295 King of the Castle

First  watched :  22  May  1977

One  of  my  favourite  programmes  of  1977 was  this  ITV  Sunday  teatime  serial  which  I  started  watching  from  the  third  episode ,on  the  recommendation of  my  school  friend  Robert  Schofield.

 Our  acquaintance  had  been  interrupted  for  a  couple  of  years  by  my  changing  primary  schools  in  1974  but  we  had  more  or  less  picked  up  where  we  left  off   when  reunited  at  secondary  school  ( or  at  least  middle  school, remember  them ? ) in  the  autumn  of  1976.  Like me  he  enjoyed  buying  little  plastic  figures  and  constructing  fantasy  adventures  with  them. There  was  one  little  problem, the  nature  of  which  I'm  still  not  sure  I  fully  understand. My  mother  wouldn't  let  him  in  the  house.  He  was  a  well-groomed  lad  who  was  polite  to  adults  but  some  years  earlier  ( at  least  three quite   possibly  more )  he'd  visited  our   house  for  tea  and  my  mother  had  never  forgotten  that  Mrs  Schofield  hadn't  reciprocated. This  was  a  bit  strange  as  there  was  a  time  in  1974   when  it  seemed  we'd   almost  adopted  another  school  friend called  John  , he  was  round  for  tea  so  often. His  parents  certainly  didn't  return  the  favour  but  Mum  always  recalled  him  with  affection.

Although,  like  us,  they  lived  in  a  nice  terrace,  Mrs  Schofield  was always  well  turned  out, never  missed church  and  was  second-in-command  at  the  Townswomen's  Guild. She  had  a  gentil  air  about  her  and  perhaps  Mum  just  suspected  that  she  thought  we  were  below  the  salt. Or  maybe,  given  that  their  house  was  very  close  to  her  pre-marital  home  there  was  something  in  the  past  between  her  and Mrs  Schofield  that  she  never  disclosed.And  so  we  had  to  meet  up  at  my  gran's  to  play  which  provided   a  figleaf  of  convenience  as  she  lived  a  lot  closer  to  the  Schofields  than  us. I  remember  them  chatting  about  Duncan  Edwards  and  Munich, probably  the  first  time  I  heard  about  the  disaster.

Anyhow  he  was  right  on  the  money  about  King  of  the  Castle  which  is  probably  the  most  scary  and  inventive  serial  ever  made  for  kids'  TV . Roland  ( Philip  Da  Costa ) is  a  shy  teenager  who  unenthusiastically  attends  the  local  grammar  school  on  a  music  scholarship. This  attracts  the  ire  of  the  other  kids  in  his  tower  block  led  by  a  vicious  young  thug  Ripper  played  by  an  18  year  old  Jamie  Foreman  limbering  up  for  a  career  playing  nasties.  One  evening  they  chase  him  down  the  stairs  into  a  broken  elevator  which  then  plunges  into  the  basement  throwing  him  into  a  fantasy  castle  populated  by  alternative  versions  of  all  the  other  characters. Thus  for  example  his  eccentric  headmaster  ( played  in  wildly  over  the  top  fashion  by  Porridge's  Fulton  McKay ) becomes  a  Frankenstein  figure  who  has  designs  on  his  voice. Roland  has  to  figure  out  how  to  get  out  of  the  castle  aided  by  cryptic  advice  from  the  steward  Vine  ( Talfryn  Thomas )  who  was  the  caretaker  in  real  life.

By  happy  chance  the  two  episodes  available on  YouTube  are  the  two  I  originally  missed  and  confirm  that  the  series  was  as  good  as  I  remembered. Milton  Johns , who  I  previously  regarded  as  a  dependable  but  one  note  character  actor,  turns  in  an  astonishing  performance  as  the  creature  Ergon. Da  Costa  isn't  as  good  an  actor   as  his  contemporaries  Nicholas  Lyndhurst  or  Simon  Gipps-Kent  but  his  blankness  does  serve  as  a  good  foil  for  the  grotesqueness  of  the  other  characters.

