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Reviews
The Island (1952)
If Nigel Kneale didn't watch this, I'm a Dutchman
This is a well-made and fascinating documentary about the construction of an oil refinery for BP in the agricultural land of the Isle of Grain in Kent's Medway River. Progress and modernity are set to destroy a way of life, and the film is unapologetic about compromises required by the need for oil, unsentimental about the unsustainability of the old way of life (a moribund hotel, which looks more like a prison camp, is all that is left of a previous role as a continental transport hub), and aware of the ubiquity of progress, even in the old farming community, where tractors have replaced horses. The film was sponsored by Anglo-Iranian Oil, BP's parent company. A collage of different voices express the effects of the coming changes, both on the locals and on those who will briefly stay to play their part in the construction.
As one might expect, the film is upbeat about the new construction, and honest in showing the extent of the disruption. But it still has an elegiac feel to it, nonetheless, as a community waits for annihilation.
I don't suppose it is now possible to verify, but it reminds me very strongly of the scenes in Winnerton Flats, in Nigel Kneale's TV serial Quatermass II (and the later film). The new housing for the incomers, the identification of the corporate interests with those of the community, the array of giant tanks to be built, and - most poignantly - the family driving in their car to a windswept beach for a picnic, looking eerily like the Quatermass II family who are shockingly machine-gunned in episode 3 of the serial - did this documentary provide some of Kneale's inspiration?
Der Pass (2018)
Extraordinarily overrated - review of first season only
A well-made crime drama about two odd couples - the first being thorough, efficient, tidy German detective Ellie and scruffy, corrupt, overweight, intuitive, slapdash Austrian detective Winter, and the second odd couple being Germany and Austria themselves. An almost omnipotent serial killer - a survivalist tech wizard - is dumping tortured bodies at the border evoking images of the horned Krampus folk legend. The Krampus Killer drives much of the plot, but he is all over the place - he has a master plan, which he has to abandon, but then he falls obsessively in love with Ellie and manages to hack into her IT to such a degree that he has a panoramic representation of everything she does. As with all such programmes, it cannot square the circle between the plot that thrives on more killings, and the characterisation resting on the supposed competence of the detectives, and here the killer gets away with an awful lot. As such, there isn't much tension, just a series of random and rather unpleasant horrors and psychological twists which leave our odd couple always one step behind.
Checkmate (1935)
Much better than given credit for
This is, of course, a quota quickie and therefore hardly a work of art. However, the other reviews do seem to be over-critical of it.
Production values are higher than the usual poverty row. The cast is pretty good for this kind of film. It's not super-slow, but the plot unfolds at a reasonable pace, while we get a couple of very decent twists. The acting is nice, Aylmer playing his dual part, while Donald Wolfit stands out as the petty crook, defiant but out of his depth. The brokers Curtail and Huntley are also excellently played in a couple of cameos. Evans is perhaps a little on the fey side.
It probably wouldn't withstand detailed scrutiny. For instance, it is never reasonably explained whether Nicholls wanted a lodger in his house, whether he wanted this particular lodger, or whether, as he maintained, he wanted no lodgers at all. And if not, why did he allow the advertisement to be placed?
In short, a very decent film of its type. If it's not your kind of thing, don't watch it - it's not far off a century old, with a low budget and strictly in potboiler territory. But if you do like this kind of thing, then rest assured that this is exactly the kind of thing you will like.
David (1952)
Moving but over-romanticised drama-documentary
This short documentary movingly documents the relationship between Dafydd Rhys, school caretaker, and schoolboy Ifor Morgan. It is based on the real-life story of David Rees Griffiths, who plays his older self in the film. Over the years, Rhys has used his abilities and virtues to help others, from schoolboys like Ifor to his former colleagues down the mines, but when he loses his only son to tuberculosis, he temporarily withdraws into himself; Ifor repays his debt to Dafydd by helping him back into the social world. Dafydd's poetic elegy to his son only just fails to win the Chair at the Aberavon Eisteddfod. The sense of place (Ammanford) is strong, as is the sense of community. The film was the Welsh contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain film festival.
However, given that the film is meant to be representative of Wales and the Welsh identity within Britain, criticism is in order. One which comes immediately to mind, given the strong rivalry between North and South Wales, is that this is a South Walian film - not a strong criticism in itself, but the only mention of North Wales is a very strong hint that only the favouritism of the judges from North Wales prevented Dafydd from winning the Eisteddfod Chair. Not a very unifying view of the nation.
