402 Ripping Yarns

First  viewed : Uncertain

I'm  not  sure  when  I  first  caught  this. I  remember  my  friends  talking  about  it, specifically  the story  Tomkinson's  Schooldays  which  I  gathered  had  been  a  little  rude  in  May  1978   which was  already  a  repeat  of  the  first  series. I'm  not  sure  whether  I  saw  the  first  broadcast  of  the second  season  ( all  three  episodes  of  it )  on  BBC 2  in  October  1979  or  a  repeat  of  the   whole  set  of  stories  on  BBC1 in  1980.

Ripping  Yarns  was  the  brainchild   of  Pythons  Michael  Palin  and  Terry  Jones  and  the  self-contained  stories  in  the  series  were  affectionate  parodies   of  pre-war  boys  literature. Jones  was too   busy   directing   The  Life  of  Brian   to  appear  beyond  the  pilot  episode  so  Palin  was  left to  carry  all  the  subsequent  stories  on  his  own.

If  you  know  the  series  and  are  familiar  with  my  other  blogs  you  won't  have  too  much difficulty  in  identifying  my  favourite  episode , the  glorious  Golden  Gordon. Exaggerated  as  it is,  nothing  else  has  come  close  to  capturing  the  masochistic  joy  of  supporting  a  generally unsuccessful  football  club. We've all  come  home  wanting  to  smash  the  house  up  like  Gordon after  a  trouncing  and  yearned  for  a  return  to  some  golden  age  receding  ever  further  into  the past. For  Dale  fans  the  equivalent  to  Barnstoneworth's   legendary  Davitt  was  Reg  Jenkins, star of  the  69-70  promotion  side  and  only  in  the  last  few  years  have  we  started  putting  him  to rest.

Gordon  has  cast  such  a  long  shadow  that  my  memory  of  the  other  stories  is  a  bit  sketchy and  I'm  not  even  sure  that  I've  seen  them  all. The  downfall  of  the  series  was  its  high production  costs, the  Beeb  deciding  after  three  episodes  of  the  second  season  that  they  could not  afford  to  finance  any  more.

401 The Legend of King Arthur

First  viewed : 7  October  1979

One  of  the  rare  things  to  prise  me  away  from  the  Top  40  rundown  on  Radio  One around  this  time  was  this  eight-part  dramatisation  of  the  Arthurian  legend  in  the  Sunday  teatime  slot.  I  had  read  Roger  Lancelyn  Green's  children's  version  so  I  wanted  to  see  this  despite  there  being  plenty  of  goodies  in  the  charts  at  the  time  ( in  fact  they've  rarely  been  stronger  than  in  the  autumn  of  1979 ).

The  main  aim  of  this  serial  was  to  strip  away  the  medieval  anachronisms  of  Thomas  Mallory  and  take  the  story  back  to  its  Dark  Age  roots  and  was  mainly  successful in  this. Budget  restrictions  meant  that  the  battle  scenes  had  to  be  realised  through  quick  cutting  between  individual  actors  and  sound  effects  rather  than  hiring  extras. It  did  conjure  up  something  of  the  feel  of  an  age  groping  for  a  new  sense  of  order  after  the  departure  of  the  Romans  with  Arthur  holding  the  line  against a  descent  into  anarchy.  Nor  did  it  flinch  from  depicting  the  sad  end  to  the  story  as  Lancelot's  passion  for  Guinevere  brought  down  the  whole  court  with  a  little  help  from  Arthur's  evil  half-sister  Morgan  le  Fay.

Arthur  was  played  by  Andrew  Burt  , best  known  as  the  original  Jack  Sugden  in  Emmerdale  Farm  , Guinevere  by  Felicity  Dean , Merlin  by Robert  Eddison  and  blonde  Scot  David  Robb  as  Lancelot.  The  series  is  also  notable  as  the  first  serial  penned  by  period  drama  king  Andrew  Davies. It  was  repeated  in  the  same  slot  in  1981.

