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: Rumpole of the Bailey (1975)

20 June 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment
Few unscrupulous lawyers have been loved as much as Horace Rumpole. While the airwaves have been littered for years with lawyers fighting the good fight – whether in the US in the guise of Perry Mason or Ben Matlock or in the UK as Kavanagh QC or Peter Kingdom – lawyers who fundamentally don’t care whether their client is guilty or not and will defend villains as well as they defend the innocent have been fundamentally scarce.

Maybe it took a real lawyer, John Mortimore, to expose that truer side of the legal profession. Mortimer began his Rumpole journey by writing a Wednesday Play, Infidelity Took Place, for the BBC in 1968. This satirical play – a comment on newly enacted English divorce laws – told the story of a happily married couple who decide to get divorced to take advantage of the more beneficial tax situation they would enjoy were they legally separated. The play features a character, Leonard Hoskins (played by John Nettleton of Yes, Minister fame), a divorce lawyer with a domineering mother, who can be seen as an early prototype of Horace Rumpole

In the early 1970s, Mortimer was appearing for some football hooligans when James Burge, with whom he was sharing the defence, told him: “I’m really an anarchist at heart, but I don’t think even my darling old Prince Peter Kropotkin would have approved of this lot.”

“And there,” Mortimer realised, “I had Rumpole.”

Mortimer approached Play for Today producer Irene Shubik, who had overseen Infidelity Took Place, with a new idea for a play entitled My Darling Prince, Peter Kropotkin that centred around a barrister called Horace Rumbold. Rumbold would have a particular interest in 19th-century anarchists, especially the Russian Peter Kropotkin from whom the title of the play was drawn. The character’s name was later changed to Horace Rumpole when it was discovered that there was a real barrister called Horace Rumbold. The title of the play was briefly changed to Jolly Old Jean Jacques Rousseau before settling on the less esoteric Rumpole of the Bailey.

Finding Rumpole

Mortimer was keen on Michael Hordern for the role of Rumpole. When Hordern proved unavailable, the part went to Australian-born actor Leo McKern. Mortimer was initially unenthusiastic about McKern’s casting but changed his opinion upon seeing him at rehearsal. Rumpole, a barrister with a strict code – if there’s any doubt whatsoever about whether someone committed a crime, they’re entitled to the presumption of innocence and as strong a defence as possible – is as cynical about the justice system (“Crime doesn’t pay, but it’s a living”) as he is passionate about defending his clients; in this case, a sullen black youth accused of stabbing a stranger at a bus stop. Though his wife (“she who must be obeyed”) needles him as “an old Bailey hack”, he rises to the occasion after determining that there is more to this “20-minute case” than simply “just another boy with a dagger”, and Rumpole spends the play getting the best of scowling judges and corrupt policemen in a perfect performance by McKern.

Aware of the potential for further stories centred on Rumpole, Irene Shubik approached the BBC’s Head of Plays, Christopher Morahan, and obtained permission from him to commission a further six Rumpole of the Bailey scripts from John Mortimer. However, Morahan left his post at the BBC a short time later and his successor was not interested in turning Rumpole of the Bailey into a series. At around this time, Shubik was contacted by Verity Lambert (one of this blog’s ‘blog goddesses‘, the then head of drama at Thames Television, who was looking for ideas for an up-market drama series. Impressed with Rumpole of the Bailey, Lambert offered Shubik the opportunity to bring the series to Thames. John Mortimer readily agreed, since it would mean more money, and Shubik (and Rumpole) duly left the BBC in late 1976.

Rumpole was to appear in seven series on ITV, as well as a TV movie, radio programmes and books. But thanks to the power of YouTube, you can watch that very first Rumpole Play for Today after the jump, since it’s this week’s Wednesday Play. If you like it, don’t forget to buy it from Amazon!

Continue reading “The Wednesday Play: Rumpole of the Bailey (1975)”
Classic TV

Nostalgia corner: Benson (1979-1986)

14 June 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Benson

One of my childhood memories is of laughing a lot at Benson, a spin-off from soap-opera parody Soap that starred Soap‘s real star, Robert Guillaume, as a former butler who becomes the head of household affairs to a politician, Governor Eugene Gatling, and slowly makes his way up the political ladder, eventually running against him in an election. Here he is in Soap.

The show initially revolved around Benson’s housekeeping dilemmas, his fights with the German cook Gretchen Wilhemina Kraus (Inga Swenson, also from Soap), and his interactions with chief of staff John Taylor (David Hedison in the pilot episode, then Lewis J Stadlen). After the first season, Taylor was replaced by Clayton Endicott III (Rene Auberjonois) and Benson and Endicott’s sniping made up most of the show’s humour after that.

During the series, Benson worked his way up from head of household affairs to state budget director, and eventually became lieutenant governor. During the final episodes of the seventh season, Benson ran for governor and at the end of the series’ final episode, with the race still too close to call, Benson and the governor made their peace with one another and sat down together to watch election returns on TV. As the broadcaster began to announce that a winner in the close election (with a third candidate also a potential winner) was at last being projected, the episode ended on a freeze frame of Benson and Gatling, leaving the series with an unresolved cliffhanger.

What would have happened if the show had been renewed? Well, in 2007, showrunner Bob Fraser said that the season ended on a cliffhanger at the request of the network and that the show was canceled after the cliffhanger had aired. Had the show continued, Gatling would have won the election and Benson would have become a senator.

Benson has several distinctions. As well as running for an awful long time and having a black character as the story, it was the first TV show to mention the Internet – or Arpanet as it was called then. It also fired Jerry Seinfeld after just three episodes. He played a messenger. He probably wasn’t a good actor then, either. Great show, just not a great actor.