The film also plays a little fast and loose with the facts of Griffiths' life (again, not objectionable in itself). He is seen with his wife mourning the death of his son, but in fact his wife died many years before. He raised his son single-handed, and pursued the career of journalist before taking on the caretaker's job. He had also won many Eisteddfod Chair over the years (over 50). So the film's framing of the marvel that a humble caretaker could come close, when deeply moved, to winning an Eisteddfod Chair, seems dishonest. In fact, a more likely framing is that a man of integrity and talent could find no better employment than a school caretaker.
Thirdly, the film is quite astounding, even for 1951, for the lack of women. There are no women in prominent roles - we are briefly shown Ifor's mother giving him a little nag, and Dafydd's wife giving birth to her son, and grieving over him. Apart from that, all we see are two cleaning ladies who have temporarily replaced Dafydd, in long shot, making a mess of things. One imagines, in a tight and small community such as Ammanford is portrayed, the women would have played an important role. The film gives them no credit.
Port of Escape (1956)
It's not very good
There are some good actors in this, and the setting is interesting, especially for those of us who know the East of London nowadays. Joan Hickson puts in a great cameo, and Bill Kerr is convincingly twitchy. However, this really is not a very good film.
Apart from the lack of tension, the very predictable playing out of the plot to its obvious ending, and the various very illogical decisions that practically every character makes, two particular problems stand out.
The most important is the not very impressive insight into female psychology. Would Googie fall in love with McCallum on the spot, just like that? Can Stockholm syndrome really set in after a couple of hours? Particularly as McCallum's character is pretty charmless, even as he thumps home his message that he is sacrificing all to get Bill Kerr back to Michigan.
And secondly, this is supposed to be a houseboat, yet appears to be the size of a decent suburban villa in Metroland. And furnished in more or less the same fashion. Three cabins and a spare one in case hostage-takers drop in. A giant living room containing the only grand piano ever on a Thames houseboat. And a galley that could host a cookery programme, complete with camera crew and audience. All with 15 foot high ceilings. This isn't a houseboat, it's a superyacht.
The Long Chase (1972)
Very enjoyable, but not quite as good as the memory
Like many of the other reviewers, I was totally captivated by this when I first watched it at the age of 9. I remember being very in awe of this young lad who could actually drive a car.
Through adult eyes, it's not quite the masterpiece of memory. Six and a half hours is an awfully long time given that very little happens in most of the episodes, except that we move on gradually from Devon to Edinburgh via the Lake District. One or two glaring coincidences help keep John and Susan on Tom's trail, and for the rest, they just are just able to follow on, even in the days when the M5 didn't stretch as far down as Devon.
Susan is everything we remember - pretty, brilliant, practical, sympathetic, pretty, uncomplaining, a sexy Scottish accent, and most of all, pretty. John is a whiny young man who could give the Pacific Ocean lessons in wetness. It isn't hard to guess which of the two would go on to a stellar career, and which, er, wouldn't.
My strongest memories were of Hilary Minster as the sinister motorcyclist, whose regular appearances were usually the cue for the cliffhanger and the end credits. While the first few episodes have the same structure every time - J & S shake off Hilary, follow Tom and the gang to a new town, only to encounter Hilary again - the programme loses momentum once Hilary is written out. It's not obvious why he is so effective - he has very few lines - but he really was scary at the time.
Occasionally, Outward Bound people would turn up to give us all stern warnings about wearing seat belts or not going canoeing without proper preparation. We could do without them. There is also a lot of library footage of the Edinburgh Tattoo, which serves to remind us why we were so bored with the Tattoo when it used to be live on the television.
The grown-ups tend to repeat themselves as well - Brian Peck teases Glyn Houston, who returns impassive looks into the middle distance, looking like a rubberised Easter Island statue in a loud jacket. Peter Copley is rather wasted on the last couple of episodes. At the end, everyone gives in rather easily.
But it is great fun to remember watching it first time round. It really did stick in the mind, and it gave us Jan Francis, after all.
Jonathan Creek: The Curious Tale of Mr Spearfish (1999)
Too many coincidences - serious spoiler warning
An oddly weak opener to the 3rd season of Jonathan Creek. Characters all in place, and Adam in the public eye for all the wrong, or perhaps right, reasons. Yet this Devilish brew serves up mysteries to no end, and with only coincidences holding them together.
