Freeview Boxes : Classic or Dud?

(Jack Warner is Dixon, not Jack Hawkins)

Following the tip earlier I managed to catch most of HOME AT SEVEN (1952). Very much like a play in a provincial theatre - a few sets: the house, the doctor's surgery, the police station, the pub for a rare flashback; and a few main characters. Must have been cheap to make. I see the TWILIGHT ZONE link, at least at the start when he learns of the memory loss, but that aspect is rather overtaken by the police murder investigation.

I watched this too, I'm afraid it was far too In Every Old British Movie Ever for me.

"Lower Middleswallop, you say? Well you'll be wanting the 3.30 from platform 3 but better hurries along now, young sir, it'll be leaving in *pulls out fob watch* five minutes *winks*."
― Bees Against Racism (Tom D.), Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Excellent.

but that aspect is rather overtaken by the police murder investigation

Yes, and the eventual resolution is very weak, but I like to think that the way it's turned the main character's life upside down will have repercussions for years to come.

Very much like a play in a provincial theatre

You're probably right about budgetary concerns but also films directed by actors are likely to go easy on the Film As A Visual Medium stuff to give the acting more of a spotlight.

I liked the film, more than Tom D did. I actually liked the way that the solution lay in the City pub that he had mentioned to the doctor early on but that might since have been forgotten. And it involved an element of WWII / PTSD that gave the memory lapse theme more historical weight.

20 minute thing on TP earlier about a 3 week, 24 hour-a-day, endurance test on a 120 mile loop of belgian cobbled roads in a Hillman Minx by female drivers. 41mph average on public roads.

the football's done a number on the tv schedules...

Talking Pictures are showing Laurel and Hardy shorts on saturday afternoons, which is something i've always meant to investigate. 3 today:

Stan convinces Ollie that they should become fishermen, but making a boat seaworthy is not an easy task.

Unaware that the Great War has ended, Stan remains at his post for 20 years.

The boys are contracted to build a house in a day but run into trouble with the nearby hospital staff, due to their excessive noise.

bits i've caught in previous weeks had them playing their own estranged relatives, their own wives etc

(this is another thing to file under 'tv i hated on saturday mornings as a kid'. was more of a harold lloyd fan)

All classic.

i don't recognise the titles ('Towed in a Hole', 'Block Heads', 'The Finishing Touch') but the descriptions are familiar, especially the boat.

Yes, this all sounds excellent.

Unusually good films on TV this week. Or at least, several I've not seen.

SATURDAY

IRON MAN 3: BBC1 - I will watch
FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY: C4

SUNDAY

ROBIN HOOD: Great Movies (formerly Sony Movies) - this is worth watching
IF .... : Great Movies classic - I would watch this again it not for clash with other things

MONDAY

IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD: BBC2
THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN: Film4
(not to mention MY DARLING CLEMENTINE on Paramount)

TUE-THU: St Trinian's films on BBC2 afternoons

TUESDAY

THE SHALLOWS: E4

WEDNESDAY

PERSONAL SHOPPER: BBC2, probably worth catching on iPlayer
GRAN TORINO: ITV4
CROUCHING TIZER, HIDDEN VIMTO, as P.J. Miller used to call it: Great Movies

THURSDAY

THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD on Talking Pictures, though I don't need to see this again yet

FRIDAY

THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT: BBC2
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER: BBC1
MEAN GIRLS: ITV2
FLAMING STAR (Elvis Presley) on Paramount but again I saw this not long ago.

A lot!

I'll try to watch:

IRON MAN 3
THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN
St Trinian's films
THE SHALLOWS
PERSONAL SHOPPER
CROUCHING TIZER, HIDDEN VIMTO
THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT
MEAN GIRLS

always interesting to see the pinefox's taste in fillums.

film4 on thursday has a documentary on the Alien films that i don't think i've seen before.

Hallam Foe on f4 tuesday. have i seen that? was it any good? i associate it, vaguely, possibly incorrectly, with belle and sebastian.

(i am wrong, actual soundtrack looks more interesting - Pram, Orange Juice, Hood, Ganger, Four Tet, King Creosote, Quickspace, The Pastels, Clinic Future Pilot AKA, Movietone, Psapp)

BBC4 also showing Meades' Bunkers and Brutalism thing over the course of the week as well. it's probably all on iplayer anyway. (oh, it's not, but will be after tuesday when it airs)

THE LADY VANISHES is on BBC2 today!

IRON MAN 3 was quite good btw.

