page 26 - Teletronic

Transcription

Teletronic
ISSUE
03
Spring/
Summer
2014
THE ONLINE
MAGAZINE OF
TELEVISION
HEAVEN
Also featured this issue
Waterloo Road School’s out forever!
British TV at its Best
Corrie The Changing Face of the Cobbles
Welcome to our biggest ever
issue.
It’s The Brits in America UK Dramas Hits
On these pages you will find
Disneyland How Disney Married the Enemy
reviews of and articles on
current and classic TV
A For Andromeda Cult series review
programmes from the UK, easy
Downton Abbey - The Facts of Fiction?
links to purchase our
Remaking A Classic Sanford and Son
recommended DVD’s, an
obituary section and the
history of television in Britain
and America.
Teletronic is the e-zine of
Doctor Who - The Day of the Doctor
D
50th anniversary episode reviewed
Television Heaven the classic
television review website.
Television Heaven is a privately
owned website. All articles are
copyright
Television
Teletronic
or
their
Heaven,
individual
authors. No reproduction can be
made without permission.
Contact Teletronic or Television Heaven
at televisionheaven@hotmail.co.uk
Plus: Does British television truly reflect today’s multicultural society?
Dark Dystopia - Black Mirror & Utopia.
Cops on the Box - The history of British police dramas.
The Best of British - Ten British TV shows you simply ‘must’ see.
1
Teletronic - Spring/Summer 2014
A Cult Classic: A for
Andromeda
Now recognised as a classic
science fiction series, A for
Andromeda was developed
for television by writer and
BBC producer John Elliot from
an original storyline by
Cambridge astronomer and
novelist Fred Hoyle.
In 1970 a radio telescope in
the Yorkshire Dales picks up a
series of signals from the
remote constellation of
Andromeda. These signals are
then decoded by brilliant
young scientist John Fleming
(Peter Halliday), and in spite
of opposition from his overambitious colleague, Dennis
Bridger (Frank Windsor),
Fleming reveals that the
signals are instructions for the
construction of a super
computer, which is duly built
under Government
supervision on a remote
Scottish island.
The computer's 'message'
reveals the inhuman
arrogance of its creators, who
believed that by informing
others of what they have been
through and showing them a
path forward (which requires
a certain amount of tyranny)
they would save all the races
who receive the message from
destroying themselves.
To get its message across, the
computer creates an embryo
based on a female lab
assistant that it had
electrocuted. The embryo
rapidly developes into a
replica of the girl and is given
the name Andromeda.
(continued…)
Downton Abbey - The Facts of Fiction?
by Onome Okwuosa
Perhaps such a father figure did exist during the
Edwardian period. It’s a position that I’m sure was
easier to support when you’ve got the likes of butler
Carson (Jim Carter) and the other members of the
middle class servant family, air-brushing reality
between the Upstairs dwellers and the Downstairs
lot. Maybe if he traded places with the likes of
scullery maid Daisy (Sophia McShera) for a week…
nope, that wouldn’t really do very much as the show
paints her as the ever grateful servant. The domestic
Margaret Powell whose memoirs Below Stairs
inspired the 1970’s show Upstairs, Downstairs and
Downton Abbey, looked at her list of chores and
thought it was for 6 people. Daisy’s character is so
sweet and lovely she gives the impression scullery
The moment you start dipping in history, the
criticisms flood in and Downton is no exception. Why maids scrubbed their way to enlightenment.
paint such a romantic view of the era, why not take
It’s not just the countess that has us keeping the rose
the rose tinted glasses off and parade the abject
poverty and social discontent? ‘Because I don’t want -tinteds firmly on when watching Downton Abbey,
there’s an amazing subtlety to the way the series
to!’ I’m sure was his response. Fellowes with guest
writers Tina Pepler and Shelagh Stephenson focus on handles social reforms. The Earl of Grantham Robert
Crawley (Hugh Bonneville) plays the stereotypical
a slither of society that considering all that was
conservative that believes, even if it’s only on the
happening around them, we’re supposed to loathe.
surface that it’s his duty to hold on to the template of
Instead, we fall in love with the lords and ladies of
the estate, gush at their romantic trials and swoon at tradition. Were it not for the breed of super-rich
providing employment for the microcosm that is
their upsets.
Downton Abbey, there’d be “no point to any of it”.
Since the characters of Downton Abbey first
filled our screens on September 26th 2010,
they’ve run around the globe gathering fans and
awards with hurtling speed. Jullian Fellowes,
famous for writing about the goings on of the
upper classes penned the script for Gosford
Park and the novel Snobs, took a long hard look
at Britain muddling her way through the
Edwardian period and thought the Yorkshire
estate of Lord and Lady Crawley would make
the perfect backdrop for his latest historical
fiction series.
Maggie Smith is a comical impersonation of herself
as the sprint-witted Countess of Grantham who’s a
pro at dinner party politics.
Despite delivering some of the most scalding of
sarcastic lines, you can’t help but warm to her as a
near parody of the period. Sure she’s bristly at best
but she’s fiercely loyal to those blessed to be
considered family. She’s the first to wave the issue of
class difference away and welcome the former driver
and family servant Tom Branson (Allen Leech) into
the family; even though it’s while spinning a
believable lie about his background, so he’ll be more
readily accepted in her world.
That’s the brilliance of Downton Abbey, it takes some
of the ethically challenging issues such as obscene
wealth inequality, a class based society, and dunks it
in a bucket of nostalgia. Before you know it you’re
melting. You can’t focus on the fact that the black
market is food based or that the suffragette
movement had women being bloodied in police cells.
Not when the Abbey’s matriarch, Countess Grantham
is using her wealth and influence to make sure the
fatally wounded footman William is brought home to
spend his dying days surrounded by loved ones.
I guess if you’ve got the ever ready offer of
homelessness and starvation as an alternative to
catering to the whims of the absurdly wealthy, you
make the best of what you’ve got. So that’s exactly
what the servant folk at Downton do. The female
staff grin and bear the unequal pay while the men are
forced to try and make themselves look relevant
despite their clear redundancy. How can either Lord
Crawley or man servant Joseph Molesley (Kevin
Doyle) handle their careers suddenly being seen as a
“silly occupation for a man”? They like the rest of the
Abbey, stiff upper lip it and plod on to discover their
new worth.
From losing loved ones on the Titanic, the war
claiming lives and shattering through pretensions,
Downton Abbey is a leisurely stroll through
Edwardian Britain as she heralds a new age. One
where upper class feminists cause a stir by wearing
trousers and snip at the paternal umbilical cord by
applying to nursing school and pursuing careers.
Fellowes’ lens on Britain is rosy to say the least, but
rather than romanticise the period, it “has a way of
distinguishing between the things that matter and
the things that don’t”.
2
A Cult Classic: A for
Andromeda (continued)
The machine then becomes
dangerous when Fleming tries
to interfere with it, which it
would not tolerate. However,
under the admiring and
human influence of Fleming
the girl eventually rejects her
mechanical master and the
world is made safe once
more. Until, that is, the
second series, The
Andromeda Breakthrough, in
which Fleming and
Andromeda are kidnapped by
the evil Kaufman (John
Hollis), who works for a Swiss
business cartel called Intel,
whose aim it is to build
another computer.
The series was notable for
being the BBC's first attempt
at adult science fiction since
the highly successful
Quatermass serials, and for
the introduction of Julie
Christie (as Andromeda), who
was discovered at a drama
school by producer Michael
Hayes. In the second series
Susan Hampshire played the
girl.
Although all of The
Andromeda Breakthrough
exists in the BBC archives,
only about 11 minutes of A
For Andromeda has survived,
although it is generally
believed that one episode is
held in private hands.
The BBC made a new version
which was broadcast on
Monday 13th November
2006.
Laurence Marcus
School’s Out Forever!
As Waterloo Road prepares for its final term, Tim Rands
looks at the appeal of going back to school once more.
With nine series and 180 episodes under its belt Waterloo Road is a series that certainly hit a
chord with its audience. Set in the fictional Waterloo Road School its mass appeal can be
attributed to its teacher/pupil character dynamic; one we can all relate to, whilst, of course,
there’s also a school similar to Waterloo Road in most towns in England.
With the children of Waterloo Road School seemingly more troublesome than ever, staff
bemoaning being overworked and underpaid, and the doom and gloom of school budgets
becoming tighter and tighter, there was something realistically charming and instantly
recognizable – and its intended ‘family with teenagers’ audience soon took it to heart. Add in the
usual day-to-day troubles, a spot of class differential, and a splash of racism and sexism – and
there were instantly lots of dramatic story threads which gained the audience’s empathy and
kept them interested in the characters.
Perhaps the biggest stroke of genius that writers Anne McManus and Maureen Chadwick had
was showing that whether the characters were teachers or pupils they all had problems to deal
with both inside and outside school. There was also the underlying theme of that all children
deserve the chance to receive a good education regardless of their social standing – and the
difference an inspiring, motivated teacher can have on a child’s life. This was the ethos of
Waterloo Road and all the pupils there came to realise it – as did the audience.
The show’s popularity with its audience gave its producers major pulling power when it came to
attracting a well-known cast. Actors have included Angus Deayton, Neil Pearson, Nicola
Stephenson, Angela Griffin, Denise Welch, Neil Morrisey, Eva Pope, Tim Healy, Amanda Burton
and Tina O’Brien, who have all starred alongside strong supporting casts. However, whilst star
names certainly added to the show’s overall appeal, it is the great storylines that have kept the
audience coming back for more, many of which reflected prominent stories in the news at the
time. Also, whilst previous school based dramas such as Grange Hill were mainly aimed at
children or Teachers at adults, Waterloo Road managed to unite a family audience, dramatising
current and real-life issues; igniting much needed discussions between generations in the
process.
Originally filmed in Rochdale, the show faced the axe after the fourth series when the its
location was due to be demolished. However, these plans were postponed and three more
series were filmed in Rochdale. For the eighth and ninth series, the show relocated to its current
home in Greenock Scotland. Sadly, it has been announced that the tenth series will be the final
with the show’s producers promising the show will go out with a bang with the last ten episodes
set to be broadcast in early 2015.
3
About the writer of this article:
Frank Collins is a freelance
writer, event and project
manager. He writes about British
film and television, international
cinema and occasionally will
have something to say about
books, theatre, music and
design. Quite a lot of it has been
about Doctor Who including the
recently published Doctor Who:
The Pandorica Opens.
A unique view of a television
icon, providing much food for
thought, this book is essential
reading for fans of the new
series. It's also supplemented
with some wonderful
photographs, including a section
of full colour plates, taken by
fans who regularly visit filming in
and around Cardiff.
Fank Collins' ever excellent
Cathode Ray Tube, described as
"the quintessence of British Pop
culture blogs," is top of many
television fans Favourites List. It
is one of the best TV blogspots
on the Internet. Visit Cathode
Ray Tube for reviews of popular
TV series including all of the final
series of Ashes To Ashes, Doctor
Who, as well as video reviews of
classic and retro TV series and
films.
Frank has also contributed a
Television anniversary stories in Doctor Who are strange affairs. They have to strike a balance. On one hand they
are expected to cram in fan-pleasing moments to acknowledge the rich history of the series, to be fronted by
multiple versions of the Doctor and they demand the presence of iconic monsters; and on the other hand they have
to have a decent but straightforward plot, a narrative that will appeal to the widest possible demographic and hook
the many family generations who enjoy having Doctor Who in their lives. Previous anniversary stories have tackled
this balancing act with varying degrees of success.
The most prominent television specials are those celebrating the 10th and 20th birthdays - The Three Doctors and
The Five Doctors. The 30th was an EastEnders less than charitable cross-over called Dimensions in Time, shot in an
unimpressive 3D process, and over which we should draw a discreet veil. The 40th was quietly left to the books,
audios and animation of the so-called 'Wilderness Years' but all of which were put into the shade somewhat by the
September 2003 announcement Doctor Who was coming back onto telly.
So, The Day of the Doctor follows in this tradition and, on the whole, tips the balance favourably in most directions,
even upping the ante in the 3D stakes with a spectacular presentation on the Red Button service and on thousands
of cinema screens. One of the most mind boggling aspects to The Day of the Doctor is the global impact it has
made. It confirms Doctor Who as a truly global brand, a worldwide phenomenon, with the 75-minute special
simulcast in 94 countries. That's millions of people all watching Doctor Who, all around the world, at the same time
on the same day. Barry Letts and John Nathan-Turner must be looking down, from whichever afterlife they may
occupy, with a mixture of pride, jealousy and awe.
chapter to Doctor Who: The
Eleventh Hour - A Critical
Celebration of the Matt
Smith and Steven Moffat
Era.
Mind you, if anyone wanted to relive the sheer embarrassment of Dimensions in Time BBC3 were on hand to
provide a Proustian rush of car crash television of the highest grade with their Doctor Who: The After Party. The
lasting image of it is of Steven Moffat with his head in his hands surrounded by 50 years worth of uncomfortable
looking former Doctors and companions as all his hard work was instantly undone by Zoe Ball's horrific timedelayed interview with inarticulate members of pop combo One Direction.
I digress. For such an anticipated event, The Day of the Doctor is primarily a rather intimate story about the central
character, about the last of the Time Lords. Yes, it has scale, spectacle, shock and awe but when it boils down to it,
Moffat's script forges many connections to anniversary stories past and present with a similar focus on the mythical
figure of the Doctor.