There's  a  thorough  review  of  the  series   here  but  really  you're  best  off  getting  the  DVD  ( partially  reassembled  from  a  home  video  tape  )  and  watching  it  for  yourself.

294 Jesus of Nazareth

 First  watched : March  1977

Undoubtedly  the  major  TV  event  of  1977  was  this  big  budget  dramatisation  of  the  life  of  Christ  which  was  first  screened  around  Easter.

It  was  made  by   many  of  the  same  crew  that  worked  on  Moses  the  Law-giver  but   was  much  more  ambitious  in  its  casting , aided  by  the  presence  of  Franco  Zeffirelli  as  director. Despite  that , the  main  role  was  played  by  Brit  Robert  Powell  who  was  unknown  to  international  audiences . Some  other  parts  also  went  to  young  Brits  like  John  Duttine  ( Saint  John )  but  the  series  is  best  remembered  for  being  overloaded  with  slightly  past  their  prime  movie  stars  in  small  roles; notoriously  Claudia  Cardinale  had  only  one  word  to  say  as  the  Adultress. You  also  had  Laurence  Olivier  ( Nicodemus ), Rod  Steiger ( Pilate ) , Anthony  Quinn ( Caiaphas ) , James  Mason  ( Joseph  of  Arithmethea )  and  Ernest  Borgnine  ( Centurion )  among  many  others.  The  juiciest  female  parts  went  to  Olivia  Hussey  ( Mary )  and  Anne  Bancroft ( Mary  Magdalene ). 

Unlike  Mel  Gibson's  torture  porn  extravaganza  thirty  years  later , Jesus  of  Nazareth   set  out  to  be  ecumenical  and  avoid  giving  offence  and  largely  succeeded  with  only  some  fringe  sects  objecting  to  it. While  largely  faithful  to  the  Gospel  accounts  it  did  include  some  extra  contextual  material  such  as  an  attack  on  Herod  Antipas  ( Christopher  Plummer )by  the  Zealots  and  their  subsequent  execution. There  was  also  a  good  part  for  Ian  Holm  as  the  non-Biblical  Zerah, the  agent  of  the   priests  in  ensnaring  Judas  ( Ian  McShane ). He  actually  gets  the  last  line ,  superhumanly  anticipating  the  whole  progress  of  Christianity  after  the  merest  glimpse  of  Christ's  discarded  shroud.

As  a  Catholic  I  watched  it  as  much  out  of  duty  as  anticipating  entertainment. I  had  just  featured  in  the  Easter  play  at  school  in  a  non-speaking  role  as  one  of  the  Apostles. Because  I  was  so  familiar  with  the  storyline  it  was  probably  the   first  thing  I  watched  as  a  critic,  disliking  particularly  Quinn's  hammy  tearing  of  his  robes  and  the  non-Biblical  encounter  between  Christ  and  Barrabas.  I  also  recall  my  Mum  crying  at  the  Crucifixion  scene.

The  series  has  been  repeated  often  and  I  guess  for  many  people  Powell's  face  is  what  comes  to  mind   when  they  think  about  Jesus. It has  been  suggested  that  Powell's  never  really  got  over  the  experience ,  reverting  to   ultra-solemn  staring  at  the  first  opportunity  in  his  subsequent  work.

293 Miss England / Miss World

First  watched : 18  March  1977

I'm  pretty  sure  Miss  England  1977   was  the  first  time  I  watched  a  televised  beauty  contest.  It  was  won  by  Sarah  Louise  Long  ( pictured  above  )  who  was  blonde  and  very  tall. She  wasn't  my  choice  or  any  of  the  rest  of  the  family's  but  she  was  certainly  attractive.

I  watched  some  others  after  that  but  to  be  honest  found  them  a  bit  boring  and  was  never  a  regular  viewer.

Of  course  they're  off  the  air  now, victim  to  the  feminist  lobby  who  say  they  objectify  women. Well  perhaps  they  do  but  I've  never  raped  anyone  after  watching  one.

292 The Streets of San Francisco

First  watched  : Uncertain

I've  really  no  idea  where  or  when  I  first  caught  an  episode of  this  one.

