Foreign Countries #10: Drama Playhouse: The Incredible Robert Baldick: Never Come Night (1972)

Posted on by Jon Dear

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)

The Value of Myth #3: Play of the Week: South (1959), On Trial: Oscar Wilde (1960)

Posted on by Jon Dear

As it's the Pride in London Parade this Saturday, my latest Value of Myth post examines gay-themed TV drama in the years before the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised private homosexual acts between consenting men over the age of 21, in England and Wales anyway. Homosexuality in Scotland wasn't decriminalised until 1980. In Northern … Continue reading The Value of Myth #3: Play of the Week: South (1959), On Trial: Oscar Wilde (1960)

Foreign Countries #8: ITV Sunday Night Theatre: A.D.A.M. (1973)

Posted on by Jon Dear

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)

The Value of Myth #2: Fall of Eagles: Absolute Beginners (1974), Screen Two: Hope in the Year Two (1994)

Posted on by Jon Dear

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)

Foreign Countries #5: Shades of Darkness: Afterward (1983)

Posted on by Jon Dear

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)

Foreign Countries #4: Unnatural Causes: Ladies Night (1986)

Posted on by Jon Dear

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)

The Value of Myth #1: Play For Today: Robin Redbreast (1970), Doctor Who: The Dæmons (1971), Thriller: A Place To Die (1973)

Posted on by Jon Dear

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)

Foreign Countries #3: Ghosts: Three Miles Up (1995)

Posted on by Jon Dear

The 20th anniversary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) seems as good a time as any to answer this question: Why has 90s TV drama aged so badly? This time I'm talking about the look of the piece, all centre partings and chinos. It looks dated rather than old. The past is indeed a foreign … Continue reading Foreign Countries #3: Ghosts: Three Miles Up (1995)

Foreign Countries #2: Hammer House of Horror: The House That Bled To Death/The Two Faces of Evil (1980)

Posted on by Jon Dear

  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)

Foreign Countries #1 Tales of Unease (1970)

Posted on by Jon Dear

  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)