PhD @UniofExeter I publish and tweet about classic American and British TV series, including 1960s Cold War espionage. Just one more thing...I love Columbo.
Stowmarket, England
Joined April 2011
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Patrick McGoohan: “My feeling is that we are going too fast - we don't have time to assimilate as much as we should. Every year, one has to learn quicker and quicker, because there is so much information pouring out in every direction...I wish we could go a bit slower...”
Private eye McGill's clients tend to be slippery customers and Justine Lord is no exception in the artworld based episode Property of a Gentleman (Man in a Suitcase) suitably artfully directed by Peter Duffell.
#McGillMonday
Regan: “Every copper on every beat has to pay for what you are, has to live you down!”
Fifty years ago this month my father's episode Bad Apple was first broadcast, exploring corruption within the police force. Nicely directed by Douglas Campbell. #SweeneySunday
Jaz Wiseman: "The perfect match of Edwin Astley's driving theme with colourful graphics make the Department S opening titles amongst the most memorable from 1960s British television." Jaz explores the design & visual style of ITC in his wonderful book ITC Entertained the World.
A publicity shoot at Elstree for Rosemary Nicols who was playing computer expert Annabelle Hurst in Department S. These two images remind me that the series crossed over between ITV broadcasting in b/w and colour in 1969. This was a show which definitely needed the latter.
Peter Bowles, a regular guest in Avengerland and ITC action-adventure series in the 1960s. Probably the Number 1 rent-a-baddy, often playing urbane foreign agents. Confident, charming, cultured, stylish...and utterly villainous.
Peter Wyngarde taking a break while filming a Department S episode in which Jason King went undercover. Wyngarde/King would fly solo in a later series, but arguably it worked better when Jason had two co-leads to water him down.
Wonderful performance from Roberts Blossom as artist Chester "Doc" Dalton in Escape from Alcatraz. Once the Warden has taken away his painting privileges his life is, in effect, over. The moment when he cuts off his own fingers in the prison workshop is shockingly heart-breaking.
I wonder if Patrick McGoohan kept Doc's portrait after filming Escape from Alcatraz. McGoohan's character genuinely was sadistic evil personified, captured perfectly on canvas. From the Prisoner to the Warden...
Roberts Blossom, American poet and actor, at home in Berkeley where reading was his main passion. One of my favourite character actors, able to bring eccentricity and depth to so many roles, from Chester ‘Doc’ Dalton in Escape from Alcatraz to ‘Old Man Marley’ in Home Alone.
Hard to define Anthony Newley's six-part television meta series which began its initial broadcast on this day back in 1960. It tested TV genres and viewers' expectations. Much loved by many artists who went on to experiment themselves, including David Bowie and Patrick McGoohan.
50 years ago today The New Avengers was first broadcast. The cars loaned by British Leyland were constantly breaking down - a sign of the times in the British car industry - but Lumley's Honda bikes were ultra-reliable and they even produced a special edition Purdey trial bike.
Robert Banks Stewart: “BBC wanted to make a new, all-film thriller series. They'd got a bit bored with cops and there was the violence thing. To my delight I was given carte blanche to come up with a new idea. I came up with probably the oldest idea in the book: private eye. 1/
Andrew Pixley's terrific book - which came with the Network DVD set - examines the fascinating pre-production and production history of one of my favourite private detective series.
