Jonathan who has a knife. The light is still plugged into the wall and only goes as far as the cord and hits the ground long before it could reach Jonathan. Eventually in a struggle, Terry is stabbed in the arm. Jonathan is immediately hit with remorse. As everyone is helping Terry, who still had the knife in his arm, Jonathan remembers the rifle in Martin’s closet from his first visit to the practice to get a prescription for his meds. This was the rifle Martin took from Joan’s cottage after he accidentally shot her and it belonged to the Colonel. He was going to give it to the police who is out of town while all of this is going down.

Because of the injury to Terry, he can no longer go to the ship to get the explosives. Martin can’t go because he doesn’t know how to drive a boat. Suddenly it is determined that it has to be Al Large to do it. Al went to the practice to try and make it up to Pauline for purposely never sending in her application to University. She found out and dumped him.

Al gets on a boat and gets out to the ship where he gets the explosive except he doesn’t know they are explosives. On his way back to shore, Al sees someone fall from a cliff and seriously hurt himself. AL calls Martin who is still being held hostage by Jonathan. Martin knows he needs to get out there and help this person plus Jonathan knows that is only way for him to get the explosives.

The person who fell from the cliff is the baker. He has been stealing the eggs from the rare set of birds that have started to inhabit that area of Portwenn. Martin actually does a very daring maneuver to get himself on the cliff to help the baker. Then, to release the pressure in his head, he literally drills a hole into the baker’s head to release some blood which of course is very sickening to Martin.

After all is said and done, Martin gets the gun back and is allowed to restrain Jonathan. Martin is sick of having to deal with the drama around the explosives so he takes the bag they are in and throws them over the cliff with this intention for it to land in the ocean. It just lands on the bed below where all the rare birds are located and accidentally blows them all up. The end.

I suppose the title On the Edge could mean a number of things. If taken literally, it could mean all of the action taken on cliff. It could mean Jonathan too. Without taking his medication, he was on the edge. Who knows? What I do know is that the DVD I watched this from is the Australian DVD. Although that is not the most exciting thing I ever wrote, I do know there is a reason why this is relatively interesting.

Ok, it’s not that interesting at all. When the UK released the set, up to and including Series 3, it didn’t release this movie. This movie fits in between Series 2 and 3. Even when they were re-package the series with 1-3 in a box set the movie wasn’t there. When I went to a friend’s house many years ago, he introduced me to this series and I decided that I needed to get the DVDs. My friend was very adamant that I make sure that I order this film on DVD too but I would need to get it from Australia because that is the only place to get it. People like of us have an illness of sorts.

There is a compulsion among collectors to collect everything and often not to discard anything. I had seen maybe two episodes of Doc Martin and decided to buy it myself. Most people would probably just get the first series to make sure they liked it. I needed to get everything that was available at that time including this film which I ordered separately from Australia and bought the other volumes in the UK. Even though I knew that I never seen much of the series, I still needed to get it all. There is an emptiness that I have of unfinished business until I have all episodes of a series once I start to collect it.

So far in my Doc Martin viewing, I have watched all of Series 1 (for an article I was supposed to write for another publication which I never did) and this film. I am not a massive fan of this series but knowing I was watching this prompted me to fill in the remaining series I did not have which is Series 4-6. Once I see if Series 7 will be available on Blu-ray in the UK I will pick it up there or get the US Blu-ray which was released this month. I believe the series is over and that will complete my collection of a series I may not to get to for some time…..if ever. It’s kind of the same for me with Downton Abbey too.

Speaking of Australia, it can be a hassle to order down from there at times because occasionally things take a little longer to show up. If you are a fan of such films, new releases have come out on DVD of some of the great British television series that have been made into films. These include the films to Are You Being Served? Up Pompeii, Man About the House and the 2 Steptoe and Son films amongst others. The kicker is that they are all new transfers and in their proper aspect ratios. The transfer were done in HD but released in SD which is frustrating. I have only watched the Are You Being Served? film so far and the picture is quite amazing.

As for On the Edge, I think it is a good film. I didn’t get bored with it and Martin Clunes is always on top form. I wish I really understood why it is hard for me to muster enthusiasm for this series. Anything is always possible and maybe it’s just a matter of time where I can sit down and really immerse myself into this series. Until then I have countless other titles I will be watching.

Next week: We get to a truly Christmas outing as we look at one of the UK’s all-time favourite holiday classics broken up over three articles. We start with the first two episodes of The Box of Delights next week from 1984. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but it really is quite lovely which much of it has to do with a wonderful performance from Patrick Troughton.

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

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Harold Steptoe Finally Wins!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sun, 13 Dec 2015 01:43:00 +0000

I’m not going to lie. I have a fairly comprehensive collection of British television with titles being added all the time. Even though the last couple of months have been mostly about other ventures and interests, I have taken a lot of time to continue watching the series that I love.

I am sure this is the same for a lot of other people too but those shows that we loved and watched over and over from years ago sometimes start to fade away a little when our focus points to new shows. Shows like AreYou Being Served?, ‘Allo! ‘Allo! or Keeping Up Appearances were once shows I watched religiously but slowly just ended up going to the bottom of the pile. Even Black Adder is one that used to be on constant circulation in my house is now rarely watched. I don’t like these series any less but with each purchase of new series I hadn’t seen before such as Dr. Finlay’s Casebook, Softly Softly: Taskforce or even Z Cars this becomes the norm to the point that I need to force myself to watch some of these wonderful gems I haven’t seen in a while.

The same could be said about Steptoe and Son. Back in the mid to late 1990s, I was getting VHS tapes from friends in the UK and was lapping it up. This is truly quality British television that worked on many more levels than I think the populace realised. It was, like the titles above, something I watched so much that I just moved away from it. I always felt disappointed because I had all these series on VHS from friends long before DVD and once they came out on DVD, I never watched them. I should have been watching them more because they were in better quality but I didn’t. I kept getting these to keep up with them coming out but would get series I only heard about before but never seen and watched those. In fact the only times I have recently watched Steptoe and Son was when I wrote the articles for them on this site here and here.

A Christmas Holiday TX 26/12/74

To even start talking about this episode, we need to first discuss the title of this story. This is the type of minutia that I really enjoy. Unlike most of the other episodes of Steptoe and Son, this episode has no on screen title. That is rather strange to me since everything else seems to have an appropriate title. So the next place to look is to see what is listed on the DVD. The DVD lists this episode as A Perfect Christmas. When I looked at that, I thought that didn’t really feel that sounded like a simpson/galtonesque episode title so I was dubious about it. Finally, I went to my handy dandy Kaleidoscope Comedy guide that tells me also sorts of fun facts about episodes not least what format these episodes exists on. That guide lists this episode as A Christmas Holiday and lists A Perfect Christmas as an alt title. Does that mean A Perfect Christmas title had shown up in production paperwork? In any case, I decided to use the title that Kaleidoscope list in their amazing publication.

