Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Jul 2, 2019 20:40:57 GMT
In my early to mid teens I was a regular at the local video rental shop, my mum used to take me down & I'd pick out some video nasty for her to hand to the bloke behind the counter Films that seem tame by today's standards but in the 80's with only 3 or 4 tv channels these films were the first time anyone would've seen explicit violence/gore. My mum made the odd comment about some of the titles, I remember her worrying about me watching 'First Blood' because it had 'blood' in the title. I usually watched the films by myself when the family were out or in bed but on one occasion the family sat down to watch 'Death Wish 2'...big mistake...my mum was disgusted by the rape scene early on & told my dad to turn it off. Pretty awkward.
Whenever there was a show or film with adult content on tv that I wanted to record I'd place an empty video cassette box against the machine's display so no one could see I was taping it. You could still hear the VCR whirring but I usually got away with it. One time my brother set the video to tape 'The Great Rock N Roll Swindle' on channel 4, my dad happened to turn it on towards the end of the film when 'Frigging In The Rigging' is playing. He stopped recording it & lectured my brother the next day about foul language.
I was a big fan of horror films as a teen & had gory film posters all over my bedroom walls, whenever I did anything wrong my parents liked to put my behaviour down to 'all those horror films you watch'. Used to get stick at school as well from other kids for watching them.
Happy days
On a different note I recall the Steve Davis/Dennis Taylor snooker final in April 1985, as you may remember it was an epic battle & didn't finish till after midnight. I still remember the headmaster talking about it the following day at assembly. According to wikipedia it still has the record for highest viewing figures ever after midnight in UK tv history.
Those video nasties were always in the news in the 80s. I went to bed when it was obvious Steve Davis was going to win.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Jul 2, 2019 22:47:07 GMT
I was still at school when Channel 4's so-called 'red triangle' season of foreign films was on in 1986. I think I watched a couple of them, the French film in the trailer below 'Themroc' was criticised by the National Viewers And Listener's Association ( Mary Whitehouse & co ) for showing a policeman being killed & eaten. The film is actually a black comedy & like the other films in the season isn't particularly offensive, certainly not by today's standards.
During this period I was watching 'alternative comedy' shows such as 'Saturday Live' hosted by Ben Elton & featuring Stavros, The Dangerous Brothers, etc. I had a portable tv in my room, this sort of thing wasn't family viewing.
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Post by Dirty Epic on Jul 3, 2019 6:15:45 GMT
Enjoyable to see everyone’s lists so far. Here’s a few of mine I managed to see as a kid too!
• The Professionals – used to be a stay up treat watching it when the first series went out on a Saturday night at 9pm, I remember seeing Heroes back then too. • Not The Nine O’Clock News – would be great if the BBC would re-release all of the full episodes for this rather than those 90 minute compilations. Still time has seen them all become exactly what they used to lampoon here. • The Sweeney – caught a 1984 repeat after News At Ten and got hooked ever since… • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy/Smilie’s People. • Fawlty Towers. • Tales Out of School – I was allowed to watch Birth of A Nation and the infamous Made in Britain when these aired in late 1982, although sort of think my dad was ready to turn them off when they (especially Made in Britain) got a bit rough and heavy on the dialogue. Remember them getting talked about in school too. • One Summer – again a borderline one (swearing etc.) I was just about allowed to watch again back in 1982. Billy and Icky became a bit of a folklore back then too. • Boys From The Blackstuff. • Auf Pet – especially from the 1985/86 Series 2 which had us glued to it! Brilliant stuff. • Scully – not sure you could really say that was a ‘adult’ one but definitely not a family comedy either! • Out – not when it first went out, but one of the early ‘80’s repeats on Channel 4 I think, although don’t remember much about it until I watched it properly in the mid ‘90’s when UK Gold repeated it. Might have also seen Trevor Preston’s like this Fox too but not sure. • OTT – saw a few minutes of the adult Tiswas before being sent to bed as it was a bit erm OTT, in hindsight heard it was shite so didn’t miss much! • The Young Ones/The Comic Strip - although most of The Comic Strip output is absolute rubbish when you consider it retrospectively, for every good one like Bad News or The Bullshitters you got 20 odd crappy PC laden diatribes that went nowhere! Also like NTNON the participants sort of became what they were railing against IMHO! • Naked Video – brilliant stuff and my first introduction to wry Scottish humour, Glasgow patter and Rab C Nesbitt who emerged a few years later. • Film 4 showing’s – in particular films like Rita Sue and Bob Too and Letter to Brezhnev. Used to enjoy watching my VHS recording of 'Brezhnev' on Saturday morning instead of crap kids TV like Going Live etc. • The Firm – Alan Clarke’s infamous football hooligan drama held back from 1988 due to Eng-er-land (sic) qualifying for the Euro’s that year, although by late-1989 when it was shown I was in my teens so perhaps I was no longer a 'child' when I saw it. • Network 7 – Channel 4's first attempt at a 'yoof' programme good in parts, poor in others and sort of felt like the twentysomthing's London-media set attempt of staying cool and 'down' with the kids here, some things never change. Again I'm sort of cheating a bit with this one as I was on the cusp of my teens when this went out. Also paved the way for BBC's Def II to emerge a few years later too.
