Watched : 28 February 1974
Scene was aimed at teenagers and flitted between drama and documentary usually with quite a hard edge. It wasn't something we watched at primary school so in the normal run of things I would have missed this documentary episode, subtitled All That Glitters and focussing on my favourite band The Sweet ( in the charts with Teenage Rampage at the time ) . However this was broadcast on General Election Day and as our school was needed for a polling station we had the day off. Thanks Ted !
The 20 minute film captures the band at their peak, little more than 6 months before the fateful nightclub brawl which set Brian Connolly off on a downward spiral. They're seemingly united and talking about moving into the albums market, a goal they were not destined to achieve though there were still hit singles to come.
The narrator , one Sarah Ward , adopts a Valerie Singleton school marm tone , occasionally stating the very obvious - "and - they want you to keep buying their records in the future ! " ( No shit , Sherlock ? )
It's enthralling throughout and poignant to see Brian in his prime, healthy and able to speak coherently. Other highlights are an incendiary live version of Hellraiser which certainly answers the enduring question as to whether they were a serious rock band and Steve Priest asking a Top of the Pops make-up girl if she can find a little black moustache ( to round off his gay Nazi ensemble ).
Now did I ever watch Scene again ? Well www.broadcastforschools.co.uk has a full list of episodes and nothing else jumps out at me. The documentaries stopped altogether in 1992 . The last drama under the Scene banner was made in 2007. I'm not sure there was ever a formal announcement that it was being discontinued but I guess that's the case.
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