Old Brit Telly Watchalong #1

[thisbluespirit]

The Old British TV Discord are having our first Watchalong, which I am (sort of) hosting

https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20221009T21&p0=1343&font=cursive

We are watching Thriller ep "Nurse Will Make It Better" (in which Diana Dors is actually Satan dressed as Mary Poppins who stalks the Home Counties terrorising Americans and Canadians in disguise as Americans, Patrick Troughton is unable to stop her due to being drunk, Michael Culver is causing road accidents and Ed Bishop is too nice to live for once.)

You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwy0xiZjDFo

The Discord invite is here if you're not already a member: https://discord.gg/HejYXPw8

(It is horror but it is non-scary enough that I am okay with it.)

Comments

[sovay]

LOL, have you actually watched Breakaway? It does at least have a fun cast!

I did! The second series only, because it's what was available on Dailymotion plus the missing installment you supplied. Combined with my experience of The Teckman Mystery, it suggested that one does not watch Francis Durbridge for the plot per se, but fortunately I was watching it for the actors and on that level had a delightful time.

(David Collings' hat was not just a hat on David Collings, which was bad enough, but it was in its own right a really terrible hat.)

[thisbluespirit]

tbf to Durbridge, I kind of think smushed up serial-into-film and last thing he ever wrote probably aren't the fairest things... but yes! The first one is stronger as a story but the chief villain still does something early on that alerts Sam Harvey to the fact that they (and therefore another person) must be lying, but unlike in "The Local Affair", where he's Just That Kind of Murderer Who Can't Resist It (one of a long and honorable line), there's very little reason I can think of for that one - they actually otherwise had a pretty good means of getting at him via the first person. I suppose they must have wanted an excuse to get inside the Beige Murder Flat and see what they made of it and Sam Harvey, idk.

but fortunately I was watching it for the actors and on that level had a delightful time.

<3<3<3

I have to say that even though serial #1 is the stronger, I like watching Sam Harvey in blithely detached detecting mode more than in pissed off with everyone for lying to him about his parents' murder and then breaking into his flat five times and injuring people while he was trying to write mode, especially with the more fun cast. But tbf, anyone would be annoyed by all the murder and break-ins every time they try to get on with their book! (sovay, they even try and implicate his talented illustrator! The fiends!) Wee!me was far more concerned with the writing side of the plot. Almost all the bits I actually remember are writing bits, visiting the illustrator bits whereas all the action and murder and plot bits I had evidently decided were less important. I did remember Martin Jarvis's even worse dressing gown than Ed Bishop's dressing gown, though. Whereas the second one, I was obviously into the plot as well and I remembered much more overall.

Anyway, I am also delighted to be able to inform you that the BBC nevertheless had confidence in this! They released the music as a single and two tie-in novels by Durbridge (one for each serial). Mariocki found out for me and left me this pic on the discord:



That's Martin Jarvis in his beige murder flat, with the key book of matches and a telephone, and all it would have needed to entirely sum up serial 1 was Dinner at the Zoo in shot. XD

(It's very cheap on Amazon. Self, self: you know it never ends well with terrible TV tie-in novels!! They always make things worse!)

ETA: So, somewhere there is a universe where presumably Sam Harvey got interrupted in his writing yet AGAIN by improbable murders solved in six swift episodes with random cliffhangers and my wee self was presumably a lot less desolate at its disappearance from my life. But probably we do in this case live in the better universe. Probably... :D

[sovay]

(It's very cheap on Amazon. Self, self: you know it never ends well with terrible TV tie-in novels!! They always make things worse!)

Just so long as you share the introductory descriptions of all the characters played by actors who may or may not be recognizable on the page!

[thisbluespirit]

LOL, I don't know if, being by Durbridge, they would have been written too far ahead to know casting, except maybe the lead, though.

When and if you get to EatD, I can give you the full deets on how overcome by Alfred Burke's face the author of that terrible novelisation was, so there's that. (It does also have some character details that seem to have come from whatever passed for the series bible, though, so it was at least worth it in that case.)

I am curious, though. dammit. lol.

[sovay]

When and if you get to EatD, I can give you the full deets on how overcome by Alfred Burke's face the author of that terrible novelisation was, so there's that.

I mean, I know what Alfred Burke's face looks like, so please feel free to deet away.

I am curious, though. dammit. lol.

I only enable because it's very cheap!

[thisbluespirit]

Alfred Burke's face, apparently:

"He [a random Police Inspector] sensed at once that Richter had a capacity to charm that might cloud a man's judgement... Richter was too quiet, too urbane, with a face of that ascetic cast which is acquired by saints, librarians and aristocratic confidence tricksters... Perhaps aware of this himself, Richter had grown a beard, but it did little to hide his saintly expression..."

XD

[sovay]

Richter was too quiet, too urbane, with a face of that ascetic cast which is acquired by saints, librarians and aristocratic confidence tricksters...

That's brilliant.

[thisbluespirit]

He grew a beard to save us, but it was NOT ENOUGH!!

I will never be over "saints, librarians and aristocratic confidence tricksters." Does this mean I missed two alternative job opportunities???

[sovay]

Does this mean I missed two alternative job opportunities???

Whenever possible, always become an aristocratic confidence trickster.