Discerning UK television and film from the past.
Nigel Kneale had an impressive career. Interviewed by the BBC when he died, Mark Gatiss referred to him as the man who invented popular television and it's a sentiment that's hard to argue with. His collaborations with Rudolph Cartier brought about the first adult science fiction for television with The Quatermass Experiment (1953), The Year … Continue reading Foreign Countries #12: The Woman in Black (1989)
It's my first guest post, from my frequent collaborator and occasional mentor Howard Ingham, who runs the excellent Room 207 Press blog, although despite my best efforts he still refuses to call it Howard's Way. His loss. Below, Howard's looking at ITV car crash and non-thinking-person's-Please Sir, Hardwicke House, which hopefully you won't remember. Howard … Continue reading Foreign Countries #9: Hardwicke House (1987)
This is another in a series of posts where I look at a common theme over more than one TV play. I was working on one that looked at how past TV dealt with children in peril but in light of the events in Manchester, I've decided to shelve that for a little while. Here, … Continue reading The Value of Myth #2: Fall of Eagles: Absolute Beginners (1974), Screen Two: Hope in the Year Two (1994)
Ghosts don't exist, Brian Cox said so. Well he said the Large Hadron Collider said so anyway. As ghosts aren't made of matter they must be made be made of energy and would therefore dissipate as they succumbed to the second law of thermodynamics. So you don't all stop reading at this point, here's a … Continue reading Foreign Countries #5: Shades of Darkness: Afterward (1983)
Last week I considered in passing how Brexit engenders a sense of belonging for certain people. This community feeling is often portrayed in a negative light, defined as much by those whom it excludes as much as those who are within. Being British means that a lot of this feeling is underpinned by class, and … Continue reading Foreign Countries #4: Unnatural Causes: Ladies Night (1986)
Most TV and film productions are products of their time, less in terms of their technological and budgetary limitations, more that they reflect the society in which they were created. This is particularly true in both science fiction and historical drama. Setting a story in the the future or the past (or on another … Continue reading Foreign Countries #2: Hammer House of Horror: The House That Bled To Death/The Two Faces of Evil (1980)
