Yet another random post...
14 Feb 2012 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespirit...this time about things the BBC have in their archive and I wish would share with me. Well, everyone, obviously, but especially me. (Partly made because last time I did this, I discovered that against all the odds what I wanted was on YouTube.... This is not the same, however, as Things the BBC Once Had in Their Archive and have Since Wiped/Burninated/Carelessly Lost, because you know about that already. Power of the Daleks! The Naked Sun!)
* On the commentary for Revenge of the Cybermen, everyone was discussing Ian Marter at one point, and David Collings (yes, 2 out of 3 of these things will contain Mr Collings, I'm sorry, but there it is) said that he had worked with him again when they played the Brothers Grimm together for the BBC. (Me: !!!!?) After some Googling, I found this was a 1979 Omnibus episode, a documentary on the lives of the brothers Grimm, but they had dramatised sections, in which the two were played by Ian Marter and David Collings.
Can't see the BBC releasing old Omnibus episodes, somehow. Except maybe in the future if they put up EVERYTHING for download on the internet, or something. Still, it's a nice thought of the two together to have in my head.
* I am watching my way through the BBC Shakespeare as best I can (go away; I want to; I don't care who thinks they are dull or whatever) and I ended up looking at the (v interesting, actually) entry about the series on Wikipedia and noticed a throwaway fact that the first one they made was a version of Much Ado About Nothing in 1977 but for whatever reason (it seems to be suspected, because of use of regional accents by some characters) they decided the US financial backers wouldn't go for it & so didn't include that version in the series & filmed it again in 1984 with a different cast. And who, you may ask, was in this production that isn't part of the collection (and therefore not available on DVD)? Apparently, it was Michael York and Penelope Keith. I thought this might be an internet hoax, but it seems to be true. I can't even imagine them in the same room, but I WANT TO SEE IT. Penelope Keith and Michael York?
Even if it was awful and that was the real reason they kept it in the UK and out of the collection. When that entry says "available to hire on videocassette from the BBC" I suspect they don't mean for random passing individuals, especially those with a dodgy video player. I'm so curious, though. Penelope Keith and Michael York!!
* 1980 detective series Breakaway. (I started looking at this on David Collings's IMBD, because I always had a thing about there being a children's TV show I used to watch by that name, but this definitely isn't it, especially since there probably wasn't and I just amalgamated the chocolate bar and Playaway.) Anyway, it stars Martin Jarvis, who I also like a lot and this is the description of it on IMBD:
Detective inspector Sam Harvey, better known to the general public as the author of the latest best-seller for ages 3 and up, 'Breakfast at the Zoo,' would like nothing better than to retire so he can devote himself full-time to penning the riveting sequels 'Lunch at the Zoo' and 'Dinner at the Zoo.' However, he has to solve a couple of complicated murder cases first. Plot twists and red herrings abound in this intricate thriller series, and corpses turn up with distressing regularity before the culprits are finally collared.
And, apparently, it doesn't seem to have actually been a comedy, or a children's show. (I did some careful Googling). My mind, it is boggled. Plus, David Collings is playing Dr Tucker. You have no idea how much mileage I can get out of people who are or should be the Doctor being called "Doctor" for any reason. (The ITV Poirot ep Sad Cypress I enjoyed very much because Paul McGann was playing the doctor. Poirot/DW crossover with no effort! Mind, I think most DW fans do this. Er. We do, don't we??)
It was written by Francis Durbridge, who apparently did Paul Temple, so maybe that will lead the BBC to release it one day. After all, they've got to get to the end of the really obvious archive things someday. And with that concept, plus Martin Jarvis, detective, and David Collings (in S2), it wouldn't have to be all that marvellous for me to like it, anyway. (Srsly, those two = my two favourite voices ever. I might not be able to cope.)
ETA: Looking at this, I think the thing that strikes me most about that write-up is that it sounds worryingly like something I would write... If I wrote TV scripts back in the 1980s. Only mine would be a comedy.
Er. Was that post random enough? But, seriously, BBC: Penelope Keith and Michael York as Beatrice and Benedick. Soon. Please.
