Sure, Flash Gordon (1980) and Morons from Outer Space (1985) may only ever been seen as cult favourites but when you mention Mike Hodges, there's usually one film you think of, and it stars Michael Caine........ Get Carter's uncompromising style and informal camera work betrays Hodges' background in TV documentary. But when it comes to … Continue reading Foreign Countries #11: The Frighteners: The Manipulators (1972)
Question: what do Steptoe and Son (1962-74), Porridge (1974-77) and The Onedin Line (1971-80) all have in common? If you answered "they all featured work from Production Designer David Chandler" then congratulations on being Andrew Pixley. If however you answered "they all started life as a one-off in an anthology series" then you might have … Continue reading Foreign Countries #10: Drama Playhouse: The Incredible Robert Baldick: Never Come Night (1972)
As previously discussed, the 70s saw the white heat of technological optimism replaced by something rather darker as the world grew into a less secure place and people's respect for authority deteriorated. While a number of films around this time took in the sweeping, epic scale of an imagined dystopia, television had its own, occasionally … Continue reading Foreign Countries #8: ITV Sunday Night Theatre: A.D.A.M. (1973)
Many people with an interest in such matters will have no doubt purchased Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence's recently published Scarred For Life Volume One, examining just how dark and macabre pop culture could be in the 1970s. And that includes a hell of a lot of kid's stuff. If you ever saw Building Sites … Continue reading Foreign Countries #6: Music Scene: Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance (1976)
This is the first in an occasional series of posts where I'll cover common themes on television around a particular time, starting here with the ever popular Pagan Village Conspiracy. If the Brexit vote taught us anything, it was that the ignored and the dismissed do not go away, and they will take any opportunity … Continue reading The Value of Myth #1: Play For Today: Robin Redbreast (1970), Doctor Who: The Dæmons (1971), Thriller: A Place To Die (1973)
Half hour dramas are a challenge, in that timeframe, decent characterisation and development become broad brush strokes to serve the idea, and subtlety is an anathema. The BBC’s ‘Thirty Minute’ became a training ground where writers such as Dennis Potter, David Rudkin and Jack Rosenthal honed their craft. It follows then that genre fiction … Continue reading Foreign Countries #1 Tales of Unease (1970)
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