437 The Iranian Embassy Siege

First  viewed  :  5  May  1980

I  purposely  didn't  mention  this  in  the  Snooker  post  but  anyone  who  was  watching  Cliff Thorburn  grinding  his  way  to  victory  against  Alex  Higgins  on  the  May  Day   Bank  Holiday 1980  ( or  indeed  the  John  Wayne  film  on  BBC1 ) will  never  forget  the  broadcast's  sudden and dramatic  interruption  at 19.23 pm  by  live   coverage  of  an  extraordinary  scene  developing  in Central  London.

Six  days  earlier  half  a  dozen  gunmen  from  Iran's  Arabic  minority  had  stormed  the  Iranian  embassy  after  overpowering  - but   not  killing - the  sole  policeman  on  guard  outside. They  were  not  fundamentally  opposed  to  the  Khomenei  regime  which  had  taken  power  just  over  a  year  earlier  but  wished  to  take  advantage  of  the  confusion  to  gain  autonomy  for  their  southern  province. The  immediate  aim  of  the  siege  was  to  obtain  the  release  of  a  large  number  of  political  prisoners  in  Iran.

The  British  authorities  were  placed  in  the  position  of  refereeing  someone  else's  fight  on  their  patch, made  more  difficult  by  the  Iranian  government's  exceptionally  hostile  attitude  to  the  West  ( despite  Khomenei  enjoying  the  hospitality  of  the  French  during  his  years  in  exile ).  What  gave  Margaret  Thatcher's  government  more  interest  in  the  affair  was  that  besides  the  captured  policeman  Trevor  Lock, the  gunmen  were  holding  three  other  British  hostages  including  two  BBC  technicians  who'd  gone  in  for  a  visa.

The  negotiations  did  seem  to  be  making  headway. The  gunmen  had  not  carried  out  their  threat  to  shoot  someone  when  their  first  deadline  expired  and  a  number  of  distressed  hostages  had  been  released  unharmed,  including  one  of  the  BBC  guys  who  was  experiencing  stomach  pains. What  changed  matters  on  that  Monday  was  the  execution  of  a  hostage,  Abbas  Levansani. As  soon  as  his  body  was  dumped  outside  the  embassy,  Home  Secretary  William  Whitelaw  put  a  covert  Plan  B  into  operation; the  building  would  be  stormed  by  the  Special  Air  Service.

It  was  a  frightfully  risky  decision. Two  previous  counter-terrorist  operations  in  the  past  decade  had  gone  frightfully  wrong. West  Germany's  attempt  to  rescue  the  Israeli  hostages  in  Munich  had  resulted  in  them  all  being  slaughtered  while  President  Carter's  operation  to  rescue  the  US  hostages  in  Iran  had  come  to  grief  in  the  Iranian  desert  just  weeks  earlier. On  the  other  hand  Israel's  spectacular  raid  on  Entebbe  Airport  to  resolve  a  hostage  crisis  in  1976  had  been  a  stunning  success. The  S.A.S.  motto  "Who  Dares  Wins"  could  equally  apply  to  Whitelaw.

TV  cameras  were  on  hand  to  capture  the  drama , at  least  at  the  front  of  the  building ; there  were  simultaneous  operations  going  on  out  of  sight  round  the  back. Black  clad  figures  in  hoods  and  gas  masks  abseiled  down  the  front  of  the  building  to  a  first  floor  balcony  where  they  blew  out  the  windows  with  incendiary  bombs  and  went  in  shooting. While  reporters  including  the  young  Kate  Adie  scrambled  to  make  sense  of  the  scene, cameras  caught  the  stumble  to  safety  of  the  other  BBC  guy  Sim  Harris  as  one  of  the  soldiers  beckoned  him  to  cross  over  to  a  secured   adjacent   balcony.

