UK TV from the past

[Eidolon]

Originally Posted by CV19

Thanks Tob. When I was going through the website, there appeared to have been one or two errors on the 1976 dates as they weren't in sequence. Hopefully the dates shown here are OK now.

Although quoted as horror double bills, there were some sci-fi films mixed in there too, for example This Island Earth and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Speaking of which, I'm almost certain the BBC had a season of sci-fi films sometime in 1983, but I'll have to check that out.

Where are yuo finding these old lists of film showings from? SOmewhere around 1989-1993, one of the Terrestrial Channels boradcast an uncut version of Scars of Dracula, which most believe donesn't even exist. I kept the recording I made for years along with my Warner VHS sell-thru tape of the film, until both went missing in a house move, along with many other things. Is there any way to track down what channel showed it and when?

[Seizure]

Originally Posted by Eidolon

SOmewhere around 1989-1993, one of the Terrestrial Channels boradcast an uncut version of Scars of Dracula, which most believe donesn't even exist. I kept the recording I made for years along with my Warner VHS sell-thru tape of the film, until both went missing in a house move, along with many other things. Is there any way to track down what channel showed it and when?

That was definitely ITV (or HTV as it was in my area.) They showed a lot of British and Euro horror around that time including Dracula '58, Vampire Circus, Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile, Horror Express and Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein. I remember both Plague and Reptile having alternate openings to what was usually shown. Plague I think had the opening credits/music at a different time during the prologue. Reptile is the one that bugs me as I can't find any information about it anywhere. I distinctly remember the prologue scene being a ceremony involving a sacrifice (like Plague) but with the snake cult. We then have the titles and it cuts to the scene of the couple moving to his dead brothers house. The whole normal opening scene with the brother going to the house and getting bitten was excised from this version. It was similar to how it starts in the comic strip adaption from the House of Hammer magazine. If I didn't remember it so vividly I'd have thought I'd imagined it as no one else seems to have seen this.

[OceanBlue]

Didn't know about this until reading two issues of the 'i' newspaper this week, that sadly the actor who played Jim in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley has passed away. Also, actor Ronald Pickup has passed away (one of the few things I've seen in is film Never Say Never Again).

[CV19]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Didn't know about this until reading two issues of the 'i' newspaper this week, that sadly the actor who played Jim in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley has passed away. Also, actor Ronald Pickup has passed away (one of the few things I've seen in is film Never Say Never Again).

I didn't know about the actor who played Jim passing away. However I did remember reading about Ronald Pickup, and I looked at the IMDb to check what he did and he had a very long TV career stretching right back to the late 1960's. He did make a number of films too, including the one you mentioned, Never Say Never Again, although I haven't seen that one in years and to be honest I can't remember what part he played.

[OceanBlue]

Originally Posted by CV19

I didn't know about the actor who played Jim passing away. However I did remember reading about Ronald Pickup, and I looked at the IMDb to check what he did and he had a very long TV career stretching right back to the late 1960's. He did make a number of films too, including the one you mentioned, Never Say Never Again, although I haven't seen that one in years and to be honest I can't remember what part he played.

I've forgot the name of the character he played, but Moneypenny aside, he was M's assistant (M was played by Edward Fox) in Never Say Never Again.

[OceanBlue]

Sometime soon, going to start watching the eighties drama series Boon and Howards' Way, although the former lasted until the tail-end of the early nineties, and the latter lasted until the start of the nineties.

Boon's last episode though was left on the shelf for a year or two. I'm still unsure about whether the last episode was part of the seventh filmed series, or whether they started filming an eighth series before actor Michael Elphick was apparently poached by the BBC. From what I remember reading in a newspaper or magazine back then, he was (apparently) poached for a drama series about a shady newspaper reporter. A few years later, Elphick sadly passed away.

[CV19]

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

Sometime soon, going to start watching the eighties drama series Boon and Howards' Way, although the former lasted until the tail-end of the early nineties, and the latter lasted until the start of the nineties.

Boon's last episode though was left on the shelf for a year or two. I'm still unsure about whether the last episode was part of the seventh filmed series, or whether they started filming an eighth series before actor Michael Elphick was apparently poached by the BBC. From what I remember reading in a newspaper or magazine back then, he was (apparently) poached for a drama series about a shady newspaper reporter. A few years later, Elphick sadly passed away.

I think the Michael Elphick show about a reporter was called Harry, but I don't really remember very much about it to be truthful.

Boon and Howards Way I do remember though - especially the latter show. I think it was the theme tune at the beginning which always reminded me that the weekend was almost over as it was shown on a Sunday evening. Just watching the intro on YouTube and it's funny how a piece of music can stir up memories from the past.