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John Shrapnel as Vincent Craig in Episode Six of Armchair Thriller: The Victim (1980) - Set One

#john shrapnel #vincent craig #armchair thriller #the victim #rodney marsh #alan downer #run vincent run

New Scotland Yard: A Gathering of Dust (2.3, LWT, 1972)

"Judging from the wound, the gun was fired from very close range; almost point-blank, I should think. Indicates the possibility of suicide."

"That's right, governor: he blows his brains out, crawls in here, walls himself up, throws the gun away, and dies laughing. That's cos he's got a sense of humour, he knows that a quarter of a bloody century later two stupid coppers are gonna go out of their mind wondering how the hell he did it!"

#new scotland yard #a gathering of dust #1972 #classic tv #don houghton #bryan izzard #john woodvine #john carlisle #roger livesey #tony steedman #liz ashley #geoffrey toone #alan downer #russell napier #kenneth gilbert #bernard gallagher #barrie houghton #derek martin #david billa #I'm writing the tags for these eps put of order so this will make more sense a few eps down the line‚ but i do think this second series is #trying a lot harder to do new and different things each week; this one starts with the discovery of a skeleton‚ a man killed around 1946‚#in the basements of a factory being torn down. whilst investigating‚ the roof collapses and traps Kingdom and Ward with the skeleton; fully #a solid half of this episode is spent in this cramped space‚ as the two attempt to deduct what they can about the crime with just their wit #and no (then) modern forensic tech. Ward is also claustrophobic‚ so the exercise is as much about reducing his panic as solving the case #it's a neat twist on the usual format and i was almost disappointed when they were rescued. once out‚ the focus becomes identifying the #corpse and then understanding the crime. cue many old soldier types‚ including old fave Steedman (actually in his early 40s but always #looking older than he was) and legitimate film star Livesey; this was one of just a handful of tv appearances the actor made in his old age #as film roles became less forthcoming. it all ends quite neatly and not exactly unexpectedly‚ but it's a pretty fun outing all told #derek martin pops up as a worker on the construction site; he'd not long made the switch from stunt man to full time actor‚ having broken #his collar bone working on Elizabeth R in 1971

Out of the Unknown: Welcome Home (4.6, BBC, 1971)

"Frank, listen to me. I think your homecoming, the excitement, has been too much."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's disorientated you. I should never have let you leave the hospital."

"You think I'm imagining it all?"

"I think you're having hallucinations, Frank."

#Out of the Unknown #welcome home #Single play #Moris Farhi #BBC #1971 #Eric Hills #Anthony Ainley #Jennifer Hilary #Bernard Brown #Gerald Sim #Derek Benfield #David Morrell #Margaret Anderson #Alan Downer #Pamela Craig #David Munro #The overwhelming impact of s4 of OotU (compared to the previous three series) is not‚ as one might expect‚ the change from #Pure science fiction to more supernatural led stories; rather the main difference is that nearly every episode in s4 is an absolute #Brain wreck. Plots that twist and turn and confound‚ left turns that leave you floored‚ endings that knock your feet out from under you.#Well this is no different. A real doozy: Ainley is Frank Bowers‚ a man recently recovered from a car accident. All patched up he discharges #Himself and travels home to see his wife in the countryside; only to find her living happily with a man who claims to be Frank Bowers. What #Follows is a tense cat and mouse about which man is the real Frank‚ and who is the imposter (and more importantly‚ why). Ainley is #Wonderful as a man fighting for his identity‚ while Bernard Brown lends solid support as his icily calm opponent #And Jennifer Hilary is compellingly difficult to read as the wife whose sympathies are inscrutable. The cast is rounded out with old #Favourites Sim and Benfield‚ and the stage is set for an ending which... Well. It's a lot. I'll say that much.#Viewer be warned: this isn't a feelgood adventure story...

Out of the Unknown: The Little Black Bag (3.8, BBC, 1969)

"There's a patient waiting for you."

"Cosmetic?"

"What else?"

"No, not now."

"Why?"

"Because it's an abuse."

"Listen, she's loaded!"

"We have a chance to show what we can really do."

"She's ready to part with good money to lose the bags under her eyes."

"No, I can't."

"It won't take you five minutes!"

