NOTE: EARLY START TIME DUE TO EXTRA BANK HOLIDAY GOODNESS!
Schedule summary:
13:14 – Sheepy’s intro music.
13:18 – Trailer for Timeslip (1955)
13:20 – SHORT FILM: Children’s Film Foundation: Our Magazine vol 2
13:30 – FILM: Timeslip (1955)
15:00 – Trailer for Death Line (1972)
15:02 – FILM: Children’s Film Foundation: Runaway Railway (1965)
15:55 – SHORT FILM: Children’s Film Foundation: Playground Express (1955)
16:11 – FILM: Death Line (1972)
17:39 – Thames Television Start-up
17:43 – Only When I Laugh S04E01
18:09 – Michael Bentine’s Potty Time S02E08
18:31 – Ace of Wands S03E20
18:54 – Clangers (New) S01E08 – Tiny’s Lullaby
19:05 – Star Trek S02E20 – Return to Tomorrow
19:55 – NEW! – Tales of the Unexpected S01E01
20:20 – Van der Valk S03E10
21:09 – Eurotrash S05E04
21:33 – Lytton’s Diary S02E01
22:25 – Girls On Top S01E02
22:49 – Agony S02E02
23:12 – SHORT FILM: The Home-Made Car
23:41 – SHORT FILM: Giuseppina [again]
00:12 – Closedown music.
Schedule Details:
13:14 – Sheepy’s opening caption & music.
13:18 – Trailer for Timeslip (1955).
13:20 – SHORT FILM: Children’s Film Foundation: Our Magazine no. 2 – in the 1950s, no cinema screening was complete without a newsreel, and the Saturday Morning Pictures was no exception. This edition includes: the London Fields Primary School Percussion Band; model making and decoration using plasticine, mirrors, board, burnt coal, wire, and dead animals; footage of the hot springs at Roturua in New Zealand; and a visit to the British Railways Locomotive Testing Station in Rugby.
13:30 – FILM: Timeslip (1955) a.k.a. The Atomic Man (1955) – a British science fiction film directed by Ken Hughes and starring Gene Nelson and Faith Domergue. Produced by Alec C. Snowden, it is based on a script by Charles Eric Maine, who also wrote Spaceways. An injured man is pulled from the Thames. He has been shot in the back and is barely alive. The science correspondent of an illustrated magazine recognises him as a nuclear physicist. But the physicist is found alive and well and working at his laboratory. When the injured man is photographed, his pictures show a strange glow surrounding him, and when he recovers enough to be questioned, his answers make no sense. It transpires that his perception of time is 7.5 seconds ahead of that of his interrogator, to the extent that he answers questions just before they are asked. The correspondent and his photographer girlfriend try to solve the puzzle, and in doing so uncover international industrial espionage and a terrible threat to the atomic research institute. With Martin Wyldeck (Van der Valk’s boss in S01, plus one-off appearances in Callan, Fawlty Towers and Boys from the Blackstuff) as a hospital doctor and Charles Hawtrey in a fleeting appearance as a post-boy. Gene Nelson, the lead, was also a director, and did the classic Star Trek episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion” that I showed a few weeks ago!!
15:00 – Trailer for Death Line (1972).
15:02 – FILM: Children’s Film Foundation: Runaway Railway (1965) – a British family adventure film directed by Jan Darnley-Smith and starring John Moulder-Brown, Kevin Bennett, Roberta Tovey (Susan in the Peter Cushing Doctor Who films), Ronnie Barker, Graham Stark, Hugh Lloyd and a cameo by Jon Pertwee. The screenplay concerns a group of children who manage to foil an attempted mail train robbery, with similarities to the Great Train Robbery of 1963.
15:55 – SHORT FILM: Children’s Film Foundation: Playground Express (1954) – a “silly and splendid seaside slapstick-a-thon” which sees Peter Butterworth looking after the rides along Brighton prom, and sorting out the killjoy “President of the Society for Organised Fun” (Humphrey Kent) with the noisy assistance of the local kids.
16:11 – FILM: Death Line (1972) – a British horror film written and directed by Gary Sherman and starring Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Hugh Armstrong, and Christopher Lee. When a government official disappears in the London tunnels, after several reports of missing people in the same location, Scotland Yard start to take the matter seriously, along with a couple who stumble into a victim by accident. Also featuring James Cossins and Clive Swift.
