The Two Ronnies - Series 9

The Two Ronnies - Series 9 with some extras.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Ronnies

Bed Of Roses update

The 12-episode third series of Bed of Roses recently concluded. This is an Australian drama-comedy targeted at the female audience and is also aired on RTÉ in Ireland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_of_Roses_%28TV_series%29

Last of the Summer Wine - update

Last autumn, with help of a good friend, I was able to upgrade a bunch of episodes to much better quality files and added some of the Christmas specials to that project when they were rebroadcast during the holiday season. These include #200 - 210 and 215 - 260. (261 - 297 are already very good quality.)
Then there were 2 DVD sets released since Boxing Day that have #131 - 172. So since October over 100 episodes have been upgraded. 
I'll keep an eye out for 211 - 214 airings and the next DVD release, probably near the end of the year, should have #173 - 193 so by that point just about everything should be "super"..... as that guy used to say in Reginald Perrin.
What's nice about a lot of these files is the episodes were filmed in a wider format but cropped for TV broadcast in the 90's. Now we're getting the full width of the video (although I've notice a little cropping of the height) suitable for wide screens without stretching out the picture.

Lark Rise alert

The few of you that got Disc 5 of Lark Rise need to get in touch with me as there is obviously something wrong with 4.1 and 4.2. Sorry.

The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady

The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady was a 1984 adaptation of the book by Edith Holden. It starred Pippa Guard as Holden (The Mallens, All Or Nothing At All, Hope And Glory, The Creatives, Roger Roger, Hearts And Bones).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Country_Diary_of_an_Edwardian_Lady

The Comic Strip Presents

The Comic Strip Presents is the television shows and films made by The Comic Strip, the group of comdians that included Youngs Ones Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, and Nigel Planer; Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Peter Richardson and frequently joined by Keith Allen and Robbie Coltrane.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Comic_Strip

Benidorm is back

Benidorm, the popular ITV comedy, returned tonight to start its 4th series. 6 new episodes this time around.
The Oracle and 'Telle are gone and there is no Mel as Geoffrey Hutchings passed away last year. This may be it for Benidorm as program creator Derren Litten has stated that it's time for him to move on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benidorm_%28TV_series%29

The Bill - 1998 Disc 2

The Bill - 1998 Disc 2. The Bill ran for about 2,400 episodes before shutting down at the end of last August.

Brookside - Disc 13

Brookside - Disc 13....episodes 230 - 248. Only 2,667 to go!

Conjugal Rites + Dr Willoughby + The Creatives

Conjugal Rites was a sitcom starring Gwen Taylor (Duty Free, A Bit Of A Do, The Sharp End, Screaming, A Perfect State, Pilgrim's Rest, Barbara, Heartbeat) and Michael Williams (A Fine Romance, Double First, A Dance To The Music Of Time, September Song, Love In A Cold Climate).
"Gen is married to dentist Barry Masefield. Now that their children, Philip and Gillian, are grown up, Gen embarks on a new career as a practising solicitor.Gradually, Gen and Barry find themselves drifting apart and it becomes increasingly difficult to keep their marriage going."
This is from old video tape and ran for 13 episodes but I have only the first 5 courtesy of one of you out there. Thank you!


Dr Willoughby starred Joanna Lumley (The Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, Class Act, Absolutely Fabulous, Up In Town, Sensitive Skin, Jam & Jerusalem, Mistresses) as
"Donna Sinclair who plays Dr Willoughby in a daytime hospital drama. On screen, she's a caring, sensitive surgeon who saves lives left right and centre. Off screen, she's an opinionated, overbearing woman who's obsessed with her own importance. She'll go to any lengths to make herself look good and her colleagues seem unimportant." Small files, but they play okay.

The Creatives was another sitcom set in an advertising agency. It ran for 12 episodes but I have only the first 6. It starred Pippa Gaurd (Roger Roger, Hope And Glory, Hearts And Bones, The Mallens, The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady), Arabella Weir (Posh Nosh, The Fast Show), Jack Docherty (The Cup, Absolutely), Roger Allam (The Thick Of It, Ashes To AShes, Kröd Mändoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire) and Moray Hunter (The Cup, Absolutely). 