Within  minutes  the  siege  was  over   at  the  cost  of  one  more  Iranian  death  and  two  woundings  among  the  hostages. An  SAS  man  was  injured  during  the  operation  though  by  a  mishap  not  terrorist  action. Five  out  of   the  six  gunmen  were  killed   ( two  while  they  were  apparently  trying  to  surrender  though  they  had  just  raked  the  hostages  ; the  inquest  jury  absolved  the  SAS ).   The  last  guy  survived  by  hiding  among  the  hostages  until  identified  by  Harris. He  was  released  on  parole  after  28  years  in  UK  prisons  and   now  lives in  a  legal  limbo  as  the  Human  Rights  Act  precludes  his  deportation  to  Iran.

The  raid  was  a  huge  success  for  the  government  and  brought  the  S.A.S. , formerly   a  shadowy  unit  operating  largely  in  Northern  Ireland,  a   worldwide  prestige  and  formidable  reputation  that  endures  to  this  day. A  film  based  on  their  exploits  was  soon  in  production  starring  Lewis  Collins.

The  Iranian  government  were  incredibly  churlish  about  the  rescue  of  their  diplomatic  staff. They  made  a  grudging  statement  of  appreciation  but  any  fond  hopes  that  they  might  release  their   US  hostages  in  response  were  soon  dashed  and  incredibly  negotiations  for  the  repair  of  the  building  dragged  on  until  1993.

The  irony   of  the  assault  is  that   it  may  well  have  been  unnecessary. The  organisation  the  gunmen   represented  was  a   potential  ally  against  Khomenei  and  their  treatment  of  Lock  in  particular  suggests  that  they  were  not  inclined  to  harm  the  British  hostages.  The   releases  during  the  siege  indicate  they  were  not  inhumane. The  event  that  triggered  the  assault  was  caused  by  Levensani, a  Khomenei  fanatic's  own  desire  for  Islamic  martyrdom; he  provoked  them  into  it. But  of  course  we  understand  such  things  rather  better  now  than  we  did  then.            

436 BBC2 Playhouse : Happy

First  viewed :  25  April  1980

This  is  one  I'd  never  have  remembered  without  Genome  to  jog  the  brain  cells.  It  was  on  at  9pm  on  a  Friday  night  and  I  watched  it  at  my  Gran's  who  had  probably  switched  channels  from  The  Gentle  Touch  in  the  hope  of  more  snooker. I  usually  went  home  as  soon  as  I'd  finished  my  chips  but  we  watched  this  to  the  end.

The  play  concerned  two  brothers  Vernon ( Paul  Copley )  and  Gary ( Max  Hafler ) . Gary  has serious  mental  health  issues  but  Vernon  persists  in  trying  to  look  after  him  at  home  rather than  put  him  in  residential  care  ( this  being  nearly  a  decade  before  the  implementation  of Care  in  the  Community ) . At  the  start  of  the  play  Vernon's  marriage  has  broken  down  because his  wife  Linda  ( Lynne  Miller )  couldn't  cope  with  the  strain  of  living  with  Gary.  He persuades  her  to  return  but  after  a  case  of  coitus  interruptus  by  Gary  playing  with  scissors , she  realises  that  she  is  less  important  to  Vernon  than  his  need  to  be  his  brother's  keeper   and  departs  once  more.

This  sad  little  story  has  never  been  repeated  and  the  writer  Derrick  Buttress  has  only  one  other  credit  on  his  imdb  page  ( a  playlet  in  the  equally  obscure  The  Other  Side  series  in  1979 ) .

435 Snooker

First  viewed  : April  1980

As  mentioned  in  previous  posts  I  used  to  spend  Friday  nights  with  my  Gran  and  around  this  time  discovered  that  she  had  a  secret  passion  for  snooker  despite , like  us  , only  having  a  black  and  white  television. The  source  of  this  was  an  edition  of  This  Is  Your  Life   featuring  the  current  World  Champion  Terry  Griffiths. I  remember  visiting  my  friend  Stephen's  house  the  previous  year  when  his  granddad  was  getting  excited  by  Griffiths's  progress  to  the  World  Championship  Final  at  the  first  attempt  but  we  didn't  sit  down  and  watch  any  of  it. My  gran  loved  Griffiths  because  "he  was  so  modest  and  unassuming"  and  had  been  watching  Pot  Black  ever  since.

