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thisbluespirit) wrote2019-03-19 02:26 pm
thisbluespirit) wrote2019-03-19 02:26 pm
Entry tags:
Oppenheimer & Bognor
(Not an obvious combination of TV series, lol, but linked by a common factor & what that is you can probably guess.)
Anyway, I have been watching the BBC's 1980s biopic Oppenheimer lately, starring Sam Waterston. It also features in the 7th and final episode some guy called James Maxwell as Lloyd Garrison.
I did enjoy it, but it was also slightly distressing as this is my last bit of James Maxwell available on DVD that is new to me. (There are, though, two things available by online methods that I need to get to, I just keep hoping that either they'll release a DVD or Talking Pictures will oblige me by showing them, as I'm not great at watching stuff online.) But still. I get through the bad stuff by reminding myself that if things get to their worst, I might be able to purchase some James Maxwell! What's a person to do when there is NO MORE?*
Anyway, it was very good, although in that taking-it-very-seriously-practically-a-docudrama way that I thought even the BBC had done with by 1980. It even still had a narrator (John Carson,liadt). I think it could easily have lost an episode, too (half of episode 1 could have gone, for a start). As I knew only the vaguest things about the Manhattan Project prior to this, I can't comment on accuracy, although old time BBC usually at least try quite hard.
It was, though, aside from the two or three Genuine Americans who had been enticed over by the prospect, a field day for people who can do dodgy foreign accents, plus all the regular Americans and Canadians based in the UK. I ticked them off as they popped up, and my only question was, when would Ed Bishop arrive?
The answer was, as it turned out, episode 4. *g*
But Sam Waterston was very good, and it also had David Suchet as Edward Teller, coming into his own with his first major TV role, and, the dodgy-accent brigade included Milton Johns! In an actual proper serious role! Amazing. Bless him.**
I have also, hence the unlikely title, finally got round to screencapping the Bognor installment in which James Maxwell and Patrick Troughton are both monks in a honey-making religious community that is rocked by MURDER and espionage. I have brought pics. You can thank me later. :-D
Some shots from the final episode of Oppenheimer:
... and then there was Bognor...
James Maxwell as Abbot Anselm. He is trying to run a honey-making friary but is having trouble with an unexpected murder.
One of his community is a bit familiar looking. (Patrick Troughton as Brother Xavier.)
It is a plot point that Anselm is unexpectedly strong due to his keen squash playing, which means, for Bognor (David Horovitch) to know this, James Maxwell has to keep grabbing hold of him at all opportunities, and other people, too.
For some reason someone thought this plot point should also be emphasised by James Maxwell suddenly stripping off in his study.
To be fair, he looks a bit alarmed by this as well.
He also gets some hand-holding in, never fear.
And has a Special Friend called Edward, who is, alas, a spy who is not called Edward at all and tries to frame him for murder and espionage.
Doctors Fake One (Mk I) and Two! But at this point, I am not surprised to see Richard Hurndall turn up in anything. It is more of a surprise when he doesn't.
Patrick Troughton trying to get James Maxwell to do spying for him.
When you suddenly realise that Patrick Troughton is a SPY.
Untying himself after being tied up by Patrick Troughton at gunpoint (sadly not shown). I don't understand how this means he is suddenly wearing his hood. Something got cut?
Patrick Troughton, by far the best person at the friary, according to Bognor. It is a shame he's also a spy, but you can't have everything.
Probably James Maxwell will have to sell up as there were three murders, three enemy agents and at least one runaway from his friary and I can't imagine any of it can be good for the honey-making business.
* Rewatch previous purchases, obviously. *happily disappears into Girl on Approval for a bit*
** He had to try and sell the scene in The Android Invasion in classic Who where he discovered that he was not missing an eye, he just hadn't ever thought to look under his eyepatch! So obv. he deserves all the good things, even if he hadn't already earned a lot of audience fondness for somehow being ridiculously likeable while playing all the slimy creeps in 70s & 80s children's TV. His accent was the dodgiest, but he was otherwise very good indeed in it.
Anyway, I have been watching the BBC's 1980s biopic Oppenheimer lately, starring Sam Waterston. It also features in the 7th and final episode some guy called James Maxwell as Lloyd Garrison.