The  image  of  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love  had  already  been  effectively  blown  away  by  Dirty  Harry; it  was  now  the  dark  and  dangerous  place  where  Scorpio  could  erase  you  without  warning.  This  series  furthered  its  reputation  as  a  hotbed  of  crime

Instead  of  Eastwood  though  you  had  the  older  more  conventional  Mike  Stone  played  by  big-nosed   character  actor  Karl  Malden, veteran  of  many  a  Brando  movie  teaching  the  ropes  to  his  impetuous  partner  Steve  Keller  played  by  the young  Michael  Douglas.

The  series  began  in  1972  and  was  popular  but  was  effectively  scuppered  by  the  success  of  One  Flew  Over  The  Cuckoo's  Nest  which  Douglas  produced.  He  promptly  quit  the  show  to  begin  his  film  career. He  was  replaced  by  Richard  Hatch  as  a  different  character  but  the  audience  dropped  away  and  the  show  was  cancelled  in   1977.

After  that  Malden  gradually  dropped  out  of  view  although  he  resurrected  the  role  in  a  TV  movie  in  1992  when  he  was  eighty. He  died  in  2009  aged  97. We  know  what  happened  to  Douglas.

To  say  that  the  series  ran  for  five  years  and  featured  a  top  ( if  fairly  unlikable  ) Hollywood  star  it's  little  celebrated  these  days  with  no  sign  of  a  film  adaptation  in  the  works.      

291 Charlie's Angels

First  watched :   1977

One  of  the  great  TV  phenomena  came  to  the  UK  at  the  start  of  1977.

The  series  which  had  three  glamorous  women  working  undercover  as  private  detectives  to  solve  tricky  cases   taken  on  by  unseen  boss  Charlie  ( voiced  by  a  pre-Dynasty  John  Forsythe )   was  a   hit  on  both  sides  of  the  globe. The  three  original  Angels,  Kate  Jackson, Farrah  Fawcett  Majors  and  Jaclyn  Smith  became  instant  superstars. Jackson  was  already  a  popular  actress  through  a  series  called  The  Rookies  which  I'm  not  sure  ever  came  over  here  so  she  had  the  most  clout. Fawcett  Majors  was  best  known  for  her  supporting  role  in  Logan's  Run   and  being  the  wife - for  the  time  being - of   Six  Million  Dollar  Man  Lee  Majors  while  Smith  was  a  complete  unknown.

As  well  as  being  classic  seventies  kitsch, the  series  was  riotously  un-pc  from  the  first  line  of  the  credit  sequence  describing  them  as  "three  little  girls"  to  the  loose  fitting  outfits  and  frequent  recourse  to  swim  and  night  wear in  the  stories  which  led  to  the  tag  of  "jiggle  TV". The  phrase  was  actually  coined  by  a  sour  rival  of  the  ABC  company  who  made  the  series  but  it  stuck. Fawcett  herself  endorsed this  view  with  the  comment "When  the  show  was  number  three  I  figured  it  was  our  acting . When  it  got  to  be  number  one,  I  decided  it  could  only  be  because  none  of  us  wears  a  bra". It  should  be  noted  that  Jackson,  though  no  frump, usually  stayed  pretty  covered  up  to  emphasise  her  role  as  the  brains  of  the  trio.

Though  they  had  equal  billing  Fawcett  got  the  most  attention  and  her  lion's  mane  style  has  become  a  seventies  icon. After  just  one  series  she  wanted  to  leave  and  try  for  movie  fame. After  a  protracted  legal  struggle  she  was  allowed  to  go,  on  condition  that  she  made  half  a  dozen  guest  appearances  in  future  series  which  were  spread  over  seasons  Three  and  Four . She  was  capably  replaced  by  Cheryl  Ladd  playing  her  sister. Audiences  accepted  her  and  the  series'  high  ratings  continued.

