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Talking Pictures

Started by Captain Crunch, May 13, 2018, 10:37:34 PM

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Captain Crunch

Hot new freeview channel showing loads of old stuff.  For example there was a short film on last week called 'The Three of Us' from 1974 about three boys going out to play.  Two of them try to suffocate the youngest boy with canvas and just when he's recovered from that he ends up face down in a bloody river!  Horrific. 

They also have short films of things like the Festival of Britain or industry from the 60's.  All too short but makes a change. 

Sgt. Duckie

Best film channel for me! Been around since about christmas and shows the occasional Laurel and Hardy film.

Isnt Anything

Theres a fascinating thread on Digital Spy about it. As the link says ....

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2277808/talking-pictures-run-by-a-father-and-daughter-from-his-detached-house-and-shed

.... apparently he bought a whole load of old films from the Beeb for £200k the lot after pestering them for three years about it.

It seems other broadcasters have suddenly sat up and taken notice of their huge success as a copycat channel on Sky has already launched. :(

gilbertharding

#3
There was a feature on the radio 4 cinema show (is it called Back Row? It's on a Sunday night... if you wanted to find that on the iPlayer).

The bloke was saying they do terrific numbers in the very early mornings, when pensioners are up but all the other channels are showing shopping.

I myself watched about 15 minutes of Way Out West this morning while eating my muesli, which was a welcome change from Everybody Loves Raymond.

#edit# apparently Digital Spy's research was basically listening to the same Radio 4 show I heard.

When I first came across it about a year ago I assumed it was a BFI project. I like the 'Glimpses' slots - amateur films, old corporate training films, promotional material for long defunct companies... stuff like that

Isnt Anything

Still available via the Film Programmes podcast page, apparently.

I might even listen to it eventually.

FredNurke

It's been around for a while, I think - loads of great stuff on there. They've had a run of Laurel and Hardy shorts and features since the beginning of the year. There were also some feature-length versions of the Dick Tracy film serials, which had been cut down so much that they made no sense whatsoever, and were therefore amazing.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

My dad's been obsessed with this channel for months - it's on whenever I go round and to be fair, some of the old stuff on there is pretty funny.

Wet Blanket

Really interesting channel; considering the wealth of archive material out there it's surprising there aren't more channels like this and Challenge; I hope more will emerge.

I find a lot of the quota quickies to be more interesting because they're so old, rather than of much merit in their own right, but there's genuine classics amongst the catalogue as well, which they certainly make the most of, even if there are only so many times you can watch A Taste of Honey or Bigger Than Life.

I like the old shorts and TV shows the best, especially that series where old-school comedians discuss life on the circuit

Isnt Anything

Quote from: gilbertharding on May 14, 2018, 12:59:58 PMI like the 'Glimpses' slots - amateur films, old corporate training films, promotional material for long defunct companies... stuff like that

Oh wow that sounds amazing !

(not sarcasm btw)

Captain Crunch

The R4 interview is still up:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09yfqsr#play

And tomorrow there are three highlights:

09:20 Wool To Clothing in 1947- Glimpses
Life on The Range in 1947 as a Sheep farmer living in his covered wagon with 'Boots' the sheepdog. Then follow the interesting process from sheep to cardigan (10 min).

17:30 Air Enterprises: The Flying Boats - Glimpses
Glimpses: An Insightful 1930s documentary on the history of Empire Air Services and the flying Boat situated at Croydon Airfield. 32 of these great flying boats were ordered to service the Empire. (25 min)

19:35 BFI: Night Mail 1936.
Directors: Harry Watt & Basil Wright. Narrated by Pat Jackson. A critically acclaimed British documentary film about the operation of the 30s Royal Mail train delivery service (25 min).

Isnt Anything

Quote from: Captain Crunch on May 14, 2018, 10:37:22 PM19:35 BFI: Night Mail 1936.
Directors: Harry Watt & Basil Wright. Narrated by Pat Jackson. A critically acclaimed British documentary film about the operation of the 30s Royal Mail train delivery service (25 min).

Wow. Saw this once as a small child and have always wanted to see it again. Thanks !

Pranet

Quote
It seems other broadcasters have suddenly sat up and taken notice of their huge success as a copycat channel on Sky has already launched. :(

I can't wait for them to improve things by pushing up the price of all the good old shit, putting Talking Pictures out of business leaving their own channel only available to people with a pay tv subscription. Is there nothing those cunts won't fuck up?

Isnt Anything

Straw Dogs on tomorrow ( Thursday 24th May 2018 ) at 10.45pm followed by alternative reality caper Quest for Love at 1.15 am.


purlieu

The Night Mail is on somewhat regularly, I've caught it briefly a couple of times.
All my life I've known my dad to have the radio on in the house during the day, only really watching the odd programme in the evening, but since he discovered Talking Pictures shortly after retiring he's had it on almost every day, and he's really enjoying getting into it, it's really heart warming.

Mister Six

Is there any way to get this online? I'm not in the UK but it sounds amazing.

steveh

Only Freeview / Sky / Virgin currently and not through the Sky Go / Virgin Go Internet viewing apps either. Probably cheaper for the rights that way.