It  was  a  good  job  Griffiths  was  modest  because  if  he  thought  he  was  going  to  collect  a   long row  of  trophies  for  his  mantelpiece  he  was  in  for  a  rude  awakening. The  following  year he  lost  his  first   match  of  the  World  Championship  to  a  cocky   youngster  from  London   called  Steve  Davis  who  would  severely  restrict  the  opportunities  for  Terry  and  all  his contemporaries  for  the  next  decade. My  gran  never  forgave  Davis  for  this  and  would  seethe whenever  he  appeared  on  screen.

I  think  I  came  in  at  the  semi-Final  stage.  The  volatile but  often  brilliant  Alex  "Hurricane " Higgins, still  to  some  extent   the  enfant  terrible  of  the  sport  since  his  one  world  title  win  as  a  23  year  old  in  1972,  was  facing a  younger  version  of  himself  in  21-year  old  Kirk  Stevens  from  Canada, the  youngest  ever  semi-finalist  who  played  a  fearless  attacking  game  in  a  snazzy  white  suit.. The  other semi-Final   featured  another  Canadian  Cliff  Thorburn  who  couldn't  have  been  more  different , an  older-looking  32-year  old  with  a  baleful  glare  whose  tactic  seemed  to  be  to  bore  his  opponents ( and  the  audience ) to  death  with  his  slow  cautious  play. His  opponent  was  the  dapper  silver-haired  Mancunian  David  Taylor  who'd  put  out  top  seed  Ray  Reardon  in  the  Quarters.

Neither  match  went  the  way  I  wanted. I  was  enthralled  by  Stevens  who  became  my  favourite  player  but  Higgins  eventually  won  a  great  encounter  and  local  pride  demanded  I  back  Taylor  but  Thorburn  had  an  easy  win. By  the  time  of  the  Final  my  mum  and  sister  were  also  watching  and  we  were  all  backing  Higgins. It  seemed  like  his  for  the  taking  but  Thorburn  eventually  wore  him  down to  become  the  first  ever  overseas  player  to  win  the  World  title.

My  sister  had  a  brief  crush  on  Higgins, difficult  to  understand  as  he  was  a  small  wiry  bloke  with  gaunt  pinched  features  reflecting  his  Belfast  upbringing. The  following  year  she   defied  the  rest  of  us  and   switched  her  affections  to  Davis , immediately  recognising  a  winner. She's  never  been  one  for  siding  with  the  underdog.  There  was  never  any  doubt  he'd  win  that  year sweeping  aside  Higgins, Griffiths  again  and  Thorburn  ( whose  attritional  game  never  bothered  Davis )  with  his  robotic  precision  to a  Final  with  another likable  Welshman  Doug  Mountjoy.  Nerves  gave  Mountjoy  more  frames  than  he  probably  deserved  but  Davis  won  18-12.

The  1982  tournament  began  with  a  seismic  shock  when  Davis  was  taken to  the  cleaners  by  the  young  Bolton  pro  Tony  Knowles  in  the  opening  match. Knowles  won  10-1  to  throw  the  tournament  wide  open, the  more  so  when  Griffiths  and  Thorburn  also  departed  at  that  stage  if  less  dramatically. Attention  quickly  switched  to  another  young  Londoner  Jimmy  White  who  played  at  an  unbelievable  pace. Inarticulate  and  barely  able  to  write  his  name , he  was  nevertheless  an  impeccable  sportsman  who  quickly  became  a  crowd  favourite.  He  raced  his  way  past  both  Canadians  on  the  way  to  another  classic  semi-final  clash  between  two  swashbucklers  as  he  came  up  against  Higgins.  The  two  of  them  traded  blow  for  blow to  leave  White  15-14  up   as  the  clock  ticked  towards  midnight. He  clocked  up  59-0  then  jawed  a  tricky  red  played  with  the  rest to  throw  Higgins  a  lifeline  but  he  had  an  awful  lot  to  do.  He  proceeded  to  reel  off  one  awkward  pot  after  another  to  make  a  clearance  of  69. It's  probably  the  most  famous  frame  of  all  time, repeated  many  times  since. In  the  final  frame  which  no  one  really  remembers  Jimmy  hadn't  recovered  his  composure  and  pretty  much  surrendered  it  to  a  nerveless  Higgins. He  went  on  to  defeat  a  past-his-best  Ray  Reardon  in  the  Final  and  declare  himself  "the  People's  Champion", a  direct  challenge  to  Davis  whom  he  despised  ( by  contrast  he  and  White  became  lifelong  buddies ).

