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thisbluespirit) wrote2014-02-02 12:54 pm
thisbluespirit) wrote2014-02-02 12:54 pm
Fake Show 2: Heroes of the Revolution (Main Cast & Setting)
(For the pictures, see the LJ version. I should have only posted one side, but forgot. Image troubles again, sorry.)
I'm still working on the supporting cast and the episode guide, but I think the main cast and basic set-up has solidified pretty well, so here's part 1 of the first fruits of the isurrendered meme...
The prompt, fromjjpor: It's the morning after the revolution before. The Evil Empire has fallen; the Plucky Rebels won against impossible odds, as Plucky Rebels tend to do. Now they've just got to deal with the messy aftermath and, you know, actually govern the place. Preferably without becoming like the regime they've just defeated.
HEROES OF THE REVOLUTION
"The state has failed us, over and over, so we decide ourselves who to protect and who to betray, who to save and who to kill. This was no more, no less than that. Another act of conscience, if you like. Let's call it the final act of revolution - and remember we're all complicit in the crime."
A critically-acclaimed but long-forgotten (and doubtless studio-bound and dreary, shh, such things are awesome) 13 episode drama series from 1973/4 starring Gemma Jones, Alfred Burke, Julian Glover and Diane Keen.
Set in the near-future in an alternate (but not too different) reality, where a tyrannical regime has been in power in Britain for nearly three decades, a group of freedom fighters led by a man known as "Arran", finally defeat the dictator Hallam - and then a new battle begins, one where the lines are even less clear than before. It explores the ethics of power as a drama plays out between the victorious rebel leaders, the remnant of the old guard, and those who want to find more peaceful solutions for the future.
Episode List
1. Blood Red Dawn
2. Out With the Old
3. Divide and Conquer
4. Shadows of Yesterday
5. The Tyrant's Widow
6. Business As Usual
7. Power Loss
8. The Old and the Weak
9. Headlines
10. Broken Instrument
11. Traitor's Gate
12. Heroes Never Die
13. Last Act of the Revolution
MAIN CAST
"Anna" | Catherine Miller (Gemma Jones)
Now that Hallam's regime has been overthrown, and rebel leader Arran is finally able to take power as head of state, Anna is determined to ensure that initial emergency measures don't wind up leading them into becoming a regime just as tyrannical as the last. For that, they need the right people in government, and she's making sure that happens - starting with Charles Terrell, if he can be persuaded.
Charles Terrell (Alfred Burke)
Charles has had a checquered history. Technically part of the last constitutional government (mainly taking notes, he says), then political prisoner, co-ordinator in the early rebellion, and - again, technically - part of Hallam's government, though unofficially still working for the rebellion. Most of Arran's people regard him with mistrust, and the last thing he wants is the responsibility of power. What he is, however, is an experienced politician who's on the right side, and there aren't many of them about.
"Arran" | Colonel Michael Seaton (Julian Glover)
Formerly an army officer under the previous regime, he deserted in protest at some of the more stringent "emergency measures" sixteen years ago. For the past eleven years he led the rebellion, and their victory is largely attributable to him. He brought organisation, a head for strategy and ruthlessness to the endeavour. Now Hallam's gone, and he's head of state, with a nation in chaos to restore to normality and he might have to resort to drastic measures to do it...
Dr. Liz Cardew (Sheila Allen)
Representative of the Emergency Medical Organisation. She wasn't a member of the resistance, or a supporter of the previous regime - she's spent the time trying to ensure medical supplies and other basic needs are met. She's persuaded into becoming part of the new emergency government by Charles, because, after all, they need someone with some idea of the practicalities involved.
"Liesa" | Louise Seaton (Diane Keen)
Arran's wife, who's coming to terms with her new role, though it's not too hard - she's always been something of an actress. She's got her own ideas about how they should move forward, not necessarily compatible with her Arran's...
