Reviews

For the uninitiated, Adam Adamant is an Edwardian adventurer, betrayed to his arch enemy, frozen in a block of ice and is thawed out in 1966. Sixties dollybird Georgina Jones helps him come to terms with his strange surroundings, and with butler Simms resumes his mission of thwarting dastardly criminal schemes.

To emphasise his anachronistic circumstances and dashing style, Adamant retains his Edwardian attire. A big but unavoidable plot hole is that while his revival was front page news, few people he encounters seem to know who he is. Quite a few episodes are somewhat formulaic. Against strict instructions, Miss Jones scampers after him like an eager puppy, infiltrating dodgy organisations as a night club hostess, domestic servant, even an unlikely Geisha girl.

Sadly, barely more than half the 29 episodes still exist. I have no strong preference about which are the best, a couple piqued my curiosity due to similarities with other anthologies. The Terribly Happy Embalmers echoes The Avengers ep Dial a Deadly Number in which put options (which allow the holder to profit from a falling share price) are bought in companies prior to the Chief Executive being bumped off. I had an even stronger feeling of deja vu with The League of Uncharitable Ladies. John Carson plays hypnotist Randolph, leader of a sinister occult group, exactly as he did years later in the Hammer House of Horror story (in my view the best one) Guardian of the Abyss. Far too much of a coincidence.

It's sometimes suggested AA should be remade as a Hollywood movie. This sounds like expecting a modern artist to knock out a Rembrandt, what could possibly go wrong?

A couple of lads at the seaside pick up two girls and have a feud with three yobbish young Scotsmen. The brunette (Julie Shipley) is easy on the eye.

It's fair to say few writers will feel jealous because they didn't pen this story. What makes it worth watching is the Torquay location, where I've holidayed virtually every year since the early 90s. When a film or play is set at the seaside they usually pick Brighton, being near London and the beach is bigger than any other except possibly Bournemouth.

A lot of the action takes place at the beautiful Oddicombe Beach. It doesn't look quite so good these days, a substantial landslip in 2013 blighted its appearance and caused part of the beach to be cordoned off. The 400 nightclub subsequently became Route 66, was shut down due to drug problems, then reopened as The Quay. I can't recall ever visiting the recently closed Pickwick pub. Even Torquay's most enthusiastic champions would be hard put to argue pubs have ever been the towns best feature. At least since Wetherspoon opened in the late 90s there's no need to frequent run of the mill pubs boasting just a couple of house beers.

All in all an undistinguished but enjoyable exercise in holiday nostalgia. Though as somebody once quipped, nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

Middle aged, middle class Reginald Perrin is bored and exasperated by his job, and generally humdrum life. Leonard Rossiter is well supported by a number of characters as richly comic as himself. Most brilliant is his boss CJ, with his catchphrase I didn't get where I am today, which entered common parlance. Also notable are CJ's yes-men, confident Tony and insecure David, and Reggie's food scrounging brother in law Jimmy.

The first series' episodes I rate 7 to 9, the second 6 to 7, the third 4 to 6. My two favourites are in the first series. In 'The Sunday Extraordinary Business Meeting', wife Elizabeth is away, so Reggie invites secretary Joan round, hoping to consummate his long felt desires. Unfortunately, with Joan upstairs, various relations unexpectedly call. It has the air of a stage farce, one expects Brian Rix to be found hiding in the wardrobe. One caveat, I never did understand Reggie's infatuation with horsey Joan, Elizabeth is far more attractive.

'Trying a Frenchman, Welshman, Scotsman, and an Italian' gives Rossiter the opportunity to try out various disguises and accents. I was a bit startled when, at a job interview, he was asked if he drank, to which he replied only to excess. I've been using that quip for decades, without remembering where it came from, a case of unconscious plagiarism.

Perrin is often compared to Rising Damp and Fawlty Towers. I'd say far superior to Rising Damp, I'm sorry but I just didn't find anyone apart from Rigsby remotely funny. It's not as great as Fawlty (but then nothing is) because by the third series it had ran out of good ideas. I didn't get where I am today by not recognising when a series has outstayed its welcome.

We introverts have all been there. Sitting on a train or in a pub, harmlessly reading a book or newspaper. An extrovert joins us and wastes little time before uttering the dreaded words "is that something interesting you're reading?". One would love to reply that I'm only pretending to read to deter people from talking to me. But no, we give a polite, straightforward answer, letting us in for an interminable period of his (sadly it's always a he) boorish and unwelcome company.