In  1978  Jackson  was  offered  the  role  of  the  mum  in  Kramer  vs  Kramer   but  ABC  would  not  accommodate  her. Meryl  Streep   got  the  role  and  won  an  Oscar. The  enraged  Jackson  quit  the  series  at  the  end  of  Season  Three  and  from  then  on  it  was  in  trouble . She  was  replaced  by  another  blonde , Shelley  Hack   but  the  ratings  declined  and  she  was  bumped  for  the  final  series   and  replaced  by  the  drop-dead  gorgeous  but  modestly-talented  Tanya  Roberts.

The  series  was  put  out  of  its  misery  in  1981. In  the  wake  of  two  successful  film  versions  in  the  noughties, the  second  of  which  gave  Smith  a  cameo  role ,  a  new  TV  series  without  any  of  the  original  cast  was  made  in  2011. It  was  a  complete  disaster  with  only  four  of  its  eight  episodes  aired  although  E4  broadcast  them  all  over  here.

The  various  Angels  had  broadly  similar  careers  after  the  show,  largely  remaining  in  TV  rather  than  the  big  screen.  Fawcett  was  the  only  one  who  remained  a  high  profile  celebrity  through  her  long  relationship  with  Ryan  O  Neal  which  lasted  to  her  death  in  2009. Jackson  had  another  successful  TV  series  with  Scarecrow  and  Mrs  King  before   her  career  was  afflicted  by  breast  cancer,  something  that  has  also  affected  Smith. Hack  stopped  acting  in  the  nineties  to  become  a  media  consultant  working  in  newly  democratised  countries  and  a  lobbyist  for  the  Pacific  Coast area. Roberts  landed  the  biggest  film  role  of  any  former  Angel  as  the  Bond  girl  in  A  View  To  A  Kill    but  her  performance  was  savaged  and   thereafter  her  films  were  usually  soft  porn  affairs. She  did  maintain  a  career  in  TV  until  the  mid-noughties.    

290 The New Avengers

First  watched  :  22   October  1976

Still  backtracking  to  1976  we  come  to  the  re-vamp  of  the  Avengers  franchise.  The  big  telly  event  of  the  week  when  it  was  first  broadcast , I  watched  this  with  no  knowledge  of  the  sixties  TV  series  and  loved  it.

Patrick  Macnee  returned  as  the  impossibly  suave  John  Steed   with  a  new  female  sidekick  in  short-haired,  high-kicking  Purdey  ( Joanna  Lumley  ) . In  addition  to  her  he  now  had  a  male  lieutenant  Gambit  ( Gareth  Hunt  , previously  best  known  as  footman-turned-gigolo  Frederick  in  Upstairs  Downstairs ) who  could  handle  the  fisticuffs  now  that  Macnee  was  in  his  mid-fifties.

The  series  was  relatively  big  budget  allowing  the  stories  to  delve  into  science  fiction. The  first  episode  was  well-chosen  with  Peter  Cushing  guest-starring  as  a  cryogenics  expert  kidnapped  by  some  mad  monks  who  turn  out  to  be  Nazis  looking  to  resuscitate  their  old  boss  ( ignoring  the  inconvenient  fact   that  Hitler's  body  was  incinerated  after  his  suicide ).  There  was  a  lot  of  humour  in  it  too  as  in  the  moment  when  the  monks  throw  off  their  disguise  and  start  chanting  "Heil  Hitler"  , catching  out  the  undercover  Steed  who  offers  "Er  , Rule  Britannia  ? "

Other  good  episodes  were  "The  Midas  Touch"  about  an  assassin  carrying  every  deadly  disease  known  to  man  who  wipes  out  a  room  full  of  people  just  by  dipping  his  hand  into  a  punch  bowl  and  the  cornily-titled  "Gnaws "  about  a  giant  rat. My  favourite  moment  of  the  series  though  came  in  the  episode  "Dead  Men  Are  Dangerous"  from  the  less  memorable  second  series . Steed  is  being  stalked  by  a  former  school  friend  crazed  at  always  coming  second  to  him. Having  hospitalised  Steed  with  a  forehead  grazing  bullet  he  shoots  him  again  through  the  hospital  window  upon  which  the  not  obviously  qualified  Purdey  gives  her  instant  diagnosis  "Another  superficial  head  wound  !! "  with  an  admirably  straight  face.

