Classic TV

Classic shows that have almost been forgotten, as well as shows that should probably have been forgotten

The Weekly Play

The Wednesday Play: Romeo and Juliet (1978)

3 October 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Sir John Gielgud in Romeo & Juliet

Since we were talking about youthful suicide pacts very recently, it seems appropriate that this week’s Wednesday Play should be the 1978 BBC production of Romeo & Juliet.

Although it might be tempting to be incredibly awe-struck by the ambition of the BBC’s recent The Hollow Crown season, which this year adapted four of Shakespeare’s history plays – Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 & 2 and Henry V – step back in amazement at the ambition that was the BBC’s seven year-long Television Shakespeare project between 1978 and 1985: a series of adaptations, staged specifically for television, of all 36 First Folio plays, as well as Pericles (but not The Two Noble Kinsmen and Edward III).

Co-productions with the US Time-Life Television, controversially, the plays were originally planned to be staged conventionally in Shakespearean costumes and sets, and to be abridged to fit an allotted length of two and a half hours. However, when it was realised that that would kill most of the tragedies stone dead, the time limit was lifted, even if all the other restrictions were left in place – something that resulted in director Michael Bogdanov resigning from his modern-dress interpretation of Timon of Athens (Jonathan Miller replaced him) when it failed to be appreciated by Time-Life.

The result was a slight reputation of the series being staid and dull productions of the texts. Nevertheless, the project did have virtues, in some cases producing the only ever televised versions of some of Shakespeare’s more obscure plays, such as The Life and Death of King John, which starred Leonard Rossiter in his last screen role. Other notable and surprising actors to appear in the series included Roger Daltrey, Derek Jacobi as Hamlet, Anthony Quayle as Falstaff, Anthony Hopkins as Othello (no really), Bob Hoskins, John Cleese as Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Donald Sinden, Alan Howard as Coriolanus, Laurence Olivier, Brenda Blethyn, Jonathan Pryce, Felicity Kendall, Diana Rigg, John Hurt, Bernard Hill, Zoe Wanamaker and Robert Lindsay.

The plays quickly found love in schools, thanks to the arrival of VHS recorders, and although the BBC only made them available as a set on VHS, they eventually became available individually as well as a collection on DVD.

The 1978 production of Romeo & Juliet, directed by Alvin Rakoff, was the very first of the adaptations. It sees Patrick Ryecart and Rebecca Saire as the star-crossed lovers, and also features Celia Johnson, Michael Hordern, John Gielgud, Anthony Andrews, Alan Rickman, Jacqueline Hill and Christopher Strauli to name but a few. If you like it, as always, buy it on DVD to support those nice BBC people who made it. Enjoy!

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Classic TV

It’s Hammer Time!: Dick Barton Special Agent (1948)

28 September 2012 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Dick Barton Special Agent

Time for this weekend’s Hammer movie – Dick Barton Special Agent.

Dick Barton may not be a name familiar to you, but between 1946 and 1951, he was as well known in British popular culture as, well, Doctor Who is now. Every weekday evening on BBC Radio’s Light Programme, for 15 minutes at a time, Captain Richard Barton, a former marine commando, together with his bestest pals Jock Anderson and Snowey White solved all sorts of crimes, escaped from dangerous situations and saved the nation from disaster. And the nation loved him: at its peak, 15 million people listened to Dick’s adventures every day.

Even if you haven’t heard of Dick Barton, you’ll have heard his theme tune, possibly on That Mitchell and Webb Look: ‘The Devil’s Gallop’. That’s how ingrained he became in popular culture.

To say the plots were slightly implausible, hackneyed and even cliched would be understate the case. There was literally no cliffhanger, no situation so dangerous, that Dick Barton couldn’t get out of it in a trice, prompting the national catchphrase “With one bound, Dick was free!”

Dick did die a death eventually – at the hands of BBC politics. When The Archers came along in 1951, the establishment breathed a sigh of relief since they could finally get rid of the very un-BBC sensationalism of Barton and his friends. Dick lost his time slot and that was that.

Nevertheless, he was much loved and for the BBC’s golden jubilee in 1972, it broadcast a new, abridged 10-episode version of the very first Barton serial, which featured many members of the original cast: Noel Johnson as Dick Barton, John Mann as Snowey, William Fox as Colonel Gardiner, Alex McCrindle as Jock and Margaret Robertson as Jean Hunter.