Purchase The Day of the Doctor
from Amazon UK
The Day of the Doctor revisits the mythology of the Doctor and his responsibility for ending the Time War, by
destroying both the Time Lords and the Daleks. It explores the themes of his legitimacy and culpability, through the
character of the War Doctor, themes which reflect the very essence of the character and are very much in tune
with ideas in The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors.
(continued)
4
We’re The Brits in
Teletronic
- Spring/Summer
Teletronic
- April 2014
2014
Obituary: Kate O’Mara
A m e r i c a ( c o n ti n u e d )
This then leads us on to
considering how BBC America
has revolutionised American
television and in turn has had a
great influence upon how
Americans view television with
the massive influx of British
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on their website that they offer
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Television at the end of the
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has now been proved that British
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do so in America.
Karolina
‘The Name You Choose, it’s like, it’s like a promise you make. He’s the
one who broke the promise’
Before I demonstrate what I mean by this we need to go back to the finale of the last series, The Name of the
Doctor. Moffat obviously has to answer the big question - just who is this Doctor played by John Hurt, who
completely delivers on his casting, revealed to us in the closing moments of the episode? Stepping into his own
time stream to rescue Clara, the Doctor comes face to face with an old man, the man with no name or at least one
who has given up the name of Doctor.
An illegitimate offspring who has, according to the Eleventh Doctor, forsaken his name. 'The name you choose, it's
like, it's like a promise you make. He's the one who broke the promise,' explains the Doctor. Essentially, the old
man is the bastard, the black sheep of the family no one really likes to talk about. He's done a terrible thing.
Other incarnations of the Doctor and other Time Lords have at one point or another been shunned or gone off the
rails. In The Three Doctors, the Time Lords come under assault from one of their own, stellar engineer Omega left
to go mad in the anti-matter attic of a black hole. To save themselves they turn to the Doctor, the embarrassing
relative brushed under the carpet and exiled to Earth. It takes the combined forces of three Doctors to put the
universe back on track and their success legitimises the Third Doctor. Until then, he was marooned on Earth, unable
to completely fulfil his desire to travel the universe again, righting wrongs, never being cruel or cowardly. He is
forgiven and properly takes his place within the echelons of the other Doctors.
When we get to The Five Doctors, the Doctor is again dragged into a 'family' feud. This time old mentor Borusa has
been seduced by the darkest machinations of the Time Lord legacy, corrupted by the promise of immortality. The
Doctor, still very much a renegade tolerated by the Time Lords, comes to the rescue. His reward is to take up his
official duties as Lord President of his own people but he has his own legitimacy to look after. Rather than conform,
off he goes in the TARDIS again. After all, that's how it all started.
So there's a pattern. The Doctor is in and out of favour, always having to prove himself to his fellow Time Lords by
often battling against other members of the family who've got themselves into a pickle. When we get to the The
Name of the Doctor and The Day of the Doctor Moffat takes the idea and makes it the central tenet of a long
evolving backstory of which we've previously only had glimpses and mentions: the Time War.
The darkest day in Time Lord history, the Time War between Gallifrey and Skaro has ultimately been responsible for
the survivor guilt of the Ninth and Tenth incarnations of the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords after he commits
genocide. Behind this act lies the mystery of the Doctor with no name, the old man played by John Hurt and, at the
heart of The Day of the Doctor, his redemption. This is, in part, the story of legitimising the War Doctor.
The War Doctor, as we know, came into being during the six minute prequel The Night of the Doctor when the
dying Eighth Doctor regenerated at the behest of the Sisterhood of Karn who foresaw the unravelling of the
universe as the Time War raged. The Doctor was transformed into the warrior they believed could halt the disaster.
The implication here and in The Day of the Doctor is that the War Doctor spent many years fighting to halt the
atrocities committed by both sides in the War.
(continued)
5
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- Spring/Summer
Teletronic
- April 2014
2014
AHammer
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‘The
Vampire Lovers’ and ‘The Horror
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she had an erotically charged
scene with Ingrid Pitt, in which
O'Mara was meant to be
seduced; the two women were
left laughing on set, however, as
Pitt's fangs kept falling into
O'Mara's cleavage. O'Mara's
work in ‘The Vampire Lovers’
impressed Hammer enough for
and you can’t really argue with
them to offer her a contract,
this when they broadcast Doctor
which she turned down, fearful of
Who.
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whose career spanned 60
Karolina epitomised the glamour
decades,
of the 1980s.
‘The final scene of David Bradley and Matt Smith in An Adventure in
Space and Time is rather like the Tenth and the Eleventh respecting and
legitimising the actions of the War Doctor’
Moffat therefore takes up the reigns of the mythology created by his predecessor Russell T Davies and pulls the
narrative back from its 'year zero' implications. Even when Davies brought the Time Lords back in The End of Time,
he was very careful to put them and the renegade Master back into the time lock from which they'd briefly
escaped.
The Doctor was still, at that stage, left scarred by his act of genocide and Davies clearly felt it was legitimate for
the character to continue as 'the lonely god' with a massive chip of inner conflict still on his shoulder. However, at
that point he handed the show over to Steven Moffat who took the Doctor on a slightly different journey.
The day before The Day of the Doctor (that sounds weird) BBC2 gave us An Adventure in Space and Time, a
dramatisation of the creation of Doctor Who in 1963. Uncannily, the central themes in Mark Gatiss's script were
concerned with William Hartnell's personal battle to be 'legitimate' as an actor and escape his own troubled
background. The drama's effect was to reconfigure Hartnell's place in the pantheon of actors who have played the
Doctor, to understand the conflicts in his personal life that were expressed in his attitudes towards the part, his
relationships with fellow cast and crew members.
In a strange, unexpected way the two mythologies converge. Or maybe not. Maybe Moffat and Gatiss had a
conflab over a sweet sherry. Well... who knows. Who knows, eh. Moffat reaches back into past fictional narrative
and frames the Doctor's authenticity within the greater arc of the Time War, and the emergence of his alter ego
the War Doctor, to resolve an existential and moral crisis. At the same time, Gatiss lovingly recreates the past
within a television production context, makes us rethink our attitudes towards Hartnell's abilities as a performer
and resolves the First Doctor's important position in the family line of actors who went on to play the part.
The final scene of David Bradley and Matt Smith in An Adventure on Space and Time is rather like the Tenth and
the Eleventh respecting and legitimising the actions of the War Doctor, acknowledging the debt they owe to him in
The Day of the Doctor. John Hurt is or becomes the Doctor because they take responsibility for him. The Day of the
Doctor's wonderful cameo featuring Tom Baker as 'the curator' also operates in a similar way. The past and the
future overlap. One cannot exist without the other. Tom, as elder statesman, is saying to Matt, and similarly the
Fourth Doctor is asking the Eleventh Doctor, not to forget those whom have served, whether in the Time War or in
Lime Grove D. These scenes don't just serve as a kiss to the past, they - to put it in Moffat-ian terms - positively
snog its face off and use tongues.
Oh... (starts sounding like Tom Baker)... and what kisses, eh. What kisses. The hypnotic swirls of the original title
sequence, the programme's title in its original font, the original Derbyshire arrangement of the title music and a
policeman on the beat as the shipping forecast drifts in the air. An Unearthly Child bleeds into The Day of the
Doctor as the policeman, in monochrone, gains colour and passes by 76 Totter's Lane and the Coal Hill School
where today its Chairman of the Governors is one I. Chesterton. He must be a ripe old age.
(continued)
6
Teletronic
- Spring/Summer
Teletronic
- April 2014
2014
Obituary:
Derek Martinus
Derek Martinus, who died on
March 27, 2014 aged 82, was
responsible for many early
Who.
episodes of Doctor Who, in which
In worked
the 1960s
British
television
he
with
William
Hartnell,
invadedTroughton
America and
Patrick
andthe
Jonsame is
happening
today
with the
Pertwee.
Born
in Ilford,
Essex, to
introduction
of
both
BBC
Jack Butenhuis, a meat
America and
likes ofmarket,
Netflix.
wholesaler
at the
Smithfield
In truth
manyIrene
of the
broadcasting
and
his wife,
Derek
adopted
networks
arehisnow
showcasing
the
name of
grandfather,
British
talent.
There
is a tendency
Johan Martinus Buitenhuis,
a
now for
American
audiences to
meat
trader
from Rotterdam,
for
enjoy Britishpurposes.
shows rather
than
professional
The family
watching
native
remakes,
all
lived
in Gidea
Park,
and Derek
things
British
truly
seem
to
studied at Brentwood school.have
As
embraced,
abeen
young
man he joined an
amateur
group,
the Taverners,
as
There is also
a need
now for high
did
Timothy
West.written
After national
quality
and well
dramas
service
in
the
RAF,
Derek
studied
directing
and
acting
at
the
have become bored of all the
University
of Oklahoma
and Yale
reality shows
that are being
aired
school
of drama,
by thecan
midand shows
madeand
in Britain
50s
was
in Britain,
working
offer
thisback
for the
American
as
a
jobbing
actor
in
regional
rep.
audience. This has been clearly
shown
enormous
In
1959 by
he the
went
on a study tour
popularity
of Sherlock
of
Scandinavian
theatreinonthe
which
States
shown
on
PBS.
Another
he met his future wife, Eivor.
consideration is that popular
He worked as an actor and
British series such as Downton
director with various repertory
Abbey and Sherlock have
and touring companies before
relatively short seasons and this
being contracted to the BBC as a
perhaps creates a stronger cast
director. Doctor Who was one of
with more edge and stronger
his first assignments with the
storylines as more time is
BBC. He joined the series in 1965
available to craft them.
at the beginning of the third
Therefore
British
series,
directing
alltelevision
the episodes
programmes
are
absolutely
in the Galaxy 4 storyline. He rife
later
in America
with audiences
recalled:
“William
Hartnell
acceptingme
andwith
enjoying
regarded
great them
suspicion
with
huge
viewer
ratings
to prove
when I arrived. He knew I was
the
this.
Television
at
the
end
ofto
the
new boy and he wasn’t slow
day is there
to entertain
and it
remind
me how
many hundreds
has
nowhe’d
been
proved
that British
of
films
done
and how
many
television
made
programmes
can
directors he’d advised on how to
do
so
in
America.
get the shots”
Karolina
‘Waste no more time about what a good man should be. Be one.’
Ironically, Clara is there teaching her pupils. How she made the leap from nanny to teacher is open to debate but
she's already framing the examination of the Doctor's conscience at the heart of the episode by quoting Marcus
Aurelius: 'Waste no more time about what a good man should be. Be one.' Off she speeds, at 5.16pm of course, to
meet the Doctor in a bravura sequence where she rides her motorbike through the TARDIS doors and into the
console room in one continuous shot.
The spectacle, which looks great in 3D, is ramped up even further by a dazzling sequence where the TARDIS is
airlifted by U.N.I.T to Trafalgar Square. A global brand needs to emphasise its essential qualities so the spectacular
views above London and the familiar London landmarks cleave more to the Russell T Davies school of
showmanship than Moffat's but this a title sequence designed to grab your attention.
With images of Derren Brown's home filled with flowers of apology from U.N.I.T after using him as a cover story for
such stunts, the episode moves on to the story proper. Sealed orders from Elizabeth I bring the Doctor, Kate
Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) and Osgood (Ingrid Oliver), the scarf wearing U.N.I.T scientist, to the National Gallery
where a piece of 3D Time Lord art, a painting of the Fall of Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city, and entitled No More or
Gallifrey Falls, is on display.
Elizabeth is sending him a message and for the Doctor it is a painful reminder of the last day of the Time War when
'the other me, the one I don't talk about' fought in the war on 'the day he killed them all.' There's slippage between
'he' and 'I' - denial working overtime it seems - as director Nick Hurran uses a close up of Matt Smith's eyes and
transposes upon them the lines of age from John Hurt's face, underlining the fact that within the youthful Smith's
visage the older man lives on.
This confessional allows Hurran to use the concept of the 3D painting, a slice of frozen time, to great effect. The
camera swoops into the painting and the last day of the War bursts into life. It is an exceptional, spectacular
sequence as the Daleks bombard the Time Lord city, buildings explode, ships whizz by and citizens attempt to
scramble to safety. That primal fear that children have of the Daleks is brought home effectively in a scene where
the Daleks round up survivors, including the children clutching their toys. It's a heady mixture of Star Wars and
reportage that breathtakingly culminates with the War Doctor slamming the TARDIS into the Daleks and knocking
them over like skittles.
The words 'No More', blasted into the wall by the Doctor, serve as a reminder of his fall from status as
conscientious objector and now reluctantly getting his hands dirty. It's also the first of many clues in plain sight, a
familiar Moffat trait, that echo the sentiments of the drama. A dying Dalek puzzles over their meaning. No more
hiding the dark Doctor's legacy and no more anxiety about the fall of Gallifrey and his hand in it, perhaps?
From here we are whisked into Gallifrey's War Room. When did the Time Lords last take up arms on such a scale as
this, when did they last have generals leading them into battle? No wonder the Doctor was a reluctant bystander,
no wonder Cass shrank back from being rescued above Karn. The Time Lords have become war mongers to be
feared and not respected. If you wanted evidence as to why the Sisterhood of Karn needed a warrior to fight on
the side of the universe then look no further. We might talk about the Doctor's authenticity being compromised by
the existence of the War Doctor but it seems his peers have undergone something of a similar transformation.
