Oct 24, 2019
Special Branch: The Children Of Delight (1.8, Thames, 1969)
"It seems that since this hoo-ha started, some of their members have been refused jobs; houses; their children have been refused entry into schools!"
"People still have the freedom of choice, thank God."
"Listen Moxon. I don't like what I've heard about The Children of Delight any more than you have, but I'll fight to the death to defend their right to exist - even if their beliefs happen to be repugnant to me. What kind of freedom do we want?"
#special branch#Special branch rewatch#Wensley pithey#derren nesbitt#jennifer wilson#Morris Perry#Sheila Fearn#Georgine Anderson#Howard goorney#John abineri#Wilfred downing#Anna Turner#Arnold ridley#Tony caunter#Louise hasler#Lynne white#Pamela Coveney#Heather emmanuel#Peter duguid#Adele Rose#Cults seem to have been one of the standard plots for a certain type of 60s tv: Strange Report did an episode on the subject as did Mr Rose#The Avengers and several others. This is one of the stronger scripts on the subject. Writer Adele Rose keeps its fairly nuanced and#Balanced. More important to our leads than the cult is the theme of freedom of expression and the idea of choice (our leads except Nesbitt#That is. He spends the episode typically grouchy and sidelined as he has been for the last few). As in another early episode (I think it#Was Smokescreen?) Moxon asks SB to recommend an action then at the end completely ignores them. I suppose it's true to life but it does#Rather make it feel like the entire episode has been a bit of a waste of time for them. Operation Troika is name checked for the first time#In a while to make sure we still remember what's going on there. Fearn is a nice one shot character but it's Goorney who proves the most#Interesting and it would have been nice to learn some more about him. Abineri rocks up in a confusingly underwritten role: he was one of#The bigger names in the guest cast but he's mostly in the background and only has a couple of lines. The initiation scene for the cult is#Really very good: very reminiscent of Pinter in its barrage of questions torture interrogation style