(I know, I know, but I just can't get quite well enough to watch normal TV when it's actually on, or cope with the iplayer. I suppose I should see about one of those Freeview recorder things and stop ogling the BBC archive, really, but... it is fun speculating about bygone stuff. And current TV has a shocking lack of David Collings, anyway.)
* On the commentary for Revenge of the Cybermen, everyone was discussing Ian Marter at one point, and David Collings (yes, 2 out of 3 of these things will contain Mr Collings, I'm sorry, but there it is) said that he had worked with him again when they played the Brothers Grimm together for the BBC. (Me: !!!!?) After some Googling, I found this was a 1979 Omnibus episode, a documentary on the lives of the brothers Grimm, but they had dramatised sections, in which the two were played by Ian Marter and David Collings.
Can't see the BBC releasing old Omnibus episodes, somehow. Except maybe in the future if they put up EVERYTHING for download on the internet, or something. Still, it's a nice thought of the two together to have in my head.
* I am watching my way through the BBC Shakespeare as best I can (go away; I want to; I don't care who thinks they are dull or whatever) and I ended up looking at the (v interesting, actually) entry about the series on Wikipedia and noticed a throwaway fact that the first one they made was a version of Much Ado About Nothing in 1977 but for whatever reason (it seems to be suspected, because of use of regional accents by some characters) they decided the US financial backers wouldn't go for it & so didn't include that version in the series & filmed it again in 1984 with a different cast. And who, you may ask, was in this production that isn't part of the collection (and therefore not available on DVD)? Apparently, it was Michael York and Penelope Keith. I thought this might be an internet hoax, but it seems to be true. I can't even imagine them in the same room, but I WANT TO SEE IT. Penelope Keith and Michael York?
Even if it was awful and that was the real reason they kept it in the UK and out of the collection. When that entry says "available to hire on videocassette from the BBC" I suspect they don't mean for random passing individuals, especially those with a dodgy video player. I'm so curious, though. Penelope Keith and Michael York!!
* 1980 detective series Breakaway. (I started looking at this on David Collings's IMBD, because I always had a thing about there being a children's TV show I used to watch by that name, but this definitely isn't it, especially since there probably wasn't and I just amalgamated the chocolate bar and Playaway.) Anyway, it stars Martin Jarvis, who I also like a lot and this is the description of it on IMBD:
Detective inspector Sam Harvey, better known to the general public as the author of the latest best-seller for ages 3 and up, 'Breakfast at the Zoo,' would like nothing better than to retire so he can devote himself full-time to penning the riveting sequels 'Lunch at the Zoo' and 'Dinner at the Zoo.' However, he has to solve a couple of complicated murder cases first. Plot twists and red herrings abound in this intricate thriller series, and corpses turn up with distressing regularity before the culprits are finally collared.
And, apparently, it doesn't seem to have actually been a comedy, or a children's show. (I did some careful Googling). My mind, it is boggled. Plus, David Collings is playing Dr Tucker. You have no idea how much mileage I can get out of people who are or should be the Doctor being called "Doctor" for any reason. (The ITV Poirot ep Sad Cypress I enjoyed very much because Paul McGann was playing the doctor. Poirot/DW crossover with no effort! Mind, I think most DW fans do this. Er. We do, don't we??)
It was written by Francis Durbridge, who apparently did Paul Temple, so maybe that will lead the BBC to release it one day. After all, they've got to get to the end of the really obvious archive things someday. And with that concept, plus Martin Jarvis, detective, and David Collings (in S2), it wouldn't have to be all that marvellous for me to like it, anyway. (Srsly, those two = my two favourite voices ever. I might not be able to cope.)
ETA: Looking at this, I think the thing that strikes me most about that write-up is that it sounds worryingly like something I would write... If I wrote TV scripts back in the 1980s. Only mine would be a comedy.
Er. Was that post random enough? But, seriously, BBC: Penelope Keith and Michael York as Beatrice and Benedick. Soon. Please.
(I know, I know, but I just can't get quite well enough to watch normal TV when it's actually on, or cope with the iplayer. I suppose I should see about one of those Freeview recorder things and stop ogling the BBC archive, really, but... it is fun speculating about bygone stuff. And current TV has a shocking lack of David Collings, anyway.)
