Old and obscure television
Sep. 4th, 2015 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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lost_spook posted about old and obscure TV-series and it was so much fun to read. It certainly opened my eyes for Campion which I had previously managed to miss. It’s an absolute delightful series featuring Peter Davison as Margery Allingham’s detective Albert Campion. Obscure, however, is probably a matter of definition. Swedish series are probably very obscure elsewhere, but all my Swedish friends know them very well. And some British series are pretty obscure in Sweden, but you lot will probably know of them. Either way, this has been a fun trip into nostalgia.
Flash Gordon (1936) Technically this isn’t a TV-show, but a movie serial of 13 20-minutes episodes. But I didn’t know that when I started to write this post; I only ever saw it on TV. So it will stay. It was aired in Sweden when I was about six- I was old enough to read sub-titles and was showed back to back with Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which made for a rather odd combo. I hugely enjoyed the heroic Flash (Buster Crabbe) and was young enough to not mind the bad special effects. We also played Flash Gordon at school. In 1980 a very campy movie version came, which I can recommend as well, just for sheer silly fun. It features Max von Sydow as Ming, a very young Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin and BRIAN BLESSED as king of the hawk people, evidently just rehearsing his later role as Yrcanos i Doctor Who.
You can see the 1936 serial on Youtube, the first episode can be found here.
Nobody’s House (1976). I was haunted by the memory of this British series for years. I remembered the opening sequence where one sees a house change as time passes and I remembered the premises: a family moves into a haunted house and the children quickly befriends the ghost, a boy their own age who died of plague in their cellar. Nobody seemed to remember this show, but one sleepless night I found a page on Wikipedia with all supernatural TV-shows for children made in UK and there it was. You can see the first episode on Youtube, but sadly that seems to be it. I’d love to see the whole thing again.
First episode
The Young Ones (1982-84) This is probably not obscure in UK, but it is rather so in Sweden. It was aired in Sweden when I was around 13 and it very much embodies the early 80’s for me. I found the four “students”; punk rocker Vyv (Adrian Edmondson), the hippie Neil (Nigel Planer), anarchist Rick (Rik Mayall) and Mike the Cool Person (Christopher Ryan) hilarious. None of my school mates did, however, and only further cemented how odd they found me. I still think it’s funny, but it is stuck in it’s time and have perhaps not ages so well. I showed it for my Kid who adores Monty Python, Blackadder and Red Dwarf and he found it dead boring. It also has one of my favourite quotes ever; “Nobody ever listens to me, I may as well be a Leonard Cohen record.”
First episode here.
Idag röd…, Lysande landning and Träff i helfigur (1987) (Today Red…, Perfect Landing and Point Blank). Stieg Trenter was a Swedish author who wrote a number of detective stories in the 1940’s-60’s. Most feature an amatur sleuth, a photographer called Harry Friberg and his friend, Detective Inspector Vesper Johansson (who is a very poirot-like character). Harry himself is handsome and very popular with the ladies. The stories tends to be a bit formulaic, but Harry is a nice character and the book's real strength; a sharp and accurate portrait of Stockholm during this time, are excellent. In 1987 they made a mini series of three of the earliest ones and they have great costumes, wonderful settings and unusually good acting (Swedish actor’s has a tendency to stodginess.) The year after they made a version of Som man ropar... (As You Shout…) which does not feature Harry Friberg and takes place during the was, close to the Norwegian border. Hint, there are spies in it…
Huset Silfercronas gåta (1974) (The Mystery of the House of Silfercrona) If you are Swedish and born in the 60’s to early 80’s, you will probably have very strong memories of this show, especially the song in the opening sequence. What most don’t know, is that it is actually a swedified version of Edith Nesbit's book House of Arden. I know that because I adored Nesbit as a child and the book is MUCH better. Two children goes back in time to find a lost treasure. In the books they start with the 19th century and go further and further back, the children in the show starts in the Middle Ages and go forward. The mouldiwarp in the book has become an ageless housekeeper and if only the right heir can find the treasure in the book, the rightful heir turns out to be the crook in the series. Also, as this was made in Sweden in the 1970’s, the focus is on the oppressed working classes.
