TV 2015 : Viewing from the Vaults, January edition
I didn't make many New Year's resolutions this year. Eat a piece of fruit every day was one. The other was to tackle the backlog of DVDs accumulating on the shelves, specifically all the vintage TV series acquired splurging in the occasional 40% sales that Network hold every so often. At the last count I have box sets bought as far back as 2009 which have been through two house moves and have yet to trouble the Oppo. So this month I have mainly been watching....
LWT's innovative drama serial, produced by John Hawkesworth, which just missed out on a BAFTA (it was nominated alongside Callan and lost to Verity Lambert's Somerset Maugham anthology series.) The Gold Robbers follows one case, and reminded me a lot of modern Nordic noir such as The Killing or The Bridge, in that loose ends set up in earlier episodes are eventually resolved. Kudos particularly to script editor Martin Hall for keeping so many narrative juggling balls in the air.
Peter Vaughan is completely compelling as the unyielding, uncompromising Detective Inspector Cradock, pursuing the ringleaders of the conspiracy at the cost of his career - and that turns out to be one of the lesser prices he ends up paying (Cradock’s self destructive obsession is shared by The Killing’s Sarah Lund and The Bridge’s Saga Noren). Artro Morris does sterling work as DS Tommy Thomas, the soft cop to Cradock’s tough cop. I really enjoyed the Barlow / Watt partnership in Softly Softly Taskforce : Cradock / Thomas was a more than adequate replacement.
The semi-anthology format means that there are showcase episodes for Alfred Lynch, Bernard Hepton, Roy Dotrice, and Patrick Allen - indeed Allen's instalment, “The Arrangement” is almost a sitcom pilot, “Only Dogs of War… and Horses” perhaps. Having admired Wendy Gifford's performance as Jeremy Irons social butterfly mother so much in Love for Lydia, I was impressed by her turn as a ruthless night club hostess. Other 'where have I seen them before' faces include Louise Pajo, fresh from tackling Ice Warriors on the Moon, and John Bindon, fresh from dallying with Princess Margaret on Mustique.
Sticking with LWT drama, this series is Andrew Brown's remix of The Gold Robbers, which again follows the aftershocks of one crime. This is more of an anthology than a serial, and some questions raised in earlier episodes (the fate of Martin Shaw's hot headed Monty Parkin, the complicity of Stephen Yardley's CID officer) are not resolved.
The casting is strong throughout, and interesting where it overlaps with contemporary Doctor Who. Cheryl Hall gives us a glimpse of what her version of Jo Grant might have been like ; Anna Barry gets to be a quiet rebel with a cause (and gets interviewed by Colin Baker) ; David Daker relies on the genius of the not quite so nasty, or brutish, but definitely short Bob Hoskins ; and William Marlowe gets to do more porridge, just not at Stangmoor. (A google search of what Cheryl Hall had been doing in 1971 led me to this, a celebrated Royal Court production with some notable cast and crew credits.)
The standout episode is the all-film one, "Sand Dancer", as Alun Armstrong makes his way back north following his prison break. There are some striking Tyneside locations, and also the interior of a Rymans circa 1972 to marvel at. P J Hammond's episode "Chas" feels like a post-watershed episode of Sapphire and Steel, just before the elemental beings turn up, with it's soundtrack of fifties pop, elliptical dialogue, and disturbing flash-forward / flashback jump cuts to shots of agricultural machinery. Bob Hoskins takes the lead in "Knocker", playing a perpetually randy safecracker, which again is almost a sitcom pilot - Peterman about the House.
By the end of the run I felt that the whole was less than the sum of the parts - the same storytelling approach of fracturing up past and present for dramatic ironic effect, and the same points about institutionalisation, repeat once too often. So not as impressive an achievement as The Gold Robbers, but still worth adding to the basket during Network's next clearance sale.
The Gold Robbers : bought 28.7.13, finished viewing 13.01.15 ; Villains bought 30.11.13, finished viewing 26.01.15
LWT's innovative drama serial, produced by John Hawkesworth, which just missed out on a BAFTA (it was nominated alongside Callan and lost to Verity Lambert's Somerset Maugham anthology series.) The Gold Robbers follows one case, and reminded me a lot of modern Nordic noir such as The Killing or The Bridge, in that loose ends set up in earlier episodes are eventually resolved. Kudos particularly to script editor Martin Hall for keeping so many narrative juggling balls in the air.
Peter Vaughan is completely compelling as the unyielding, uncompromising Detective Inspector Cradock, pursuing the ringleaders of the conspiracy at the cost of his career - and that turns out to be one of the lesser prices he ends up paying (Cradock’s self destructive obsession is shared by The Killing’s Sarah Lund and The Bridge’s Saga Noren). Artro Morris does sterling work as DS Tommy Thomas, the soft cop to Cradock’s tough cop. I really enjoyed the Barlow / Watt partnership in Softly Softly Taskforce : Cradock / Thomas was a more than adequate replacement.
The semi-anthology format means that there are showcase episodes for Alfred Lynch, Bernard Hepton, Roy Dotrice, and Patrick Allen - indeed Allen's instalment, “The Arrangement” is almost a sitcom pilot, “Only Dogs of War… and Horses” perhaps. Having admired Wendy Gifford's performance as Jeremy Irons social butterfly mother so much in Love for Lydia, I was impressed by her turn as a ruthless night club hostess. Other 'where have I seen them before' faces include Louise Pajo, fresh from tackling Ice Warriors on the Moon, and John Bindon, fresh from dallying with Princess Margaret on Mustique.
Sticking with LWT drama, this series is Andrew Brown's remix of The Gold Robbers, which again follows the aftershocks of one crime. This is more of an anthology than a serial, and some questions raised in earlier episodes (the fate of Martin Shaw's hot headed Monty Parkin, the complicity of Stephen Yardley's CID officer) are not resolved.
The casting is strong throughout, and interesting where it overlaps with contemporary Doctor Who. Cheryl Hall gives us a glimpse of what her version of Jo Grant might have been like ; Anna Barry gets to be a quiet rebel with a cause (and gets interviewed by Colin Baker) ; David Daker relies on the genius of the not quite so nasty, or brutish, but definitely short Bob Hoskins ; and William Marlowe gets to do more porridge, just not at Stangmoor. (A google search of what Cheryl Hall had been doing in 1971 led me to this, a celebrated Royal Court production with some notable cast and crew credits.)
The standout episode is the all-film one, "Sand Dancer", as Alun Armstrong makes his way back north following his prison break. There are some striking Tyneside locations, and also the interior of a Rymans circa 1972 to marvel at. P J Hammond's episode "Chas" feels like a post-watershed episode of Sapphire and Steel, just before the elemental beings turn up, with it's soundtrack of fifties pop, elliptical dialogue, and disturbing flash-forward / flashback jump cuts to shots of agricultural machinery. Bob Hoskins takes the lead in "Knocker", playing a perpetually randy safecracker, which again is almost a sitcom pilot - Peterman about the House.
By the end of the run I felt that the whole was less than the sum of the parts - the same storytelling approach of fracturing up past and present for dramatic ironic effect, and the same points about institutionalisation, repeat once too often. So not as impressive an achievement as The Gold Robbers, but still worth adding to the basket during Network's next clearance sale.
The Gold Robbers : bought 28.7.13, finished viewing 13.01.15 ; Villains bought 30.11.13, finished viewing 26.01.15