400 Shoestring

First  viewed  : 30  September  1979

Another  new  series  launched  on  the  same  night  as  To  The  Manor  Born  ( in  fact  it  directly  followed  it  )  was  much  more  to  my  liking. Shoestring   heralded   a  whole  new  genre  of  unconventional  TV  detective  series  and  for  my  money  remains  the  best. I  watched  the  first  series  on  my  own  but  my  mum  and  sister  came  on  board  for  the  second.

The  largely  unknown  Trevor  Eve  played  Eddie  Shoestring , a  dishevelled  young  man  in  Bristol ,  recovering  from  a  nervous  breakdown  suffered  from  working  with  computers. Having  decided to  try  his  hand  at  being  a  private  detective,  Eddie's  landlady / lover  Erica  ( Doran  Godwin ) who  is  also  a  barrister,  finds  him  a  case  investigating  the  suicide  of  the  girlfriend   of  a  popular  DJ  at  the  local  radio  station  Radio  West. Having  absolved  the  DJ  from  blame  - in  an  uncharacteristically  dark  storyline  the  girl  killed  herself  after  turning  to  escort  work   and  finding one  of  her  clients  to  be  her  dad - Eddie  is  hired  by  the  station  to  be  its  own "private  ear"  who  will  investigate  cases  for  listeners  and  once  solved, recount  an  anonymised    version  of  his  investigation  over  the  air . The  other  regular  characters  were  his  cautious  but  usually  supportive  boss  Don  Satchley  ( Michael  Medwin )  and  jolly  receptionist  Sonia  ( Liz  Crowther )   with  her  voluminous  frocks.

Unlike  To  The  Manor  Born  , I   can  remember  the  details  of  individual  storylines  pretty  well. A  lot  of  them  involved  tracing  missing  persons. There  was  one  where  he  was  hunting  down a sixties  pop  star  whose  record  suddenly  became  popular  again  and  another  where  he  tracked down  the  wife  of  a  man  who  the  neighbours  thought  had  murdered  her. Other  memorable episodes  were  the  one  where  he  investigated  a  Moonie-like  religious  cult, a  travel  agency which  was  really  a  front  for  burglary  and  the  final  nerve-racking  episode  where  Eddie  had  to track  down  some  dangerously  defective  toys  at  Christmas. There  was  also  the  notorious episode  where  Toyah  Willcox  got  to  perform  a  generous  slice  of  her  music  despite  her character  being  a  fairly  peripheral  part  of  the  proceedings.

What  made  Eddie  such  a  compelling  character  was  his  obvious  vulnerability. He  was  slightly built  so  usually  came  out  the  worst  in  any  physical  confrontations  and  clearly  still  mentally fragile. In  one  episode  he  freaked  out  at  being  faced  with  a  mainframe  computer  again  and in the  episode  "Mockingbird"  he  was  driven  almost  to  breaking  point  by  the  taunts  of  a malevolent  wannabe.

After  two  highly  successful  series  with  Eve a  national  heartthrob, the  Beeb  were  aghast  when he  decided  to  quit  while  he  was  ahead  and  abandon  the  series  for  further  stage  work  and later , a  largely  unsuccessful  attempt  at  stardom  in  America. It  was  a  brave  step  but  whether his  co-stars  ( particularly  Godwin  who  hasn't  acted  in  the  last  two  decades )  appreciated  it   would  be  interesting  to  ascertain. The  production  team  came  up  with  a  replacement  series  in Bergerac  which  I  came  to  like  in  time   but  always  thought  was  a  poor  substitute. Like  Fawlty  Towers, Shoestring  left  you  wanting  more.

Shoestring  was  repeated  in  1981  and  1982  but  then  disappeared  from  terrestrial   television  until   January   2002  when  some  episodes , highly  edited  for  daytime  viewing, were  aired  in  the  afternoon. For  a  long  time  there  was  no  DVD  release  because  the  amount  of  music  played  in  the  scenes  at  Radio  West  made  it  uneconomic  to  clear  all  the  rights  but  eventually  some  deal  with  the  P.R.S .  was  done  and  a  box  set  of  the  first  series  came  out  in  2012.                 