The Compartment takes this quotidian scenario to extremes. Marty Feldman plays Bill, a chippy, manic extrovert who imposes himself on introvert Joby Blanshard in an old style train compartment. It's well acted but I can't rate it any higher because it's very unpleasant viewing, like spending half an hour watching a nasty youth torture a rabbit.

There should have been a sequel where the introvert turns the tables and invites Bill to his house for a drink. After drugging him, he keeps him prisoner, providing food and drink, books, and a newspaper of his choice. But no TV, radio, or any conversation. Forced to live as a reclusive introvert, we could have enjoyed seeing Bill driven even madder than he already was.

Guernsey under occupation in WW2. One thing that struck me were casting similarities to Colditz (1972), played out on a larger stage. Alfred Burke plays Bernard Hepton's role as the firm but fair German in charge. Simon Cadell has Anthony Valentine's part as fanatical Nazi breathing down his boss's neck. Bernard Horsfall has a similar responsibility to Jack Hedley as hard pressed interlocutor between the Germans and the captives. There is even Colditz actor Richard Heffer, playing a similarly dashing daredevil. The big difference is the presence of women, and some of the most memorable episodes concern them.

After the Ball. At a dance instigated by Reinicke (Cadell), a young Austrian soldier picks up an attractive Guernsey girl. But subsequent event prove disastrous for both of them.

The Jerrybag. The sad story of Betty, not bad looking but somewhat dowdy and lacking self esteem. She has an affair with, and gets pregnant by a German soldier, is ostracised by her fellow islanders, and her lover later comes to grief on the Eastern front. Betty reappears three years later in The Right Blood, where her luck fails to improve.

My one grumble is that the conclusion of the final episode Escape is unnecessarily grim, and one felt short changed that Reinicke failed to get his deserved comeuppance.

Dashing Captain Virgin, assisted by trusty confederates Mrs Cortez and Doublett, are constantly on their mettle to foil the indefatigable efforts of the evil von Brauner to do down the British Empire. The tone is established early in the first episode when a British officer tells an underling "you never know when these blasted natives are telling the truth". A tone which suggests the BBC is unlikely to be giving Capt. Virgin an outing any time soon.

My favourite episodes are The Amazons and The Rajah and the Suffragette. In the former, someone (you don't need three guesses) is encouraging Indian workers to down tools and turn against the British Empire. Virgin is initially baffled, exclaiming "they positively enjoy working the rubber plantation. I could understand it if they were working for foreigners, but it's a British company". The Rajah is notable for a rum performance from Rodney Bewes as a dissolute Indian prince, sounding exactly the same as in The Likely Lads, except for the odd contemporary phrase, by jingo.

Von Brauner is clearly the star of the show, with his catchphrases "I have a plan of the utmost simplicity", and "I like it, I like it". Possibly the most manic, over the top villain to rival Burgess Meredith in Batman. The last couple of episodes did sag, especially The Professor goes West, where von Brauner is rather upstaged by some unfriendly cowboys. But all in all, absolutely top-hole fun.

The Alan Clark Diaries are not currently online, I've just watched the series again on an ancient VHS tape. It covers the latter two of the three diaries, beginning when he enters government following the 1983 election. It seems unsure whether to aim for serious political autobiography or comedy. To some extent this reflects the man himself. He had a typical aristocratic insouciance, and some diary anecdotes are very funny. But he was mostly a serious politician and writer, seldom indulging in Boris Johnson style buffoonery.

At the time of writing the most highly rated episodes are the first two, which I liked least. These are the most comic, Clark is more or less lampooned as hapless and helpless, ever at the mercy of his scheming civil servants. I thought the best was the fourth, Defence of the Realm. Encompassing the poll tax riots, Geoffrey Howe's resignation, and the fall of Mrs Thatcher, it could hardly fail to reflect the drama of the times.

It's a shame one of the most amusing events in the middle diary (pp 308-9) wasn't brought to life, I suspect because it's piccolo (Clark's word for a small but telling triumph) rather than pratfall. His defence secretary boss Tom King was a middle of the road, do it by the book managerial type who could have been designed to be incompatible with Clark. At a reception following the Queen Mother's ninetieth birthday parade, King somewhat reluctantly introduces the QM to Alan and Jane. It's immediately apparent they have met at least once at Saltwood Castle, they natter away like old friends. Outclassed and out of the conversation, King desperately tries to move her on.

