Ace of Wands: Sisters Deadly (Sylvia Coleridge Season)
These series of posts about shows featuring one actor have unexpected effects, mostly in introducing me to things I wouldn't otherwise see, and in this case forcing me to confront the fact that Ace of Wands has for some reason never appeared on this blog. The reason it has never appeared here is that I have simply never got on very well with this show, for reasons I find it impossible to indentify or articulate, and my inability to identify these reasons is what has prevented me blogging about it, rather than anything wrong with the show itself.
On paper, Ace of Wands should be a show that I would be all over like a rash: if you don't know it you will readily see from the title that it is redolent of the sort of weird stuff that was all the rage in my childhood in the 1970s. The lead character is called Tarot and is both a stage magician as well as having real magic powers. In true 70s fashion the only series surviving intact is the final, 1972, series. In this series Tarot is assisted by a brother and sister called Chas and Mikki Diamond. Mikki has magic powers but Chas doesn't. It also had the advantage of being created by legendary script writer Trevor Preston, whose output reads like a catalogue of my DVDs but of the series he wrote single-handed I would particularly recommend Out and The Tyrant King, both of which I love. As I say, I have no real reason why I have never got on with Ace of Wands, the problem is certainly not that it is intended to be a chidlren's programme. It is also certainly not that the adventures are rather leisurely paced across three half-hour episodes: this pace is comfortable and certainly not unusual for TV of the time. I really can't identify my blind spot about this show and will perhaps have another watch through the episodes I can lay my hands on to see what I make of it.
The presmise of Sisters Deadly is that Chas, who is a photographer, gets a commission to take pictures of an old lady's 100th birthday party. She lives with her younger sister and there is a positive plethora of old ladies cooing around him at the party. Unfortunately when he comes back with his pictures, he has no recollection of anything that has happened, doesn't recognise anyone in the pictures he has taken, and the local post office has been raided by someone exactly matching his description. Over three episodes Tarot and Mikki get to the bottom of what has actually happened here, and I'm going to be good and not give it away. However suffice to say that the solution to what is going on is definitely magical but has a rather earthly aim. The cast's solution of it involves all three main characters becoming involved in the two sisters' lives and Tarot using his magical abilities as well as more mundane means to solve what is going on.
The role for Sylvia Coleridge is the most substantial role she has had in these shows so far, because she plays the younger of the two sisters. It is another perfect role for her, in that her rather dotty stage persona is perfectly fitted to the sister in this strange situation: she is the one who expresses doubt, but who also does much of the work in the plot because she is the more able-bodied of the two. According to IMDb, in a scene where she hits Chas on the head with a vase, he is seen sporting a bump for the rest of the scene (although I can't see it) because in one take she did accidentally hit him on the face with the vase. I expect she was wonderfully apologetic afterwards! One of the things I like best about this is the absolute plethora of old ladies involved, because the two sisters have also involved all the others in the village in what they are doing: most unusual for a TV show, especially one intended for children.
I only have minor criticisms of this show. The more major one is that it is rather obvious to the experienced and cynical eye that the sister celebrating her 100th birthday is not quite what she seems. I don't know whether this was intended not to be noticed by the juvenile audience, or that the plethora of weird stuff going on was intended to distract from it. There is also the problem that the Sylvia Coleridge character tells Chas that her sister has received her telegram from the queen for her hundredth birthday and it is upstairs. This is obviously a real misstep, because Chas would naturally be expected to take a picture of the centenarian with her telegram from the queen.
Actually I think I have put my finger on one of my difficulties with this series, and obviously the reason I've never blogged about it is that it sounds even sillier when written down in black and white than it does in my head. It is that the Chas character is played by actor Roy Holder. This absolutely isn't a problem in any way whatsoever, but in the strange world inside my head I immediately think of Slade singer Noddy Holder, and am disorientated by the fact that Roy is not Noddy, and is dressed in relatively sensible clothes for the time. I am not aware of them being related. God, this sounds ridiculous now I've let it out in public.
Anyway, apart from my neuroses I definitely think this is a very good show that you should watch. With Slade playing quietly in the background...
This blog is mirrored at
culttvblog.tumblr.com/archive (from September 2023) and culttvblog.substack.com (from January 2023 and where you can subscribe by email)
Archives from 2013 to September 2023 may be found at culttvblog.blogspot.com and there is an incomplete index to the tags used on the Tumblr version at https://www.tumblr.com/culttvblog/729194158177370112/this-blog
There is an index to posts on the Substack version here: https://culttvblog.substack.com/p/index-of-posts?r=1q6qo6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
About this blog: https://culttvblog.substack.com/about