Unfortunately, despite my childhood memories, I tried rewatching it recently and didn’t find it funny any more. Sigh. But here’s the title sequence and the first episode – maybe they’ll bring back memories for you and you’ll end up buying it from Amazon.

The Weekly Play

The Wednesday Play: 1984 (1954)

13 June 2012 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

People elevated to God-like status logo

Time to induct a new member into the pantheon of blog gods: Nigel Kneale, the god of writing innovation and scary predictions.

Kneale was one of the first TV playwrights and drama writers, famously emptying the streets of Britain with The Quatermass Experiment, a six-part 1953 science-fiction serial that revolutionised television and brought intelligent science-fiction to the masses.

Kneale principally remains famous for the character of Professor Bernard Quatermass, who went on to appear in three further TV series on both the BBC and ITV as well as three Hammer Horror movies, a radio play and 2005 BBC4 remake.

But Kneale was one of television great trailblazers. As well as predicting reality TV in the play, The Year of the Sex Olympics, he also created the idea of the scientific supernatural play for TV with The Stone Tape, in which scientists investigate the supernatural and discover that houses and stone can act as a recording material for events, thus creating ghosts when they ‘play back’ the event – something still described in psychic investigations as the ‘stone tape’ phenomenon.

For this, his many other works and his influence on television and film, Nigel Kneale has been made a blog god. Here’s a lovely documentary to explain in greater detail why he’s so brilliant.

But back in 1954, Kneale managed to empty the streets of Britain a second time, as well as cause questions to be asked in Parliament about the BBC’s moral standards. How? With an adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 starring Peter Cushing and future Quatermass André Morrell that was voted one of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century. It’s our Wednesday Play and you can watch it after the jump.

Continue reading “The Wednesday Play: 1984 (1954)”

The Weekly Play

The Wednesday Play: Gangsters (1975-1978)

6 June 2012 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Gangsters

We’re going to step away from the surreal and fantastic almost completely for this week’s Wednesday Play: Gangsters, an episode of Play for Today written by Philip Martin. Set in the multi-cultural criminal community of Birmingham, Gangsters was originally conceived by producer David Rose as a drama with sensibilities similar to those of The French Connection that would showcase England’s second city. It deals with various ethnic groups competing to run scams, exploit illegal immigrants and outwit the almost equally morally suspect law-enforcement officers.

The play caused outrage not just from Birmingham City Council, which resented the perceived slur against the city’s character, but also from the press, which argued it had featured racial stereotypes, such as servile Indians and clueless whites. However, the play achieved higher ratings than any previous episode so Martin was commissioned to write a full series – one of the few spin-offs the Play for Today had.

The play itself formed the template for most of the first series of the spin-off, with former SAS soldier and convict John Kline (Maurice Colbourne) acting as an undercover underworld agent to investigate crimes and pass intelligence back to ‘DI6’. But I said “almost completely” at the beginning because despite its subject matter and occasional ultraviolence, Gangsters became a very different beast in its second series, with the surreal intruding throughout – writer Martin is seen dictating the script to a typist during the season and there are references to film noir, gangster films, westerns, Bollywood and kung fu movies throughout. On top of the increasingly bizarre end-of-episode cliffhangers, the series ended with the characters breaking the fourth wall and walking off set.

But here, for your delectation is that first Play For Today – a sort of ‘Roy Rogers meets Get Carter in Birmingham”. If you like it, buy the whole thing on DVD.

Continue reading “The Wednesday Play: Gangsters (1975-1978)”

Classic TV

Nostalgia corner: The Zoo Gang (1974)

31 May 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

The Zoo Gang

The gods alone know how I missed this one when I was doing my recap of ITC’s 1970s shows, but I did, so let’s rectify that mistake ASAP.

A close inspection of ITC’s early 1970s shows, including The Persuaders!, The Protectors and The Adventurer will reveal a very subtle trend: a move away from casting bright young unknowns who might become stars to casting stars who were – trying not to be harsh – perhaps very slightly over the hill. Roger Moore obviously still had a career as James Bond ahead of him, but he’d already been The Saint and Ivanhoe, so who knew if there was a future for him in 1971. Ditto Tony Curtis, Robert Vaughn and Gene Barry who had been big… once.

The Zoo Gang married that trend with ITC’s new dedication to overseas filming, casting Brian Keith (The Westerner, The Parent Trap, Nevada Smith, Family Affair and eventually Hardcastle & McCormick), Barry Morse (The Fugitive, The Adventurer and afterwards Space: 1999), Lilli Palmer (an award-winning German actress) and Sir John Mills as a group of World War 2 resistance members who reunite 30 years later to wreak vengeance on the compatriot who betrayed them to the Gestapo during the War. Their job done, the elderly group decide to stay together to use their skills to scam con artists and criminals out of their money so as to build a hospital in memory of Palmer’s deceased husband.

Based on a book by Paul Gallico and set on the French Riviera in Nice, the show ran for six episodes and took its name from the fact that ‘the Zoo Gang’ all had animal codenames: the Elephant, the Tiger, The Leopard and The Fox. And while the scripts were nothing special, it did have a great title sequence – that’s rather a lot like The Persuaders!‘s in style – and, in a first for ITC, a theme tune by Paul and Linda McCartney.

Here’s the title sequence and if that’s not enough for you, the entire first episode is after the jump. Yes, you can get it on DVD, you lucky people. No, you can’t get Barry Morse’s hat – why would you want to?

Continue reading “Nostalgia corner: The Zoo Gang (1974)”