In  fact  it  was  to  be  the  last  Final  for  both  of  them. Reardon  made  the  semis   once  more   in  1985  where  he  was  annihilated  by  Davis  and  then  dropped  quietly  out  of  contention. That  wasn't  Higgins'  way. After  the  sweetest  of  victories  over  Davis  in  the  1983  UK  tournament   Final,  his  career  slipped  away  in  a  hail  of  controversies - death  threats, head  butts, tears drunken  rants  -  all  in  futile  protest  at  the  waning  of  his  talent . He  died  in  2010  after  a  long  battle  with  throat  cancer.

Davis  came  roaring  back  in  1983  with  only  Dennis  Taylor  in  the  Second  Round  putting  up  much  resistance. He  crushed  Thorburn  whose  previous  three  matches  had  all  gone  the  distance  18-6. Thorburn  had  the  consolation  of  being  the  first  person  to  score  the  maximum  147  at  the  tournament  though  not  in  the  Final.

I  started  playing  the  game  myself  in  1983  when  I  realised  that  my  hall  of  residence  had  a  snooker  table. I  wasn't  great  but  good  enough  to  have  competitive  games  with  my  housemates  and  later  some  fellow  Dale  supporters. What  took  me  back  a  bit  was  their  almost  unanimous,  visceral  hatred  for  Davis. His  comment  that  snooker  was  better  than  sex  seemed  to  particularly  rile  them. There  was  wild  applause  when  Spitting  Image  nailed  his  lack  of  charisma  with  the  famous  Steve  "Very  Interesting"  Davis  sketch. to  be  fair  to  the  guy  he  took  it  in  good  part  and  named  his  management  company  Interesting  Productions.

By  this  time  snooker  was  enjoying  a  real TV  boom  with  many  of  the  other  tournaments being  broadcast  and  ITV  getting  in  on  the  act. It  was  on  their  coverage  that  I  first  caught  the  ghastly  sight  of  professional  eccentric  John  McCririck  who'd been  brought  in  to  give  some  betting  coverage.  They  also  covered  the  Masters  tournament  in  1984  when  Stevens  scored a  147. Stevens  made  his  second  and  final  appearance  in  the  semis  that  year  where  he  narrowly  lost  to  White. White  then  lost  18-16   to  Davis  although  he  was  never  ahead  in  the  match.

Stevens  did  reach  a  Final  at  the  beginning  of  1985  in  the  Dulux  Open, a  match  he  should  have  won  against  the  shady  South  African  Silvino  Francisco  whose  curious  game  seemed  to  rely  on  making  things  harder  for  himself  by  constantly  losing   position. At  the  beginning  of  the  match  Francisco  grabbed  hold  of   Stevens  and  accused  him  of  being  on  drugs. A  disconcerted  Stevens  then  lost  the  match  13-9. After  the  game  the  authorities  heavily  fined  Francisco  for   misconduct  but  shortly  afterwards  Stevens  took  the  legs  from  under  them  by  admitting  he  had  a  problem  with  cocaine. Despite  going  into  rehab,  he went  into  a  rapid  decline, a  sad  end  to  a  very  promising  career  but  at  least  he's  alive  and  well  and  still  playing  in  Canada.  

