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Due to a couple of Chairty Shop finds I've been watching a lot of telly from 1973 this weekh having dug through my collection to find a few more.I thought it'd be interesting to start a trhead for people to comment on the changes, improvements, what's got worse, what you miss, and just generally the telly landscape of 35 years ago. The fact that it's the year Life on Mars was set and one of the shows is a cop show has only heightened the sense of contrast.
Shows starting in 1973 included stalwart Sunday Sitcom Last of the Summer Wine, though when it launched it wasn't half as cosy as today. Stronger language and more overtly politicised debate between the three leads are quite striiking in the context of the show it's grown into. Watching now you realise that Peter Salis, Kathy Staff and Jane Freemon were almost young once.
Are you being Served? also started this year and much could be written about John Inmans performance and what it says about the representation of homosexuality in the media. But, you know, I wouldn't know where to begin. I do think it's an improvement that a characters sexuality is no longer the defining factor of characters in T.V. drama but it still is in some cases. Sean from Corrie anyone?
Special Branch re-launched after a few years off air. A new leading man and a change to film instead of video changes the show completely, so that it's only the name that tells you it's the same show that previously featured Derren Nesbitt and Fulton McKay. I expected George Sewell as Alan Craven to be all Gene Hunt-isms, a proto-Regan if you like but that's not the case. Solid, dependable, unfailingly polite, sensitive, and in short more Sam Tyler than anything else George Sewell is the kind of reliable, sturdy actor that would be sidelined in modern telly in favour of some one more tabloid friendly. Here he holds the shoe together and provides a great foil for the more flashy, charismatic Hggarty an occasional colleague played by Patrick Mower. Top marks for a perfect pair of opening episodes introducing the new leads through an internal investigation into Cravens background and a stakeout that forces Craven and Haggarty into a room with no company but each other.
Thriller was a big ITV anthology series written by Brian Clements (or based on his stories). A mix of supernatural and crime stories with an eye to the American market quite a few feature yanks visiting Britain and finding themselves in peril. Studio bound and very talky the stories stand or fall by the quality of the actors. Robert Powell impresses as a cold blooded killer turning on the charm and Derren Nesbitt as a sort of civillian John Steed investigating a Buchan-esque spy plot is so good I'm dissapointed the character never returned. Could have got a series out of the ever so polite, quietly spoken investigator.
Cliff Richard failed to win yet again in Eurovision with a song nowhere near as memorable as Congratulations.
Dads Army started its sixth run with what is generally considered the best episode. You know the one, you can fill in the dialogue...
PIKE - Whistle while you work, Hitler is a berk, he's half barmy, so's his army...
U-BOAT CAPTAIN - Your name will also go down on the list. What is it?
MAINWARING - ....
It's also a year of difficulties behind the scenes. Jimmy Becks illness forces him out of the show half way through filming of the sixth episode. He died shortly after filming had completed on the seventh and final episode of the series. The show continued, was as popular as ever, but was it ever the same again?
Another Beeb show was hit by the sudden death of a cast member. Roger Delgado was in talks to write his character, The Master, out of Doctor Who and was filming overseas when he died in a car accident. Jon Pertwee later said that his death was the start of the end of his time on the show. Katy Mannings departure from the show in The Green Death was surprisingly moving. By the end of the year she was replaced by an even more popular character, Sarah Jane Smith. Whatever happened to her?
Whats been fun has been spotting actors crop up in several places. Talfryn Thomas turns up in Doctor Who and Dads Army. John Carson takes the lead in a Thriller and guests in Special Branch. Teddy Sinclair was a regular in Dads Army and makes an uncredited appearance in a cough and spit role in Special Branch.
The highlight of my recent viewing took all of six seconds to decide. Years in the making, lavish in scale was the documentary series The Ascent of Man. B.B.C.2 broadcast this 'personal view' of the history of humanities scientific achivements was hosted by Jacob Bronowski. The key to its success was that key phrase 'personal'. Bronowski is an ideal narrator, knowing the subject intimatley and able to communicate it with enthusiasm and clarity. Early computer graphics augment the variety of location filming and other visual aids. How the audience reacted I don't know but the comparative simplicity acts in it's favour, it does the job clearly and simply. Perfect television. Great television.
So, could we make telly this good today? Do we? Is there anything being made that will be watched and reviewed in 2043? Have I missed out any essential viewing? |
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