Purple Wig
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2019
- Messages
- 746
- Real Name
- Alan
To the Manor Born
1.1 “Grantleigh”
1.2 “All New Together”
I picked the Complete Series DVD set of this show up, after watching and enjoying the end of S1 Christmas special on the BBC Holiday Collection a few years back. This popular Britcom was a staple on local PBS stations back in the ‘80s, but I never really paid any attention to it then. So far, I’m finding it very charming and gently funny. Like many British sitcoms of this era, every episode (21 over three seasons between 1979-1981, plus a sequel Christmas special which aired in 2007) were written by one person, in this case Peter Spence, which gives the show its unique, unified voice. The series kicks off with the ancestral owner of Grantleigh Manor dying and his widow, Audrey fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith) shocked to discover that her late husband was bankrupt and that her beloved manor house must be put up for auction. She tries to rally enough funds to buy it back from the creditors but is outbid by millionaire supermarket chain owner Richard DeVere (Peter Bowles). Audrey, aghast that an upstart Polish-Hungarian immigrant has gained possession of the manor, buys a cottage on the periphery of the estate’s grounds in order to keep an eye on things and instruct Richard on the proper way to run the place and fulfill his duties as a newly-minted member of the landed gentry. Despite being at odds with each other at the outset, a tentative romance eventually blossoms between them, culminating in Audrey buying back Grantleigh at the end of the third series and, typical of her forthright personality, asking Richard to marry her.
This was a vehicle tailor-made for Penelope Keith’s patented brand of likable posh snobbery, which she had honed to perfection over four seasons as Margo Leadbetter on The Good Life (Good Neighbors in the U.S.) It’s a testament to Keith’s skill that she makes the patrician Audrey sympathetic and even, dare I say it, kind of sexy. She’s matched not only by the urbane Bowles, but also by a solid cast of recurring characters, including Angela Thorne as Audrey’s best friend, Marjory, Daphne Heard as Richard’s Old World mother, Gerald Sim as the local Rector, and John Rudling as Audrey’s loyal yet aging butler, Brabinger. Some frequent and lovely exterior filming was done at the Cricket St. Thomas Estate in Somerset, the grounds covered in a lovely dusting of snow in the opening episode.
Blackadder Goes Forth – 1.1 “Captain Cook”
I've long been a BIG fan of the Blackadder series – or, to be precise, the last three series - and have seen each episode multiple times…but it has been quite a while since I’ve sat down to savor one. While Rowan Atkinson is most famous for playing the gormless Mr. Bean, in my opinion, it’s this series which is the actor's crowning achievement. Mr. Bean showed Atkinson’s immense skill at physical comedy, but he’s especially wonderful here as the snide, scheming and razor-tongued Edmund Blackadder. Series creators Ben Elton and Richard Curtis' real stroke of genius was to flip the switch after the first, imperfect series from 1983 (in which Blackadder is the dim bulb son of a Medieval king), and from 1986's Blackadder II on, making him far and away the smartest man in the room. Blackadder II was set in Elizabethan times, and the even-funnier Blackadder the Third (from 1987) made Edmund the butler to the Prince Regent (played to idiotic perfection by Hugh Laurie).
This fourth and final series from 1989 jumps forward to the trenches of WWI, and finds Blackadder now a Captain of a dingy platoon, forever trying various cunning plans to avoid “the big push” and escape certain death. In another clever touch, the main characters of each series are played by the same core cast - in this case, Tony Robinson as Private Baldrick, Blackadder’s grotty and unbelievably stupid right hand man; Hugh Laurie as goggle-eyed, enthusiastic nitwit, Lt. George; Stephen Fry as walrus-mustached, clueless blowhard General Melchett; and Tim McInery as the General’s adjutant (and Blackadder’s nemesis), Captain Darling. Each of the four Blackadder series ran for six half-hour episodes. There were also a few specials made, including an absolute classic of a seasonal episode, Blackadder’s Christmas Carol. The writing on these series is terrific, with Atkinson sneering out one ornate, withering insult after another. For fans of this sort of comedy, this show comes with my highest recommendation.
