Cult TV Blog

I must start this post by correcting something I said, ooh, two or three blog posts ago, which was that I thought the episodes ran on to play a bit again, on the Network DVD box set. This was completely wrong and in fact the way the shows are arranged on the DVD is to show the whole episode as originally seen in the UK, and then there are the opening and closing titles as made for the US market. Very complete indeed, but a bit confusing for a bear of little brain like myself. Personally I would have preferred the US titles put separately as an extra, because I can't find a way of watching the whole DVDS episodes through without seeing different titles over and over. Here in the UK we got the ATV In Colour titles as seen above. What memories those titles bring back for me - one of these days I am going to get round to writing the post I keep talking about, about UK regional TV stations, not least because it will force me to get the matter finally clear in my own head. Then after th...

A haunted car. What a twentieth century variation on the staple of ghost stories, the haunted this, that, and the other. The use of the plot device gives this episode a lift to a more established folklore milieu from its otherwise completely 1970s setting. The use of a car also has the advantage over other haunted items, because having wheels the car can seem to develop its own sentience and move on its own. A further classy touch is given by the fact that the car isn't just any old car but a Rolls. Ironic that the one in this episode was bought for seven grand which seems nothing for a car now, and I see that a 1970s Rolls can be got for two grand now. How the mighty are fallen! - however I'm sure maintaining an elderly luxury car is never cheap. Personally I prefer the MGB GT which also features in this episode, but not in the characteristic 1970s orange colour scheme. I started watching this show while cooking - of course I was listening, not watching, and I was very surp...

Image source Yes, this is certainly among the more recent shows I am ever likely to blog about, but if you like the England depicted by Agatha Christie you will probably like this series. There are actually two British series of the Famous Five, the first was made in the 1970s and was made contemporary. This one was made in the 1990s and set firmly in the fifties. The first series is apparently more popular, or at least easier to come across here. This series has episodes on YouTube, and some episodes have been released on DVD. If you want the whole series you have to buy a Dutch release (called  De Vijf - De complete verzameling, although the audio is in English) or there looks to be a Spanish release, but I can't speak for what that's like.  I have an ambivalent relationship with Blyton myself, because the head mistress of my infants school thought her writing was of poor literary quality and banned her books from the school. The result was of course that reading them w...