It’s Christmas at Oil Drum Lane and Albert is decorating their home. It’s just the simple streamers and occasional decorations in their drab home. Harold comes home and as soon as he sees the room, he starts ripping into it. He uses a great amount of sarcasm to get his point across about the room and lack of decoration. At one point he tells his father that coming into the room with a few streamers in it reminds him of “the transformation scene from Cinderella”. This is what sends Albert into a tizzy and he goes around tearing down all of the decorations and swears at Harold.

There is a reason that Harold is acting this way. Instead of sitting at home over the holidays in that room watching telly with his Dad and getting into arguments, he wants to go on holiday. And he wants to bring his Dad with him! He doesn’t want to sit and watch Z Cars or Coronation Street which both get a mention. Nor does he want to watch Cliff Richards. He wants to go somewhere exotic. When watching this, I thought it was nice that Harold wanted to bring his Dad along on the holiday. I also wondered something that I had thought about for a while…..how do they afford these things?

Being a rag and bone man and pretty much owning a junk yard is not going to make you a millionaire. It’s hard labourious work that lends little monetary results. That is, unless you are I.M. Foreman and own the junkyard (at 76 Totters Lane) that made it’s first appearance in the first episode of Doctor Who and then showed up 3 more times including The Day of the Doctor from 2013, that actually appears to be a remarkably successful junk yard lasting for so long! But looking at Steptoe and Son, they don’t seem to be doing that well yet they are always getting amazing stuff. Such as a fancy new car, a professional billiards table, water beds, new bathroom, etc. At least in this episode, we get an answer to how they can afford the holiday.

Lucky for Harold, Albert loves to swear and Harold just so happens to have a swear jar. Every time either of them swear, 10p goes into the jar. It’s not so much a jar but a collection bank molded as a couple of dogs. Maybe that’s how they bankrolled a lot of these other things because Albert has such a potty mouth!

As far as the scope of the holiday is concerned, it looks like Harold is open to pretty much anything in the world. The world is literally their oyster. Albert, on the other hand, is a lot more critical. He would just prefer to go to Bognor. He was treated well there when he’s been there before. Harold thought it would be nice to go to Acapulco but Albert thinks he is talking about acupuncture! Albert doesn’t want to go to France because when he was last there it was muddy and full of trenches. That was back in World War I.

Series 8 of Steptoe and Son that ran just before this special is among my favourites of the entire series but a lot of it is more outlandish and in some ways far-fetched. Episodes include a fashion show or Albert and Harold competing for popularity in the same stage production. This episode is very simple basic Steptoe and Son. Most of the episode takes place in their house with the two of them bickering back and forth. What makes this interesting is that this episode might be even more serious than we have seen before now.

There are a few references by Harold in this episode to explain how disturbed he was brought up by his father. These are generally not outright comments but mainly side comments Harold would say almost under his breath. A couple of examples would be when Harold is messing about and Albert tells him “You’re living in a dream world!” with Harold responding regrettably, “It’s better than here.” It could have been delivered as a pure comedy moment but that is not the direction it took. It was delivered almost invisibly where Albert didn’t hear it…..or ignored it.

The other comment that caught my attention was more interesting to me. They were talking about the space under the stairs where Albert may have kept his birth certificate that he needs to get an updated passport. Harold mentions to Albert that Albert was always at the pub during the blitz bombings during World War II. Albert said that Harold was alright though since he put Harold under the stairs during the blitz where it was pitch black. Harold then says, “I’ve never forgiven you for that.” That was such a powerful statement and delivered in such a hurtful way. If you think about it, Harold as a characer was always younger than Harry H. Corbett who played Harold. They were still trying to pass him as a man in his late 20s or possibly early 30s even when the series came to an end. So Harold would have been very, very young. Probably under the age of 5 with these bombs going off around him and his father disappearing for no reason. It would be horrible. Suddenly, I got a lot more insight into Harold Steptoe than I ever did before. Harold is probably a lot more messed up than I ever realised and he had been really hurt by his father. I think I always took the series at face value of a grown man who wanted his own independence but never really thought about the mental turmoil he went through growing up. It is really great to see how many levels this series played at even for its final episode.

Albert has his own problems. Once the birth certificate is found Harold uncovers the truth of his father. His father has no idea who his own father ever was. In fact, Albert had a picture of his mom on the wall in their house. Next to that picture is another picture that Harold always thought was his dad but turned out to be Prime Minister Gladstone.

There is still a lot of discussion about where the two should go for their holiday. Harold brings up Australia and they think about it and decide not to go. No mention is made Harold’s step brother from there. Of course the series has never been great on continuity. How many horses names Hercules did they have over the series? They also think about Denmark until Harold brings up the live sex shows there. According to Harold, the live sex shows are like pantomime is to the UK!

They decide to go to Switzerland. They get everything together and go to the train station to get on a train that will itself get on a boat to bring them over. As they get ready to show their passports, someone did not have the correct passport and is stopped from continuing on to the train. Surprisingly, it’s not Albert but Harold! The two get into an argument and of course although Albert didn’t want to travel any way, he decides that he will go on holiday and leave Harold behind in the UK. Harold lost again. Or did he?

Harold makes his way sadly out of the train station looking back and seeing his father board the train. As Harold lumbers out of the train station, a sporty car pulls up with a sexy lady in the driver’s seat. Harold gets in car and excitedly yells, “He went for it! “ Harold planned it this way the whole time just to get Albert out of his hair so he can spend time with this girl. Guess what? They’re going to Bognor. Guess what else? Harold finally won!

The Radio Times listing. Not much fanfare
for being a new episode of one of their
classic series.

The feeling of this episode is, to me, like no other. It’s been years since I have seen it. To be honest, I probably haven’t seen this since the late 1990s. It’s a little darker tone that I think gets a little ignored. By this time, the series is pretty much laughs only. Although this is not a departure from this, it certainly has a different feel for me. It certainly feels more in line with the earlier black & white episodes. It’s nice to see that they moved away from some of the more extravagant plotlines of later series. Even the end credits didn’t have the usual cut away to both stars, their names just appeared on screen. There was a sort of finality with this episode though I might be thinking that in hindsight.

There is a longer cut of this episode by about 4 minutes but what has been included on the DVD is the broadcast version. The longer version was originally included on the VHS before that was recalled from stores. This episode fared better than the 1973 Christmas special, A Christmas Party, which had a shorter version of the episode included on this DVD and was not corrected for the boxset. If you want to see the longer version of this episode, check on YouTube. It’s there.

This is the final episode of Steptoe and Son. After 12 years and 8 series the series did not return although Harry H. Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell continued to record the radio versions of the episodes for another 2 years. This is one of my favourite series and I have seen many of these episodes many times. I am happy that I am still finding new things about it. If you haven’t watched it, give it a shot. It’s worth it.

Our friend Richard Latto works for BBC Radio Solent where he is a Producer and Presenter. He sent me a note this week of a filmed interview with Harold H. Corbett probably right before this episode of Steptoe and Son aired. It’s kind of magical and I didn’t want to see it end. It’s a shame that these DVD releases are vanilla with no extras. Something like this is perfect and I have never seen it before. Check it out for yourself here. Thank you Richard for alerting us to this little gem!