Maigret

Maigret was a TV adaptation of the some of the many books/strories about the fictional French detective Jules Maigret that were written between 1931 and 1972 by Georges Simenon. This was produced by Granada, and paid for by WGBH-Boston for Mystery, and starred Michael Gambon in the title role. Geoffrey Hutchings and Jack Galloway also appear in this. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maigret_%281992_TV_series%29
Some people feel, or at least those old enough to remember it, that the defiinitive English-speaking TV adaptation was the one produced in the early 1960's by the BBC. It ran for 52 episodes and starred Rupert Davies. I've got a couple of those episodes and will put one of them on Disc 2 as that is all there is room for. 

Mike Bassett: Manager + Odd Socks + World Of Pub

Aw crikey.......it's another day, isn't it? Guess that means I have to put something on this thing, huh? Let's see....how about a comedy 341?

Mike Bassett: Manager starred Ricky Tomlinson (Brookside, The Royle Family, Cracker, Playing The Field, Dockers, The Fix) as a football manager who had enjoyed some big time success in the past and rather than retiring decides to give it another go with a struggling lower level club. This is a spin-off of the 2001 movie Mike Bassett England Manager. Amanda Redman plays his wife. (!) Seriously.

Odd Socks starred Lynda Bellingham (All Creatures Great & Small, Second Thoughts, Faith In The Future, At Home With The Braithwaites, Bonkers, and a bunch of other shows that all seem to have been buried), Rosemary Leach (Life Begins At Forty, The Jewel In The Crown, The Charmer, Summer's Lease, Titmuss Regained, Growing Pains, An Unsuitable Job For A Lady, Down To Earth, and was Susan's mother in My Family), and Sarah Churm (At Home With The Braithwaites). It was about some ladies that work at a launderette. It was filmed in 2004 and put on the shelf until recently showing up on UKTV Australia (not be confused with UKTV Florida!) for some reason. These files are kind of small and aren't going to look too cool on your giant TV. Whoever made these files encoded them using a Mobile setting rather than Home Theatre. I just tried these files out on my 46-inch TV and (surprisingly) they didn't look bad at all.

World Of Pub starred Phil Cornwell (I'm Alan Partridge), Peter Serafinowicz (How Do You Want Me?, Hardware, Look Around You, The Peter Serafinowicz Show, Whitechapel, Running Wilde {a US show that aired around the end of last year}), Kevin Eldon (Hyperdrive, Funland, Nighty Night, Big Train, Brass Eye, Jam, Fist Of Fun), Simon Greenall (Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, I'm Alan Partridge, The Wrong Door, Pete Versus Life) and so on. It's about 3 friends that run a failing pub and their schemes to make it more successful.

To those of you I hear from in New Zealand, and at least one of you is in Christchurch, I hope you and your loved ones are safe and sound!

Charters & Caldicott

Charters & Caldicott were originally two characters in the 1938 Hitchcock thriller "The Lady Vanishes". Writer Keith Waterhouse took them and turned the clock ahead to their retirement years and wrote six mystery plays about them. Charters was played by Robin Bailey (The Power Game, The Pallisers, I Didn't Know You Cared, Jane, Potter, Bleak House, Rumpole Of The Bailey) and Caldicott by Michael Aldridge (Sense And Sensibility, Fall Of Eagles, Love For Lydia, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Love In A Cold Climate, Spyship, Last Of The Summer Wine, Stanley And The Women). Others actors appearing include Caroline Blakiston (The Mallens, Mr. Palfrey Of Westminster, Brass, Return Of The Jedi and was Lionel's ex-wife Margaret in one memorable episode of As Time Goes By), Tessa Peake-Jones (Pride And Prejudice, Up The Garden Path, So Haunt Me, and immortalized as Raquel in Only Fools And Horses), and Gerard Murphy. Charters & Caldicott was also featured on PBS' Mystery Theatre in the US. In fact, these are from tape recordings of those broadcasts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charters_and_Caldicott_%28TV_series%29

Hattie

Back in January there was a BBC TV movie about Hattie Jacques with Ruth Jones taking the lead role. Unfortunately, the movie focused on Hattie's life not as a great entertainer, but her adulterous affairs while married to John Le Mesurier of George And The Dragon and Dad's Army fame (to name two).