Unlike other reviewers, I don't feel John Hurt was all that great as Clark, though hardly his fault. The voice is good but he just looks too slight and agreeable, when a more imposing, somewhat menacing appearance was called for. David Warner would have been ideal, or Patrick Allen had he been younger.

Norma (Pat Heywood) and husband Cedric (Richard Vernon) are invited by the Historical Society to give a lecture, accompanied by photo slides, about their travels in the Greek Islands. Society leading light Edna (Barbara Laurenson) has roped in her handyman partner Jack (Edward Judd) who has reluctantly agreed to set up the projector and generally help out.

Norma is an attractive forty something while Cedric is clumsy, doddery, and forgetful, a convincing performance by Vernon who was only 49 at the time. Twenty one years previously Norma and Jack were very briefly engaged but she broke it off merely because he had dirty fingernails. He has since become an accomplished artist, is still fit and a ladies man, even flirting with the dowdy Mrs Digby. This is Norma and Jack's first meeting since they were engaged, Jack is pleased to see her again, while Norma is tearful and completely besotted. But it's far too late, he's fairly happily shacked up but she's stuck with a decent but dull old boy who could almost be taken for her father.

There's a touch of Brief Encounter about it, indeed Norma's situation is even more tragic than Celia Johnson's Laura. Laura had an affair but made the right moral choice by returning to her husband. Norma made the wrong choice when she still had the freedom to make the right one.

Anthology set in a village hall, used by various groups of people. All but four episodes had different writers so there is no connection except the hall. In reality one would expect some of the more gregarious characters to appear in more than one setting. The large combined cast rather suggests one of those towns that snobbishly calls itself a village. They are of variable quality, probably not untypically I preferred those where the subject is of some interest to me. My favourites:

Mr Ellis Versus the People. Cynical, world weary Mr Ellis (Ron Moody) is the presiding officer the day the hall becomes a polling station. He is assisted by a young eager beaver who does everything by the book, and invariably irritates. It develops into an extended lampoon of aggressive, inebriated, but mostly dim witted and indecisive voters. It's a shame the women tellers from the main parties had virtually nothing to do, a missed opportunity for verbal jousting.

Battleground. Colonel Dean (Cyril Luckham) is the driving force behind an annual battalion reunion. The tradition is under threat from rising costs, encroaching mortality, and a distinct lack of enthusiasm from some of his comrades. Prominent is Ian Hendry as the loud, overbearing Wally, and Basil Henson playing a patrician gentleman reminiscent of the psychiatrist he did in Fawlty Towers. He delivers a well deserved comeuppance to Wally at the end.

Distant Islands. Norma (Pat Heywood) and husband Cedric (Richard Vernon) show photo slides of their sightseeing holidays. Norma is an attractive fortysomething while Cedric looks a doddery old man, though in fact Vernon was only 49 at the time. Handyman Jack (Edward Judd) plus his wife have been roped in to set things up and help out. Norma and Jack were briefly engaged some twenty years ago, but she broke it off just because he had dirty fingernails. This is their first meeting since then, Jack is still fit and very much a ladies man, and Norma is obviously smitten again. But of course it's too late, she's stuck with a decent but dull man she doesn't really love. This is the only episode that's really sad, in the original meaning of the word.

I must also admit to liking The Rough and the Smooth, for the less than highbrow reason that it stars Linda Heyden.

Thirteen episode series on WW2, of course not the first time it's been done. The World at War (1973) is still pre-eminent, with sheer volume (26 episodes) and with more participants still being with us.

As it's such a familiar story I tend to judge the telling of it on whether lazy simplification and myth is avoided: 1 Hitler was elected, 2 Britain stood alone in 1940, 3 the Luftwaffe's switch from British airfields to cities was a simple whim of Hitler or Goering, 4 area bombing of Germany didn't achieve anything. Also, not least for family reasons, I'm keen that General Slim and the "forgotten" Fourteenth Army are not forgotten. In all except 2 it passes with flying colours. Episode 4 Alone would have been more accurately, if less dramatically, titled Alone in Europe, though it redeemed itself by saying (36.40) that opposition to Hitler "was not a small island nation off the coast of the European mainland, it was an Empire". As for point 4 (a particular bugbear) episode 7 explained (45.26) "anti-aircraft defence tied up one million German service personnel", which bears repeating.

