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GBH

Captain Zoom

18:54 / 11.12.01

This is a plea. A few years ago A&E aired a BBC production called GBH that starred Michael Palin. I'm desperate to get my hands on a copy of it to see if it was as good as I seem to recall. Did anyone else see this? Was it good? Have you got a copy?

Zoom.

Seth

20:13 / 11.12.01

I never saw it, but my parents thought it was amazing. They have have a copy, but we have no way of recording it for you (no vid to vid). Sorry.

ghadis

20:32 / 11.12.01

I remember it and i used to have it all on video...sadly lost now i'm afraid...wasn't it by the guy who did 'Boys from the black stuff'? Cant remember his name....

Shit hot stuff anyway....

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:06 / 12.12.01

God, I was trying to explain this to someone a few weeks ago... It may even have been Haus. Thank Christ someone else remembers it...

"Calm... calm..."

Yes, I thought it was fantastic at the time. The guy who was Wolfie Smith plays a rogue Labour guy who's actually a bit of a power-hungry fascist, right? And Michael Palin is a teacher who's the only one who'll stand up to him, but he's hindered by his fear of bridges and tendency to get panic attacks. There's also some weird sexual hang-ups that the Labour guy has which are to do with this girl hanging herself when he was a kid, and a big Dr Strangelove homage, if I recall correctly. I wonder what I'd think of it now.

[ 12-12-2001: Message edited by: Flyboy ]

Sax

08:09 / 12.12.01

Christ, yest, that was fantastic. Robert Lindsay as a Derek Hatton-style Merseyside councillor, corrupt to the hilt and with a fantastic Jack Douglas-style twitching arm.

Shortfatdyke

08:15 / 12.12.01

i couldn't watch most of this programme - the stuff about bullying hit so many nerves that i couldn't deal with it then. but what i did see was excellent.

tried the bbc website? maybe they'll sell the video.

sleazenation

08:53 / 12.12.01

wasn't it written by Alan Bliesdale (SP!)

invisible_al

08:53 / 12.12.01

Oh man GBH what a class piece of televison. Written off at the time by some as an Alan Blesdale rant but I loved it.

I know it was released on video, second hand places are probably your best bet.

I know the bits with robert lindsays character at school almost had me in tears at the time. Horrible, brilliant stuff.

pointless and uncalled for

10:34 / 12.12.01

I know that this is available for purhase in England but I haven't seen it over here. May not be available on NTSC. Do you have a PAL/SECAM VCR Zoom?

DaveBCooper

14:31 / 12.12.01

Wasn’t Lindsay’s character called Michael Murray ?

And IIRC, it was on Channel 4, and also featured Lindsey Duncan as a woman sent to get close to Murray to undermine him, who actually becomes quite fond of him.

I remember being quite impressed with it, though there was a scene where Palin’s character berates a group of Murray’s acolytes for ‘only having read one book’ (Marx, I think), which came over as a bit of a classic ‘good guy challenges perceptions of narrow-minded folks and they realise the error of their ways’ thing.

I seem to recall that C4 also did another series written by Bleasdale, also featuring Robert Lindsay and Lindsey Duncan, though I didn’t watch beyond the first episode, and its title eludes me…

DBC

Jack The Bodiless

15:57 / 12.12.01

Fuck, yes, it was great. Palin's character couldn't drive over bridges, and kept hiding in wardrobes naked. Lindsay's character kept twitching horribly... and the bit towards the end with the pissed Dalek zooming unsteadily around the hotel still cracks me up today...

Captain Zoom

19:40 / 12.12.01

I am so glad that it really was that good. My guess is that it was never released over here, so I may be out of luck. I should write to one of the local cable stations and see if they can play it.

Zoom.

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