Anyways, here's the film "Hattie" with Ruth Jones, followed by a rare episode from 50+ years ago of a sitcom Hattie starred in called Our House which also featured her Carry On companions Joan Sims and Charles Hawtrey. There are two other, of 39 filmed, surviving episodes but I've never come across them.


Next is Hattie being the subject of a This Is Your Life episode in 1963 while she was starring in Sykes And A. Following that is her and Eric Sykes 7 minute performance at the Royal Variety Show in 1963.


Next up is the 1964 pilot of an adventure drama series she was in called Miss Adventure.


Hattie has been the subject of both Heroes Of Comedy and The Unforgettable programs and lastly is Ruth Jones' appearance on the One Show just before the airing of the film.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattie_Jacques



The Brothers

Back before Dynasty, before Dallas, it was The Brothers. The pioneering drama about the squabbles of the Hammond family and their business.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_%281972_TV_series%29

The Dennis Potter "musical trilogy"

The so-called Dennis Potter musical trilogy.

Pennies From Heaven
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennies_From_Heaven_%281978_television_drama%29

The Singing Detective
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singing_Detective

Lipstick On Your Collar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipstick_on_Your_Collar

The Jury

The Jury was a drama serial about...........um, do I need to tell you? As I recall, this was also broadcast in the US on PBS' Masterpiece.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jury_%28TV_serial%29

The Brief

The Brief was a crime drama starring Alan Davies (Jonathan Creek, Whites, Quite Interesting, A Many Splintered Thing, Bob & Rose) as a rogue barrister......and that's about all I can tell you.

A Very Peculiar Practice

A Very Peculiar Practice was a comedy-drama starring Peter Davison (All Creatures Great & Small, Doctor Who, At Home With The Braithwaites, Fear Stress And Anger, Distant Shores, Love For Lydia, Campion, Fiddlers Three, The Last Detective, Ain't Misbehavin'), Graham Crowden (Waiting For God, Love On A Branch Line), David Troughton (The Norman Conquests, Bonjour La Classe, Jericho, Paradise Heights, recently seen in several episodes of New Tricks), Barbara Flynn (Open All Hours, Biederbecke Trilogy, A Family At War, The Barchester Chronicles, Maigret, Cracker, Cranford), John Bird (Joint Account, El C.I.D., Absolute Power),  Lindy Whiteford (A Touch Of Frost, Getting On), Joanna Kanska (Material Girl, Sleepers), Mark Addy was in a couple episodes (The Thin Blue Line, Bonkers) and I think I saw Liz Crowther in there somewhere (Shoestring, Slinger's Day, No Place Like Home, Watching, French Fields). Hugh Grant and Kathy Burke both had one of their earliest TV appearances in this program. Nearly all the episodes begin with a rubbish truck approaching a dumpster/tip being picked over by two nuns. Got it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_Peculiar_Practice 

El C.I.D.

El C.I.D. was a crime drama starring Alfred Molina (not enough hours in the day to list his creds) as a cop who takes an early retirement in Spain and along with a retired records officer played by John Bird (Joint Account, A Very Peculiar Practice, Absolute Power) keeps an eye on retired gangsters include one played by Kenneth Cranham (another too long list). Molina left the program after episode 13 and was replaced by Amanda Redman (Streets Apart, Demob, Hope And Glory, At Home With The Braithwaites, Mike Bassett - Manager, Little Dorritt, New Tricks, Honest) who played Bird's daughter. Tony Haygarth is also in this (Rosie, Kinvig, Farrington Of The F.O., Where The Heart Is, Emmerdale).

some updates of the same old every day stuff