18:00 – Sheepy’s opening music.
18:04 – Thames TV morning start-up music.
18:09 – Michael Bentine’s Potty Time S01E12 – The Vikings – a British children’s TV show, written by and starring Michael Bentine, and directed and produced by Leon Thau for Thames Television. This week, Mr. Bentine and the Potties… well you know the rest. First broadcast on Mon 28th Jan 1974 by ITV.
18:21 – Shadows S03E04 – The Boy Merlin – a British supernatural television anthology series produced by Thames Television for ITV between 1975 and 1978. This week, a Celtic witch teaches her foster grandson magic. The magic is useful when the boy is kidnapped by an evil Saxon lord. First broadcast on Wed 11th Oct 1978 by ITV.
18:45 – Clangers S01E12 – Treasure – the famous Oliver Postgate / Peter Firmin stop-motion children’s television series about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet. This week, Tiny Clanger finds a bag of golden coins while fishing in space. Even to Clangers, wealth does not always bring happiness. First broadcast on Sun 15th Feb 1970 at 5.55pm by BBC1.
18:55 – Star Trek (The Original Series) – S01E26 – Errand of Mercy – This week, with a war with the Klingons declared, Kirk and Spock attempt to sway the incomprehensibly placid population of a planet near the Klingon border to resist an invading military occupation. First broadcast in the USA on Thu 23rd Mar 1967 by NBC. This is another classic, and marks the first appearance of the Klingons. Wikipedia: “Story editor D.C. Fontana said she thought the Romulans were much more interesting than the Klingons but the Klingons were chosen as the regular adversaries of the series because they did not need any special makeup like the pointed ears for the Romulans. The Klingons’ dark-skinned, mustached look was the idea of John Colicos who played the Klingon governor Kor. Makeup artist Fred Phillips agreed that they should have a ‘Genghis Khan’ look. In Gene L. Coon’s script the Klingons were described as simply ‘Oriental, hard-faced.’ Kor (still played by John Colicos), would return decades later in the DS9 episodes ‘Blood Oath’, ‘The Sword of Kahless’ and ‘Once More Unto the Breach’. In ‘The Sword of Kahless’, Worf mentions Kor’s encounter with Kirk.”
Wendy Craig is being rested for a while as we get over the fact she actually married that smarmy sexist git. However I expect that she will return in …And Mother Makes Five at some point. Instead, I bring you:
19:45 – Only When I Laugh – S01E01 – A Bed with a View – A sitcom made by Yorkshire Television for ITV, written by Eric Chappell (Rising Damp, Home to Roost). It stars Christopher Strauli as Norman, a rather naive middle-class man who is admitted to a hospital ward and finds that he is sharing it with a working-class layabout called Figgis (James Bolam) and an upper-class hypochondriac called Archie (Peter Bowles). All three of them cause headaches for the hospital staff, led by Richard Wilson with Derrick Branche. This week, Norman arrives at the ward and is given the bed next to the window. A game of musical beds ensues as Figgis and Archie want it too. First broadcast on 29th Oct 1979 by ITV.
20:10 – Special Branch – S01E14 – Time Bomb – Groundbreaking British police drama series following the exploits of the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police: an elite group of officers tasked with protecting London from spies, terrorists, and subversives. This week, sent to investigate the death of the son of a pro-British oil sheikh in a bomb plot, Superintendent Inman finds a hotbed of intrigue and dangerous international situation about to explode in his face. First broadcast on Wed 17th Dec 1969 by ITV. This is the last in the first series, however I’m planning on showing the second series too, before returning to Van der Valk. Do enjoy the theme tune one last time though, as in Series 2 it gets replaced by some dreadful jazzy bollocks.
21:01 – Eurotrash S01E05 – The legendary late-night magazine show starring Antoine de Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier, exploring unusual and bizarre topics from Europe and around the world. This week, we have Tyra Banks, Trance Dancing, Alibi Bar, Rocco Siffredi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, The Crapper, Ode to Shit. First broadcast on Fri 22nd Oct 1993 by Channel 4.
21:25 – A Very Peculiar Practice S02E06/07 – The Big Squeeze – a surreal black-comedy drama set in the health centre of a British university, produced by the BBC. It was written by Andrew Davies and was inspired by his experiences as a lecturer at the University of Warwick, and it has been interpreted as a commentary on contemporary trends in education. This week, students are suffering from malnutrition owing to high rents. Professor Bunn is accused of exposing himself to two students. First broadcast on Wed 30th Mar 1988 at 9.25pm by BBC2.
22:20 – The Norman Conquests E01/03 – Table Manners – A trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. Each of the plays depicts the same six characters over the same weekend in a different part of a house. Table Manners is set in the dining room, Living Together in the living room, and Round and Round the Garden in, well, the garden.
The plays were first performed in Scarborough, before runs in London and on Broadway. This television version was first broadcast in the UK during October 1977 and was directed by Herbert Wise and produced by Verity Lambert & David Susskind.
The trilogy presents a comically fraught weekend from three different perspectives, as family and in-laws gather at the decaying country house of their bedridden mother; the drink flows, and hidden enmities, intimate secrets, and uncomfortable truths emerge through the veneer of jollity and civility.
There are only six characters, namely Norman (Tom Conti), his wife Ruth (Fiona Walker), her brother Reg (Richard Briers) and his wife Sarah (Penelope Keith), Ruth’s sister Annie (Penelope Wilton), and Tom (David Troughton), Annie’s next-door-neighbour. A seventh unseen and unheard character is in the house, upstairs: the bedridden mother of Reg, Ruth and Annie.
The plays are at times wildly comic, and at times poignant, in their portrayals of the relationships among the six characters.
Each play is self-contained, and they may be watched in any order. Some of the scenes overlap, and on several occasions a character’s exit from one play corresponds with an entrance in another. Similarly, noise and commotion in one room can sometimes be heard by characters in another.
The plays were not written to be performed simultaneously, although Ayckbourn did achieve that some twenty-five years later in House & Garden.
The premise is that Annie lives in a countryside house taking care of her demanding mother, and has decided that she needs a weekend off. Reg and Sarah have agreed to come and take care of Annie’s & Reg’s mother while Annie goes on a short trip. However, Annie is secretly planning to meet up with her sister Ruth’s charming, rakish husband Norman for an illicit weekend together (something Annie has never done before, and is unsure about). However, things go wrong when Norman shows up at the house early to pick up Annie contrary to plan, everybody ends up at the house for the entire weekend, and various arguments ensue while the characters have differing degrees of understanding about what’s actually happening.
Penelope Keith won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Actress for her performance.
This week, “Saturday evening: the dining room. Reg and Sarah have arrived to look after Reg’s bedridden mother while Annie gets away for a much needed break. However Annie is not going off on her own… and Norman, known for his disastrous effect on family gatherings, also turns up…” First broadcast on Wed 5th Oct 1977 by ITV.
On a personal note, I watched some of this with my parents on first transmission. They absolutely loved it. My Mum in particular had the hots for Tom Conti, the only time I ever remember her expressing such feelings about an actor. As I was only 12 (and a very naïve 12 at that), although I found bits of it amusing, a lot of it went over my head, and as an adult I’ve wanted to see it again ever since.
After the above trilogy ends, the double-length final episode A Very Polish Practice will be shown in the same slot. The week after will be a return to our more usual late-night music theme.
00:09 – Closedown music.
00:14 – Closedown.