722 posts
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Post by hulmeman on Oct 18, 2019 9:55:01 GMT
I guess posting about this "ancient movies" channel will have me branded as an old fart, but I'll take a hit for the team! I know there are quite a few fans of the late, great and lovely Dora Bryan on here, well this weekend she is featured in movies and discussions on this channel. They are also showing the (then) ground breaking play about Quentin Crisp "The Naked Civil Servant". I haven't seen this for a number of years and younger readers might like to get acquainted with this piece of gay social history. talkingpicturestv.co.uk |
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3,040 posts
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Post by crowblack on Oct 18, 2019 10:16:04 GMT
Talking Pics TV is probably my favourite channel now! It's really good for those very performance-centred films from the 60s that have been hard to find or unreleased on DVD, like Morgan A Suitable Case for Treatment, and some of the (admittedly creaky) old TV shows have early appearances from the likes of John Hurt etc.. They are very responsive on Twitter so it's worth asking if there's something you'd like to see (I'm hoping they'll unearth Work is a Four Letter Word or Smashing Time - they probably haven't aged well but I love those 60s 'jolie laide' actors). They're also starting to show foreign-language films - Herzog's Nosferatu is getting another outing tonight.
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513 posts
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Post by Deal J on Oct 18, 2019 10:37:51 GMT
[...] I'm hoping they'll unearth Work is a Four Letter Word [...] I've always wanted to see that one as well. The title song by Cilla Black is infamous for splitting up The Smiths - Johnny Marr said he didn't form a group to do Cilla Black cover songs! |
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3,040 posts
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Post by crowblack on Oct 18, 2019 10:44:06 GMT
Johnny Marr said he didn't form a group to do Cilla Black cover songs! I did not know that! I saw it once when I was a kid - David Warner growing magic mushrooms in a factory boiler room, or something like that. |
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513 posts
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Post by Deal J on Oct 18, 2019 10:56:38 GMT
I wasn't aware of this channel, but looking through the schedules there are some real gems coming. Thanks for the heads-up.
Again relating to The Smiths, I see the channel will be showing The L-Shaped Room which is where the opening of The Queen is Dead ("Take me back to dear Old Blighty...") comes from. Morrissey borrowed lots of lines from A Taste of Honey for his lyrics, too.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2019 13:24:57 GMT
I can highly recommend the very obscure late 70s TV series "Rooms" which they are showing on Thursday and Friday afternoons. Stand-alone 2-part dramas set in a house full of bedsits in Barons Court. It's a fascinating slice of 1970s life with some amazing casts. In a few weeks they are starting another repeat run of ITV's "Armchair Theatre" which is a mixed bag but has some real gems.
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3,040 posts
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Post by crowblack on Oct 18, 2019 13:38:27 GMT
A Taste of Honey for his lyrics, too. Yes - "I dreamed about you last night - fell out of bed twice!" |
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3,040 posts
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Post by crowblack on Oct 18, 2019 13:43:52 GMT
It's a fascinating slice of 1970s life with some amazing casts. I love the scenes of post-industrial but pre-redevelopment London and elsewhere you get in some of these films: even something fairly rubbish like the circus horror on the other week had a great opening filmed around Tower Bridge and the shabby docklands. Keep an eye out for 'The Small World of Sammy Lee' which they've shown from time to time and is a nice slice of late 50s/early 60s Soho. |
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409 posts
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Post by maggiem on Oct 18, 2019 14:01:20 GMT
They have been showing some of the "Great West End Theatres" series, but at really odd times and I have been scanning the Radio Times listings very hard to find them. None for the last 2 weeks but there are a couple next week.