399 To The Manor Born

First  viewed  :  30  September   1979

After  the  phenomenally  popular  The  Good  Life  came  to  an  end  in  1978  the  search  was  on for  suitable  vehicles  for  all  four  of   its  stars. For  Penelope  Keith  it  came  in  the  form  of  To  the  Manor  Born, the  epitome  of  the  Sunday  night  sitcom.

She  played  Audrey  Fforbes-Hamilton   a   recent  widow  forced  out  of  the  family  manor  house by  her  husband's  debts  and  forced  to  downsize  to  the  gatehouse  with  only  faithful  family   retainer  Brabinger  ( John  Rudling ). To  make  matters  worse  the  estate  is  purchased  by  suave food  millionaire  Richard  DeVere   who  it  transpires  is  a  second  generation  Czech  immigrant with  an  embarrassing  mother  Mrs  Polouvica  ( Daphne  Heard ) in  tow  to  prick  his  social pretensions. Richard  finds  he  can't  enjoy his  new  estate   without  bumping  into  his  awkward neighbour  and  her  friend  Marjorie  ( Angela  Thorne )  at  every  turn.

To  the  Manor  Born  had  no  pretensions  to  being  a  kitchen  sink  drama. How  Audrey  supported  herself  and  Brabinger  and  what  enabled  Marjorie  to  have  so  much  free  time  to  lavish  on  her  friend's  affairs  was  never  really  explained. Nevertheless  it  was   a  massive  success; Keith  appeared  to  have  brought  The  Good  Life's  audience  with  her. I'm  not  sure  how  much  of  it  I  actually  watched;  I  was  never  a  great  fan   and  details  of  individual  storylines  now  escape  me. It  lasted  for  three  series,  at  the  end  of  which  the  pair  got  married. There  was  a  one-off  episode  in  2007  but  that  passed  me  by.  

It  proved  to  be  the  high  watermark  of  Keith's  career. Although  Audrey  was  gentry  on  the  way  down  rather  than  a  social  climber  like  Margot  Leadbetter, the   two  characters  were  pretty  similar  and  her  image  as  a  well-spoken,  bossy,  harridan  became  fixed  in  the  public's  mind. A  lot  has  been  said  about  Margot  being  an  unwitting  herald  for  Thatcher  and  conversely,  perhaps  Keith's  popularity   waned   as  Thatcher  became  a  more  polarising  figure.  When  her  next  sitcom,  Sweet  Sixteen in  1983   bombed , she  took  herself  off  to  ITV  and  four  separate  sitcoms  which,  while  not  disasters,  failed  to  make  the  same  impact. She  returned  to  the  BBC  in  1995  to  make  Next  of  Kin   but  when  that  was  axed  two  years  later  largely  forsook  TV  in  favour  of  the  theatre ( apart  from  the  aforementioned  2007  special ). In  recent  years  she  has  turned  to  presenting  rather  than  acting.    



    

398 Prince Regent

First  viewed  :  September  1979

After  ITV's  success  with  Edward  VII  and  Edward  and  Mrs  Simpson , the  Beeb  came  up  with  its  own   royal   historical  drama  concentrating  on  the  future   George  IV  and  his  long  wait  for  the  throne.

Suave  Peter  Egan  played  George  from  his  coming-of-age  in  1782   to  his  accession  to  the throne  in  1820, thus  making  considerable  demands  on  the  make-up  department.  It  covered  his debauchery  with  friends  Fox  and  Sheridan  ( Keith  Barron  and  Clive  Merrison  respectively ), secret  and  illegal  marriage  to  Maria  FitzHerbert  ( Susannah  York ), disastrous  real  marriage  to  Caroline  of  Brunswick ( Dinah  Stabb )  and  ongoing  generational  conflict  with  his  father  George  III  ( Nigel  Davenport ).