In  the  World  Championships  that  year  the  solid  Irishman  Dennis  Taylor  attracted  attention  by  wearing  an  unusual  pair  of  oversized  glasses  to  help  him  see  the  balls. Nevertheless  they  seemed  to  spark  an  impressive  return  to  form  with  four  emphatic  victories  taking  him  to his  first  Final  since  his defeat  by  Griffiths  in  1979  . There  Davis  inevitably  awaited  him  and  when  the  Champion  went  8-0  up   many  people gave  up. Taylor  then  pulled  one  back  and  lifted  his  finger  as  they  went  into  the  interval.  It  seemed  painfully  quixotic  at  the  time  but  he  justified  it  gradually  crawling  his  way  back  into  the  match  as  Davis  faltered  until  unbelievably  ,going  into  Monday  morning  , he  pulled  it  back  to  17-17. The  TV  room  at  my  hall  was  packed  for  the  final  frame  with  the  steady  stream  of  abuse  hurled  at  Davis  increasing  in  pitch  and  virulence  as  the  stomach-knotting  tension  ratcheted  up. Then  incredibly  it  was  down  to  the  black  and  Dennis  had  first  dibs. He  missed  it  to  howls  of  anguish ! There  it  was  for  Davis - on a  plate  and  - no  he's  jawed  it !  People  were  on  their  knees. Dennis  had  a  second  chance  but  harder  than  the  first.  Yessss !!!!! That  was unique  - there  will  never  be  another  moment  quite  like  that  in  my  life , shared  with  18.5  million  people  across  the country  watching  the  television  after  midnight, a  record  that  will  surely  never  be  beaten.

Davis  did  himself  no  favours  in  the  post-match  interview  with  David  Vine , his  weak  joke  about  it  being  "all  there  in  black  and  white"  getting  lost  amid   the  otherwise  monosyllabic  answers  when  everyone  was  expecting  a  graceful  concession. Yeah  of  course  he  was  gutted   but  there  was  a  clear  etiquette  for  such  occasions  and  he  miserably  failed  to  play  his  part.
He  did  better  in  1986  when  he  lost  to  the  unfancied  journeyman   from  Bradford  , the  Anglo-Asian  Joe  Johnson  who  did  a  Leicester  City  and  suddenly  found  the  form  of  his  life  to  pot  his  way  to  the  title.  Johnson  got  to  the  Final  again  in  1987  after  some  very  tight  matches  but  this  time   round  Davis  was  too  good  for  him  and  he  went  back  to  his  former  level  almost  as  quickly  as he'd  risen.

By  that  time  I'd  started  work  and  as  you'd  expect  didn't  have  quite  so  much  time  to  invest  in  watching  a  snooker  tournament   as  before  so  I  gradually  started  to  lose  touch . Davis  won  two  more  titles  and  the  BBC  Sports  Personality  of  the  Year  in  1988  but  in  1990  young  Scot  Stephen  Hendry  won  the  first  of  his  record  seven  World  titles  and  effectively  blocked  Davis  from  ever  winning  it  again. The  nineties  saw  a  new  gripping  drama  with  the  repeated  failure  of  Jimmy  White  to  prise  the  title  away  from  Hendry .  In  the  1992  Final  he  led  14-8  but  then  lost  10  frames  in  a  row . Anecdotally  that  seems  to  be  when  many  people  turned  away  as  the  sport  suffered  a  severe  dip  in  popularity  though  I  think  I'd  gone  a  couple  of  years  earlier   despite  still  playing  it  fairly  regularly.

I  gravitated  back  towards  it  in  the  early  noughties  for  no  particular  reason  that  I  recall. Apart  from  Hendry  who  was  ridiculously  still  in  his  thirties  there  were  few  familiar  faces. Davis  was  still  plodding  away  and  John  Parrott  and  sadly  still  Jimmy  White  though  you  knew  he  was  no  longer  a  contender. Hendry  himself  never   won  the  World  title  in  the  new  millennium  so  White  had  no  chance. Otherwise  all  the  old  guard   were  now  pundits  including  Davis  and  Parrott  after  their  inevitable  early  exits. Davis  is, as  you  would  expect,   earnest, long-winded  and  boring  but  would  you  have  him  any  other  way ?