17:39 – Thames TV morning start-up music.
17:43 – Only When I Laugh – S04E01 – Blood Brothers – 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, Dr Thorpe believes that Glover needs a blood transfusion and Figgis is the same blood group but Glover, being a snob, is not happy to be the recipient, especially when he hears that Figgis has received a transfusion himself from a West Indian. In the event it turns out to be Figgis who needs the transfusion and Glover who is the donor, as a result of which Figgis begins to act in an unusually upper class manner. First broadcast on Thu 4th Nov 1982 by ITV.
18:09 – Michael Bentine’s Potty Time S02E08 – Viva Zapotti / Horatius – a British children’s TV show, written by and starring Michael Bentine, and directed and produced by Leon Thau for Thames Television. This week, the Potty Encyclopedia uncovers the explosive endeavors of Viva Zapotti, the greatest revolutionary of them all – although on this occasion there seems to be one explosion too many. And in the poetic account of Horatius’s battle against the enemy of Rome, we hear one of the most stirring stories of valour ever written. First broadcast on Wed 26th Feb 1975 by ITV.
18:31 – Ace of Wands S03E20/20 – The Beautiful People: Part 4/4 – a British fantasy children’s television show broadcast on ITV between 1970 and 1972. It was created by Trevor Preston and Pamela Lonsdale and produced by Thames Television. It ran for two seasons of thirteen episodes each, and a third season of twenty, which is the only series that still exists. Telepathic stage magician, Tarot, and his two assistants solve mysteries and crimes of a bizarre or magical nature, and battle against villains with various powers. In this final story, written by P. J. “Sapphire & Steel” Hammond, when Mikki is refused entry to a small town fête run by two astonishingly beautiful girls, Dee and Emm, Tarot investigates. He uncovers a complicated plot organized by a group of extra-terrestrials with very special powers. First broadcast on Wed 29th Nov 1972 by ITV.
18:54 – Clangers (New CBeebies Version) S01E08 – Tiny’s Lullaby – the 2010s reboot of the famous early-1970s 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’s radio hat develops a fault, so she can’t hear the Iron Chicken’s lullaby and thus can’t get to sleep. First broadcast on Wed 24th Jun 2015 at 5.30pm by CBeebies.
19:05 – Star Trek (The Original Series) – S02E20 – Return to Tomorrow – This week, the Enterprise is guided to a distant, long-dead world where survivors of an extremely ancient race – existing only as disembodied energy – desire the bodies of Kirk, Spock and astro-biologist Ann Mulhall so that they may live again. This episode was the first appearance of Diana Muldaur in the Star Trek franchise. She appeared again as Dr. Miranda Jones in the third season episode, “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” and as Dr. Katherine Pulaski in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. First broadcast in the USA on Fri 9th Feb 1968 by NBC. A.k.a the one with the light-up globes. 🙂 James “Scotty” Doohan provided the initial voice of Sargon.
19:55 – NEW! – Tales of the Unexpected S01E01 – The Man from the South – a British television series that aired between 1979 and 1988. Each episode told a story, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, with an unexpected twist ending. Every episode of series one, eight episodes of series two, and one episode of series three were based on short stories by Roald Dahl, who provided introductions for the first two series. This week, a young American couple on holiday meet a mysterious old gentleman who makes them a macabre wager. First broadcast on Sat 24th Mar 1979 by ITV.
20:20 – Van der Valk – S03E10 – In Hazard – After a four-year break (1973-1977) on original transmission, the Amsterdam-based crime drama returned for this 12-episode run, now made by Euston Films for Thames TV. It still stars Barry Foster in the title role, but his wife has mysteriously changed actress, from Susan Travers to Joanna Dunham, who played Patrick Allen’s lover in S02E01 “A Death by the Sea”. This week, when a beautiful woman tells him a story he finds hard to believe, Van der Valk has a choice – to play a hunch, or to adopt the orthodox procedure and let the case take its own course. First broadcast on Mon 7th Nov 1977 by ITV. Only one notable guest star this week, but one that will be very familiar to Doctor Who fans (no, not Tom Baker!).
