Home2014(Page 8)

The earth is hungry. It waits to eat. Doctor Who – Frontios

September 30, 2014July 11, 2015 archivetvmusings Doctor Who BBC, doctor who, frontios, janet fielding, mark strickson, peter davison

One of the most obvious things to note about Frontios is that Christopher H. Bidmead really knew how to write for Peter Davison’s Doctor. Given this, it’s a pity that Bidmead didn’t contribute more scripts for the fifth Doctor (Frontios was his second and last).

I’ve touched on this before, but Peter Davison wasn’t a personality actor like, say, Tom Baker. Baker could take an average script and by the sheer force of his personality make something unique out of it. Davison didn’t have that skill, but provide him a well written script and he could certainly make the most out of what he was given.

Frontios is a wonderful vehicle for Davison and so many of his lines zing. Picking some favourite Davison dialogue from this story is difficult, since there are so many examples, but I do love this –

DOCTOR: Look, I’m not really here at all, officially. And as soon as I’ve helped Mister Range with the arrangements, I’ll be on my way.
PLANTAGENET: Do you feel free to come and go as you please?
DOCTOR: Going, yes, coming, no. We were forced down.
PLANTAGENET: I see. You landed during the bombardment and yet you appear unharmed.
DOCTOR: I’m sorry, we didn’t know there was a war on. At first we thought it was some sort of meteorite storm.
PLANTAGENET: And what do you think now?
DOCTOR: I think your shelters are totally inadequate and your warning system does nothing but create panic.
PLANTAGENET: I did not ask
DOCTOR: Your population has already fallen below critical value required for guaranteed growth and you’re regularly losing new lives. I think, and you did ask what I think, I think your colony of Earth people is in grave danger of extinction.

There’s a bite and attack to Davison’s performance of these lines, which we haven’t seen nearly enough of during his time on the show. Elsewhere, he has a lovely line in vagueness, somewhat Troughtoneque in style, like this –

DOCTOR: Well, that’s it. Now, this should either sort out this whole Tractator problem and repair the TARDIS.
TEGAN: Or?
DOCTOR: Or it won’t

The Gravis is going to have problems operating the controls with his little flappy arms — The Gravis is going to have problems operating the controls with his flappy little arms

Sadly, one of the best moments of the story was rather curtailed due to episode four overrunning. We see the Doctor attempt to convince the Gravis that Tegan is an android that he picked up cheap –

TEGAN: Doctor, you can’t let them do this to me.
DOCTOR: I’m terribly embarrassed about all this.
GRAVIS: Not at all, Doctor.
DOCTOR: It must be the humidity causing the malfunction. These serving machines are perfectly reliable on Gallifrey.
GRAVIS: The guard Tractator here will restrain it while I show you more of our work here. It is certainly a very convincing replica of the humanoid life form.
DOCTOR: Oh, you think so? I got it cheap because the walk’s not quite right. And then there’s the accent, of course. But, when it’s working well, it’s very reliable. Keeping track of appointments, financial planning, word processing, that sort of thing.

What was cut was more detail as to why the Doctor undertook this ruse – if the Gravis realised that Tegan was human he might have decided to add her to his excavating machine. The excised material is part of the special features on the DVD thankfully, including the moment where the Doctor puts a screwdriver into Tegan’s ear!

Mark Strickson (after largely sitting out the last few stories) gets to froth at the mouth and drive part of the plot, whilst Janet Fielding is teamed up with Davison for the last few episodes, which is great fun. Just as Bidmead was spot on with Davison’s Doctor, so he was able to get the best out of the Doctor/Tegan relationship. They do spend most of episode three not achieving very much, simply walking round the tunnels. But it’s so entertaining, you don’t really notice that the plot isn’t advancing very much.

On Frontios itself, there’s a decent collection of guest stars. Peter Gilmore is the bluff Brazen, not a subtle performance maybe, but there’s the odd glimpse of hidden depths. Jeff Rawle is good as the out-of-his-depth Plantagenet, whilst William Lucas as Range has a nice line in weary resignation. Norna, played by Lesley Dunlop, isn’t a very developed part – existing mainly to elicit information from other characters – but Dunlop is very appealing and makes the character worth watching.

The rather appealing Lesley Dunlpp, as Norna — The rather appealing Lesley Dunlop, as Norna

The odd structural flaw and plot-hole apart, this is an entertaining story that puts the Doctor right in the centre of the action. True, the Tractators (particularly their flapping arms) look a little silly, but the story is hardly unique for having slightly duff monsters.

If you want an example of Davison’s Doctor at his best, then this must rank somewhere at the top, along with Kinda and The Caves of Androzani.

UFO watch (Episode 21 – The Man Who Came Back)

September 29, 2014September 30, 2014 archivetvmusings UFO gerry anderson, the man who came back, ufo

Written by Terence Feely
Directed by David Lane

Craig Collins (Derren Nesbit) is one of SHADO’s top astronauts and a close friend of Ed Straker (they trained together as astronauts). After his ship is targeted during a UFO attack, which also damages SID, Collins is posted as missing, believed dead.

However, by a miracle he’s somehow survived and several weeks later is rescued from a distant island. Amongst Collins’ various skills is an intimate knowledge of SID, so Straker assigns him to repair the computer. But as soon as he returns to Moonbase, others notice a change in his behavior – notably Colonel Grey, Paul Foster and Virginia Lake. Collins and Lake had been intimate, but Lake brings their relationship to an end.

All three are sure there is a problem, but Straker isn’t convinced. Collins persuades Straker to join him on the SID repair mission, but once out in space he realises the others were right – Collins is under alien control and has orders to kill him!

The Man Who Came Back is another cracking episode which is dominated by Derren Nesbit, who’s great value as the unstable Collins. Nesbit made a career out of playing somewhat manic characters in the various ITC series of the time, so his appeance is almost enough on its own for the viewer to guess how the story will pan out.

True, if you examine the plot a little too closely then it doesn’t make much sense. Was Straker really the only person equipped to repair SID? And it was very convenient that Collins was able to nobble the only two people (Grey and Jackson) who knew for sure that something was wrong. Wouldn’t either of them have raised their concerns with Straker?

But if we ignore these flaws, then there’s a lot to enjoy here, particularly the tense finale. The confrontation between Collins and Straker takes place when both are floating in space, close to SID, and director David Lane is able to ramp up the tension, even when the two of them are moving very slowly. As might be expected, this is another downbeat ending. Straker has no choice but to kill one of his oldest friends, which no doubt helps to crush a little more humanity from his soul.

On a more frivolous note, Colonel Lake looks very fetching in the Moonbase garb. And the sight of the injured SID, spinning around in space, is another memorable moment. We’ve seen a few episodes previously with characters being controlled by the aliens, but there’s enough in The Man Who Came Back to make it stand up in its own right, and not feel too much like a retread.

UFO watch (Episode 20 – Destruction)

September 29, 2014January 4, 2015 archivetvmusings UFO destruction, gerry anderson, philip madoc, ufo

Written by Dennis Spooner
Directed by Ken Turner

Straker is intrigued when a UFO targets a Naval vessel in the Atlantic. But when he presses for further details from the Admiralty he gets stonewalled, so he has to find out what he needs to know another way.

Although he has the latest cutting-edge technology at his disposal, he decides to obtain the information in the old-fashioned way – with a mole. He asks Paul Foster to seduce the Admiral’s secretary and find out everything that he can. And even more eye-opening than this, Straker asks Foster to do it after he’s taken him out for a round of golf. I never pictured Straker as a golfer, I have to say.

The Admiral’s secretary, Sarah Bosanquet (Stephanie Beacham), is rather gorgeous so this isn’t Foster’s most demanding mission. But things get more complicated when he realises Sarah is passing information to the aliens. And eventually the full story comes out – the Navy are dumping barrels of highly toxic nerve gas, which for some reason the aliens have decided to destroy. If they succeed, then the gas is capable of wiping out all life on the planet!

Dennis Spooner was a new writer to UFO, and it’s possible that he hadn’t studied the programme format too closely, as it’s totally out of character for the aliens to want to destroy all life on Earth. Up until know, all the evidence has pointed to the fact that they need to harvest humans for body parts in order to survive, so why the drastic change?

As so often, there’s no answer given, but notwithstanding this, Destruction is a very decent episode with a strong guest cast. Apart from Stephanie Beacham, there’s also Edwin Richfield as Admiral Sheringham and Philip Madoc as Captain Steven. There’s possibly a little too much stock footage of naval vessels, but that’s only a minor niggle.

This story is also notable for being the second in this production block to feature Wanda Ventham as Colonel Virginia Lake. She had appeared in the first story, Identified, and after George Sewell was unavailable for the second recording block it seems his lines were ported directly over to Colonel Lake.

No mention is made of Freeman’s absence or Lake’s sudden appearance, because these episodes were dropped into the whole run of 26 at various points. This must have been somewhat confusing for viewers at the time, as characters would appear and disappear at regular intervals.

The somewhat haphazard transmission order has meant that over the years many fans have debated the best order to watch the series in. I’ve followed the order on the Carlton DVDs, which was suggested by Fanderson and is generally held to be as good as any other. For anyone who wants to look into this thorny issue further, then this is a good place to start.

dest 2 — Edwin Richfield and Philip Madoc

Comedy Playhouse – Steptoe and Son – The Offer

September 28, 2014August 10, 2018 archivetvmusings BBC Comedy - 1960's BBC, bbc sitcoms, galton and simpson, steptoe and son

After Ray Galton and Alan Simpson found their successful working relationship with Tony Hancock had been abruptly terminated (they had written six radio and seven television series for the Lad Himself) the pair were at something of a loose end.

The BBC were keen to keep them working and so made them an attractive offer – a series called Comedy Playhouse in which Galton and Simpson had carte blanche to write whatever they wished. Out of a variety of different playlets came Steptoe and Son. When they wrote The Offer it was purely a one-off, but the BBC were keen to develop it into a series, and eventually Galton and Simpson agreed.

The late 1950’s and early 1960’s had seen something of a social revolution in television drama, often dubbed as the “kitchen sink” movement. It was pioneered by series such as Armchair Theatre (1956-1974) which explored areas previously undocumented on television. Comedy was also to see similar ground-breaking series produced during the 1960s such as The Likely Lads (1964-1966) and Till Death Us Do Part (1965-1975) which featured working class themes and characters in a much more realistic way than had ever been seen before.

