The Mausoleum Club Forum

There was a previous BBC Scotland series of Para Handy dramas in 1959/60. One of them gave James MacTaggart one of his earliest drama directing jobs.

Fascinating. Thanks Billy. I for one would welcome further such articles in future if you become aware of more recoveries.

oh, and as for using VT for the Teddington stuff - possibly the original reason was the (at the time) absence of BT circuits from Teddington into the rest of the ITV Network. Apologies if I'm being dim, but what's the significance of that? Does it mean that from Teddington ABC could transmit only t...

By the way, has anyone looked at Sydney Newman's autobiography to see if he mentions Teddington in this context? Embarrassingly, I still haven't got around to buying it. Yes, I read it recently. It isn't terribly helpful on this point and he doesn't write about Armchair Theatre in strictly chronolo...

Thanks for the further replies. I'd never realised Armchair Theatre did filmed plays. Fascinating stuff.

Thanks Jez and Simon for those last two posts. The plot thickens! So we know videotaping isn't a useful clue to the move, but also that Didsbury was still in use in May 1959, whereas Howard Thomas suggests the move happened by that spring (but as Jez says, that may not be totally accurate). As it st...

Thanks for all the replies. I did look in the White book but as Simon indicates the move had already happened by the time White was involved with Armchair Theatre. I note that, according to Kaleidoscope, Armchair Theatre was always broadcast live until The Scent of Fear, broadcast from videotape on ...

Billy is still around (last posting earlier this month on the Ace of Wands thread). It is possible that it was discussed on the 'Network's Forgotten TV Drama range' thread. Ah, that was it, thanks. Since that thread's been inacitive several months I'll leave this one going for now. Strange about Bi...

Does anyone know when exactly (i.e. with which edition) Armchair Theatre moved from ABC's Didsbury to the Teddington studios?

I was going to post this in the Armchair Theatre Archive thread but that, and Billy Smart who was working on those DVDs, seem to have mysteriously vanished from this forum!

I’m finally wanting to buy Secret Army on DVD (in the UK). As far as I can see, the most economical way is to buy the European import boxed set which also includes Kessler. However, according to retailer websites this is in widescreen, which doesn’t sound right. Dos anyone have this boxed set and if...

The sordid reality of Airstrip One through the innocence of a child. Orwell's works are in public domain in my country. That's unusual. Presumably that's a quirk of the Australian system. Pretty much everywhere else the copyright doesn't expire for a couple more years. Enjoy the freedom of not havi...

Any word yet on who the guests are for the panel discussion, Dick?

Two more Forgotten TV Drama titles announced: Armchair Theatre Archive: Volume 1 - http://networkonair.com/exclusives/2794-armchair-theatre-archive-volume-1-pre-buy- Nothing To Pay (1962, w. Alun Richards d. Charles Jarrott) The Cherry on the Top (1964, w. Donald Churchill d. Guy Verney) Light the ...

Has any other programme in TV history been the subject of so much misrepresentation? Yes, loads. This sort of thing is really, really common. An awful lot of anecdotes about old TV turn out to be nonsense when you investigate them. Just because someone was involved in a programme doesn't mean they'...

Fantastic stuff, thanks for sharing.

Although not television, I know from experience that this is done in BBC radio drama (at least as of 2014 when I had a very brief taste of it), and I suspect the origins/purpose of the practice are common. I was told that a programme-as-broadcast script that exactly mirrors the broadcast content mus...

Agreed. Great series but that ending was pretty terrible. MASSIVE SPOLIERS FOR ENDING - stop reading now if you haven't seen it yet... I mean it... How the hell did Kate hit the car with that one shot at that distance/speed? Surely impossible. And why did she get commended for it rather than arreste...

Interesting stuff, thanks.

Thanks for the replies, chaps.

Does anyone know if Network are still hoping to release series two?

Did this DVD actually get released? If so it must have been deleted as I can't find it now, which is frustrating. I bought series one in the recent Network sale and would love to see the rest of the series. Another quick question: I looked the series up in the latest Kaleidoscope drama guide, which ...

Thanks chaps, that all makes fascinating reading.

It would still be worthless. The forthcoming paperback promises revisions, but Seaton's comments since publication suggest it will not be a revelatory improvement. It shouldn't be at all associated with Briggs. I was quite horrified. Are you able to expand on the book's deficiencies? I'd thought of...

This sounds utterly fascinating. As a non-academic, I've often thought events like this sounded interesting but found the idea of attending an academic conference rather intimidating. I might give this one a go. A shame it can't be a shade cheaper - though I'm sure there are good reasons for the pri...

Its routine in weekly recorded shows like sitcoms and studio comedies/dramas that faulty scenes from a previous week are redone while recording the next episode. Apparently quite a lot of one of the "Quatermass II" episodes is not what went out live, but was re-done by the cast after transmission a...

What a fantastic selection. Plaudits to all involved. I too would love to see Pity About the Abbey. Curteis was proud that it was selected for preservation in the National Television Archive in the first place. The Logic Game is very tempting too. Two plays that get written about (so not forgotten t...

Last week's Black Mirror: White Christmas, discussed elsewhere on this forum, used the 'Part X' etc style ad bumper captions, so the form isn't entirely dead, though was probably deliberate affectation in this case.

marsey wrote:Is this on tv then, can't seem to find anything in the listings?

Not that I'm aware of. Can't see why it would be.

The BFI are working on a DVD though, which will hopefully come out in the first half of the new year.

Yes, I know there's been loads of threads about it before, but I thought it'd be nice to start a new one to celebrate this production's 60th anniversary tonight (and again in four days, given its second airing). Isn't it wonderful not only that a recording of one of its broadcasts still exists but j...

It was never transmitted as part of Festival , but it was made for that series. I'm pretty sure that the other five Wednesday Play s of 1964 were also Festival commissions (four of them still produced by Peter Luke). BBC1 were just very keen to disassociate themselves from the alarmingly highbrow F...

... There always seemed to be something exclusively strange and chaotic about drama made by LWT in comparison with the other ITV companies. I can guess why. I've just read Rex Firkin's memoir, which includes his time as head of drama for LWT, and it sounds like LWT was itself perpetually strange an...