Cult TV Blog

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . I think I have reached the end of these posts for now, so this will be the last post in the orphaned episodes series, just except for a post dealing with some odd shows that I won't do full posts about, and some reflections. This is the second episode of this show i have posted about, and the whole series must have been fascinating if these two odd episodes are anything to go by. As is so often the case with these shows there is another with the same name, but this post is about  this one  not  this one , which really does sound odd. This is about an ordinary man who quite suddenly finds himself with supernatural powers, and the full implications of this for his life. After he feels an accident his colleague has, in the manner of the time the hospital his colleague goes to sends round a parapsychologist, wonderfully played by Geoffrey Bayldon. Boysie, the guy with the gifts, ultimately sends him away and s...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . Another episode from  Tales of Unease . This one is in a few places online. I'm afraid I can't remember which so can't link the right one, but in one copy the sound drops out for much of the show, but if you start watching that one don't despair - try one of the others because they're not all the same and the whole show with complete audio is out there. The above link is quite critical of this show because of the absence of explanation in the plot and unsatisfying conclusion. My own reading would be that I think the unease it leaves you with is largely the point. I also would think it's deliberately not explained fully and leave space for the viewer to think about it. In retrospect one of the reasons to watch this show is for its utterly sixties atmosphere (it was shown in 1970). Art students are perhaps one of the more countercultural avocations of the time and quite a bit of the show is devoted to t...

Another play, and again one I discovered as a result of my dives into the internet for orphaned episodes. In fact I think I have discovered another genre which TV might have given to the world. As Stephen Poliakoff, the author of this play, puts it when talking about all the TV plays of the time: There's an elegiac note in Poliakoff's voice, because many, or most, of the plays are no more. "Nobody can now say how good they were because there's no book about them, and no archive. Some famous ones, like Cathy Come Home, are shown from time to time, but it's a tiny percentage of the mass. Several thousand one-hour plays have just been wiped, lots of others made on film may still exist but nobody's looked at them since they were transmitted. Considering all the media courses around, it's incredible that we shouldn't have this contribution. A good case could be made that the single-hour play could be the most important art form of the late 20th century....

