Bojan Scores
Cameraman
Terry you’re very devious when a bird’s involved...
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Post by Bojan Scores on Jan 26, 2022 20:31:06 GMT
Hazell is something I only watched a couple of years ago. I really enjoyed it, and it’s back on my watch list again. Whilst not familiar with the original characterisation, I loved Nicholas Ball’s laddish, cocky, amusing interpretation of what Hazell should be. This ‘laddish-ness’ is obviously present in things like The Sweeney and The Professionals and later in AWP so it’s an understandable, contemporary slant on the portrayal by Ball. Interestingly, despite being an arch shagger and tasty with his fists I never really think of Terry McCann in that bracket for some reason. As for John Bindon, he is genuinely frightening in the last episode, as you know he’s effectively playing himself. Honourable mention to Alan Lake’s villain in one episode as effortlessly menacing, again a guy in real life who was a bit tasty. I saw Terry Venables mention ‘Hazell’ on an episode of ‘The Big Match Replayed’ recently and made me think was there anything TV couldn’t do in the realm of pop culture? I’ve got a Williams/Venables novel called ‘They used to play on grass’ that has a good reputation and was supposed to have predicted some of Football’s soon to be future, I really need to read it!
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Post by Dirty Epic on Jan 27, 2022 11:01:36 GMT
I'm sort of on the same wavelength as you about Hazell BS , I heard some mixed things about it so never really investigated it until I saw the tail end of the episode 'Hazell Get's The Boot' which featured Billy Murray on TPTV and was hooked. It's nowhere near up there in the terms of an overall package with things like The Sweeney but does have some good moments and Nicholas Ball's portrayal of Hazell is just right for me and the times it was set and I do like the narrations he does in the episodes too which is something different from the other series of this type that were around at the time. I'll have to try and do a proper review of the episodes when I get some time some day. Generally it works for me and I've enjoyed the 2020/21 repeats that were on TPTV too with a cast of faces that were in many other things we've liked along with some different faces like John Bindon/Larry Lamb's episode where Bindon is as you say himself and as you say is truly menacing too. The two series are just about right a bit like Budgie it's a lighter version of rougher and tougher things around at that time like The Sweeney and in particular the more contemporary Target but unlike Target (which is also very good in a different way!) you do warm to Hazell and other characters like Cousin Tel a lot more.
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Vienna
Verified
Curled up on Miss Jones' lap
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Post by Vienna on Jan 27, 2022 18:33:51 GMT
I'll have to try and do a proper review of the episodes when I get some time some day. Generally it works for me and I've enjoyed the 2020/21 repeats that were on TPTV too with a cast of faces that were in many other things we've liked along with some different faces like John Bindon/Larry Lamb's episode where Bindon is as you say himself and as you say is truly menacing too. The two series are just about right a bit like Budgie it's a lighter version of rougher and tougher things around at that time like The Sweeney and in particular the more contemporary Target but unlike Target (which is also very good in a different way!) you do warm to Hazell and other characters like Cousin Tel a lot more. I'm really looking forward to your reviews of the episodes on this show, DE Hazell is quite an enjoyable series from the late 1970s. Vi
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Jan 29, 2022 14:15:05 GMT
I wonder if they called the character Hazell because he was a hard nut? I've not ready any of the Hazell novels but I have read the original 'Minder' novel & the characters of Terry & Arthur are very different from the tv show. So much depends on the casting of actors, Nicholas Ball has a jack the lad quality but physically he looks like a teenage boy. Similaly Tom Bell in 'Out', he has quite a sinister presence but is not physically intimidating, the scene at the end of the first episode of 'Out' where he easily overpowers the much bigger Oscar James & his henchman is not convincing. If Gordon Williams imagined Michael Elphick in the part he must've written Hazell as someone who at least looks like he might hit you, I like Nick Ball but he doesn't fit that bill at all. Dennis Waterman isn't that big physically but he does convince as a boxer, no doubt it helped that his real life brother was one.
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