ITV eventually picked up Barton’s baton, and in 1979 made a series called Dick Barton – Special Agent, which aired in an early evening slot at the weekends. Available again in 15-minute chunks, the four stories broken down into 32 episodes starred Tony Vogel as Dick Barton, Anthony Heaton as Snowey, James Cosmo as Jock and John Gantrel as Sir Richard Marley. It’s now available on DVD, in case you’re interested, and here’s the title sequence.

Dick and his chums have also been revived yearly in a series of musicals that have toured Britain and lasted an impressive 11 years – last year was the first year that there wasn’t a new Barton musical.

But back when Dick was at the peak of his popularity, Hammer Films obtained the rights to make a movie featuring Dick called Dick Barton Special Agent. So successful was this movie that Hammer went on to make two more movies, Dick Barton: Strikes Back (1949) and Dick Barton at Bay (1950), and had it not been for untimely death of the star Don Stannard, there would have been a fourth, Dick Barton in Africa. Nevertheless, it was the popularity of the movies that encouraged Hammer to look at other BBC properties, including The Quatermass Experiment.

It’s only an hour or so long, it’s deeply, spiffingly thrilling, so enjoy Dick Barton: Special Agent in glorious HD below or all three movies on DVD! It’s preceded by an introduction from Robert JE Simpson.

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The Weekly Play

The Wednesday Play: In Camera (1964)

26 September 2012 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

In Camera

Time for a little bit of culture. Hell, it has been remarked, is other people. In fact, it was Jean-Paul Sartre who remarked that – kind of – in his 1944 existentialist play Huis Clos. ‘L’enfer, c’est les autres’ as is actually remarked is a bit more involved than the literal idea of the nasty afterlife being spending eternity with others, but that is exactly what happens in Huis Clos, in which three damned souls, Garcin, Inès and Estelle, are brought to the same room in Hell by a mysterious valet. There they discuss the crimes that resulted in their damnation, and things escalate before their final realisation of the nature of their torment.

In 1964, director Philip Saville, who went on to win a BAFTA for Boys from the Blackstuff, adapted and directed Stuart Gilbert’s English-language version of Huis Clos for The Wednesday Play as In Camera – ironically, the closest ‘English’ translation you’re going to get of Huis Clos. And you want to know who starred in it?

Only Harold bloody Pinter, that’s who.

Enjoy!

The Wednesday Plays: Oedipus the King/Oedipus at Colonus/Antigone (1986)

19 September 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

As you might expect, the US isn’t the only country to adapt classic plays for television. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have obviously been putting on adaptions of classic plays almost for as long as they’ve been in existence.

However, unlike Shakespeare, for example, Greek tragedy is one genre that hasn’t seen many adaptations for British television. In June, the BFI gave a good sample of some of those adaptations, including one stage production of Electra for ITV that was broadcast entirely in Greek without subtitles.

However, one of the main catalysts for getting Greek tragedy onto the small screen and also radio was the writer/director Don Taylor. Taylor, whose career in theatre and television spanned decades, was responsible for numerous adaptations, sometimes of his own translations, including Euripides’ Helen for radio and Iphigenia at Aulis for the BBC. However, in 1986, he managed to adapt all three of Sophocles’ Theban plays – Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone – for the small screen as (surprisingly enough) The Theban Plays by Sophocles.

Starring the likes of Michael Pennington, Juliet Stevenson, John Gielgud, Anthony Quayle, John Shrapnel and Claire Bloom, all three productions are very theatrical and the translations are somewhat loose, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any better productions on TV anywhere.

Enjoy!

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Weird old title sequences: Alias the Jester (1985)

13 September 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Back in the 70s and 80s, Cosgrove Hall was a powerhouse of children’s TV. Creator of Chorlton and the Wheelies, Danger Mouse, The Wind in the Willows and Count Duckula, it dominated animated independent TV for the best part of those decades.

One minor little blip – although not necessarily on quality grounds – that’s largely been forgotten was 1985’s 13-part series Alias the Jester, which followed the adventures of a time traveller by the name of Alias and his dog-like companion Boswell. After their malfunctioning ship gets stuck in the Earth’s magnetic pole, they crash-land in a Middle Age kingdom called Houghton Bottoms, ruled by (a) King Arthur and his Queen Edith. Taking up a secret identity as Alias the Jester, he gains employment at the court and befriends the bumbling court wizard Meredith.

However, when the situation called for it, Alias instantly changed back into his red uniform, which enabled him to fly, and gave him a degree of super strength, which used to face the various villains of the show, each episode inevitably ending with Arthur firing Alias and Meredith.

Here’s the title sequence, which is a weird old combination of 80s pap music and utterly unhelpful scenes from the show.