I know that there are people who are proud not to have TV in the house. This was especially evident on R7MB, but today one of the archive stations has already made my day. In the first 10 minutes of 'Sounds of the Sixties' they have provided The Shadows, Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, The Beatles and Pinky and Perky - well into every life a little rain must fall. Since the break, we've had Peter and Gordon, Pace and the Gerrymakers Gerry and the Pacemakers and, currently, The (Rolling) Stones; all BBC created.

At last I feel that my licence fee is giving a pay-back.

... and 'Hey Hey, We're the Monkees' to follow later!

. Ivor



The original and real cat with the swishy tail.
Accept no imitations.

Yeah, I'm a TV girl too, Ive. Love my television, I just get sick of some of the cr*p that's on. But I'm lovin' the archive channels here too. We've got The Monkees goin' as well.

We have some "new" ones coming up in the next few weeks. I'm looking forward to the original Star Trek, the cheesy old Batman series, and Mission Impossible especially.

I've been really enjoying seeing The Saint again. They're showing the old black and white ones which I haven't seen since I was a kid. And I can always watch Perry Mason. That one never gets old for me.

I just found out that we lost Fred Steiner, the creator of the fabulous theme song, in June of this year. Some of his theme songs were standards in American television and movies (i.e. Twilight Zone, Hogan's Heroes, Have Gun Will Travel, etc...). They don't write 'em like that anymore. He'll be missed.

I think a lot of us are tv kids. Do you have cable Jan or do you get the shows "terrestrial"? Just recently I got a chance to see some of the old Laugh In episodes and some of the stuff they talk about and make fun of is still relevent.

We don't have variety shows any more, we have the cheap immitations which are the talent shows. I loved the old Carol Burnett show, Sonny and Cher and Tony Orlando. Someone gave me a dvd of The Best of Morecambe and Wise and I thought they were just hilarious. I don't think the writing has improved from then to now, but the shows did seem funnier back then.

Guess what? I finally got my hands on Ellery Queen (they had a copy at the library). It's an interesting show and when I found out the same people were behind Murder She Wrote, pieces fell into place. The first episode they had on disc 1 was the Sunday Mystery Movie episode, and it had the SMM theme. Another show I found was Wanted Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen.

What is amazing to me is we were all obviously in different places as kids and yet we saw the same shows. It didn't matter if you were in the US, Asia or England we all saw basically the same shows.

No, Mars, I'm Cable-y challenged. I got rid of mine years ago when I realized I was paying for infomercials and only watching a very few programs that interested me.

Oh my! Love Carol Burnett! Her's was the gold standard for that type of programming. I think the Brits would enjoy her, if they didn't get her before. They might have a little trouble with some of the pond references, but I think her humor would suit many.

I also loved Ellery Queen with Jim Hutton. Great series. Have you ever heard the old radio series? That ones pretty good too. You can find them online pretty easily and they're in the public domain. Worth checking out, imo.

I'd really like to see more of the old British series. Currently we have The Saint, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Keeping up Appearances, As Time Goes By, Since You've Been Gone and Are You Being Served.

Sounds like your PBS station is on the ball. Ours got it's wings clipped a couple of years back. We're lucky to get the shows we do get (Doc Martin is a favorite it seems--we're also getting the travel show Martin Clunes did about the islands of England). Are you a Jason Isaacs fan? If so keep a look out for the series Case Histories on Masterpiece!. I wish we got George Gently on PBS too.

If our British cousins have seen Carol Burnett, maybe they've seen a clip of that infamous Gone with the Wind spoof

Will have to look for the radio Ellery Queens. The tv series is really good for the time and man the guest stars! I don't think I ever saw Guy Lombard on a tv show outside New Year's Eve.

Don't know what it is about As Time Goes By, it's like putting on a comfortable sweatshirt or something and even after seeing the episodes for the umpteenth time, I still LOL. Poor Lionel....

You know what old black and white UK series I really liked? Dangerman. No one shows it anymore. Luckily I bought the dvd set

Doc Martin started a new series, last week, as did George Gently, but I won't say anything as I wouldn't wish to be a spoiler and news from a following series might cut across earlier story lines.