Warning - the rest of this review contains serious spoilers.
A repellent man on his uppers signs a pact with a junk shop owner pretending to be the Devil. That evening, agents of the Crown bury some treasure in his back garden, because his wife is, unbeknownst to her, the illegitimate daughter of a Very Important Person. The very next day, repellent man digs up the trove, not noticing that the ground he has been avoiding digging for weeks has been disturbed. They are rich!
He then goes on a bender, and ends up in bed with a call girl, as you do. Despite not being asked to do so, she burns his chest with a cigarette, making two holes in his shirt, which I have to say isn't my idea of fun. The girl is then murdered by a pimp (no-one seems very bothered by that), and the pimp fires off two - exactly two, the exact same number as the burns on his chest and holes in his shirt!! - shots in the general direction of Mr Repellent. They miss, but he has forgotten that he was assaulted by the murdered woman, and believes he has been shot twice in the chest and survived. The Devil looks after his own. It is not explained why supernatural intervention would turn bullet wounds into cigarette burns.
The pimp then turns up to complete the job, but before he can fire his gun, he is tasered by a government agent who is hiding behind some grass at the swimming pool (the only swimming pool in Christendom which has a hiding place anywhere near it), and he conveniently collapses and brains himself. No-one is too bothered by that either.
Jonathan spots the mark of a handcuff on Mr Repellent, and deduces from that that he must have been given the cigarette burns by the call girl, which is a stretch. He deduces all the rest after Googling for Taser devices, which is more than a stretch.
Indeed, if Mr Repellent had had such a run of luck, I'm not sure that the pact with the Devil isn't the best explanation after all.
Operation Diplomat (1953)
Enjoyable and typical Durbridge - warning: serious spoilers
A 3-hour Francis Durbridge TV serial is condensed into 70 minutes for the screen, with all the usual red herrings, surprising coincidences and enjoyable mysteries characteristic of the writer. For fans like myself, heaven.
It often seems as if Durbridge made up his stories as he went along, so that even he was surprised at the revelation, and this is no different. In particular, what on Earth made Geoffrey take Nurse Lisa to the hospital to collect Mrs Terry? He must have expected a risk that Dr Fenton would recognise her from the previous night's shenanigans, and the whole plan began to unravel from there.
Furthermore, Lisa wants out of the gang, and warns Wade and the Chauffeur that the man at the top would kill them all. She seems to want to get back to Geoffrey. It is never explained whether she was aware who Geoffrey was. If she was, why did she want to get away with him? If she wasn't, why did she think the lives of the whole gang were on the line?
The New Avengers: The Lion and the Unicorn (1977)
The worst Avengers
A very poor outing. Extremely static camerawork and pedestrian editing, largely filmed in a single building that seems to be both the Unicorn's bolthole and Steed's headquarters. Unexplained incidents, such as the car chase at the beginning and the attempted assassination of the Minister, lead up to the main stand-off, which is then dragged out forever. A roster of French TV actors struggles with the English dialogue. Purdey wears the same (rather silly) outfit two days running, so she would probably be a bit whiffy by the end of it. Fortunately she has changed her clothes for the final scene. Car chases soak up footage, and one suspects an exploding car soaked up most of the budget. It's a mess, and the reviewer who suggested it might just pass muster as a plot for the Protectors is spot on.
Duck Soup (1933)
Not the place to start
This is the greatest film of the greatest comedy team of all time. However, it is probably not the best place to start, if you are a Marx newbie and want to see what the fuss is about.
The plot is tenuous - two countries are permanently at the brink of war. It is not fully explained why Margaret Dumont is funding the economy of Freedonia, nor why she thinks Rufus T. Firefly would make a great leader. But she is, and she does, and she insists that he is appointed. Two spies of varying and dubious loyalties, Chicolini and Pinky, are sent by Sylvania to get the dirt on him.
While there is a plot going, there are more delights than can be catalogued. The welcoming ceremony through which Firefly sleeps, and his subsequent dialogue with Mrs Teasdale; Chicolini and Pinky's encounter with a vindictive lemonade vendor; Pinky trying to open a "safe" without making a noise; the cabinet meeting; the final challenge between Firefly and Trentino; three Fireflys running around the Presidential Palace after the plans; Chicolini's trial. And, of course, the piece de resistance, the legendary mirror scene - not the first use of the gag, but the greatest. Possibly the greatest comedy scene of all time.