For  all  the  costumed  finery  and  gay  antics  there  was  a  strong  melancholic  thread  throughout the  8-part  series  as  we  watched   George  III  descend  into  complete  madness  and  the   death  of Prince  George's  only  daughter  Charlotte ( Cherie  Lunghi ). Above  all  of  course,  we  saw the slow  physical  decline  of  George  and  his  pals  from  young  bucks  to  exhausted  old  men; there was  a  very  poignant  scene  where  George  receives the  doddering  Sheridan  for  the  last  time. I'm  sure  none  of  this  would  be  lost  on  a  certain  jug-eared  sexagenarian  of  our  own  day.

Talking  of   Sheridan,  I  remember  my  mum  and  sister  going  on  and  on  about  just  having seen  Clive  Merrison  in  a  play  at  the  Oldham  Colosseum  like  it  was  something  extraordinary.

The  series  has  never  been  repeated. I'm  wondering  if  that  has  something  to  do  with  the  fact  that  it  was  written  by  Ian  Curteis  who,  you  may  recall, kicked  up  such  a  fuss  about  his  pro-Thatcher  Falklands  drama  not  being  broadcast  a  few  years  later.      

397 Junior That's Life

First  watched : 1  September  1979

Well  I'd  have  said  this  one  was  1980  but  no  I'm  a  year  out.

As  the  title  suggests  this  was  an  attempt  to  produce  a  kiddie-friendly  version  of  That's  Life for  a  Saturday  teatime  audience.  From  what  I  can  recall  it  had   a  very  similar  format   to  the main  programme  just  a  slight  toning-down  of  the  material. Of  course  there  was  a  fair  amount of  hubris  involved; by  having  a  "Junior"  version , it  suggested  that  the  main  programme  had an  adult  gravitas  that  it  didn't  really  possess.

The  junior  version  also  had  the  same  cast  with  one  exception.Cyril  Fletcher's  chair  was  occupied  by  two  schoolboys  who  presented  on  alternate  weeks. One  was  Shaun  Ley  , a  bespectacled , precocious  10  year  old  geek  in  the  mould  of  George  and  Mildred's   Tristan Fourmile  who'd  clearly  been  selected   to  be  as  aggravating  and  unbearable  as  children  can  get  . The  other ,Toby  Robertson,  was  a  more  normal  kid  with  a  cheeky  chappy  appeal.

The  programme  only  lasted  for  6  weeks  and  the  experiment  was  never  tried  again.

Now   Ley  is  a respected  political  correspondent  and  reporter  for  the  BBC  and  there  seems  to have  been  a  concerted  attempt  to  spare  his  blushes  and  erase  this  aspect  of  his  past.  His imdb  entry  makes  no  reference  to  the  show  and  he's  never  been  featured  on  Before  They Were  Famous . I   can't  find  any  footage  or  even  stills  to  show  you  what  he  was  like   although  it  clearly  is  the  same  bloke; I  recognised  him  immediately,  the  first  time  he   re-appeared  as  an  adult . Now  of  course   Esther  Rantzen  wouldn't  want  to  be  reminded  of  a failure  in her  c.v.  so  perhaps  Ley  is  just  an  incidental  beneficiary  of  her  brand  protection  but who knows  ?

  

396 Match of The Day

First  watched  : 18  August  1979

Finally  I  got  to  watch  the  BBC's  flagship  football  programme  on  a  day  of  huge  sentimental significance,   being  the  day  I  went  to  Milnrow  in  response  to  a  newspaper  ad  and  picked  up a  kitten  who  became  Tuffy,  our  best-loved  family  pet  for  the  next  sixteen  years.

Helpfully,  the  Beeb  put  Match  of  the  Day  on  an  hour  early  because  they  were  showing  a boxing  match  live  later  in  the  evening. This  was  the  first  day  proper  of  the  1979-80  season   and  the  Beeb  decided, correctly, that  the  most  interesting  fixture  of  the  day  was   Manchester City's  home  game  against  Crystal  Palace.