First episode.
Den vita stenen (1973) (The White Stone). The original book was written by Gunnel Linde and the TV series is just about perfect. It takes place in a small Swedish town during the 1930’s. Fia lives with her single mother who is a piano teacher (very suspect) and is a very lonely child. She finds a white stone which, in her mind, becomes a treasure. When she meet the new shoemaker’s nephew, the good for nothing Hampus, they become a sort of friendly enemies. Calling themselves Fideli and the Master of danger they challenge each other, the winner getting possession of the white stone. It’s beautifully filmed and a lovelystory about friendship and acceptance.
First episode.
lost_spook posted about old and obscure TV-series and it was so much fun to read. It certainly opened my eyes for Campion which I had previously managed to miss. It’s an absolute delightful series featuring Peter Davison as Margery Allingham’s detective Albert Campion. Obscure, however, is probably a matter of definition. Swedish series are probably very obscure elsewhere, but all my Swedish friends know them very well. And some British series are pretty obscure in Sweden, but you lot will probably know of them. Either way, this has been a fun trip into nostalgia.Flash Gordon (1936) Technically this isn’t a TV-show, but a movie serial of 13 20-minutes episodes. But I didn’t know that when I started to write this post; I only ever saw it on TV. So it will stay. It was aired in Sweden when I was about six- I was old enough to read sub-titles and was showed back to back with Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which made for a rather odd combo. I hugely enjoyed the heroic Flash (Buster Crabbe) and was young enough to not mind the bad special effects. We also played Flash Gordon at school. In 1980 a very campy movie version came, which I can recommend as well, just for sheer silly fun. It features Max von Sydow as Ming, a very young Timothy Dalton as Prince Barin and BRIAN BLESSED as king of the hawk people, evidently just rehearsing his later role as Yrcanos i Doctor Who.
You can see the 1936 serial on Youtube, the first episode can be found here.
Nobody’s House (1976). I was haunted by the memory of this British series for years. I remembered the opening sequence where one sees a house change as time passes and I remembered the premises: a family moves into a haunted house and the children quickly befriends the ghost, a boy their own age who died of plague in their cellar. Nobody seemed to remember this show, but one sleepless night I found a page on Wikipedia with all supernatural TV-shows for children made in UK and there it was. You can see the first episode on Youtube, but sadly that seems to be it. I’d love to see the whole thing again.
First episode
The Young Ones (1982-84) This is probably not obscure in UK, but it is rather so in Sweden. It was aired in Sweden when I was around 13 and it very much embodies the early 80’s for me. I found the four “students”; punk rocker Vyv (Adrian Edmondson), the hippie Neil (Nigel Planer), anarchist Rick (Rik Mayall) and Mike the Cool Person (Christopher Ryan) hilarious. None of my school mates did, however, and only further cemented how odd they found me. I still think it’s funny, but it is stuck in it’s time and have perhaps not ages so well. I showed it for my Kid who adores Monty Python, Blackadder and Red Dwarf and he found it dead boring. It also has one of my favourite quotes ever; “Nobody ever listens to me, I may as well be a Leonard Cohen record.”
First episode here.
Idag röd…, Lysande landning and Träff i helfigur (1987) (Today Red…, Perfect Landing and Point Blank). Stieg Trenter was a Swedish author who wrote a number of detective stories in the 1940’s-60’s. Most feature an amatur sleuth, a photographer called Harry Friberg and his friend, Detective Inspector Vesper Johansson (who is a very poirot-like character). Harry himself is handsome and very popular with the ladies. The stories tends to be a bit formulaic, but Harry is a nice character and the book's real strength; a sharp and accurate portrait of Stockholm during this time, are excellent. In 1987 they made a mini series of three of the earliest ones and they have great costumes, wonderful settings and unusually good acting (Swedish actor’s has a tendency to stodginess.) The year after they made a version of Som man ropar... (As You Shout…) which does not feature Harry Friberg and takes place during the was, close to the Norwegian border. Hint, there are spies in it…
Huset Silfercronas gåta (1974) (The Mystery of the House of Silfercrona) If you are Swedish and born in the 60’s to early 80’s, you will probably have very strong memories of this show, especially the song in the opening sequence. What most don’t know, is that it is actually a swedified version of Edith Nesbit's book House of Arden. I know that because I adored Nesbit as a child and the book is MUCH better. Two children goes back in time to find a lost treasure. In the books they start with the 19th century and go further and further back, the children in the show starts in the Middle Ages and go forward. The mouldiwarp in the book has become an ageless housekeeper and if only the right heir can find the treasure in the book, the rightful heir turns out to be the crook in the series. Also, as this was made in Sweden in the 1970’s, the focus is on the oppressed working classes.
