Articles by Rob Buckley

About Rob Buckley
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
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Classic TV

Weird old titles: The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries

14 July 2009 Rob Buckley 38 Comments

There was a time when every kid with an imagination and who read books would have known about those young detectives the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. If you were a boy, you read about brothers Frank and Joe Hardy and their intrepid investigations; if you were a girl (or called Rob Buckley), you read about Nancy Drew and her equally intrepid investigations.

And when I say was ‘there was a time’, it was a very long time indeed, since the original books came out in the 1920s and continued to be must-reads into the 90s.

Times have moved on, and there have been attempts to update the books, and dramatise them on TV or even in the movies – Nancy Drew getting the latest movie treatment, a slight pisstake with Nancy as a goody twoshoes struggling with modern teens; Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise are still working on a movie with them as the grown-up Hardy Boys. These updates haven’t been totally successful and the characters are fading somewhat into history.

Back in the 70s, though, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries was the Saturday night show to watch. The show starred teen heart-throb (and future TV show writer) Shaun Cassidy as Joe Hardy, Parker Stevenson (future star of Baywatch and Isaac Asimov’s P.R.O.B.E.) as Frank Hardy and Pamela Sue-Martin (future Fallon on Dynasty) as Nancy Drew (she was replaced towards the end of the second season by Janet Louise Johnson).

The format of the Mysteries was a bit weird. In the first of the show’s three seasons, it alternated each week between the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. By the second season, only three episodes featured Nancy Drew by herself and the rest had her as a ‘guest star’ in the Hardy Boys’ episodes. And by the third season, Nancy Drew was gone altogether, and the show became The Hardy Boys Mysteries.

Whatever you think of the show itself – and you can still catch an episode or two on YouTube (look, here’s one with Melanie Griffiths) – the opening titles for the second two seasons were weird and creepy, as was the theme music. They also quite cleverly managed to add the members of the cast to the then-famous book covers. Over to you weird old title sequence:

Today's Joanna Page

Today’s Joanna Page: Bleak Expectations (the pilot)

14 July 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Well, I mentioned it last week, but thanks to Mark at The British Comedy Guide we have word from Mark Evans himself about who was in the Bleak Expectations pilot and why Joanna Page wasn’t in the series itself:

"Yes, she played Pippa in the pilot. And was excellent. The reason she was not in the series itself was entirely down to availability… It would have been excellent to have had her in the series, but luckily we got the wonderful Susie Kane to play Pippa as she has done fabulously ever since.

The non-broadcast pilot was actually March 2006… then it was a whole year before the first series. Anthony Head wasn’t actually in that pilot – Tom Hollander played Mr Sourquill and Mr Gently Benevolent. Again, it was entirely an availability thing for him not doing the series; again we luckily got the fantastic Mr Head. I think both he and Mr Hollander are superb actors.

James Bachman was still Harry Biscuit, even in the pilot (doubling also with Servewell, Sir Philip’s butler). Thomas was played by Kim Wall; in the first series he became Mark Perry. Again, all availability. I’m a huge Kim Wall fan.

We also had Sophie Thompson as Agnes, Pip’s mother. (In the series played by Celia Imrie.) Once again it’s the whole availability thing. I think Sophie was in Eastenders at that point… but may be wrong. We were very lucky – every time we lost someone from the pilot cast, we found someone just as great to replace them in the series. Oh, and Poppy was played by Kellie Bright, who turned up recently in small parts in Horne and Corden and who is/was Kate Aldridge in The Archers. She, too, was unavailable for the series. Everyone got very, very successful and busy after the pilot. Coincidence? Or just great excuse making so they didn’t have to be in it?"

So there you have it. However, since it’s Today’s Joanna Page, have another picture of Joanna Page filming the third series of Gavin & Stacey:

Sitting Tennant

Monday’s Sitting Tennants from Jaradel, Ms Rullsenberg and Sister Chastity

13 July 2009 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Jaradel's Sitting Tennant (from Casanova)

Rullsenberg's Sitting Tennant
David Tennant at Wimbledon (from Sister Chastity)  

Three pictures of David Tennant in repose to get your juices flowing, today. Enjoy. Captioning continues with Friday’s picture, remember.

  1. Rullsenberg: 39.5
  2. Sister Chastity: 35
  3. Jaradel: 26.5
  4. Rosby: 2.5
  5. Amy: 2
  6. Persephone: 1

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery.

Every photo displayed on Monday (one per person who sends one in) gets a point, with a bonus point if it’s from the latest DT production; the best pic in the stash each week will appear on Friday and get three points.

You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Friday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points.

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 2

Series finale: Torchwood – Children of Earth

13 July 2009 Rob Buckley 21 Comments

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a first. Some thought it impossible, like finding a news outlet that hasn’t mentioned Michael Jackson once in the last week. Some thought it could never happen.

But it has. An episode of Torchwood got a 0 on the Carusometer. It was really, really good.

After the break, let’s discuss how this could have happened and the whole series in spoilery detail: you have been warned, those of you who haven’t watched it yet.

Continue reading “Series finale: Torchwood – Children of Earth”