Schedule summary:
17:35 – Sheepy’s opening caption and music.
17:40 – Thames TV morning start-up music.
17:45 – Trailer for I Start Counting!
17:46 – FILM: Danger on Dartmoor (1980)
18:43 – Trailer for Black Narcissus
18:45 – FILM: I Start Counting! (1969)
20:31 – Trailer for Who Killed Teddy Bear
20:33 – FILM: Black Narcissus (1947)
22:14 – Short Film: Don’t Be Like Brenda (19xx)
22:22 – FILM: Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965)
23:52 – Short Film: LSD: Insight or Insanity? (1968)
00:11 – Closedown music.
00:16 – Closedown.
Schedule Details:
17:35 – Sheepy’s opening caption and music.
17:40 – Thames TV morning start-up music.
17:45 – Trailer for I Start Counting!
17:46 – FILM: Danger on Dartmoor (1980) – a British Children’s Film Foundation drama film directed by David Eady and starring Marcus Evans, Simon Henderson, Debby Salter, Barry Foster and Patricia Hayes. Children lost in a fog on Dartmoor face dangers including a savage dog and an escaped prisoner. Co-written by Audrey Erskine Lindop, whose book was the basis for I Start Counting!, hence this being on the ISC Blu-Ray as an extra – it’s also been on Talking Pictures a fair bit. With a surprise appearance by David “Gan” Jackson!
18:43 – Trailer for Black Narcissus
18:45 – FILM: I Start Counting! (1969) – a British coming-of-age drama thriller film directed by David Greene and starring Jenny Agutter and Bryan Marshall. Its plot follows a teenage girl who comes to suspect that her adult foster brother, on whom she has a crush and spies on constantly, might be the serial killer who is at large in her hometown. The screenplay was by Richard Harris, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Audrey Erskine Lindop. The film was moderately controversial because of Agutter’s squeaky-clean image and youth (16, playing a 14-year-old), when coupled with the film’s sexual content. Bizarrely, the film was made with the co-operation of the Bracknell [New Town] Development Corporation. Also, look out for a brief appearance by Phil Collins!
20:31 – Trailer for Who Killed Teddy Bear
20:33 – FILM: Black Narcissus (1947) – a British psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and starring Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, and Flora Robson, and featuring Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons, and Kathleen Byron. The title refers to the Caron perfume Narcisse Noir. The film is based on the 1939 novel by Rumer Godden. It revolves around the growing tensions within a small convent of Anglican sisters who are trying to establish a school and hospital in the old palace of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain above a fertile valley in the Himalayas. The palace has ancient Indian erotic paintings on its walls and is run by the agent of the Indian general who owns it, a handsome middle-aged Englishman who is a source of attraction for the sisters.
Black Narcissus achieved considerable acclaim for its technical mastery with the cinematographer, Jack Cardiff, winning an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography, and Alfred Junge winning an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. According to film critic David Thomson, “Black Narcissus is that rare thing, an erotic English film about the fantasies of nuns, startling whenever Kathleen Byron is involved”. Kathleen Byron, for whom this film was her defining role, played the neurotic uptight Martha Finch in Together (1980-81). 🙂
22:14 – SHORT FILM: Don’t Be Like Brenda (19xx) – an utterly wrong-headed, totally sexist, cautionary tale about the dangers of teenage promiscuity. Has to be seen to be believed. Another extra from the I Start Counting! Blu-Ray, although I’m not entirely sure why it’s on there! I’ve deliberately not included the year in which it was made, as I’d like you all to guess…
22:22 – FILM: Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965) – an American neo-noir crime thriller film, directed by Joseph Cates and starring Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse, Jan Murray and Elaine Stritch. The film was written by Arnold Drake and Leon Tokatyan. Norah Dain, a nightclub disc jockey and aspiring actress living alone in a Manhattan apartment, receives a series of obscene phone calls from someone who seems to be watching her on a daily basis. She also finds a decapitated teddy bear in her apartment. At first it is not clear to either the viewer or Norah who is making the calls. A police detective, Lt. Dave Madden, whose own wife was raped and murdered, takes a personal interest in Norah and her case…
23:52 – SHORT FILM: LSD: Insight or Insanity? (1968) – An American documentary about the potentially dangerous and unpredictable drug LSD. Various experts discuss how LSD is made and the hazards involved in using it while avid users explain why they enjoy taking it. Narrated by Sal Mineo, which is why it ended up on the Who Killed Teddy Bear Blu-Ray as an extra. I’ve just discovered that there’s a version of this on YouTube with around ten extra minutes: however given that (a) it has horrible interlacing artifacts and (b) the extra bits seem to include footage of animal experiments, I’m sticking with this version.
00:11 – Closedown music.
00:16 – Closedown.