Villains: Alice Sheree (Seventies TV Season)

The introduction to this series of posts about 1970s TV can be found here: https://culttvblog.substack.com/p/seventies-tv-season-introduction

Villains (1972) is a complex and difficult show which doesn't get as much coverage as it could do. I see that I myself have only blogged about it once before, and I'll just get the reasons for the difficulty with this show out of the way before proceeding to its praise. The difficulty with this show is in the format (and pretty much every review online says this about it so unusually I'm echoing a general opinion). It is a series of thirteen 50-minute shows about a group of thieves (and others who get involved) who rob a bank, are imprisoned, and escape from the prison van on their way to an appeal. The first episode covers this chronologically but successive episodes deal with what then happens to each character individually and abandons a general chronology, so it essentially repeats the same time frame over and over again, but with different characters. What this means is that the events from Monty's persepctive in episode 2 are not mentioned again in the entire series and by the time you get to Billy Boy (episode 13) you might find yourself wondering about Monty.

In contrast to most shows which would shift between different characters and keep some sort of chronology going, this is of course completely different and the fact that it isn't that popular is reflected in the reviews I've already mentioned. I have not been able to find any contemporary documentation about what was intended, but I have chosen to apprach it as a very serious, cerebral show requiring ongoing attention from the viewer. I wonder whether it would also be best thought of as a series of independent plays inspired by the events of the first one. This effects is added to by the way each episode has a different writer, and we have some real talent in the writing department, including our very own P J Hammond.

The lengthy episodes, focus on individuals, and lengthy series means that the series takes the time to consider the implications of the theft and escape on the thieves' significant others and the show ultimately leaves their future rather in doubt. I commented before that the British audience of the time would naturally see this show in light of the Great Train Robbery of 1963 (in which �2.61 million was stolen and most of which has never been recovered) and it must be said that the complex effects of the robbery on the thieves do bear a resemblance to this show. These effects included ongoing attempts by other criminals to extort the proceeds from them, being forced to change identity and even suicide. There is, I suppose inevitably, a certain moral sense to this show because of the way it shows the effects of crime. This is, however, a moral sense which you have to watch attentively and at length to really get.

Another reason to watch this show is actually how very seventies it is. I am convinced that if you get too engrossed in it you will come to to find that your trousers have become loon pants and your room is carpeted in shag pile. It is absolutely perfect. There is a mixture of some external scenes which accurately show 1970s Britain and imaginatively done sets. I keep looking at it and thinking that my dad had a shirt just like that and thinking that those sheets would probably give you a rash. I will stop before I go into paroxysms of 1970s reminiscence! One of the other things which is very seventies is the amount they stole (from memory it works out at �300,000 each, barely enough to buy a decent family house in most places or a rabbit hutch in London) which seems so small. Although I see that this was the equivalent of �4,225,080 in 2017 so it just seems tiny. But then I suppose a sense of proportion and history is one of the things you get from classic TV.

Alice Sheree is the fifth episode and is about Alice Clough, who was given a suitcase of the stolen money by Michael Smith, one of the robbers, to keep hold of and got imprisoned for two years for possession of the money. Now she is out of prison but so is the man who was responsible for her being imprisoned and his first concern is to find her.

The episode begins effectively with Alice going in front of the parole board (I'm sure they don't have a clergyman on them nowadays) who make arrangements for her release from prison. She goes home to her parents who have been looking after her daughter while she's been in prison. The board express some concern about Alice's mother not bringing the child to see Alice.

And this is where we first hit the main thing about Alice, which is that she's one of these people you feel you can't get anything out of. She avoids the board's concerns, says that she'll help her dad in the shop, is adamant she will be alright, and it's quite plain she doesn't really get what they're saying. You get the same impression in her conversations with her family. In fact she doesn't seem to get anything, even to the extent of upsetting her own daughter even after her mother has pointed out she's upsetting her. If you asked her why she did anything, she wouldn't be able to tell you.

I'm perhaps expressing this in a way which makes it sound more irritating than the real effect, which is absolutely horrifying. While it's not clear whether she's mentally ill or has a learning disability, you really have to wonder whether she's 'all there', and it's frankly horrifying that she got pregnant, came into contact with criminals, took charge of a suitcase of stolen money and was even imprisoned. You would wonder whether she understood anything that was going on with her, and in fact even her own parents comment on it.

She says she doesn't want to see Mike again as her parents bring up the subject of his escape to her, and then of course she's out of the house seeing him for absolutely no reason whatsoever just because he's used his pet name for her. She's even had a perfectly maddening conversation with him when she's claimed not to know who he is. The blank expression on her face as she obviously lies to her parents about where she is going to is also prefectly maddening, because she obviously won't admit that she's going out to meet one of the robbers even though they know she is.

The episode highlights the effect on Alice and her family of the robbery and ultimately her family report her to the police. Honestly the full effect on the viewer of Julie's blankness, duplicity, and easily led nature, is absolutely horrifying. Just as horrifying is the way she has abandoned her child with her parents and run off to see a criminal on the run from prison in a caravan, who if he isn't old enough to be her dad isn't far off.

The whole effect of the episode is to bring up conflicting emotions in the viewer: rage at Mike, and horror mixed with irritation at Alice. And all this is mixed in with horror that anyone could use her and a wish that someone would do something about her, but of course nobody is going to.

If you particularly want a criticism of the series and the episode I would have to say that it is that its cast is a bit of a list of big names of the time. However they are all excellent actors and so not obtrusively themselves and they don't distract from the plot.

This show is well worth watching but requires attention from the viewer far beyond what most shows need.

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