The first of the comedy series to break the mould was Steptoe and Son, although Galton and Simpson would no doubt deny that their intention was to innovate or start a new trend – they were simply attempting to fill a half an hour slot. Their method of working was to kick around various ideas until something stuck. One important rule they had was that it had to feature two characters, which had served them well with the television version of Hancock’s Half Hour (it generally revolved around the relationship between Hancock and Sid James).

Once the idea of two rag and bone men was decided on, they then had to agree what their relationship was. Brothers maybe? Eventually, father and son seemed to offer the most comic potential as it offered a good chance to explore the generation gap.

Steptoe and Son would run for eight series between 1962 – 1974 and by the 1970’s it would be very much a mainstream sitcom. However in revisiting the black and episodes (the first four series, made between 1962 and 1965) we find a much darker and sadder character piece that often (in the best way) isn’t funny at all.

Harold Steptoe is 37, unmarried and dreams of a life away from his father and the family rag and bone business. Albert Steptoe is an old man and apparantly in ill health, although this seems to be mostly faked in order to keep Harold at home. He clearly doesn’t want to be left alone, so he’ll use any trick at his disposal to thwart Harold’s dreams of bettering himself.

In The Offer (purely a two-hander between Harry H. Corbett and Wilfred Brambell) we see Harold’s first attempt to leave Albert behind and forge a new future for himself. Harold is sick and tired of being a rag and bone man, sick of the horse and sick of Albert’s constant criticisms. Albert spends the opening part of the story belittling the stuff that Harold’s collected, before scavenging all the best things for himself. As Harold says, “If anything ‘alf decent comes along you wanna keep it to yerself! That’s no way to run a business.”

The tragic side of this is that the bric-a-brac so beloved by Albert is worthless junk, but he simply can’t see it. And the further tragedy is that Harold is no better. Harold shares some traits with the persona Galton and Simpson created for Tony Hancock, namely the attempts to “better himself” which never really pay off. But whilst there was a certain warmth to Hancock’s failed attempts to be an intellectual, there’s a harsher feeling to Harold’s failures.

His desire to move up the social scale is palpable, but he has little to show for it. His “library” is a collection of four books tied up with string and his “wine cellar” is made up from pouring the small remains of the virtually empty bottles he’s collected into his nearly full ones at home. And this is partly sabotaged when he realises someone has stored paraffin in a bottle of non-vintage Beaujolais just after he’s poured it into his almost complete bottle. “The rotten, lousy, stinkin’ gits! Paraffin! They’ve gone and put paraffin in it! They ruined me bottle of Beaujolais! It’s taken me a year to fill that up!”

Eventually all these frustrations build up and Harold decides to take up a mysterious offer and leave. Albert tries everything to make him stay, but to no avail. He loads his possessions onto the cart, but as Albert won’t let him use the horse Harold has to push the cart by himself. Here we come to probably the most interesting part of the story – the cart won’t move. Is this because it’s genuinely too heavy or because even when he has the chance to leave, Harold can’t bring himself to actually do it?

This scene is incredibly powerful and is so well acted by both Corbett and Brambell. As Harold breaks down and is led back into the house by Albert, who tells him that “you can go another day, or you can stay with yer old dad and wait till a better offer comes along” you could have heard a pin drop in the audience. It doesn’t seem to be that Corbett was attempting to gain the auidence’s sympathy, rather he was just acting to the script. That’s the notable thing about Steptoe and Son – before this, sitcoms had tended to star comedians and therefore were vehicles written for their talents (such as Hancock’s Half Hour). But Steptoe and Son was performed by actors rather than comedians, an important distinction.

When Harold attempts, unsuccessfully, to move the cart, Alan Simpson was amazed to see real tears in Corbett’s eyes: “We watched that closing scene as Harry literally crumbles. He’s trying to push his meagre belongings away and start a new life, and he can’t do it. We were watching this scene and Harry actually broke down and cried and I thought, real tears! This is what it’s all about… this is acting! We weren’t used to it with writing for comedians. Usually it would be stylised, shoulder-lurching sobs when comics cried. Harry really got hold of that final scene. It was real drama to him”.

The realisation that Corbett and Brambell could give their scripts a deeper, more nuanced reading than anything they’d previously produced would clearly influence their writing from this point on.

Therefore we have a downbeat ending to a remarkable half hour. There’s no winners or losers here. Over the course of the story our sympathies have swung from one character to the other. We can sympathise with Harold for wanting to leave (particularly at the start, when Albert seems such an unpleasant character). But over the half hour we’ve come to understand that Albert is a lonely old man who simply couldn’t function on his own and that Harold deep down seems to understand this.

The same basic template would often be played out during the following 56 episodes, but it would be rarely be better than this one. Impressively written and acted, this is a true classic of British television.

Something is coming to our village. Something very wonderful and strange. Doctor Who – The Awakening

September 28, 2014September 10, 2017 archivetvmusings Doctor Who BBC, doctor who, janet fielding, mark strickson, peter davison, the awakening

Although The Awakening, like the other Davison two-parters, feels a little disposable, it’s still an decent enough story, helped no end by a larger-than-life performance from Denis Lil (Sir George Hutchinson).

Sir George has somehow (and like a lot of the story we’re somewhat vague on specifics) found himself under the thrall of the Malus, a malevolent alien entity who has lain dormant since the 17th century. The Malus feeds on violent emotions and therefore has had little to feast on since the English Civil War came to this part of the world in 1643.

The ever dependable Denis Lil gives his all

So, Sir George decides that a Civil War re-enactment would be just the thing to restore the Malus to full strength. The concept of a whole village under the thrall of an alien being is a good concept, but it’s not really followed through in the story as he seems to be the only one who is actually under the Malus’ control.

True, Willow (Jack Galloway) is happy to carry out Sir George’s bidding, but that may be because he’s a bit of a bully anyway and there’s nothing to support the claim from Jane that the final battle will be fought for real. The problem with this lack of development could be due to the two part format, which doesn’t allow too much time to develop the various story threads.

If Sir George (and maybe Willow) are on the side of chaos, then the voices of reason are provided by Jane Hampton (Polly James) and Ben Wosley (Glyn Houston). Following the somewhat wooden turns of Warriors of the Deep, their more naturalistic performances are very welcome.

The TARDIS has landed in Little Hodcombe so that Tegan can visit her grandfather, Andrew Verney. This is another part of the plot that doesn’t really go anywhere since Verney is totally redundant to the plot. There’s no reason why the TARDIS couldn’t have simply turned up at random, with the Doctor being naturally drawn into the mystery of the closed village and the strange happenings in the church.

"The toast of Little Hodcombe" — “The toast of Little Hodcombe”

With the concept of two periods connected in time and psychic projections from the past appearing in the present, there’s something of a Sapphire and Steel vibe about this story, which is no bad thing. A refugee from the past, Will Chandler (Keith Jayne) teams up with Davison for part of the story and it’s possible to understand why he was briefly considered as companion material.

The Malus, who has been resident in the local church for three hundred years or so looks very impressive, but it’s somewhat limited, action wise. Once you’ve heard it go “rooooooooaaaaaaarrrrrrrr” a few times then it’s not got much more to offer, with the genuine scares coming from the various projections it can conjure up – particularly the ghostly Roundheads who behead an unfortunate extra.

The location of the Malus does lead one to suppose that the church was built around it, which is an interesting thought. If so, then presumably it was felt that the sanctity of the church would nullify the Malus’ baleful influence. Or maybe they didn’t notice its big head? Who can say?

One other notable point about The Awakening is that it was Barry Newbery’s final Doctor Who story as a designer and also his last work for the BBC (he took early retirement almost immediately afterwards). His most active period on the programme was during the Hartnell era, where to begin with he alternated with Raymond Cusick on each serial. Both Cusick and Newbery performed miracles with the non-existent budgets of the early 1960’s and whilst the success of Doctor Who is due to many people, both of them must take some of the credit as without good visuals, the stories would have foundered. And The Awakening was a decent story to bow out on as it featured some impressive sets – particularly the ruined church.

Although somewhat rushed and with the odd loose end, this is an enjoyable story boasting decent location filming, some good performances and a few scares along the way.

UFO watch (Episode 19 – The Cat With Ten Lives)

September 27, 2014July 15, 2016 archivetvmusings UFO gerry anderson, the cat with ten lives, ufo

Written and Directed by David Tomblin

In my post on The Sound of Silence I mentioned how the second production block of UFO saw stories that sent the series in new directions, and this is certainly the case with The Cat With Ten Lives.

Writer/Director David Tomblin had previously worked on The Prisoner and he brought something of the style of that series (along with guest star Alexis Kanner) to The Cat With Ten Lives. It’s very much Kanner’s episode (possibly not surprising since he and Tomblin had a lengthy working relationship – stretching back to the film Reach For Glory in 1962, where Tomblin was the assistant director).

Jim Reegan (Kanner) is an Interceptor pilot back on Earth for 48 hours leave. Along with his wife Jean (Geraldine Moffatt) he’s driving home after a dinner party (which involved a rather strange sequence with a oujia board) when they spot a cat in the middle of the road. Jean takes a fancy to it and asks to adopt it, but before Reegan can answer they both spot a UFO close by. They are overpowered and taken to the UFO (Tomblin has some nice shots here from their point of view as they are carried to the alien’s ship). Reegan awakes to find himself back in his car, along with the cat, but there’s no sign of Jean.

Straker is interested in his story but tells Reegan to report to Moonbase for duty the next day. He doesn’t seem in any fit state, but Straker is adamant. Reegan has taken the cat to SHADO HQ and this is where things start to get really odd. Somehow, the cat is being controlled by the aliens and in turn the cat is controlling Reegan. And by having free range of SHADO HQ, the cat is able to observe everything that takes place.

Jackson (Vladek Sheybal) has another theory about the aliens – he believes that they may not have any physical form at all, as a recently recovered alien body turned out to be completely human. He surmises they may be able to “re-program” human brains, thereby providing them with physical vessels to pilot the UFO’s to Earth. Like all the information that’s drip-fed abuot the aliens it never really goes anywhere, but whilst this could be seen as a weakness it’s also one of the series’ strengths. UFO poses many questions about the aliens and their intentions but never provides any answers. Maybe a second series would have come closer to providing some solid facts, but there’s something more frightening about an adversary who is unknowable and intangible,

Reegan is unable to destroy the UFO carrying Jean (thanks to the cat telling him not to!) and Straker recalls him to Earth for a medical assessment. It has to be said that it’s impressive that the cat was able to control him when Reegan was orbiting the Moon and the cat was on Earth, but distance seems to be no objective. When he’s back on Earth, the cat has the same amount of control over hm and under its influence Reegan attacks Foster and returns to Moonbase.