A glaring fault, at least where I recently watched the series, is that there are no subtitles or translation of non English speakers, affecting some parts more than others. Barbarossa was one of the best TWaW episodes, in this it's the worst, with numerous periods of untranslated Russian.

Inspector Gamble (Patrick O'Connell) and Detective Sergeant Vicky Hicks (Joanna Van Gyseghem) pursue fraudsters, racketeers, and dodgy businessmen. I watched it alongside an anthology about 19th century emperors, Fraud Squad is almost as much a portrait of a bygone age.

The focus on financial crime means there is little violence, except in the last episode, so it's a bit tame for modern tastes. Having a financial services background I appreciated this aspect, though a few episodes are rather wordy and convoluted. The unpretentious Gamble has a stockbroker, his (ahem) gambling on shares would hardly do in a 21st century police drama, far too elitist. Conversations about money usually refer to guineas rather than pounds.

Among other anachronisms, Pros and Cons (which I rate an 8) recalls that splendid time when a businessman could employ a "dolly bird" to do very little except look good. The Hot Money Man (7), in the era of exchange controls, concerns the archaic crime of taking ones own money out of the country. The Great Blanket Factory Swindle (5) may have been satire, the firm's office wouldn't have looked out of place in The Forsyte Saga.

Two more I rate among the best. Run for Your Money (8) is about a gang of crooks who sell catalogues advertising non-existent houses for rent. In Double Deal (9) Charlie Dickens (Dinsdale Landen) steals every scene as the most outrageous conman since Horatio Bottomley. Smooth-talking Dickens is the only villain to get a date with Hicks, and it's one of only a couple of episodes in colour.

A proposed motorway extension must go through either the golf club or the allotments. One of the allotment holders, Ron Ollershaw (Ron Delta) is persuaded to stand for the upcoming Council elections against sitting Councillor Horace Burley (Geoffrey Andrews), a prominent member of the golf club.

Nothing is spared to steer our sympathies towards the allotment "peasants". Burley is brash, somewhat obese, lives in a large detached house, and owns the local motor firm. I'm surprised he didn't also find time to be the JP and Master of Foxhounds. He leans on Ollershaw's printer, who happens to be one of his mates, to delay his election leaflets. Then one of his henchmen steals a bag full of them when it is left in the road unattended. His political affiliation is not stated, but we are invited to guess due to his rosette being Conservative blue. Both candidates broke election law; Burley by election treating in the pub, Ollershaw by the probably less serious offence of canvassing electors outside the polling station before they voted. I rather suspect the writer didn't realise the latter is against the law.

It's an entertaining play, though some nuance would have made it less of a class war caricature. We see nothing of the club's lawns man (if that's the right term, I'm not a golfer) and bar staff, who would lose their jobs if the club closed. As for who won the election, you'll have to watch it yourself to find out.

An entertaining look at class distinctions in a stockbroking firm. I remember it from decades ago, no doubt because this was my profession, albeit as a lowly pen pusher. Mike Leigh is a man of the Left, so this play was bound to involve, how can I put it, mikey taking. That said, many characters are true to life.

Upper class senior partner Francis (Jeffry Wickham) is typical of the breed, though we don't see much of him. A bit down the pecking order are three young, quite posh friends; Giles, Nigel, and Anthony, the latter played by Graham Seed who depicted a similar cat got the cream role in another class focused play Good and Bad at Games (1983). Tantalisingly, we observe through a window, but never hear speak, an obese middle aged man chatting up, and later touching up, a woman of similar age. Probably the office manager, and I'd imagine a bit of a bully.

The most over the top, comic performance is Alan (Richard Kane), a lower middle class, social climbing bore. A prolific writer to his betters, he keeps their replies in a large filing cabinet. Visitors, whether interested or not, are treated to a choice sample, letters and signed photographs pulled out like a magicians' rabbit - "The Right Honourable J Enoch Powell MBE, The Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher". Spiffing fun.

Great performance from Robert Hardy, also Sian Phillips as stoical Clementine, Nigel Havers as impecunious son Randolph, Tim Piggot-Smith as Churchill cheerleader Brendan Bracken, Peter Barkworth as wily Stanley Baldwin, Eric Porter a trusting Neville Chamberlain, Edward Woodward a devious Samuel Hoare, Tony Mathews an intense Anthony Eden. Only Richard Murdoch's hawkish, almost Churchillian Lord Halifax is completely off beam, presumably to make it easier to cast Chamberlain as villain of the piece.