This  was  all  about  Malcolm  Allison.  City's  coach  from  their  early  seventies  glory  years  had been  brought  back  to  the  club   halfway  through  the  1978-79  season  after  City  had  been unable  to  find  any  consistent  form  under  his  former  protege  Tony  Book. Despite  his  return   having  had  little  discernible  impact  as  City  finished  15th, Allison  was  promoted  to  head   coach  at  the  end  of  the  season  with  Book  relegated  to  a  "general  manager" administrative   role.

Once  installed  in  the  top  job, the  fun  really  started. Allison  dominated  the  back  pages  that  summer  as  he  ripped  the  heart  out  of  the  side  selling  Dave  Watson , Asa  Hartford  and  most  controversially  Gary  Owen  and  Peter  Barnes  and  replacing  them  with  completely  unproven  players  at  ridiculous  prices. Steve  McKenzie  a   teenage  midfielder  yet  to  make  his  League  debut  arrived  from  Crystal  Palace  for  £250,000. Michael  Robinson,  a  young  striker  from  Preston  cost  three  times  that. Bobby  Shinton  a  27  year  old  journeyman  striker  from  Wrexham  cost  £300,000. Watson's  replacement  was  Tommy  Caton, a  16  year  old  thrown  straight  in  from  the  youth  team. It  was  crazy  and  you  suspected   Allison  was  being  outrageous  for  its   own  sake  rather  than  shaping  a  team.

The  bizarrely  re-shaped  team  were  facing  Allison's  previous  British  club  Crystal  Palace  who'd  caught  the  eye  three  years  earlier  with  a  run  to  the  FA  Cup  Semi-Finals  whilst  a  Third  Division  club   with  a  team  of  youngsters Allison  had  brought  through. He  hadn't  stayed  to  finish  the  job  but  Terry  Venables  had  kept  the  side  together, achieved  two  promotions   and  now  had  the  tag  "Team  of  the  Eighties".

The  game  inevitably  ended  0-0  with  neither  side  looking  like  they  were  going  to  set  the League  alight.  A  fortnight  later  the  insanity  at  City  peaked  when  they  paid  one  and  a  half million for  Steve  Daley  a  midfielder  from  Wolves, still  I  think  the  most  ludicrously  over-valued  player  in  history. He  was  a  neat  and  tidy  player  but  no  one  else  thought  he  was worth  that  sort  of  money. Allison  and  his  chairman  Peter  Swales  blamed  each  other  for  the deal  for  the  rest  of  their  lives, conscious  that  it  set  back  the club  for  at  least  a  decade.  City finished  two  places  lower  than  the  previous  season, five  lower  than  Palace.

It  wasn't  the  most  memorable  of  seasons  with  Liverpool  retaining  their  title  although  a resurgent  Manchester  United  pushed  them  close. The  surprise  packages  were  Wolves  who'd immediately  spent  the  Daley  money  on  proven  goalscorer  Andy  Gray  and  the  result  was  a League  Cup  Final   win   over  holders  Forest and  fifth  place  finish. Forest  had  the  consolation of  retaining  the  UEFA  Cup.

In    those  days  it  was  still  Jimmy  Hill  at  the  helm  with  his  stock  of  instant  opinions  and former  Arsenal  keeper  Bob  Wilson  as  his  genial  sidekick. There  was  a  big  shake-up  the following  season  when  ITV  won  a  larger  share  of  the  broadcasting  rights  and  Match  of  the Day  moved  to  a  Sunday  teatime  slot. That  presented  me  with  a  big  dilemma as  it  now  partly clashed  with  the  chart  rundown on  Radio  One. I would  have  to  miss  the  first  half  hour  where most  of  the  new  entries  were. I  think  football  won  out  over  pop  up  to  Christmas  and  then with  the  New  Romantics  storming  the  charts  the  radio  snatched  me  back  in  1981.