I did enjoy it, but it was also slightly distressing as this is my last bit of James Maxwell available on DVD that is new to me. (There are, though, two things available by online methods that I need to get to, I just keep hoping that either they'll release a DVD or Talking Pictures will oblige me by showing them, as I'm not great at watching stuff online.) But still. I get through the bad stuff by reminding myself that if things get to their worst, I might be able to purchase some James Maxwell! What's a person to do when there is NO MORE?*
Anyway, it was very good, although in that taking-it-very-seriously-practically-a-docudrama way that I thought even the BBC had done with by 1980. It even still had a narrator (John Carson,
liadt). I think it could easily have lost an episode, too (half of episode 1 could have gone, for a start). As I knew only the vaguest things about the Manhattan Project prior to this, I can't comment on accuracy, although old time BBC usually at least try quite hard.It was, though, aside from the two or three Genuine Americans who had been enticed over by the prospect, a field day for people who can do dodgy foreign accents, plus all the regular Americans and Canadians based in the UK. I ticked them off as they popped up, and my only question was, when would Ed Bishop arrive?
The answer was, as it turned out, episode 4. *g*
But Sam Waterston was very good, and it also had David Suchet as Edward Teller, coming into his own with his first major TV role, and, the dodgy-accent brigade included Milton Johns! In an actual proper serious role! Amazing. Bless him.**
I have also, hence the unlikely title, finally got round to screencapping the Bognor installment in which James Maxwell and Patrick Troughton are both monks in a honey-making religious community that is rocked by MURDER and espionage. I have brought pics. You can thank me later. :-D
Some shots from the final episode of Oppenheimer:
... and then there was Bognor...
James Maxwell as Abbot Anselm. He is trying to run a honey-making friary but is having trouble with an unexpected murder.
One of his community is a bit familiar looking. (Patrick Troughton as Brother Xavier.)
It is a plot point that Anselm is unexpectedly strong due to his keen squash playing, which means, for Bognor (David Horovitch) to know this, James Maxwell has to keep grabbing hold of him at all opportunities, and other people, too.
For some reason someone thought this plot point should also be emphasised by James Maxwell suddenly stripping off in his study.
To be fair, he looks a bit alarmed by this as well.
He also gets some hand-holding in, never fear.
And has a Special Friend called Edward, who is, alas, a spy who is not called Edward at all and tries to frame him for murder and espionage.
Doctors Fake One (Mk I) and Two! But at this point, I am not surprised to see Richard Hurndall turn up in anything. It is more of a surprise when he doesn't.
Patrick Troughton trying to get James Maxwell to do spying for him.
When you suddenly realise that Patrick Troughton is a SPY.
Untying himself after being tied up by Patrick Troughton at gunpoint (sadly not shown). I don't understand how this means he is suddenly wearing his hood. Something got cut?
Patrick Troughton, by far the best person at the friary, according to Bognor. It is a shame he's also a spy, but you can't have everything.
Probably James Maxwell will have to sell up as there were three murders, three enemy agents and at least one runaway from his friary and I can't imagine any of it can be good for the honey-making business.
* Rewatch previous purchases, obviously. *happily disappears into Girl on Approval for a bit*
** He had to try and sell the scene in The Android Invasion in classic Who where he discovered that he was not missing an eye, he just hadn't ever thought to look under his eyepatch! So obv. he deserves all the good things, even if he hadn't already earned a lot of audience fondness for somehow being ridiculously likeable while playing all the slimy creeps in 70s & 80s children's TV. His accent was the dodgiest, but he was otherwise very good indeed in it.
no subject
I hope some more JM is uncovered from the archives.
\o/ for John Carson. He was in high demand as an advert voice over artiste.
no subject
Thank you!
John Carson has a very nice voice. He was a good choice; I was just a bit taken aback that the BBC were still doing solemn narrated biopics in 1980s, but I suppose I shouldn't have been.
I hope some more JM is uncovered from the archives.
LIADT, look: https://networkonair.com/all-products/2985-orson-welles-great-mysteries-volume-1
It's on Network's one day but we're not committing ourselves list, but JM is in The Ingenious Reporter. With yet another epic beard! I just found this accidentally by finding some bonus stock photos including one of it. So at least I have hope. And Simply Media may one day get around to S2 of The Troubleshooters, too.
ETA:
ETA 2: ... well that came out bigger than I expected.
no subject
There's a price so I imagine Network must have a date in mind and with it being Orson "not obscure" Welles related too. Simply Media moves in mysteries ways, I think they're quite slow. Their website wasn't the most consumer friendly, last time I looked. Still, things to look forward to!
no subject
Simply Media seems very slow indeed. I have several things they were supposed to be releasing in 2017 or 2018 that have still not materialised, but one day, maybe!!
Help, I've been attacked by a giant fake beard!;p
Ward it off with the eyebrows of Adam Adamant!!
no subject
no subject
Now that's just terrifying! 0_o
no subject
Huh. I should check that out. I have only seen Oppenheimer played by David Strathairn (and very briefly and incompletely by Hume Cronyn). Waterston has good eyebrows for it. Suchet sounds like he should have ben a good Teller.