By a somewhat tenuous bit of theorising, Straker and Foster decide that Reegan’s being controlled by the cat. Yes, really. Straker is able to deal with the moggy and this breaks the control it has over Reegan. Although this isn’t necessarily good news for him.

The Cat With Ten Lives is, as I’ve said, an odd one. You can either sit back and enjoy the ride or decide it’s too silly for words. I favour the former and there’s plenty of other incidental pleasures along with way. Kanner was always a strange, idiosyncratic actor and this is very much in evidence here. He’s always compelling though and it’s difficult not to feel sorry for Reegan. It’s a pity that he wasn’t in more episodes, as the opening section of the story is quite interesting as we see the exhausted Interceptor pilots relaxing in-between engagements. A few more scenes like this, which have a similar vibe to WW2 pilots resting between missions, would have been welcome.

A purrfect episode, you might say.

These human beings will die as they have lived, in a sea of their own blood. Doctor Who – Warriors of the Deep

September 27, 2014September 27, 2014 archivetvmusings Doctor Who BBC, doctor who, janet fielding, mark strickson, peter davison, warriors of the deep

Warriors of the Deep seems to be based on a false premise – namely that the Silurians and the Sea Devils were the chief attraction of Malcolm Hulke’s two Jon Pertwee scripts. This is something that I’d strong disagree with. Doctor Who and The Silurians drew its strength from pitching the Doctor, Liz and the Brigadier against the likes of Baker, Quinn, Lawrence and Masters. It was the confrontations between those characters that kept the story bubbling along in the early episodes and by the time the Silurians take centre-stage, it starts to flag a little. The Sea Devils is mainly about the Doctor/Master rivalry and the Sea Devils are pretty incidental to the plot.

In order to succeed then, Warriors of the Deep needed strong human characters but although the story had some good actors, the script tended to let them down. It isn’t all bad though and with just a little tweaking here and there it could have been rather good. But, as has happened before, a lack of time and money was to prove very costly.

Let’s start positively though, Tony Burrough’s Seabase set is incredibly impressive. It’s tended to come in for criticism in the past for being too brightly lit, but I can’t see this at all. The command centre is brighter than the rest of the base, which seems logical, but the corridors have a low level of lighting and also ceilings (a familiar trait of Tony Burrough’s design work, see also Four To Doomsday). This creates shadows and helps to hide a multitude of sins – even the Myrka looks halfway decent in some of the corridor shots.

We’re barely a minute into the story when we’re introduced to the Silurians. It’s annoying that they refer to themselves as Silurians and Sea Devils (human coined nicknames, of course) and it’s even more annoying that the Silurian’s third eye now flashes every time they speak. And the annoyance factor is increased another notch whenever Icthar says “Excellent”.

The Seabase personnel tend to be split between two camps. There are some – Vorshak (Tom Adams), Bulic (Nigel Humpreys) and Preston (Tara Ward) – who have thinly drawn characters but are watchable since the actors are making the best of a bad job.

"You'll get no help from me, Silurian" — “You’ll get no help from me, Silurian!”

For the rest, if I was drawing up a list of shame then Ingrid Pitt as Solow and Ian McCulloch as Nilson would be top of it. Pitt was famously wooden in The Time Monster so it’s no great surprise that twelve years on she’s no better here. But it pains me to see McCulloch’s poor performance, as he’s a much better actor than this (Greg in Survivors, for example).

The central plot is quite sound. It’s a base-under-seige! A staple of the Troughton era, we haven’t had a story like this (Horror of Fang Rock) for a good few years. But it does tend to be scuppered by the fact that the Silurians and Sea Devils are, shall we say, not very dynamic.

They move incredibly slowly (and in the case of the Sea Devils, rather oddly at times). There’s also the Myrka to further slow things down of course. And while I have praised the design work, the amazing foam bulkhead door at the end of episode two is a sight to behold.

Eventually, as with most base-under-seige stories, virtually everybody dies. The Doctor’s final words are well known and yes, there probably should have been another way. It’s interesting that about twenty years earlier virtually the same words were spoken after the Thals and Daleks fought, but then it was Ganatus who had the line, whilst the Doctor seemed unmoved by the wholesale slaughter on Skaro. He’d got his fluid link back, which was the only thing he seemed concerned about.

In retrospect, this marks the start of the harder-edged style of Eric Saward. Resurrection of the Daleks, The Caves of Androzani and the majority of Season 22 would follow a similar path of heavy body-counts and violence.

Warriors of the Deep is not a total disaster, nor is it unwatchable, but a combination of factors proved to be pretty damaging. Johnny Byrne had provided a similarly limp season opener the previous year with Arc of Infinity so it’s maybe not surprising that this was his final script for the series.

UFO watch (Episode 18 – The Sound of Silence)

September 27, 2014February 23, 2019 archivetvmusings UFO gerry anderson, the sound of silence, ufo

Written by David Lane and Bob Bell
Directed by David Lane

The Sound of Silence has some good moments, but it’s never been a favourite of mine. The main problem is that since Russell Stone (Michael Jayston) is such an unlikable character, when he’s captured by the alien it’s difficult to be particularly bothered about whether he’s going to be returned safely to his family or taken away to be sliced and diced.

His sister (Susan Jameson) and father (Richard Vernon) are more personable though, so it is possible to feel a little empathy for them as they search for answers but Russell Stone is presented, right from his opening scene, as a cold, officious character. He chases Culley (Nigel Gregory) off their land at the start of the episode (and poor Culley seemed to be doing nothing worse than living rough in the woods).

The unfortunate Culley and his dog are later found dead, murdered by the alien. It seems that both were mutilated, but whatever the alien was looking for he didn’t seem to find it in them. However, Russell Stone is captured intact and placed inside a cylinder, presumably to be flown back to the alien’s planet.

After the UFO is destroyed (another fabulous example of the series’ model-work) the cylinder is recovered and the question faced by SHADO is whether they will be able extract Stone from the cylinder alive and well.

The Sound of Silence is notable since it’s the first episode from the second production block. The first seventeen episodes were recorded at MGM Borehamwood between April – November 1969. After the studio was closed, production was put on hiatus until the middle of the next year when a further nine episodes were recorded at Pinewood between May – September 1970.

These nine episodes do feel somewhat different for a number of reasons. New writers, such as Dennis Spooner and David Tomblin, were brought in and a number of regulars are conspicuous by their absence. George Sewell (Alec Freeman), Gabrielle Drake (Gay Ellis), Keith Alexander (Keith Ford), Gary Myers (Lew Waterman) and Antonia Ellis (Joan Harrington) are all absent from the second production block due to work commitments elsewhere.

But although some familiar faces are gone, overall the second production block is of a very high standard and sees the programme take some risks as it ventures into previously uncharted territories. There’s certainly some interesting episodes ahead.

A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about. Doctor Who – The Five Doctors

September 26, 2014September 27, 2014 archivetvmusings Doctor Who BBC, carole ann ford, doctor who, elisabeth sladen, janet fielding, jon pertwee, mark strickson, nicholas courtney, patrick troughton, peter davison, richard hurndall, the five doctors, tom baker

For me, The Five Doctors defies critical analysis as to watch it is to be twelve again, when it seemed like the best programme ever. Time may have slightly tempered that enthusiasm, but I still find it’s impossible to rewatch it without a silly grin appearing on my face from time to time.

Is it perfect? Of course not. The Five Doctors was a party where many invitations were handed out, but several people (and one very important guest) were unable to attend. Possibly in a parallel universe they had a story where the 2nd Doctor was partnered with Jamie and Zoe, the 3rd teamed up with Jo and the Brig and the 4th and Sarah were reunited. Also in that parallel universe, maybe Roger Delgado decided not to travel to Turkey in 1973 to film Bell of Tibet so that he was able to return to the role of the Master for the first time in a decade. It’s a nice dream.

But what we have is still very decent fare. Richard Hurndall isn’t attempting to impersonate William Hartnell, Hurndall is playing the first Doctor, which is an important distinction. The only Hartnell story to be repeated in the UK was An Unearthly Child in 1981, so for many of us Hurndall’s was a perfectly acceptable performance. And it still is. He captures the essence of the Hartnell Doctor, there’s certainly the hard edge Hartnell could show from time to time, for example.

Troughton’s back! He may look older, but he’s the major highlight of this story and it’s hardly surprising that they offered him another one shortly after. He has a wonderful partnership with Courtney and all of their scenes fizzle with memorable dialogue. Frankly, I could have watched a story with just these two and been very content.

Pertwee’s back! Although his hair’s a little whiter, he’s still recognisably the same Doctor that we last saw nine years previously. But his sequences don’t quite have the same appeal as the Troughton ones and it’s difficult to put my finger on why this is. Terrance Dicks had, of course, been script editor for the whole of the Pertwee era so he should have had no problem in recreating the 3rd Doctor’s characterisation. But he does has some nice moments whilst traversing the Death Zone though, insulting the Master and finding an appropriately heroic way to enter the Tower, for example.

Pertwee benefits from being matched up again with Elisabath Sladen. We’d seen Sarah two years previously in K9 and Company which was lovely, but to see her back with Pertwee’s Doctor is something else altogether. Like everyone else, her lines are rationed so she has to make the most of everything she’s given, and this she certainly does. The fact that her mittens are sewn onto her jacket is incredibly adorable as well.

Tom’s not back! The reason for his non-appearance is well known and it does leave a hole, but we still have a very good story without him. For many people, Tom Baker was the series, so it’s possibly not a bad thing that he wasn’t here – that way it’s possible to see that there can be a decent tale told without him.

Davison’s still here! Terrance Dicks said that he was keen to ensure that Davison got the best of the action and he does have some good scenes, although the Gallifrey section is a bit limp and it’s a pity that he wasn’t teamed up with Troughton and Pertwee a little earlier on. The Doctors were kept apart since there were concerns that egos would clash. I don’t think that Davision would have been a problem, but Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker certainly would have been an explosive combination.