At  thirty,  Lumley  was  a  relatively  experienced  actress  but  this  series  was  her  big  break  and  as  she  remains  a  bankable  TV  face,  it's  another  little  piece  of  today's  world  falling  into  place. Alas,  Hunt   was  less  well-loved . Soon  afterwards  he  became  reviled  for  his  smug  appearances  in  a  string  of  Nescafe  commercials  and  his  presence  here  has  become  an  easy  mark   for  lazy  criticism  of  the  series  as  being  unworthy of  its  predecessor. In  truth  Hunt  plays  his  not  very  interesting  character  well  enough  and  certainly  provides  no  reason  for  shunning  the  show.

Despite  decent  ratings  the  joint  Anglo-French-Canadian  production  experienced  difficulties  getting  finance  to  make  the  second  series  and  the  last  four  episodes  were  all  filmed  in  Canada  to  please  a  new  backer . In  addition  to  this  the  series'  main  writer  Brian  Clemens  had  switched  his  attentions  to  a  new  show, The  Professionals  instead.   A  third  series  was  planned  but  never  materialised  and  attempts  to  revive  it  in  subsequent  years  always  foundered. It  has  been  repeated  a  few times  over  the  years  most  recently  on  ITV4  last  year.

Macnee  retired  to  the  USA  and  became  a  US  citizen  in  1982. He  remained  a  busy  actor  into  his  eighties , often  playing  villains  in  TV  movies.  He  retired  in  2005  and  died  earlier  this  year  - I  thought  he'd  long  since  gone -  aged  93.      

289 The Feathered Serpent

First  watched  :  21  June  1976

This  is  another  one  that  fell  through  the  cracks.I  was  looking  out  for  it  but  thought  it  might  have  been  a  year  or  two  later. I  think  this  could  well  be  the  first  series  I  watched  entirely  on  my  own; I  don't  recall  anyone  else  being  in  the  room  with  me  when  this  was  shown  on  a  Monday  teatime.

The  six-part  serial,  based  very  loosely  on  Aztec  culture  was  the  creation  of  actor/writer  John  Kane  who'd  previously  contributed  to  The  Adventures  of  Black  Beauty  and  The  Kids  From  47A. He'd  also   been  in    Dr  Who   in  the  final  Jon  Pertwee    story  Planet  of  the  Spiders  as  the simple-minded  Tommy and  The  Feathered  Serpent    does  have  a  strong  Who- feel  to  it , heightened  by  the  presence  of  Patrick  Troughton  as  the  main  character  Nasca.

Nasca  is  the  fanatical  high  priest  serving  the  bloodthirsty  god  Teshcarta  who  becomes  enraged  when  the  vacillating emperor  Kukulman  ( Tony  Steedman )  proposes  a  marriage  for  his  daughter  Chimalma  ( Diane  Keen )  with   Prince  Heumac  ( Brian  Deacon )  from  a  neighbouring  tribe,  which  threatens  to  re-establish  the  worship  of  a  more  pacific  god  Kwala. This  sets  the  stage  for  a  surprisingly  bloodthirsty  drama  which  pushes  the  envelope  with  murder, torture,  human  sacrifice  and  semi-nudity  though  it's  almost  entirely  male. Richard  Willis  as   Tozo, the  rather  annoying  teenage  hero  of  the  tale,  is particularly  skimpily  attired. Keen  the  only  female  in  the  cast  boasts  a  rather  rounded   navel  in  her  costume.

I  should  say  that  the  above  is  based  only  on  the  original  six  part  series. With  the  principal  villains  both  apparently  killed  in  the  final  episode  I  assumed  that  was  that  and  was  quite  surprised  when  it  returned  for  a  second  series  in  1978. I  toyed  with  the  idea  of  watching  it  but  then  decided  against. I  can't  remember  why since  I  really  enjoyed  the  first, series, perhaps  just  because  I  was   consciously   pulling  away  from  kids  TV  by  then   and  didn't  want  to  revisit  it . As  it  seems  to  be  on  YouTube  I  will  perhaps  remedy  that  in  the  next  few  weeks.