James Maxwell as Abbot Anselm. He is trying to run a honey-making friary but is having trouble with an unexpected murder.
Even beyond the monastic habits, I really enjoy how much the rest of this show looks like 1981 and how much James Maxwell, except in that one confusing screencap where he seems to be wearing a sweatshirt, looks like he just fell out of the twelfth century and everyone's cool with that.
no subject
I would have enjoyed watching that far more than Bognor! And he always does look far too at home in a habit...
Oppenheimer was good! I don't, of course, have the kind of knowledge to be annoyed by everything they got wrong (if they did), but, yeah, Sam Waterston was very good. I only took a handful of caps from the last episode (you may guess why) by which time he was being aged up, so it wasn't the best one for pics of him.
David Suchet was apparently always amazing, but that isn't really very surprising! I think my favourite bit was him and Waterston in ep6, when Teller is going ahead with the H-bomb and Oppenheimer is trying to stop him and yet they both just stop and have this conversation about the science of getting it to work because they can't help themselves and no one else will understand the joy of it the same as the two of them do together.
I don't know if it's released in the US? I checked the DVD because I wondered if it might be a multi-region one, but it wasn't. Simply Media who released it don't seem to have a US version, unlike Network who seem to be affiliated with Acorn in the US. Someone seems to have it up here though. (When I Googled to try and find this out, I found out that BBC Radio has one of Oppenheimer's 1953 Reith lectures available! (I think the radio side is usually not region-locked, but obv. BBC, it may be.)
no subject
I'm sure they got something wrong, because that is the way of science on TV, but I am still intereted in tracking it down!
I think my favourite bit was him and Waterston in ep6, when Teller is going ahead with the H-bomb and Oppenheimer is trying to stop him and yet they both just stop and have this conversation about the science of getting it to work because they can't help themselves and no one else will understand the joy of it the same as the two of them do together.
Like that is almost certainly a condensation into a single conversation of a prevailing mindset, but it was a real mindset and a real part of the Manhattan Project, and I'm glad to see it acknowledged.
(When I Googled to try and find this out, I found out that BBC Radio has one of Oppenheimer's 1953 Reith lectures available! (I think the radio side is usually not region-locked, but obv. BBC, it may be.)
It looks like it plays, which is awesome, so I will listen to it. Thank you.
no subject
Oh, it is not the only conversation like that - it is a very detailed and earnest (but mostly pretty good) biopic! That one was just a lovely performance from both, as it came in the context of an otherwise really bitter encounter & the contrast was nicely done.
It looks like it plays, which is awesome, so I will listen to it. Thank you.
Oh, good! The internet is pretty amazing. :-)
no subject
He had to try and sell the scene in The Android Invasion in classic Who where he discovered that he was not missing an eye, he just hadn't ever thought to look under his eyepatch!
. . .makes me look forward to someday resuming my Classic Who Watch-Through. Someday! And of course I love dodgy accents, so all the better for me. <3
I hope a new cache of obscure James Maxwell appearances turns up just in time.
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Aw, I'm sorry you had a difficult day, but I am glad to be of service! <3
. .makes me look forward to someday resuming my Classic Who Watch-Through. Someday! And of course I love dodgy accents, so all the better for me. <3
I don't think he has a dodgy accent in that, but even for DW the "I didn't notice I still had an eye" moment is notably silly writing. Milton Jones does turn up in the Second Doctor's time, though, complete with dodgy accent as his much more typical petty little creep of a villain in The Enemy of the World.
I hope a new cache of obscure James Maxwell appearances turns up just in time.
It maybe has? I almost immediately discovered a cache of hitherto unseen watermarked photos on one of the online stock sites & from that, that Network are apparently thinking of releasing something else he guested in. They haven't put a date on it, so we'll say sometime in the next decade if they feel like it & it might turn out to be selected episodes and not including him, but... :-D
(The hope is the important bit! Although screencapping is also good.)
no subject
David Suchet looks positively sleazy in that pic.
JM in ecclesiastical underwear. That alone was worth reading your post. The rest was the icing on the cake.
I hope they do release more JM. You deserve it.
no subject
Ha, thanks! It looks as if Network are sympathetic to my plight and are considering releasing another anthology he's in sometime maybe soon, maybe not. (They're a bit noncommittal on these things, although not as bad as Simply Media who are releasing Troubleshooters S2 in 2017, honest.)
I think David Suchet just needed to grow into his face, really. He just looks like that!