You can find this play on the Alan Clarke at the BBC Dissent box set. I think it's also on Prime and several other places. I had this on a shortlist of possible orphans until I found it isn't, but it's incredibly compelling so will form another breather from my orphaned episodes posts. Unsurprisingly with a star director, it's been extensively commented on already, so I will just point you  here  for a sensible essay before getting on my various hobby horses and commenting on the bits that take my fancy. The first thing absolutely hits you between the eyes. This is a play made in 1970 about a man who just walks into a church, asks to join in by helping with the children, and how the situation unravels as it becomes increasingly clear that he hasn't exactly been truthful, and his motives are decidedly suspicious. His wish to work with the children was among the first things he said to the minister and what is so striking is that fifty years later, surely doing that w...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . Play for Today was another long-running anthology series which broadcast from 1970 to 1984. Although some of its plays have been released in various formats, it has not been released in its entirety and since I don't think this one has been released commercially it meets the criteria for an orphaned episode I cunningly set originally. I have just discovered to my shock that I have been blogging here for eight and a half years and don't think I have so much as mentioned that nuclear disasters are one of my little obsessions. How have I managed not to mention this? I'm particularly obsessed with the disastrous 'cleanup' at Enewatak Atoll and there was a time when I was younger when I could give you a blow by blow account of the events of 26th April 1986 in the number 4 reactor at Chernobyl and had to be prevented from calling our cat Windscale. I have no idea why this has always fascinated me, I'm not e...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . You are probably as surprised as I am that an episode of this show should appear among these orphaned episodes, since much of the surviving show has been released by Network. But I'm very much afraid I don't think this one will probably be released. It is in a couple of places on YouTube and has been streamed by Talking Pictures TV (don't tell me if it has been released, it's given me real trouble).  I formed this opinion in the first minutes because the use of the n-word, and not in a derogatory sense, suggests this show may have some difficulty transitioning to today. You all know how subtle I am and don't speak my mind but I think the other reason this one might not see the light of commercial day is that it's not very good. God I feel terrible saying that but we're not talking quality here, it feels like this play was a good idea but went horribly wrong along the way. I'm not breaking my o...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . This post contains spoilers of the play's plot. I was expecting to say that this series of posts was drawing to a close but I fell down an internet rabbit hole and as a result have another ten possible orphaned episodes on my hard drive! Like most featured here, they are episodes from a series of plays, as is today's. I don't think for an instant the episodes I'm finding are at all representative of contemporary television. I suspect the orphans which have found their way online are disproportionately middle class.  BBC2 Playhouse  ran for a whole decade from 1973 to 1983 and while I have failed to find out how much of it is wiped, some is certain to be. Conversely, while it meets my definition of orphaned episodes because the whole thing isn't available, I think some of its episodes have had commercial releases. This may not even be the first episode of this series I've included here, because  The M...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . Another TV series which manages to get the word theatre into the title and is an anthology series of plays. Last week  Mitchell Hadley  made some kind remarks (thank you!) concerning the thoughts I had that TV hasn't come up with many new things which weren't derived from other media, such as theatre. Since then I have thought of another thing initiated by TV, the infomercial, but events have moved my thoughts on to how television doesn't just reflect society but apparently predicts what is happening. There are probably people who think The X-Files predicted the future, but then the only reason 1984 has come to pass is governments are using it as a manual. Unusually for me I will base this post around an orphaned episode but mention a couple of other shows as well.  The classic example of a British TV show which anecdotally had an uncanny talent for prophecy, was of course  Doomwatch , and the linked ...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . Writing these posts keeps reminding me that television was treated very much as if it was a new medium, even as late as the 1970s. What I mean is this: the majority of show formats were inspired by previous formats, for example cinema (films), radio (chat shows and serials) and theatre (plays). When I think of formats new to TV I'm ashamed to say that all I can think of is TV shopping, and reality TV. Strange it should have become so dominant when it's so derivative, and I would argue that services like Netflix are more like watching YouTube videos so derive from an internet-initiated medium. That said, happy to be outdated and derivative, we have yet another of the 1970s anthology series of plays.  ITV Playhouse  actually overlapped into the sixties and into the eighties and is literally legendary. If you're reading this you have definitely seen something in the series. Some are even available in DVD box sets ...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . Spoiler alert : this post will give away quite a lot about this play so if you want to watch it cold, don't read this first! I am breaking my own rule for what can be included in this series of posts because the remaining episodes of this show are available in an all dancing and singing release from the BFI, but this is kind of orphaned because most of it has been wiped and it is simply too good a show to pass up. Besides, orphans can still need nurture even if they've been remastered by the BFI. Dead of Night was a BBC series of seven plays with supernatural themes broadcast in 1972. Four episodes are believed missing. A Woman Sobbing was the final episode in the original run. There is quite a lot about this show online so I'm just going to deal with the themes and impressions as they hit me. I can't overstate what expert storytelling this is, by  John Bowen  who had a varied output, including Robin Redbreas...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . Centre Play was a BBC anthology series of plays broadcast from 1973 to 1977. I am struck by how many anthology series of plays there were in the sixties and seventies, and it must have meant that TV had a very theatre-influenced feel at the time. I have no idea of the archive status of this show, although I would think it is unlikely to be complete, and in fact only discovered it by chance this week. There is also very little about it online. The fact I found it was purely by chance because I was attracted by this play's title and it wasn't immediately apparent it was from a series. To be absolutely frank I have found this play quite difficult to get my head round - God only knows that people must have been faster on the uptake to take this in on one viewing. I was going to summarize the plot but I'm going to take an impressionistic approach because the play tends to cut from one thing to another quite frequently...

The introduction to this series of posts can be found  here . Second City Firsts (1973 to 1978) was a show produced by the BBC which featured a lot of writers' first time TV productions and was made at Pebble Mill right here in the Second City. 28 of the 53 plays survive and there are several on the internet. Unusually for these shows this one has attracted quite a lot of comments online and I would point to  here  for an excellent overview of the series. Early to Bed is dead gritty and set in a mining community much further north than here. It has an interesting use of visuals to contrast the traditional (the mine) with the then modern, in the shape of many of the decorations and furnishings we see in the terraced houses including, symbolically an electric fire. I am having some difficulty placing the affair which is the actual subject of this play in the contrast I have set up, because the young man seeing the neighbour is of course also part of the community. Perhaps t...