One slight problem I have with The Three Doctors is the way that Troughton is sometimes written down in order to make Pertwee the dominant figure. Since Pertwee was the current incumbent it’s sort of understandable, but I doubt that Pertwee would have been happy to play second fiddle to Davison. And the prospect of Pertwee and Baker together is even harder to imagine. Pertwee never made any secret of his dislike of the way the series progressed after he left (those cynical souls put this down to the fact that Tom Baker was more popular with both the fans and the general audience than Pertwee ever was) so Tom’s non-appearance was possibly a blessing in that respect.

As for the monsters, we have a rather tatty looking Dalek but we finally get to see that the Pertwee Doctor was right when he said that: “inside each of those shells is a living, bubbling lump of hate”. Given that it stays in the shadows, presumably the Yeti was rather shabby, but it gives Troughton another lovely comedy moment when he’s rummaging through his pockets in a desperate search for something to sort it out with.

Since they only appeared eighteen months previously, it’s a little disappointing that the Cybermen are so prominent here but it makes both economic sense (the costumes were in stock) and also practical sense (it’s difficult to imagine the likes of the Daleks trundling through the Death Zone).

Mention of the Death Zone brings us to one of the major plus points of this story – the locations. NuWho has exhaustively mined Wales for locations but as the original series was based in London, trips to Wales were much rarer. Various locations in Gwynedd were used in March 1983 and they help to give The Five Doctors an expansive, epic feeling.

If Leonard Sachs in Arc of Infinity wasn’t the best Borusa ever, then neither is Philip Latham here. It’s hard to understand how the Borusa of The Deadly Assassin and The Invasion of Time could have ended up as the lunatic obsessed with ruling forever that we see here. So that makes his corruption (which should be shocking) something of a damp squib.

And if the Old-King-Cole Rassilon is another odd move, we do get to see the Doctors together at the end of the story, which is something to be treasured. The rarity is why it’s so special, if it had happened more often then the shine would have been taken off it.

"I know what it says, but what does it mean?" — “I know what it says, but what does it mean?”

As it was, it’s Pertwee’s final bow as the Doctor (sorry, Dimensions in Time isn’t canon, and isn’t even a story) whilst Troughton was to have one more appearance to come. Therefore, while The Five Doctors is a celebration of the first twenty years, it also marks something of an end as over the following years we would start to bid farewell to some of the actors who had done so much to ensure that the series had reached 20 not out. And while they may be gone, thanks to the magic of DVD their adventures live on forever. So for me, that’s the best way to approach this story, as an appreciation and celebration of some of the people that made this programme so special.

You may disguise your features, but you can never disguise your intent. Doctor Who – The King’s Demons

September 25, 2014April 30, 2016 archivetvmusings Doctor Who BBC, doctor who, janet fielding, mark strickson, peter davison, the king's demons

The King’s Demons is a romp, pure and simple. Rather like a house of cards, if you examine it too closely then it collapses, but there’s plenty of entertainment to be had over its two episodes.

The opening is very impressive as the jousting contest (with Bodiam Castle in the background) looks gorgeous. It may have little to do with the rest of the story, but it’s a welcome bit of gloss.

But there’s no way to avoid the first major problem – the Master is disguised (very badly) as a Frenchman. All the James Stoker business leads you to assume that the production team actually considered his disguise would fool people and that the Master’s reveal at the end of the first episode would come as a shock. Hmm, okay then.

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." — “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.”

Frank Windsor and Isla Blair are two of the main guest stars. Windsor was a familiar face, thanks to Z Cars and Softly Softly. Truth be told, he seems a little stiff and uneasy with the medieval dialogue (he’s much more assured in Ghost Light). Isla Blair is fine with the little she has to do, but then a two-parter doesn’t offer a great deal of room for character development.

The other guest star is Gerald Flood, who is rather good as King John alias Kamelion. Given his involvement with the Pathfinders series (pretty much a blueprint for Doctor Who and a series that’s fascinating from that perspective) it’s fitting that he eventually landed a part in Doctor Who.

Davison gets to swash a buckle, although the Doctor/Master swordfight is a bit limp and not a patch on the ones from The Sea Devils and The Androids of Tara. Tegan complains a lot and Turlough has virtually nothing to do, although you have to admire Mark Strickson for his ability to wring everything from the few lines he has.

After the “shock” reveal of the Master at the end of episode one, there’s a rather nice exchange of dialogue between Davison and Ainley.

THE MASTER: Oh, my dear Doctor, you have been naive.
THE DOCTOR: Not at all. You may disguise your features, but you can never disguise your intent.
THE MASTER: And you can’t approve.
THE DOCTOR: You know I can’t.
THE MASTER: You’ve always been my greatest stimulation, my dear Doctor, but now you inspire me.

Although the notion of the Master mucking about with Magna Carta has often been criticised (even within the story itself) I do like the concept of the Master traveling to various planets at different time periods and discretely working away in the background to undermine democracy. There was scope to develop this in future stories, although it never happened.

The ending is a mess though. The Doctor nips off in the TARDIS and blithely informs Tegan and Turlough that the Master will shortly be leaving as well, without bothering to check or apparently care if he kills anybody else before he leaves. This point, as well as many others, is addressed in Terence Dudley’s excellent novelisation. It’s well worth tracking down a copy as it clearly shows how much better the story could have been as a four parter.

Atmospheric location filming, one of my favourite scores, decent guest stars and plenty of incident packed into 50 minutes means that The King’s Demons is never dull. It may be rather unloved, but I like it and if you haven’t seen it for a while then I’d recommended giving it another go.

Winner Takes All. Doctor Who – Enlightenment

September 24, 2014November 15, 2017 archivetvmusings Doctor Who BBC, doctor who, enlightenment, janet fielding, mark strickson, peter davison

One of the notable things about re-watching the original series is that it certainly takes its time. For those of us brought up on it, it’s very reasonable that the first episode of a story would be concerned with showing us the Doctor and his companions slowly exploring their new surroundings as puzzles and answers are drip-fed, usually leading into a cliff-hanger with a strong hook that’ll bring us back for the second episode.

Enlightenment is a classic case in point. In the new series, they’d probably compress the whole of the first episode into a couple of minutes, and whilst in story terms not a lot happens we do get to enjoy plenty of time with both the crew and the officers of the mysterious craft.

After the first episode the crew don’t contribute a great deal, which is a shame as the likes of Jackson (Tony Caunter) are quite well-drawn. But their involvement early on does help to lull the audience into believing that this really is an Edwardian sailing ship, as it’s not until the final moments of the episode that we realise it’s actually quite another ship, a space ship! This is a classic cliff-hanger and one of the best changes in direction of any Doctor Who story.

I'm still not sure about the suitability of pigs as sailors though. — I’m still not sure about the suitability of pigs as sailors though.

By now we’ve also met the ship’s officers, who are all Eternals. The first mate, Marriner (Christopher Brown) is obsessed with Tegan, although he seems to want her purely for her mind. The Eternals, whilst they have eternal life and pretty much endless powers, are clearly portrayed as empty vessels without human (or as they call them, “ephemeral”) minds to draw upon.

Keith Barron (Captain Striker) is wonderful as the cold, logical Eternal who is desperate, like all the other captains, to win the prize of Enlightenment. Had a BBC strike not delayed production, then Peter Sallis would have played Striker. It’s a shame we missed his take on the part, but Barron is an excellent subsistute.

I have to flag up the music by Malcom Clarke. Clarke’s first score for the series was the bonkers, but compelling, Sea Devils back in 1972. His work on Enlightenment is more straightforward, but equally as good. It would be nice for SilvaScreen to pop this onto a CD, but for now we can either enjoy the iso-track on the DVD or these edited highlights from Doctor Who – The Music 2.

On-board the Buccanner, the villainous Captain Wrack (like Turlough, an agent of the Black Guardian) is going to win the race by any means necessary. Lynda Baron’s performance as Wrack is best described as “broad” but it’s an enjoyable turn and contrasts well with the icy self-control of Striker. I can’t quite work out exactly how to classify Leee John’s acting performance as Wrack’s second-in-command, or even if it can be described as acting. It’s certainly memorable though, ranking alongside Jenny Laird in Planet of the Spiders as a small, but idiosyncratic, Doctor Who appearance.

Turlough isn’t having a good time. Disowned by the Black Guardian he attempts suicide by jumping overboard (a beautifully shot sequence at Ealing) but is rescued by Wrack. He eventually comes good though and helps the Doctor to bring the Buccanner home first. This brings us to the endgame, where the Black and White Guardians meet to hand out the prize. Although if the White Guardian believes the Eternals shouldn’t have Enlightenment, why is he involved in the contest?

Sadly, Cyril Luckham had aged somewhat since his appearance in The Ribos Operation (and his costume here doesn’t really help to instill a sense of dignity). The meeting between the two Guardians is quite nice though and Turlough finally decides to choose the Doctor’s side, which cancels his contract with the Black Guardian.

It does seem that a third encounter between the Doctor and the Black Guardian was a possibility, but the death of Valentine Dyall in 1985 appeared to have scuppered that. Although the Black and White Guardians weren’t particularly well served by these three stories, there’s still scope in the concept of two universally powerful figures (with equal and opposite powers, so that neither can make a move without the other countering it) which makes it a little surprising that they haven’t been revisited since. Although they may appear eventually in NuWho, I’m sure that time will tell.

Enlightenment brings the Black Guardian trilogy to a satisfying conclusion but also works very well as a stand-alone story. The sets look solid, the lighting is pleasingly low and the acting (apart from the odd exception) is first rate. Certainly amongst the best of the Davison stories.

UFO watch (Episode 17 – Sub-Smash)

September 24, 2014July 15, 2016 archivetvmusings UFO gerry anderson, sub-smash, ufo

Written by Alan Fennell
Directed by David Lane

A ship is sunk in the South Atlantic and Straker believes that a UFO, operating undersea, was responsible. He decides that capture of the UFO is a top priority and elects to lead a hand-picked crew onboard Skydiver to locate the alien craft.

It’s possible to guess the way that the episode will go pretty early on, after Straker admits that he suffers from claustrophobia. So going aboard Skydiver probably isn’t the wisest move and it does somewhat stretch credibility that he would decide to take command himself after just one ship was attacked. Surely the normal Skydiver crew would be just as good, if not better?

In story terms, of course, it allows Straker to be put under extreme pressure as well as allowing one of the series’ regulars (Dolores Mantez as Lt Nina Barry) a chance for a decent piece of the action for once. Mantez had tended to play second or third fiddle on Moonbase, although she does feature more in the later stories, as Gabrielle Drake wasn’t available for the final batch of episodes.