There are no bad episodes, it dipped slightly in the third and fourth which mostly concerned India and cotton, rather a distraction from the main theme. My favourite, very amusing, scene is in the first episode. Chamberlain, supported by Hoare, tries to persuade Baldwin to remove Churchill from the Treasury. Baldwin slyly asks Chamberlain "who would you most like to see as Chancellor", to which he could only reply that he hasn't given the matter a great deal of thought. An honest answer could only have been himself.

My only criticism is about some of the later dialogue, which displays the oft used device of portraying people in black and white for dramatic effect. I must declare a family connection with Chamberlain, my grandfather knew him well and was his chief canvasser in the 1920s. Did he really say (episode 5) "Churchill is the warmonger, not Hitler"? His statement (episode 7) that "I'm instructing the defence services to continue to reduce their estimates" is tendentious fiction. Military spending rose every year from 110.9 million Pounds in 1933 to 266 million in 1939.

However harshly films and television treat Baldwin and Chamberlain, one can bet all Lombard Street to a China orange (excuse my 1930s lingo) that Labour's record is shown in a good light or glossed over. In March 1936 Labour opposed increases in armaments, their amendment to the budget decried "security in national armaments alone and intensifies the ruinous arms race between the nations" Well known Labour figures voting for this amendment included Attlee, Bevan, Dalton, Greenwood, Morrison, Shinwell. I just thought I'd mention it in the interests of balance.

I did make a bad start with this six part series. On YouTube they are divided into three programmes, each of two episodes, the first and third shown in different order to the IMDb listing. So until the penny dropped I watched part of The New Accelerator wondering where is Mr Brownlow and his newspaper. The basic idea of The New Accelerator (which I score 8) was used in the Star Trek episode Wink of an Eye, as far as I know there was no plagiarism.

At the time of writing Mr Brownlow's Newspaper is the most highly rated, with which I agree, deserving a 10. Re-living past events, and returning again to try to correct the past when things fail to happen as they should, has a flavour of Groundhog Day and, how can I put it, takes less time about it.

The most light hearted, almost Chaplin slapstick, is The Truth about Pyecraft, a good 7. The lovelorn fatty, having decided on suicide, is meticulous enough to calculate the optimum length of rope but he attaches it to a chandelier, which probably wouldn't support a large dog. I'd award another 7 to The Stolen Bacillus. I'm not one to let plot hole pedantry prevent enjoyment of a good story. But I did wonder why the thief immediately poured it into the reservoir , without even knowing what it was, rather than demand a ransom for its return. The Crystal Egg and The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes aren't so good, I'd rate them 6 and 5 respectively.

Unlike one reviewer I thought Tom Ward perfectly acceptable as Wells, and completely convincing as an elderly man reminiscing about the past.

I usually find anthologies more interesting if each episode has a different cast. Therefore I prefer The Twilight Zone overall, though a good ST is better than an average TZ. The characters and foibles of the regular cast are so well known there is probably nothing new to say. I tend to like ST where the crew come into conflict with a strong, interesting personality, they are not confined to the Enterprise, and time travel is involved. My dozen star episodes, in no particular order: A Piece of the Action & Patterns of Force. A few episodes have such similar themes they could almost be classed as twins. Kirk & Co get involved with planets modelled on recent Earth history, ironically with neither period having the slightest thing to commend it.

The Squire of Gothos & Whom Gods Destroy. Kirk locks horns with pompous, power crazed authoritarians. I'm surprised the latter isn't more highly rated. Who Mourns for Adonias falls into the same category, albeit with not such a good story.

Mirror, Mirror. The swopping of places with doppelgangers from a ruthless, piratical alternative universe gives an opportunity for acting outside their usual personas.

Shore Leave. One of the most past-paced, lots of outdoor action. Entertaining, over-the-top performance from Bruce Mars as Kirks' mischievous Academy tormentor. And not forgetting Emily Banks as Yeoman Barrows.

Tomorrow is Yesterday. Mostly Enterprise bound but good time travel story. Best scene is where Kirk reluctantly tells Capt. Christopher that due to his knowledge of the future he cannot be sent back to Earth. A better title would have been a phrase used by Christopher during this encounter - "prisoners in time".

Dagger of the Mind. Not one of the most exciting plots, it earns its place due to the only appearance of Marianna Hill, surely the best eye candy to appear in either the original series or, it almost goes without saying, the dull modern ST.

