Beyond the Roundels

(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

( I don't even know what to label half of this )



* 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.

I made myself get on and post this (always best to do something at least a little bit constructive)!


For those new to these parts, there exists a meme, a monster of a meme called "I Surrendered", where you get given prompts & make up TV shows and then the whole thing eats your brain. Naturally, being me, last time I used one of my prompts to make up a fake 1970s show (it was properly gloomy and everything) - and then it ate my brain even more than usual. (I might be writing fic for it for runaway_tales now).

Then Liadtbunny said something more recently about doing a prequel, at which I laughed at the idea - and then went off and plotted the whole thing out.

Thanks to everyone who helped out when I failed on suitable 1970s actors for one of the leads - your suggestions were all awesome, and it was a tough casting decision. (I'm still not sure the best man won, but don't tell him that.) (As part of the meme, I may pretend the show is real. It isn't. Obviously.)


***


When I posted about the 1973/4 drama series Heroes of the Revolution, some people seemed to be under the impression that there was, or was meant to be, a second series. This was never true - it was always conceived of as a one-off serial. However, what isn't as well known is that 1975 saw a prequel in the shape of mini-series Divide & Rule, the equally cheery tale of the downfall of the last government and the dictator Thomas Hallam's rise to power in the late 1950s, and that may have been what people were thinking of.





"Don't you know that Mr Hallam is going to save the country? Just don't stand in his way..."

1958: The ongoing crisis in Britain worsens by the day and the government don't seem to be doing anything to improve matters. Politician Thomas Hallam has a plan, a vision of what could be done to save the country from ruin, but some of the more established cabinet members don't want to listen. Some of them even seem to imagine the crisis will pass if they wait long enough. Well, Hallam's done enough waiting and he's not going to stand by and let the country fall apart.

Standing between Hallam and his goals: several cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister himself. One by one, they'll fall...

( I did these vile things out of cowardice. I offer no excuse... )