Daniel Robbins (Paul Eddington)
A minor member of the previous government. He wasn't an enthusiastic supporter, but he preferred order to terrorism, or so he says. The rebels would rather not have someone like him around, but he can be useful. He'd rather not still be around, either, but he's another of Anna's unwilling converts.
Edward Woodfield (Morris Perry)
Another former member of Hallam's government, now soon-to-be Leader of the Opposition. He firmly believes this group of rebels aren't capable of steering a country through a period of crisis at a time like this and enjoys pointing out the cracks in their facade. He is dismayed, though, that it turns out that Charles Terrell is equally good in doing that in return, and holding the Opposition together is also proving difficult. Oh, and he knows far too much about the deeper, underlying problems that may finish all of them in the end...
I'm still working on the supporting cast and the episode guide, but I think the main cast and basic set-up has solidified pretty well, so here's part 1 of the first fruits of the isurrendered meme...
The prompt, from
jjpor: It's the morning after the revolution before. The Evil Empire has fallen; the Plucky Rebels won against impossible odds, as Plucky Rebels tend to do. Now they've just got to deal with the messy aftermath and, you know, actually govern the place. Preferably without becoming like the regime they've just defeated."The state has failed us, over and over, so we decide ourselves who to protect and who to betray, who to save and who to kill. This was no more, no less than that. Another act of conscience, if you like. Let's call it the final act of revolution - and remember we're all complicit in the crime."
A critically-acclaimed but long-forgotten (and doubtless studio-bound and dreary, shh, such things are awesome) 13 episode drama series from 1973/4 starring Gemma Jones, Alfred Burke, Julian Glover and Diane Keen.
Set in the near-future in an alternate (but not too different) reality, where a tyrannical regime has been in power in Britain for nearly three decades, a group of freedom fighters led by a man known as "Arran", finally defeat the dictator Hallam - and then a new battle begins, one where the lines are even less clear than before. It explores the ethics of power as a drama plays out between the victorious rebel leaders, the remnant of the old guard, and those who want to find more peaceful solutions for the future.
1. Blood Red Dawn
2. Out With the Old
3. Divide and Conquer
4. Shadows of Yesterday
5. The Tyrant's Widow
6. Business As Usual
7. Power Loss
8. The Old and the Weak
9. Headlines
10. Broken Instrument
11. Traitor's Gate
12. Heroes Never Die
13. Last Act of the Revolution
MAIN CAST
"Anna" | Catherine Miller (Gemma Jones)
Now that Hallam's regime has been overthrown, and rebel leader Arran is finally able to take power as head of state, Anna is determined to ensure that initial emergency measures don't wind up leading them into becoming a regime just as tyrannical as the last. For that, they need the right people in government, and she's making sure that happens - starting with Charles Terrell, if he can be persuaded.
Charles Terrell (Alfred Burke)
Charles has had a checquered history. Technically part of the last constitutional government (mainly taking notes, he says), then political prisoner, co-ordinator in the early rebellion, and - again, technically - part of Hallam's government, though unofficially still working for the rebellion. Most of Arran's people regard him with mistrust, and the last thing he wants is the responsibility of power. What he is, however, is an experienced politician who's on the right side, and there aren't many of them about.
"Arran" | Colonel Michael Seaton (Julian Glover)
Formerly an army officer under the previous regime, he deserted in protest at some of the more stringent "emergency measures" sixteen years ago. For the past eleven years he led the rebellion, and their victory is largely attributable to him. He brought organisation, a head for strategy and ruthlessness to the endeavour. Now Hallam's gone, and he's head of state, with a nation in chaos to restore to normality and he might have to resort to drastic measures to do it...
Dr. Liz Cardew (Sheila Allen)
Representative of the Emergency Medical Organisation. She wasn't a member of the resistance, or a supporter of the previous regime - she's spent the time trying to ensure medical supplies and other basic needs are met. She's persuaded into becoming part of the new emergency government by Charles, because, after all, they need someone with some idea of the practicalities involved.
