is there a name or a phrase for or anything much written about that distinctly British CREEPY VIBE prevalent in TV shows and movies of the '60s/'70s? (e.g. The Prisoner, Sapphire and Steel, Baker-era

Just spotted the Box of Delights chat upthread. My 4 year-old watched it at Christmas. Not sure if that was a good call or not but he seemed to enjoy it.

Am currently enjoying this highly entertaining romp through 'the flip side of British film and television', including many obscurities and oddities that are relevant to our interests here:

http://strangeattractor.co.uk/news/the-bodies-beneath/

Got that on my wishlist but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

The chapters on TV and PIFs in this are gold:

http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/stephen-brotherstone-dave-lawrence/scarred-for-life-volume-one/paperback/product-23116461.html

Those of you in the UK may be interested to know that Sapphire and Steel is being broadcast on Forces TV (Freeview 96) tonight at 11

Good spot. 2 episodes, nightly.

(I should watch the DVDs again)

Hold on, I don't get channel 96, wtf?

the distinctly british CREEPY VIBE of realising you don’t get channel 96

Might need a retune but I've got a friend with an old Freeview box who doesn't get all the high numbers.

Don't think I've watched them since first broadcast, not quite as creepy as they were when I was a kid but bless them, they try. And for all its daftness it at least zips along.

I think different regions get different channels, Scotland does anyway.

Yeah that was my other thought, there's a regional slot at number 7 but I doubt it's the only one

(Only noticed this was on cos I watch PBS a fair bit)

Forces TV is odd but sometimes useful. They showed the entirety of Space 1999 recently and most of UFO alongside Goodnight Sweetheart and Get Some In. Now it's all Bless This House and the Dukes Of Hazard with Weapons Of War.

I always felt like I'd missed out by not having seen S&S as a kid. Saw it later in life and still thought it was brilliant, for all its flaws.

If your Freeview doesn't go that high and you need to see it, they're all up on youtube iirc

Is it called Forces TV to support are troops

kinda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Forces_Broadcasting_Service

S&S is also available on Amazon Prime

TPTV has been repeating Quatermass, the tv series, which is probably thread adjacent. featuring Toyah, pre singing career(?) (actually, i think it finished last night)

my DVDs of sapphire and steel have been spoiled by sunlight getting into the transparent cases and one episode of assignment 1 and one of assignment 6 won't play. so i'm hoping to fill the gap with the Forces TV broadcasts. currently halfway through Assignment 2.

Toyah, pre singing career(?) (actually, i think it finished last night)

Largely finished by 1986 IIRC.

Quatermass
Original release 24 October – 14 November 1979

but i now realise that was a joke 8)

she's been in news lately iirc. did a lockdown thing with mr fripp?

Assignment 3 of Sapphire and Steel (which started last night) is the one i remember making my mum watch (it was on at 7pm on itv, a summer replacement for Emmerdale). she wasn't impressed. it seems like a change of direction - is more sci-fi than the previous two.

Forces TV needed re-tuning today. Hopefully it's done and tonight's episodes will record.

Assignment 4, man with no face, ok
Assignment 5, tea party in the 1930s not so great

Assignment 6 starts tonight and I remember it as creepy more than anything. 3 still my favourite

This seems to be the closest thing we have to a folk horror thread, so I just wanted to mention that I watched most of the Punchdrunk 12-hour livestreamed episode of The Third Day w/Jude Law yesterday. Incredible stuff, can still be watched on the Sky TV facebook page I think.

I wondered what the story was on that when I passed by it and saw that it did seem to be 12 hours long.
I was on the way to something else as I stepped through the channels.
Hadn't realised the tv show itself was on a channel I got

Stumbled across it and looked up what was going on

Enjoyed what I had on, cos I love slow TV, don't think I'm bothered about catching up with another Wicker Man retread tbh

Don't want to spoil it for you or anyone else who might be thinking of dipping their toes in, but I will say that the basic premise is v different from The Wicker Man.

yeah that wasn't fully serious tbh but i'm guessing the filmed eps are not quite as strange a proposition as yesterday's programme?

