Widows
Classic TV

Talking Pictures August 2020: The Likely Lads, Widows and No Hiding Place

An occasional look at what classic TV shows Talking Pictures (Sky 328 | Freeview 81 | Freesat 306 | Virgin 445) is going to be airing soon

The week commencing August 17 doesn’t bring a huge number of new shows to Talking Pictures, but crawling through the schedules, there’s some interesting ones.

Widows

Starts: Tuesday, August 17, 4.00am (weekdays)

It’s not the first time Lynda La Plante’s TV writing debut has been on, but if you’ve never seen it, it’s worth a watch.

Three armed robbers – Harry Rawlins, Terry Miller and Joe Perelli – are killed during an armed robbery. They are survived by their widows, Dolly Rawlins (Ann Mitchell), Shirley Miller (Fiona Hendley), and Linda Perelli (Maureen O’Farrell). With the police applying pressure and a rival gang intending to take over Harry Rawlins’ crime business, the widows turn to Dolly for leadership.

She uses Harry’s famous “ledgers”, a cache of books detailing all his robberies over the years, to find the details of the failed robbery, and, enlisting the help of a fourth woman, Bella O’Reilly (Eva Mottley), they resolve to pull off the raid themselves.

No Hiding Place

Airs: Thursday, August 20, 1.00pm

This show was a sequel to Murder Bag (1957–1958) and Crime Sheet (1959), all of which starred Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart. The new, longer one-hour format allowing for more story and character development, and while still largely studio-based, the series now included more pre-recorded film segments.

A decision was made to cancel the series in 1965, but there were so many protests from the public and the police that it started again for another two years, with 236 episodes made in total

Only one episode is airing, but it’s a doozy: 1963’s A Pocketful of Bones. It’s actually a previously missing episode that Talking Pictures discovered! How amazing is that?

Of course, it’s not the first time they’ve done that and you can watch Music For Murder on Tuesday, July 21 at 3am…

The Likely Lads (1976)

Airs: Saturday, August 22, 6.00pm

Film spin-off from Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?