Talking Pictures

[monkfromhavana]

OK so I have 33

[A Hat Like That]

Starting 17 July.

Excellent.

[monkfromhavana]

OK so I have 33

Sorry, I have zero idea why I posted this.

[kaprisky]

I promise I won't clog up this thread with That's TV's output but tonight they've got a couple of Frankie Howerd's Confessions (that's how it's titled here) then triple Benny Hill. Thursday they appear to have quadruple Hale and Pace. Friday they've got a single Benny Hill episode (after Gianni Versace's Stalker, Whitney Houston: Autopsy, What Killed Michael Jackson? and The Last Hours of Marvin Gaye).

Saturday it gets good: starts with one episode of Abbot's Saturday Madhouse, then a load of Kenny Everett until lunchtime, a single Howerd Confessions, a couple of Mrs Merton, a couple of Harry Enfield and another Benny Hill triple-bill. Sunday starts off with an episode of Beadle's About, then more Kenny, then a single Benny Hill in the evening amongst more dead celebs profiles.

Caught one of the Mrs Mertons last night. It featured DLT. Yikes!

[A Hat Like That]

Last episode of Secret Army. John Ratzenberger rocks up for an extended cameo. Kessler basically gets away with it.

Kessler next, then.

[A Hat Like That]

Kessler plays like the Odessa File except you already know what the central mystery is. I don't know if deliberate but there's a lot of shots of grainy TV monitors showing scenes etc from different angles.

Marks for his mate, played with absolutely zero subtlety and a lot of ham.

[George White]

It's also got a lot of Shakin' Boys from Brazil.

[kaprisky]

Clifford Rose was busy this week, appearing in Van Der Valk, Callan and this.

The Costa-Gavras film Music Box played on Saturday and goes through similar themes.

The Roads to Freedom is getting a screening on BBC4 next week, so watch out for that.

[A Hat Like That]

It's also got a lot of Shakin' Boys from Brazil.

Yes. Very much yes.

[Pranet]

From next month you will be able to access their catch up service via the red button.

Got to hand it to them they do really try to do the best service possible.

https://www.tptvencore.co.uk/faq/red-button-faqs

[A Hat Like That]

Caught up on some Talking Pictures recorded films, all from a very distinct sliver of the receding past.

Hell Drivers (1957) - really effective little film, even if EVERYONE is from something else. The obvious one is obvious, Sid James being such a recognisable face.



Not entirely sure it knows quite what message it wants to have but when you've got the whole cast pulling out solid performances and some nicely exhillerating scenes with the trucks, well worth the time.

The Angry Silence (1960) - really effective little film, even if EVERYONE is from something else. Ollie Reed properly stands out - everyone else in his gang a teddy boy, Ollie going for early Manics and a hint of eye-liner. You do you, Ollie. Not entirely sure it knows quite what message it wants to have but when you've got the whole cast pulling out solid performances and some nicely offputting scenes, well worth the time.

The Boys (1962) - really effective little film, even if EVERYONE is from something else. Dudley Sutton properly stands out, his acting at the end is jaw-droppingly good, tbh. Unlike the others, this one has a message and it sees it through to the end. Brilliant. 

[Norton Canes]

Hell Drivers trivia: Stanley Baker's character was the model for 2000 AD's Bill Savage

[Joe Qunt]

The Boys (1962) - really effective little film, even if EVERYONE is from something else. Dudley Sutton properly stands out, his acting at the end is jaw-droppingly good, tbh. Unlike the others, this one has a message and it sees it through to the end. Brilliant. 

Second this. Fantastic film.

[kaprisky]

Current: Edward Woodward recreating true life crime in the Granada series In Suspicious Circumstances, the sweeping theme tune of The Onedin Line (BBC) and archive series Time To Remember (ABC/Pathe).

Upcoming: Two-part BBC thing The Wimbledon Poisoner (1994), a couple of Carry On Christmas specials, Christmas with Shelley from 1980, Robin Askwith in Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Kenny Everett and co in Bloodbath at the House of Death, and Jesus Franco's The Awful Dr Orloff.

Watched that episode of Crackerjack on BBC4 the other night. 1979 it seems, due to the appearance of Sparks doing Try-Outs for the Human Race and the cast doing light entertainment versions of When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman and XTC's Making Plans For Nigel!

[A Hat Like That]

I think Jugganaut was on again, but not really watched much on Talking Pictures for a few weeks.

One thing that did interest was the Huggetts films series - four of them!

[kaprisky]

Oh good, they're going to show all four Confessions films on TPTV in December.

That's TV currently have the ITV series Cribbins (1969-70) and Robocop: The Series.

[Norton Canes]

Worth a heads-up, I guess - tonight at 10pm TPTV is showing Friday On My Mind, a 1992 3-part TV drama edited to movie-length starring Christopher Eccleston: "A widow whose husband died in an accident in the Gulf War forms a relationship with his colleague."

Produced by ex Who producer Philip Hinchcliffe - who also, I see from IMDb, produced the 1995 movie An Awfully Big Adventure, which co-starred 2point4 Children's Clare Woodgate Georgina Cates

[A Hat Like That]

Oh good, they're going to show all four Confessions films on TPTV in December.