(continued)
7
Teletronic
- Spring/Summer
Teletronic
- April 2014
2014
“We sort of found a way of
Acommunicating,
m e r i c a ( c o n tias
n uone
e d )had to
do.
remember
theon
dear
ThisI then
leads us
to old man
saying,
‘I have
carte
considering
how
BBCblanche
Americaon
all
the
casting
and
all
the script
alterations,
because
they
television and in turn has can’t
had ado
the
serial
without
me.’”
great
influence
upon
how
Americansthe
view
television
However,
BBC
decided with
to go
the
massive
influx
of
British
ahead without Hartnell after all
programmes.
America
state
and Martinus BBC
was on
hand to
on their
direct
thewebsite
actor'sthat
last they
serialoffer
The
the best
in British
entertainment
Tenth
Planet,
which
not only
and
you can’t
arguebut
with
introduced
thereally
Cybermen
this
when
they
broadcast
Doctor
also featured the first ever
Who.
regeneration.
His final serial for
the
programme,
Spearhead
In the 1960s British
televisionfrom
Space
(1970).
wasand
alsothe
thesame
first is
invaded
America
to
be
made
in
colour.
happening today with the
introduction
both BBC
In what was aofgolden
age for TV
AmericaDerek
and the
likes on
of Netflix.
drama,
worked
longIn truth many
of series
the broadcasting
running
popular
such as Znetworks
showcasing
Cars (overare
50 now
episodes)
and
British
talent.
There
a tendency
Angels, and directedisclassic
now forsuch
American
audiences
to
serials
as Dumas's
The Black
enjoy(1970),
British shows
rather than
Tulip
and Sybille
watching
remakes,
Bedford's native
A Legacy
(1975),allwith
things
British
truly
seem
have
Claire Bloom and Jeremy to
Brett.
been
embraced,
He
twice
won the Pye award for
‘...the Moment, a super-weapon so powerful it developed sentience.’
There is some stunning design work on screen here befitting a big screen epic. The Time Lords look splendid in a form of
battle gear that merges the Gallifreyan symbols of old with the new graphics created for the series since 2005. The
lighting is particularly effective with searchlights sweeping over figures caught in silhouette and dappling faces in the
half dark.
We discover that the Moment, a super-weapon so powerful it developed sentience, has been taken by the Doctor. It is
this weapon, this Moment in the hands of the Doctor, which finishes the Time War. As if to confirm his previous
messages and intentions, the War Doctor serves notice on the Daleks and Time Lords: 'Too long have I stayed my hand.
No more.' As the Doctor searches for a way to operate what looks like a super-sized version of Hellraiser's Lament
Configuration, he is visited by the machine's interface and conscience.
Rose Tyler, or the Bad Wolf version of her, is plucked from the Doctor's future memories as a ghost of Christmas to
come to show the Doctor, or the man who claims to have lost the right to be the Doctor, the consequences of his action
in a war where all of space and time is burning. She wants to show him the man he will become, the last of the Time
Lords, in order to inform his decision to use the Moment and complete the mutually assured destruction of Gallifrey and
the Daleks. Billie Piper is quite different here, reprising her attitude as the Bad Wolf in command of the vortex seen at
the end of The Parting of the Ways. Here she is again, a sentient weapon determining the Doctor's destiny. It's a
strange, precise performance and quietly disturbing to see a Rose Tyler so unlike the Rose Tyler we all knew. She
informs the War Doctor his punishment is to become the last survivor of the war. As the future Doctors know the first
rule of survivor's guilt is you don't talk about survivor's guilt. You try and bury it. The Moment is trying to uncover what
best
drama,
first
Therechildren's
is also a need
now
forwith
high happens when you find meaning and make sense out of these experiences.
The
Paper
then with
quality
andLads,
well written
dramas
Much of this ties into Moffat's perennial themes about memory, remembrance and forgetting, Not only does he imbue
Dodger,
Bonzo
and
Rest. In
and television series,the
people
his creatures with powers to erase memory and change perception but he also taps into the power of memory with the
the
1970sbored
Derekof
returned
havelate
become
all the to
theatre
both in
Britain
and aired Doctor and his companions. In The Day of the Doctor this is writ large in the Moment's determination to get the future
reality shows
that
are being
Doctors to remember their forgotten incarnation via 'a tangle in time through the days to come', to remember the
Sweden,
where
his wife
and shows
madeheinand
Britain
can
millions of children killed on Gallifrey. The Moment offers a way for Moffat to intertwine the lives and actions of the
had
summer
home.
He
offerathis
for the
American
Doctors and to remember the forgotten.
introduced
Harold
The
audience. This
has Pinter's
been clearly
Homecoming
Caryl
shown by the and
enormous
Churchill's
Mad
Forest
Swedish
popularity of Sherlock to
in the
audiences
as
well
as
doing
classic
States shown on PBS. Another
plays
by
Shakespeare,
Jonson
consideration is that popular and
Dekker.
Back such
homeasheDownton
directed a
British series
West
End
thriller,
The
Killing
Game
(1981),
Hannah
relatively
shortwith
seasons
and this
Gordon
Petera Gilmore,
for
perhapsand
creates
stronger cast
So far so good.
Bill
Kenwright.
Queen Elizabeth I has brought the Doctor to the National Gallery and the crucial painting. Her message to the future has
storylines
as more
time
Derek Martinus
died
on is
27 March
been handed over to the Doctor by U.N.I.T and the painting of Gallifrey, a slice of time frozen in Time Lord art by an
available
to age
craftofthem.
2014 at the
82 from
unknown artist, is evidence of her true credentials. In a bizarre subplot we discover that the Time Lord art is being used
complications
arising
from
Therefore British
television
by Zygons in the past to bide their time, hide inside the works of art, and emerge to invade the future.
Alzheimer's
which he
programmesdisease,
are absolutely
rife
had
suffered
from
for many
in America
with
audiences
years.
accepting and enjoying them
The mood shifts from sombre reflection to something of a romp as the Tenth Doctor's hijinks with Queen Elizabeth
with huge viewer ratings to prove (Joanna Page) in 1562, which pick up some continuity references from The Shakespeare Code and The End of Time, not
this. Television at the end of the only show him marrying her through a case of mistaken identity but also reveal the Zygons' plan. The return of the
Zygons is handled particularly well and the make up and costume designs are more or less unchanged from their 1975
has now been proved that British appearance. Hissing and roaring into view, they look very impressive and imposing. However, their presence is merely a
television made programmes can sub-plot to get us to a position where their knack for hiding inside Time Lord paintings offers a potential way of saving
do so in America.
Gallifrey as the Daleks bombard the planet.
Karolina
(continued)
8
Teletronic
- Spring/Summer
Teletronic
- April 2014
2014
A Cult Classic to buy on DVD:
‘...Am I having a mid-life crisis?’
The Zygon plan is to invade the planet by breaking into U.N.I.T's Black Vault of alien technology by impersonating Kate
Stewart and Osgood. It provides a parallel narrative to the Doctor's own dilemma. Kate Stewart finds herself face to face
The
Prisoner
(1967)
with her Zygon counterpart with no choice but to blow the Vault up with a nuclear warhead and kill millions to save
Who.
The Prisoner’s Patrick McGoohan
billions. The Doctor complicates matters by using the Black Vault's security system, which wipes the memories of people
had
previously
starred
in
In the
1960s British
television
who work there (Moffat re-employing his tropes again), to confuse the Zygon and human identities in the room. No one
acclaimed
60s spyand
series
invaded America
theDanger
same is knows whether they are Zygon or human. The two parties are therefore left to negotiate from this standpoint, unable to
Man
as a no-nonsense
British
happening
today with the
justify their use of the nuclear weapon for fear of wiping out the wrong side. This is what philosopher John Rawls calls
Intelligence
agent
called
introduction of both BBCJohn
the 'original position' - in which a group must decide how to negotiate together fairly and equally without prejudice and
Drake,
and
some
see The
America
and
the likes
of Netflix. also deprived of knowledge which would unbalance the situation - and the so called 'veil of ignorance' theory which
Prisoner
as anof
indirect
sequel.
In truth many
the broadcasting
Charlie Jane Anders also explores in her review on io9.
Here
McGoohan
plays
an
agent
networks are now showcasing
The sub-plot is certainly a mirror of the War Doctor's own activities on Gallifrey. Both feature a Vault full of deadly
who
is drugged
and wakes
up in
British
talent. There
is a tendency
weapons,
both involve making a decision about the future of millions of lives. The Moment is the War Doctor's
the
“Village”
– a to
nowmysterious
for American
audiences
conscience, encouraging him to meet his other selves and for each to understand the gravity of what he does. Clara is
seemingly
idyllic
location
enjoy British
shows
ratherwhere
than
the equivalent, looking upon her Doctor with fresh eyes, particularly when all three Doctors decide to share the
the
residents
are
under
constant
responsibility of their actions in destroying the Time Lords and the Daleks. If, as the Moment suggests, the War Doctor
surveillance,
from
which
there
is
no
escape,
and where none of the is reborn then who is he reborn as? How does he deal with the consequences of this holocaust in all his future choices,
been
embraced,
his future lives? And as Clara suggests, which rules apply when regeneration could lead you to forget the traumas of the
villagers has a name, only a
There
is also
a needand
now for high past? Hence we get that very interesting scene between the three Doctors where generational differences define their
number.
Colourful
quality
and well
written
dramas attitudes towards the Time War. It's a very interesting view of how we all cope with traumatic, world changing events,
provocatively
surreal,
The
and
television
series,
people
everything from the assassination of JFK to the terrorism of 9/11. The War Doctor discovers that his future selves are
Prisoner touches on eternal
have
become
bored
of all theand 'the man who regrets' and 'the man who forgets'. Generations - or regenerations - need to be reminded of these terrible
themes
such as
individuality
reality shows
that are
being aired
resistance
against
authority,
and events. After all, it's part of being grown up.
and
shows
made
in
Britain
can
despite only running to seventeen
The repartee between Tennant, Smith and Hurt crackles vividly and the generational differences are played for comedy
offer
this for
American
episodes,
thethe
series
has had an
as well as for drama. Hurt's Doctor is distressed ('Am I having a mid-life crisis?') to find his future selves talking and
audience.
This influence
has been on
clearly
immeasurable
behaving like children. Moffat takes his cue from The Three Doctors here, with Hurt more or less the sterner Hartnell
shown by
theseries
enormous
dozens
of TV
and films in
figure quite appalled at 'Sand shoes' and 'Chinny' and we even get a re-run of the redecorating the TARDIS interior gag
popularity
of Sherlock
in the
the years since
it was broadcast.
('Oh, you've redecorated.' 'I don't like it.'). Like their sonic screwdrivers and their own bodies, the various TARDIS
States shown on PBS. Another
interiors appear on screen as a phasing, single interface and Hurt's TARDIS is wonderfully old school and comes
Steven
Miscandlon
2014
consideration is that popular
complete with 'the round things'.
British series such as Downton
relatively short seasons and this
perhaps creates a stronger cast
storylines as more time is
available to craft them.
Therefore
television
Watch
theBritish
opening
sequence
programmes
are absolutely
from
The Prisoner
in HD on rife
in America with audiences
YouTube.
accepting and enjoying them
Read more of Steve Miscandlon’s
with huge viewer ratings to prove
DVD reviews at
this. Television at the end of the
www.televisionheaven.co.uk
has now been proved that British
do so in America.
Karolina
The Zygons, while excellent in the scenes they appear, are merely a means to an end for Moffat. Their attempt to
conquer the Earth is simply a mechanism to find the solution to the War Doctor's problem, namely the use of the
Gallifreyan art to store the war torn planet and its population in a slice of time. Leaving the Daleks to shoot themselves
to pieces as Gallifrey disappears still maintains a certain truth, that they annihilated each other in the War after all, but
this is another example of how Moffat is willing to take great chunks of lore (over which there is no ownership, let's be
clear) and simply rewrite it for his own purposes. Thus, Russell T Davies' modus operandi for the Doctor, established in
2005, now allows for the potentially lost Time Lords to survive. A reboot along the same lines as Clara jumping back into
the many lives of the Doctor to save him, the resetting of time in The Wedding of River Song and travelling back down
your own timeline to bring the universe back in The Big Bang. All told in Moffat's customary non-linear, multiple points
of view and hanging narrative modes where paradox and predestination dominate the story.
9
(continued…)
Teletronic
- Spring/Summer
Teletronic
- April 2014
2014
Who on the Tube
Below are links to ‘official’ BBC
YouTube clips of Doctor Who
The Night of the Doctor
Behind the scenes of An
Adventure in Space and Time
‘the retired curator of the Under Gallery, a man with a very familiar
face...’
The War Doctor is transformed, authenticated, legitimised as a 'proper' Doctor because he was 'the Doctor more than
anybody else' when he took the brave decision to burn Gallifrey and the Daleks. He takes his place in the line up, the
warrior to the Tenth's hero, and in direct line to the Eleventh Doctor who has discovered what he has forgotten. He's
always made things better, he's always been a doctor. The title is a promise, a promise that writer Terrance Dicks
originally made, that the Doctor is 'never cruel or cowardly'.
House of Cards Trilogy (1990–
1995)
Based on novels by
parliamentary insider Michael
Dobbs, House of Cards gives us
a fascinating, occasionally
amusing, and ultimately
terrifying insight into the murky
inner worlds of British politics.
Conservative Party Chief Whip
Francis Urquhart is inimitably
brought to life by veteran actor
Ian Richardson, presenting us
with perhaps the most
Machiavellian character ever to
appear on British television.
The three series that form the
trilogy – House of Cards, To
Play the King and The Final Cut
– make for irresistible, almost
hypnotic viewing.