Also as the 80’s moved on I was allowed to generally see more of the ‘action’ films that were around at the time but as these aren’t really what this post is about/on topic I’ve kept these off here. Also I think the more a programme had swearing/violence in it the more you wanted to watch it back then as it seemed cooler/harder than the general run of the mill stuff around. Some absolute rubbish falls into this category when considering that retrospectively.
Fast forward a decade and there was a lot more ‘adult themed’ stuff around although I didn’t really watch most of it as I was out/about mainly and being an adult then it didn’t really shock or impress me as much as watching some of that stuff did when I was pre-teen. A few things I did watch back then were the likes of Spender, Our Friends In The North, Thief Takers, Looking After jojo, Rab C Nesbitt, GBH, Tinsel Town and Taggart one off stuff like Loved Up and Coming Down and odd episodes of The Cops. Also a lot of the 70’s/80’s stuff I missed at the time got repeated around this time too so managed to see stuff like Scum, Out, Fox, Special Branch, Sense of Freedom etc. even Prisoner Cell Block H! I did watch also watch non-drama stuff like The Word, TFI Friday etc. but wasn't really that fussed about them to be honest - and couldn't stand Chris Evans etc. even back then!
Fast forward another decade and everything seems to have gone 2-3 decades back from the 1980’s with ‘genteel’ drama especially period drama’s ruling the roost now. With a few exceptions there’s nothing that I really go out my way to watch now!
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Jul 3, 2019 7:10:04 GMT
Interesting and comprehensive comments there DE.
I like some of Comic Strip stuff, there ripoff of the Famous Five was amusing.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Jul 3, 2019 13:23:01 GMT
In my early to mid teens I was a regular at the local video rental shop, my mum used to take me down & I'd pick out some video nasty for her to hand to the bloke behind the counter Films that seem tame by today's standards but in the 80's with only 3 or 4 tv channels these films were the first time anyone would've seen explicit violence/gore. My mum made the odd comment about some of the titles, I remember her worrying about me watching 'First Blood' because it had 'blood' in the title. I usually watched the films by myself when the family were out or in bed but on one occasion the family sat down to watch 'Death Wish 2'...big mistake...my mum was disgusted by the rape scene early on & told my dad to turn it off. Pretty awkward.
Do the videos found and Thornley Manor fit anywhere in this category?
Interesting point there Arthur. Many 'Video Nasties' are nothing compared to standards of today.
Though, by the early 80s - the home video market was booming - anyone remember the "video man" who used to roll around with a large suitcase full of Video Tapes - many of dubious origin, quality and content?? It was claimed that the home video market boosted the Porn and Video Nasty industry...
I don't believe this to be totally true, as both genres of films have always been about - with Horror; we've had "Hammer" and myriads of US "B" movies.
Porn films have been about in some form, since the invention of the camera - though it became big business in the 60s/70s. With organised crime funding many of the films (Mafia were known to fund a few).
Incidentally - that area of Film Making isn't recognised by the normal unions - so they have their own people/unions/methods.
Back to topic - the first Horror film I saw, was "Halloween", when it was shown on ITV. And it frightened the living s**t out of me. In hindsight, it's perhaps now, my only favourite Horror film - due to it's production standards - and the fact, it "could" have been a genuine story. Also - it was the first commercial use of the "Steadycam" too - even before "The Shining"!!!
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Jul 3, 2019 16:51:13 GMT
Funny you should mention Steadicam Sparky as 'Made In Britain' that Dirty listed famously used it. Not sure if I saw Made In Britain first time around, I think it was probably repeated on Channel 4.