Next week: Just because it is a Christmas episode it doesn’t mean it has to be about Christmas. We look at the Doc Martin feature length episode On the Edge!

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

I am on Twitter: @FromtheArchive Please follow and re-tweet these article if you like them.

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Carry On Hartnell

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 01:14:00 +0000

Before there was Barbara Windsor and Sid James, before there were non-stop double entendre there was this film about conscription and an old sergeant who was about to retire. I doubt anyone at the time really expected this film to be the starting point to a long list of 31 films and even a TV series. This film is a black & white production from 1958 that was adapted from a play written by R F Delderfield called The Bull Boys. This is Carry On Sergeant.

Like a lot of things, I came late to the whole Carry On franchise. I remember one Friday night, I was at home and turned on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and saw that Carry On Sergeant was on TV; I had never seen it before. What I like about TCM is that each film is introduced by a host to give everything a little bit of context. This night it was Robert Osborne who has been hosting films there for years. It was a double feature that night of Carry On films. It was followed up by my personal favourite, Carry On Nurse, though I didn’t know it was my favourite yet. Anyway, Robert said that this was the first time they showed any Carry On film. I was floored! It must have been 2010 or something. How has it been that these films had been around so long and they have never been shown on TCM? That was surprising to me. I was glad to start watching these as soon as TCM started to show them. I really enjoyed watching those films that night.

Jump forward to the end of 2014. After thinking about it for a while, I finally bought the UK box set of Carry On films. It was kind of daunting which set to get or do I pick up the few films that have been released on Blu-ray, finally I choose the overall boxset for the films. Between Christmas and New Years, the company I work for is closed over that period. So, I sat at home and binged on all of the Carry On films over a 12 day period. It was amazing. Related in an unrelated way, I was so enamoured at that point to make my own Bloody Mary mix. So, I did that multiple times while watching these films. I watched all of these films and of course, I started with Carry On Sergeant.

Ok, let’s get this out of the way. The film stars William Hartnell. Doctor Who is a big part of my life and I love it so this is obviously very interesting for me. Hartnell played the original Doctor. Oh, and he played it brilliantly. This film is probably around the time where Hartnell was getting frustrated with the type of parts he was being offered. They were always tough guy army roles. I would think that this falls into that category but I think this is acutely different. Hartnell would have been on The Army Game by this point playing a Sergeant there too. In this film, Hartnell plays Sergeant Grimshaw.

The film starts out with Bob Monkhouse, ok his name is Charlie, getting married to Shirley Eaton also known as Mary Sage in the film. Well, at the reception Charlie has found out that he had been called up for duty. Please note that there was not a war going on but it was part of conscription. I talk about conscription here and here. Oddly, Charlie needs to leave that day for duty. I don’t know how conscription works but once you get the letter, do you have to leave that day? Anyway, Charlie is off. What is really sweet about this is that Mary follows him. She stows away on another truck and sneaks into the base. I thought this was going to be the main plot throughout the film. I thought there were going to be zany ways that Charlie would have to sneak out of barracks or some other duties to try and get a chance to be with his wife. One of my favourite scenes in the film is where Mary is adamant that she and Charlie spend their wedding night together. Nora, the canteen manager Mary befriends, has a room ready for them for that night. Late that evening, Mary gets there first and slowly opens the door to go in the room. She enters the room only to find Sergeant Grimshaw sleeping in the bed. She quickly leaves but Charlie shows up next. He knocks on the door only to hear snoring. He knocks louder quietly talking to through the door that he can’t wait to see Mary only for the door to open up with Grimshaw staring at him half asleep on the other side of the door. Hartnell does great comedy, it is a really fun scene.

My point above is, I am glad the film was not about Charlie sneaking around to be with his wife. This plot point is cleared up very quickly allowing Charlie seven days of leave to spend with his bride and allowing for Mary to stay on during the remainder of Charlie’s training. This is good because it allows us to focus on some of the other characters that are in camp. In fact, what becomes the main thread for the film is that Sergeant Grimshaw is retiring after this platoon finishes training. He has never had a champion platoon during the entire time he has been there. In fact someone talking to him, Sergeant O’Brien, places a wager of £50 that once again Grimshaw’s platoon will not rise to the top. Grimshaw accepts this wager. An interesting note is that Sergeant O’Brien is played by Terry Scott. Terry becomes a semi-regular in the Carry On series about a decade after this film with Carry On…Up the Khyber. I have been watching Terry recently in the Simply DVD release of the 1960s BBC comedy Hugh and I which I have found to be much better than I expected. I loved Hugh Lloyd in his appearances in Hancock’s Half Hour so I enjoyed this quite a bit. Of course to many Terry Scott is also known as the voice of Penfold from Danger Mouse.
Much of this film surrounds the men of this platoon learning how to do things in the army and failing. You have people like Peter Golightly played by Charles Hawtry who is horrible at any kind of physical endurance. There is the great Kenneth Williams who plays James Bailey who is too much of an intellectual to care too much about anything to do with the army. When Grimshaw took on this platoon, he had high hopes that he could turn these men into a champion team but sees immediately that they are a bunch of imbeciles.

Kenneth Connor plays Horace Strong. Horace is a hypochondriac. He always thinks he is sick. He goes see the nurse every day to see what is wrong with him and every day she tells him he is very healthy. He is completely fine. The nurse is Captain Clark played by the wonderful Hattie Jacques. I adore Hattie in everything I have seen her in. Of course the first time I have “seen” her I had only heard her. She had a regular role in the radio version of Hancock’s Half Hour as Ms. Pugh, Hancock’s long-suffering secretary but also played a lot of other voice roles on the show. She had a tremendous voice with lots of range. Kenneth Connor appeared years later as Monsieur Alfonse in ‘Allo! ‘Allo! Oh, his ticky-ticker! I really enjoyed the sub-plot of Nora, the canteen manager, who has an immediate crush on Horace. She chases him all over the place but he’s too shy (and he thinks too sick).

I think this is an interesting point to bring up. There are people who are in this film that I only knew from later work but in this film these people are in the height of their lives. I will be honest but I have rarely seen anything with Bob Monkhouse in it. I do not live in the UK so anything I would have seen of him would be fleeting. I have seen him in an episode of Jonathan Creek. Since the subject of missing British television is such of passion of mine, I know his name mostly as someone who loved the new burgeoning home media recording movement during the 1960s and 1970s. We have a lot to thank him for because of his diligence in recording programs in the audio and visual mediums.

When I would see Monkhouse, he was an old man. When I saw Kenneth Connor on ‘Allo! ‘Allo!, he was an old man. The first time I saw Bill Owen was in The Last of the Summer Wine which was an older role for him. I had only seen William Hartnell play an old man. This is what makes the film fun to watch. These men are all young or at least younger. They show off how fit they are. Hartnell looks physically solid in the role. Check out Kenneth Connor at the end of the film and some of the stuff he can physically do shows off his strength. Bob Monkhouse is young. This is really fun to see. It’s an interesting perspective than some of the others because being in the US, we only get glimpses of actors from the UK based on how popular a series is to be exported over here. A lot of times, these actors are older in those series. It’s even nice to see Bernard Kay have a small role in this film.