Steven Miscandlon 2014
Moffat's coup de théâtre for the 50th Anniversary is, of course, the bringing together of 13 Doctors to power the
transfer of Gallifrey into the parallel pocket universe. The Time Lords and their TARDISes collectively work together
and we get a brief, but thrilling, glimpse of Peter Capaldi who, in a single glare to camera, seems to signify the very
hope the Time Lords and viewers of the series are looking for. His imminent arrival, as an actor the same age when
Hartnell took the role, may well have triggered Moffat's reflections about maturity and authenticity in the
conversations between the other Doctors.
To cap it all we also get a remarkable scene with Matt Smith and Tom Baker. The passing of the baton in many ways,
heartfelt and emotional, as the retired curator of the Under Gallery, a man with a very familiar face, pauses to reflect
on the future. He catches the spirit of the Anniversary by suggesting to the Doctor he may care to recall some other
faces and 'in years to come, you might find yourself revisiting a few but just... the old favourites, eh?
The fourth wall and the Fourth Doctor melt away as the distinctions between Tom and the character vanish. He
stands in a gallery that looks like the interior of a TARDIS. It's what we've all known all along. Tom and the Time Lord
are interchangeable. Images and words shift and the painting, we discover, is actually called Gallifrey Falls No More.
The Eleventh Doctor is given his quest. To find the lost Gallifrey. 'I can only tell you what I would do, if I were you...
Oh! If I were you... perhaps I was you, of course. Or perhaps you are me,' muses the Fourth Doctor.
Who knows. But the Doctor's going home.
(Frank Collins10
- 2013)
Teletronic
- Spring/Summer
Teletronic
- April 2014
Red Dwarf – Series I to VIII
(1988–1999)
Sci-fi and comedy make for
strange bedfellows, and very
few series that attempt to
combine the two genres
achieve any measure of
success. One of those few
exceptions is Red Dwarf. Over
its original run, the series
changed and morphed, but at
its best it was always about
the “boys from the Dwarf” –
an unlikely crew of misfits
comprising irredeemable slob
Dave Lister, uptight hologram
Arnold Rimmer, the
superficial and impossibly
vain Cat, fussy android Kryten
and various incarnations of
the ship’s computer Holly.
The earlier series are
arguably the best, but there
are many hours of fun to be
had from this box set that
collects the first eight series
of Red Dwarf’s unique brand
of outer-space mayhem.
does British television drama fairly
represent today’s multicultural society?
British television writers and directors have been trying
to appeal to an audience whose appetite is maturing,
craving scenes that reflected their world, their high
street and their front rooms. With all the efforts already
made it’s a sad state of affairs when you’ve got the likes
of Lenny Henry calling for a dedicated fund so that more
black, Asian and minority ethnics (BAME) are
represented in front of the camera as well as behind it.
As the nation waits for more overt diversification, have
the top modern dramas that have been airing across
Britain, found unique ways to reflect the nation’s
multicultural society?
Hunted by the ominous organisation known as The
Network, we whizz through private schools, meet
pregnant Russian prostitutes and watch politicians sweat
under the pressure of blackmail. The range of characters
and who they’re possibly reflective of in our
multicultural society is matter too meaty for this article,
but safe to say the sci-fi story is carried along smoothly
by its diverse cast.
Daniel Kaluuya’s performance as Bing in the second of
Brooker’s Black Mirror collection Fifteen Million Merits,
presents a dystopian future where consumerism has
made cycle slaves out of the working class. Underground
Everyone’s got an opinion on what the best modern
in what can only be described as a sensory concentration
dramas are, but those listers all seem to agree on a few. camp, your level of existence is based on your creation
There’s Skins, created by Jamie Brittain and Bryan Elsley and consumption of merits. Earn them by watching the
which first screened in January 2007. The series follows
heavily advertised porn shows, playing computer games
a group of middle class teens as they come of age. They and sweating yourself silly on the same bike day in day
dabble with drugs, explore their sexualities, all while
out. A Groundhog Day existence, Bing goes to sleep only
trying to pass their exams and maintain their faith. The
to wake up and do the same things all over again. It’s
show’s attempt at reflecting Britain’s multicultural
George Orwell’s 1984, reimagined with donations from
society in the first few series came in the form of Posh
Apple, Windows and Nintendo.
Kenneth (Daniel Kaluuya), a trying-to-be devout Muslim
Game show culture within the futuristic drama has taken
Anwar Kharral (Dev Patel) and the clarinet playing
a bit of a turn and you’ll be a star only if you’re what
daughter of a hip-hop star Jal Fazer (Larissa Wilson).
those ‘upstairs’ are looking for. Bing’s love interest Abi is
The final series made in 2013 wasn’t a visual melting pot chosen for being the closest “pretty one” to hand, while
in any way, it did however let us peek in at a number of he gets his spot for being the first “ethnic one” to catch
cultures, from the cut throat banking world to the lairs
the eye of the institute’s minion. When there are too
of drug lords and their scandalous lovers. As an entire
many singers saturating the market, there’s always the
series this modern drama makes a good attempt at
adult entertainment industry. Judge Wraith (Ashley
reflecting multicultural society in Britain. The same can
Thomas) and Rupert Everett playing Judge Hope on the
be said of Luther who’s also present on every list
panel, wolf whistle Abi out of her grey trackies and onto
detailing the best modern dramas. With cases that take the screen as a sex worker. A not so sly dig at the
him all over the grimy streets of London, the show’s
entertainment and gameshow industry.
creator Neil Cross kills and rescues characters of all
Brooker’s Fifteen Million Merits does a great job of
shades and backgrounds.
looking at consumerism and imagining, albeit darkly on
Dark Dystopian Dramas
what society could look like without the rich tapestries
from the various cultures coming together; superficial
Dennis Kelly’s Utopia and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror
and sparkly stuff being handled by grey-garbed human
are both amongst critics favourites as modern dramas
bots. The multicultural melting pot now includes more
that have been brilliantly written to draw our attention
ingredients than where you come from, what you look
to the darker sides of technology. Utopia aired in
like and the food you eat. Whether you’re looking for a
January 2013, its heroes a mixed bunch of characters
reflection of youth, greed, gang or crime culture; you’ll
following a storyline spun around a prophetic comic
find British television has aired a modern drama that
manuscript. Alexandra Roach plays Becky and her Welsh
tells the story impressively.
accent curls and contrasts nicely with geeky Londoner
Ian’s (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett). The pair are joined by
Jessica Hyde (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) the gun wielding,
Onome Okwuosa - 2014
leather jacketed Sarah Connor-esque character, 11 year
old Grant (Oliver Woollford) a loveable ASBO brat and
Wilson Wilson (Adeel Akhtar) another nerd, of the
conspiratorial persuasion.
11
About Josh Turner:
“I'm a creative writer of fiction
and frequently delight in
sharing my musings with
others. I like strange worlds
and weird dreams that make it
from your imagination and
onto the page. My words are
often fuelled by coffee with
equal dollops of joy and
sarcasm swirled in. You can
find more of my work at
http://
alifeofwordsandcoffee.wordpr
ess.com/”
Available to purchase from
Amazon UK (click the box-set
cover to go there)
The Best of British: Ten ’Must See’ Shows
We asked two writers to choose 5 ‘must see’ British television shows. Over the next
two pages we present to you 10 Brit shows. Shame on you if you don’t have them! First
up - the choice of Josh Turner...
Fawlty Towers: A show so hilariously British
that if your friends don’t laugh at it you’re
actually allowed to have them shot in the UK.
The genius that is John Cleese plays the ever
frustrated Basil Fawlty, stomping around
catering for guests he loathes in his mismanaged and under staffed hotel, always to
catastrophic and comical results. Sadly it only
ran for 12 episodes but that almost adds to its
charm. Andrew Sachs plays Manuel the
endearingly terrible Spanish Waiter and
Prunella Scales takes the role of Basil’s long
suffering wife. Watch it. Laugh... or else.
Doctor Who: The bastion of Britishness that is
Doctor Who. How to sum up a show that ran
from 1963 to 1989 only to be reborn in 2005 to
great acclaim? Prodigious. Recently celebrating
its 50th anniversary episode, which played in
cinemas and rose to 3rd in the UK cinema boxoffice weekly chart! As immortal as the title
character, it fuses beautifully the elements of
child-like glee and family-friendly comedy that
makes it suitable for all ages. Never has a show
made a child out of more adults. Don’t like one
of the lead actors? That’s fine, there are twelve
to choose from.
Black Books: I could have filled a list with British comedy but some really stand out.
From the episode when Manny (Bill Bailey) drinks too much coffee and spirals into a
series of events that ends up with him mistaken for a police officer to the dinner party
where our lead, Bernard (Dylan Moran), has to reconstruct from a patchy memory the
drunken damage he’s caused; Black Books is a leg slapping dance of hilarious delight.
Britain seems to like the loveable arse, and none are more loveable or arsey than the
beautifully portrayed Bernard.
Unreported World: What’s this, a factual show on a
best of list? Honestly, watch it and you will see why.
This is investigative journalism at its best. Often
harrowing, the stories of Afghan child drug addicts
whose parents provide them heroin to mute the
hunger pangs because it’s cheaper than food, it can
also be uplifting, like the story of a Mogadishu chef
who refuses to leave his country despite threats on
his life because he wants to make something better.
Visit the Television Heaven
Facebook Page
With 24 seasons under its belt you can still rely on
amazing stories that don’t pull punches.
Planet Earth: Arguably the finest work involving the great
British institution that is David Attenborough. Using
advances in camera technology and the reliable allure of
Attenborough’s soothing tones to provide a look at the
natural world that is second to none. The story of the
cameraman who spent months in a brick bothy, staring at
the grey slopes of a mountain just waiting for an elusive
glimpse of a snow leopard really highlights the lengths the
producers were willing to go. There are some amazing
moments; the wild beauty of a wolf chasing a caribou over
10km, a time-lapse of Autumnal colours swallowing North
America, and aerial shots of Angel Falls to name but a few.
Supremely watchable.
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Derek Thompson writes
fiction, non-fiction and
comedy. He made us write the
last bit.
The Best of British: Ten ’Must See’ Shows
Derek Thompson selects his choice of five ‘must see’ British TV shows.
His creative blog lives at
www.alongthewritelines.blogs
pot.co.uk
His mini ebook, Man Up!, is
available at http://
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/
B00IJXAERY
The Sweeney : A much-loved cops and robbers
series that was rough around the edges and all
the better for it. It reflected the 'Lundun' I
could identify with, growing up. In The
Sweeney, you had car chases with Fords,
tracking shots of a gasworks, punchy dialogue
and even punchier police officers. No martial
arts in the fight scenes, just proper fisticuffs
and a sort of earnest chaos whenever the
rozzers caught up with the blaggers. There was
great chemistry between Jack Regan and his
oppo, George Carter. The theme music got the
blood pumping and the action didn't stop until
the strangely wistful closing titles ended. Yes,
it's of its time, but it has a style that endures.
One thing I do remember (correct me if I'm
wrong here) is that the bad guys sometimes got
away with it, and Jack's activities were
sometimes curtailed by politics. How
thoroughly modern!
Robin of Sherwood: You want a Robin Hood to make
Richard Greene envious? Forget Kevin Costner,
Russell Crowe and that BBC series. Travel back to the
1980s and experience the magic and myth of Richard
Carpenter's creation (he also did Black Beauty and
Catweazle, among others). This Robin has a mythical
backstory, a Maid Marion that would straighten any
bow and an original take on a classic tale. Forever
fused with Clannad's evocative music for the series
(my other half and I still have our own albums), RoS
added to the mythos by including a shaman, known
as Herne the Hunter, more magic than you could
shake a staff at, and a Saracen who joins the gang
(copied afterwards, but we won't talk about it here).
The Merry men are young, rebellious and not that
merry. And if all that isn't enough for you, there's Ray
Winstone as Will Scarlet. Nuff said?.
Spaced: To be honest, I could just read you out
the main cast: Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes, Nick
Frost and Mark Heap. But there's so much more
to it than that; there are robots, a stolen tank,
comics, a very British romance, paintball, Bill
Bailey and Peter Serafinowcz. Here's a one-line
synopsis that in no way does Spaced justice:
Two people pretend to be a couple to get a flat
and the rest is sheer...magic. This is a sitcom
that talks up to its loyal viewers with a slew of
cinematic references throughout both series. In
essence, you have several shades of loveable
loser (you'll root for them, trust me) along with
a teasing 'will they or won't they' thread that's
guaranteed to keep you hooked. Special
mention has to go to Mark Heap for his tour-deforce performance as a tortured artist. Plus, in
case you didn't know it, Spaced is the foster
parent of the cult film (starring Messrs. Pegg &
Frost), Shaun of the Dead. Oh yeah, and there's
a dog called Colin in it - the series I mean, not
the film.
Vera: This programme is the closest detective series we
have to Nordic Noir. The wild and sometimes desolate
landscape of Northumberland is both feature and
metaphor, as DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) stomps
about, giving rich meaning to the words frumpy, antisocial
and sharp. She's a wondrous mixture of the shambolic and
the insightful, with all the people skills of a chocoholic on
early closing day. Her entire team tiptoes around her and
even DS Joe Ashworth (David Leon), her sidekick, calls her
Mussolini behind her back. Despite all that, or maybe
because of it, you cheer her on, through a series of
twisting plots. Because, when it comes down to it, she's
like the long-lost cousin of Columbo combined with the
sort of British copper we can actually believe in. Does she
get the villains? What do you think!
