Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on May 9, 2021 12:32:52 GMT
Forces TV. This channel has many retro programmes of interest so worth keeping an eye on. I've only really started watching it this year after Arthur mentioned it on another thread I've been watching the full series of Citizen Smith on it. As many of you might know it was written by John Sullivan of Only Fools And Horses fame and ran for four series between 1977 and 1980. You can find FORCES T.V on Freeview channel 96, Sky 264, Freesat 165 and Virgin 277.
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Post by Arthur Pringle on May 9, 2021 13:55:12 GMT
I've been watching Citizen Smith as well, like OFAH the characters & storylines aren't too credible but the dialogue is very good. It was a clever idea to have Smith living with his girlfriend's mum & dad, I think Peter Vaughan/Tony Steedman & Hilda Braid steal the show, much like Grandad does in OFAH.
Not sure why members of the armed forces would be given 80's sitcoms & The Dukes Of Hazzard to watch though I'm assuming that the channel was set up for people stationed overseas in the military, wouldn't most of them be in their 20's/30's? Men & Motors type content would be more up their street I would've thought.
It's interesting about Citizen Smith, there's no way you could make a comedy about a Far Right activist but to have a Communist character with a Communist flag bedspread ( given that hundreds of millions suffered & died under Communist regimes ) is acceptable somehow. You see it in Rising Damp & Steptoe And Son, posters of Mao Tse Tung on the walls.
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Nightfly
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Post by Nightfly on May 9, 2021 14:15:27 GMT
Not sure why members of the armed forces would be given 80's sitcoms & The Dukes Of Hazzard to watch though I'm assuming that the channel was set up for people stationed overseas in the military, wouldn't most of them be in their 20's/30's? Men & Motors type content would be more up their street I would've thought. I was thinking the same thing, though I understand a lot of the programming is aimed at veterans. I suppose the other BFBS radio and TV channels have the younger and current serving personnel covered. It's nice to be able to see the likes of Citizen Smith and Bless This House, though Sykes seems to be very much of its time, if that's a polite way of saying it. However, Get Some In is surprisingly better than I remembered it the first time round.
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on May 9, 2021 23:01:46 GMT
I've been watching Citizen Smith as well, like OFAH the characters & storylines aren't too credible but the dialogue is very good. It was a clever idea to have Smith living with his girlfriend's mum & dad, I think Peter Vaughan/Tony Steedman & Hilda Braid steal the show, much like Grandad does in OFAH.
Not sure why members of the armed forces would be given 80's sitcoms & The Dukes Of Hazzard to watch though I'm assuming that the channel was set up for people stationed overseas in the military, wouldn't most of them be in their 20's/30's? Men & Motors type content would be more up their street I would've thought.
It's interesting about Citizen Smith, there's no way you could make a comedy about a Far Right activist but to have a Communist character with a Communist flag bedspread ( given that hundreds of millions suffered & died under Communist regimes ) is acceptable somehow. You see it in Rising Damp & Steptoe And Son, posters of Mao Tse Tung on the walls.
I am enjoying Citizen Smith and see it as a light hearted bit of fun where unemployed communist fan boy Wolfie tries to establish The Tooting Popular Front. It's cast well and I'm in agreeance that Peter Vaughan and Hilda Braid often dominate proceedings. The way Hilda calls Wolfie " Foxy" in that very distinct delivery makes me smile every time. She was told it's Wolfie by Shirley a few times but still persists with it. I notice that John Sullivan's Citizen Smith characters share some traits with their OFAH cousins. Little things like joke delivery etc. That's not in anyway a criticism just a Sullivan hallmark really. Another nice little touch is the differing start of the show titles with the changing Power To The People jokes. Regarding the comedy theme, to me it plays on the derision of far left youth activists by an at the time stereotypical London family. It paints Wolfie as a young dreamer with silly notions of revolution, whilst Peter Vaughan's Dad character often displays his open dissatisfaction at his daughters choice of boyfriend. Wolfie or "Yeti" as he calls him is a total opposite to a man who served in the war and is proud of his middle class gains. It gets away with it as its clearly aimed at showing how absurd the idea of wanting a revolution in 70s Britain was. These days the prevalent London attitudes means the above could be reversed. Wolfie would be Dad and he would probably be annoyed and disgusted that his daughter has a Conservative boyfriend
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on May 11, 2021 14:51:29 GMT
Some really random UK produced TV series have popped up on Forces TV - stuff not seen for quite sometime. I wasn't aware that we could get Forces TV until we had retuned/re-scanned the Freeview box and it appeared.