This Side of Paradise. They engage with the polite but stubborn Elias Sandeval (Frank Overton). Not in the same league as Garth of Izor and General Trelane, in fact he was quite reasonable according to the empirical evidence.

Assignment Earth. Another time travel tale, which some dislike due to Kirk and Spock playing subordinate roles. In fact for once Spock virtually admits to someone being smarter than himself.

Turnaround Intruder. Currently the most poorly rated of my picks, probably due to perceived sexism. More weight should be given to the clever script and excellent acting.

City on the Edge of Forever. I could hardly leave this one out, what more is there to say?

The second of eight episodes about prominent Edwardians. At the time of writing only one other, Mr Rolls and Mr Royce, can be seen online. I do admit R & R is visually more exciting, it has superior sound and picture quality, though for me it's a less interesting story.

Horatio Bottomley (Timothy West) was a conman, adulterer, publisher, jingoist, litigant, politician, and all -round bounder. My favourite scene is where the rogue is confronted by an angry investor who has lost £15,000 on one of his dubious companies. After offering to fully compensate him for the loss, Bottomley plies him with champagne and artfully talks him into sticking with the shares, and even investing a further £3,000 in his latest venture. Reminiscent of the old joke that a stockbroker is someone who invests your money until it's all gone.

This is the only episode I remember seeing in the 1970s, so it must be good.

All five episodes are well made with good period detail. My favourite is The Case of The Earl of Erroll, set in early 1940s Kenya. In a community of "high class, low morals" Joss Erroll (William Scott-Masson) is having an affair with Diana Broughton (Josephine Butler), wife of long-suffering old cuckold Sir Jock Broughton (David Calder). When Erroll is found in his car, shot through the head, Sir Jock seems the obvious suspect. This is the most stylish episode, in the most recent period, and all the women are good looking.

Whodunits are not really my thing, being not attentive enough to work out who done it. So, unlike the only other reviewer to date I did appreciate Julian Fellows's interjections. I suspect Fellows is too posh a fellow for some.

The brief introduction states that England is ruled by a fascist military force called The Guardians. In fact the political setup is rather more nuanced. The elderly Prime Minister Sir Timothy Hobson (Cyril Luckham) is pious, ponderous and paternalistic, more Malcolm Muggeridge than Mussolini. He has some authority but is beholden to a mysterious general whose opinions are conveyed by a go-between, the hard and ruthless Secretary to the Cabinet Dennis Norman (Derek Smith).

The first few episodes concern Government tensions and power struggles and are very good. The most thoughtful one is the second, dominated by a lengthy argument in a gentleman's club between Sir Timothy and a liberal minded old chum. Sadly it then appears to have run out of political ideas, the focus switching to less important and generally uninteresting characters. Sir Timothy fails to appear in four episodes, some of them little more than soap opera. The ending is dramatic, although far fetched.

Other reviewers have drawn parallels with various British governments so I'll feel free to add my tuppence worth. The only recent experience of authoritarian rule in Britain was during the pandemic and the imposition of draconian and often absurd decrees, and where Government was largely sub contracted to a group of medical panjandrums. In Parliament the only significant opposition came from a few liberty lovers on the Right of the Conservative Party.

As is usual with anthologies, very much a mixed bag. Half of them I scored 6 or under. Less usually, those currently most highly rated are the ones I most enjoyed, rating a good 9.

The Death Watcher. Professor Emmy Erikson (Judy Parfitt) falls into the hands of Dr Pickering (John Neville) who is researching life after death. Beneath a polite, gentlemanly veneer Pickering is a single minded solipsist for whom other people have no value, his theories are all that matters. The final fifteen minutes will have you on the edge of your seat.

Did You Lock Up? Peter and Moira Astle (Michael Craig and Gwen Watford) suffer a burglary and Peter is determined on revenge. Less tense but more fun to watch than The Death Watcher, as here those imprisoned richly deserve their fate.

While watching I felt a flicker of recognition which I didn't experience with the other nine. Being lodged in the back of your mind for fifty years suggests they must be first rate drama.

A previous review thoroughly describes the main characters so there's no need to go over the same ground. The stock market crash was exacerbated.by speculators buying shares they couldn't afford on credit. Some investment funds were too highly geared, and downright criminality such as at the Union Industrial Bank played a part. However I contend that buying the likes of General Motors with your own money in 1929 was not obviously foolish, just rotten timing. It is a conceit of our times that we imagine ourselves wiser than previous generations. Maybe it was ever thus. Many 21st century folks apparently see nothing stupid about investing in Bitcoin, which pays no dividend, has no physical use like gold, and has no intrinsic value.