 There  were   interesting  new  faces  most  notably  Ronnie  "Rocket"  O  Sullivan,  the  natural  successor  to  Higgins  and  White,  although  his  outspoken  tendency  to  bite  the  hand  that  feeds  him  makes  him  rather  less  lovable.  I  rather  liked  Australian  nutter  Quinten  Hann  who  wound  up  his  opponents  so  much  one  of  them  ended  up  taking  him  on  in  a  boxing  match. In  2006  though,  he  was  banned  from  snooker  for  eight  years  for  accepting  an entrapment  bribe  from  The  Sun  to  lose  a  match   and  though  that  has  now  expired,  he's  shown  no  sign  of  wanting  to  return  to  the  sport  having  made  a  lot  of  money  on  the American  pool  circuit.

I  watched  Stuart  Bingham  win  last  year's  World  title  although  I  didn't  see  any  of  this  year's  competition. Too  busy  with  these  blogs  you  see.

   

    

434 Knots Landing

First  viewed  : 26  April  1980

While  the  nation  sweated over  the  fate  of  J.R.  and  the  identity  of  his  assailant  our  thirst  for  all  things  Ewing  was  partly  salved  by  a  spinoff  series  following  the  fortunes  of  errant  middle  brother  Gary  and  his  white  trash  wife  Valene  as  they  started  a  new  life  together,  far  away  from  you-know-who,  in  California.

The  idea  for  Knots  Landing   actually  pre-dated  Dallas  in  the  mind  of   their  creator   David Jacobs  but  it  was  not  until  the  success  of  the  latter  that  he  got  the  green  light  for  it  by transplanting  Gaz  and  Val  into  the  new  setting. It  was  trailed  by  an  episode  early  on  in  the third  season  of  Dallas  where  Gary  appears  with  a  new  head  ( Ted  Shackelford  )   reunites  with  Val  ( an  unchanged  Joan  Van  Ark )  and  Miss  Ellie  buys  them  a  house  in  a   suburban  cul-de-sac  somewhere  in  California.

Gary  and  Valene  were  just  one  of  four  married  couples  in  the  crescent; the  other  three  had  no  connection  to  Dallas.  Their  neighbours  were  Sid  and  Karen  Fairgate  ( former  Monroe  co-star  Don  Murray  and  Michele  Lee )  and  their  three  kids , sleazy  lawyer  Richard  Avery ( John  Pleshette )  and  wife  Laura  ( Constance McCashin ) who  had  one  son  and  a  younger  couple  , record  producer  Kenny  Ward  ( James  Houghton ) and  wife  Ginger  ( Kim  Lankford )  who  were currently  childless. Sid  helps  in  getting  Gary  back  on  his  feet  by  giving  Gary  a  job  at  his   car  dealership.     

Though  relatively  affluent  the  characters  were   middle  class,  not  super-rich  like  the  Ewings   and  subject  to  economic  vicissitudes. Therefore  the  series  had  a  much  greater  emphasis  on contemporary  social  issues  and  more  youth-related  storylines  with  the  Fairgates'  teenage children  to  deploy. In  the  first  couple  of  seasons  there  were  frequent  guest  appearances  by other  more  familiar  Ewings  but  as  the  series  found  its  own  feet  these  were  gradually  phased out.  When  Dallas   "jumped  the  shark "  by  resurrecting  Bobby  from  the  dead, the  producers  of Knots  Landing  decided  to  cut  the  umbilical  cord  and  there  was  no  more  crossover  between the  two  series; as  far  as  Gary  and  Val  were  concerned , Bobby  remained in  his  grave.*

Although  usually  regarded  as  the  poor  relation,  Knots  Landing  eventually  overtook  Dallas  in the  ratings  and  survived  for  long  enough  after  the parent  show's  demise  to  become  the longer-running  of  the  two  shows. It  finished  in  1993  with  an  inevitable  two-part  mini-series  four years  later. Michele  Lee  appeared  in  every  episode.

In  the  UK  the  first  series  went  straight  into  the   Saturday  night  time  slot  vacated  by  Dallas. It  took  some  getting  used  to  because  it  was  so  different  from  Dallas  but  it  finished  very strongly  with  a  harrowing  two-parter  when  Gary  fell  off  the  wagon  and  you  saw  a  whole different  side  to  him . Both  Shackelford  and  Van  Ark  were  terrific  in  it  and  established  Gary and  Valene  as  strong  characters  in  their  own  right.