Ever Decreasing Circles: While not as well-known (or
appreciated) as The Good Life, this other Richard Briers
sitcom is still a gem and much more subtle. On the face of
it, pillar-of-the-community man, Martin, has everything - a
lovely (if woefully neglected) wife, Anne, social standing
and suburban certainty. That is, until his new neighbour turns out to be a champion of one-upmanship and all of it
done with a smile. Three things lift this beautifully observed comedy of manners:
1.
Martin, the lead character, doesn't get the joke. Ever. Which is unfortunate as he's usually the butt of it.
2.
The series is devoid of cruelty (ah, those were the days...). Everyone, in Martin's world, at some point, is
beset by human frailty.
3.
top.
It's great to see an ensemble cast fitting together, and a leading actor who doesn't need to come out on
There's a lovely conclusion to the series as well, but you'll have to watch to find out what it is.
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Sherlock Holmes – The
Complete Collection (1984–
1994)
Recent years have seen a
number of updated versions of
Conan Doyle’s iconic character,
from Benedict Cumberbatch’s
Sherlock to Jonny Lee Miller’s
Elementary and Robert
Downey Jr.’s theatrical take on
Holmes. But to a generation of
British TV viewers, Jeremy Brett
was and remains the definitive
Sherlock Holmes. Over the
course of thirty-six hour-long
episodes and five featurelength specials, Brett brought
us a pitch-perfect depiction of
the quick-witted but irascible
Victorian gentleman genius.
With impeccable production
values and a solid supporting
cast, this version of Sherlock
Holmes is perhaps the most
faithful to the original stories.
Cops on the Box - The history of the British Police Drama
In the 1950/51 Television Annual chapter entitled Real
Life in Pictures, the article writer explains the production
of what at that time was still a relatively new addition to
the TV schedules; the documentary film. "The outside
television camera has so far made only a small
contribution to television documentary programmes.
These programmes have more often than not emanated
from inside the Alexandra Palace studio. Rather than
being a realistic portrayal, the television documentary
programme looks as though it is going to be a carefully
produced artistic interpretation, with actors and
actresses taking the place of the people actually
concerned. It was found out early on in television that it
requires the art of the trained actor to give a realistic
impression of ordinary people going about their everyday
business." By the following year, the same annual
publication recorded in the chapter Seeing Facts; "Not
many (documentaries) are produced in one year. For
some time those which were produced stuck rather to
one field of life: crime, its detection, and the workings of
justice in the courts."
The idea of scripted drama presented as documentary
was not a new one in the early fifties, nor did it start on
television. A perfect example is Humphrey Jennings'
1943 production 'Fires Were Started' a Ministry of Home
Security backed propaganda film made to boost morale
and show the courageous work of the fire service in
bomb blitzed London. According to Derek Malcolm in
the Guardian: "In other hands, ('Fire Were Started')
would have been mere propaganda made to stiffen the
national mood. But in his, the images of Britain were
often so powerful and so moving that people would be in
tears watching them."
show'. In her book 'Beyond Dixon of Dock Green' author
Susan Sydney-Smith notes: "In terms of mapping the
evolution of the story-documentary, a significant entry in
Radio Times (1948) lists a separate item within (the
fortnightly magazine programme) Kaleidoscope. It
describes itself as 'a story-documentary, written in cooperation with Scotland Yard, to explain some of the
ingenious frauds that have recently been worked on the
unwary.' It's Your Money They're After, earlier produced
on radio, was a dramatised reconstruction concerning
post-war fraudsters." According to Sydney-Smith
"Scotland Yard and crime were a prime source for
institutional dramatised reconstructions, combining
popularity with moral instruction, and from which grew
the ordinary, British television police series."
It was still early days for television with the BBC only
having been back on the air for three years having closed
down television broadcasting at the outbreak of the
Second World War, and the move from docu-drama
towards full dramatisation would be a gradual one. One
of the first crime series on British television was War on
Crime a 1950 six-part docu-drama produced by Robert
Barr and written by Guy Morgan and Percy Hoskins.
The idea for the series came about when Morgan was
conducting research at Scotland Yard for a Twentieth
Century Fox film, and realised the potentially dramatic
material that was available in the Metropolitan Police's
crime files. He discussed the idea with Barr, and they
enlisted Hoskins, a former crime reporter for the Daily
Express, who was on good terms with a number of
senior police officers. The first episode, 'Gold Thieves',
recounted the true story of a bullion robbery in 1948 at
Heathrow Airport, where thieves tried to steal gold
bullion to the value of a quarter of a million pounds, but
were ambushed by officers. The second story, 'Woman
Unknown', was introduced, like all the others in the
series, by a voice-over. In this case, it told viewers: "This
is the story of a murder. A murder, apparently, without a
clue. Unpremeditated and followed by meticulous skill in
concealment, the detection of which, for sheer tenacity
and perseverance, has few equals in the records of
Scotland Yard." Having set the scene, the story then
unfolds in dramatised format, using actors to show the
Although these dramatised reconstructions were a far
original police investigation in the case of a woman's
cry from the type of scripted fictional drama that Elstree
body, washed up in a London canal, and how they go
or Hollywood were producing at that time, or the type of
through the processes of identification, the means of
drama series that became popular on our screens by the
finding out how she died, and by whose hands. The
late 1950s and early 1960s it will soon be seen how they
murder, for petty theft, of an Oxford widow, was
influenced the emergence of one of the most popular
reconstructed to show how the culprit was finally
genres of television drama: The police procedural or 'cop
brought to justice entirely by circumstantial evidence.
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A Cult Classic to buy on
DVD:
Edge of Darkness (1985)
Edge of Darkness
demonstrates the quirky, cult
nature of British TV at its
best. This unique six-episode
series was an massive
success, winning BAFTA
awards for Best Drama
Series, Best Actor (a sublime
performance by Bob Peck)
and Best Original TV Music
(for its distinctive and
haunting score by Michael
Kamen and Eric Clapton). For
all the popular acclaim it
received, Edge of Darkness
couldn’t be further from safe,
mainstream programming –
the storyline’s focus veering
from corruption in business,
government and trade
unions, through international
espionage, nuclear energy
and ecological topics, to the
main character’s ongoing
conversations with the spirit
of his recently murdered
daughter. It may not always
be comfortable viewing, but
Edge of Darkness is a bona
fide TV classic quite unlike
anything before or since.
Another programme in the series revealed the use of
pathology in crime detection, and was based on the real
facts behind a number of sensational murder arrests,
including that of John George Haigh, the acid-bath
murderer. As the Television Annual 1950/51 recorded:
"In all programmes viewers saw the criminals and their
confederates; their victims; the police, the star detectives
from Scotland Yard-all characterized by actors and
actresses. Not one real-life policeman or Scotland Yard
official ever appeared on screen." This was, to all intents
and purposes a scripted drama series that had little to do
with the term documentary as we would understand it
today. Each programme was introduced with the caption
War on Crime with a flashing light atop a police box,
rising behind it, and a policeman walking by the box. War
on Crime was broadcast monthly, and its influence can
be clearly understood on police procedural series' that
followed it in the 1950s and beyond.
The next police based docu-drama, produced by the BBC
the following year was I Made News, a landmark TV
series for the BBC in several respects. Firstly, it was the
first time that directors had been used in television.
Previously on both radio and television the accepted
format was for writer-producers to direct their own
shows. One of the criticisms of War on Crime was that as
it was only shown monthly - it failed to build up any
audience loyalty. As a result, producer Robert Barr was
given the job of setting up a production unit capable of
turning out weekly dramas of the type that were then
being produced in America.
I Made News was to be the case study for this new
production process, turning out 12 weekly half-hour
docu-dramas. Due to its experimental nature, I Made
News was more concerned with quantity than quality, a
move that proved to be quite controversial within the
BBC itself. Critics too, appeared to be divided. The News
of the World commented: "I Made News has only
occasionally made good television. As the creator of
'Raffles' may not have said, there's no police like
Holmes." The series centred round criminal
investigations but didn't restrict itself to the British
police force. Some episodes were set in Holland, others
involved the FBI and the leading investigator from those
cases were invited to top and tail the story that had been
told like War on Crime, in dramatic reconstruction. The
face of the Metropolitan Police was Robert Fabian
whose exploits would later form the BBC series Fabian of
Scotland Yard (aka Fabian of the Yard). Susan SydneySmith writes that I Made News "both increased
production and considerably enhanced the BBC's ability
to compete with the arrival of Independent Television."
Building on the experience gained on I Made the News,
the BBC produced another six-part series, in 1952, called
Pilgrim Street. This series, made in co-operation with
Scotland Yard, contained many of the elements that
would eventually be employed in the BBC's best
remembered police series; Dixon of Dock Green. Pilgrim
Street was made once again by the BBC documentary
department. The difference was, where War on Crime
and I Made News focused on high-profile cases and
were centred round the Criminal Investigation
Department officers of Scotland Yard, Pilgrim Street was
the first of these docu-dramas to revolve around the
work of policemen at a suburban police station, and to
feature cases, as the Radio Times of 1952 reported, that
"never find their way into the pages of the
Commissioner's Report and in which the police act as
helpers and protectors of the public."
The fictitious Pilgrim Street police station was, however,
just a stones-throw from Scotland Yard as the opening
narrative indicated: "Our manor - our ground. It's as
varied as anything in London. The railway station is in the
centre there, and around it are cinemas, the shopping
streets, the wharehouses, the pubs, the pawnbrokers,
and the little streets. Up here, luxury flats, spacious
squares and gardens, and embassies. Skirting it all, the
Embankment and the river. That's our ground. Our
Manor. And right here is our station: Pilgrim Street." The
series was originally to have been called The Blue Lamp,
however BBC bosses were concerned about using a title
already used by the cinema for a feature film, even
though the film was undoubtedly the inspiration for this
television version. Clearly producer Robert Barr was
hoping the short run (Pilgrim Street ran from June to
July and was produced at the newly acquired Lime Grove
studios) would give rise to a long running series.
However, critical reaction and lack of support from his
boss, Cecil McGivern, put paid the that idea. One critic
described Pilgrim Street as "ordinary to the point of
dullness." Nonetheless, Pilgrim Street is an important
programme in the development of the British TV police
procedural drama genre being the first steps towards a
series featuring the exploits of 'an ordinary copper.'
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A Classic series buy on DVD
One of the longest running
police series on British
television between 1955 and
1976, Dixon of Dock Green
was also the best-loved.
Starring the popular Jack
Warner in the role of Sergeant
George Dixon, the series set
the tone for television police
drama and paved the way for
all that would follow. Filmed
on set and on location around
the fast disappearing dockland
community of London's East
End, the character of Dixon,
with his friendly and informal
Evening all, offered viewers
the kind of policeman you d be
tempted to welcome into your
home for a cup of tea even if
you d just robbed a bank.
There are two collections
currently available from the
BBC that can be purchased
from Amazon UK
That 'ordinary copper' first appeared not on our
television screen but in the cinema. Released in early
1950, The Blue Lamp featured Jack Warner as police
constable George Dixon. Scripted by ex-policeman T.E.B.
Clarke (from a story by Ted Willis and Jan Read), at the
outset the film is similar in style and presentation to Fires
Were Started. Opening in documentary style, the viewer
is introduced to a policeman's lot through the eyes of
new recruit Andy Mitchell (actor Jimmy Handley) as he
begins his first shift at Paddington Green. Writer Guy
Savage observes how "The Blue Lamp finds London police
directing traffic, giving directions, finding lost dogs, and
even singing in the police choir. The grossest sin
committed by the police at the Paddington Green station
is a tendency to park themselves in the police cafeteria
and drink a few too many cups of tea."
Dixon who would become an iconic figure in the later
Dixon of Dock Green TV series. ’Fabian’ was made for
export and several episodes were never actually
transmitted in the UK. London's familiar landmarks were
used in a somewhat travelogue style and, being shot on
film rather than live in the studio like many
contemporary BBC shows, the Corporation had much
more freedom in broadcasting it at different times of the
week. Originally shown on Saturday night it later moved
to Wednesday evenings with a repeat on weekday
afternoons. Susan Sydney-Smith observes: "The series
represents an interesting crossover point in terms of the
generic development of the television series' truth status
in terms of its progressive narrativisation, from fact to
fiction: whilst the story is true, the characters are
fictitious in that they are played by actors."
Fabian - real and fictitious
Fabian of the Yard was the last BBC series to adopt the
Having established the day-to-day life of the ordinary
docu-drama approach to police shows and in 1955 the
copper the film then shifts to more serious matters and
genre went to fully scripted drama with Dixon of Dock
it's at this point it stops being mere documentary and
Green, the TV series inspired by The Blue Lamp but
becomes what we have now come to know as docuowing as much to Pilgrim Street. Debuting with 'PC
drama, with more of an emphasis on the drama. Guy
Crawford's First Pinch', the series begins the same way as
Savage sees a materialisation of the films darker
the film. Instead of Andy Mitchell's first day on the beat
overtones when he writes: "The film carefully laces the
the now 'resurrected from the dead' George Dixon found
action with the lurking shadow of WWII--one woman
himself mentoring new recruit Andy Crawford. However,
arrives at the police station to file a lost ration card
report, and in another scene, street urchins play amidst a in spite of the film's success the television debut of Dixon
bombed-out London street. The film argues that the social left both viewers and critics decidedly unimpressed.