Interested in HALLAM FOE

, Koogs, but unfortunately I don't like that Jamie Bell actor.

films you never knew existed (until Talking Pictures):

The Bliss Of Miss Blossom

Robert Blossom is a brassiere manufacturer and workaholic. When his wife Harriet's sewing machine breaks, he sends his bumbling employee Ambrose Tuttle to repair it. Mrs. Blossom seduces Ambrose, then hides him in the attic

(richard attenborough, shirley maclaine, also monkhouse, rushton, routledge, co-written by denis norden)

it's very swinging sixties...

(forgot to tape Hallam Foe)

just finished on TPTV, The Way We Live, "A look at Plymouth's hopes and fears just after the end of World War 2" including a cameo by young labour candidate Michael Foot... (wikipedia confirms)

London Live last night, Inseminoid, which i think i saw on video at the time but not since. oddly, for something i think of as almost video nasty it features stephanie beacham (tenko, colbys) and judy geeson (to sir with love). so far, so Alien, with a much lower budget.

i shd've mentioned Forces TV has been showing Blake's 7 for the last couple of weeks

ooh, i've just set a recording. missed the first 5 unfortunately. i'm sure they'll repeat them interminably, the way they are doing with UFO (immediately after)

in Inseminoid news, she's just tried to cut her own leg off with a hedge trimmer.

i've watched bits of a couple of episodes of B7 since they've shown it but i don't record stuff so i haven't bothered keeping it up, and tbh it's not as good as i thought it was in 1980-whenever

if it's anything like sapphire and steel it's as slow as all hell.

The first series of B7 is easily the best. The fourth might be the most fun, but that's because it's played as high camp. There are more than a few terrible episodes.

Still the most shocking thing is that in episode 1 Blake gets discredited by the Federation through a fake story he's a paedophile.

A tune for ILX poster Koogs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCAJyVEU8MY

been watching Bergerac. banging theme tune. lots of (presumably) pre fame appearances amongst the guest actors, so far Greta Scacci, Phil Davis, Joanne Whalley pre Kilmer. forgotten how Jim's ex father in-law Charlie Hungerford is p much somehow involved in every case that comes up.

(blake's seven was rather good, i thought. not reliant on explosions or running around or unbelievable future tech (yes, future guns and teleporting but not much else) and instead you got previous beef and people using the enemies earlier tactics against them. and that eyepatch used to really creep me out)

been watching Bergerac. banging theme tune

Written by avant skronk (among other things) guitar hero, Ray Russell.

I thought it was BBC stalwart George Fenton - found an episode with the credits which says Bergerac theme by George Fenton, musical associate Ray Russell.

Maybe Russell was the Derbyshire to Fenton's Grainer.

Yep, Russell did the incidental music for individual episodes of Bergerac, not the main theme. I've yet to detect 'Stained Angel Morning' burbling in the background of any Bergerac shows, mind.

Talking Pictures, 12.10pm, "British Rock" (aka "Punk and Its Aftershocks") documentary, 1980. Mostly about mod and ska apparently.

... that's on today.

they've been showing a northern soul documentary recently, i caught the same 10 minutes of it twice

It's, like, NOW

Spizz Energi! Unfortunately there's been an overabundance of Bob Geldof so far though. I'd forgotten that he was always unbearable.

he was always available

is this the same german crew that did the punk documentary?

ha, yes, Punk In London

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368936/?

Talking Pictures has "The Quatermass Xperiment" on in about 15 minutes, followed by Curtis Harrington/Dennis Hooper cult movie, "Night Tide".

Night Tide is worth seeing for the Majorie Cameron cameo alone

That "British Rock" was worth it for the two Pretenders songs from the practice room. Also, Spizz. And various other bits that aren't cut short.

Also, I wondered about the Kinks inclusion, but he was throwing himself around like he was JimmyPursey!

A low point was the interminable dub/improv middle section Sting and the lads insisted on inserting into "The Bed's Too Big".

I mean, they were entitled to do it but why film it and show it in its entirety, inflicting it on a new audience beyond the unfortuntates who were at the gig in the first place. "Night Tide" was great.

As I mentioned on another thread, London Live seems to have bought a job lot of Jean Rollin films, which they're slipping out late at night.

Talking Pictures has "The Quatermass Xperiment" on in about 15 minutes, followed by Curtis Harrington/Dennis Hooper cult movie, "Night Tide".

This is part of the new Cellar Club feature on Friday nights, Caroline Munro introduces three films. Lots of cool Hammer and 50's American sci-fi coming up in that spot, as well as some 80's shlock.

Barbara Rubin documentary on Sky Arts at 9pm tonight

Thanks watching it now

caught Kiss of Death on talking pictures last week. richard widmark was quite smthg in it, almost a prototype for joe pesci in goodfellas with added psychotic giggle.

Dirk Bogarde camping it up mercilessly as the most unconvincing Mexican bandit in cinematic history in "The Singer Not the Song", Talking Pictures, today 12.10pm (yes, I am off work at the moment).