Skydiver is attacked and is unable to surface, so Sub-Smash quickly turns into a classic submarine movie. Five people are aboard – Straker, Foster, Barry, Chin (Anthony Chinn) and Lewis (Paul Maxwell). As Skydiver is badly damaged, it will take time for everybody to escape. Straker elects that Lewis, Chin and Foster will use the available escape hatch one by one, whilst Barry will exit via the crash-dive tube.

Lewis makes it out, but Chin isn’t so lucky – he goes berserk and dies before making an escape attempt. Foster is reluctant to leave Straker, but does eventually. This leaves Straker, like the captain of the ship, alone as he awaits the rescue craft.

Barry has already left, via the crash-dive tube, but she can’t get out because it’s jammed. This provides Mantez with some very tense scenes and she certainly makes full use of the chance to flex her acting muscles, showing fear and desperation as escape seems hopeless. Barry makes her way back to Skydiver’s main control area and together with Straker they both wait for rescue. We’ve already seen, in Confetti Check A-O-K, that Barry was one of SHADO’s earliest recruits, and as the two of them desperately hang on (with the oxygen rapidly decreasing) there certainly seems to be something of a spark. She says: “If it had to be anyone…. I’m glad you’re here. I mean, I’m glad…..it’s you.”

Straker barely registers her words though, as the lack of oxygen and claustrophobia really begins to hit him hard. He starts to hallucinate and replays the death of his son, which we saw in A Question of Priorities. Like the rest of the episode, it’s a wonderfully directed sequence and leads into an interesting jump-cut as we transfer straight to Barry’s hospital bed.

Rather than show Straker and Barry being rescued, they cut directly to the wrap-up scene where everybody (except the unfortunate Chin) can swop stories about what a close run thing it was. This is initially somewhat jarring, but in retrospect it works very well.

Sub-Smash is very much Ed Bishop’s and Dolores Mantez’s episode and they both rise to the occasion. Easily one of the best UFO episodes.

UFO watch (Episode 16 – Kill Straker!)

September 23, 2014July 14, 2016 archivetvmusings UFO gerry anderson, kill straker!, ufo

Written by Donald James
Directed by Alan Perry

A lunar module, piloted by Captain Craig and Colonel Foster, is about to land back on the Moon when a UFO is spotted close by. Straker orders an emergency re-entry, but it’s too late – unknown to SHADO the UFO has intercepted the craft. But the module is not destroyed, instead the aliens (sounding rather like the Mysterons) subject Craig and Foster to a psychedelic light show and a subliminal message – “Kill Straker!”.

Straker and Freeman arrive at Moonbase to debrief Foster and this is where the fun starts. When you consider the plans of Craig and Foster, it has to be said that they go about things in very different ways. Craig favours the direct route, dropping into Straker’s bedroom at night with an empty hypodermic syringe (Craig planned to inject him with air).

Foster plays the longer game. At first he doesn’t seem to be affected too badly, he’s annoyed about Straker’s override of the lunar module, which put both Foster and Craig’s lives in danger, that would be a natural reaction though. But he gradually grows more argumentative and begins to question all of Straker’s orders – which raises an interesting issue. The aliens instruction was “Kill Straker!” not “Kill Straker! But first criticise his management skills”.

You have to admit that some of Foster’s points do make make sense. Straker is pushing for a huge investment – he wants another four Moonbases set up over the next ten years as he forecasts increased UFO activity. Foster asks what evidence he has to back this up, and Straker doesn’t have any – it’s just a feeling. The question of finance was covered in the episode Conflict, where Straker and Henderson butted heads over the subject. Straker could be right and there could be more UFO’s heading to Earth, but equally there might not be. Foster accuses Straker of empire building and this is an area that maybe could have been explored a little further in another story.

Freeman returns to Earth and is called to see Henderson. Foster has advised Henderson that Straker is unstable and needs to be removed from duty immediately. Straker, who is still on Moonbase, confronts Foster and the two face off before Foster is eventually overpowered and returned to SHADO HQ.

Foster’s brainwashing is revealed, but how to snap him out of it? As ever, Straker favours the direct mode, goading him beyond breaking point, as he tells Foster:

“I think you said it pretty well yourself. You told me you were going to push for a change of command. A change of command. Ten years. I’ve given ten years of sweat and sacrifice to get SHADO running the way I want it. I won’t let some young punk like you mess things up. You’re a threat Foster, a trouble maker, Now, I can’t fire you and I can’t shelve you, so……”

As Straker later admits, if Foster was going to kill, then it would have been then, under such heavy provocation. Foster comes close, and the two come to blows, but Foster can’t kill him. Once Straker has established this, then he’s happy to have him back on the team and tells him that he’ll listen to any reasonable arguments about the Moonbases, provided they do things his way!

Kill Straker! is a very decent episode with some good Moonbase action, the chance to see Straker in pyjamas and a stand up fight between Straker and Foster that looked very real, probably with good reason. At 44:20 into the episode, Straker hits Foster several times and really drew blood. Billington instinctively wiped it away, and a mark on Bishop’s white jacket can be seen shortly afterwards.

There is no return. This is Terminus. Doctor Who – Terminus

September 22, 2014September 22, 2014 archivetvmusings Doctor Who BBC, doctor who, janet fielding, mark strickson, peter davison, sarah sutton, terminus

Terminus is a story where every main creative element (writing, acting, music, direction, etc) is just slightly off. None of the elements are particularly bad in themselves, but the cumulative effect produces a curiously static story that fails to impress.

I want to love it, because I love Stephen Gallagher’s previous script, Warriors’ Gate, but Terminus is a very different story. Whereas Warriors’ Gate was an impressionistic tale with several different levels of meaning, Terminus has a very clear narrative drive.

It could be that Gallagher was attempting to make a satirical point concerning the private company, Terminus Inc., who have a contract to process and cure people with Lazar’s disease. In the early 1980’s, the debate about private healthcare versus the NHS was rumbling on. Is Terminus Inc. a sideswipe at private healthcare providers? It’s possible, although it’s not particularly clear.

What does seem clear is that Terminus is an incredibly inefficiently run company. If nobody is ever cured, surely people would eventually realise this and not continue to pay them and send their infected relatives? If they exist to make a profit then surely it would be in their interest to cure as many people as possible, but they don’t seem to have much success with this.

Into this setup, come the Doctor and his companions. Just as the script is a little off, so none of the regulars is particularly well served by the story. It does start brightly though, with a well acted scene between Tegan and Turlough, Tegan is very suspicious about Turlough, rightly so as it turns out. They remain together for the remainder of the story, but once they’re on Terminus they do little of consequence and their importance to the narrative fades.

tegan turlough — Tegan doesn’t trust him an inch

Terminus is Nyssa’s final story and Sarah Sutton is moved a little more centre stage, but she’s much less effective when not partnered with Davison’s Doctor. Several stories this year saw Davison and Sutton teamed up, and they worked together very well, but Nyssa fades somewhat when she’s working with the drippy Olvir or the cuddly Garm.

If you mention Olvir (Dominic Guard) then you have to mention fellow pirate Kari (Liza Goddard). Their appearance in episode one is memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. They’re supposed to be hardened space pirates, but the capes and boots somewhat negate this. Olvir’s lashings of mascara don’t help either. It’s tempting to suppose that they were two of the worst pirates ever, so their boss took the step of marooning them on the first spaceship he saw.

Olvir, most useless space pirate ever (apart from Kari, of course)

With Tegan and Turlough crawling around the infrastructure, achieving very little, and Nyssa waiting for a cure, that leaves the Doctor, who also has very little to do in the story. He spends a large part of it working on the mystery of the creation of the universe – but this is presented so baldly that there’s no particular interest generated. For example, when Davison announces (at the end of episode three) that the universe is in danger, it’s difficult to really care – it’s just a rather limp cliffhanger.

The Garm looks rather silly. Gallagher had intended that it should never be seen in full – only its silhouette and his glowing eyes – but he’s here, in all his shaggy-dog glory.

if you tickle him under his chin, then he's very agreeable — if you tickle him under his chin, then he’s very agreeable

And Roger Limb’s music is fairly horrific. I love the majority of the Radiophonic Workshop’s contributions during S18 – S23, but Terminus is the exception that proves the rule. Sounding rather like a series of random notes, it doesn’t create atmosphere, it merely irritates.

There were numerous production problems with this story, which are fairly well documented and all these helped to contribute to the end result. But there are some highlights, like Peter Benson as Bor, who seems to be acting in a different story from everybody else.

Terminus is a story that it’s difficult to imagine anybody ever reaches down from the shelf on impulse to watch. It’s one of those (like Underworld) that you struggle manfully through whilst engaged on a sequential rewatch and breathe a sigh of relief when it’s over and happier times (Enlightenment) are ahead.

UFO watch (Episode 15 – E.S.P.)

September 21, 2014September 21, 2014 archivetvmusings UFO e.s.p., gerry anderson, ufo

Written by Alan Fennell
Directed by Ken Turner

John Croxley (John Stratton) has a problem. He’s able to read minds, but this E.S.P. isn’t something he can control and it’s driving both him and his wife to despair.

He comes into SHADO’s orbit when a UFO crashes into his house, killing his wife. Being in the presence of SHADO operatives, particularly Straker, means that he instantly knows everything about SHADO and how it operates. Straker and Freeman track the increasingly unstable Croxley down to the ruins of his house. Can they reason with him? Difficult, when he knows everything they’re thinking.

John Stratton is rather good as the twitchy, sweaty Croxley but E.S.P. is an episode that doesn’t really satisfy. There’s the customary wonderful modelwork (the UFO crashing into the house, for example) but it does fall a little flat. However, there’s a nice spooky feel to the story and Straker, Freeman and Foster all get a share of the action so it’s not totally a damp squib.

Croxley’s proximity to the UFO meant that he was able to read the aliens’ thoughts, so through him we learn something of their intentions. It’s pretty vague stuff, but it helps to make them slightly more tangible as characters.

Dixon of Dock Green – Collection One (Acorn DVD review)

September 21, 2014January 17, 2015 archivetvmusings BBC Drama - 1970's BBC, dixon of dock green, jack warner, peter byrne

Introduction

Dixon of Dock Green launched on the BBC in 1955 (the same year that ITV started transmitting) and would run for an impressive 21 years, finally coming to an end in 1976.

