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Reviews
Steptoe and Son: Full House (1963)
Full House
Albert us working hard around he house. Only Harold knows better when he returns home from work. His seat is still warm.
Albert is not pleased that Harold has invited friends around for a game of cards. It is meant to be a friendly game.
Only Albert thinks that his new friends will con him. Albert is not keen on gambling. His instincts are correct.
Harold's friends are card sharks. They raise the stakes and pretty soon Harold is cleaned out.
It is up to Albert to play dumb and open up a brand new set of cards to get even.
The episode took its time to get going. It was aces high once the poker game started.
The Beiderbecke Tapes: Episode #1.1 (1987)
Episode 1
Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne are back. Due to budget cuts, the woodwork teacher can only get his students to make one part of a book end. No issue as long as there is a wall at the other end.
It is a scene I remember well from The Beiderbecke Tapes. In this second instalment, writer Alan Plater makes a comedic version of Edge of Darkness.
Trevor has moved in with Jill. He had no choice, his home was knocked down to make way for a motorway.
When Trevor receives some jazz tapes from John (David Battley) the Greenpeace supporting inept barman. It sets them off to a new mystery.
One tape has a message about nuclear waste being dumped. Before long John has disappeared and a sinister man is on their tale.
A lot of the pleasure in this first episode was the interplay with the characters. There are eccentrics, potential baddies and a few twists. There is also a forthcoming school trip to Amsterdam.
At its heart is jazz music. Trevor thinks the pub he has gone into serves a bad bitter. Until the muzak kicks off. It's Bix Beiderbecke.
Later as Trevor tries to find out about the death of a man called John. He finds the council official is another jazz fan.
James Bolam and Barbara Flynn reprise their effortless chemistry.
Zorro: El elegido (2024)
El elegido
I have fond memories of Disney's Zorro with Guy Williams.
This reinvention by Prime Video owes much to the Antonio Banderas movies being glossy.
Diego de la Vega returns to California from Spain after hearing about the death of his father at his hacienda. The official version was that he was killed by the bandit Zorro who also died.
Only the mute servant Bernardo knows that is not the truth. He also knows more about the legend of Zorro. A mantle that Diego de la Vega will have to pick up. If he wants justice for his father and others in the land.
The opening story introduces many story elements. There is a mystical element, a love story, a mystery and a rival Zorro.
It was an enjoyable opener, rather glossy even though it is all shot in Spain.
Mitch: Sleeping Dogs (1984)
Sleeping Dogs
At least the shows makes a joke about the Mission Impossible type assignments that Mitch receives.
His latest gig is to look into the death of businessman James Blackburn in Poland. His sudden death is not regarded as suspicious.
James wife Carol Blackburn is not happy. Her husband was healthy, just had a health check up. Mitch and his newspaper decide to help her.
After all, espionage could be involved. Either James Blackburn was helping the British security services or the KGB. The British authorities seem to be stonewalling.
It is all very pedestrian, no wonder the series sat on the shelf for so long. In the end the authorities wanted to let sleeping dogs lie.
James Blackburn was a homosexual with several lovers. One of them certainly did murder him but did not one the truth out in the open.
For Carol Blackburn it is all bittersweet. Mitch gets the truth, it is something she does not like.
The Lloyd Bridges Show: Permission Granted (1962)
Permission Granted
Adam Shepherd is travelling in Vietnam and comes across a town called Radford. He wonders how a town called that ended up in Vietnam.
Seaman McMasters is sailing in an American naval ship that has taken on some priests and Vietnamese refugees. Most of them are children but there is mistrust.
They will not eat the food in case it is poisoned. They have heard all the North Vietnamese communist propaganda about the Americans.
Seaman McMasters helps alleviate these myths by befriending a Vietnamese kid called Lo-Ri. He later gets very worried when Lo-Ri falls ill.
When she is better, the Vietnamese want to nama a new village after the boat. It gives Seaman McMasters an idea to get permission from the President of the USA.
Once again this is another hokey propaganda piece. Large scale US troop movements had begun in Vietnam by 1961.
The Cater Street Hangman (1998)
The Cater Street Hangman
Produced by June Wyndham-Davies, who also made the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series. This adaptation of the Anne Perry novels was titled as The Inspector Pitt Mysteries.
Heavily suggesting that it would form a part of a series. Only The Cater Street Hangman is a one off film.
