#iwtv#interview with the vampire#amc tvl#sam reid#jacob anderson
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
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seen from Singapore
seen from Bulgaria
seen from United States
seen from Macao SAR China
seen from Australia
seen from United States
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seen from Philippines
seen from Malaysia
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
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seen from China
wollamshram
1950 White Circle paperback
cover art by Murray Smith
Seattle Mystery Bookshop
The XYY Man (Granada, 1976 - 1977)
Based on the novels by Kenneth Royce, concerning the adventures of William ‘Spider’ Scott - reformed cat-burglar, fine art expert and all round sulkster. Granada commissioned an adaptation of the first novel, The XYY Man, in three episodes broadcast in 1976. The show was popular with the public and a further series of ten episodes followed the next year, adapting Royce’s sequels Concrete Boot and The Miniatures Frame.
Stephen Yardley is well cast as Scott, bringing just the right amount of sullen humour and weary stubborness. He’s not a hero, actually he’s a bit of a bastard, but life keeps throwing him lemons and all he can do is steal those lemons and try to make some money. The supporting cast is excellent - full of eccentrics, from Mark Dignam as a dog loving spook to Leslie Schofield as an outrageously camp ex-con turned legit photographer. Special mention goes to Brian Croucher, playing what has to be the most genial and reasonable of gangland overlords.
Where XYY differs from its contemporaries is in the tightrope it walks between moods. At one minute its a fairly silly adventure story about a career criminal being manipulated into working for the government, with added jokes and deadpan looks. The next, its a jet black thriller with some truly horrific moments - Spider’s discovery of an underwater graveyard, filled with the corpses of ex-cons (some of them former colleagues) and all at different stages of decomposition, is genuinely quite shocking and eerily well realised.
All the stops are pulled out for the final few episodes, as the show attempts a grander scale - the hunt for a deadly terrorist with international figures looking on, double agents, betrayals, explosions and Star Wars era Garrick Hagon sporting his Biggs moustasche. Norman Jones gives what may be a career-best performance as Dero - the ‘Detrimental Robot’ (coined from the writings of Richard Sharpe Shaver, a typically obscure Royce reference), an amoral, unfeeling monster elevated to a position of power because of his own particular talent for devious planning and calculated violence. There is a fairly thick seam of anti-authoritarianism throughout the series, but nowhere is Royce (and the scriptwriters) more critical, more indignant than in the finale.
Although a modest success, XYY isn’t especially remembered today and might have slipped entirely into obscurity if it hadn’t been for one significant addition to popular culture - Detective Sergeant George Kitchener Bulman. As played by the wonderful Don Henderson, Bulman is that magical melding of the perfect actor in the perfect role. Playing down some of the cruder aspects of the novel character (Alf Bulman, a corrupt copper), Henderson still makes Bulman, in his first appearance, a bully and a man obsessed - with putting Scott back inside. It’s never presented as anything other than a character flaw, but he he’s still a good copper and a fairly decent man. He’s eccentric - he spouts philosophy and reads Marx - but he’s clever and capable of seeing the bigger picture. Throughout the series he and his ‘oppo’, DC Derek Willis (Dennis Blanch, who grows into the role until you can’t imagine anybody else playing the part) become both more sympathetic and more like comic relief. Murray Smith, one of the writers on the second series, clearly saw the possibilities for the character and Henderson and Blanch soon had their own show, Strangers (1978 - 1982). Here the Bulman character was fully hammered out, with his many quirks properly introduced (his penchant for string gloves, a hangover from XYY, but also his habit of carrying his possessions in a plastic carrier bag and frequent use of a nasal inhaler).
Henderson clearly loved playing Bulman, the character that had put him on the map, and returned for a further sequel, Bulman, which ran between 1985 and 1987. After the series ended, the actor acquired the rights to the character with thoughts of future shows. It never happened, and Henderson died in 1997 - the same year as Royce.
If you’re interested in something, you will do what is convenient. If you’re committed to something, you will do whatever it takes.
Murray Smith
If you're interested in something, you will do what is convenient. If you're committed to something, you will do whatever it takes. -Murray Smith
"Son of God, Immanuel: The Identity of Jesus" - Murray Smith
Talk 2 of 4 at Easter Time Convention (ETC) 2012.
"Son of God, Messiah: The Mission of Jesus" - Murray Smith
Talk 1 of 4 at Easter Time Convention (ETC) 2012.
"Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time" - Murray Smith
Introductory Talk at Easter Time Convention (ETC) 2012.
You can imagine the shark’s view, this fluorescent kite and little piece of meat just waiting to be nibbled on
Vollebak talks to Murray Smith
Yeah, talk us through the warm-up ride from Antigua to St Barts… Yeah, I finished ‘Last Man Standing,’ and then got really bored, so ended up out in the Caribbean where I started working on super-yachts and stuff, but that turned out to be really quite boring as well. I had a great time on this island called Antigua but then thought time to move on, so pretty much rigged my kit on a beach in the morning…
So no preparation? …well a little bit of preparation, I mean I didn’t have any money, once again. I managed to blag a few flares off a friend that were out of date, and I did actually go to the coastguard and say ‘I’m going to do this, is there any chance that you can wait for a phone call from me from the other end just to make sure I’ve come in?’ But they were like ‘Nah, we’re not going to come out and get you even if you do get in trouble.’ So then I went to customs, because you have to sign out of the country, and I explained my story and she just goes ‘We have no form for that mon.’ I couldn’t actually legally sign out of the country, but I just decided to do it anyway, because I just hate that whole legislation thing.
Basically I turned up on this beach 90 miles later through storms – like you get some really strong gales and fronts that come through – and then the wind will just disappear and stuff so it’s quite scary. But being in the middle of nowhere and on your own, and not seeing land for 5 hours is pretty sick. Plus there are sharks. When you’re sitting in the water having a little nibble on your chocolate bar you just feel like this human piece of bait. You can imagine the shark’s view, this fluorescent kite and little piece of meat just waiting to be nibbled on.