At one time Forces TV was broadcast strictly to RAF/Navy/Army camps and the like. The whole operation was run from VHS video recorders.
When they updated the channel in the 90s, most of the gear was sold off through various Army Surplus stores.
I picked up an ex Forces TV VHS machine for about £25; still have it tucked away in the loft and use it for video transfers.
The selling point was it could playback SP / LP tapes in PAL, NTSC, SECAM and even CCTV tapes too. Quite a bargain!
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Bojan Scores
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Terry you’re very devious when a bird’s involved...
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Post by Bojan Scores on May 11, 2021 17:32:49 GMT
I occasionally try forces TV if there’s something interesting, maybe UFO or citizen Smith. I note Midnight Caller is on which takes me back to post match of the day Saturday night viewing on BBC1. Sykes, which I watched as a kid, well I just sat through it stony faced. The channel’s schedule just seems too Eclectic and doesn’t have an identity like ITV4 has. As mentioned earlier I couldn’t think of anyone in the military who’d watch this channel, maybe it needs rebranding?
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on May 11, 2021 17:48:16 GMT
I occasionally try forces TV if there’s something interesting, maybe UFO or citizen Smith. I note Midnight Caller is on which takes me back to post match of the day Saturday night viewing on BBC1. Sykes, which I watched as a kid, well I just sat through it stony faced. The channel’s schedule just seems too Eclectic and doesn’t have an identity like ITV4 has. As mentioned earlier I couldn’t think of anyone in the military who’d watch this channel, maybe it needs rebranding? I struggle to imagine a couple of serving soldiers out in Afghanistan discussing last nights repeats of "Trippers Day" or "The Dukes of Hazzard" while dismantling a road side bomb...
... or dancing across a minefield like Oz in "Auf Pet"
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Bojan Scores
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Terry you’re very devious when a bird’s involved...
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Post by Bojan Scores on May 11, 2021 17:52:55 GMT
I occasionally try forces TV if there’s something interesting, maybe UFO or citizen Smith. I note Midnight Caller is on which takes me back to post match of the day Saturday night viewing on BBC1. Sykes, which I watched as a kid, well I just sat through it stony faced. The channel’s schedule just seems too Eclectic and doesn’t have an identity like ITV4 has. As mentioned earlier I couldn’t think of anyone in the military who’d watch this channel, maybe it needs rebranding? I struggle to imagine a couple of serving soldiers out in Afghanistan discussing last nights repeats of "Trippers Day" or "The Dukes of Hazzard" while dismantling a road side bomb...
... or dancing across a minefield like Oz in "Auf Pet"
I know from personal experience that the TV/radio that would bring Royal Navy bases to a standstill was Clarkson era Top Gear and a daily dose of Ken Bruce’s Pop Master 😆
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Post by Arthur Pringle on May 11, 2021 19:36:44 GMT
I remember 'Midnight Caller' being on in the late 80's or whenever it was, odd to see it turn up again. If the bulk of the channel was military specific programming I could understand padding it out with random sitcoms & 70's/80's American shows, but Forces TV just seems like a dump for whatever shows they happen to be able to procure cheaply. I'm not a military person but it seems a bit disrespectful of the audience to me, imagine being a veteran unable to work due to PTSD & being treated to 'Sykes' & 'After Henry' for your trouble.
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Post by Charles Bronson on May 11, 2021 22:21:06 GMT
I've watched a few episodes of 'Never The Twain' on Forces TV, and very much enjoyed them. I never realized how good a series it was. Apart from that, I've not watched anything else on the channel up to now. I will check it again sometime.
Charles.
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