Topic: Talking Pictures

[kaprisky]

There is also a Thames series called The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes that is starting on Sunday I think.

[Attila]

This is a really fun channel for me and for Mr Attila -- for him, it's stumbling across films and TV shows that bring forth a 'fuck me, I'd forgot all about this!' bit of pleasure from childhood (for the older films, it's reminders of spending time with his granmother).

For me, it's all the mad Britishness of some of the shows/films, which would have never shown in the US or whatever. It's also way of sharing in and gaining some clues/views into Mr Attila's childhood/youth. Also, the never-gets-old pleasure of spotting 1960s and 1970s actors from Doctor Who and Blakes' 7.

[Ambient Sheep]

Following on from my post here, I've just finished the first four episodes of Public Eye's fourth series (the first unwiped one).

I'm absolutely hooked, although it's difficult to say why.  Just brilliant, understated, writing plus the sheer charisma of Alfred Burke in the lead role, I think. 

It's been a long time since a series made such an impression on me.


Two personal points:

1. Marker is the spitting image of the head of the Test Department where I used to work, even down to the same mannerisms, voice, and wry grin; I liked him a lot too.

2. Many years ago I used to hangout in a chatroom that had a regular user in it called Marker.  I once asked him where he got the name from.  You can guess his answer; I was clueless; he was disappointed I'd never heard of it.  I wish I could find him again to tell him.

[Ambient Sheep]

I've also watched the first two episodes of Shadows.  Not at all bad, quite engaging, a bit slighter than I'd imagined, but hopefully it will pick up a bit. 

I still recommend it, I'd have liked to have watched the other three by now but that hasn't been possible yet for boring reasons.  Ruth "Timeslip" Boswell is the Script Editor at this point, by the way, so still has a big hand in it even though she's not Producer yet.

And sure enough, Attila, Gareth "Blake" Thomas turned up in the second one. :-)




As did someone else.  A Welsh kid, incredibly familiar looking, by the name of Rhys Powys, but the internet says that he only ever appeared in this, and How Green Was My Valley?, which I never watched.  At first I thought "Public Information Film?" but now I'm thinking "Advert?".



That face is as much part of my early TV childhood as Ike Eisenmann or the kids from The Double Deckers.  Any ideas?  It's on the tip of my eyeball...

[Ambient Sheep]

It's an advert isn't it?  For Persil or Bisto or Fish Fingers or something.

[Attila]

And sure enough, Attila, Gareth "Blake" Thomas turned up in the second one. :-)

We wound out way through old Danger Man episodes a few years back (in a run up to a re-watch of The Prisoner), and were delighted to see Jacqueline Pearce show up as a beatnik in one episode :)

[the science eel]

The quality of a lot of the stuff is poor, you notice it after seeing anything HD. I'm not just saying it's not pin-sharp, but that it looks like VHS that your dog half-ate.

Some great stuff tho'. A couple of nights ago I watched Machine Gun McCain with Cassavetes and Falk - I'd never even heard of it before.

[Shit Good Nose]

The quality of a lot of the stuff is poor, you notice it after seeing anything HD. I'm not just saying it's not pin-sharp, but that it looks like VHS that your dog half-ate.

Some great stuff tho'. A couple of nights ago I watched Machine Gun McCain with Cassavetes and Falk - I'd never even heard of it before.

It's cos they use transfers of old video and film reels from old TV station archives and defunct cinemas instead of anything remastered, which is why a lot of the films are in pan and scan.  The lion's share of it appears to come from Sony/Columbia.


The best thing about Machine Gun Mccain is that it paired Cassavettes up with Falk and Gina Rowlands.  Otherwise it's a really mediocre entry into the polizioteschi genre.

[the science eel]

polizioteschi, eh? crikes

[Shit Good Nose]

polizioteschi, eh? crikes

Yep.  Check out some Fernando di Leo, Carlo Lizanni, Damiano Damiani and Umberto Lenzi films from the late 60s and early 70s.  MGM (roar) is pissweak in comparison.

[the science eel]

I will do! thanks nosey

[Captain Crunch]

Showing Saturday 15 June

23:35 AND SOON THE DARKNESS (1970) horror

Jane and Cathy, two English women in their early twenties, are on a cycling tour. While travelling in rural France, they begin to disagree about the route. Cathy would prefer to take things in at a leisurely pace, while Jane is trying to stick to strict schedule. After arguing, they part ways. When her friend fails to rejoin her, Jane begins to worry and returns to the last place she saw her. Cathy has vanished…

The film came about after the TV series, The Avengers, had finished and the crew were at a loose end. Enter director Robert Fuest with a minimal cast and the expanse of the French countryside, teaming up with Avengers writers Brian Clemens and Terry Nation, Avengers producers Clemens and Albert Fennell, along with Avengers soundtrack man Laurie Johnson for a creepy Brit flick – a balance between a horror and a suspense thriller. The result is a film that, despite a little bit of padding here and there, offers a fascinating exercise in how to create and sustain jeopardy and even a sense of claustrophobia despite the story all taking place in wide open spaces.

[Absorb the anus burn]

Following on from my post here, I've just finished the first four episodes of Public Eye's fourth series (the first unwiped one).

I'm absolutely hooked, although it's difficult to say why.  Just brilliant, understated, writing plus the sheer charisma of Alfred Burke in the lead role, I think. 

It's been a long time since a series made such an impression on me.


Two personal points:

1. Marker is the spitting image of the head of the Test Department where I used to work, even down to the same mannerisms, voice, and wry grin; I liked him a lot too.