I have a copy of the book on which the film is based, along with J K Galbraith's pithier The Great Crash 1929. TDTBB will appeal to those interested in people while The Great Crash is a more dry, witty analysis of the 1920s stock market. My advice is see the film but read Galbraith.

Very much a mixed bag, as other reviewers have noted, some worth seeing again, others good only for filling in time. The currently top rated episode, Something You Have To Live With, I thought mostly dull apart from the unpleasant burglary scene in the middle, deserving no more than a 5. The aptly named Puzzle is worse, I found it a struggle to stick with it to the end, rating a lowly 2. My favourites, all worthy of an 8:

The Cat Brought It In. Whimsical drama in which a cat brings a pair of human fingers into a house. Edward Fox plays a posh chap, just for a change.

A Curious Suicide. This one gets in my good books because Nicol Williamson is my favourite British actor, it's more dour than my other two pics. It has to be said it isn't in the same league as his greatest films from the sixties: The Bofors Gun, Laughter In The Dark, and The Reckoning, if you are interested. I must protest about the general cast list in which Williamson is insultingly placed right at the bottom, below dozens of mediocrities and unknowns.

The Stuff of Madness. Drama about a rather batty middle aged couple. Mrs Waggoner (Eileen Atkins) has her late pets stuffed while her husband (Ian Holm) is obsessed with a mannequin with a passing resemblance to a former girlfriend. It would have made a suitably macabre denouement for Holm to die and also be stuffed, but sadly it didn't happen.

One of my favourites. The plot, in which fly-by-night young Indian Shamy passes Arthur forged $20 notes, is nothing special. The quality lies in the supporting cast being on especially good form.

Detective Sergeant Chisholm is even more uptight than usual, his ambition to nail Arthur apparently to be forever thwarted: "there are certain things in life more important than nicking Arthur Daley, but at the moment I can't think of any". Dave has no better luck reproaching Arthur about his slate, which is "getting longer than Gone With The Wind". Dave is a man of few words but they are always very much to the point.

Not forgetting a one-off comic turn from Fred Evans as The Syrup, as in syrup of fig - wig. A vain, deluded fool, Syrup imagines his 'Roger Moore' makes him look like Moore, but sadly he's more Albert Steptoe in a very obvious wig. Splendid stuff.

A couple of years ago, inspired by The Twilight Zone, I had an idea for a short story illustrating the perils of failing to look before you leap. An irascible, introverted author is constantly interrupted by a nagging wife, noisy children, and friends who ring while he's trying to write. A genie appears and offers to fix it so he can be alone with his thoughts. He agrees, and next day wakes up not in bed but with his decapitated head kept alive by wires and tubes in a fish tank. AAARGH!

So I was naturally intrigued to discover the idea had long since been brought to fruition. Terminally ill William consents to have his brain surgically removed, intending to carry on tyrannising his long suffering wife. As the one other reviewer says, it has a good cast and is well acted. However it does rather fail to milk the obvious horror of the situation. I hate to be a plot hole pedant but would any sane person volunteer for such a hellish, inhuman existence, even if the only alternative is death? Even the dimmest bulb would realise his wife would henceforth have the upper hand. One naturally hesitates to try and improve on Dahl but it could have been better.

The earlier Minder episodes were well worth watching and I'm especially fond of this one. The political flavour makes it a cut above the usual offering of low grade crooks and outwitted coppers.

Council officials, for some reason unappreciative of Arthur's selfless service to the community, place a compulsory purchase order on his car lot. Determined on revenge, he stands in a council bye-election as an independent on a law and order platform. One of the best moments is detective sergeant Chisholm's outraged reaction on hearing the news, "law and order! One of the most dishonest men on my manor", he fumes.

Arthur being Arthur, his electioneering takes absolutely no cognisance of electoral law. During canvassing Terry remonstrates: "So far you've promised to unblock 15 drains, redecorate 27 rooms, repair four roofs and allow 19 Australians to stay here indefinitely". He is also armed with 800 boxes of chocolates to dish out to voters. Chisholm naturally suspects them of being stolen goods, in fact he could far more easily have nicked him for election treating.

Another treat is the lovely Caroline Langrishe as Terry's current girlfriend, what more could one ask for?