Why not the place to start? Well, after about 40 minutes, the plot is completely thrown away, war is declared and we have a series of quick-fire sketches and skits that end totally arbitrarily. Nothing wrong with them, but it's likely to be very challenging for someone not used to the purest versions of Marxism. A better place to start would be the great MGM films, more conventional, with bigger budgets and linear plots, yet still with deathless scenes and brilliant lines - A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, At the Circus. Take these as gateway drugs to the harder stuff, the uncompromising Paramount pictures, with Duck Soup as the paramount Marx Brothers Paramount.
High Treason (1951)
Unbelievable cast
This is a great film, with a decent plot and wonderful location work, not least in the Battersea Power Station climax, as well as claustrophobic interior work, especially in the Ellis electrical shop.
Whether or not the red menace was ever plausible in this sense, there was enough friction to make it a reasonable starting point for a thriller (it's more likely than an invasion from outer space, surely). I suspect it is only the anti-Communist message that caused the film to be totally neglected; I have never seen this on British television, and only found it on DVD. No other film of this quality and style has been so effectively hidden for so long.
What is really worth emphasising is the brilliance of the cast. I can honestly think of no other British film boasting so many familiar faces - there is a period of about 20 minutes in the middle where every scene produces another well-known actor doing a cameo. The 19 billed players are pretty recognisable, but what other film could additionally include, uncredited, Jean Anderson, Alfie Bass, Harry Fowler, Everley Gregg, Peter Jones, Moultrie Kelsall, Sam Kydd, Harry Locke, Victor Maddern, Dandy Nichols, Marianne Stone and Lockwood West, and those were only the ones I spotted. The IMDb cast list includes several others that I will have to look for on a second viewing.
Camminacammina (1983)
Profound film about human imperfection
It is almost unbelievable that this film was made with an amateur cast, very few of whom have a second entry in the IMDb. The lead actor Alberto Fumagalli is tremendous, and the boy Rupo, Antonio Cucciare, has so much talent and charm. Incredible that these two were lost to the industry.
The tale is a retelling of the nativity story through a doubly framed narrative. We begin with what looks like a modern day re-enactment of a medieval religious pilgrimage, that somehow warps into a genuinely medieval world, with a priest and his acolytes leading a group of villagers through the pristine Italian countryside. A star in the sky, that sounds like an aeroplane, invests the event with religious excitement, and the pilgrims become convinced they will find the new Saviour. The parallels with Matthew's gospel then become even stronger, first as they bump into two Eastern princes, complete with camels and elephants, also following the star, and then as they find a new Herod, concerned that his authority is being usurped and suspicious of the travellers. Suddenly the pilgrims seem to be part of the events already narrated in the Bible they have been carrying around with them.
The priest is eloquent and devout, but lacks courage. He leads the procession across rivers and mountains, but his doubts about whether a bridge might be safe to cross portend a far more serious test for his faith. The ending is tragic yet ambiguous.
The film is long, but doesn't outstay its welcome. The camera observes unobtrusively, with little flashes of gentle humour, capturing a world that is simultaneously alien and a foundation of modern European civilisation. Great events are hinted at, but humanity, in all its imperfections, always shines through.
The Cheaters: For the Price of Two (1961)
Major spoiler alert: incoherent plot
The Cheaters is normally a great show with intriguing and well-acted dramas - as indeed is this. The problem is that the plot falls apart at the end, and makes no sense. Warning - if you read on, there are major spoilers ahead.
This looks like it is going to be a drama about murderous twins, where the bad twin Jane kills the good twin Laura and takes her place to enjoy marriage with a rich aristocrat. All fine - yet this is not the resolution of the mystery.
It turns out that the birth certificates of Laura and her twin were issued 3 weeks apart. But it is never explained what this means. It presumably means there is no twin, and Laura and Jane are the same person (though this is not stated). Where the second birth certificate came from isn't clear, or why Laura would order it at 3 weeks old. If the second certificate were somehow faked, why did she put the wrong date on it? Anyway, Jane either doesn't exist, or is otherwise explained away.
So now we have a single individual, Laura, who wants to settle down with a rich aristocrat while also sowing her wild oats on the sly, and to do this, she sets up two establishments. But then in each of them, she poses as twins. Why do this? Why not set up the second apartment under a false name (since she can forge birth certificates, it shouldn't be impossible), in which case no-one would have reason to associate the two, the 'good girl' and the 'good time girl'?