For  the  next  three  years  the  programme  flitted  between  Saturday  and  Sunday  before  reverting to  Saturdays  for  1983-4. It  was  still  covering  some  lower  league  action  and  I  remember watching  highlights  of  Blackpool  v  York , with  audible  chants  of  "Jimmy  Hill  is  a  wanker ", at  my  hall  of  residence  in  February  1984.  That  was  the  last  Fourth  Division  action  to  be shown  and  the  intervening  divisions  had  been  dropped  by  1986   though  not  before  Manchester  City's  3-0  win  over  Wimbledon  at  Maine  Road   in  January 1985  in  the  old  Second  Division  which  was  the  first  time  I  was  at  one  of  the  featured  games.

In  1988  ITV  won  exclusive  rights  to  League  games  so  for  the  next  four  years  Match  of  the  Day  only  appeared  on   FA  Cup  weekends. The  Beeb   used  it  as  an  excuse  to  slowly  start  pushing  Hill  out  of  the  picture  as  Des  Lynam  became  the  main  host  with  Hill  featuring  as  a  pundit. This  left  them  with  the  unenviable  task  of  doing  a  programme  on  the  Hillsborough  disaster  which  they  did  exceedingly  well, Lynam  identifying  the  key  questions  which  featured  on  the  inquest  just  gone  and  Hill  correctly  predicting  the  arrival  of  all-seater  stadia. I do  recall  being  slightly  peeved  that  they  wouldn't  show  us  at  least  the  goal  from  the  other  game.

Happier  times  occurred  in  November  1991  when  Rochdale  drew  an  away  tie   at   Gretna  in the  FA  Cup  First  Round. As  they  were  the  first  Scottish  side  to  feature  at  this  stage  in  the competition  for  over  a  century  the  game  drew  a  considerable  amount  of  media  attention including  the  Match  of  the  Day  cameras. So  it  was  that  yours  truly  made  his  debut  on national  TV.  Draw a  straight  line  down  from  the  "r"  at  the  end  of  "Milner"  and  there  I  am or  at  least  my  26  year  old  self  is - I  wouldn't  want  them  to  film  me  from  that  angle  today ! Sadly  the  game  itself  was  a  0-0  anti-climax   with  the  only  talking  point  an  outrageous  foul by  our  dodgy  keeper  Gareth  Gray  just  outside  the  penalty  area. It  was  the  most  obvious  red  card  you  could  ever  see  but  the  referee  was  Ken  Redfern , the  only  official  ever  to  give    Dale more  than  their  fair  share  of  decisions. He  conjured  up  an  imaginary  covering  centre  half  to  justify  letting  Gray  off  with  a  yellow. Barry  Davies  commented  "Gareth  Gray  can  consider  himself  pretty fortunate "  but  we  knew  exactly  why.

At  the  end  of  that  season  everything  changed. The  Premier  League  started   and  Rupert Murdoch  swatted  ITV  away  to  win  the  coverage , tossing  the  Beeb  the  right  to  show  highlights  as  crumbs  from  the  table. Match  of  the  Day  resumed  its  weekly  place   in  the  schedules. Hill  was  rarely  involved  now  as  Lynam's  chief  pundits  were  Alan  Hansen  and  Gary  Lineker  both  of  them  very  popular  with  female  viewers  and  his  stand-in  was  the  nervy  Ray  Stubbs.

Lynam  quit  in  1999  with  Lineker  taking  over, a  position  he's  held  ever  since  apart  from  the  hiatus  from  2001 and  2004  when  ITV  won  the  highlights  rights. When  it  came  back  to  the  BBC  Match  of  the  Day  2  was  created  to  cover  the  games  on  Sundays. My  interest  in  the  Premiership  has  diminished  over  the  years  as  teams  I  had  a  soft  spot  for  like Coventry, Blackburn  and  Leeds  have  been  relegated  and  the  matches are  largely  played  by  selections  of  foreign  mercenaries  with  no  connection  to  the  communities  they  nominally  represent  but  I  do  still  watch  Match  of  the  Day  most  weeks,