Comments on the first programme included 'tame',
upheaval of WWII has fermented an environment which
'humdrum' and 'lacking any action.' However, by the sixth
fosters the emergence of delinquents."
week the BBC's audience appreciation report indicated
It is one such delinquent, set on a life of crime, that has
that the series was winning viewers over very quickly
the biggest impact. When George Dixon is gunned down with a 49% increase from week one. By 1957 the Radio
by the young criminal played by Dirk Bogarde. Dixon’s
Times was reporting that Dixon of Dock Green had been
shooting is shocking and unexpected. Fifty years on, it's
mentioned in the House of Commons and was
hard to appreciate just how shocking it was considered
responsible for an increase in those applying to join the
by British audiences. And because of it The Blue Lamp is police. In the end the programme ran for 21 years and as
a seminal film in the history of British cinema. It is no
Susan Sydney-Smith noted: (Dixon of Dock Green)
surprise that the dramatic aspects of the story were more "..introduced new, increasingly rationalised methods of
prominent in The Blue Lamp than previous
working" in television and introduced the terminology
documentaries. In 1951 the Central Office of Information, whereby a single series run is known as 'a season'. With
established in 1946 as the successor to the wartime
the success of Dixon of Dock Green police procedural
Ministry of Information, was closed. There would be no
serials began to appear on television with great
more 'public information' films in the cinema, but
regularity. 1961's Jacks and Knaves paved the way for
television would borrow from the genre for a few more
regional crime series' rather than them being based
years.
solely in London.
The first ever British made filmed series, shot in 1954 by
Trinity Productions for the BBC and consisting of 39 black
and white episodes, Fabian of Scotland Yard has been
described as Britain's first generation of the TV detective.
To give it credibility, the series was (once again) based on
real crimes, or stories from police files from Scotland
Yard and in particular (or so it was alleged) on the
investigations of former celebrated Yard detective Robert
Fabian. Fabian was played in each episode by Bruce
Seton but the real-life Fabian turned up at the end of
each episode to round it off similar in style to George
The scripted crime shows that we watch on our TV's
today owe much to television's early uncertainty,
experimentation and innovation and a combination of
styles which were forged in the 1950s and reached
fruition in the 1960s. And since then, the genre which is
arguably the most durable of them all, has continued to
develop and will no doubt continue to do so.
Laurence Marcus - 2014
Link:(http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2011/07/blue-lamp-1950.html Guy Savage )
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Corrie - The Changing Face of the Cobbles
by Amanda Thomas
Over the years there has been blood and just about every other bodily fluid on the cobbles of
Coronation Street. It has come a long way since it started in 1960 as a story about hard working
Northern folk. At that time it was very much a trendsetter and an innovation in the new genre of Soap
The Coronation Street Golden Anniversary
Collection is available from
Amazon UK. The complete
Coronation Street
anthology, featuring all the
pinnacle moments of life on
the cobbles. The ultimate
collector's box set,
celebrating the past 50
years on Coronation Street,
this very special box set
includes the following
programmes: The Stars of
the Street--50 Classic
Characters, the very first
episode, 30 other key and
ground-breaking episodes
featuring familiar faces
young and old, including the
most memorable episode
when Prince Charles was on
set, six Coronation Street
family albums, Corrie
Controversies, eight special
programmes focusing on
different families and events
central to the past 50 years
and The Street Undressed.
Click on the box cover to
purchase directly and have
it delivered to your door in a
day.
Opera’s that many of us have come to rely on for our entertainment.
For twenty years Corrie had the stage to itself and concentrated on its trademark stories of the every
day life of working class folk. The biggest changes to ‘The Street’ came as a result of the introduction
of other soaps such as Ch 4’s Brookside in 1982 and the introduction of EastEnders, the BBC’s prime
time offering, three years later.
Now the soap suds were being frothed up with gritty story lines from Corrie’s rivals and the old
cobbled favourite regularly saw itself being washed out in the ratings war. Where rival soaps touched
on current and often controversial topics Corrie was seen as old fashioned and behind the times.
Towards the end of the 80’s major changes were made on the cobbled streets with everything from
the set and production techniques being overhauled. Old Corrie dependables like Deidre Barlow
scandalised audiences by having an affair with Mike Baldwin while Rita Fairclough suffered
psychological abuse at the hands of Alan Bradley who got his comeuppance under the wheels of a
Blackpool tram. There was a fire at the Rovers and to end the decade the murder of Brian Tilsley.
Corrie had thrown down the gauntlet.
Criticism, however, followed Coronation Street into the 1990’s and this time it was for the fact that it
was not representative of ethnic minorities. Nevertheless it was not until the end of the decade that
the first regular ethnic family, the Desai’s, appeared on the street. Nowadays there is a natural mix of
ethnic groups on Corrie that adds to the realism, especially given that it is set in Manchester a city that
has a wide diversity of culture.
These days there is no doubt that the storylines that enthral us on Corrie are often more typical of the
problems that people encounter in every day life. In one storyline Haley Cropper died of pancreatic
cancer, and there are storylines involving gay and lesbian characters and the endless affairs of the
different men and women whom we invite into our homes regularly. The fight for ratings goes on
between Coronation Street and EastEnders and Yorkshire Dales offering, Emmerdale as well as
newcomers like Hollyoaks. But for all that Coronation Street is the longest running soap on our
screens with storylines that embrace the youngest to the oldest of the street’s characters and with
more excitement and intrigue than any self-respecting soap addict could shake a stick at.
Now as we look forward to what our soap characters will get up to next, there is no doubt that Corrie
will still have its loyal viewers tuning in for their five episode a week fix. Far from entertainment
cobbled together we hope it will be Corrie cobbles forever!
17
About the writer of this article:
Onome Okwuosa is an
experienced and dedicated
Journalist/Writer/Blogger/Copy
writer/Editor/Proof reader and
Author with over 5 years of
experience spent in the
industry. From her published
articles you will see that Onome
creates engaging and
compelling articles that show a
true passion for the subject
matter - no matter the subject.
The dark places technology can take a nation
The best of dystopian dramas: Black Mirror and Utopia by Onome Okwuosa
Visit Onome's blog at http://
onomeokwuosa.wordpress.com
/author/onomeokwuosa/
The future’s on its way and according to the Black
Mirror series and the first season of Utopia, she
doesn’t look too pretty. Satirical and dark they’ve
topped every ‘Best Of’ list for modern dramas and
it’s easy to see why. Both the Black Mirror
collection and Utopia offer clever takes on the dark
places technology can take a nation without it
resulting in a crapsack wasteland where everyone’s
scavenging for food and resources.
Utopia -The future’s already here
Utopia and Black Mirror are
available from Amazon Uk (click
either of the DVD covers to be
directed to Amazon.uk.uk
Dennis Kelly, best known for his part in creating
and writing the hit comedy series Pulling with
Sharon Horgan, sends an unlikely band of merry
men, women and children on the run from the
ominous organisation, known only as The Network.
A misfit group of comic book enthusiasts who meet
in an online chat group decide to get together to
discuss the second instalment of the comic when
everything goes haywire. A member of their group is
murdered by a pair of psychotic assassins and it’s
up to the rest of them to unravel the secrets within
the manuscript and how on earth they’re going to
stay alive.
The Network have their finger in every pie; politics,
food production, science - basically all the places
where you’d want the nice, wholesome folk to be
signing on the dotted line before it hits the shelves.
Instead, they’re hiding the truth, manipulating CCTV
footage so no one can trust that they actually know
anything. Touching on genocide, disease
manufacturing and nuclear warfare veiled as natural
disasters, the series points a finger at the world
around us and dares the viewer to have an opinion.
The interwoven storylines tumble over each other
effortlessly, and the characters and all that they
represent do an amazing job of powering the drama
forward. Kelly doesn’t mind turning school girls into
killers when it’s in the name of revenge. He’ll no
doubt have you feeling sorry for Grant (Oliver
Woollford) the eleven year old poo-palming ASBO.
Sure the little guy’s not the sweetest thing but no
one deserves to be framed for mass murder. He
turns nearly the whole cast and what they stand for
on their heads by dragging them through the scenes
of this dark drama.
Ian, the loveable geek played by Nathan StewartJarett is soon the opposite of his former self. Take
away Ian’s family and all that he once loved and
yup, he’ll become a gun toting ready to torture kinda
guy. Alexandra Roach playing the fierce, cold
hearted Becky with a warm-ish heart is impressive
alongside Fiona O’Shaughnessy, who tackles the
‘hardened by a life of murder’ Jessica Hyde
character with ease.
It’s Arby the lumbering oaf that’ll have your neurons
tingling throughout the series, is he a bad acting
goodie or good intentioned bad guy? Bred like
Jessica for the life of murder, how do you hate on
the guy who just wants to get to know his daddy,
even if it is one bullet at a time? Breaking and
entering, kidnapping and eye plucking all set in
modern day London makes this dark drama a
dystopian nightmare.
(continued…)
18
Ghostwatch (1992)
On Halloween night in 1992,
the BBC broadcast a one-off
supernatural drama as part of
its Screen One series. Presented as a live investigation into a
supposedly haunted suburban
London house, Ghostwatch
used familiar real-life TV presenters including Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene and Mike
Smith to lull viewers into a
false sense of security as the
story crept towards a terrifying
and uncompromising conclusion. Although billed as a drama (penned by Stephen Volk,
who would later write the
critically acclaimed series Afterlife) many viewers were
fooled into thinking they were
watching actual events, and
there was much furore and
discussion in the days following about the Ghostwatch
“hoax”. To this day, the programme has never been repeated by the BBC.
‘Taking a stab at where bio-technology and its
capabilities will be heading’
Black Mirror - Our dark reflections?
Charlie Brooker carries on with the dreaded
‘dystopian future is already here’ with the first
instalment of his Black Mirror series, National
Anthem. When a member of the royal family is
kidnapped the Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear) is
called on to be a national hero. Only to save her life,
he has to get his love on with a pig live for the world
to see. It’s a ‘would you rather’ of epic proportions
and a brilliant way to set the ball rolling for the
series.
Taking a stab at where bio-technology and its
capabilities will be heading is what Jesse
Armstrong and Charlie Brooker attempt in The
Entire History Of You. Dumbledore’s Pensieve
meets Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind with the
Grain, a chip that gets inserted on the brain’s hard
drive. Things take a turn for the worst when cheating
and slimy exes rear their ugly heads. Liam (Toby
Kebbell) is turned into a heart-crushed sleuth,
hunting through his wife’s mind to unearth the truth
and looking in his own to salve his painful
memories. An emotional reflection on how there is
such a thing as having too much on the brain.
Be Right Back sees Ash (Domhnall Gleeson) killed
in a tragic car accident, leaving his wife Martha
(Hayley Atwell) to piece together her broken heart.
Put onto a service that takes Ash’s social
networking activity, adds a few tweaks and
algorithms and Martha gets a not quite artificially
intelligent rendition of her husband. Is it ethical
reincarnation or questionable robotics? When the
Ash-bot stops being the emotional band aid Martha
needs, she turns into a plotting widow/wife leading
to tears at cliff edges and all sorts.
The Black Mirror series will keep you captivated
through every episode in much the same way
Utopia did as it casts a shade on desire; getting
what you want only to wish you’d never asked for it.
As both of the dystopian dramas are set to add to
their instant cult classics this year, eager fans might
want to remind themselves of just how good they
were.
19
It’s The Brits in
America
It is now a fact that British
television has become
extremely popular with
American audiences. There are
many British television shows
screened in the states
including the likes of Downton
Abbey, Sherlock, Doctor Who
and Luther, but the question
we have to ask is why they are
popular and why are so many
being screened? Is it because
they are perceived as being
‘different’ and therefore a
novelty or is it something
much deeper, in that the
shows are of a higher quality
with better scripts and acting?
Many all of these are right to
assume, one thing is for sure
though and that is Americans
love British television.
Many television shows
originating in Britain have had
a significant impact in America
and one of them is Downton
Abbey, originally aired on ITV
in Britain, Americans can now
enjoy this programme over on
PBS. The appeal of Downton
Abbey most probably is due to
the fact that it is a period
drama and deals with the
British aristocracy. Coupled
with this is the fantastic writing
of Julian Fellows and a stellar
cast led by Maggie Smith so
you are onto a winner to begin
with.
Many of the popular British
programmes are also
incredibly passionate and tell a
well written story, you only
have to look at Doctor Who,
the longest running Science
Fiction programme in
television’s history to realise
that this is why the Americans
love it so much, it is a universal
story. You will also get the
whole family to sit down
together to watch it,
something of a rarity these
days.
DISNEYLAND: HOW WALT DISNEY MARRIED THE ENEMY
By Mike Spadoni
In the late 1940's and the early 1950's, the fastgrowing medium of television had a mortal enemy:
The movie studios. Week after week, month after
month, year after year, studio executives watched
box office receipts drop as more Americans bought
those funny-looking boxes with the wires and tubes,
and sat down to watch every night. Television was
dismissed as a “fad” in the early years; the studio
heads were confident people would head back to
the local theatres. They didn’t.
Slowly, very slowly, the studios started to make
tentative moves toward peace with the opposition.
Some of the smaller studios began producing shows
for television; others leased or sold their film
libraries to local stations. But it would take Walt
Disney to show the industry that television could
benefit from a little movie magic–and vice versa.
He realized that television could provide the answer.
A successful series could add new revenues to the
company and allow him to build his complex. Disney
went to NBC first, and proposed a series in exchange
for financial help on the amusement park. NBC said
no. CBS was approached next; another rejection.
Finally, Disney went hat in hand to Leonard
Goldenson, whose United Paramount Theaters
chain had just merged with the perennial also-ran
American Broadcasting Company. The UPT-ABC
marriage did create a stronger company, but ABC
was clearly a weak third in television–ahead of the
soon-to-depart DuMont Television Network, but far
behind CBS and NBC in viewers and affiliates that
could carry its programmes.