What is unusual for a film is that there is no conflict in this film. What I mean by that is that no one is trying to mess anyone up. There isn’t an adversary. All these people are going about their business not trying to mess up anyone else. I think it is summed up nicely by the time we get to the end of the film. The night before the final parade, they find out by listening in on a conversation between Grimshaw and Corporal Copping about the wager that Grimshaw made. When the guys are sitting around the table talking about it, Andy Galloway mentions that Sergeant deserves to not win the bet because he has been in their business so much and really hard of them. Someone asks Galloway to explain when had Grimshaw been in their business and no one could think of anything. In fact, Grimshaw has been really decent to them the whole time. That’s when they decide that they have to try harder than they ever had before to try to win it for Sergeant Grimshaw. They all rally behind him. Grimshaw has no idea any of this is going on at this point.

This film is a bit feel good with a happy ending. As one can imagine, the platoon pulls off their exercises flawlessly. They win big for Grimshaw who can now retire as a happy man and fifty quid richer. In a very moving scene at the end of the film, the platoon gives Grimshaw an engraved lighter and Corporal Copping gets promoted to Sergeant.

This borderlines on an almost sappy ending to the film. I like it but it’s a touch saccharine. The funny thing is that Grimshaw was being extra careful to not bully the men as he usually would. He knew this was his final group and seeing how little success he had with winning the championship in the past with shouting orders at everyone, he decided on a different approach. The role that Hartnell plays as Grimshaw is very different to the role he plays as Sergeant Major Bullimore in The Army Game. I think it is fair to say a lot of the way that Bullimore acts could be out of desperation of the men he had in his platoon. Though there is also by nature that he just liked to bully and watch his men get their comeuppance. Grimshaw is probably just a tired person by this point.

Even Nora and Horace finally fall in love. After Horace is taken to a team of experts by Captain Clark to prove there is nothing wrong with him, he realizes he has something good with Nora. The plot for this film, to me, is tighter than a lot of the Carry On films. I think it is interesting because I feel a lot of the other films are more set pieces with strong comedy of varying degrees. This is more plot driven but the laughs are a different kind of comedy. It’s not sexual. It’s a straight forward. There are not a ton of laugh out loud moments for but a lot of little pieces that made me smile and chuckle. In 1958, this film was the third highest grossing film in the UK that year. Ultimately, it allowed this Carry On franchise to, err, carry on!

If you are a fan of these Carry On films, I would highly recommend Carry On Confidential by Andy Davidson and published by Miwk Publishing. It can be got here. It’s well-researched and fun.

Next week: I get to look at one of my new favourite series even though it is quite old. I never watched the Joan Hickson Miss Marple when it is was A&E. Over a year ago, I bought the UK DVD set which almost a week later it was announced the series was coming out on Blu-ray. Anyway, I focus on an earlier story, The Moving Finger and I explain why I love this series so much.

Next review: Sometimes when you ask for George Gently Series 7 Blu-ray, life gives you Vera set 5. Now, that we got that all figured out I finally have George Gently Series 7 on Blu-ray and I look forward to reviewing it very soon.

Have a great week!

Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

I am on Twitter: @FromtheArchive Please follow and re-tweet these article if you like them.

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Blu-ray Review: Space:1999 - The Complete Second Series

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 02:30:00 +0000

Space: 1999 – The Complete Second Series
Blu-ray (6 discs) or DVD (8 discs) Running time: 1200 Minutes
Released by Network on September 28, 2015. SRP £79.99 (Blu-ray) £59.99 (DVD)
Subtitles: English 1.33:1 DTS-HD 5.1 HD: 1080p

This is a Regions B Blu-ray only available from the UK. This release is BBFC classified PG for Parental Guidance.

Review written by Robert Franks

Space: 1999 is a series of two halves, not only literally, but figuratively also. The divide between series one and two is more than just a second year, but with it came a whole new emphasis and style for the show. And, that tonal shift divides fans of the series greatly. One camp sees the first series as a unique and classy sci-fi show with the second series becoming nothing more than a Star Trek rip-off. Then there are the fans that view the first outing as too somber, colourless and boring with the sophomore year as action-packed with new, more likable characters. No matter which faction you fall into there is no doubt that release of Space: 1999 The Complete Series Two on Blu-ray has been a long time coming.

In a move reminiscent of the series original production, both interest and funding for the restoration took many years in between the release of the first season on Blu-ray. Yet, as with many formats in the past, as time moves on, production costs start to come more in line with reasonable budgets making the viability of such restoration projects easier to achieve on modest funds. And so, after nearly five years Network are following up on their Series One high definition set.

But before getting into the details of these beautiful discs, let’s take a look back at the series produced by Gerry Anderson in the mid-1970s. The series always had a rocky start, and was actually re-tooled from an aborted second season of UFO. When ITV asked to move the primary location of that series to a Moonbase, Anderson proposed UFO: 1999. While that series never came to be, George Bellak, an American television writer, was brought onboard to help refine the focus. Bellak changed several of the ideas and produced his own pilot script, which featured many of the concepts eventually used. The hope was that with his input the series would possibly attract American network interest. While a US network deal eluded Anderson, other changes in the American market were starting to work towards the series advantage.

When NBC cancelled Star Trek in 1969 its ratings had been deemed unacceptable, but in the 1970s many local televisions stations were eager for more syndicated progammes. Thus Star Trek found a new, healthy second life in constant repeats. With that came a new demand for other science-fiction related series to fill many of these local station schedules, timing seemed perfect for Space: 1999 as a syndicated series.

However, the often cerebral storylines of the first season weren’t quite what the audience was looking for. With syndication deals not being renewed an action plan was needed to revamp the series and hopefully reinvigorate sales.

During all this, Gerry Anderson separated and eventually divorced his wife and long-time producing partner, Sylvia. This left an opening in production and Gerry hired Fred Freiberger to come on board as a producer. Freiberger had produced the final series of Star Trek and it was hoped (again) that he could again make the series more palatable to the lucrative American market.

This is where the divide starts. Many would argue that while Freiberger revamped the series to be more action-packed, he also removed an essential element of Space: 1999 – the quality of the scripts. Freiberger also added new characters that the viewers would find interesting. Chief among these was Maya, an alien princess with the ability to metamorph into other creatures. However, many would point to the series more light-hearted approach as a mis-step and the end of a beautiful sci-fi series.

Series two detractors often point to the reality of the Moonbase Alpha situation and how many of the episodes end with a too-happy epilogue (with Koenig, Russell and Maya joking similar to Kirk, Spock and Bones at the end of Star Trek episodes). Sure it may seem out of place, but it also gave the characters a chance for some nice personal interaction as friends. Let’s face it, if it was always so depressing in Main Mission Moonbase Alpha would have a staggeringly high suicide rate.

What is NOT depressing are Network’s shiny new Blu-rays. This release certainly proves one thing – the film elements for both seasons on startlingly beautiful in high definition.