Dixon remains a series firmly lodged in the public’s consciousness, although often for the wrong reasons. It’s sometimes been compared negatively to later series (such as Z Cars) which are supposed to be harder-hitting, more realistic, etc. But a full evaluation of Dixon of Dock Green is sadly, impossible. Out of the 432 episodes made, only 32 exist – 11 in black & white and 21 in colour. And because the black & white episodes are the ones that have tended to be most often repeated during the last 30 years, it’s probably not surprising that Dixon has found itself tagged as a cosy and resolutely old-fashioned series.

Until these DVD releases, the 1970’s episodes had been much more of a mystery. Three of them had been repeated in the 1980’s (Conspiracy in 1981, Waste Land in 1982 and Firearms Were Issued in 1986) but there had been no public airings since.

The first DVD contains six of the first seven existing colour episodes. A look at the series they came from help to indicate exactly how much has been lost –

Series 17 Episode 01 – Waste Land
Series 18 Episode 01 – Jig-Saw
Series 20 Episode 01 – Eye Witness
Series 20 Episode 03 – Harry’s Back
Series 20 Episode 16 – Sounds
Series 20 Episode 17 – Firearms Were Issued

Also present in the archives is the 7th episode of the 18th series – Molenzicht – but this wasn’t included due to unspecified rights issues. The six episodes on this set span five years from 1970 to 1974 and it is interesting to consider that had a number of them not been shot entirely on film it’s probable that even fewer episodes from this period would now exist.

At the time, Joe Waters had just taken over as producer and he was keen to shake up the look of the series. Previously it had been very studio bound, so he elected to make some episodes entirely on film in order to open it out. The first four episodes on this set (along with Molenzicht) were film only episodes and they probably only survive today because film couldn’t be re-used, like videotape could. The majority of the VT Dixons would have been wiped soon after transmission in order to record new programmes (a very common occurrence during the 1960’s and 1970’s).

In 2012 Richard Marson spoke to Joe Waters, who was able to explain about the changes he made.

I changed the concept of it a bit – when Ronnie Marsh did it, it was a series about the police but when I did it, it became a series about people who got involved with the police. It had to be done very carefully. It was more on the streets of East London.

We always started a series with an episode on film, to make it different. Until then it had been very studio bound. Waste Land, the first one we did all on film, was a very big hit – it got wonderful reviews because it was so very different – all shot with hand held cameras, which was very unusual then. It was revolutionary. The following year they let me do two on film. Molenzicht I did all in Holland. It’s a shame that’s not on the DVD as its one of the best ones.

It may just be an accident of fate that these film episodes survive, but whatever the reason we should be thankful as they help to paint the series in quite a different light from the “cosy” series of the 1950’s.

Collection One Episodes

Waste Land
A Panda Car fails to report in and a policeman is missing. But what kind of man is PC Norman and is he the victim of a gang attack, an accident or something even more menacing? Dock Green police find themselves operating in strange surroundings. (Radio Times Listing)

This is, pardon the pun, an arresting episode. It’s not surprising, as Waters said, that Waste Land garnered such good reviews as it’s an unsettling tale with no easy answers. The all-location nature of the shooting is an undoubted benefit as it allows us a window into a grimy, decaying wasteland. As with all the film episodes it’s a pity that no restoration was done, as the prints are extremely dirty, but for niche releases like this that’s pretty understandable. The early film episodes also enable us to see George getting out and about. As Jack Warner got older he tended to remain firmly rooted behind the desk at the police station, moving as little as possible, so it’s good to see him in the thick of the action here.

Jig Saw
In this episode, Sergeant Dixon is called to Dock Green Gasworks which have been derelict for some time. A young wife has disappeared and evidence accumulates that she has recently been inside this area. Foul play is suspected and the police find strange parallels with other unsolved crimes (Radio Times Listing)

Its a pity that on the DVD this episodes follows on directly from Waste Land, since it has a very similar story, but had some of the other episodes from series 17 existed then it wouldn’t stand out so much. Again, we have a very stark picture of urban decay and the gasworks are a very good location which throw up plenty of interesting places to shoot. As with Waste Land, its probably best not to expect a happy ending.

Eye Witness
In the first of the new series, Dixon takes an unexpected holiday accompanied by the only witness to a gangland murder. (Radio Times Listing)

This is an episode that stretches credibility to absolute breaking point. Jack Warner could still get around at this point, but was he really the best person to send off to guard an important witness? He wouldn’t exactly be much use in a fight would he? Gwyneth Powell (best known as Mrs McClusky from Grange Hill) is good as the reluctant witness and the locations look nice, but this isn’t really in the same league as the previous two stories.

Harry’s Back
‘One of the best.’ That’s what everybody said about Harry Simpson – everybody that is, except Sgt Crawford. (Radio Times Listing)

The last of the all-film stories on this set, Harry’s Back has a fine guest turn by Lee Montague as Harry Simpson. Montague is one of those actors that seems to have been working forever (and is still going strong today) and he’s very convincing as Harry, who is the sort of friendly criminal beloved by everybody in the community. Andy Crawford (Peter Byrne) isn’t a fan though and the episode is a battle of wills between the two. Can Crawford find a charge against Harry that will stick? Or does Harry really have a charmed life?

Dixon (Jack Warner) and Crawford (Peter Byrne)

Sounds
A child’s voice on the phone and some background noise is all the Dock Green Police have to lead them to the scene of a crime. (Radio Times Listing)

This is the first colour episode to exist on VT, which was the more usual format for BBC drama productions during the 1970’s. It’s quite slow, but not without interest as we see the Dock Green police use every available technique to discover where the child was calling from (analysing the tape for sounds from the docks, for example).

Firearms Were Issued
An investigation brings Det-Insp Crawford and Dock Green Police under official scrutiny. (Radio Times Listing)

A shooting during a raid leads to an official investigation. This is quite an eye-opening episode, particularly for the result of the enquiry. As with Sounds, we see the format that would last the series out – Crawford and his colleagues responsible for the bulk of the action and Dixon behind the counter (or, in the final series, working as a civilian collator).

Conclusion

Joe Waters died in 2013 at the age of 89. He had a long career with the BBC, working on popular programmes such as Warship, My Family and Other Animals and The Enigma Files. Judging from another conversation he had with Richard Marson, he remained proud of Dixon of Dock Green, if a little exasperated that for so many years it was largely written off. He did, however, have the satisfaction of seeing how warmly this DVD was received:

“Hallelujah!!! For over 40 years I’ve been sick to the teeth of being greeted by ‘evening all’ and watching and reading smart arsed critics who never saw the series (at least those that I made) who compared the very early 25 min episodes made in the 1950’s & 1960’s, ancient snippets of which had been recorded on primitive tele-recordings,with whatever the current police series was on the air, Softly Softly, The Sweeney or The Bill. An important factor which always escaped their attention was that it was transmitted between 6.15 pm & 7.00 pm so the content was highly sensitive to audience reaction. When I went freelance in 1984 my agent made me remove the series from my C.V!”

Although I’ve not spoken a great deal about Jack Warner, he is, and always was, integral to the success of the series. Although he was later sidelined, due to failing health, even in the episodes where he has little to do his presence is felt very strongly.

At present, there’s two releases available (collection two contains the next six existing episodes). Hopefully a third release will follow (containing the final series, which is the only one to exist in its entirety) and then a fourth release could contain the black & white episodes. For anybody who enjoys classic British police drama, or just decent drama, this is warmly recommended.

UFO watch (Episode 14 – Confetti Check A-O-K)

September 20, 2014June 4, 2017 archivetvmusings UFO confetti check a-o-k, gerry anderson, ufo

Written by Tony Barwick
Directed by David Lane

This is one of two key episodes (A Question of Priorities is the other) which examine Straker’s personal life in detail and reveal how it impacts on his other, more secret, life.

When a SHADO operative’s wife gives birth, the cigars are broken out. Straker is given one and it causes him remember back ten years to when his own son was born. This framing device enable us to see a much younger Straker, his marriage to Mary (Suzanne Neve) and the early days of SHADO.

This is only one of two episodes (the other is The Pyschobombs) that doesn’t open with the traditional credits sequence. It’s an early indication that this is going to be quite a different episode as there are no aliens to fight – all the drama here comes from human interactions.

The flashback starts with the marriage of Straker and Mary. Whilst we know that their marriage broke up and they are now irrecoverably estranged (Mary blames Straker for the death of their child as seen in A Question of Priorities) we get to discover here exactly how their relationship foundered.

When they marry, Straker is still working for the Air Force, but urgent business causes him to cancel their honeymoon. You know that this is going to the first of many times that he puts duty first. He’s been called to a meeting with General Henderson (at this time Straker’s immediate boss) who is unable to attend an important conference at the United Nations. It’s been called to discuss the formation of SHADO and although Henderson had planned to be there, he’s still recovering from the injuries which he sustained from the UFO attack seen in the opening episode Identified.

Straker makes a very favourable impression at the meeting and although he expects Henderson to be made SHADO commander, instead the job is offered to him. After some soul-searching he agrees, but he can’t tell Mary about it, so he can’t explain to her why he’s never at home. Even her announcement that she’s pregnant doesn’t seem to make any difference. He, of course, is torn – he loves his wife but he also has a duty and in the end it’s the duty that wins, meaning that he ultimately loses both his wife and child.

His refusal to explain his constant absences means that his relationship with Mary quickly deteriorates. Her mother hires a private detective who photographs Straker with a beautiful young woman (Nina Barry). Straker was with her on SHADO business, of course, but when Mary confronts him, he can’t tell her the truth and this is the final straw – she packs her bags and leaves. The marriage is over.

Undoubtedly this is Ed Bishop’s episode. Something of an underrated actor, he was never better than he was here, showing us (at the start of the episode) the younger, happier Straker and what happens to change him into the man we know today. Confetti Check A-O-K is a very solid character piece that clearly highlights the loneliness of command. The cost in human lives from the alien’s attacks over the years has been high but this episode shows that personal lives have also been lost.

Splendid fellow, both of him. Doctor Who – Mawdryn Undead

September 20, 2014September 20, 2014 archivetvmusings Doctor Who babelcolour, BBC, doctor who, janet fielding, mark strickson, mawdryn undead, nicholas courtney, peter davison, sarah sutton

There’s several notable things about Mawdryn Undead (such as the return of the Black Guardian and the introduction of Turlough) but let’s be honest – for most of us it’s all about The Brig.

