Have they (any channel) ever re-aired this show...?

[BlodwynPig]

and if not, why not?

My pick is the Nail lead, peak-Geordie detective series "Spender".

The minor channels show loads of reruns of the ageing mid-tier churners, Endeavour, Midsomer, Vera...the big beasts like Morse, Bergerac, Poirot becoming less common. But I have never seen reruns of Spender and I would like to.

I did my Bergerac Odyssey a few years ago - and I'd like to do a Spender Odyssey as I was less canonical with that show - dipped in when I was not out - this was the heady early to mid-90s.

I guess I can dig it out on some dodgy websites if I must.


--- What TV shows that you'd like to see repeats of have, to the best of your knowledge, never been reaired? ---

[Gurke and Hare]

The Cops, turn of the century BBC police show set in Manchester starring John Henshaw. Was a bit controversial at the time because it showed cops doing drugs, but would probably look very tame now.

[Brundle-Fly]

The Cops, turn of the century BBC police show set in Manchester starring John Henshaw. Was a bit controversial at the time because it showed cops doing drugs, but would probably look very tame now.

It was also very naturalistic, IIRC and made The Bill look a bit old fashioned. Then, Line Of Duty came along and it was back to business with the trad police TV drama style except with jump edits.

[Brundle-Fly]

I'd like to watch 1989/90 series The Paradise Club again with Leslie Grantham and Don Henderson (and Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden in one episode). Never released officially. I just love seeing location shots of 20th century London, truth be told.

[El Unicornio, mang]

The Cops, turn of the century BBC police show set in Manchester starring John Henshaw. Was a bit controversial at the time because it showed cops doing drugs, but would probably look very tame now.

I didn't watch them all but I do remember a really good scene where it was POV of the police in their van as it rolled onto a housing estate and getting pelted with rocks. And Katy Cavanagh (who is from the same neighbourhood as me) good in the lead role.

Looks like it started in 1998 (thought it was later than that) and apparently the Police stopped providing assistance to the producers after they saw the first series.

Looks like they're on YouTube anyway.

[Glebe]

Yeah Drama were rerunning Bergerac. ITV2 have got yer Minder going for a good while.

[BlodwynPig]

Come on...prime CaB fodder

Spender and Boyd investigate a series of car thefts, but Boyd is caught by the gang. Stick opens a jewellery shop, but it is robbed on its first day. Spender discovers that Keith's girlfriend Emily is only fifteen.

Ford provided a new Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth for each series, which served as Spender's car. Stick drove a Volkswagen Beetle. A number of Ford, Vauxhall, BMW and Range Rover cars were also featured in the series

[BlodwynPig]

Spender investigates a series of ram-raids.

[ollyboro]

Yeah Drama were rerunning Bergerac. ITV2 have got yer Minder going for a good while.

ITV4. For which the continuity announcer is pre-recorded. Unless he always says," And now Arthur Daley is up to his usual tricks in Minder."

[kalowski]

Can't believe you missed this one out

Spender goes under cover at a glass factory to check out a suspect for a security van robbery. Meanwhile, Keith's friend Blakey is involved in a war between illegal fly posting outfits.

[Glebe]

ITV4. For which the continuity announcer is pre-recorded. Unless he always says," And now Arthur Daley is up to his usual tricks in Minder."

Oh right, duh. Weirdly Virgin Media Player here in Ireland have ITV2, 3 and 4 but not ITV1 so I've not watched that in yonks. We used to get UTV here actually.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Last time I looked spender was on YouTube.

[petril]

ITV4. For which the continuity announcer is pre-recorded. Unless he always says," And now Arthur Daley is up to his usual tricks in Minder."

when you think about it, that's the perfect comedy line to lead into anything else George Cole appears in

[Stone Cold Steve Austin]

there's an episode of Spender where he runs down the metro tracks to chase a train and arrest a nonce and it is sensational viewing

[BlodwynPig]

Can't believe you missed this one out

Basically crime-free early 90s in Newcastle. Great days.

[BlodwynPig]

Last time I looked spender was on YouTube.

