Tracey probably thinks you're crackers

[thisbluespirit]

Okay, I tried posting about this last night, but while I watched it, and the giggling made me incoherent. More incoherent than usual. Maybe.

Out of curiosity I went looking for some Look & Read/Words & Pictures stuff on YouTube and found the whole of Dark Towers here! It was v v funny. Even if you didn't have to watch this at primary school, there are Doctor Who and Stars Wars connections. (Oh, yes, there are.) I defy anyone not to start giggling at the narration. Which totally seriously tells us that "Tracey was a loner. She thought boys were daft." Or states the painfully obvious in a really DRAMATIC tone. Or tells us that the old coach house was very dark, when we can see it really wasn't.

Anyway, if you don't remember the 1980s (or, knowing teachers with video players, any time up to about 2000) or aren't British, the BBC used to make children's programmes for schools. They taught us how to do quite a bit of stuff, but Look & Read and Words & Pictures taught us how to read. Although looking at these now they definitely seem to indicate that reading too much will make you a weird loner and you'll talk like a prig. On the other hand, you will have DW-style adventures and catchphrases and things. And if you can't read, you'll look really stupid as you stumble over simple words, yep.

Anyway, here you can enjoy the LOLsome narration, watch DWM/Big Finish's Gary Russell being truly terrible as Edward (Tracey thinks he's crackers; although to be fair, he does improve once they forget he was supposed to be priggish and posh) and whether he's more hilarious or David Collings is as Lord Dark (Tracey thinks he's crackers, too) for acting as if he's in a normal drama, except when he's playing the Friendly Ghost (yep, Tracey thinks the Friendly Ghost is crackers as well; she may have a point.) There is also Christopher Biggins being a villain called Bunce. Or Benger. And Peter Mayhew (who is Chewbecca from Star Wars, I believe?) turns up as the Tall Knight, and is actually quite impressive. (Tracey doesn't think he's crackers). Or at least, compared to everything else.

Also, something I did know without watching this - I occasionally have trouble with S18-20 because the music sounds exactly like Look & Read. (And of course, it is, it's Peter Howell and the Radiophonic workshop behind it all.)

If Dark Towers doesn't ring any bells, follow the link about and the related videos give you Badger Girl, Fairground, The Boy From Space & Through the Dragon's Eye among other things. (I haven't tried watching those. I have a feeling the hilarity would be significantly less. I suspect some may even border on good, and where would be the fun in that? Plus, The Boy From Space terrified me. I hadn't realised that was a L&R story. I had nightmares.)

Anyway, I watched this when I was about 6 and thought it was wonderful. Oh, dear.... LOL I post here because I really don't think anyone could fail to find at least the narration hysterical after a bit. (Plus, the poster has done some fairly hilarious summaries for each part. Also, after Pt1 they have thankfully edited out Wordy and all the songs about vowels and the repetitions. And I don't know what explains the fact that Tracey doesn't notice when Christopher Biggins shoves something in her back jeans pocket, either... Maybe the script had her wearing a jacket or something. *giggles again*)

Or maybe my primary school was the only one that made us watch this stuff, but somehow I doubt it. (Maybe there could be some mileage in L&R icons? "Tracey thinks you're crackers" "Norman knows what's what" "Edward prefers books to people".)

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Did you delete the post from last night then? I didn't read it at the time because I was in the midst of listening to a Big Finish audio.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes. I haven't done that for a bit, have I? :-)

I just realised it was waffly, so hid it & then reworked it this morning. I thought the whole thing was too priceless not to share! Gary Russell going "I feel cold and strange, Father." LOL

I think I'm a little tired from the laughing this morning now. But at least my sense of humour was/is working. At about its normal rate of strangeness, anyway! Hee.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

No, you haven't. At least I saw the replacement post *before* tried to read the deleted one, or I'd have been more terminally confused than usual!

I shall go and look at it on YT now I've watched last night's rather brilliant 'Law & Order: UK'.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. And talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous...! :loL:

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yeeees....

[thisbluespirit]

Yes, and because Edward and Tracey both hate everyone else, they are born to be good friends! Er.... :lol: I still haven't recovered from my giggles over watching all 10 parts yesterday, sorry. Dark Towers is in DANGER! (From two second hand furniture blokes, and a bibliomaniac. I am making none of this up at all.)

Lord Dark is David Collings, who you will better know as Mawdryn from Mawdryn Undead - that is what he looks like when he hasn't got spaghetti on his head. And you're right; he so could have been a Weasley with that hair. :-)

[thisbluespirit]

Awww. That's lovely!! Not, I mean, that your son was scared, of course, but that despite the age and shakiness and educational bits, that it still comes across as quite good and creepy if you are more the right age for it. When I was small me and the rest of my class loved it. Aww. Glad he was cheered up by the ending, though!