With the recent deaths of several young women in Victorian London. Inspector Thomas Pitt (Eoin McCarthy) is under intense pressure to solve the murders.
He gets assistance from the feisty Charlotte Ellison (Keeley Hawes) who always seems to be defying her stern aristocratic and well connected father.
Suspects include her father who seems to have secrets to hide. As well as Reverend Prebble with his overzealous sermons.
Very atmospheric but I found it rather plodding. Some two dimensional shouty characters. I doubt Charlotte would had been constantly allowed to go out unaccompanied at night with a killer on the loose.
Enterprise: Broken Bow, Part 1 (2001)
Broken Bow, Part 1
With Star Trek: Voyager ending. Television executives rushed in a replacement. Am earlier incarnation of the Enterprise. Set several years after Zefram Cochrane's trek to the stars.
This Enterprise is a warp five vessel. The encounter with Vulcans has delayed human space exploration as the Vulcans withheld advance technology. Fearing that humans were not yet ready for a long range space trek.
So there is is mutual mistrust between Humans and Vulcans.
The core characters are Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and Sub-commander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock.)
The first episode introduces what looks like an aggressive lone Klingon. Who seems to be pursued by an alien race called the Suliban.
I do recall not being that impressed by Enterprise. I have not changed my mind all these years later. I don't think the series was dead on arrival but the concept of this prequel to the original Star Trek was seriously flawed.
The first episode was heavy going, the characters were two dimensional. Bakula is spiky as Archer. Blalock might be playing an emotionless Vulcan, I found her to be flat and wondered is she was just a poor actress. Trip with his southern drawl was just irritating.
Crime Story: The Prince (1993)
The Prince
I knew the name Darius Guppy rang a bell. It is intrinsically linked to ex British Prime Minister Boris (The type of guy you can have a drink with in a pub. Especially during Covid lockdown) Johnson.
Guppy was a wide boy who staged a fake £1.8 million jewellery heist in New York. Guppy ended up in jail, thought largely to the endeavours of an investigative journalist.
Stuart Collier was a News of the World reporter who turned up the heat on Guppy. However Guppy made strenuous efforts to be well connected.
Guppy got Collier's address so he could send some heavy boys to beat Collier up. The man who supplied the address was Boris Johnson, then a Daily Telegraph journalist.
Johnson cannot even deny this as Guppy taped the conversation in 1990. Who said the USA has a monopoly is electing unsuitable leaders!
Of course all this is missing in this 1993 drama. James Purefoy does his best as Guppy. He just comes across as an annoying, dull social climber who had infiltrated the rich boy's club.
Juice: Lights, Camera, Escape (2023)
Lights, Camera, Escape
Jamma has said yes to moving into both Winnie and Guy.
Now his boss has got them to do a bit of team bonding over an Escape Room. They are allowed to bring a plus one.
Jamma brings Guy but realises he needs to keep Guy away from Winnie. Somehow he needs to decide just who he wants to move in with.
Guy claims he has never done an Escape room before. The team is dysfunctional. For Jamma, he escapes to his own adventure. His mother's own issues when she was a film star in Pakistan. Where she embarked on a secret and taboo affair.
There is a good juxtaposition with the escape room and Jamma jumping into his own mother's past. She wanting to escape with her lover.
Looney Tunes Cartoons: Boo! AppeTweet/Hole Gag: Plunger/Bubble Dum (2020)
Boo! AppeTweet/Hole Gag: Plunger/Bubble Dum
There are two good cartoons and a short with Elmer Fudd. He uses a sink plunger to get Bugs Bunny. Only the rabbit has a cannon.
The first cartoon has Sylvester the pussycat who thinks he has finally got Tweety bird while Granny Webster has gone shopping for some eggs. Only Sylvester has ate a cake shape of Tweety. The bird has fallen into some flour.
So when he sees the flour covered bird. Sylvester believes his seeing a ghost and tries to bust it with a vacuum cleaner.
The final cartoon has Daffy Duck in a sticky situation. A bubblegum on the floor sends his flying out of his own feathers.
Both the main cartoons are imaginative.
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Four Weddings and a Funeral
When I watched Four Weddings and a Funeral back in 1994. I found it to be a spiky but smug rom com with some edginess.
It made Hugh Grant and international star. The film had liberal amounts of swearing and the theme song from the movie, covered by Wet Wet Wet was number one in the charts for months. The movie was a British box office smash that was made for a low budget.
