What's on my Laptop
Possibly a strange title but this post is simply a run-down of shows of which I currently have episodes in a file on my laptop, either waiting to be seen or waiting to be blogged about. They have all been available online recently and I have downloaded them. Among other things the purpose of this post is to celebrate that I can still find new stuff uploaded and shows I haven't seen yet!
I posted a few weeks ago about Second Verdict, the 1976 series in which DCSs Barlow and Watts reprise their fictional police roles to reconsider historical mysteries. I also have the 1973 Jack the Ripper series, in which they also consider this mystery in their fictional personae. Jack the Ripper isn't one of my enthusiasms, but I have read reviews saying that this is possibly the best account of the state of the evidence at the time but can't guarantee that it's still up to date fifty years later. I also don't tend to do historical series, but I do like the reconstructions of the Victorian characters giving their evidence in this.
Strangers (1978 to 1982) is a crime drama series which I was slightly too young to see at the time, although I remember watching The Professionals with my dad. It's another case of one character having an incredibly long career across several series, in the form of Detective Sergeant George Bulman, who first appeared in The XYY Man (1976 to 1977). This was a series about a man with the XYY syndrome (which was then thought to cause criminal tendencies) who was a cat burglar but finds after leaving prison that his services are in demand with both the criminal fraternity and the Secret Service. It's been a while since I've seen it, but The XYY Man is a show that I've been meaning to blog about for ages and is in my permanent collection. Bulman then appeared throughout Strangers, where he is something of a maverick. The premise is that he is part of a team drafted to Manchester to investigate crimes that have defeated the local force. To be frank I'm finding the episodes inconsistent, possibly because it was written by a number of writers, although I will certainly be keeping some of them, which is a sign I don't think they're rubbish. Bulman then appeared in Bulman (1985 to 1987) which is about his life after retiring from the force. You very nearly had the first series in the series of posts I did on Birmingham on tV because it is set very close to here. The show accurately describes the emotions and difficulties in his life, so is far from an easy watch. All three of these series are complex, quality dramas.
You will be getting a blog post about this so I won't say that much at this point. Saturday Live (1985 to 1987, and changed its name to Friday Night Live in 1988) is of course not to be confused with the US series Saturday Night Live (1776 to the present). I've avoided its various revivals and specials because this show is like mainlining the eighties. It's a comedy and music show, featuring among others, Ben Elton, Harry Enfield, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, The Joan Collins Fanclub, Tracey Ullman, Craig Charles, Adrian Edmondson and Rik Mayall. They also had American comedians in as guests to do stand up: I've never heard of any of them but there is literally no rubbish in this show. It's the absolute best of the comedy of the time and it's great.
I have a few episodes but have only watched one so far of Bugs (1995 to 1999), which was a conscious effort by the BBC to make a 1990s Avengers, featuring a team of tech experts facing the technological threats of the time. If Saturday Live is like mainlining the eighties, this is like mainlining the nineties. It had input from Brian Clemens and features my long-term pash Jesse Birdsall, swoon.
I have never got on very well with Armchair Thriller (1978 to 1980): I do actually think this might be me because as far as I can see every online review raves about this highly eclectic series. It may also be that having read the novel form of Antonia Fraser's Quiet as a Nun while staying at Ampleforth Abbey in my misspent youth I was always going to be disappointed by an adaptation. At present I have High Tide (1980) and have seen and enjoyed the first episode. Leaving the actual subject matter aside, I think it's a story of the sort where a misunderstood but flawed character sets out on a pilgrimage to solve a mystery in his life which has usually involved an injustice.
Just to include one non-TV item I have found a number of the Mexican Lucha Libre films starring legendary luchador enmascarado El Santo (Rodolfo Guzman Huerta, 1917 to 1984) with English subtitles on the Internet Archive. I had wanted to see them for ages, having read about them but was handicapped by not speaking a word of Spanish and most of them only being available in questionable region 1 DVD form with doubt whether they've even got subtitles. I am delighted to say that having seen some of them, I love these films. I have no cultural understanding of Lucha Libre at all so can only say that I frankly prefer him in wrestling gear for the whole film because the mask makes wearing street clothes look weird. They're a wonderful, weird world where his superhuman powers are definitely more than those of a wrestler but he still stops for a match in the middle.
Oh, alright, I know you want to end with Stephen Fry's dance moves on Saturday Liveā¦
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 index to the tags used on the Tumblr version at https://www.tumblr.com/culttvblog/729194158177370112/this-blog