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no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 01:46 pm (UTC)Also, more David Collings is always good (WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN ;P). Also:
'Mind, I think most DW fans do this. Er. We do, don't we??'
Well, I certainly do! :-) Also, people being referred to by numbers, as "Nine" etc, in any context. *g*
no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 08:02 pm (UTC)ETA: Of those I have watched so far, which is actually only about 5. It just feels like more, because I have to go slow and I watched Julius Caesar twice.
And LOL. You noticed him. You are okay with David Collings until you notice him.... That was my fault. I'm sorry. Also you should totally watch the BBC Julius Caesar sometime did I mention that before? When you are up to slow stuff where everybody dies at the end.
no subject
Date: 18 Feb 2012 12:27 am (UTC)they're all up there too somewhere.
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Date: 18 Feb 2012 04:55 pm (UTC)But thank you for the recs! I shall note them - aargh, my to-watch list is going to last me for a good long time, I can see...
:-)
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Date: 14 Feb 2012 04:30 pm (UTC)Hell yes!
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Date: 14 Feb 2012 08:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 04:50 pm (UTC)That sounds amazing! I know there was an 80s version of Twelth night with felicity kendall that I really want to see. But that is availble I've just not got around to buying the dvd yet.
no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 08:06 pm (UTC)I've seen that Twelfth Night, as we did it for A-Level - it's part of the BBC Shakespeare that I'm working my way through. I can't really remember anything now except Felicity Kendal, though. She made a good Viola.
no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 09:22 pm (UTC)Aw, I will have to get a copy! Twelth Night is my favourite Shakepeare play and I love both Felicity kendal and Viola. But first I need to watch the King Lear my mum got me for Christmas...
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Date: 14 Feb 2012 07:09 pm (UTC)I'm always amazed how much television from that era is effectively "lost", even if it wasn't actually burninated. Not just fictional TV but all of those great BBC documentaries (not just the flagships with Attenborough etc involved, but things like Chronicle and Timewatch and so on). Most of them have probably been superseded by the march of science, but still...they do not make 'em like that any more.
no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 08:09 pm (UTC)The good thing is, I suppose, that, unless some of it is in a v bad state, they might even start releasing things in new ways at some point. I could see the BBC trying that in the future, provided nobody kills the internet. But, yes, they're just not really going to release old documentaries like that otherwise. Even if I want to see Ian Marter and David Collings as the Brothers Grimm!
no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 10:49 pm (UTC)We can only hope. Unless, as you say, somebody kills the internet which doesn't seem as unlikely now as it might have a year ago. Hmm. I am, by now, thanks to your efforts fairly well-versed on the Collings oeuvre, but the only non-Who thing I think of off the top of my head with Ian Marter in is one of the Brett Sherlock Holmes stories, where he had a small part as a policeman. I'm thinking it was The Musgrave Ritual (also features that chap out of London's Burning as well as the captain who foolishly decides to "apologise to Lord Vader personally" in The Empire Strikes Back). Must have been one of the last things he did before he passed away, because that was 1986 iirc. But he must have been in other things.
no subject
Date: 15 Feb 2012 06:15 pm (UTC):lol: I am terrible flister to have, I know. What even more obscure thing will it be next, one dreads to think? Still, I haven't quite done with David Collings's IMBD yet..
no subject
Date: 15 Feb 2012 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 Feb 2012 07:29 pm (UTC)The BBC need to stop hoarding all their goodies and just stick everything on DVD now. Well, and make the next series of Sherlock, of course. :oD
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Date: 14 Feb 2012 08:14 pm (UTC)Heh, yes! Trouble is, some of the original source has degraded and things, I suppose. But, yes, hurry up, BBC!!
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Date: 14 Feb 2012 10:55 pm (UTC)(And hmmm. Perhaps you can convince your ex-library to write to the BBC and ask to loan the videotape. Cos you need it. For research. Or something :D)
no subject
Date: 15 Feb 2012 06:10 pm (UTC)Yeah... Somehow I think I'll just have to wait for them to realise the world wants to see it! (Because, if I do, the world does, obviously. :lol:)