Charles (Hugh Grant) and his sister Scarlett are always late at weddings. They attend several of their friends getting married. While Charles and his other single friends who are all in their 30s wonder if they will ever find true love.
Charles meets American Carrie (Andie MacDowell) at one of the weddings and they spend a night together.
They bump into each other in different weddings and a funeral. One of the weddings is Carrie's as she marries a wealthy Scottish laird.
Looking at the film now. It still has that refreshing British humour but the movie is not without issues. There is no chemistry between Charles and Carrie. It leads to Grant to do all the work as MacDowell is just not a good actress.
Grant's foppish and bumbling character has its charms. Underneath it all he is a constant womaniser. Many of the characters both female and male admit to having one night stands and short term relationships. Hoping that one day they will be hit by a thunderbolt called love.
The film's plot is superficial with the most emotional moment provided by John Hannah at the funeral.
It is also sent in a Britain that I will never be acquainted with. These are all upper and middle class folks despite the modest cars some of them drive.
Once again I noted there are more Americans in the cast than any ethnic minority characters. Strange as writer Richard Curtis introduced diversity with a deaf character who plays Charles brother. The co-founder of Comic Relief saw no place for at least one major black or asian person in 1990s Britain.
Stage 7: The Traveling Salesman (1955)
The Traveling Salesman
The Traveling Salesman is a nice farce. Dan Kelly (George Montgomery) is the handsome whiskey salesman in the old west.
He just wants to sell liquor and then get back home to see his eight children. Only all the ladies fight over Dan. Specially the waitresses who swoon all over him.
This makes their boyfriends jealous who look at him suspiciously as the man from the city chats with the ladies.
Once man challenges Dan to a fight but he comes off worse. Soon another wants to duel with Dan with a gunfight.
Dan is innocent but realises that he may need to bluff himself out of a dangerous situation.
A comedic if far fetched story but it is fun.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Dangerous Dowager (1959)
The Case of the Dangerous Dowager
Matilda Benson is the wealthy but dangerous dowager. She has poisoned her family.
Sylvia Oxman is the granddaughter who has taken to drink and gambling. She also has an estranged marriage where she is fighting for custody for her son.
This could be at risk if some IOUs fall into the wrong hands. They are gambling debts and could be used to show that Sylvia is an unfit mother.
Danny Barker is the gambling club owner who plans to auction off the IOU's. To him they are worth more than the face value of $7500.
Matilda Benson and her son go to see Perry Mason about the problem. Only when Barker is found dead, Sylvia becomes his client when she is charged with murder.
There is a courtroom scene where it seems Perry Mason has an hopeless case. A petrol pump owner and a priest positively identifies Sylvia.
It leads to a heart to heart between her and Perry Mason. Her poisonous childhood especially when she was abandoned by her mother. Who ran off with a Neapolitan fisherman while on holiday. Perry learns that this is one toxic family.
The Famous Five: The Eye of the Sunrise (2024)
The Eye of the Sunrise
These Famous Five stories benefit from being set during the run up to the second world war.
So the mysteries can be intertwined with events with spies, Nazis and collaborators.
Set in August 1939. George helps circus magician the Great Supremo (Jason Flemyng) who is being pursued. The Famous Five help to hide him. The baddies are after the Eye of the Sunrise.
The Famous Five reunite the Great Supremo with his daughter. However it emerges that he might have some psychiatric issues. Dr Rosamund Graves takes him away and places the Great Supremo in an institution.
George believes in him and thinks that Dr Graves is up to no good. The Institution is owned by Sir Lincoln Aubrey (Art Malik) who seems to be oblivious to what Dr Graves and her heavies are up to.
There is a subtext of the kids not being listened to by adults. Some Indiana Jones type chase, just what is Eye of the Sunrise? There are a few twists and a return of an old foe.
A good adventure, some of it is predictable but I found there were some nice surprises as well.
Into the Blue (1997)
Into the Blue
Apparently author Robert Goddard was not happy with the adaptation of his novel. It does seem clear to me that John Thaw was miscast, although this was a star vehicle for him.
The made for television movie starts with a flashback. A schoolboy finds a box from the railway line, it contained a baby.
In later years two women have been attacked and found dead.
In the the present day. Harry Barnett (Thaw) is house minding a property in Rhodes for politician Alan Dysart.
Harry is a failed businessman but Dysart has helped him out. Only Dysart was a government minister who had to resign over a scandal.