I've only seen the occasional clips of Carol Burnett and so couldn't comment. I see that the clip is on YouTube and will have a closer look. I hope that I don't need to know more than a passing knowledge of Gone with the Wind; I may have seen Star Wars, but I've never seen Gone with the Wind! Perhaps the Beeb could use that for a programme name.

Although it is a year or two since I saw any shows; I liked Jim Hutton.

As Time Goes By is also a favourite of mine. I really fancied Sandy (Jenny Funnell). How did Alastair Deacon (Philip Bretherton) go down over there as the brash American literary agent?

I presume that you got the Prisoner, over there. There's still discussion as to whether Number 6 was John Drale.

. Ivor



The original and real cat with the swishy tail.
Accept no imitations.

(Doc Martin is a favorite it seems--we're also getting the travel show Martin Clunes did about the islands of England). Are you a Jason Isaacs fan? If so keep a look out for the series Case Histories on Masterpiece!. I wish we got George Gently on PBS too.

Don't know how on the ball they are, Mars. They're really struggling for funds at the moment. Those programs have been on for years now. I do agree about As Time Goes By. That's a favorite and they don't get old for me either.

We've never had Doc Martin. I do like Jason Isaacs and I'll keep a close watch on the schedule.


If you've never seen GWTW Ivor it probably won't be funny. It may not even make sense. We did get The Prisoner over here years ago. I was really hoping they'd put it in on one of the retro-tv channels. It's been years since I've seen it and would dearly love to see it again. I'd also love to see the old Doctor Who episodes.

I keep hoping PBS will do a deal and get Last of the Summer Wine and The Darling Buds of May. We've had Blackadder but I'd love to see those again as well. Another one we had quite awhile ago that I loved and would really like to see again is All Creatures Great and Small. So many good programs I'd like to see.

I don't think that I've seen GWTW, although my parents may have taken me as a sprog. I have seen clips, but I never felt that life was long enough to watch it all in one go. The Prisoner has been repeated over here recently. I have all 19 episodes on self-recorded (s/r) video and (one day) I will transfer them to DVD. On a point of principle, I won't watch the 2009 version.

The Yesterday channel has recently shown some of the later LOTSW (post-Compo) shows. Sadly, these are not the ones that I prefer. Luckily, I have (?) all of the earlier series on s/r video. ITV3 are currently replaying TDBOM, but I collected the whole series on DVD from a newspaper, a few years back.

It's a long while since we were treated to the Blackadder series. As for All Creatures Grunt and Smell (as we call it), I enjoyed it first time round, but don't go out of my way to see it.

. Ivor



The original and real cat with the swishy tail.
Accept no imitations.

IvorThirst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Doc Martin started a new series, last week, as did
> George Gently, but I won't say anything as I
> wouldn't wish to be a spoiler and news from a
> following series might cut across earlier story
> lines.

I read the presskit on the BBC Press Office page, so I know some spoilers at any rate. I saw a spoilerish photo of Doc Martin too. Not sure what it is about GG, I like both Lee Ingleby and Martin Shaw (I think I might be one of the few people outside the UK who's seen Apparitions) but the show is engaging. Doesn't hurt to have very well known guest stars.


> I've only seen the occasional clips of Carol
> Burnett and so couldn't comment. I see that the
> clip is on YouTube and will have a closer look. I
> hope that I don't need to know more than a passing
> knowledge of Gone with the Wind; I may have seen
> Star Wars, but I've never seen Gone with the Wind!
> Perhaps the Beeb could use that for a programme
> name.

A passing knowledge might be ok, I had no idea of the movie myself when I first saw the skit, it's very funny all by itself. One of the things to note is Harvey Corman (the bloke playing Rhett) is very easy to crack up (I am not sure if that's called corpsing in your parlayance). Old Harvey was easy to make laugh according to a Carol and his other co stars.