Why thank you, my liege ;)

[DelurkedToHelp]

Ah man, I fucking loved Spender. I loved it when it first appeared on BBC1 in 1991 and I loved it when it was repeated on UK Gold (well, the first two series were repeated; the third never was; rumours of rights issues and its star and co-creator Jimmy Nail's dissatisfaction with this final set of episodes were offered up as reasons) in 1997

https://ayewellhmm.wordpress.com/2020/12/18/christmas-tv-1993-spender-the-french-collection/

[BlodwynPig]

Cheers DTH, living up to your name, incredible stuff. Was at Uni in 1997 with no TV and no sense of the creeping end of existence.

[DelurkedToHelp]

Cheers DTH, living up to your name, incredible stuff. Was at Uni in 1997 with no TV and no sense of the creeping end of existence.

The YouTube videos of Series 1 appear to be uploads of the aforementioned repeats going by the "UK Drama" logo in the top left corner)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1bPx52i-ZdLTcFKB4w9fTKZlXroC65yJ

[BlodwynPig]

"The blasted melancholy of Spender Season 1"

"Saudade on the Tyne: Spender Season 2"

and

"Nostalgia's Final Bow: Spender Season 3"

incoming. Read them here in a few months.

[Gurke and Hare]

Looks like they're on YouTube anyway.

Excellent, thanks. I never think to look for TV stuff I want to watch in YouTube.

[non capisco]

The Cops, turn of the century BBC police show set in Manchester starring John Henshaw. Was a bit controversial at the time because it showed cops doing drugs, but would probably look very tame now.

I think that was the one that had a scene in the first episode where a rookie cop goes into a flat and finds a corpse sat in a chair with all flies buzzing about everywhere but the corpse looked like a crash test dummy.

[DelurkedToHelp]

I think that was the one that had a scene in the first episode where a rookie cop goes into a flat and finds a corpse sat in a chair with all flies buzzing about everywhere but the corpse looked like a crash test dummy.

[non capisco]

There he is!

[BlodwynPig]

Excellent, thanks. I never think to look for TV stuff I want to watch in YouTube.

SE01E01 - iconic already

[The Culture Bunker]

I remember Viz did one of their newspaper parody pieces called something like "Top TV Cops Solve Dando Murder!", with Spender one of those included. His solution was "I'd hide up a tree, like, and when the killer gan past, I'd shout 'bastaaaaaard!' and jump on him."

Columbo started something like "I would visit the home of a well known celebrity - say, for example, Cliff Richard..."

[Famous Mortimer]

Talking of complete series on Youtube, apparently legitimately, there's "Hunter" for your viewing pleasure. It's quite nice seeing what I assume would have been a fairly forward-thinking show for the time, but one that looks amusingly dated these days. My favourite recent ep is when Hunter illegally enters a foreign country to murder one of their diplomats, who'd raped his partner in LA and claimed diplomatic immunity.

[BlodwynPig]

Really enjoying the first episode - I even remember the scene where we see Spender's new rented flat - overlooking the Tyne and I thought it was dead posh.

One notable scene is when Spender visits "Marks Club" and the two 'tarts' nattering at a table are straight out of Spacepunk 2099 or whatever, permed platinum blonde Mullethawks. Incredible. Also surprised they use real street, shop and place names. Lovely stuff. "Is Binns still open?". Some stilted acting, but probably typical of the time - otherworldly in places, and heaped in melancholy - the uncertainty cadence, soft Geordie lilt. Beautiful.

[Easy_To_Assemble]

On this topic, do they ever re-run Chancer? I was thinking of checking it out, as I was fairly young when it aired. It might possibly be shit, but Clive Owen's usually a safe pair of hands, so i was curious to see if it was any good.

[DelurkedToHelp]

On this topic, do they ever re-run Chancer? I was thinking of checking it out, as I was fairly young when it aired. It might possibly be shit, but Clive Owen's usually a safe pair of hands, so i was curious to see if it was any good.

It was repeated on ITV3 in 2005 but I haven't yet found anything more recent than that.

All episodes of both series are available on Dailymotion.