2. Many years ago I used to hangout in a chatroom that had a regular user in it called Marker.  I once asked him where he got the name from.  You can guess his answer; I was clueless; he was disappointed I'd never heard of it.  I wish I could find him again to tell him.

Best British TV series ever made....?

Yep.... Utterly compelling.

[Lordofthefiles]

"The Day After" 21/06/19 @  00:00

[Ambient Sheep]

Showing Saturday 15 June

23:35 AND SOON THE DARKNESS (1970) horror

Yup, already set to record, and it's followed by a repeat of Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment (which I've still yet to see) at 01:40.

Lots of good films on last week and next.

[studpuppet]

Armchair Thriller is on at 11.30pm tonight and I've missed four episodes already...

Used to truly shit me up as a kid - in fact watch The Limbo Connection to discover what shat me up so much that I dived under my duvet and wouldn't let anyone into the caravan we were staying in at the time (my dad had to crowbar the door open in the end). Hint: my mum drove a Mini at the time and had to go out to collect my sister, leaving me home alone.

[Blumf]

The Reckoning (1970) is on 2130h tonight.

Well worth it for a character study of a complete bastard.

[Captain Crunch]

They’ve just starting showing Get Some In! this week.  Feels more like a stage show than a sitcom but an interesting watch and lots of jaffa gags which seem to have fallen out of favour since, well 1975. 

[Ambient Sheep]

Rooms starts today at 14:00, sorry for short notice.

A 1970s anthology series that covers various inhabitants of a short-term bedsit.  Seems to cover them in two half-hour episode chunks per couple/person.

Apart from that I know nothing about it except that it seems well thought of.

[Bad Ambassador]

They’ve just starting showing Get Some In! this week.  Feels more like a stage show than a sitcom but an interesting watch and lots of jaffa gags which seem to have fallen out of favour since, well 1975.

Watched the first two episodes, and it's amazing it was written by the same team at the same time as The Good Life. It's just a cheap knock-off of The Army Game and Dad's Army, without any of the class or chemistry.

[A Hat Like That]

Hell Drivers on last night. Who knew road haulage could be so gripping?

[Blumf]

Hell Drivers on last night. Who knew road haulage could be so gripping?

Never got the business model, seems like they're permanently set up to deliver gravel from the quarry just to one building site, but surely that'll end sooner than later, and when it does the timings and everything would have to change for another set delivery, or they do miscellaneous single deliveries. Either way, it throws off the competition (and scam)

Anyway, 6 old pence for a bath is about 67 new pence in today's money. Ma West was firm but fair.

[A Hat Like That]

They’ve just starting showing Get Some In! this week.  Feels more like a stage show than a sitcom but an interesting watch and lots of jaffa gags which seem to have fallen out of favour since, well 1975.

was off work this week so caught a fair bit of it.

Not awful, there's some - shall we say - genuinely old fashioned language in it.

[kaprisky]

Some more Thames TV series starting in August: Lytton's Diary, Shadows of Fear, Special Branch and Widows.

[Ambient Sheep]

I'd like to recommend this afternoon's sci-fi B-movie Unearthly Stranger (1964), which for some reason TP prefix with a "The".

I saw it earlier this year and was highly impressed; a really good little film that deserves to be better known.

It also stars somebody whom I only knew from a famous role MUCH later in his life, and when I realised who it was, I squeeeed.  So I'm not going to name him in case you want the same experience (mind you first time round I missed the opening credits which might well give the game away).


It seems I wasn't alone in being impressed; according to Wikipedia:

Unearthly Stranger was selected by the film historians Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane as one of the 15 most meritorious British B films made between World War II and 1970. [...] describing it as "a highly effective fable" and praising its "unsettling atmosphere of dislocation and tension which disturbs our taken-for-granted assumptions about the worlds of office and home".

It's on this afternoon (Saturday 2019/09/21) at 16:10 to 17:45.  No repeat visible as yet.

[Ambient Sheep]

Also, I forgot to mention, they're showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) at 01:05 tonight.

[Bently Sheds]

I retuned the telly in the communal lounge at my mum's care home and made the carers aware of the Talking Pictures channel. Apparently it's a big hit with the dementia crowd there as they recognise and remember the old faces they used to watch.

I've been catching episodes of Bless This House and I'm reminded of the old pub carpet smell of stale fag smoke and spilled Red Barrel whenever Sid James slithers across the screen in his corduroy trousers and brown cardigan.

[Shit Good Nose]

I retuned the telly in the communal lounge at my mum's care home and made the carers aware of the Talking Pictures channel. Apparently it's a big hit with the dementia crowd there as they recognise and remember the old faces they used to watch.

Let's hope they don't get cosy and settle down to a double bill of The Boston Strangler and Looking For Mr Goodbar.

[Ambient Sheep]

I retuned the telly in the communal lounge at my mum's care home and made the carers aware of the Talking Pictures channel. Apparently it's a big hit with the dementia crowd there as they recognise and remember the old faces they used to watch.

Bless you (no sarcasm).

I've been catching episodes of Bless This House and I'm reminded of the old pub carpet smell of stale fag smoke and spilled Red Barrel whenever Sid James slithers across the screen in his corduroy trousers and brown cardigan.

For me that smell also has cricket whites/pads mixed in with it, from my Dad's old cricket club he used to go to when I was under 5; the same one that also had Alfred E. Neuman on their fruit machines.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

I retuned the telly in the communal lounge at my mum's care home and made the carers aware of the Talking Pictures channel. Apparently it's a big hit with the dementia crowd there as they recognise and remember the old faces they used to watch.

Nice one!