By early 1954, ABC had no series among the top 25
programmes, and less than two dozen primary
Disney’s studio was not one of the biggest at the
affiliates; stations affiliated with one of the other
time (its films were distributed by the now defunct
networks carried ABC’s line-up as an afterthought.
RKO), but he was among the first studio heads to see But Disney’s overtures came at the right time:
the potential of television. In 1950, Disney created a Goldenson’s background in film made him realize
holiday special for NBC called One Hour In
that it didn’t matter if a show was broadcast live or
Wonderland, which used plenty of Disney footage
on film; if people liked it, they would watch. And he
from his various animated features. It was a hit and knew a series with the Disney name would be an
all of the networks wanted Disney to create a weekly instant draw for families. A deal was struck, where
series for them.
ABC would buy 20 episodes of the new Disney show,
in exchange for 35 percent ownership of the
By this time, Disney was obsessed with the creation
amusement park. (Goldenson also agreed to pay
of his dream amusement complex, where parents
$500 thousand dollars to Disney; and helped secure
and children could enjoy themselves together. After
additional funding by guaranteeing Disney’s bank
years of studying the idea, visiting other complexes
loans.)
around the world, and endless research, Disney
purchased 160 acres of orange groves and walnut
Although 20 episodes was a small number compared
trees in Anaheim, California, a quiet community in
with the 39 episodes most series produced in a
Orange County, just south of Los Angeles. But while season, the Disney crew was determined to create
his new amusement park was taking shape, the
new material for the television show–in addition to
company was expanding into live action films and
using the many cartoons and other material from
other ventures. Soon, it became apparent that
the studio’s archives.
Disney would need help to finance his dream park.
continued...
20
It’s The Brits in America
(continued)
This then leads us on to considering how BBC America has revolutionised American television
and in turn has had a great influence upon how Americans view
television with the massive influx of British programmes. BBC
America state on their website
that they offer the best in British
entertainment and you can’t
really argue with this when they
broadcast Doctor Who.
In the 1960s British television
invaded America and the same is
happening today with the introduction of both BBC America
and the likes of Netflix. In truth
many of the broadcasting networks are now showcasing British talent. There is a tendency
now for American audiences to
enjoy British shows rather than
been embraced,
There is also a need now for high
quality and well written dramas
have become bored of all the
reality shows that are being
aired and shows made in Britain
can offer this for the American
audience. This has been clearly
shown by the enormous popularity of Sherlock in the States
shown on PBS. Another consideration is that popular British
series such as Downton Abbey
and Sherlock have relatively
short seasons and this perhaps
creates a stronger cast with
more edge and stronger storylines as more time is available to
craft them.
Therefore British television programmes are absolutely rife in
America with audiences accepting and enjoying them with huge
viewer ratings to prove this.
Television at the end of the day
is there to entertain and it has
now been proved that British
television made programmes
can do so in America.
Karolina Wage - 2014
‘Executives believed the kids would not only control
viewing for the “family hour,” but would fight mom and
dad if they wanted to switch the channel’
ABC quickly found multiple sponsors for the new
show, to be called Disneyland: It secured familyfriendly advertisers such as Swift Foods, Peter Pan
Peanut Butter, the American Dairy Association–and
the newly formed American Motors, which built
Nash, Hudson and Rambler cars and Kelvinator
appliances. ABC was also clever in scheduling
Disneyland. At the time, most network programmes
started at 8:00 PM; the 7:30-8:00 half-hour was filled
mostly with news programmes and 15-minute
variety shows by such artists as Perry Como. ABC
decided to start Disneyland at 7:30 PM on
Wednesday nights, to get a jump on the other
networks. Executives believed the kids would not
only control viewing for the “family hour,” but would
fight mom and dad if they wanted to switch the
channel to CBS’ Arthur Godfrey And His Friends or
NBC’s I Married Joan in the middle of Disneyland.
The critics gushed over Disneyland (“It’s here and it’s
wonderful!” wrote one pundit) but more
importantly, the kids watched. Disneyland
immediately gave ABC its first top ten series since
the early seasons of The Lone Ranger. What’s more,
CBS and NBC affiliates in cities that had no ABC
station carried Disneyland. Arthur Godfrey’s former
top ten programme started sliding in the ratings,
while I Married Joan was cancelled in 1955.
Meanwhile, Disneyland would hit another peak on
December 15th, 1954, when it aired the first
instalment of a somewhat sanitized version of the
life and times of frontiersman, soldier and politician
Davy Crockett. With a young actor named Fess
Parker in the title role, and a pre- Beverly Hillbillies
Buddy Ebsen as his friend George Russel, Davy
Crockett Indian Fighter was a smash hit. Two more
instalments aired in January and February 1955:
On October 27th, 1954, ABC aired the first episode
Davy Crockett Goes To Congress and Davy Crockett
of Disneyland – which was called The Disneyland
at the Alamo. (Historians say Crockett died in the
Story, as Walt Disney provided viewers with an
Battle of the Alamo in 1835; the Disney version
overview of his new amusement park (which was
showed the soldier going to battle but did not hint of
under construction) and the various “lands” within
the outcome.) In any case, the Crockett programmes
the park (“Fantasyland,” “Adventureland,”
spawned a massive demand for coonskin caps in
“Tomorrowland” and “Frontierland”) – which all
both the US and the UK; the show’s theme song “The
happened to be the segments making up the new
Ballad of Davy Crockett” was recorded by several
Disneyland series. It was one of the first examples of different artists (Fess Parker among them); three of
what would be called “synergy” - one medium
the versions hit the U.S. Top Ten. And in a move that
promoting another, and vice versa. The television
generated additional profits for the studio, Disney
show sparked interest in the theme park, and the
edited the three Davy Crockett shows into a
park would help promote the weekly series. It also
theatrical movie that was released worldwide.
served as a platform to promote Disney’s upcoming
Because only 20 episodes of Disneyland were
theatrical films; a “documentary” on the filming of
produced for the initial 1954-55 season, ABC filled
the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea helped
out the 52-week television season by immediately
boost attendance and earned Disney’s first-ever
repeating all 20 shows, then chose the 13 best to air
Emmy award. (Today, the “documentary” would be
a third time. Surprisingly, the Davy Crockett episodes
known as an “infomercial”.)
actually rose in the ratings, and the repeats didn’t do
much worse than the original shows–proving the
viability of reruns.
continued...
21
About writer of this article:
Mike Spadoni began as a
news reporter/writer in Las
Vegas and was promoted to
chief position in 2004. He
was responsible for gathering
and writing news for morning
and mid-day distribution to
member stations.
He has been writing for
Television Heaven for over a
decade now and his
knowledge of US television
programmes, the people
behind it and US TV history is
informative, educational and
is delivered in an easy to
read, pleasing style which is
enjoyed by thousands of site
visitors each month.
He regularly kept visitors up
to date with the latest US TV
news in his column ‘Mike
Spadoni’s View from
America’ for many years.
Mike is an important part of
the Television Heaven family.
A special presentation of four
Disneyland television specials The Disneyland Story, Dateline
Disneyland, Operation
Disneyland, Disneyland After
Dark - plus The Disneyland 10th
Anniversary Show, all originally
broadcast between 1955 and
1970, and hosted by Walt Disney
himself. Also includes additional
archival footage of Disneyland's
opening day and other rare
materials. (UK readers note: The
above is only available from
amazon.co.uk on Import from
the USA)
”To all who come to this happy place - welcome. Disneyland
is your land.”
On July 17th, 1955, the park that spawned the
television series finally opened for business to a
large, invited crowd. “Dateline: Disneyland” aired
live on ABC, hosted by Art Linkletter, Ronald Reagan
and Bob Cummings. Disney himself dedicated the
new project:
“To all who come to this happy place - welcome.
Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond
memories of the past and here youth may savour the
challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is
dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard
facts that have created America... with the hope that
it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the
world.”
Disney-ABC ventures. The Mickey Mouse Club
(1955-59) was a weekday afternoon show that
introduced the “Mouseketeers” to American youth
(Annette Funicello was probably the best-loved and
most remembered cast member). Then there was
Zorro (1957-1959), a prime time adventure show
about a swashbuckling masked hero in 19th century
California.
By 1958, Disneylandwas still a hit and adopted a
new name: Walt Disney Presents. Disney wisely
produced many of the shows in colour, even though
ABC was unable to broadcast in colour. It proved to
be a bone of contention between Disney and the
network; ABC simply couldn’t afford the equipment
to broadcast colour programming at the time. There
But what was known as the “International Press
were simply not enough colour TV sets in consumer
Preview” nearly backfired: Counterfeit tickets
hands to make the cost worthwhile; and despite
ensured a very crowded park. All major roads in the
improving ratings and a growing number of affiliates,
area were congested. Many of the drinking fountains
ABC was still barely making its payroll and monthly
were not operating due to a plumber’s strike–on a
bills.
day where temperatures reached 101 degrees! The
asphalt had been poured the night before, but it was In 1961, NBC executives lured Disney’s anthology
so soft women wearing high-heels found their shoes series to the Peacock Network–with the promise
sinking into the pavement. Food supplies ran out. A that it would be shown in colour. (Since NBC’s
gas leak in Fantasyland caused other portions of the parent company at the time was electronics maker
park to close for the afternoon. And parents even
RCA, the network was making a major colour push
actually threw their kids over the shoulders of
on its line-up to help sell RCA colour sets.) If
crowds to get them onto a number of rides! News
Disneyland was an early commercial for the theme
media pundits gave the project a thumbs down, but park, the new NBC series–retitled Walt Disney’s
reporters were given a private tour of the park by
Wonderful World Of Color – would drum home the
Disney himself the following day. And when the
“need” for everyone to buy a colour set. In fact, the
public was allowed into Disneyland on July 18th, it
very first NBC episode introduced a new Disney
proved to be an instant hit, grossing ten million
animated character–Professor Ludwig Von Drake
dollars after its first year of operation. Disney
(the bumbling uncle of the famed Donald Duck) – to
eventually worked out the kinks, and Disneyland
explain how colour broadcasting worked. The new
was an unqualified success story. But by 1960,
Wonderful World of Color was a solid top-20 hit for
Disney bought out ABC’s share.
NBC, becoming a Sunday night institution.
The success of the Disneyland series led to two more
continued...
22
An American Classic?
”With funds low, ‘Wonderful World of Disney’ began relying
more heavily on repeats .”
An acronym for California
Highway Patrol this US copseries starred Erik Estrada
as devil-may-care Officer
Francis 'Ponch' Poncherello
and Larry Wilcox as the
more down to earth Officer
Jonathan Baker. Together
the twosome patrolled (on
motorbikes) the highways
and byways around the
vast Los Angeles freeway
system where the action
was divided between
enforcing the law and
eyeing the City of Angels'
foxy ladies. Typical of its
time the series downplayed
the violent aspect of a
policeman's lot to
concentrate on the 'human
interest' and humorous
elements of their work
although the action was
beefed up with autocrashes galore. Estrada fell
out with the studio over
pay and was replaced by
former Olympic decathlon
champion Bruce Jenner as
Officer Steve McLeish, but
this proved a temporary
absence and Estrada
returned. However, Wilcox
then left permanently
(rumour has it the two
stars never saw eye to eye)
and in 1983 the series was
cancelled. Michael Dorn,
who would go on to find
success in Star Trek: The
Next Generation starred as
Officer Turner from
1979 to 1982.
Walt Disney continued to host the show, making him
as familiar to viewers as Ed Sullivan and Lucille Ball.
But when Disney died in 1966, he was not replaced;
instead, a voice-over announcer would introduce the
show and its varied segments. By this time, World Of
Color aired various specials from Disneyland, Disneyproduced films, cartoons and cute short films about
humans and animals. By 1969, the series was
renamed The Wonderful World of Disney, but the
studio was having problems with its bread-andbutter theatrical films; its focus on family-oriented
comedies and cartoons proved to be no match for
the more sophisticated films coming out from the
major studios.
With funds low, Wonderful World of Disney began
relying more heavily on repeats from earlier
programmes and cartoons from the Disney vault.
Adult viewers began tuning out and checking the
competition such as ABC’s crime drama The FBI. In
the fall of 1975, “Disney” was moved to an earlier
time slot on Sundays, as part of the Federal
Communications Commission’s short-lived “Family
Hour” regulations that required programmes for
general audiences between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM on
Sunday nights.
“Disney” was the gold standard for family viewing,
and was designed with the new FCC rules in mind.
But the agency also allowed news and public affairs
in the time slot, and that’s what CBS turned to when
its family drama Three For The Road died a quick
death against “Disney.” CBS simply moved its
Sunday afternoon news magazine 60 Minutes to fill
the slot, and the show quickly captured an adult
audience against Disney and kidvid programmes on
ABC.
Within a few years, 60 Minutes was the top-rated
series on television–beating out every other prime
time programme. NBC tried to freshen the nowaging anthology in 1979 with a new name: Disney’s
Wonderful World. But it was the same old wine with
a new label. By 1981, NBC finally cut the Disney
anthology loose; CBS picked up the show with yet
another name change--Walt Disney – and moved it
to Saturday nights. It lasted for two more seasons.
