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Post by Arthur Pringle on Nov 12, 2019 18:00:55 GMT
A review from Halliwell's TV Companion mentions the play was shelved for 2 years 'on the grounds of taste'. I looked up 'The Big Eat' on imdb, described as- 'an eating contest is staged for a new TV show - with fatal results', I'd like to see that but it's probably missing presumed wiped like a lot of BBC tv from the 60's.
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Vienna
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Post by Vienna on Nov 12, 2019 19:14:29 GMT
I watched this Armchair Theatre play a few days ago, 'The Trial Of Dr Fancy' by Clive Exton. I know Clive Exton from a few things, he wrote the screenplay for '10 Rillington Place' but had no idea what to expect from this play, it turned out to be a bizarre & hilarious black comedy that proved to be quite controversial at the time it was written, if you watch it you'll discover why. It's one of those plays that gets progressively funnier as it goes along with a brilliant ending.
Btw, this play was directed by the man who did the first Rambo film, 'First Blood'.
I always think of Clive Exton with Agatha Christie's Poirot. I think he was involved in a lot of the scripts for the series in its early days. Nice find Arthur
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Nov 25, 2019 19:43:42 GMT
I've been watching episodes of Z Cars from the 70's & found them surprisingly good compared to the 70's Dixon Of Dock Green. Well written with some great performances.
Professionals fans might already be familiar with these episodes featuring Lewis Collins ( his first screen acting job according to imdb ) & Martin Shaw. Looking at Shaw's hair you wonder what posessed him to have a perm, it did him no favours. Some great drunk acting in Shaw's episode. What struck me whilst watching these shows is the absence of incidental music & the naturalness of the sound, even for a programme from the 70's.
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Post by Charles Bronson on Nov 25, 2019 20:54:07 GMT
Thanks for putting this up Arthur. I will be watching some of these episodes. Z Cars was set near to were I once lived earlier in my life, and It was very good in it's time specially the very early series which went out live of course.
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Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on Nov 25, 2019 21:40:52 GMT
Interesting and thanks Art, not seen those before, as you say superb acting from Shaw and a taster of the pasting he'd sometimes get later on as Doyle! The was he says "You bastard!" is just the same as the way he said it in a Pro's ep I remember!
Lewis's acting was a very good debut I thought, I think I remember reading about this part, and a couple of Sweeney people in the episode too! (Both from series 3 I notice!).
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Dec 2, 2019 18:26:57 GMT
News Of The World ad in dubious taste-
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Dec 15, 2019 17:28:41 GMT
'Mr Puniverse' is something I'd forgotten all about, in fact I don't actually remember it being an actual contest, more a generic insult for any underweight man. A contest it was though as this edition of The Late Late Breakfast Show shows. Back then people were less concerned about body image, not so aware re health issues & probably didn't think much of watching sometimes unhealthily underweight men paraded for laughs.
Today there would be complaints & accusations of sexism, 'where is the 'Miss Puniverse' contest?' etc. & it has to be said that a female version would be a very uncomfortable spectacle. Being underweight is actually not healthy at all & can obviously be the result of an eating disorder, some of the men in this clip look very underweight, I googled the name of the winner & he died aged 49 from a muscle related condition.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Dec 15, 2019 19:35:37 GMT
All a bit dire AP.
Just looks like humiliation.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on Dec 15, 2019 20:29:57 GMT
It's funny, I doubt it would get a mention on 'It Was Alright In The 80s' as an example of dated attitudes, but it is basically an exercise in humiliating underweight men, listening to the contestants speak they also appeared to be very quiet types. All a bit strange.
The show was cancelled after a stunt went wrong resulting in a man's death, but according to wikipedia the producers had already had complaints from the Health And Safety Executive & a few people had sustained injuries, including Barbara Sleeman who Noel speaks to on the phone in the same episode. She broke her shoulder after being fired from a cannon.
The clip below shows a pretty horrendous accident, but Edmonds doesn't seem too concerned. Then bizarrely there is another crash & the credits roll. The driver fractured his pelvis and injured his head, neck and back.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Dec 15, 2019 20:43:18 GMT
That stunt looks mad. Why do it in Jensen which must be front end heavy? How he survived is a miracle.
I remember the other guy getting killed, that just shouldn't have happened, it was easy to prevent with some additional safety measures.
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