Nicholas Courtney holds a unique place in Doctor Who history. No other actor played the same character opposite six of the first seven television Doctors and there would be several post-Battlefield appearances as well. Such as Dimensions in Time (oh dear), Downtime (quite good really) and a last hurrah opposite Elisabeth Sladen in The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Before we move on to look at Mawdryn Undead, I would heartily recommend the audiobook of his memoirs, A Soldier In Time, produced by Big Finish. There’s plenty of time spent discussing Doctor Who of course, but by far the most interesting section is devoted to his childhood and his early years as a struggling actor. Courtney’s familiar Doctor Who stories (“five rounds rapid”, “they were all wearing eyepatches”) are part of Doctor Who folklore, but where A Soldier In Time really excels is in showing us something of the real man. Let’s take a quick look at Babelcolour’s lovely tribute (which I can never watch without getting a little misty-eyed) then we’ll turn our attention to Peter Grimwade’s second script for the series.

It seems that Mawdryn Undead was originally planned with Ian Chesterton in mind, which makes sense, as it’s possible to imagine Chesterton in later years teaching at a boys school. But for whatever reason it was redrafted for Lethbridge-Stewart. It had been eight years since the Brigadier had appeared in Doctor Who, with only one of his stories repeated during this time (The Three Doctors in 1981) and for many, including myself, this would only be our second opportunity to see him in action. But we all knew how important he was to the series (both through DWM and also by reading about his earlier stories in Target Books’ series of novelisations).

Initially, we’re presented with a somewhat broken-down and dispirited Brigadier which is a far cry from the resolute, man of action of the Pertwee era. Like much of the story, there’s something of a NuWho feel about this, as it’s impossible to imagine any regular character during the 1960’s or 1970’s being put under the microscope in such a way, whereas it’s much more likely to happen today.

Lethbridge-Stewart seems to be suffering from some deep-rooted trauma, as he doesn’t remember either the Doctor or the TARDIS. Eventually the Doctor manages to break through, which leads us into a gloriously nostalgic clip-fest. This was a regular feature of the early JNT years (there were similar examples in Logopolis and Earthshock). You had to be there, but at the time this was so incredibly exciting. The notion of being able to even see, let alone own, every Doctor Who story in existence was almost beyond imagining so these brief clips were tantalising glimpses into an unknowable, magical past.

Courtney’s wonderful in these scenes, they give him so much more to work with than he’s ever had before. And just as we’ve grown used to this Brigadier, we’re introduced to another (from six years earlier). This is a pre-breakdown Brig, much closer to the character we saw in, say, Terror of the Zygons. The two Brigs (one from 1977 and the other from 1983) become central to the story, and the consequences of time travel is another element of the story which is NuWho flavoured.

The original series rarely used time travel as part of the story. The TARDIS mainly existed to drop the Doctor and his friends off somewhere and would take them away at the end of the story, although there were exceptions of course. In The Time Meddler, Steven and Vikki discuss what would happen if the Monk succeeded in changing history – would their memories of events just change and would they even realise that they had? In The Ark we see the results of the Doctor’s actions, when the TARDIS returns to the Ark several hundred years after his last visit. Dodo’s cold triggered a chain of events that led to the Monoids taking control and subjugating the humans.

Perhaps the story with the closest link to Mawdryn Undead is Day of the Daleks. In Day, two separate times become connected, which means that the events of the present are inexorably linked with the future. Something similar happens here, with the crux of the story resting on the connection of the two Brigadiers.

In retrospect, it’s not difficult to understand why time travel didn’t feature in more stories during the original series. Once you’ve uncorked that particular genie, it’s impossible to get it back into the bottle. For example, at the start of Time-Flight, Tegan asked the Doctor why they couldn’t land the TARDIS on the freighter and rescue Adric before it crashed into the Earth. The real reason was that Matthew Waterhouse’s contract was up and it wasn’t renewed – but the moment you introduce the idea that all the Doctor has to do to solve matters is to nip back in the TARDIS, you’re on very shaky ground.

The Paul McGann TV Movie (or as I prefer to call it, Grace 1999) has a particularly bad example of this, when Grace is brought back to life. When life and death are not absolute (and the new series has often been guilty of this – how many times have the dead been resurrected?) the narrative has to suffer.

As I said earlier, there are a few other notable things about Mawdryn Undead. Firstly, Mark Strickson is introduced as Turlough. It’s interesting that JNT decided to introduce another male companion so soon after Adric. The heyday of the male companion was in the 1960’s where they generally performed the strong-arm stuff that the Doctor was either unable (Hartnell) or unwilling (Troughton) to do. Later on, as Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker were able to handle their own action, the likes of Harry ended up as something of a third wheel.

The Brig’s a little out of his depth (again)

During his first three stories, Turlough has an interesting story arc – he’s an agent of the Black Guardian and has been ordered to kill the Doctor. Even before he’s recruited we can clearly see he’s a bit of a wrong ‘un, so his presence in the TARDIS will certainly shake things up. Strickson’s very good here as he would be during his brief run on the programme. After the Black Guardian trilogy he’s very often sidelined, but whenever he’s given something to do (Frontios, for example) he delivers the goods.

The next item of interest is the return the Black Guardian. I love Valentine Dyall and could listen to his voice forever – but the Black Guardian is a really rubbish villain. Although the threat of the Black Guardian had hung over The Key To Time season, he only appeared in one short scene. And a problem with the Black Guardian trilogy is that after we’ve seen him pop up once and threaten Turlough with dire consequences if he doesn’t kill the Doctor, then we’ve seen everything he can do.

The Black Guardian makes Turlough an offer he can’t refuse

You’ve also got to wonder why the Black Guardian, charged with creating universal chaos, should be concerned with destroying the Doctor. And why he couldn’t recruit somebody better than Turlough. Surely there must be more efficient killers out there?

Whilst the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan are busily interacting with the Brigadier and Turlough the main plot is taking shape. Unusually, there’s a very low level of threat for the Doctor and his friends. Mawdryn and his friends are criminals (they stole regenerative equipment from Gallifrey, although how they got past the Transduction Barriers is anyone’s guess) but they don’t actively wish anybody any harm – they just want to die. The debate about assisted suicide carries on today and it’s surprising to see it addressed some thirty years ago in Doctor Who.

Nyssa, Tegan and the Doctor explore the strange ship

The Doctor could help (but this would mean surrendering his remaining regenerations). He declines, although changes his mind later on when he discovers Nyssa and Tegan have been infected. Luckily for everyone, the two Brigadiers chance to meet at just the right moment with the result that Mawdryn and his friends are able to die, Nyssa and Tegan are cured and the Doctor remains a Time Lord.

A quick mention for David Collings as Mawdryn. He’s sometimes hampered by the make-up and costume but he’s very compelling as the weary, resigned scientist locked into an eternal life of torment. It’s easy to see why so many people would have liked to see him play the Doctor (check out his appearances in Sapphire and Steel, where he plays Silver in a very Doctorish way).

Mawdryn (undead)

Season 20 could have just loaded each story with classic monsters and it probably would have worked quite well. But I’m glad that they didn’t and instead there’s a wider range of stories and themes of which Mawdryn Undead is a fine example.

Leave a comment

My letter in DWM#478

September 20, 2014September 20, 2014 archivetvmusings Doctor Who doctor who

I’m giddily excited about having my second letter published in Doctor Who Magazine, a mere 29 years after my first. Admittedly I’ve only ever written them two letters, so I’ve no-one to blame for such a gap but myself.

Writing the letter did bring home to me just how different Doctor Who fandom was in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Although like today, there’s plenty of debate, rumours and liberal helpings of positivity and negativity, it was done at a completely different pace.

There was no internet, so debates tended to be carried out in the pages of the numerous fanzines of the time. And since many of them had an irregular publication schedule (those that ever returned for a second issue) any discussions tended to last months, a far cry from today when a single internet post can gain numerous replies almost instantly. There was also DWM of course, published every month, and also DWB (in many ways the anti-DWM, and certainly in its early years a must-read, even if you had to take much of its news content with a pinch of salt).

The phantom Cartmel rumour was only one of a range of strange theories and heated debates that raged in fandom during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. In retrospect, this was the golden age of Doctor Who fanzines. Two things would help to kill the Doctor Who fanzine off – firstly the rise of the internet and secondly Gary Gillatt’s editorship of Doctor Who Magazine. Gillatt wasn’t the first fan to edit DWM, but by recruiting writers who had cut their teeth on various ‘zines, he helped to make the magazine feel very much connected to fandom and the ‘zine culture. This didn’t please everyone – some found it too insular and the in-jokes must have been baffling to newcomers – but for me, the Gillatt era of DWM is still my favourite.

There could be mileage in rooting around my old collection of ‘zines and penning a few articles on what I find. The popularity of eras, Doctors, writers and producers has certainly waxed and waned over the years (the Pertwee era was particularly unloved by a small, but vocal, minority in the early 1990’s for example) and taking a look at how the fans perceived both the series and themselves back then could be of interest.

2 Comments

Roberta Leigh’s The Solarnauts (1967 pilot)

September 19, 2014January 1, 2015 archivetvmusings YouTube derek fowlds, john ringham, martine beswick, the solarnauts

Trawling YouTube in search of interesting material on UFO, I came across this intriguing pilot from 1967. Leigh had, of course, worked with Gerry Anderson previously, so it’s possibly no surprise that The Solarnauts bears some similarities to Anderson’s shows (although it becomes obvious very quickly that nobody working on the pilot had anything like the skill of Derek Meddings).

Still, it did predate UFO by several years, so it’s interesting to wonder if Anderson picked up any ideas from this. No surprise that it didn’t make it to a series, but it’s good cheesy fun and it’s a chance to see some good actors (Derek Fowlds, John Ringham) adrift in space. Plus Martine Beswick looks very nice.