While it’s beyond the scope of this review to access which season may have been better, your reviewer has always personally preferred the second series. Sue me, I’m American and the second series is just much more enjoyable in my book. I was a young boy of nine or so when the series was originally syndicated and I can tell you that the first season did nothing for me at the time. I think even my parents were confused (my dad preferred Kung Fu, which was on right afterward anyway). However, I distinctly recall watching the second series with my family. It was essential Saturday early evening viewing for me (along with the Godzilla movies and Star Trek just before – I was pretty much glued to the TV most Saturdays).

It does appear that many US stations put the series on in that “family” timeslot, and maybe that’s the key. Where the first series failed to grab me with the slow stories (but brilliant special effects) and second season was just more fun, it was more colourful (on purpose even) and even my dad seemed to like it now. So for me, Space: 1999 has always been a bit nostalgic, something I barely remember from a time long ago when we did sit down as a family and watch TV together.

During my adult life I’ve tried to re-immerse myself in Space: 1999, to varying degrees of success. Try as I might, I still find much of the first season far too slow, gray and dull to watch. Sure, I am probably even more blown away by the effects than I was as a child, but too often I can’t make it to the first commercial break before wanting to put something else on the TV. I have better luck with the second series. Maya has always been a favorite of mine with the cool, and cheap-but-effective, morphing effect. The series is just brighter, the characters laugh more and the whole thing just seems more “fun”.

Recapturing youth is a theme prevalent in many of our lives, and for me my on-again, off-again love affair with Space: 1999 has always been a part of that. In my head I romanticise the warm fuzzy feelings the series gives me, but upon viewing I’m always a little let down that the memory cheats. It’s not all bad though, I still find much that I like in the series. It’ll never be my favourite show, but it has always been a constant and my struggle to achieve a complete, high-quality collection of the series has been a long time coming.

In the early 90s, my fascination with all things video led me to start a laserdisc collection. Coming across several of the Image laserdisc releases for Space: 1999 led to me visiting every store in a 100 mile radius to track down all 23 discs. Later still I got some of the DVDs, but I was never too impressed with the quality. Then a few years back I was visiting the UK and was lucky enough to have some friends at the BBC give me a tour of Television Center. It just so happened that on this day some restoration work was being done on the first series of Space: 1999 and I got to see first-hand how good this series was going to look on Blu-ray. I’ve never forgotten that day, and those glimpses of the Space: 1999 restoration were only topped by a visit to the actual Blue Peter garden! (OK, I’m a weird American!)

With Network’s Space:1999 The Complete Second Series finally out I can now enjoy the whole series in beautiful HD. The images are crisp and sharp, the colours are vibrant and remarkable. Network has taken their usual care when preparing the episodes for the twenty-first century. Blemishes, scratches and sparkle have all been eliminated. Compression ratios appear to be fine with very little on-screen artefacting. This set is a worthy successor to the Complete First Series.

I will admit to one ‘problem’ with these discs, and I hasten to point out, it’s not really an issue, but the merely the only thing I could find fault in the images on these discs – Barbara Bain. No, not her acting, that has always been great, but with these episodes now in full HD and appropriate colour correction you wonder “what was the make-up person thinking.” In almost all of her scenes, Barbara looks as though her face is plastered in powder with a bright light shining right down on her as well. She is the whitest person I’ve ever seen! And all this while the other actors in the scenes have normal skin tones. She’s a very beautiful woman, so it seems a shame the new clarity makes her stand out this way. However, if that’s the worst I can say about the restoration (which is in no way the fault of those working on the release) then Network have another winner on their hands.

As with the original series release, the audio for each episode has been re-mastered to new 5.1 mixes. The original mono tracks are also available through menu selection, as are music-only tracks for each episode. I’ve never professed to be an audiophile, but the 5.1 mixes do sound very nice to my ears. Network have also included the untreated production audio on four of the episodes to give a sample of “raw audio”.

Network have included a multitude of other extras to round out the release. While many of these are interesting, some can be a bit mind-numbing (how many times do I really need to hear Martin Landau and Barbara Bain give the same anecdote), but I’m sure it’s nice for the Space: 1999 fans to have all this material collected together. One thing I should point out is that all six discs are Blu-ray. I had seen reported some places that the sixth disc with extras was a DVD, but that is not the case.

Unexposed: Behind the Scenes of Series Two:
In fact, the only thing missing would be any original content produced just for the new release, but they’ve found the next best thing. This extra was produced back in 1976 by a group of film students asked to make a short film about the production of a television series. Series two of Space: 1999 just happened to be in production at Pinewood Studios at the time. What luck!

What these students produced may not be the typical documentary you’d get today but they cover a lot of good material, including interviews with Gerry Anderson, Barbara Bain, Martin Landau, Keith Anderson (set designer) and Brian Johnson (SFX designer). Interspersed with behind the scenes footage from The Mark of Archanon and New Adam New Eve as well as plenty of model effects shots this little gem is an interesting throwback to old-school film documentaries. Personally, I loved every minute of it. (25:07, HD)

Cosmos: 1999:
This is another curious extra. The series was originally sold in Canada as the French-translated as Cosmos: 1999 and this is a short film made by Canadian fans Sylvain Labrosse and Yves Lapointe in 1979. A stop-motion feature utilising repurposed GI Joe and Barbie dolls with hand-made Moonbase Alpha uniforms, including a nice orange spacesuit and even a home-crafted monster. The real stand-out here is some of the model work and the sets. For details on this little gem be sure to check out the PDFs for a “making of” document written by one of the creators. (13:22, HD)

Seed of Destruction:
What if the second series had been produced more in-line with the style of series one? That’s the idea behind this interesting little experiment. Obviously this wouldn’t work with all of the episodes, and in truth they probably chose the one episode best suited to fit the parameters. Seed of Destruction is very slow-moving, and as dialogue-based as anything made the previous season. In fact, there’s only a single short scene that could be called “action-oriented”. So, the story fits the bill, but does the experiment work? The first noticeable difference comes as the first scenes now open the episode as a pre-credits sequence. The editing is pretty much the same, but the first ad break now leads into the opening sequence from series one. The actual biggest improvement, in my mind, is the music roll into the opening sequence over the shot of the commander walking out of the mirror. That dramatic roll of music lends the shot a much more dynamic and scary feel. After the opening sequence, now with obligatory “This Episode” scenes (all very cleverly chosen and edited), the episode settles into pretty much the same slow paced episode as previous. The other big change in the episode is the music. With the change in series tone and style the music had also been adapted, and the new incidental music is big and dramatic and totally in line with the feel for series one. That single action shot I mentioned previously comes when Tony and Maya have to overpower a security guard. The music in the original edit is more appropriate to some other 70s “amateur” productions (the less said about it the better). The new edit also has a pumping refrain, as an action scene should, but much more dignified. Take a look at this clip to see what I’m talking about:

And the final verdict? I think the new edit is in many ways superior to the original series two episode. That said, not all the episodes would work with this stylistic change, and the overall feel I’m left with is that the episode is pretty dull no matter what you do to it. But, I like that someone tried. (52:03, HD)

Behind the Scenes – Model Shop:
An interesting feature using film snippets shot during production at Bray Studios in the S/FX Unit. Narrated by Brian Johnson it gives an intriguing look behind the scenes of his department with plenty of explanations of setting up shots and effects without getting too technical. And, it proves Johnson has an amazing memory! (6:36, SD)

Interviews:
Contemporary interviews with Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Gerry Anderson and Catherine Schell, Keith Anderson and Fred Freiberger. Shot in 1976 during production of series two these look to be sourced from home video. Still interesting for some of their content. (29:05, SD)

There is also an in-depth interview with Martin Landau recorded in 1994. (44:53, SD)

Stock Footage Archive:
Scanned in HD from some of the original films, this is a collection of alternate takes and unused model shots. While presented in HD, these scenes are pretty much unrestored so you can compare some of these images to those in the actual episodes to realize just how much great restoration work went into this release.