"But don't you understand, there are people who are really suffering?"

"What makes you think she isn't? I tell you, I'd be suffering if I looked like her."

#Out of the Unknown #The little black bag #Cyril M. Kornbluth #Single play #1969 #BBC #Julian Bond #Eric Hills #Missing TV #Emrys Jones #Geraldine Moffat #Elizabeth Weaver #John Woodnutt #Ian Frost #Alan Downer #John Dunbar #Katherine Kessey #Dennis Bowen #Honora Burke #James Chase #Alas alas another casualty of the BBC junking programme; this episode is rather unique in that a big chunk of it survives #About 30 minutes to be exact. The first act is lost and frustratingly so are the final 2 minutes; unlike the other reconstructions #On this set however there doesn't seem to be a surviving audio track for the whole episode. What that means is we're dropped into things at #18 minutes in without any explanation or set up (the final 2 minutes do have a little audio surviving and so have been cobbled into being #With some trick reuse of footage and clever cuts). Fortunately this is still easy enough to follow; a drunken and disgraced doctor has #Found a futuristic Dr's bag that will cure most any ailment. The first act mostly dealt with his finding and understanding the bag so we're #Not missing too much vital info. Still it can't help but impact the experience of watching and this is a frustrating view. The story is a #Classic of 50s Sci fi and one i fondly recall from my misspent youth (misspent reading old Sci fi anthologies) so to only partly enjoy this #Adaptation is a great shame. Still what there is of it seems like a decent enough episode with some nifty prop design on the bag and the #Futuristic world from whence it came. Here's to the rest of it falling out of someone's attic one day

Special Branch: Inquisition (3.3, Thames, 1973)

"Look, I want to help, but... I'm not going to incriminate myself."

"Just questions. You've served your time."

"That's right!"

"Then what are you worried about?"

"I'm more confused - well, you know what I mean, I'm a free man, I've got certain rights. I'm trying to cooperate!"

"And we appreciate it."

#special branch #Special branch rewatch #Inquisition #1973 #classic tv #George sewell #Roger Rowland #Clifford Rose #Sheila Scott Wilkinson #Alan downer #Keith Anderson #Clement mccallin #Ruby head #Mike vardy #Trevor Preston #Leave it to the late great Preston to provide the first real knockout script for this reimagined series #I called the last ep a bottle episode but its even truer of this one. The bulk of the episode is a lengthy middle section which is simply #Sewell interrogating Rose as Rowlands sits in. And it's fantastic. Preston was all about nuance and shades of grey so he doesn't #Shy away from taking risks with the viewers loyalties: Craven is established early on as being under pressure and a brief scene outside the #Office with Wilkinson only adds to his stress so that when Rose presents himself as simply a confused innocent caught up in something #Beyond his understanding we are uncertain whether to believe him. If this was The Sweeney or The Professionals we'd be fairly confident it #Was all a trick and our hero would wrangle the truth out of Rose but here the script is pitched just right (as are the performances: Rose #Is absolutely exceptional) to keep us uneasy and uncertain of what's true and what's guesswork and whether Craven is rightly following a #Hunch or persecuting an innocent man. The ending is initially shocking (in that it simply ends without anything resolved at all) and #Incredibly frustrating initially. But the more I think about it the more it was absolutely the right way to end the episode: really it #Doesn't matter if Rose was innocent or not it doesn't matter if Craven was going to get to the truth. What matters is the process and how #Far Craven would go to break Rose (regardless of whether he was right or wrong to do it). I guess what I mean is even if he was shown to be #A true villain at the end (altho I think Preston was absolutely right to keep it open) you're really asking where the line is drawn #What constitutes acceptable practice in interrogation and investigation. A dark and upsetting insight into what I fully believe would have #Been standard procedure (and probably remains so) includes all sorts of small psychological power plays designed to unbalance and upset

A sei anni decisi di diventare scrittore, e cominciai con delle poesie. Pensavo che scrivere fosse molto più semplice che lavorare -ora so che è il contrario.

Edward Albee in un'intervista

#edward albee #intervista a Edward albee #Alan downer #figlio d'arte #teatro #chi ha paura di virginia woolf #scrivere #illusioni giovanili #lavorare

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