Yes, tho' there was an awkward moment in the middle when Christopher Biggins framed her as a thief by sticking a small portrait in her back jeans pocket and Lord Dark threw her out, but they all worked their way round it, with the help of the Tall Knight and the Friendly Ghost and a lost treasure. Just your every day tale... :lol:

I know - I like how it's rather shaky, but he still takes it seriously and gives a good performance. Aw, again. :-)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, this post made me nostalgic for the educational shows that I used to watch as a kid: Sesame Street, Electric Company and Schoolhouse Rock.

That Wordy character is a little scary. But wow, you guys would get actual plots in between your lessons!

And yes, that background music does sound like Doctor Who.

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, ITV or C4 bought Sesame St, so I'm familiar with things being brought to us by various letters, hehe. I don't know the other two...

But wow, you guys would get actual plots in between your lessons!

Yes! I don't mean to be annoying, but I think it has to be said, the BBC are pretty marvellous quite a lot of the time. :-) This was from their schools strand - both the BBC and ITV did pre-school stuff, normal children's TV but then BBC2 also had this separate schools strand that would be shown on a weekday morning (and teachers would record it and show them to their classes for the next ten years or so, heh.)

The L&R plots are what I remember - criminals hiding out on Exmoor, robbers and ghosts at Dark Towers, a lost alien being hunted down by terrifying other aliens, a wicked plot against a fairground, and so on. And there was Mr Magus Is Waiting, a Look and Read special that, from memory, would give Ghostlight a run for its money in stuff about weird and creepy old houses. Can't think why I wound up watching stuff like DW when I grew up. :-D

I've been haunted by Look & Read for years while trying to watch S18 and 19. And I knew why, it was that obvious, even to me.

[john_amend_all]

O...kay :-)

Also, after Pt1 they have thankfully edited out Wordy and all the songs about vowels and the repetitions.

I remember my mother (a teacher) opining that Through The Dragon's Eye was superior to the earlier stories because it lacked constant interruptions from Wordy. Which, I suppose, makes Wordy the L&R equivalent of the Valeyard.

[thisbluespirit]

I was a bit old for Through the Dragon's Eye, but I watched it when home, ill and bored, as a teenager, and my impression from that is that it was probably better than the rest, generally. (I mainly remember that Charn was properly Evil... and, look, played by David Collings again. Was he in everything ever? Heh.) I think the absence of Wordy would improve most things. :-D Your Mum has my admiration if she could sit through Dark Towers as an adult without laughing.

[john_amend_all]

When I wrote my first comment, I hadn't watched all the parts. Now I have (feel free to consider yourself an evil oppressor, if you want). Though I'm sure I never saw it before, enough plot points rang enough bells that I think I must have seen a novelisation at some point.

I see what you mean about the music, too; the cliffhanger to Episode 8 really wants the last shot replaced by a crash zoom on Tracey's face, and an electronic scream leading into the credits.

And... whoever wrote those rhymes needs to do some serious work on their scansion.

[thisbluespirit]

I assume it was Andrew Davies... who I am pretty sure wrote some more respective Children's drama as well, oh dear. Mind you, with everyone reading so slowly, they were never going to come out well anyway. :-)

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

Peter Mayhew is indeed Chewbacca from Star Wars. *fangirl* I keep forgetting he's English. ;-)

[thisbluespirit]

:-) Yes, and in this you can see, well, even less of him than you can as Chewbacca! Star Wars always amuses me in that way - it's a proper Hollywood film but has all these British actors who used to turn up on TV, as well as more obvious people like Peter Cushing and Alec Guiness.

[kitnkabootle.livejournal.com]

Oh my... obsessed with your HoE icon. There is much, much love!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw. Yours there is much more gorgeous. And it was only one of the set I made a while back - entirely snaggable if you wanted!

[kitnkabootle.livejournal.com]

AHH and that one too! I want to have these :D Snagged with permission? :D :D

[thisbluespirit]

Of course! Like I said, they're from this batch of HoE icons I did from icons100. :-)

[belantana.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh childhood nostalgia tv!! In the realistic expectation that this is going to sidetrack my brain for hours - bookmarked for later. (Also, I'll probably have nightmares about scary childhood tv...)

[thisbluespirit]

Seriously? Am I reading this right? They used to have you watching Look & Read on the other side of the world? Wow.

(And you're right about the hours; Dark Towers is only about 1 hr in total, but I haven't risked clicking on any of the others. Although whether they would have the same combination of hilarious narration, a full hand of cult/sf casting and my nostalgia, I don't know.)

[belantana.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, no, sorry, I meant nostalgic for my childhood tv. Which was probably a similar level of weird to yours.

[thisbluespirit]

I did think it sounded unlikely, but then again, UK TV stations do seem to have exported a lot of strange things! You will have to share some time so we can do important cultural studies of these things in different parts of the world. Hee.