Lord Emsworth
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jan 13, 2020 15:14:18 GMT
Any other Budgie fans in the forum?
I was quite suprised not to be able to find a thread but I'm confident there isn't one
From August 1970-June 1971, chart singer Adam Faith filmed a comedy drama as petty thief Ronald "Budgie" Bird. The series also starred Iain Cuthbertson as his criminal associate Charlie Endell, and Lynn Dalby as his girlfriend Hazel.
Budgie returned to television from April-July 1972 for a further thirteen episodes. Adam Faith being in a near-fatal car accident is often cited as the reason why the series was discontinued, but in his 1996 autobiography Acts of Faith it's strongly implied that the series had run its course and he was going to continue his acting career elsewhere.
I've just got the DVD containing all 26 episodes of the 1970s drama starring Adam Faith as petty crook Ron 'Budgie' Bird who constantly finds himself embroiled in petty scams and get rich quick schemes - none of which seem to end in success, and all of which seem to get Budgie in trouble with the police, and with his dodgy underworld boss, Charlie Endell (Iain Cuthbertson).
Episodes are: 'Out'; 'Some Mother's Son'; 'Brains'; 'Grandee Hotel'; 'In Deep'; 'Could Do Better'; 'Best Mates'; 'Everybody Loves a Baby'; 'A Pair of Charlies'; 'Fiddler on the Hoof (Part 1)'; 'Fiddler on the Hoof (Part 2)'; 'Sunset Mansions, Or, Whatever Happened to Janey Babe?'; 'And In Again'; 'Dreaming of Thee'; 'And the Lord Taketh Away'; 'Louie the Ring is Dead and Buried in Kensal Green Cemetery'; 'The Jump-Up Boys'; 'Our Story So Far'; 'Do Me a Favour'; 'Glory of Fulham'; '24,000 Ball Point Pens'; 'King For a Day'; 'The Outside Man'; 'The Man Outside'; 'Brief Encounter'; and 'Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run'.
This review on Amazon makes me hopefully that the series will still stand up (I haven't watched since I was a child of about 10)....
This is a genuine classic despite, as has been said in other reviews the inevitable couple of duff episodes. I wasn't in the UK for series one but enjoyed series two on its initial broadcast and, frankly, was expecting, as they say in Dr Who circles, the memory to cheat. Well it didn't and I'd recommend the series wholeheartedly.
I won't bother going into any synopses -others have done that- but I was astonished at the huge range of acting talent involved. Aside from producer Verity Lambert (Dr Who being the highlight of her stellar career), the list includes Gordon Jackson, John Thaw, Anthony Valentine, Peter Sallis, James Bolam, the psychotically brilliant Georgina Hale, Derek Jacobi, Margaret Nolan and Anouska Hemple (in the same episode) and John Rhys-Davis as the brilliantly-monikered Laughing Spam Fritter.
As for Iain Cuthbertson -in my humble opinion Charlie Endell is one of the great villains of all time up there with Bill Sykes and Ernst Blofeld. The only real downside to this box set is the shockingly bad quality of the prints -both sound and vision. Why oh why do we allow so much great TV and film to deteriorate to this level? Take a note Network -if your going to release classic series (and long may you do so) a little bit of restorative investment wouldn't go amiss -though the extras were most insightful and welcome.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Jan 13, 2020 15:18:43 GMT
From the "21 Years of ITV" book (see other threads)! Loved the theme tune to this!
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Jan 14, 2020 10:12:19 GMT
I've only seen the odd episode of this and quite enjoyed it. It's gone on the Network DVD shopping list.
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Lord Emsworth
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Jan 14, 2020 10:18:08 GMT
Great news Sparky.
As soon as I start watching it I'll post a few musings on this thread.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Jan 14, 2020 18:48:27 GMT
I can't find a Budgie thread either ( there's a thread for the comedy spin off 'Charles Endell Esq' ) though it has been talked about in passing. Very well written show & Faith is very good, as the quote says 'terrifically cast'. It hasn't been repeated often which is probably why it hasn't been talked about much, I remember seeing repeats on channel 4 in the late 80's.
I watched several episodes more recently & found Bird to be an unlikeable character on the whole, the wrong side of jack the lad, from memory he treats people pretty shabbily.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Jan 14, 2020 20:27:11 GMT
I know of the series and I have seen brief bits of it.
Iain Cutherbertson is a great character actor.
He was in a series called The Borderers set in the borders (funnily enough) of Scotland/England, where we happened to be living at the time (1968-70).
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Post by Dirty Epic on Jan 15, 2020 7:59:28 GMT
Good thread, post and review for Budgie there LE.
I vaguely remember a few of the Channel 4 repeats in the early/mid-80's but haven't really seen Budgie since. IIRC I don't think C4 showed all the episodes and had it on some kind of late-night/graveyard shift slot when they did these repeats which is probably why it seems a little forgotten these days. I wonder if UK Gold maybe repeated this in the early 90's, it rings a bell? It's definitely not been on anywhere else and something like Budgie could've easily been a good repeat job for ITV3 and/or Drama in recent years, but they seem content repeating the same 4-5 shows almost on a loop...
Again it might get a airing on Talking Pictures but being a LWT (ITV Studios) rather than Thames/Freemantle show would TP be able to acquire the rights to this? Also unlikely as it seems is there any block on TV repeats for this? Could explain it's fading away since the mid-80's?
It probably is fairly good but would have to see a few episodes before considering purchasing had that a few times when I've seen things like Mitch and Rockcliffe's Babies which weren't as good as I remembered them, there might be a few on YouTube I'll try and have a watch of.
Keep us posted with your viewing of Budgie LE, be interesting to see what you make of it.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Jan 15, 2020 12:48:20 GMT
Good thread, post and review for Budgie there LE.
I vaguely remember a few of the Channel 4 repeats in the early/mid-80's but haven't really seen Budgie since. IIRC I don't think C4 showed all the episodes and had it on some kind of late-night/graveyard shift slot when they did these repeats which is probably why it seems a little forgotten these days. I wonder if UK Gold maybe repeated this in the early 90's, it rings a bell? It's definitely not been on anywhere else and something like Budgie could've easily been a good repeat job for ITV3 and/or Drama in recent years, but they seem content repeating the same 4-5 shows almost on a loop...
Again it might get a airing on Talking Pictures but being a LWT (ITV Studios) rather than Thames/Freemantle show would TP be able to acquire the rights to this? Also unlikely as it seems is there any block on TV repeats for this? Could explain it's fading away since the mid-80's?
It probably is fairly good but would have to see a few episodes before considering purchasing had that a few times when I've seen things like Mitch and Rockcliffe's Babies which weren't as good as I remembered them, there might be a few on YouTube I'll try and have a watch of.
Keep us posted with your viewing of Budgie LE, be interesting to see what you make of it. Think I must have seen it on C4, they repeated Callan at a similar time, which I did watch.
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Post by Ronnie Kray on Mar 1, 2020 11:12:17 GMT
Budgie was a great series,Adam faith plays the character really well.If you are thinking about getting it from network then do it,the first few episodes are in back and white as there was some strike action or something going on. Those were the days!!!
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Lord Emsworth
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Post by Lord Emsworth on Mar 1, 2020 18:50:05 GMT
Budgie was a great series,Adam faith plays the character really well.If you are thinking about getting it from network then do it,the first few episodes are in back and white as there was some strike action or something going on. Those were the days!!! Thanks Ronnie
The boxset is on the shelf and waiting the right moment
V excited to get stuck in
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