First episode.
Den vita stenen (1973) (The White Stone). The original book was written by Gunnel Linde and the TV series is just about perfect. It takes place in a small Swedish town during the 1930’s. Fia lives with her single mother who is a piano teacher (very suspect) and is a very lonely child. She finds a white stone which, in her mind, becomes a treasure. When she meet the new shoemaker’s nephew, the good for nothing Hampus, they become a sort of friendly enemies. Calling themselves Fideli and the Master of danger they challenge each other, the winner getting possession of the white stone. It’s beautifully filmed and a lovelystory about friendship and acceptance.
First episode.
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no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 08:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 05:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 11:45 am (UTC)Awwww.
I've never seen "The Young Ones" before. I like Rick. "I've written a poem that should help you out."
no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 05:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 05:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 01:14 pm (UTC)(I don't think Flash Gordon can really have Brian Blessed in it, as in 1936 Mr Blessed was otherwise occupied in generally being born and probably crying a lot, but whoever it was presumably provided inspiration to him later! ;-D)
I'm wondering whether I've seen Nobody's House, because it sounds sort of vaguely familiar - it was too early for me to watch it, but they did used to sometimes repeat old serials in the summer at various points. But it may just be because, as you say here, children's TV went in for a lot of those kinds of series!
no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 05:06 am (UTC)There's really no other way to write it. ;)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 05:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-04 02:06 pm (UTC)I did like 'The Young Ones' years ago. Very much of it's time as you say. I think it would be hard for a kid today to understand the references to 1980's Britain, but it wasn't so difficult in the 1990's. I liked how Mike the Cool Person was the boring one!(!)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 05:18 am (UTC)We were made of stern stuff... ;) In Sweden there were a series of children's shows made by a pupeteer who scared children half to death. I especially remember a character called "Big Potatoe" who thretened to throw people into his potatoe sack. There were a lot of talk about it in the 90's with people claiming to have been traumatized. The puppeteer who evidently possessed an ability to laugh at himself even made a show "by the man who destroyed your childhood". Nowadays, of cours, those shows are cult.
Yes, being in a teeager in the 80's makes The Young Ones a very nostalgic watch for me, but some things must seem to be just strange if you watch it today.
I liked how Mike the Cool Person was the boring one!(!)
I saw an interview with someone involved in the Young Ones quite recently, probably just after Rik Mayal died, who said that Mike was originally meant to have been played by Peter Richardson, but just production he got in a fight with Ben Elton and left. And now I can actually see how the rolse was written to fit Richardson, as there wasn't any time left to make it fit Christopher Ryam. I think Mike might have been funnier with Richardson, but it would have changed the Dynamics a lot and might very possibly nit have been as funny as it is. :)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 02:06 pm (UTC)They must have liked working with Christopher Ryan though as he came back in 'Bottom' as Dave Hedgehog. Not a cool character:)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-13 01:49 pm (UTC)http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FLm0hnwAou8/maxresdefault.jpg
Strange it gave kids nightmares, no?
And he is in a couple of Comic Strip Presents as well- with just about anyone who ever featured in Young Ones, Bottom, Absolutely Fabulous and Blackadder. :)
no subject
Date: 2015-09-13 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-14 10:03 am (UTC)Imagine if Mr Potato had kids with Hartley Hare. It doesn't bear thinking about:S
No, that would be to scary for words!
no subject
Date: 2015-09-06 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-09-08 05:06 am (UTC)