Jan, the reason we've never seen the Carol Burnett Show on repeats is because of Carol herself. She said air time is too precious and she didn't want to take the opportunity of some younger talent to have a show.

> Although it is a year or two since I saw any
> shows; I liked Jim Hutton.

The shows are still as good as I remember. Some shows I loved as a kid never really lived up to my memories.

> As Time Goes By is also a favourite of mine. I
> really fancied Sandy (Jenny Funnell). How did
> Alastair Deacon (Philip Bretherton) go down over
> there as the brash American literary agent?

American style, right? A lot of people like Alastair, I can't vouch for it, but there was a fan group that named him a favorite character after Lionel and Jean of course.

> I presume that you got the Prisoner, over there.
> There's still discussion as to whether Number 6
> was John Drale.

We did get the Prisoner. It actually held a very revered position on Saturday nights at one time and was analyzed as much as you can in the pre internet era that was the 1980s. I think 6 was John Drake too, because I know McGoohan is more than a one dimentional actor, and he played 6 in a very similar way to how he played Drake.

Which reminds me, I should look for the film McGoohan did for Disney, not Thomasina, the other one...Dr. Syn I think the title was?

Did you see PM in Hell Drivers? A good old B/W film.

BTW, on here the only Dr Syn is Rufus Sewell. Be careful or Jan and Tru will Smilies you to death!

. Ivor



The original and real cat with the swishy tail.
Accept no imitations.

I'd only seen the ads for the Dr Syn film, I understand it is difficult to find. I have the audio Dr Syn episodes too I got them for a friend who's a Rufus fan.

Will have to note that film you mention, Ivor. My PM crush is one I cannot shake (him and Oliver Reed). Hope it's not a UK only film.

I would hope that Hell Drivers is available, it is so old (1957) that I think that most of the cast are dead - apart from Sean Connery and David McCallum.

Another old one to look out for is a B/W film about Motor Cycle Speedway, starring Bill Owen as an Australian rider, called Once a Jolly Swagman

. Ivor



The original and real cat with the swishy tail.
Accept no imitations.

(I think I might be one of the few people outside the UK who's seen Apparitions)

Nope. I saw that one! It was excellent a real nail-biter. Very scary!


Jan, the reason we've never seen the Carol Burnett Show on repeats is because of Carol herself. She said air time is too precious and she didn't want to take the opportunity of some younger talent to have a show.

That sounds like Carol. Most stars you'd question their sincerity, but not her.


How did Alastair Deacon (Philip Bretherton) go down over there as the brash American literary agent?

I thought Alastair was English? I thought the American was the guy he was trying get to make the movie of Lionel's book? Either way, loved Alastair.


We did get The Prisoner years ago, but it hasn't been on in these parts for many, many years.


Which reminds me, I should look for the film McGoohan did for Disney, not Thomasina, the other one...Dr. Syn I think the title was?

I think the McGoohan one was The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh that he did for The Wonderful World of Disney. And yes, Rufus Sewell IS Doctor Syn!

I haven't heard of Hell Drivers, but will keep an eye out for it.


As for David McCallum he's still wonderful. He's playing Ducky on the number one show here in the States, NCIS, and is doing a fabulous job.

Occasionally, they'll refer to his career on the show. Once someone asked Gibbs (the character that's known Dr. Mallard, a.k.a. Ducky, the longest) what he looked like when he was young. He replied, "He looked a lot like Ilia Kuryakin".

My niece's children will be delighted with the two cartoon box sets that I've sent them for Christmas - the complete TOP CAT * and Series One of THE BANANA SPLITS **



* first broadcast in 1962
** first broadcast in 1968


and I'm convinced that they'll love them! I may be prejudiced but I think that they're heaps better than most of the cartoons made today! I mean, Cow And Chicken? The Cramp Twins? Vile!

Aww, I love TC!!!

But I think The Banana Splits did permanent damage to my whole generation. (Love 'em though. One banana, two banana, three banana, four....)

Thanks to Netflix, my husband and I finally got to see Doc Martin this weekend. We are officially hooked!