Outtake:
A quick blooper featured from It'll Be All Right on the Night with some of the cast tripping over themselves.

Trailers and promos:
Included in this are some trailers for the movie Destination Moonbase Alpha and a few trails for series two in general. (10:43,SD)

Clean series two titles:
It does what it says on the tin.

Image galleries:
Some rather nice images here. A very few are marked with dirt so you can tell these are presented “as is” with no major clean-up work done, but the inclusion of some behind-the-scenes images more than makes up for this. Unlike other releases I could only find color images included in these galleries, although I know for certain of a few black and white only images that are not included, but there are galleries for every episode. (varies, HD)

Script and annual PDFs:
Some people may skip over these PDFs, but there are some noteworthy items of interest here. First off, shooting scripts for all 24 episodes have been included. Most of these are simple, but clean, black and white scans. For The Mark of Archanon however, they have also included a colour scan showing the blue, pink, goldenrod and purple line adjustment pages. An interesting production inclusion, especially when you can compare to the original shooting script provided also. There are a couple of other interesting inclusions; a production document with episode synopses and an ITC marketing flyer from 1989 advertising “An adventure that knows no bounds … 48 x 60 minute series.” Here you’ll also find a six-page “Making of Cosmos 1999” document written by one of the creators, Sylvain Labrosse. This includes some fascinating insight into what these kids (as they indeed were in 1979 when they produced this) were able to create on a shoestring budget. The joy they had for the actual series and the fun they had making their own film comes through the page. There are even plenty of behind-the-scenes photos and a couple of tantalising excerpts of self-produced comic books from Sylvain’s collection. Finally, scans of the five Space: 1999 annuals round out this collection nicely.

Please take a look at these comparison grabs taken from the R1 A&E Space: 1999 DVD set and the new Network Blu-ray. Click on image to see the size difference. Top image SD and bottom image is (obviously) HD.:

This Week: When is the Doctor not the Doctor? It’s when he is Sergeant Grimshaw. Greg takes a look at the very first Carry On film. It is one of his favourites of the franchise and features William Hartnell along with some of the best comedy talent in the UK at that time. Greg looks at Carry On Sergeant.

Upcoming reviews: Greg will be looking at Acorn’s US Blu-ray release of George Gently Series 7.
Have a great week! Do you have feedback, article requests or want to talk about a program but do not want to leave a public comment? Feel free to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com

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Louis Jourdan is Count Dracula

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 16:37:00 +0000

When I sat down to watch the BBC adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Count Dracula, I was surprised with how many people I spoke to who have seen it that were not enamoured by it. A friend said to me it was fine with the exception of the slow parts. What slow parts? I read people online complaining about the dated effects. I don’t think they were dated in 1977. If you hold this view about this 1977 production, I feel bad because I feel you are missing out. As I sat and watched this production, I found it engaging, tense, exciting and even at times scary. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you on this incredible production.

Count Dracula TX: 22/12/77

Before there was Dracula, there were vampires. The term can be traced back to the Oxford dictionary in 1734 but obviously the term had been around before that. To me when I was young, Dracula wasn’t a novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897, it was a film that starred Bela Lugosi. I didn’t know more than that. The idea that this came from a novel from the late 1800s was something I never considered yet this character would go on to be the most famous vampire.
I think it was back in 10^th grade in high school that I finally read the novel. The novel is constructed in a narrative that personally annoys me. It is not a narrative that flows in the moment from the third person but a series of letters and other documents pieced together to tell the story. I know this is a very intimate way to tell a story but it is not a favourite way for me to read anything and as much as I did enjoy the novel, I still found it a chore to get through.
This year we lost two actors to have played Dracula. Sir Christopher Lee and Louis Jourdan. As I mention in this article I wrote for Warped Factor, Dracula The Prince of Darkness, I was never a really big fan of Lee’s portrayal of the vampire. I know that is sacrilege especially from a site the focuses love on all British media. To me, Lee’s Dracula just stared at people and that was it. Then we move on to Jourdan.

Count Dracula was the big play of the year for the BBC in 1977. This was to be broadcast around Christmas and a lot of money was put into this production to tell this story. It was the 80^th anniversary since the novel was published and it was going to be a big deal. Of course, as usual Doctor Who has to come in and ruin it.

At the start of Season 15 of Doctor Who, script editor Robert Holmes commissioned Terrance Dicks to write a story that focused around vampire lore. It was called The Witchlords and once word of this production got to management level at the BBC on the Sixth floor, that story was cancelled. Terramc Dicks explains:

What happened was that, at a very high level, they had heard we were going to do a gothic Doctor Who story about vampires. Meanwhile, someone at Plays or Classic Serials was planning a big-budget, prestige, classic serial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, starring French actor Louis Jourdan. This someone on the sixth floor of the BBC said to Graham Williams: “No, you may not have vampires in Doctor Who this year, because people will think you’re taking the mickey out of the Dracula play.” (1990, May). The Script Mutations. In-Vision, pp.9

The story was eventually re-worked for season 18 as State of Decay.

The story of Dracula is very well known and this BBC adaptation is considered to be one of the closest productions ever made of the novel. The story is of Jonathan Harker travelling to Transylvania to meet Count Dracula to prepare documentation for land that he is buying in England. Upon Jonathan’s arrival at Dracula’s castle, Dracula is a very gracious host but is perhaps a little odd. He will not eat with Jonathan and will not be seen during the day. Jonathan eventually becomes a prisoner in the castle.

Right from the start of the production, my interest is piqued. I love the opening credits to this play. It evokes horror of the undead. It immediately grabs my attention. We don’t see Dracula or anyone from the cast with the exception of the one of the women that played one of Dracula’s brides. Yet with one cool aspect we get a questionable production decision. The action moves from the title sequence to black & white stock footage of a train travelling. This is to give the impression that Jonathan is travelling to Transylvania by train. Why black & white footage? Why not just colour stock footage? I thought this might have been some artistic way to show movement in the production, maybe we get a few more shots like this throughout the production but we get nothing. It’s odd and really sticks out.