21:09 – Eurotrash S05E04 a.k.a. Eurotrash Goes Under the Kimono (2/2) – 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 Bizarre Japanese Museums, Nude Female Sumo Wrestling, Nude Pop Idols, Ultraman, Sekuhara Clubs, British Village. First broadcast on Fri 8th Dec 1995 by Channel 4.
21:33 – Lytton’s Diary S02E01 – The Ends and the Means – A drama series made by Thames Television for the ITV network, about the life of a newspaper gossip columnist, played by Peter Bowles, who also co-created the show with Philip Broadley. Scripts were by Ray Connolly, the journalist, interviewer, author, Beatles enthusiast, and screenplay writer of That’ll Be The Day and Stardust. Whether consorting with banking tycoons and ex-dictators or investigating a gang of skinheads, Lytton strives to expose the high and mighty, the corrupt and the crooked – and to make sure “God” (his editor at the Daily News) is happy with his work. All the while, Lytton struggles to keep his love life in order, write the one novel he feels he has in him, and fend off constant machinations and maneuvers of an old rival at the Daily Post. This week, in the first of the second series, when an old friend’s husband is found dead in their garage, Lytton wonders why the successful government official would have killed himself. He focuses on an elegant mystery woman who attended the funeral. First broadcast on Wed 8th Jan 1986 by ITV. WARNING: the opening title sequence still contains flashing images, and worse, that bloody Rick Wakeman theme tune.
22:25 – Girls on Top S01E02 – Staying Alive – a British sitcom, broadcast on ITV in 1985 & 1986, made by Allan McKeown’s Witzend Productions for Central Independent Television. It starred Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Ruby Wax and Tracey Ullman with Joan Greenwood. It was written by French, Saunders and Wax, with additional material for two episodes written by Ullman. It was produced & directed by Paul Jackson (S1) and Ed Bye (S2). Both theme and incidental music were written and perforned by Chris Difford & Glenn Tillbrook. This week, Amanda tries to organise life in the flat, with a detailed cleaning rota, but some flatmates are less than enthusiastic. First broadcast on Wed 30th Oct 1985 at 8.30pm by ITV.
22:49 – Agony S02E02 – Working Girls – An ITV sitcom that aired from 1979 to 1981. Made by London Weekend Television, it stars Maureen Lipman as Jane Lucas who has a successful career as an agony aunt but whose own personal life is a shambles. It was created by Len Richmond and real-life agony aunt Anna Raeburn, both of whom wrote all of the first series. The second and third series were written by Stan Hey and Andrew Nickolds. This week, having been advised by her horoscope for the week that there’s a money making scheme connected with the colour blue awaiting her, Val decides to make a blue movie. First broadcast on Sun 20th Apr 1980 by ITV.
23:12 – SHORT FILM: The Home-Made Car (1963) – a short, silent film made for BP by James “Lunch Hour” Hill, about a young man who rebuilds a vintage car and finds love. The film was nominated for an Academy Award (Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects), and won a Silver Bear (Short Film) at the Berlin International Film Festival. The score was by Ron Grainer. The film became a cult success when regularly broadcast as a Trade Test Colour Film, screened from September 1968 until Thu 23rd August 1973. Previously shown on CABTV by myself, at 00:20 on Thu 7th October 2021.
23:41 – SHORT FILM: Giuseppina (1960) – a short British docu-fiction film by James “Lunch Hour” Hill, which was filmed in 1959, in Mandriole, Emilia-Romagna, near Ravenna in the north east of Italy. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Production of the film was sponsored by BP, which also distributed the film. Their webpage summarizes the film as, “set at an Italian petrol station where various characters pass through on their onward journey, while entertaining and playing with the attendant’s daughter, Giuseppina.” In the 1960s and early 1970s, Giuseppina was broadcast 185 times on British television as a Trade Test Colour Film. It was the very last one ever shown, on Fri 24th Aug 1973 at 2.30pm. Excerpts were also shown on Vision On, the BBC programme for deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Previously shown on CABTV by myself just last week, at 23:59 on Mon 1st May 2023. I liked it so much that I thought I’d pop it in once more for us night owls.
00:12 – Closedown music.
00:17 – Closedown.