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297 posts
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Post by fossil on Oct 18, 2019 16:27:03 GMT
It's a fascinating slice of 1970s life with some amazing casts. I love the scenes of post-industrial but pre-redevelopment London and elsewhere you get in some of these films: even something fairly rubbish like the circus horror on the other week had a great opening filmed around Tower Bridge and the shabby docklands. Keep an eye out for 'The Small World of Sammy Lee' which they've shown from time to time and is a nice slice of late 50s/early 60s Soho. You might want to check out BBC iPlayer for a wonderfully nostalgic (well nostalgic for an ancient like me!) John Betjeman Monitor film showing views of 50s London. His other films are worth a look as well. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/p025jt33 |
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Post by learfan on Oct 18, 2019 20:15:10 GMT
Talking Pictures has been around for a year or two. There is also the retro movies, they are 327 and 328 on Sky. Lots of rubbish of course but some gems. You have to keep your eyes on the schedule. The movie geek in me likes them if only to prove films didn't start with Star wars.
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Post by FrontrowverPaul on Oct 19, 2019 1:16:55 GMT
Slightly OT but I've been trying to see a film called Julie and the Cadillacs. It's apparently a real stinker and flopped spectacularly but I like the CD. Was shown once on C5 years ago but no DVD and none of the film finding services could help. I thought I'd found it online recently but isn't actually there. Any leads folks ?
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256 posts
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Post by frankubelik on Oct 19, 2019 6:23:02 GMT
Thank God for this channel; true there are some decidedly dodgy items but it champions many overlooked and forgotten movies and is now really the only place where these can be seen. I have given up on TCM (which has become the Western channel - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) and the other channels ignore the "classic movie" canon. Anybody else remember the Saturday and Sunday afternoon matinees on the BBC?
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1,863 posts
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Post by NeilVHughes on Nov 14, 2019 19:04:02 GMT
For the Pinter fans, the 1968 film of The Birthday Party is on tonight at 10:00.
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3,040 posts
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Post by crowblack on Nov 15, 2019 19:51:50 GMT
1968 film of The Birthday Party BBC2 starting to take a leaf out of TPTV's book - Look Back in Anger on late tonight. |
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3,040 posts
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Post by crowblack on Dec 14, 2019 16:01:56 GMT
Did anyone catch last week's 1960s Uncle Silas adaptation in the 'Mystery and Imagination' slot (9pm Sundays)? It was great fun, played sort-of-straight but with full-on Victorian melodrama scenery-chewing gusto. This week it's Ian Holm as Frankenstein and the creature.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2020 21:55:43 GMT
Yes, they are showing them for the next few Sunday evenings at least Next few weeks will be ... 19th Jan: 1957. Variety entertainment show hosted by Hughie Green featuring Mario Lanza, Les Maragones, George Holmes, and Les Maturines. 26th Jan: 1958 Variety show hosted by Tommy Trinder. The stars include Sarah Vaughan, Dick Shawn, Marvin Rainwater, Pinky and Perky, The John Tiller Girls and the game Beat the Clock. 2nd Feb: 1960. Variety show hosted by Bruce Forsyth. The stars include Bobby Darin, Art Lund, Libi Staiger, Helen Scott, Inia Wiata, Jack Delon, Trio Rayros, The London Palladium Girls & Boys 9th Feb: 1960. Variety show hosted by Bruce Forsyth. This stars include Adam Faith, The John Barry Seven, Beryl Reid, Rise Stevens, The Dior Dancers, The John Tiller Girls and Beat the Clock. (details from talkingpicturestv.co.uk/schedule/)Unfortunately very little of the series exists. There is a DVD release from Network featuring all that survives from the original 50s/60s run and the early 70s revival, and presumably some of that was incomplete episodes and clips. The running time of that set is 980 minutes which by my maths is about 20 episodes, out of 411. Not sure how much of this Talking Pictures will be showing. |
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1,089 posts
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Post by tonyloco on Jan 21, 2020 11:00:46 GMT
I would like to point out that the 2nd February 1960 show includes the principals from the original London cast of The Most Happy Fella which opened at the Coliseum on 21 April 1960 – Art Lund, Libi Staiger, Helen Scott, Inia Te Wiata and Jack De Lon. I stood at the back of the Balcony for the first night and was bowled over by the power of all the performances which had no trouble reaching the very top of the auditorium without amplification. Presumably the whole cast was in London for rehearsals well before the opening night and in those days there were usually not a lot of 'previews' although I am not sure about that.