Right away, Jonathan is on a carriage on his way to Castle Dracula. He is in this carriage with some locals and when they find out where he is going, they become very concerned. A woman gives him her rosary. We see the carriage travelling through the land and it is a nice sunny day. What I love about this and other sequences in the program is that even though it is sunny, it is still menacing. The sunlight gives away to the woods that show blackness within. There is also a very sinister music that plays. Almost synthesizer but deep and heavy even foreboding. When Jonathan gets dropped off to the meet up where another carriage will take him the rest of the way to Castle Dracula, it is in the middle of the night and in the middle of nowhere. The carriage just leaves him behind in the middle of the windy night. It is harsh but it is understandable because these people are terrified. When the black carriage and black horses arrive to pick up Jonathan the driver, unbeknownst to Jonathan, is Dracula. Dracula has a few people to help him during the day while he sleeps but at night he is the only one awake. At the castle, Dracula does everything for Jonathan to make him feel comfortable. He makes the food for Jonathan. I suppose after cooking for hundreds of years, he must be pretty good at it. Yet, of course, his type of food is blood.

After staying in the castle for a while, Jonathan starts to notice things about his host which are unsettling. Of course, he probably thought him odd of eccentric from the start. Dracula would keep him up all night talking and allow him to sleep all day. Dracula would never eat with Jonathan. Then, things started to get stranger.

One evening when Jonathan was shaving, Dracula came up behind him which startled him. Although startled, what was even more frightening was Dracula had no reflection in the mirror. Jonathan did but not Dracula. This is a great scene, once Dracula notices that Jonathan cannot see Dracula’s reflection Dracula takes the mirror and simply drops it out the window. Dracula says that such objects cannot be trusted. It is noteworthy that for this production, when Dracula sees blood such as the cut on Jonathan from shaving, we get a close up of Jordan as Dracula in a negative effect with hints of red. He hungers for blood. It is frightening.

It starts getting worse for Jonathan. He is trapped in the castle with no escape and one evening looks out the window to find Dracula scaling the wall of the castle to get down to main level. He is scaling on his stomach almost like a slug slowly sliding his way down. It is unnerving. Then the next night or so, Jonathan stays in a room he shouldn’t where he is taken advantage by three of Dracula’s brides. He is no match for them as the seduce him and are ready to drink his blood. Suddenly with a very unique effect done to the video, Dracula enters the room with a bright light shining behind him. He stops them from taking Jonathan and instead offers them what he has in his bag that he brought back to the castle from his travels. It is a living baby. They take this baby, put him down and they devour them. Although we don’t see that, we do see the three women as they come up for air. Blood is dripping from their mouths and their eyes are completely red. The sequence is edited very quickly and just lasts for seconds. It is wonderfully edited and macabre at the same time. It is my favourite sequence from the production and by itself is worth watching Count Dracula for, just to see this sequence. This sequence alone explains what Dracula is and what he needs to do to survive.

An interesting part to this story is watching how Jonathan starts in the story as a gentleman tending to Dracula’s needs in Transylvania to becoming virtually a caged animal. He keeps trying to find his way out. During the day at one point, he is able to get out further in the castle than he ever did before. Basically scaling walls and climbing on rooftops of the castle, Jonathan finds Dracula lying in a coffin. That is where he sleeps during the day. As Jonathan removes the cover to the casket, Dracula’s eyes open up. They are bloodshot and glistening. Jonathan, who is in complete shock, takes a shovel and slams it over Dracula but it has no affect. In fact, although in a comatose state, Dracula actually gives a slight smile to the whole thing.

Much happens in the story that I am glossing over. There is the whole storyline of Mina (Jonathan’s fiancé) and her sister Lucy going with their mother to Whitby which is by the sea. This just happens to be the place Dracula has purchased a new place to live, so to speak. This is what Jonathan was out in Transylvania for and now Dracula is on his way over to England. There is also Renfield who is in an asylum. Renfield is a fantastic character who outwardly could almost pass as someone who not deranged but has horrible tendencies such as violent outbursts and eating bugs. One night a heavy storm falls on Whitby. A ship appears to have lost its way and crashes on the shore. Inside the ship, everyone is dead. The captain’s hands are tied to the ship’s wheel. Dracula has arrived in England.

Almost immediately, Dracula sets his sights on Mina’s sister Lucy. Lucy has taken to sleep walking. One night, Mina sees that Lucy is not in bed any longer and goes out to find her. She walks up to the cemetery and sees a man draped over Lucy or at least that’s what we see. Dracula is taking over Lucy.

What confused me about this DVD was that it is broken up into two parts. That in itself is fine but the first part didn’t have any closing credits and the second part didn’t really have any opening credits apart from a title card. As you can imagine, this confused me greatly especially knowing that this was shown in one night originally. What happened was the first part was shown which at that point the BBC took a news break and came back with the second half. I am actually really happy that the BBC released the DVD this way. I am sure other would prefer to see this as one movie but this is how it originally aired which is how I personally would like to see it. I am sure it sounds odd since I would have been 3 and living in the US when this aired so there really should be no personal attachment for me.

Part Two is where things get going. I kind of think of this like the 1979 mini-series Salem’s Lot. I love the first part but that was setting up the story and the second part is where things get moving. I feel that is the same way with Count Dracula. I think bringing in Van Helsing is where the plot really starts to move. Up until this point no one knows what Dracula is and Van Helsing sees the signs of a vampire immediately. He is brought in by Lucy’s courter Dr. Seward because Lucy is so ill. During Lucy’s transformation into a vampire, it is subtle. When she opens her mouth to speak you see her teeth have become sharp.

Van Helsing gives specific instructions on how Lucy’s room should be prepared that night when she sleeps which includes garlic all over the place. It may sound strange to everyone but Van Helsing knows what he is doing. He knows that Lucy’s is turning into a vampire. The problem was that they never told Lucy’s mother what they were doing in her room. That night Lucy’s mother checks in on Lucy but finds garlic all over the place. She removes some by the window and sits with Lucy while she sleeps. Suddenly, a wolf smashes the window with the shock killing Lucy’s mother immediately. The wolf is Dracula and he finishes his work on Lucy. This is another wonderful almost dream-like moment as after Lucy realizes her mother is dead, she is put into a trance by Dracula. He enters the room as sparkles which eventually forms into his physical being.

The next morning, Lucy is found nearly dead and pale. She is going to die. Van Helsing wants to get Lucy’s loved ones into the room before she dies. Her mother just died and Mina is out retrieving Jonathan. Van Helsing notices that Lucy’ reflection in no longer in the mirror. Her transformation is complete. As they are all in the room saying their goodbyes, Lucy beckons Quincy over and she tries to bite him with Van Helsing interjecting to stop it. Susan Panhaligon plays Lucy and she does go a bit over the top here. Maybe turn it down to 7! Then Lucy dies yet we all know she is not dead.

Mina and Jonathan return to England and to her house. We don’t really know how Jonathan got out except that he was found at a convent in Budapest. As they get off the carriage with Jonathan paying the driver, he realizes just as the carriage drives away, that the driver is Count Dracula himself which is very menacing. It will get even worse since this is where Mina finds out that both her mother and sister have died very recently.