While ratings were marginal, the decision to drop
the Disney anthology came from the studio itself,
not CBS. In early 1983, the company finally moved
into the cable television game with The Disney
Channel – and it feared the CBS series would take
viewers that would normally watch the new familyfriendly cable offering. When Walt Disney went off
the air, it had run on all three major networks for a
total of 29 seasons – one of the longest-running
anthologies in American television history (only the
Hallmark Hall of Fame, which airs as occasional
made-for-television films, has had a longer run).
When Michael Eisner took over The Walt Disney
Company in 1984, he quickly shook the sleepy
entertainment giant out from its Sleeping Beautylike slumber of mediocre films and low earnings. One
of his early moves was reinstating the Disney
anthology–this time with Eisner as host–on ABC in
1986 (now renamed the Disney Sunday Movie). Two
years later, ABC’s option with Disney was not
renewed and the movie night went to NBC, where it
ran through 1990.
Eisner was a programmer at ABC during the 1960's
and 1970's–and soon became its owner. In 1985,
ABC was purchased by Capital Cities
Communications, a very successful owner of
television stations, newspapers and magazines. In
1996, The Walt Disney Company purchased Capital
Cities-ABC; soon after, the Disney anthology
returned to its original network home. Today, it airs
as an occasional special on ABC, featuring Disney
films – both theatrical and made for television.
Walt Disney indeed made his mark on television; by
the fall of 1955, studios such as Warner Brothers,
MGM and 20th Century Fox began producing series
for television – not only on ABC, but on the other
networks. The long-standing feud between the film
studios and television was coming to an end, as each
realized it could benefit from the other. Disney also
showed the world a well-run theme park could be a
major hit; and proved the effectiveness of crosspromotion.
And all it took was a little Disney magic to help
make it happen.
23
Fawlty Towers (1975–1979)
Remaking a Classic - how Steptoe and Son became
Sanford and Son
Having secured its place as a
British comedy classic, it’s
sometimes easy to forget that
the entire run of Fawlty
Towers amounts to only
twelve episodes – the first
series of six episodes
broadcast in 1975 followed by
a second six-part series in
1979. With a variety of overthe-top characters and scenery
-chewing performances, the
comedy is rarely subtle … but
that may be what gives Fawlty
Towers its appeal and its
longevity. At its best it is an old
-fashioned stage farce,
presenting us with the
broadest of characters in
increasingly ridiculous
situations. Watch it, enjoy it.
Just don’t mention the war.
Included in Time Magazine's 2007 list of "100 Best
Shows of All Time", Sanford and Son was based on
the BBC Galton and Simpson sitcom Steptoe and
Son. However, had a plan to make an American
version of the award winning Britcom come to
fruition as early as 1964, Sanford and Son as we
now know it might never have been made.
In the UK, by 1964 Steptoe and Son had already
secured its place in television history winning
awards for the series itself, the actors Harry H.
Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell, and the scriptwriters
Alan Simpson and Ray Galton. Lauded by critics and
fans alike, the original scripts had been adapted for
radio and Pye Records had released a series of bestselling albums. The stars themselves had been
enticed to the big screen, Corbett making the
Galton and Simpson penned The Bargee, and
Brambell, perhaps more famously, appearing as
Paul McCartney's granddad in what was then seen
as the ground-breaking pop-culture movie A Hard
Day's Night. Such was the British series’ high profile
that a US film producer, Joseph E. Levine, founder
of Embassy Pictures, decided to invest in a pilot
episode for NBC. The US remake (for that’s exactly
what it was) was to retain its British title and two
actors were cast for the roles of Harold and Albert:
Aldo Ray and Lee Tracy respectively. The setting for
the series was Chicago. In spite of filming the pilot,
it was never shown on US television. Despite that,
Levine retained the rights for an American version
right up until 1971. Even before then, discussions
took place to try another pilot, this time for Screen
Gems, but the programme makers could not make
up their minds on how to best portray the
characters. “We spent two months writing a pilot.”
Said Alan Simpson. “But they couldn’t cast it. They
said it was too ethnic and didn’t know where to set
it. 'We can't set it in New York - they'd be Italian or
Jewish. We can't set it in Chicago - they'd be Italian,
too. We can't set it in Los Angeles, they'd be
Mexicans. So it's a bit of a problem, really.' The
writers suggested they do it with an all-black cast.
“They said, 'that’s a wonderful idea but if they are
poverty stricken the network won’t wear it. Black
people have to be doctors or lawyers.'”
In 1971 US TV producer
Norman Lear took up
the relinquished rights
to the show. Lear had
previously created a
huge hit out of another
British sitcom; Till
Death Us Do Part which
he took to America and adapted as All In The
Family. In Archie Bunker America had an iconic
television character. Now Lear was on the lookout
for another series that would duplicate this success.
Lear set about making a pilot starring Bernard
Hughes and Paul Sorvino. But like the previous pilot
in 1964, this one was also considered a failure and
never aired. Nevertheless, Lear persevered and
decided to rewrite the characters as a black father
and son and set it in Los Angeles. When Galton and
Simpson told him that's what they'd suggested in
1967 they were told "Ah, but you couldn't do that
then. You can now."
24
A Cult Classic to buy on
DVD:
Remaking a Classic...
Redd Foxx had seen his salary increase from $15,000
to $20,000 a week but was still unhappy that he was,
in his opinion, being underpaid. When the producers
refused his demands for an increase Foxx became
belligerent.
Children of the Stones
(1977)
Children of the Stones was a
particularly haunting highlight of a period that was, in
many ways, a golden age for
children’s TV drama. This
seven-part series sees young
Matthew Brake and his astrophysicist father (played
by a pre-Blake’s 7 Gareth
Thomas) arrive in the peaceful village of Milbury. Over
the course of the series, the
story explores the village’s
ancient stone circle and
Druidic past, a power from
beyond the stars and the
sinister brainwashing of the
villagers. Building claustrophobically to a thoughtprovoking finale, it’s a series
that, once seen, you will find
hard to forget. It’s easy to
see why Stewart Lee, narrating a 2012 radio documentary about the show’s lasting
appeal, described it as “the
scariest programme ever
made for children”.
He began missing rehearsals and eventually
recordings-calling in sick, until the show was forced
into reruns. The writers wrote him out of the series
for sixteen episodes while the producers took out an
injunction on him to stop him working for anyone
else. They then hit him with a ten million dollar
Actor Redd Foxx was cast as Fred G. Sanford, a 65lawsuit. Foxx began drinking heavily, gambling and
year-old widower and junk dealer living at 9114 S.
playing around with different women. His wife of 19
Central Avenue in the Watts neighbourhood of South
years walked out on him and filed for divorce.
Central Los Angeles, California; alongside Desmond
Eventually, Foxx relented on the contract demands,
Wilson as his 30-year-old son, Lamont Sanford. Foxx
the producers dropped the legal action and he
portrayed Sanford as a sarcastic, irascible schemer
returned at a time when the series ratings were
whose frequent get-rich-quick ideas routinely
falling drastically. But with the star of the show back
backfire. Like his British counterpart, when things
on board Sanford and Son's fortunes turned round
were not going well for Fred he'd feign a heart attack
and Foxx eventually got his increase as well as a share
- 15 before the end of the first episode! He made a
in the profits of the series.
catchphrase out of his announcement to his long
deceased wife "I'm coming Elizabeth, I'm coming. This
is the big one!" In his more melancholy moments he'd
make long speeches to Elizabeth but in his more
aggressive moods he'd take up the stance of a fighter,
clenching his fists in the face of authority and
muttering: "How would you like one across your
lips?" His son Lamont longs for independence, but, as
in the British version in the same way that Harold
Steptoe feels about Albert Steptoe, Lamont loves his
father too much to move out on his own and leave
the trouble-prone Fred unsupervised. Though each
owns an equal share in the business Fred is the boss,
Lamont often finds himself doing all the work. Fred
often insults his son, usually calling him a "big
dummy." Lamont also insults his father, referring to
him as an "old fool." However, the two share a close
By 1976, with a number of familiar places having
bond and regularly come to each other's aid. Unlike
departed Sanford and Son, a clutch of new faces was
the British series Sanford and Son is not a twodrafted in. The final programme in the series,
hander and a regular supporting cast would often
broadcast Friday 2 September 1977, ended with
infringe on the two central figures. Ray Galton
admitted: 'Our contribution to Sanford and Son was Lamont getting engaged to his sweetheart, Janet. The
wedding was planned as the opening episode of the
very limited. The first series was something like 14
following season. But it never came about. Redd Foxx
programmes, 11 of which were based on our show.
had made a firm commitment to a variety show for
But after that it was turned into a gang show. They
ABC, informing NBC, quite unceremoniously, that he
brought in aunties, friends, next-door neighbours...'
would not be available for another season of Sanford
First airing on 14 January 1972, as a mid-season
and Son. NBC decided to continue the series
replacement to Jack Webb’s failed show The D.A.,
promoting Desmond Wilson to solo star status but
Sanford and Son was an instant hit with US
this led to another pay dispute. With the prospect of
audiences. After its first 13 episodes, the show was
becoming the main star of Sanford and Son Wilson
picked up for another season. By its second season,
demanded a huge increase in wages that NBC simply
the show ranked number two behind All in the
felt was more than he was worth. Rather than pay
Family in the all-important American TV ratings.
up, NBC simply cancelled the series.
However, by the end of the third season, there were
already problems brewing behind the scenes.
25
Doctor Who – The Beginning
(1963–1964)
Remaking a Classic...
However, NBC were still keen to continue with the
Sanford franchise, especially as the show was still doing
well in the ratings when it was cancelled. To this end,
they created a spin-off. The Sanford Arms took some
of Sanford and Son's best-loved supporting characters
and promoted them to the forefront in a sitcom that
found them running the Sanford Arms hotel. NBC were
hoping that fans loyal to Sanford and Son would tune
in and make the new show a hit. The series aired just
two weeks after the last episode of Sanford and Son. It
was off the air in less than a month. Determined not to
write the franchise off completely, NBC enticed Redd
Foxx back as Fred Sanford, but Desmond Wilson, still in
dispute over salary, did not return. The series lasted for
Today Doctor Who has a
greater international appeal
than ever, with millions of fans
in countries all across the
globe. But here’s where it all
started. The BBC’s “The Beginning” box set presents the
mysterious Time Lord’s three
earliest televised adventures:
An Unearthly Child, The Daleks
and The Edge of Destruction.
These thirteen episodes take
us from our very first meeting
with the strange time traveller
to Earth’s ancient past, then
the alien world of Skaro, before exploring a short tale of
creeping paranoia on board
the TARDIS itself. Needless to
say, it’s the middle story that’s
the most engaging here –
during the original seven-week
run of The Daleks, viewing
figures almost doubled, Dalekmania was born, and the
course was firmly set for the
next fifty years of children
screeching “EXTERMINATE!”
at each other in the playground.
three short seasons before the Sanford franchise finally
came to a close in 1981. Redd Foxx passed away in
1991. During a break in rehearsals for his last sitcom,
The Royal Family, he had a heart attack. The rest of the
cast and crew thought he was doing his classic routine
from Sanford and Son. But sadly, this time 'the big one'
had come for real. Foxx never regained consciousness.
Sanford and Son remains one of the most beloved
sitcoms in American television history successfully
crossing any racial barriers to be enjoyed by all
audiences. When a US version of Steptoe and Son was
first suggested in the 1960s the BBC said they would
never show any other version other than the original.
To this day Sanford and Son has never aired in the UK.
Marc Saul 2013
Twenty Questions to Test Your (classic) TV Knowledge:
1.
Which soap opera briefly returned to ITV in 2001 after a thirteen-year absence?
2.
What was the name of the paranoid android in the Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy?
3.
What is Geraldine Grainger better known as?
4.
Who played Prunella Scales' long-suffering daughter in the Tesco TV commercials?
5.
What was Gambit's first name in The New Avengers?
6.
In which sitcom would you find the character Patrick Glover?
7.
Who narrated Tales of the Riverbank?
8.
Who provided the voice of Captain Scarlet?
9.
...And what BBC detective series did the actor star in?
10.
Who co-wrote Fawlty Towers with John Cleese?
11.
Which game show was introduced, "From Norwich, it's the quiz of the week..."?
12.
What was TV's noughts and crosses quiz-game called?
13.
Julian Lloyd-Webber's 'Variations' is used as the theme on which arts programme?
14.
What was the name of Nellie Boswell's only daughter in the sitcom Bread?
15.
Which BBC 'family' was named after the BBCTV studios where it was shot?
16.
What was the name of the Soothsayer in Up Pompeii?
17.
Who told contestants that they are the weakest link?
18.
If it's Friday and it's five-to-five then what must it be?
19.
What was the name of the Coronation Street Character played by Arthur Lowe?
20.
What was the name of Hyacinth Bucket's long-suffering husband?
This third issue of Teletronic will be the last monthly issue. From this issue Teletronic will be published every
four months. The next issue will be published September 2014.
Article writers this issue: Frank Collins, Anome Akwuosa, Tim Rands, Mike Spadoni, Josh Turner, Derek
Thompson, Amanda Thomas, Steven Miscandlon, Karolina Wage.
Millions of thanks to all who contributed to this issue of Teletronic. All articles are copyright of Teletronic and Television Heaven and may not be
reproduced without permission. “Don’t make me angry, you won’t like me when I’m angry” said Dr Banner just before he turned green and
ripped his shirt off, but kept his pants on. How does that work? Okay, good - you’re still reading this bit. If you wish to contact Teletronic or
Television Heaven you can email televisionheaven@hotmail.co.uk or visit the Television Heaven Facebook page and follow tv_heaven on Twitter.
26

page 26 - Teletronic

Transcription

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