Anyway, she sets up a fake twin, to have a good time in the bright lights. But then, when marriage is imminent and she needs to get rid of Jane, why doesn't she just pretend that Jane has gone back to Canada? What she actually does is murders one of her photographic models, which is a bit drastic, and dumps the body in the river. She needs to be sure to identify the body, so she needs to be sure that it spends a long time in the water. She also needs to be sure that the dead girl's mother isn't also asked to identify the body first, as it's her daughter that is missing. Anyway, she gets away with it.
But then, why make an insurance claim on double indemnity? Granted, £50,000 is no bad thing, but she is about to marry a rich man, so she doesn't need the money, and it simply draws more attention to the case.
It looks like they were so concerned to put in a twist, that they forgot to check whether the twist made sense.
The Persuaders!: The Morning After (1971)
Scarcely credible plot - beware spoilers
One might forget one's wedding, just about. But it is hardly likely that, if you did find yourself mysteriously married, knowing it to be a scam, and you were at the same time organising a secret conference, that you would then invite the wife, whom you knew to be a fraud, to your house to meet the secret guests. Still less likely that the spooks you had invited would welcome her with open arms and make a fuss of her. And almost impossible that they would all then quite happily welcome into the house a previously unknown and unannounced brother-in-law. They wouldn't know he was armed, of course, because they didn't search him or his luggage.
It is also incredible that a load of enemy spies would think that the best way of weedling their way into the secret set-up would be to fake a marriage between one of your agents and the man hosting the conference. Wouldn't there be a better way of getting into the house, given the complete lack of security.
But least credible of all is that Lord Brett would be telling jokes and getting sentimental with his ex-ex-wife, when she had just been a party to the brutal and callous murder of his faithful family retainer.
Jonathan Creek: The Grinning Man (2009)
Where are the police? Spoilers below
This is an awfully long programme, and the time doesn't fly by. All the JC ingredients are there, but it's stretched out to breaking point with plot, subplot and subsubplot. What is particularly odd is that, despite the disappearance of two women, the police are barely involved at all. Calling the police might have been the immediate reflex of anyone involved at the first disappearance, and when a kidnapping ransom is paid without return of the victim, maybe someone might have dialled 999? But no, Jonathan and Joey just tag along with the Gesslers, and no policeman gets a line.
There are also a number of unexplained minor items. Why did Glen padlock Mina in the attic room (there might have been a fire, she may have wished to go back to her own room, she might simply have been cold in the night)? What happened to the second body? Was it entirely explained how Nichola ended up with Alex? Why did Glen continue to be the gardener in the house where Elodie had disappeared?
Wilde Alliance (1978)
Pleasant, light, forgettable
This was a very lightweight comedy detective series, where a pair of glamorous but grounded, impossibly pleasant, middle-aged creative types sailed through life and the picturesque parts of Yorkshire solving mysteries. Julia Foster was artist Amy, realistic, understanding, unthreatening but sexy, with a hairstyle that appeared to be armour plated, often seen in sophisticated Janet Reger undies. John Stride was thriller-writer Rupert, grumpy, perpetually trying to avoid income tax, smooth and witty, acerbic and brilliant.
John Lee, as Rupert's agent, would generally drop in, to provide some comedy and leaven the sweetness and light. He was usually a welcome addition, and made more appearances as the series developed.
They were appealing to a particular demographic, of risk-averse middle aged people who really wanted to swan around being wonderful. Even their car, a Triumph TR7, was British Leyland's latest attempt to woo the aspiring driver. The show only managed a series, so perhaps that demographic wasn't so well-populated.
It was a light-hearted piece of entertaining froth, fun to watch, but no more memorable than candy floss, as comfortable as a pair of old slippers (with the exception of an oddly downbeat final episode, which may possibly have hinted at new directions in the future, and possibly dissatisfaction with the current).
Rather like The Beiderbecke Affair, it probably needs you to want to be these people to enjoy it to the max. But really, it made The Beiderbecke Affair seem like Strindberg.
Blue Murder: Desperate Measures (2007)
Several coincidences too far
Hmmm. A well-acted show which takes us down many blind alleys lined with red herrings. Fun to watch and to puzzle out. But ...