Now Harry is involved in a scandal of his own. A young woman called Heather Mallender bedded him and has now disappeared. Harry knows she was snooping about Dysart's house looking for something.
Harry returns to Britain to clear his name. He finds that Dysart had been involved with Heather's sister who was found drowned.
Maybe there is a dark side to Dysart, he seems to be involved with dodgy business dealings.
By the end the various plot elements all makes sense. It is just not that good.
Dixon of Dock Green: Looters Ltd. (1975)
Looters Ltd.
Charlie Barnet (Sam Kydd) was a renowned cat burglar. A fall left him with a permanent injury, ended his crime career and landed him in jail.
Now on his way to family welcome home party, Charlie comes to the assistance of a man who is getting mugged. He gets a cash reward for his actions.
Only when his son Ray gives him a watch as a gift. Charlie knows that it belonged to the mugged man.
While Charlie was inside. The Barnet's have become a crime family. His wife runs a club from home. Where people buy items, pay on credit but it is stolen to order.
Dock Green has shops that is going through a spate of shoplifting. Andy Crawford is investigating who can be behind it all.
Another episode that could had easily been accommodated some years later in The Bill.
I did have to groan when the young policeman received the portable television as a gift and took it to the station to show it off. If you can call that tv portable!
Unearthly Stranger (1963)
Unearthly Stranger
Unearthly Stranger is a low budget talky science fiction thriller that is short on special effects and thrills.
It opens with Dr Mark Davidson (John Neville) who works for a British space research facility seemingly running for his life.
In flashback it begins with the sudden mysterious death of Professor Munroe (Warren Mitchell) who working on space/time travel.
The death is being covered up as well as the fact that other scientists might also be in danger.
One of them is Davidson who had a whirlwind romance and married to a Swiss woman called Julie (Gabriella Licudi.)
Only Davidson notices some strange behaviour from his wife. She does not blink, sometimes appears to be dead. A colleague saw her taking something out from a hot oven without gloves.
Maybe she is an alien but what do they want from humans?
At times the movie deals with high brow concepts but in a laborious manner. Humans exploring space and might come into contact with others.
It does come across as The X Files meet the Body Snatchers. Neville became well known in later years for his guest appearances in The X files.
Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt: Raffles (1977)
Raffles
The old folks take a coach trip for the day to Scarborough. While Selwyn Froggitt is enjoying a pint at the social club. Selwyn realises that he is meant to be the driver of the coach.
One of the old dears took the coach to Bridlington but she racked up police fines. Some of the old folks got in a altercation with another coach party from Preston over some mushy peas.
To pay the various fines and increased costs. Selwyn holds a raffle to raise funds. The grand prize is his mother's salt and pepper shaker set.
There are not many takers, the prize had been doing the rounds as a raffle prize for years. In fact Selwyn ends up swapping his raffle tickets with others who are also raising funds.
Maybe Selwyn will win the other prizes!
An enjoyable and fun episode. It is all a bit daft and you sense that Selwyn will come out as a winner.
The Adventures of Robin Hood: The Little People (1957)
The Little People
Robin Hood, Marian and Friar Tuck are still in Ireland and the bad weather is too much for them.
They are also aware of the anti English feelings form the local Irish people.
So they refuge in a barn for the night and they find some food laid out. As they observe the local farmers, the superstitious farmers have placed it for the little people. As robin explains to Marian. They are who the Irish call leprechauns.
Once farmer has no time for superstitions and leprechauns. When the farm catches fire, Robin thinks they will be blamed. The farmer is accused of bringing bad luck as he does not believe in the little people.
In order to clear their name. Robin has a hunch, maybe there are actual little people. He finds a colony of orphaned children.
Rather light on story, heavy on stereotypes. It does raise an interesting subtext of orphans surviving on their own.
Sorry!: Every Clown Wants to Play Hamlet (1986)
Every Clown Wants to Play Hamlet
There is more to this than Timothy acting as an inept prompt for his local drama group's production of 'Hamlet. The episode is inspired by the play itself.
Mr Lumsden has gone away on a break and uncle Claud is in town. Mrs Lumsden always had a shine for her husband's brother. Much to Timothy's shock.
As for the play itself. Geoffrey (Douglas Hodge) is nervous playing Hamlet. Timothy's lack of concentration annoys Frank.
At least Timothy finds a friend in Valerie who is also in the play. Unfortunately he ends up insulting Valerie as he rushes to find out just who is in his mother's bedroom.