Leave a comment

Post navigation

← Older posts

Newer posts →

Search for:

Follow Archive Television Musings on WordPress.com

Tweets by archivetvmus71

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Email Address:

Recent Posts

95 to go

Book review – Opening The Box of Delights by Philip W. Errington (Herne Books)

Forthcoming archive treats on BBC Four

Book review – Reaching A Verdict: Reviewing The Bill 1993-1994

The Bill – Episode 6.63 – Attitudes (7th August 1990)

The Bill – 6.62 – Come Fly With Me (2nd August 1990)

The Bill – Episode 6.61 – Feeling Brave (31st July 1990)

The Bill – Episode 6.60 – Watch My Lips (26th July 1990)

Are You Being Served? and the Munich Olympics

The Bill – Episode 6:59 – Angles (24th July 1990)

The Bill – Episode 6:58 – Interpretations (19th July 1990)

Robin of Sherwood – Tales Untold (Audio Review)

Book review – Reaching a Verdict – Reviewing The Bill: 1990 to 1992 by Edward Kellett

Spy Trap (1972 – 1975)

Thirty Minute Theatre – Emergency-Ward 9 by Dennis Potter

Dixon of Dock Green

Book review: Drama in the Lab – The R.3 Story by Michael Seely

The Saint – The Russian Prisoner

Back to Christmas 1983 (30th December 1983)

Back to Christmas 1983 (29th December 1983)

Back to Christmas 1983 (28th December 1983)

Back to Christmas 1983 (27th December 1983)

The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show (1982)

Back to Christmas 1983 (26th December 1983)

The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show (1981)

Back to Christmas 1983 (25th December 1983)

Back to Christmas 1983 (24th December 1983)

The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show (1980)

Back to Christmas 1983 (23rd December 1983)

Back to Christmas 1983 (22nd December 1983)

Top Posts & Pages

About

Public Eye - Paid In Full

Doctor Who - The Daleks' Master Plan. Part One - The Nightmare Begins

Howards' Way. Series Five - Episode Thirteen

Inspector Morse - The Dead of Jericho

Doctor Who - The Daleks' Master Plan. Part Five - Counter Plot

Howards' Way - Series Six, Episode Thirteen

Doctor Who - The Daleks' Master Plan. Part Four - The Traitors

Howards' Way. Series Five - Episode One

Howards' Way. Series Five - Episode Nine

Categories

Acorn Media

American Television – 1960s

American Television – 1980's

Archive – General

Arrow

Audio Reviews

BBC – Misc

BBC Children's Programmes – 1960's

BBC Children's Programmes – 1970's

BBC Children's Programmes – 1980's

BBC Children's Programmes – 1990's

BBC Comedy – 1950's

BBC Comedy – 1960's

BBC Comedy – 1970's

BBC Comedy – 1980's

BBC Comedy – 1990's

BBC Documentaries

BBC Drama – 1950's

BBC Drama – 1960's

BBC Drama – 1970's

BBC Drama – 1980's

BBC Drama – 1990's

BBC Drama – 2000's

BBC Sport

BFI

Book Reviews

Channel Four Comedy – 1990's

Christmas Television

Dazzler Media

Doctor Who

DVD Reviews

eOne

Forthcoming DVDs

I Have Been Watching

ITV Children's Programmes – 1960's

ITV Children's Programmes – 1970's

ITV Comedy – 1960's

ITV Comedy – 1970's

ITV Comedy – 1980's

ITV Comedy – 1990's

ITV Documentaries

ITV Drama – 1950's

ITV Drama – 1960's

ITV Drama – 1970's

ITV Drama – 1980's

ITV Drama – 1990's

ITV Drama – 2000s

network

Obituaries

Out Of The Unknown

quiz shows

Second Sight

Simply Media

Theatre

UFO

Uncategorized

YouTube

Archives
Archives
Tags
25 years of Rock acorn dvd adam adamant lives! A Foreign Field aimi macdonald Alec Guinness alexandra bastedo alfred burke allan cuthbertson allan prior an age of kings andre morell andrew bicknell andrew burt andrew davies andy rashleigh an englishman's castle angela bruce angela douglas angels anneke wills ann lynn anouska hempel anthony bate anthony newley anthony perkins anthony valentine anton rodgers an unearthly child are you being served arthur c. clarke's mysterious world ashley knight at last the 1948 show a very peculiar practice back to barbara flynn barbara shelley barry appleton barry letts barry lowe BBC bbc schools bbc sitcoms ben stead bernard hepton bernard kay BFI bill strutton bird of prey blakes 7 blakes 40 bodyguards bonnie langford book review book reviews brian blessed brian croucher brian wilde cadfael callan carole ann ford caroline aherne caroline blakiston carolyn seymour celia imrie charles dickens charles gray charmian gradwell chris boucher christmas night with the stars christmas television christmas top of the pops christopher neame cindy shelley cindy shelly city of death clare clifford colditz colin baker colin jeavons coronation street coronation street 1976 creature from the pit crown court dad's army danger man darrell d'silva david calder david collings david horovitch david jackson david jason david mccallum david morrisey david reynolds david troughton david whitaker dean harris deborah watling denis lawson dennis spooner dennis waterman derek benfield derek bond derek fowlds derek jacobi derren nesbitt diane keen dick clement and ian la frenais dick turpin dixon of dock green doctor who doctor who comic strip donald cotton donald houston donald pleasence donald sinden doomwatch douglas camfield douglas wilmer dulcie gray dulcie grey edward highmore edward woodward elisabeth sladen elizabeth shepherd elizabeth weaver emma relph eric idle erin geraghty espionage faith brook filmed in supermarionation fiona fullerton fiona gaunt Forthcoming DVDs francesca gonshaw frank windsor frazer hines freddie jones fulton mackay galaxy 4 galton and simpson gareth thomas gary watson geoffrey bayldon geoffrey whitehead george baker george cole george coulouris gerald flood gerald harper gerald seymour gerard glaister gerry anderson gerry davis gideon's way glynis barber glyn jones glyn owen graham chapman graham crowden graham pountney grange hill - series 01 grange hill - series 02 grange hill - series 03 grange hill - series 04 grange hill - series 05 grange hill - series 06 grange hill - series 07 grange hill - series 08 grange hill - series 09 grange hill - series 10 grange hill - series 11 grange hill - series 12 grange hill - series 13 h.g. wells' invisible man hancock hancock's half hour harold pinter hilary tindall horns of nimon horror of fang rock house of cards howard's way ian mcculloch ian ogilvy ian richardson i claudius inspector morse isla blair itc ivor danvers jackie lane jack warner jacqueline hill jacqueline pearce james bolam james ellis james warwick jan chappell janet fielding jan harvey jean anderson jean marsh jean trend jennifer wilson jeremy brett jeremy young jerome willis joan collins joan hickson joanna lumley joby blanshard john alderton john barrie john barron john bown john carson john cleese john duttine john gregson john hannah john kane john le mesurier john lucarotti john mills john nolan john paul john ringham john robinson john stride john sullivan john thaw john woodvine jon pertwee josette simon julian glover julie dawn cole juliet bravo juliet hamer k9 kaleidoscope karan david kate o'mara katy manning kenneth cope kenneth more kinda lalla ward lana morris last of the summer wine lauren bacall lee montague leigh lawson lennie james Leo McKern leonard rossiter les dawson lesley dunlop leslie duxbury lisa daniely liza goddard louise jameson louise lombard lucy fleming marco polo mark strickson martin potter matthew waterhouse maureen o'brien maurice colbourne maurice denham maurice roëves meet the wife michael aldridge michael craze michael denison michael goodliffe michael gough michael jayston michael keating michael palin michael praed michael ripper michelle newell mike pratt minder miwk publishing monty python's flying circus moonbase 3 morecambe and wise - itv neil dudgeon network network dvd nicholas courtney nicola bryant nigel davenport nigel kneale nigel stock nightmare of eden noel coward obituaries on this day orla brady out of the blue out of the unknown pathfinders in space pathfinders to mars pathfinders to venus patricia shakesby patrick mcgoohan patrick mower patrick o'connell patrick troughton patrick wymark paul darrow paul eddington pauline collins paul jerricho paul merton paul merton in galton & simpsons ... penelope keith perry and croft peter barkworth peter byrne peter cushing peter davison peter egan peter jeffrey peter jones peter purves peter r. newman peter tuddenham peter vaughan peter wight peter wyngarde philip mackie philip madoc pinter at the bbc play for today porridge production stills public eye quatermass quatermass and the pit quatermass ii ralph bates ray lonnen redcap return of the saint richard briers richard carpenter richard easton richard griffiths richard hurndall richard o'sullivan robert hardy robert holmes robert lang robert powell robert stephens robin bailey robin chadwick robin of sherwood rod steiger roger delgado roger marshall roger moore roger parkes ronald radd ronnie barker ronnie corbett roy clarke roy marsden rudolph cartier rupert davies russell hunter sally knyvette sam kelly sapphire & steel sarah-jane varley sarah sutton sean pertwee secret army sergeant cork seven of one sez les sherlock holmes sian webber sid james simon cadell simon oates simply media six dates with barker snakedance softly softly:task force softly softly: task force series three and four sophie aldred special branch spike milligan star cops star trek stephanie turner stephen greif stephen pacey stephen yardley steptoe and son stratford johns stuart damon survivors susan gilmore susannah harker sylvester mccoy t.p. mckenna target target books terence rigby terrance dicks terry gilliam terry jones terry nation terry scott tessa wyatt the aztecs the bill the box of delights the brothers the champions the chase the cleopatras the crusade the dalek invasion of earth the daleks the daleks' master plan the day of the triffids the enemy of the world the feathered serpent the galton and simpson playhouse the glory boys the good life the keys of marinus the legend of robin hood the main chance the massacre the morecambe and wise show the mrs merton show the myth makers the nightmare man the quatermass experiment the reign of terror the rivals of sherlock holmes the romans the saint the sandbaggers the Sensorites the space museum the strange world of gurney slade the talons of weng-chiang the three musketeers the time meddler the trial of a timelord the two ronnies the web of fear the web planet the wheeltappers and shunters social club thorley walters tinker tailor soldier spy tom baker tom fleming tonight at 8:30 tony anholt tony hancock tony warren top of the pops tracey childs travelling man treasure island trevor bannister tv comic ufo upstairs downstairs victoria burgoyne victoria wood viven sherrard warren clarke warren mitchell wendy hall william emms william gaunt william hartnell william russell william shakespeare william squire willoughby gray WW2 documentary yes minister youtube z cars zodiac
Blogs I Follow
The Green Capsule
Randomwhoness: a Doctor Who blog by Johnny Spandrell.
Harold Pinter: Histories & Legacies
RAVINGS IN CINEMASCOPE
Darren's music blog
The Grandest Game in the World
WATCHING BLAKE'S 7
Theatre Musings
Deep South Whovian
Telly Addict
World of Blyton
A Pop Fan's Dream
SCREEN PLAYS
Archive Television Musings
morseandlewisandendeavour.wordpress.com/
Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews
fangirlknitsscarf
whopix.wordpress.com/
downthetubes.net
Forgotten Television Drama