***SERIOUS SPOILER BELOW***
There really are too many coincidences to make any kind of sense. In particular, lovely Dr Halliwell, beloved by all, actually manages to botch the treatment and cause the death of three people, all of whom either own, or are a close relative of someone who owns, the same gun. Even in a very claustrophobic housing estate, even with a tight nexus of gang crime, that is a level of carelessness and coincidence that is hard to believe - especially as he is also a drug thief as well as being targeted by a husband he is cuckolding.
On top of that, he rejects a doctor from his surgery who has gangland connections because he wouldn't fit in. He would fit in perfectly!
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Absent-Minded Coterie (1973)
Not so hot
I doubt whether Sherlock Holmes lost much sleep about this rival. Shame about this series - with such a depth of source material in Victorian detective stories, it really should not have run out of steam in its second series. This is a pretty duff encounter, confusing and unsatisfactory. It begins with a dramatic flash-forward, for no good reason at all. Valmont then kicks off in charming style, solving a little mystery for absent-minded Lord Semptam. He is then presented with a forgery case by baffled Scotland Yard. He not only solves this, with barely any detection at all, but he also homes in on another case, although it is not obvious what crime has been committed, or even if it is a crime. Few characters, apart from undercover man Podgers, catch the eye. How Valmont is progressing is never clear, except he says gnomic things that imply that he knows what is going on, even if Scotland Yard doesn't. It is hard to care who did what. The conclusion is disappointing to say the least. Underwhelming all round. Sherlock is safe, if this is the best the competition can do.
Jason King: All That Glisters... (Part One) (1971)
Some Things That Glister Are Quite Dull
A rather tedious parable of greed, with the man himself rather peripheral to the action - Jason's purring self-satisfaction is hardly compatible with the desperate desire for money or gold. It is drawn out over two episodes, either to get the maximum use out of location filming in Paris, or with an eye to cutting into a feature film. Either way, it's hardly Jason King at its best, though not at its worst either. There are compensations - Jason and his boring friend Mallen have a running battle to see who gets to enjoy the delectable hyper-English pleasures of Madeline Smith, who as ever steals every scene in which she appears. Guess who gets the girl (and a couple of others at the end). Also, the viewer can enjoy Anton Rodgers as he was never seen before or since.
I'm not sure, but to my ears, the voice of Clinton Greyn (Mallen) is dubbed by Paul Maxwell, or perhaps Shane Rimmer, while that of Leslie French (Deshfield) is dubbed by David Bauer. Can anyone confirm or deny?
Hancock's Half Hour: The Horror Serial (1959)
It's Hob's Lane All Over Again
What a shame that this is one of the lost episodes of Hancock. However, the soundtrack was recently discovered, and so at least it can be listened to. The script is relatively wordy, and there aren't too many purely visual moments. Broadcast a mere four days after the final episode of Quatermass and the Pit, the Nigel Kneale horror serial that gripped Britain, The Horror Serial spoofs it brilliantly and respectfully. One would probably need to have sat enthralled through Quatermass to understand most of the jokes in this, but what a treat if, like me, you know the serial backwards.
Hancock has just watched the final episode with Sid's mum, and has terrified himself. Back at Railway Cuttings, he and Sid find a mysterious piece of metal in the garden. Hancock thinks its an alien spaceship, millions of years old; Sid thinks it's a piece of an old mangle. A bone is found below it. Scratches are found on the walls of the house next door. Soldiers, led by John le Mesurier, are brought in to see what it might be. Perhaps it's an unexploded bomb, of an unknown type. Hancock now believes that everyone will be possessed by the Martians, but despairs of persuading the unimaginative military mind. "It's Hob's Lane all over again!"
Virtually every key moment of Quatermass has its analogue in Railway Cuttings. Worthy of special mention is the incidental music, presumably by Wally Stott. A shame that we can't see Hancock's facial expressions of terror that no doubt accompanied every dramatic burst.
Craith (2018)
Great character drama, poor detection - beware serious spoilers follow
This relates only to Season 1. Brilliantly acted, with powerful characters and a strong sense of place, this nevertheless disappoints as a detective drama. DCI Cadi, whose face is built for worry, and her sergeant, a sort of mini-Sir Derek Jacobi, look for kidnapped and abused girls. Of the other performances, perhaps Mrs Harris, simultaneously the mother from hell and the most indulgent mother in the world, stands out. Episode 4, set entirely in the Harris household, is tour de force of writing and acting. The beautiful yet gloomy, expansive yet claustrophobic North Wales setting is almost a character in itself.