It is a bit of a bard farce and rather good. Once again Mrs Lumsden insults Timothy in front of Valerie.
Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday (2024)
The Legend of Ruby Sunday
A beast of an episode and I need to try and remember what happened in that Doctor Who story from the mid 1970s. When the Doctor was all teeth and curls with jelly babies.
Following on from the 2023 Christmas special. This is all about Ruby Sunday and the mysterious tech baron Susan Triad. Her anagram spells TARDIS.
Only there is an oncoming storm, as predicted by a sinister Mrs Flood.
The first of a two parter. This is a very much a UNIT based story. This HQ is all shiny and new with a Time Window left by the Doctor in the 1970s. (There goes UNIT dating gone haywire again.)
Maybe looking for Ruby's mother was not that exciting. What it unleashed was havoc. RTD strikes again with a high stakes finale set up.
Thriller: Someone at the Top of the Stairs (1973)
Someone at the Top of the Stairs
American actress Donna Mills came to Britain for some quality drama. This drama written by Brian Clemens has lashings of spookiness and suspense. Unfortunately it cannot stick the landing.
Chrissie Morton (Mills) and Gillian Pemberton (Judy Carne) are two American students who find a bargain accommodation in London.
It seems just too good to be true. Mrs Oxhey (Alethea Charlton) the landlady is insistent that the room is there for the taking.
They see the other residents of the house. At first they all appear normal apart for some gestures they make with their hand. The only person who remains unseen is Mr C, who lives in the attic room.
Soon Chrissie feels uneasy. The other residents come across rather creepy. Someone is watching her in the bathroom.
Then a middle aged man appears looking for his missing daughter.
Mills and the other actors are very good. So it was a shame that the reveal was s underwhelming. It needed to go out with a bang.
Mission: Impossible: Zubrovnik's Ghost (1966)
Zubrovnik's Ghost
Another Steven Hill lite episode. I think by this point his fate with the show was probably sealed.
Daniel Briggs has an unusual mission. Dr Martha Richards Zubrovnik (Beatrice Straight) is an American scientist who is at risk of defecting to the east.
She was widowed about a year ago. A fake eastern european medium, Sigismund Poljac is using the ghost of her late husband to get her to defect. He died in an apparent fire. It could had been accidental but looks increasingly like murder.
It might just be trickery by Poljac to bring the spectre of her husband back to life somehow. The IMF team need to expose it.
Rollin Hand and Barney Collier are assigned to the mission along with Ariana, a psychic specialist. Only Ariana is herself may have been moved by the spirit world.
Some weird ghostly goings on as well as a lot of bees. An unusual episode but this lacks a buzz.
The Lloyd Bridges Show: Little Man, Big Bridge (1962)
Little Man, Big Bridge
Journalist Adam Shepherd. Is being driven to an airport by a journalist friend. An interview has been arranged with an important Italian dignitary.
A temporary detour due to cleaning work on an old bridge leads Adam to imagine Johnny Budd. A guard on the bridge who collects the tolls. The bridge is known as the old girl.
The construction job leads to Johnny getting crank calls from Mr Platino, an Italian labourer. He is worried that the work is destroying his flowers. Only no one is listening to him.
One night Platino plans to make people listen. He wants to blow the bridge up. It is up to Johnny to talk him out of it.
A slight story, the flowers are important to Platino. Johnny talks about his wartime experiences. A reason why the bridge is important to him.
Inside No. 9: Ctrl Alt Esc (2024)
Ctrl Alt Esc
I have seen a lot of Escape Room type movies. So I did wonder where the Inside No 9 team will go with the concept.
With the advanced warnings about the story. It looked this would be dark and disturbing with no major twists.
Jason (Steve Pemberton) and Lynne (Katherine Kelly) along with their daughters Millie and Amy visit escape room number 9, known as The Killer's Lair
It is managed by genial Doug (Reece Shearsmith) who provides them with a vivid description of killer on the loose Dr Death. He also gives them certain clues when required.
Jason is an escape room enthusiast. The others are there reluctantly. Pretty soon Jason finds himself restrained, something is wrong in the marriage and Dr Death is on the prowl.
Very eerie and atmospheric. It increasingly becomes disturbing and then they Introduce the reveal.
Pemberton and Shearsmith certainly did pull off the twist. This is the sort of imagination some horror movie directors need.