Reviews

I first saw this film as part of the Kenny Everett Video Show (or was it the Kenny Everett Television Show?) more than twenty years ago, and since then it's crossed my path several times. For a 1969 short short it gets around.

Why is it so funny? Because it's true. Not literally, perhaps -- though I dare say similar events took place every day, 60 million years ago -- but I think we recognise in its uncompromising portrayal of a harsh and unsentimental world a reflection of life as it is really lived. Unlike the false reality of most other films, the story of all our lives must inevitably end with defeat by the unstoppable forces of nature, and the best we can do is eat, drink and be merry, and hope that when the inevitable end finally comes it will be as quick and unexpected as Bambi's.

A fair detective mystery with a somewhat hackneyed plot (detective believes suicide was actually *moider*!), and occasionally almost laughable direction - the detective's meditations on the case are illustrated by the camera zooming past photos of his suspects.

What makes _Nocturne_ enjoyable is the fun characters and great dialogue, especially between George Raft's detective and suspects Lynn Bari and Myrna Dell. Watch out for the scene where the detective's mother discusses his case with a friend, who has learned all about forensic science from watching detective movies, and he walks in on them re-enacting the crime - pure gold.

In the 1970s, the BBC destroyed many of the early episodes of Doctor Who and, despite the efforts of fans and later, more enlightened, BBC regimes, 110 episodes are still missing presumed lost forever.

"The Missing Years" assembles practically all of the surviving clips from these missing episodes, ranging from about 6 minutes of an episode of serial 3.1 'Galaxy Four', to many clips of only a few seconds duration (many of which were saved by the Australian censors when they were cut from the series in the 1960s and '70s, so that ironically the censored scenes are sometimes all that now remains of some serials).

The video is hosted by Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling, who played Jamie and Victoria in the mid-60s, and many of whose episodes were destroyed. Fortunately, the commentary is short and to the point, allowing the clips themselves -- which are what we really want to see -- to dominate the production, and minimising the impact of Ms Watling's... "eccentric" performance. It also includes interviews with some of the fans responsible for finding missing episodes and clips.

This video, a labour of love for ther BBC's "unofficial Restoration Team", is a must-see for anyone interested in the early years of Doctor Who.