And yet ... (serious spoilers follow)
For a detective story, there is remarkably little actual detecting. The viewers are in the know as to what is going on, but Cadi never gets close. Painstaking interviews and cross-checking lead to nothing, except a realisation that the case is bigger than they thought, and requires loads more pictures and felt tip notes on their case whiteboard. They fail to rescue Megan, who gets out thanks to a bit of luck. They identify the perpetrator only when a WPC, who has been ticked off for going against protocol, belatedly confides to Cadi that this man 'looked at her funny.' Based on no other evidence than this, off they shoot. They not only fail to capture him, he merely pops next door - no bloodhounds or following trails through the forest. When they check on next door - bear in mind there is a known killer on the loose, concealed somewhere in dense forest - all that happens is that a WPC taps on the window and squints into the lounge to see if she can see anything.
To cap it all, Cadi's father was the detective who messed up the original investigation and incarcerated the wrong man for 12 years. Clearly, the North Wales Police (Heddlu Gogledd Cymru) has not improved very much in the intervening years.
Not only this, but the final focus on the main case means we don't really get closure on two of the other stories. Nurse Lowri disappears after episode 6, so we never find out how she responds to her fortuitous escape from peril (although she reappears in Season 2), while the drama of the Pryces is sort-of resolved with a throwaway line in the final episode. It surely deserved more, especially given the screen time it had, and the twist in episode 7.
Gazette: In Between the Lines (1968)
What a corker
An absolute corker of an episode, with hissable villains doing dastardly things with the law behind them, Hadleigh up against the wall, crisis upon crisis - and then a delicious twist in the final scene.
With the added pleasure of early run-outs for Donald Sumpter (with lots of hair) and Isla Blair. And in the crown green bowling scene, one or two genuinely good woods by the actors!
Under Your Hat (1940)
Up to standard
The final starring film for Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge, moving into Will Hay/George Formby territory as inept spies foiling the Nazi war effort.
If you don't like their style of humour, don't watch it; it was a little old-fashioned even when it was made. They are who they are, and moaning about how antiquated 80-year-old comedy is doesn't seem a sensible use of time. But each is near the top of their game.
Courtneidge's masquerade as Carole's maid is a highlight, as is Hulbert's double taking when he spots her. Hulbert's dance to steal back the carburettor is another high point set piece. Of the songs, the best is Cicely's The Empire Depends on You, while drilling a battalion of schoolgirls, and a tour around British accents with an adaptation of Tiger Rag.
A wonderful performance, with hardly any lines, from Glynis Johns, and a blink-and-you-miss-it sighting of Terry-Thomas at the party are welcome additions.
The Phil Silvers Show: Mardi Gras (1955)
Bilko at his best
Bilko is faced by a snobbish local socialite, just back from Paris, who turns down the opportunity to be Doberman's mardi gras queen. Well, Doberman has been to Paris too ("what did I see, I was in a Sherman tank?").
For the honour of the platoon, Bilko has to persuade the reluctant gentry that she wants nothing more than Doberman, that short, glistening ("some would call him greasy") Buddha figure.
Bilko at his most brilliant, devious in his sentimental cause. A number of classic scenes, including Doberman being taught how to talk to a girl (Zimmerman in a wig), and, perhaps the highlight, the Doberman calypso.
Ghost Squad (1961)
Not that great ...
A difference in tastes here, but despite the helpful and detailed review of this programme from a previous reviewer, I can't endorse it as a great series. Possibly an important pioneer for the cheap and cheerful globetrotting police/spy shows shot in Pinewood that we all enjoyed in the 1960s, but in itself not quite there.
Michael Quinn was not really a success as Craig, although he was such an unusual character, he certainly stood out among the rest of the cast (Angela Browne made a strong impression in series 1). The trouble was Quinn was very tall, and a bit dopey-looking, and by series 2 even his haircut looked dopey. He also got everything wrong, and he could mangle almost any accent on the planet. He was built for Dick Van Dyke-style comedy, not a proto-Roger Moore.
There was also a splendidly ludicrous title sequence, which bizarrely refers to the 'almost legendary Ghost Squad' - why 'almost'? - and shows Craig emerging with a surge of commuters at what looks like Victoria Station in London, extolling his ability to merge with the crowd, while he stands out like a sore thumb, towering a foot taller than everyone else.