One of the things I remember from 90s fandom are the debates about what series should be defined as Telefantasy, with the definitions inevitably becoming a little ragged round the edges.
'All Gas And Gaiters' suffers badly from missing episodes, with whole seasons apparently lost forever, but at least a couple of the early ones survive.
'The Bishop Sees A Ghost' (shown on 21st February 1967, during the period when 'Doctor Who' was paying a visit to 'The Moonbase') sees William Mervyn and Derek Nimmo engaging in the sort of ghost-hunting that Gerald James would later attempt in both 'The Ghosts Of Motley Hall' and 'Sapphire & Steel'.
Their equipment mostly consists of a couple of packets of flour, which inevitably they get all over their robes, but with Patrick Newell not being particularly bashful when it comes to manifesting himself, at least they encounter the spook they're looking for, even if they don't quite realise it.
Joe Gladwin turns up at the start, driving a taxi and the initial scene plays almost like he's some superstitious sort from 'Quatermass And The Pit' as there's a lot of night filming, but very little in the way of jokes.
Our DVD release doesn't have the booklet that you could get the first time around, and it's only today that we've noticed that it was written by Andy Priestner of 'World Enough And Time' fame. And his name might also ring some bells with listeners to 'Round The Archives' in recent months, proving it's a very small world sometimes!
We hadn't seen an episode from the series for ages, but this is a lovely little stand-alone piece, nudging the show towards the telefantasy genre.
And the formidable combination of William Mervyn and John Barron (no episodes are currently known to exist with Ernest Clark as the second incarnation of The Dean) means that there's always something of interest to people who like their classic telly.
Our video about 'The Bishop Sees A Ghost' can be seen here.
(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)
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