tonyinblack

The idea that something may be patiently waiting for you to visit a physical location and will take advantage of your presence when you do is an unnerving one and should take more than a short TV play to fully exploit. But The Witch's Bottle is so taut and economical that you don't feel you've missed out on anything. Georgina Kean is exceptional in the possession scene, it could have torn the atmosphere to pieces, but instead adds a layer to everything else. Jasper Jacob is more CFF 1955 than Thames 1975, but is clearly just doing what has been requested of him. And it all ends with a wonderful question mark.

Appearing in a Whodunnit? play was the TV equivalent of treading the boards in a provincial theatre, and whether you were in the play or on the panel was often a unnervingly accurate indication of where your career was at that particular point in time. Occasionally, faces in the plays would surprise you and, in The Q45 Experiment, it is Linda Hayden who seems oddly out of place. But she was no longer the star she had been or the cult figure she would become, so perhaps we should just enjoy seeing her in a minor role in an intimate setting.

If you had any doubt that the 1970s were a halcyon time for UK sitcoms, A Change Is As Good As A Rest will settle the matter for you once and for all. There is no plot, nothing happens and its still very funny. Such is the confidence in the programme at this point that no attempt is made to actually make the toy department set look like a toy department. It's Lydon's cheap essential scenery to a tee, but actually fits the puerile fun perfectly. Are You Being Served was never very self-conscious: if we get a laugh the first time, fine, if not, dumb it down until we do. Life with never be this simple again.

Very few TV plays have managed to replicate the cosy creepiness of Fal Vale as effectively as The Waiting Room. It all looks a lot simpler than it really is, balance is everything. Jenny Agutter has rarely used her delicate beauty and grounded image better and Paul Henley's idiosyncratic delivery of certain lines is a mystery waiting to be solved. In support, George Innes treats the material with a respect that a lot of experienced actors wouldn't have and it makes him very difficult to forget. And the sound of a ringing telephone has never sounded more ominous.

In '76 nobody could have foreseen how Barry Evans' life and career would unravel so tragically, so Adventures of a Taxi Driver isn't as prescient as it appears, although later events certainly add a dimension to the film that otherwise wouldn't exist. Evans is one of my favourite actors so it pains to to say how miscast he is as Joe North, his boyish good looks and ready smile are hardly anyone's idea of a leering taxi driver. Stanley Long would have served the film and actor better by making him a sympathetic Timothy Lea character. One of the best performances in the film is way down the castlist, Jane Hayden is wonderful as sullen beauty Linda whose attempts to exit this mortal coil are invariably thwarted. Life wasn't really imitating art for poor Barry twenty years later, he was just plain unlucky.

I've always been curious about what busy places are like after closing time, I think it all came from listening to Disneyland by The Meteors, or perhaps I'm just that kind of person. Optical Illusion is casual and lightweight for most of its time with us, before turning suddenly and startlingly dark in the last few minutes. Pauline Quirke was a well-known face rather than a star at this point, but these were her years, she was more talented than her peers and a lot prettier than her Plain Jane image. Richard Willis was a striking actor who you will have seen before, even if you couldn't name him in a million years, while Susan Parriss is so good in the final scenes that nothing else matters. If you've never been able to decide if buildings are haunted or people are, Optical Illusion won't help you one bit.

Although nowhere near as disturbing as Amicus thought, What Became of Jack and Jill is still pretty grim by the British standard of the day. The film would be a lot less without Vanessa Howard and not just for the obvious reasons, few actresses can play unhinged quite as well. Paul Nicholas is clearly doomed from the start as Johnnie and Mona Washbourne's Alice manages to be sympathetic without laying it on too thick. The whole thing looks drab beyond belief as if all the colour is slowing draining from the world, the Summer of Love isn't just over, it never happened.

Even the blandest TV suit wouldn't be interested in the idea of mismatched land girls being thrown together on a farm nowadays, it has become such a cliche that its easy to forget how original Backs to the Land was on first broadcast. The WLA were little more than a historical footnote back then, their immense contribution almost forgotten by all but the girls themselves, who were only in middle age when Terese, Philippa, Marilyn and Pippa ran riot in Clayfield. Backs to the Land is probably the best sitcom you've never seen and its a real irony that it has been forgotten as completely as the people who inspired it had been.

A tender love story, a bawdy comedy and the start of a phenomenon, Confessions of a Window Cleaner is all these things, but it also happens to be a very good film too. History would rather forget it, but the reality is that most of the bad press it receives is from people watching the countless copycats that followed its success and assuming they represent the original. They don't. By focusing on the most obvious aspects of the Confessions series, these films totally miss the fact that Timothy Lea is an innocent who genuinely means well. And the gentle romance between him and Elizabeth is so moving that, every time I watch the film, I hope they will end up walking down the aisle and Timmy wouldn't be hurtling up the motorway in the back of a removal van.

Tightrope takes a typical English village and gives it a good shake. Some things are dislodged, some things stay in place, but the whole is off-kilter. John Savident is an unlikely action hero, but his performance is hypnotic. Middle aged and over weight, he is also impish and otherworldly, you can't take your eyes off him. Spencer Banks is brilliant, but you don't need me to tell you that and Sue Holderness turns up halfway through and sparkles. Next time you're in an unfamiliar village, buy a quarter of brandy balls and don't trust a soul.

Its incredibly rare for a TV movie to attempt to exist on a number of different levels and succeed, Schoolgirl Chums does it with ease. Whether you view it as a Girl's Own adventure or an over-the-top parody of a time and place long gone, it is deeply enjoyable. The beautiful and tragic Charlotte Long shines so hard that it is difficult for others to register, although Patsy Kensit mischievously steals her thunder occasionally as the elfin Hilary. The funny thing is that however preposterous it all seems, you can't help but come away feeling its probably pretty accurate too.

Early rock and roll was all about feeling rather than thinking, but, since those days, art seems to have to mean something, rather than simply entertain you. That's why I don't consider Elves a guilty pleasure, I get real enjoyment whenever I watch it. Of course, it simply wouldn't work without Dan Haggerty, he is overweight and way past his best, but the camera still loves him. Julie Austin is one of those actresses who you love in a particular role in a particular film, but then did a couple of things of no interest before fading away. She may actually live next door, you'd never know it if she did. Don't feel ashamed about loving Elves, nobody was ever embarrassed about listening to Cochran or Perkins.

Wildcats has the reputation of being the lost St Trinian's film, but it would be truer to call it purposely mislaid. The only real problem with it is that it is simply too busy at times: Sheila Hancock really struggles to get any laughs out of Olga Vandemeer because she is given too many riffs to juggle; it is awful to see an excellent and experienced actress left to flounder. Despite the big names in the cast, it is Veronica Quilligan as Lizzie who keeps everything moving, her energy and charisma lifting her scenes and the film as a whole. Wildcats is my favourite St Trinians, I appreciate that puts me in a minority of one, but I have an affection for things that still exist when the world has stopped looking.