The  second  series  a  year  later  was  switched  to  Friday  nights.  It  saw  the  introduction  of  Donna  Mills  ( Clint  Eastwood's  girlfriend  in  Play  Misty  For  Me )  as  Sid's  sister  Abby  , a  homewrecker  and  all  round  nightmare  who  quickly  became  the  series'  J.R.  figure. She  was  a  plus  but  the  series  was  a  bit  uneven. There  was  a  strong  episode  where  the  Fairgates' youngest  son  turned  out  to  have  ADHD  , all  the  better  for  not  having  a  glib  conclusion  and then  a  terrible  one  where  their   eldest  son  saves  an  overdose  victim  and  the  other  characters keep  saying  he  is " the  man  of  the  hour"  ad  nauseam.

At  the end  of  the  season,  Sid's   sabotaged  car  plunged  off  a  cliff  leaving  him  on  life  support. We  had  a  long  wait  to  learn  his  fate  as  the  series  didn't  return  until  September  1983 , again  on  Fridays. Don  Murray  wanted  to  quit  the  series  so  Sid  eventually  copped  it  in  Episode  Two. I  may  have  seen  one  more  episode  before  I  headed  off  to  university  and  abandoned  Knots  Landing  for  good. Just  as  well  really  because  the  Beeb   axed   it  before  the  season  was  complete  that  December.

I  can't  remember  too  much  protest  at  the  time. It  was  reinstated  almost  three  years  later  when  it  became  part  of  the  new  daytime  schedule  in  October  1986. I  remember  Wogan  being  pretty  sarky  about  "the  long-awaited  return  of  Knots  Landing"  and  I  never  watched  any  more  of  it. To  its  credit  the  Beeb  started  it  where  they  had  left  off   and  showed  the  entire  series, though  always  at  least  three  years  behind  the  US , through  to  the  finish, which  in  the  UK  came  in  1996.

* Gary  and  Val  appeared  briefly  in  the  recent  revival  of  Dallas   with  Bobby  but   of  course   Knots  Landing  was  long  since  over  by  then.      

433 Russ Abbot's Madhouse

First  watched :  Spring  1980

This  is  another  plank  to  support  the  argument  that  Little  and  Large  weren't  the  worst  comedy  act  around.

Russ  Abbot  had  been  a  member  of  The  Black  Abbots  , a  comedy  musical  troupe  similar  to  The  Grumbleweeds , during  the  seventies  but  first  appeared  as  a  solo  performer  on  the  ill-fated  Bruce  Forsyth's  Big  Night.  Russ  emerged  from  the  wreckage  with  his  own  show.

At  33  - and  he  looked  every  year  of  it - Russ  was  no  spring  chicken  and  to  me  came  across  as  a  self-conscious  uncle  doing  a  silly  turn  at  a  wedding. He  would  have  been  fine  on  Crackerjack  but  to  someone  now  looking  to  be  entertained  as  an  adult  he  seemed  an  insult  to  the  intelligence. As  a  result  any  announcement  that  he  would  be  featuring  was  the  equivalent  of  a  "Beware : Radiation"  sign  on  the  door.

Obviously  Russ  did / does   have  an  audience   and  is  still  popular  today  although  he's  moved  into  straight  roles  in  recent  years.    

432 The Sun Trap

First  viewed : 25  April  1980

Here's  another  show  that's  fallen  through  the  cracks and  a  reminder  that  most  comic  writers have  something  that  didn't  quite  work  on  their  c.v.

The  Sun  Trap  was  the  next  series  written  by  David  Nobbs  after  The  Fall  and  Rise  of Reginald  Perrin.   It   concerned  a  group  of  middle-aged  British  expats  living   on  an  un-named Mediterranean  island  who  can  find  nothing  better  to  do  than  meet up  in  the  bar  to  grumble  about  the  state  of  things  back  home  and  their  unfulfilled  lives.