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1,089 posts
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Post by tonyloco on Feb 3, 2020 21:27:01 GMT
No. I forgot about it, more fool me!
But I do have my memories of seeing "Most Happy Fella" several times and they are still vivid.
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275 posts
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Post by emsworthian on Feb 4, 2020 7:52:31 GMT
I was watching an old 50's black and white film, "Tiger in the Smoke", which I had recorded and I thought: "Gosh. That actor looks like Martin Clunes. He's got the same mannerisms as well."
A quick google on IMDB revealed it was Alec Clunes, Martin's dad.
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1,089 posts
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Post by tonyloco on Feb 4, 2020 11:46:44 GMT
But I do have my memories of seeing "Most Happy Fella" several times and they are still vivid. That's what I meant, tonyloco , that I guessed you had seen it at the Coliseum. It sounded amazing on TV, was it the same then?
Libby Staiger's opening song as a tired waitress 'Ooh, my feet, my poor, poor feet' was a striking if unusual opening to a musical and she and Jack DeLon later brought the house down in the second act with 'Big D'. Jack DeLon also had the male quartet number 'Standing On The Corner' which was highly entertaining. But the rest of the cast was equally impressive, especially the two men with powerful deep voices: the American: Art Lund and the New Zealand Maori: Inia Te Wiata, the latter having a major international career as an operatic bass-baritone.
As I said before, it remains vividly in my mind and I rate it highly both as a show and as a production, despite its short run.
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213 posts
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Post by peelee on Feb 4, 2020 18:57:06 GMT
From small beginnings and the showing of some very old-fashioned and often obscure British films, Talking Pictures has rooted itself in the TV schedules as an option for something to view when consciously TV modern channels can have a '57 Channels and Nothing On' quality to them.
It has steadily gone from earlier decades-TV programmes forgotten for good reason, through to landmark old TV series, vintage films and a smattering of short public information films, GPO film unit documentaries and Imperial War Museum-made works that provide perspective via some of Britain's TV and film history. Children's Film Foundation-made films have cropped up from time to time, along with prize-winners and distinguished early-career documentaries by feature film directors who went on to win big prizes in the international film and TV industry.
Last week for the second time I watched a short, amateur-looking film about the last day of the trolleybus between Hammersmith and Cricklewood, while on other occasions it's been half an hour on the old Covent Garden wholesale market, a day in the life of Waterloo Station, or the ferocious British winter of 1963. I've still got Dandy Nichols in The Birthday Party to watch, while the kitchen-sink dramas that Woodfall Films turned out get regular airings, with quite different 'social problem' films contemporaneous with theirs from the 1950s and 1960s revealing how clumsily or subtly or innocently various issues got treated.
Rather like the spirit-raising effect that early years Channel 4 had on so many of us in the early 1980s, the arrival of Talking Pictures five or so years ago and what it has eventually got around to showing has proved just as fascinating and provided some relief from low standard current TV efforts.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2020 20:18:23 GMT
This week they started a repeat run of "Funny Man", a 1980 ITV drama series starring Jimmy Jewel as the head of a family of struggling Music Hall artists in the 1920s. Jewel was brought up in a family of variety artists and his character in the series is based on his own father. I remember enjoying this when it was first shown (I was an odd 13 year old  ) - seen mixed reports from people who have seen it more recently. Possibly because they are expecting a comedy? The comedy acts and sketches performed by the troupe are (I assume) pretty faithful recreations of what an act of this sort would have done at the time. ie they are painfully unfunny. |
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) - seen mixed reports from people who have seen it more recently. Possibly because they are expecting a comedy? The comedy acts and sketches performed by the troupe are (I assume) pretty faithful recreations of what an act of this sort would have done at the time. ie they are painfully unfunny.