Post-Birthday Viewing

Post-Birthday Viewing

If you've been brave enough to have a look at our 'Birthday Bits' video, you'll know that we've got a big pile of stuff to work our way through and it might take some time...

But, with lots of shiny new things to choose from, we at least had to make a token effort, so first into the player was Disc One of 'The Secret Service'. Deep joy!

Lisa makes no secret that Unwinese is not a language that makes her laugh out loud, but there's only one scene in 'A Case For The Bishop' that features Father Unwin going on about the rotatey-most of the engibold, so I don't think she found it too painful,

In one of those weird coincidences that we seem to keep tripping over, there was a Dinky model of Father Unwin's car, Gabriel, that turned up on today's edition of 'Flog It!', that went for a disappointing thirty quid, even though the box was all present and correct.

It's a weird hybrid of puppets and live action that gets a bit confusing when it cuts from one to the other within the same seen, but there's a daftness about it that amuses me and I fully approve of the fact that Father Unwin always looks for oncoming traffic when leaving his driveway. It's one of those silly details that people tend to forget when doing a driving scene, as the road has usually been closed off, so they don't need to look.

Next up was 'Village Hall : Pie In The Sky' which we picked mainly because it stars the formidable combination of John Le Mesurier, Joan Hickson and Anton Rodgers. Shown on 18th May 1975, this concerns unfeasibly large pies at the village flower show. which is not the sort of storyline that features in our usual diet of archive TV, we must admit!

However, having grown up in a village environment, this is quite familiar territory for me although I think I only ever won Second Prize in the Unusually Shaped Vegetable section. I think I had a potato that was shaped like the Loch Ness Monster, or something, though it was a long time ago now. Probably 1975, come to think of it...

I get the feeling that the range of stories along with the great guest cast with make 'Village Hall' a strong contender for a future 'Round The Archives' article, but let's watch a few more before we make any promises on that front...

Finally, this afternoon, we delved into the Jon Pertwee years of 'Doctor Who' to do a DVD commentary on 'The Curse Of Peladon' Episode Two, which may be seen here.

During this,we briefly run through the BBC One schedule for the rest of 5th February 1972 and are surprised to find an episode of 'Whacko!' at 5 pm and Ricardo Montalban starring in 'The Aquarians' as one Dr Delgado, which sounds a little strange when you're thinking about the Pertwee era.

Sam Kydd clocks up two appearances on the telly that night (power-cuts permitting), first in 'Whacko!', then as Knocker White in  'First Offenders', that night's edition of 'Dixon Of Dock Green', which also features Michael Sheard.

We're toying with the idea of returning briefly to the world of 'Crown Court' fairly soon, but we'll see how that goes...

Goodnight all!

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)