The Triple Echo (1972) - Lobby Cards

Watched this evening for the first time in decades; The Triple Echo remains a wonderful piece of British cinema with a bucolic English landscape cast as the back drop to a tale of moral ambiguity and brooding sexual tensions.  Its powerful storytelling, subtly played by some of our finest actors of the day.  Seeing it again now after all these years and realising that it is still every bit as good as the vague memory recalled, makes me appreciate what excellent taste I had as a kid but it also makes me wonder where it developed from?   Something to ponder upon in another post, perhaps.

Steve

Madam Sin (1972)

Having just watched Madam Sin for the first time, all the way through, I have to say that I really liked.  It does sort of fizzle out at the end in ways that I can't quite put my finger on but could be either a lack of money, a lack of care or just a quick fix to give it any kind of end once they realised it wasn't going to get picked up as the pilot of a new series.

The opening is strong though, the music and cinematography striking and with sonic guns, dastardly nuns and the casual charm that is Denholm Elliot, I was instantly hooked

In its set up it's a little bit; The Prisoner, a bit; Man in a Suitcase and maybe even a little bit The Avenger. None of which are bad things, especial at the start of the 70s

What I find most interesting about the movie though is that if, as had originally been intended, it had have become a TV series, exactly who's series would it have been?  Madam Sin the Moriarty style villainess as played by Bette Davis, Retired CIA agent Anthony Lawrence as played by Robert Wagner or even the presumed dead CIA agent and love interest Barbera as played by Catherine Schell.  Or all three of them?

Without giving away the movie's surprise ending, which may not have been true to the original pilot script, quite where episode 2, 3, 4 and so on would have taken us is anyone's guess but its fun to imagine what might have been.

Steve

BBC TV Centre. A hub of industry from 1960 to 2013.

There still seems something very wrong about the BBC having to get rid of TV centre.  I'm all for having regional TV production centres in other areas of the country but that building was iconic and of huge historical significance.  It seemed to feature in as many productions as it made and thanks to live Saturday morning kids TV, Blue Peter and the like, we were always getting to see around the corridors and behind the studios.  I would have loved to have gone on one of the official tours when it was an option but feel like I know it fairly well regardless.

 

Plan from Ladybird books 'How it works' Television
 

 

 

Steve

From Sin to Who - Recycling the Future

How did this:

Madam Sin (1972) ITC

End up here:

Doctor Who Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) BBC

Well lets go for a bit of a ramble and speculate...

ITC (Incorporated Television Company) or ITC Entertainment as it was known in America was a British television production and distribution company best remembered for a string of cult TV shows made during the 60s and 70s.

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Champions, The Prisoner, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Stingray, Joe 90, Man in a Suitcase, Department S, The Persuaders!, Jason King and The Protectors, to name but a few of the ones we may look at here one day.

In addition to television programming, ITC also produced several feature films, including; Capricorn One, The Eagle Has Landed, The Boys from Brazil and Madam Sin.

The latter; Madam Sin, had started life as a pilot for a potential TV series but had failed to excite the American network schedulers and so, following its initial broadcast in 1972 on ABC, it saw distribution to the rest of the world in the aforementioned guise of a movie.

And, having recently viewed the cinema trailer, I can now identify it as one of those half remembered movies I started watching on my portable TV late one night in the early 80's (?) without ever knowing its name.  I think I fell asleep without seeing it to conclusion but I do intend to rectify that quite soon because it looks like fun.

Its perhaps also worth mentioning at this point that ITC was founded by television mogul Lew Grade who, with fingers in many other TV pies of the day, was also co-owner of Century 21 Productions, alongside founder and creator Gerry Anderson.

Now when the Century 21 partnership ended in 1970, many of its costumes, sets, and props from its various TV productions were sold off to hire companies, with quite a few of the smaller pieces going to the special effects boys from the BBC who, rumour has it, filled up a van with goodies for 70 quid.

So my guess is that the sonic gun from Madam Sin was mixed in with the Century 21 stuff as part of the clearance and as such destined to be recycled as a dinosaur stun gun in Doctor Who.

There are a few other bits and bobs from the back of the van that are worth looking at in the future but this seemed as good a place as any to start, if only because its that little bit more obscure than the sonic screw driver and various spaceships... and a bit of speculation usually brings the experts out into the open and starts discussion.

In the mean time it is a hansom prop and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it had featured in further roles as well as these.

Steve

Sun, Sea and Cybermen (1973)

Stiffkey Marsh and Cley Beach, Norfolk, sometime in 1973.  An important birthday celebration looms and actors Anneke Wills and Michael Craze are invited to improvise a Doctor Who'ish scene or two for the Radio Times 10th anniversary special.

Of all the "companions and monsters" pictures taken for the souvenir magazine, this photo shoot is perhaps the most successful in capturing a sense of story, and a very Doctor Who kind of story at that.  Not just because its Ben and Polly and the Cybermen but because of locations that are at odds with mechanical men and because its aliens in the English ideal.

What happens next?  Well obviously a sunshine yellow Edwardian Roadster skids to a halt and the firm but kindly voice of an eccentrically dressed, white haired gentleman commands that if they want to live, they should get in the car and quickly.  They accelerate away at great speed as cyber weaponry tracks their escape with a chaser of smoke billowing explosive charges.  Later when they are safe, he will ask them if they are alright and call them by their names.  They will be surprised because his is a face they have never seen before.  But when he tells them who he is, they'll know straight away that its true because they were there the last time.  Of course its the Doctor, who else could it be....and then the adventure will begin again.

Steve

The Herb garden (1968)

Steve

The Touchables (1968)

It's not all nostalgia over here at Strange England because I'm not entirely sure that in and of its self, nostalgia is enough of an excuse for anything.  Sometimes, some of our destinations will be places I've been to and seen before and sometimes they'll be new - That's new as in old but new to me!

A good example of this would be The Touchables, the 1968 film that I only discovered existed for the first time today and then watched this very evening.  I have to say that I loved it and thought it was wonderful, being sexy, stylish, funny, eccentric and idiosyncratically English all at the same time.

They don't make them like this any more and probably never will again because those times are past and unrepeatable but thank Arcadia that such treats are now captured in digital amber.

The Touchables was everything the initial review had lead me to believe, including its tangential links to similar Strange England offerings such as Zardoz and The Final Program, other films which also have there own equally singular yet confident visions.  Its not going to be to everyone's tastes but if you enjoy either of the films above or the BFI Flipside releases then you should probably go check it out.  I found it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gtdqNTOHG4 but it lurks in other corners of the internet as well.

For some more facts and background info go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Touchables_(film)

For the wonderful blog that tipped me off in the first place, and who's style I'm paying homage to right now, go here: http://ayearinthecountry.co.uk/week-4452-touchables-pop-art-pastoral-playland/

And finally for a gallery of lobby cards go here: http://strangeengland.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/the-touchables-lobby-cards-1968.html ....or just scroll down to the post below, which ever is quicker


Steve

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan. A stately pleasure-dome decree