I haven't seen those yet tbh, I'm playing catch-up as usual!

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/oct/05/jude-law-live-for-12-hours-the-third-day-autumn-pushed-boundaries-but-was-it-good

what a stupid question

Listened to half of the BBC radio adaptation of Children of the Stones, I think they've done it really well. The whole 'investigative journalist podcast within a podcast' thing is definitely overplayed but so far not hampering my enjoyment. You can find it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08sy3qx

ooooh ty

Made in 2018, repeated today so up for replay for 28 days: a radio adaptation of a twice-lost* 1963 Nigel Kneale TV play, The Road. While the programme itself was wiped, the original 1963 sound effects tape was unearthed by Radiophonic Workshop flame-keeper Mark Ayres, and used in this production.

* it was remade in Australia a year later, and also not archived.

I watched 4 of the non-12-hour-episodes of The Third Day and thought it was okay. The first couple felt oddly like a indie video game - following your Jude Law avatar around as he finds a clue inside a box, overhears a conversation, etc etc. Not much thrill power & didn't hit my pleasure centres at the spots it seemed to be aiming for - folklore/ritual uncanny & lingering images.

I don't have any great enthusiasm for finishing watching it but I probably will. tbh the 12-hour thing sounds more interesting.

Also finally watched the Mackenzie Crook Wurzel Gummidge & thought of this thread. I liked it better than almost anything roughly in the zone for a while, I think because it feels like it enjoys the countryside & enjoys telling a story more than it likes the creepy vibe, ie too many of these things reach for the vibe first and don't take a bit of time hanging out, enjoying the landscape (like they are more interested in the Wicker Man than the world). Refreshing to see the creepiness embedded in pleasure-in-nature (& it helps that it's actual kids/family TV, & so has to be relatively straightforward).

The long performance was wonderful just for existing

curiously, Sapphire and Steel is being shown on two different freeview channels at the moment. ForcesTV has been showing it daily with a 6-episode omnibus on saturdays and LondonLive has been showing it in it's 19:00 slot, which is around the time i remember it being on originally, the summer replacement for emmerdale.

i've also just finished reading The Owl Service, the tv series of which would fit here, but i have no memory of it.

I rewatched the owl service within the last year, and still can't remember anything...

there is some discussion upthread.

The Owl Service is brilliant. It does get pretty dark and sexual for a children's TV programme though - I went in expecting more of a Children of the Stones "v spooky but family friendly" vibe and remember being really surprised by it.

the titles are amazing though, aren't they?

I don't get ForcesTV on Freeview?

You should from the December retune I think. It's way up in the 90s channels - 96?

96, yes. i think about half my devices get it, half don't. helps if the weather's good when you retune 8)

it's on Multiplex com7 - ARQC - Arqiva C which says
"Broadcasting to 20.6m UK homes from 30 masts (77%)"
same mux as bbc4hd and bbcnewshd

https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/multiplexes

I don't get ForcesTV in Glasgow. Or London Live, obv

The last time I read The Owl Service, the use of the word 'n*g-n*g' (as a childish insult) screamed out at me - I wonder if it's been removed for more recent editions. It's pretty much the only blemish in the bk, and the TV series is a dece attempt at it.

wasn't in my version (50th anniversary, pullman intro)

i love the Owl Service but I don't think I've seen the show.

if anyone's interested in this stuff and you're on Facebook, join the Folk Horror Revival group

Retuned. Still no Forces TV.

your tv knows you didn't clap for major tom

Who says I didn't?

not our words, the words of Forces TV

I assumed Forces TV was endless repeats of Soldier Soldier and Get Some In!, but it's hard to discern a military theme (or any entertainment value) in Sapphire & Steel.