The Ian McKellen film drama 'Walter', about an adult with learning difficulties first shown on Channel 4's opening night, had quite a disturbing effect on me, the scenes in the mental hospital in particular.
The first time I saw female nudity on tv was probably in one of the Hammer vampire films, 'Lust For A Vampire', 'Twins Of Evil', etc. First full frontal may have been in 'The Blood On Satan's Claw'.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Jul 3, 2019 17:09:49 GMT
In my early to mid teens I was a regular at the local video rental shop, my mum used to take me down & I'd pick out some video nasty for her to hand to the bloke behind the counter Films that seem tame by today's standards but in the 80's with only 3 or 4 tv channels these films were the first time anyone would've seen explicit violence/gore. My mum made the odd comment about some of the titles, I remember her worrying about me watching 'First Blood' because it had 'blood' in the title. I usually watched the films by myself when the family were out or in bed but on one occasion the family sat down to watch 'Death Wish 2'...big mistake...my mum was disgusted by the rape scene early on & told my dad to turn it off. Pretty awkward.
Do the videos found and Thornley Manor fit anywhere in this category?
Interesting point there Arthur. Many 'Video Nasties' are nothing compared to standards of today.
Though, by the early 80s - the home video market was booming - anyone remember the "video man" who used to roll around with a large suitcase full of Video Tapes - many of dubious origin, quality and content?? It was claimed that the home video market boosted the Porn and Video Nasty industry...
I don't believe this to be totally true, as both genres of films have always been about - with Horror; we've had "Hammer" and myriads of US "B" movies.
Porn films have been about in some form, since the invention of the camera - though it became big business in the 60s/70s. With organised crime funding many of the films (Mafia were known to fund a few).
Incidentally - that area of Film Making isn't recognised by the normal unions - so they have their own people/unions/methods.
Back to topic - the first Horror film I saw, was "Halloween", when it was shown on ITV. And it frightened the living s**t out of me. In hindsight, it's perhaps now, my only favourite Horror film - due to it's production standards - and the fact, it "could" have been a genuine story. Also - it was the first commercial use of the "Steadycam" too - even before "The Shining"!!!
Sparky, too right about video nasties, the Saw franchise is probably more graphic. Does nothing for me, I prefer a story. Likewise with Halloween, I also saw it on tv about 81, properly scary. Brilliant music and opening titles.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Jul 3, 2019 17:26:43 GMT
Funny you should mention Steadicam Sparky as 'Made In Britain' that Dirty listed famously used it. Not sure if I saw Made In Britain first time around, I think it was probably repeated on Channel 4.
The Ian McKellen film drama 'Walter', about an adult with learning difficulties first shown on Channel 4's opening night, had quite a disturbing effect on me, the scenes in the mental hospital in particular.
The first time I saw female nudity on tv was probably in one of the Hammer vampire films, 'Lust For A Vampire', 'Twins Of Evil', etc. First full frontal may have been in 'The Blood On Satan's Claw'.
There are other systems available. "Steadycam" was the first commercial, and readily available for hire to anyone setup. In the early versions, the operator wore a harness holding the camera in 0 gravity - the operator could only spend a certain amount of time in this setup, as it could damage his/her back. It's be like wearing a tight corset, with handful of house bricks strapped to the front! You can buy cheaper versions for home use which are quite effective. It was also very expensive to hire.
I loved the Hammer Films; and also have a soft spot for the old US "B" Movies.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Jul 3, 2019 17:29:02 GMT
Sparky, too right about video nasties, the Saw franchise is probably more graphic. Does nothing for me, I prefer a story. Likewise with Halloween, I also saw it on tv about 81, properly scary. Brilliant music and opening titles. The opening titles are scary as heck - but simple. Turn the sound down on the TV and watch it - it isn't quite as scary!
These days - Producers are trying to outdo each other, as well as push boundaries to see what they can get away with, with the censors. The Censors seem a little more relaxed these days - they try to reflect our changing attitudes.
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Post by Vienna on Jul 3, 2019 17:31:24 GMT
A lot of the so-called video nasties from the 1980s are available to watch on Arrow Video. I have seen quite a few of them. Many are just laughable and are pretty tame viewing for today's horror audiences. However, one or two are quite unpleasant to watch such as Mark of the Devil from 1969; a sort of nasty European version of Witchfinder General.
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