Ignatius_S

Nice to see more mention about Talking Pictures.

It's been going for about three years now and during that time, its reach has been growing. For example, it's been on Virgin for about a year but has been on Sky for longer – bit of info about one of the distribution expansions here: https://www.arqiva.com/news/press-releases/talking-pictures-tv-moves-to-sd-multiplex-expands-nationwide-uk-viewership/

Something that the linked article above doesn't mention is that the channel is an offshoot of Renown Films. Renown was started to try and preserve old British films, particularly B pictures, but its catalogue is more wide-ranging.

More info here: https://www.renownfilms.co.uk/about_us.html

Renown also does some film events – such as an cast reunion for an anniversary of The Boys ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boys_(1962_British_film) ). Recently, Talking Pictures showed footage from that event – haven't seen it yet, but a friend has saved it for me and says there's some lovely information about the filming. Dudley Sutton said in his scene where he's being cross-examined in court by Richard Todd, the latter had shot his lines and went back to his dressing room; so he had no one to work to. However, Robert Morley – who all the cast said, was an absolute dream to work with – remained out of shot and gestured to Sutton so he had something to work off.

gilbertharding

It would be good to see more 60s surrealist stuff on there (which you used to be able to see on BBC late nights) - like My Life as a Bedsitting Room, How I Won the War, Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment. Occasionally seen Entertaining Mr Sloane, which was another staple back in the early 90s.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: gilbertharding on May 24, 2018, 02:34:51 PM
It would be good to see more 60s surrealist stuff on there (which you used to be able to see on BBC late nights) - like My Life as a Bedsitting Room, How I Won the War, Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment. Occasionally seen Entertaining Mr Sloane, which was another staple back in the early 90s.

I'm guessing that those are more problematic/expensive to be able to show. Also, as Renown is principally concerned with films that are more likely to be 'lost', which might play a part.

Blumf

Just browsing their schedule, always interesting stuff:

Straw Dogs on tonight, as mentioned. Very surprised a) they'd considered it, and b) they could get it, thought it'd be on the expensive side.

Hell in the Pacific on Sat 1300h

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is in rotation currently (Sat night/Sun morning 0120h)



Previously, some gems I'd never seen before include; Carry On film in all but name, The Big Job, and Peter Vaughan crime drama Smokescreen. My wife really liked Diana Dors in Yield to the Night, which surprised me as she's not usually into those grim type of films.

In short, the best TV channel around currently.

studpuppet

They'e been going for a while - they purchased (some of?) Southern TV's archive which is why there are episodes of Runaround occasionally on. The last Christmas one is a joy (a non-skating Mike Reid on ice skates trying to present).

studpuppet

Quote from: studpuppet on May 24, 2018, 05:10:15 PM
They'e been going for a while...

Since 2015 in fact - the Wikipedia page is surprisingly informative:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Pictures_TV

gilbertharding

I guess it was the Southern TV rights which allowed them to show the 1979 tv series of Dick Barton which I thought I'd never see again. It was almost comically cheap.

Isnt Anything

Quote from: Blumf on May 24, 2018, 05:08:51 PMStraw Dogs on tonight, as mentioned. Very surprised a) they'd considered it, and b) they could get it, thought it'd be on the expensive side.

Likewise. Tonight is actually at least the second showing as it was on over the weekend ( Sat 10.25pm ). i just missed it then so was very relieved to discover tonights repeat as its a film that somehow ive never seen.

steveh

Quote from: studpuppet on May 24, 2018, 05:10:15 PM
They'e been going for a while - they purchased (some of?) Southern TV's archive which is why there are episodes of Runaround occasionally on.

I believe Renown have all the entertainment side of the archive - the news and current affairs archive was bought by their successors Meridian and is now with ITV.

There's also a selection of some movies from the company on Amazon Prime Video.

Pranet

A lot of the stuff they show on the TV channel they also sell as fairly cheap DVDs- I am tempted by this science fiction box set https://www.renownfilms.co.uk/box-sets-c-15/vintage-scifi-collection-volume-1-p-945.html?zenid=8c8847525a0055b0d915208623dfe3a1

Shit Good Nose

It IS a great channel (I've bigged it up on CaB several times in other threads over the last couple of years), but it is a shame that some of the films they show are REALLY shitty pan and scan prints.  I know that's down to how the stuff was procured, but even so...

But yeah, it's achieved a big fanbase in a relatively short space of time, with several celebs being interviewed for films in which they appeared before they're shown (a la Film4), and the occasional "takeover" day, where a star decides on the day's schedule and talks about their choices in between - Vic Reeves and Danny Baker have done it relatively recently.

kaprisky

White Cargo and Legend of the Witches will be on in June.

Captain Crunch

My favourite thing so far has been the demolition of the Bedford Theatre in Camden.  Only a short little film but so refreshing to just let the footage speak for itself without cutting away to some gurning halfwit every two minutes to laugh at the clothes or make patronising comments. 

Brundle-Fly

Ooo, on tomorrow afternoon. Never seen this version before.