Lucy is now the undead and Van Helsing needs Quincy’s help to finish one more thing and that is two cut off her head from her body and stuff garlic into her mouth. This removes the vampire from her body and allows her soul to rest in peace. This needs to happen after she is already in her vault. The problem is that Lucy is not there when they arrive. She is roaming around looking for victims to feed from for her hunger of blood. Any problems I had with Susan’s acting for Lucy’s death scene are nullified when she plays the role of the Vampire Lucy. Dressed in white, in death she is absolutely terrifyling. She has bloodshot eyes which seems to be the only colour on her. She preys on the children and we see one of them who is bitten and disoriented. Once again very chilling. Lucy is eventually returned to her grave where then Van Helsing stakes her, cut off her head and puts garlic in her mouth.

Dracula now turns his attention to Mina. He starts feeding off her. At one point she even visits Renfield knowing that he also knows Dracula. Renfield is basically jealous of her because Dracula’s focus is on her just as it was on Lucy. Renfield’s death is gruesome and graphic. It’s hard to watch. It’s hard not to feel sorry for him.

Once Jonathan, Van Helsing, Quincy and Seward know that Dracula is after Mina they go after him. They now know where Dracula is because Jonathan sets up the land deal. This probably was not a great idea on Dracula’s part to focus victimizing Jonathan’s loved ones since Jonathan knew where Dracula lived. Yet again, Dracula probably did not expect Jonathan to leave his castle alive. Van Helsing and Jonathan go to Dracula’s estate, Carfax Abbey, and sterilize all the boxes of Earth Dracula brought over from Transylvania with Christian hosts which makes it impossible for Dracula to go near. This is a great scene because it is the one real face-off between Van Helsing and Dracula and it is good. It’s two equals who each know what Dracula is. It features some great dialogue and great effects.

Dracula is forced to return to Transylvania since all of his dirt has been consecrated. What is cool is that Van Helsing, Quincy, Saward and Jonathan are not going to stop at getting him out of England but they want to destroy Dracula. It now becomes a race between Dracula getting back to his castle before dark and everyone else hunting him down.

It is decided by Van Helsing to break up into two groups to track down Dracula. Mina will not stay in England and comes along to help destroy Dracula. What I found interesting is that at the beginning of the play, I didn’t really think much of Mina as a character. By the time we get to this point, I find her to be a strong willed woman and her addition to going on the journey to Transylvania is necessary.

Once again, a scene with the Brides of Dracula is another point of note. Taking place at night, they come out of the forest to the campground that Mina and Van Helsing is resting. They circle around Van Helsing and Mina, mocking them. They beckon Mina to join them which she almost does. Van Helsing thwarts them. The next day he finds where they are resting and he stakes them in the heart. Destroying them or releasing them based on your point of view.

Suffice to say, Dracula is finally dealt with and destroyed. Just before dusk, everyone catches up to him and he is staked through the heart. Smoke billows out of the coffin. It is over.

I think this is a fantastic production. It is the standard BBC style of production. It is the mix of videotaped interiors shot in studio with exteriors shot on film. One of my favourite aspects is the natural sounds. Stuff like carriage wheels rolling on a street with the sounds of horses galloping along with it. A campfire that crackles. I love these things and they are things I look out for and love in these older productions. There are some unique attempts at doing something different with video effects. Shots using video disc technology to slow down Dracula’s entrance in the scene where he catches the Brides trying to seduce Jonathan. The aforementioned negative affect on Dracula every time he sees blood. It is frightening. The thing is, just the nature of it being done on video kind of tows the line a little bit. Video effects like this which can be bold or even pioneering can date very quickly and look comical now. To be honest, I am not sure where these fall but I personally love them. I accept them for what they are and it is an innovative way to tell a story.

Articles from Radio Times 1977

The music is one of my favourite pieces to this production. There is little of it but when something bad is about to happen or when Dracula shows up in many of his guises, the music becomes dark and menacing. It really sets the mood. The music is done by Kenyon Emrys-Robert. Although I am not familiar with his work, I think music is fantastic. Just as fantastic are the locations used for filming. Taking place all over, this really feels like it was shot in the 1800’s. Some of my favourite uses of these locations is that it is just not the night that is menacing but also stuff shot during the day. Nothing feels safe knowing that Dracula is around and the characters know this but don’t know why they feel that way. It’s a treat to watch.

The big question becomes, what about Louis Jourdan as Dracula? We have seen it so many times. It is easy to play to the stereotypical aspects of the character. It is so easy to use a European accent and say, “I vant to suck your blood!” I think Jourdan underplays the role. He is very understated and almost normal. I think he can be menacing when needs to but the whole time he is feeding of Lucy then Mina, it is almost sexual. He lays on top of them totally covering their body with his; his cape overflowing off the sides of the bed. I definitely prefer him to Christopher Lee’s portrayal of the legendary character. I know this is not a popular view.

Frank Finlay as Van Helsing is also strong in this play. He plays the role as very matter of fact. As he is the first to bring up the concept of a vampire taking control of Lucy, no one really questions him. He is a calming presence in the production. As soon as he shows up, as the viewer, I feel like everything is going to be OK. I think the only other character that really stands out is Renfield played by Jack Shepherd. He shows us you can play insane without screaming or doing violent things yet there is something not right about him. I think the rule to this production is that all characters are understated. They don’t need to shove it down your throat who they are. I think that is why I like this so much. When the action needs to be ramped up then it is. There is a reason for it. Nothing is a throw away here. This is not a slow production but it is well-paced.

I guess it is pretty clear that I love this production of Dracula. I think it is one of the closest and best adaptions of the original material. It succeeds in being convincing and it is portrayed very traditionally. If you love this style of BBC television from the 1970s or a fan of Dracula himself, this is one version definitely worth checking out.

Next Week: When is the Doctor not the Doctor? It’s when he is Sergeant Grimshaw. I take a look at the very first Carry On film. It is one of my favourites of the franchise and features William Hartnell along with some of the best comedy talent in the UK at that time. I look at Carry On Sergeant.

Upcoming reviews: I have a guest writer giving us a thorough review of the UK Blu-ray of Network’s Space: 1999 Year Two and I will be looking at Acorn’s US Blu-ray release of George Gently Series

Have a great week!

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Quatermass Blu-ray Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Greg) — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 03:57:00 +0000

Network is releasing the Thames television Quatermass on July 27^th on both DVD and Blu-ray. Although I will be following up with a full review, I did want to show some comparison shots between the ClearVision set from 2003 and the new Network Blu-ray. The ClearVision set was sourced from 16mm prints (or from pre-existing video masters sourced from 16mm film) whereas the new Blu-ray is sourced from the 35mm negatives. The work done on this set is stunning and this is a fun preview of what is going to be available 27/07/15.

Click on image to see the size difference. Top image SD and bottom image is (obviously) HD.

Enjoy!

Ad caps are intact on this release.

You can directly pre-order from Network Quatermass on Blu-ray or DVD. £17.00 for the Blu-ray and £12.00 plus for the DVD plus shipping which is the cheapest going at the moment. Visit www.networkonair.com. Quatermass is released on 27/07/15.

Have a great week!