"Liesa" | Louise Seaton (Diane Keen)
Arran's wife, who's coming to terms with her new role, though it's not too hard - she's always been something of an actress. She's got her own ideas about how they should move forward, not necessarily compatible with her Arran's...
Daniel Robbins (Paul Eddington)
A minor member of the previous government. He wasn't an enthusiastic supporter, but he preferred order to terrorism, or so he says. The rebels would rather not have someone like him around, but he can be useful. He'd rather not still be around, either, but he's another of Anna's unwilling converts.
Edward Woodfield (Morris Perry)
Another former member of Hallam's government, now soon-to-be Leader of the Opposition. He firmly believes this group of rebels aren't capable of steering a country through a period of crisis at a time like this and enjoys pointing out the cracks in their facade. He is dismayed, though, that it turns out that Charles Terrell is equally good in doing that in return, and holding the Opposition together is also proving difficult. Oh, and he knows far too much about the deeper, underlying problems that may finish all of them in the end...
no subject
*nods* I may have been watching Public Eye and Enemy at the Door too much. Not that either of them are a dystopia, but they show what's possible in terms of writing something gripping that focuses more on ordinary people & life, and character/ethical dilemmas. So, I am leaning towards it being a major ITV company effort (edited and produced by Michael Chapman, and definitely including episodes by James Doran), and therefore there will be a DVD release soon (as long as it survived intact), because Network are good like that. (They're just evil about not letting me rip things.) :-)
And I can just imagine what this looked like and sounded like - the studio sets, as you say, and the videotape (with the occasional snippet of outdoor stuff looking all pale and cold because it's on film). And dense, wordy stories where all the action's in the dialogue and the performances.
Exactly!!! And the outdoors stuff is also pale and cold because it was inevitably done in January, as ever.
I haven't cast Hallam yet (I had someone in mind, but I think he's too young to have been in power, or trying to get power for 30 years!). However, I think it should open with a set-piece that took most of the budget (but a lot of the rest was earnest discussion in offices of power, anyway) where he's very much in power (and probably overseeing an execution or something) and then the rebels take power! With some big explosions and a slightly less convincing ambush. And, then, having done one bit of action, it proceeds to mostly talk for the next 12 episodes. But you need to see the rebels being heroic before being more morally ambiguous. :-)
So, yes. Hallam needs to be a known actor, but he's only going to survive for about 15 minutes at the most. That's the plan, unless I change my mind. (The episode guide is getting really complicated...)
no subject
Trying to think of an actor who seems suitably dictator-like and was also the right sort of age in 1973...
ITV seems like a good fit - and as you say, more likely perhaps to still be with us and likely to be released soon. At which point, you can do us a load of screencaps of Julian Glover being ambiguous (I'm sort of thinking of Arran as this slightly distant leader figure, worshipped by his close associates, viewed with trepidation by those not quite convinced of him, well capable of going one way or the other on the whole utopian/dystopian see-saw depending on where his mysterious inner motivations take him).
Still want to know what happens to David Collings. Does it involve much whimpering/sweating etc?
no subject
Well, actually, ITV are even worse than the BBC at destroying stuff, because they just seem to have thrown out the archives every time one of the franchises got taken over, but if it was someone like Thames TV it'd probably still be around, and they could pull off big-scale stuff reasonably creditably. Anyway, it did survive. I'm not having my imaginary show totally burninated, that would be silly. And tragic. :loL:
Hmm, "Arran" is actually a lot more hands-on than that sounds - I mean, to the limits that the actual leader can be. He's retreating more now, in power, and possibly cracking up (or possibly Anna's just cracking up worrying he's cracking up, because she's lived the same life for just as long. He's going to the edge of paranoia, she's got a morbid distrust of herself and the rest after what they've done).
I don't know what happens to David Collings yet. I am still working my way through the episode guide, and I think he fits in one of the latter third of eps. I'm sure there will at least be some whimpering. He's just got no backbone whatsoever, that red-headed bloke. :-)