That,  I  think,  was  the  main  problem, expecting  the  viewers  to  find  any  warmth  towards  these  privileged  whingers  while  unemployment  crept  up  towards  three  million.  There  was  no  Everyman  figure  like   Reggie  with  whom  you  could  sympathise . The  only  similarity  with  Perrin   was  the  use  of  catchphrases  but  here  it  seemed  like  the  scripts  were  relying  on  them  alone  for  laughs. Despite  this  over-reliance  on  catchphrases,  the  only  one  I  can  actually  remember  was  appalling  bore  Robert   ( Derek  Waring )  regaling  all  and  sundry  with  how  he'd  blown  his  weather  forecasting  debut   - "forecast  deep  snowdrifts  in  the  Irish  Sea". Not  exactly  "I  didn't  get  where  I  am  today"  is  it ?"

There  was  a  decent  idea  for  a  Play  for  Today  in  the  situation  but  it  didn't  work  as  a  comedy.

The  show  was  universally  panned  and  taken  off  air  after  just  six  episodes. Nobbs  himself  took  the  criticism  on  the  chin  and  acknowledged  he'd  got  it  wrong.  The  Beeb  of  course  didn't  learn  their  lesson  and  a  dozen  years  later  brought  about  an  even  bigger  debacle  by  deciding  to  base  a  nightly  soap  in  a  similar  setting.

431 When Terry Met J.R.

First  viewed : 25  April  1980

We've  already  touched  on  this  in  the  post  on  Dallas   but  it's  worth  re-emphasising  just  how  big  the  series  was  at  this  point  in  time.  That  wasn't  all  down  to  Terry  Wogan's  running  commentary  on   Radio  Two  but  he  certainly  drew  more  viewers   to  the  show   which  in  turn  attracted  its  undoubted  star  over  to  the  UK.  It  was  obvious  that  he  should  meet  the  show's  greatest  publicist.

This  was  a  re-broadcast  of  the  interview  which  had  taken  place   a  month  earlier  on  BBC2's  late  night  chat  show  Friday  Night.....Saturday  Morning , previously  best  known  for  the  notorious  couple  of  episodes  hosted  by  ex-Prime  Minister  Harold  Wilson  who  ran  out  of  things  to  say  in  an  early  intimation  of  his  Alzheimer's  condition.  That  show, the  first  Wogan  had  hosted, went  out  at  23.55 pm  so  there  was  a  big  clamour  for  a  repeat  at  a  more  godly  hour.

The  interview  was  an  amiable  encounter. Both  guys  clearly  liked  each  other  and  Hagman , though  clearly  still  a  bit  bemused  by  his  stardom  at  48  after  three  decades as  a  solid supporting  player, proved  to  have  a  sense  of  humour. He  had  brought  along  a  gift  for  Terry in the  form  of  a  jar  of  "genuine  Texas  bullshit "  which  stayed  in  the  repeat  despite  the  pre-9pm time  slot.  He  did  have  another  agenda  though  ; his  visit  to  Britain  was  part  of  a  lengthy contract  re-negotiation  strategy  to  prove  he  was  indispensable  and  his   successful   brinkmanship  made  him  one  of  the  highest-paid  stars  on  television.

The  encounter  worked  out  well  for  Wogan  too  as  it  marked  the  start  of  his  career  as  a  chat  show  host   which   lasting   for   over  a  decade. That  was  a  mixed  blessing  as  it's  generally  acknowledged  that  his  TV   stint   temporarily   neutered  one  of  the  most  slyly  subversive  voices  on  radio. We'll  come  back  to  that  of  course.

One  other  thing  to  mention  here  is  that  Wogan's  Dallas  fixation  did  popularise   watching  television  with  a  sense  of  irony.  No  doubt  Oxbridge  undergraduates  had  been  doing  that  for  years  but  now  everyone  cottoned  on  to  the  fact  that  you  could  justify  watching  the  most  lowbrow  trash  if  you  could  come  up  with  some  intelligent  quips  about  it. People  have  made  a  living  out  of  doing  little  more  than  that  ever  since.