Films that feel like British telly to us

[George White]

Obviously a lot of British film for the past forty years has been BBC or C4 funded, but listening to Goonpod and the ep on Clockwise, where Chris Diamond makes the point that Clockwise feels like a Screen One. It doesn't feel like the big movie star comedy vehicle for Cleese that it was intended.

What British films to us feel like telly? That we can't believe this was 'released in cinemas?'

[dissolute ocelot]

I guess a lot of 80s British movies were in that category. Something like Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy is very small-scale and whimsical, with the reliably ordinary Bill Paterson. And certainly a lot of Film (on) Four movies like low-budget Charles Dance/Cassie Stuart conspiracy thriller Hidden City which being written by Steven Poliakoff is unsurprisingly similar to a lot of his TV work (Poliakoff's Close My Eyes is properly cinematic though, lovely filming and much more attractive cast). But even the bigger-budget Morons from Outer Space because it's full of TV people.

[George White]

True Identity really feels like one of those BBC specials that shot in the US, like Little Sweetheart or Fellow Traveller, or hell... Miami Twice.
Maybe because it is a post-Coast to Coast Lenworth.

STV had money in Comfort and Joy (and Gregory's Girl and apparently even a few pounds in Local Hero).
Crossing the Line/the Big Man was another STV film, and that's utterly ludicrous because it's trying to be this big international film, with a Morricone soundtrack, but it feels so much The Strike/GLC eps of The Comic Strip.

Granada had money in My Left Foot and The Field. The latter particularly is very Sunday night ITV drama, c.1989.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I guess the antethesis of this is the Max Headroom tv film for Channel 4 which looks like a great cyberpunk film with a fairly decent cast, but seems to only exist as a standard def broadcast tape rip on YouTube.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Scum, which makes sense since it's practically the same as the Play for Today version from 2 years earlier. Definitely has that feel of grim 70s/80s British telly but with slightly better production values and a lot more violence and profanity.

It was actually shown in indie cinemas in New York a few years ago, would be quite jarring coming out into the streets of NY after enduring that.

[Steve Faeces]

Distant Voices, Still Lives feels like it would have been a two part drama on Channel 4.

[George White]

Billy Wilder's Fedora (1978), as Darrell Maclaine rightly put it, looks exactly like a Bergerac episode.

[George White]

Scum, which makes sense since it's practically the same as the Play for Today version from 2 years earlier. Definitely has that feel of grim 70s/80s British telly but with slightly better production values and a lot more violence and profanity.

I always see it as the angsty little brother to the Porridge movie.
Same grim atmosphere.

[Norton Canes]

I've started noticing that a few 'big budget' 70's and 80's movies look much cheaper these days - a combination of bad cinematography, sparse sets, poor performances &tc.

Of course I can't remember any exact titles right now but next time I see one I'll write it down

[El Unicornio, mang]

I always see it as the angsty little brother to the Porridge movie.
Same grim atmosphere.

I'm imagining Ronnie Barker standing over a concussed McLaren holding a bloodied sock & pool ball combo screaming "I'm the daddy now!"

[George White]

I've started noticing that a few 'big budget' 70's and 80's movies look much cheaper these days - a combination of bad cinematography, sparse sets, poor performances &tc.

Of course I can't remember any exact titles right now but next time I see one I'll write it down

A lot of Universal films of the 70s. They look like eps of Columbo or Night Gallery or Kojak or Ellery Queen.

[Norton Canes]

^ Yes, that sort of thing, exactly.

[George White]

American telly rather than British, mind.
But yeah.
Basically, anything from Universal not by Spielberg made between 1970 and 1982.

From Universal but British made, John Schlesinger's Yanks  written by Colin Welland is very Play for Today/Armchair Cinema.

[kngen]

It was actually shown in indie cinemas in New York a few years ago, would be quite jarring coming out into the streets of NY after enduring that.

I remember a Harmony Korine interview where he talked about being blown away by an Alan Clarke retrospective in NY. Love the thought of all those indie film hipsters scrutinising Rita, Sue and Bob, Too, notebooks at the ready.

[Magnum Valentino]

The Mitchell and Webb film Magicians is notably uncinematic for a feature film. Always thought it looked very telly like.

[George White]

28 Days Later too, being shot on VT. THAT and the National Lottery product placement in the garage.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Empire of Light. "A love letter to cinema", which looks a lot like it was made for the telly.

[George White]

Firepower (1979), it's from ITC so no surprise it looks like a TV show, but it feels like a Dempsey and Makepeace-ish faux-American pilot. Maybe the fact the theme was used for Tony Blackburn's Top 40 adds something.
Taffin (1988) looks like an Irish answer to Bergerac.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The budget Aberdeen horror One Day Removals looks like it was made by Grampian TV.

[tossapot]

A Taste of Honey felt like a film version of Coronation Street. I've since learnt it was the other way round, Coronation Street was inspired by the original play.

[Mr Banlon]

Soft Top, Hard Shoulder

[dissolute ocelot]

A lot of Michael Winterbottom films seem to have been shot on 16mm or shitty-quality video and made very quickly for not much money. Obviously some of them were actually made for TV (The Trip).

[George White]

24 Hour Party People is almost unwatchable IMO cos of that.

[Grassygnome]

You'd have to choose short films made between 1960-2000 because that's pre-digital and some dramas were made on film, at the time, albeit often cheaper 16mm.

What about those Anthology films? They were like "Tales of the Unexpected" but better actors (not necessarily better acting though).

[George White]

Arguably, Tal

You'd have to choose short films made between 1960-2000 because that's pre-digital and some dramas were made on film, at the time, albeit often cheaper 16mm.

What about those Anthology films? They were like "Tales of the Unexpected" but better actors (not necessarily better acting though).

I would argue the same calibre. Same faces pop up. Collins, Cushing, Richard Greene, Richard Johnson, etc.

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

Always thought this of Long Good Friday and Withnail and I. Lots of tight shots.

I also just realised they're both Handmade Films (thanks George) so maybe that's something.

[Harry Badger]

I think the former was originally shot for TV wasn't it?

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

Good knowledge, didn't know that, certainly was scheduled for a TV release before it got bought up by Handmade, who presumably had very little influence in the actual production.

[George White]

ITC's Shakin' Euston subidiary Black Lion intended it to be a TV one off called the Paddy Factor similar to their TV productions like the Hard Way with McGoohan and Van Cleef in Wicklow, the Cribbins Dangerous Davies, Wolcott  or Bloody Kids.

[Sebastian Cobb]

You'd have to choose short films made between 1960-2000 because that's pre-digital and some dramas were made on film, at the time, albeit often cheaper 16mm.

What about those Anthology films? They were like "Tales of the Unexpected" but better actors (not necessarily better acting though).

Plenty of low/mid budget british feature films were shot on 16mm as well. Often slightly better stock/Super 16 but it wasn't uncommon and as long as it's handled well it can still look great.