Charters and Caldicott
1.2 "Mix Well and Serve”
1.3 “Will the Real Jenny Beavers…”
1.4 "Not Cricket"
After quite a long gap, I’ve resumed my refresher course of this six-episode BBC comic mystery/thriller from 1985, which I first caught on PBS’ Mystery series and remember most fondly, though I hadn't seen it since. The lead characters, a veddy British, stiff-upper-lip duo (originally played by Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford) made quite an impression in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes, and subsequently appeared in several films of their own. They received an update here in this TV version, now portrayed by Robin Bailey and Michael Aldridge, as a couple of cricket-obsessed old duffers who get involved in a twisty mystery involving foreign spies, icon smuggling, secret coded messages leading to Nazi gold, and assorted other skullduggery, after Caldicott finds the body of a dead woman in his upscale London flat. The two, assisted by Caldicott's gal pal Margaret Mottram (the striking Caroline Blakiston), bumble around chasing various leads, driving the inspector in charge of the case (Gerard Murphy) to distraction. While death and danger lurk in each corner of the case, everything’s handled with a feather-light touch. Bailey and Aldridge make for an engaging pair of amateur sleuths, their anachronistically old school tie, proper English gentlemanly behavior contrasting amusingly with the garish ‘80s aesthetic. The now-defunct Simply Media put this series out in a nice little 2-disc package, and the production, mostly shot on video, looks very nice indeed.
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The Sandbaggers – 1.1 “First Principles”
Another series which I first watched ages ago when it aired on PBS in the late '80s. Roy Marsden (before he would achieve even greater fame playing P.D. James’ sensitive police detective, Cmdr. Adam Dalgleish, in ten ITV adaptations of her novels) takes the lead here, as Neil Burnside, steely head of operations of an elite unit of British Secret Intelligence Service operatives dubbed “the Sandbaggers.” The series was produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, and ran for three seasons from 1978 to 1980 for a total of 20 episodes, each one an intricate, realistic depiction of the then-contemporary, Cold War spy game.
The series opener, “First Principles,” introduces the viewer to this shady world, as Burnside is forced by political pressure to assist Torvik (Olaf Pooley), the new chief of the fledgling Norwegian secret service, when one of their spy planes crash lands deep into Soviet territory. Under protest, Burnside sends in his best man, Sandbagger 1, ex-paratrooper Willie Caine (Ray Lonnen), along with another agent. The two are dropped 50 miles across the border into the desolate Russian wilderness, to locate the plane and lead the stranded crew to safety…only to find that the Norwegians have gone behind their backs and made other arrangements with the CIA. Now left high and dry, Sandbaggers 1 and 2 must evade capture by Russian soldiers and make their way back across the border to safety. Meanwhile, a quietly seething Burnside flies to Oslo to confront Torvik, in a speech that makes plain the series’ overall ethos:
“Special Operations doesn’t mean going in with all guns blazing. It means special planning, special care…fully briefed agents in possession of all possible alternatives. If you want James Bond, go to your library. But if you want a successful operation, sit at your desk and think. Then think again…Our battles aren’t fought at the end of a parachute. They’re won or lost in drab, dreary corridors in Westminster…and hopefully Oslo.”
The series starts as it means to go on: tense, serious and de-glamorized espionage tales in the Len Deighton / John le Carre mold, bursts of violent action occasionally punctuating many scenes of barbed dialogue, as Burnside negotiates the halls of power, trying desperately to carry out missions and keep his men in the field alive. Marsden is superb as the clipped, cold professional spymaster, and is supported by an excellent cast, which includes Richard Vernon, Jerome Willis, and Alan McNaughton, among others. Rumors persist that the creator of the series, Ian Mackintosh (who also created the very good Royal Navy series Warship), was an actual spy himself, perpetuated by his keen understanding of the clandestine espionage business and expert knowledge of its associated jargon - not to mention his mysterious demise in a plane crash in 1979 (you can read more about it here). His untimely death, coming as it did during the filming of season 3, resulted in the cancellation of the series. The haunting main theme is by Roy Budd. Available in a nice 6-disc package from our old friend, Network.