That's TV currently have the ITV series Cribbins (1969-70) and Robocop: The Series.

Repeating them now.

Robin Askwith and yer man Booth are perfectly cast.

Ian Lavender rocking up, err, truncheon resplendent was a shock.

[A Hat Like That]

Worth a heads-up, I guess - tonight at 10pm TPTV is showing Friday On My Mind, a 1992 3-part TV drama edited to movie-length starring Christopher Eccleston: "A widow whose husband died in an accident in the Gulf War forms a relationship with his colleague."

Produced by ex Who producer Philip Hinchcliffe - who also, I see from IMDb, produced the 1995 movie An Awfully Big Adventure, which co-starred 2point4 Children's Clare Woodgate Georgina Cates

Recorded. Not yet cracked into it.

I really do miss Forces TV.

[Norton Canes]

Arse, I forgot all about it

[kaprisky]

Friday On My Mind has another screening on Thursday funnily enough.

Been watching Crown Court, the French Maigrets and The Larkins, which is a real rarity in that it is a TV sitcom filmed in the 1950s, first two series anyway. I don't think I've seen one (UK) from that decade.

It's astonishing to think that the Confessions films were produced by Columbia Pictures, whose back catalogue is being plundered by TPTV!

[kaprisky]

The late Terrence Hardiman appears on this week's Crown Court triple. Bob Hoskins appeared in the dock on Monday (with moustache and Cockney slang), not so much framing Roger Rabbit as grassing him up, as a prison informer.

Stanley Lebor and Maurice O'Connell also turn up.

Fireball XL5 starts in June.

It's good to talk!

[kaprisky]

Fireball XL5 starts tomorrow. The rarely seen film The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea is on next weekend. Includes a Sarah Miles intro.

Another rarely seen film turned up on That's TV on Tuesday. It's such a bizarre channel, showing music videos in the incorrect aspect ratio for most of the day then, a couple of weeks ago, screening the first three series of A Bit of Fry and Laurie in double-bills at 2am! Oh, and the film they screened, in what must be its UK TV premiere, was

Spoiler alert

Barry McKenzie Holds His Own.

The Adventures of Barry McKenzie was on the previous night apparently, both barely advertised and scheduled at short notice.

[close]

[daf]

Mr Horatio Knibbles on now!

One of the most frightening totems of my childhood, the scarifying power of Mr. Horatio Knibbles hasn't dulled over time. The toothy nature of Mary reminds me so much of the girls at the centre of the Enfield Poltergeist, especially with invisible objects flying around, and I was waiting for Mummy to catch Mary 'doing' Knibbles' voice, and floating across the bed inside his arms. Aside from the sinister behaviour of this unseen friend beguiling a lonely child from her home, it's just such a horrible costume. If you woke in the night to see someone dressed like that at the end of your bed, you'd never recover, and anyone digging its moth-eaten remains out of storage today could make an incredible horror with it. Even an edit that swapped out the playful score for discordant synth would instantly up the certificate from U to an 18.

I don't know where the rights are these days, but I've big plans for him in my eventual British hauntology cinematic universe, featuring reboots of Noseybonk, Scary First Bungle, and the rabbit himself. No way is my generation the only one that's having to suffer through our cream tea Pennywise. On second thoughts, after what the furries did to Tony the Tiger's Twitter account, it's probably best to keep Horatio Knibbles where he belongs; locked away in our nightmares.

https://spam.wordpress.com/2019/02/17/mr-horatio-knibbles-britains-forgotten-monster/

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

The late Terrence Hardiman

Oh blimey that news passed me by!

[George White]

Mr Horatio Knibbles on now!

https://spam.wordpress.com/2019/02/17/mr-horatio-knibbles-britains-forgotten-monster/

Bizarrely was shown in America on both CBS Saturday Morning's Children's Film Festival, and HBO in the 70s. Both used CFF fare as filler.

[daf]

Fun Fact : Three years later, main Knibbles actress Lesley Roach appeared in the sub-Adventures/Confessions sexploitation film 'Secrets of a Door-to-Door Salesman' - singing a tremendously drippy "slowie" at a disco.

A young man named David Clyde attempts to start a new life for himself. He gets a room in a boarding house that is occupied by several women. After a short stint as an actor, David works as a door-to-door vacuum salesman. He has little success at his new job and finds that he has to fight off sexual advances from his female customers and the girls he lives with.

[kaprisky]

Apologies for dragging this thread up again.

Manhunt (1970) starts next Sunday. I've never seen it. Produced by LWT, it's another of those WWII dramas so will be interesting to see how it compares to BBC's Secret Army/Kessler and LWT's Enemy at the Door.

Theme tune:
Duh-duh duh-duhhh, duh-duh duh-duhhhhh!

[Norton Canes]

Don't apologize, always good to have new (to TPTV) stuff flagged

[A Hat Like That]

yeah, cheers, Phillip Madoc alone makes this probably worth a series record.

TPTV: now do Colditz please.