All Creatures Great and Small – 2.6 “Faint Hearts”
Another week in the harried but in many ways idyllic life of hardworking vet James Herriott (Christopher Timothy) in the 1930s Yorkshire Dales. “Faint Hearts” finds James, now fully settled into the practice and happily married to the lovely Helen (Carol Drinkwater), who he wooed and won in S1, busy helping heal the livestock and pets of local farmers and residents of the rustic village of Darrowby, alongside his partner, mercurial senior vet Siegfried Farnon (Robert Hardy) and Siegfried’s gadabout vet-in-training younger brother, Tristan (Peter Davison). One of the many subplots involves Tristan becoming smitten with Julia (Caroline Hollaway), the pretty yet spoiled daughter of wealthy Dick Taverner (Glyn Houston). Playboy Tristan is soon hot on her trail...but before long, he finds that being the pursued rather than the pursuer is not nearly so appealing...
There’s always a lot of incident, both humorous and bittersweet, crammed into each 50-minute episode of this long-running BBC drama, and one can’t help but come away with a warm, nostalgic and life-affirming glow as the end credits roll, accompanied by the spritely theme tune by Johnny Pearson. The series, based closely on the real-life exploits of Yorkshire vet Alf Wight, ran for three seasons and 40 episodes from 1978 to 1980, and was a tremendous success for the BBC. The stars returned for two feature-length Christmas specials in 1983 and 1985. A further four seasons and 38 more episodes followed in 1988-1990; while the stories were still charming and the acting still uniformly excellent, by this stage the actress playing James’ wife Helen, Carol Drinkwater, had left the series, to be replaced by the frumpier, frostier Lynda Bellingham, and...well, things just weren't quite the same. Those last four seasons are still recommended Sunday evening viewing, but it’s the first three seasons (plus two specials) which I have in my collection, and which remain absolutely magical.
It appears as if the almost the entire first season of All Creatures... (11 of the 13 episodes, anyway) is on YouTube. Here's the first episode, "Horse Sense":
Last of the Summer Wine – 4.3 “Jubilee”
The Queen’s Silver Jubilee is rapidly approaching, and dyed-in-the-wool Tory Foggy (Brian Wilde) pushes his more ambivalent cronies Clegg (Peter Sallis) and Compo (Bill Owen) to do their duty and take part in the town's pageant and parade, being overseen by the eccentric vicar (John Horsely) and his scatty wife (Jane Wenham). The usual comic chaos ensues. Ronnie Hazelhurst, who provided the simple yet lyrical main theme and incidental music for this series, also composed the title tune for the previously-mentioned To the Manor Born.
Dad’s Army
3.8 “The Day the Balloon Went Up”
5.1 “Asleep in the Deep”
5.1 “The Deadly Attachment”
Three more highly entertaining WWII-era romps with the daffy squad of the Home Guard in this, perhaps the most iconic and beloved of all British sitcoms. “The Day the Balloon Went Up” revolves around Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and his men trying to retrieve an errant barrage balloon. Some wild and funny physical gags at the climax of this one. The next two are even better. “Asleep in the Deep” sees the men accidentally trapped in a bombed-out pumping station, and their flailing attempts to get free before the water levels rise and drown them ("Don't panic!"). And finally, the great Phillip Madoc guest stars in “The Deadly Attachment,” as the petulant captain of a German U-boat crew captured by the Navy and placed under the watch of Mainwaring’s Home Guard goofballs until reinforcements can arrive to take them into custody. As usual, it’s the precision of the writing and deft acting by the main cast that really makes this one sing. Special mention must go to the wonderful John le Mesurier as the incredibly laid back, suavely diffident second in command, Sgt. Wilson. Created by Jimmy Perry and David Croft and originally airing on the BBC for nine seasons and 80 episodes from 1968-1977, the show was – and still is – a phenomenal success, spawning a 1971 feature film (as well as a recent reboot movie in 2016), a stage show and radio series, and the repeats still plays to large audiences on TV in the U.K. today.
Appreciate the post Jeff. I haven’t seen any of these shows and I enjoyed reading it. You’re a great writer, this post could have been a feature in a magazine.
. Woah, they're much better with the sound effects AND they got the eye poke effect down pat.
