millennium-4

This series has been standby Netflicks viewing for me when I cannot seem to find anything without violence and crass humor. Having walked through the Dales as long ago as the early sixties I recognize much of the scenery and the characters.

I am like many others who seem to prefer the early series with Carol Drinkwater and Mary Hignett. Replacing Carol must have been a hard process. The later series did one very good thing which was to improve the theme music. The earlier version had a percussion section that must been pasted in later and sounded like a complete tea set and box of cutlery being thrown down a set of stairs.

And speaking of comic relief...the humor provided by Peter Davison as Tristan at times had me wincing. I could not quite believe that such an out an out conniving self absorbed pratt as Tristan could have been accepted either in the practice or in a small Yorkshire town. Davison acts the role perfectly, but I would have watched the series had it not included his scenes. Occasionally I could not quite swallow James's naiveté.

The real stars of this show were the hundreds of local character actors who played walk on parts over the years, not to mention a never ending supply of compliant small animals willing to sit quietly while being examined, poked and fumbled and a never ending supply of cows ready to calve at the directors command.

As for Robert Hardy...whenever I watch Martin Clunes in the excellent Doc Martin I am tempted to say "you were not the first to portray an iconoclastic medical role in a rural setting with colorful locals to play off".

Hardy was superb but seemed tired in later episodes, however without his anchoring role the series would have been too cozy and tedious.

In summary, one of the best TV series ever made. Up there with M.A.S.H., Midsomer Murders, Poirot and Barney Miller

It seems fashionable to produce prequels to popular series of all kinds. Any time soon I expect to be able to review an cinematographic account of James Bonds childhood and the what must have been tumultuous events in his teenage and service life that made him a fictional icon. In 'Endeavor' it is fascinating to note that the production quality is so much superior to the 'Inspector Morse' series it feeds upon. And could Roger Allam be more suggestive of Michael Gambon's 'Maigret' or even the original Rupert Davies version; which we are all still hoping will be found and released. But I did enjoy it. And once again I am struck by the 'raincoat syndrome'. Yes, the raincoat that so many screen detectives seem to wear whatever the climate or venue. Surely there is a series here just waiting to be made. An amalgam of Colombo, Maigret, Endeavour, Frost, celebrating the ubiquitous outer garment.

In the "View from the Villa" agent John Drake pulls up in what looks like an Aston Martin DB4 or DB5, thus beating Sean Connery to the punch by several years. At least on the screen. I think it also appears in a few other episodes, but I am not certain.

I have spent the last few years slowly catching up on this superb series via net flicks. As other reviewers have noted already the plots were nearly always excellent. The understatement and laconic delivery of Mr. McGoohan a foretelling of others who would try the same style and mostly fail, except for the wonderful Le Carre adaptions, and Mr. Caine's superb Ipcress File. The satire of Establishment figures was often very droll.

In the current editions I am getting from Netflicks the music track is provided by a powerful jazz orchestra. What happened to the superb Harpsichord jazz music that I remember from the original UK broadcasts? So much more subtle and intriguing than the blaring band arrangement, although it does have a period flavor I cant deny.

Mr. McGoohan passed away recently. I will remember him and Danger Man as one of the very influential forces in my teenage years.

Watching Maigret played by Rupert Davies when I should have been doing my homework is one of the reasons I did not so well at school. Others are, The Saint, Danger Man, Quatermass and the Pit, The Avengers, and so on. All the products of UK TV. But perhaps they were in fact produced by the Soviets to undermine the education of British kids like me. I have recovered but would really like the BBC to release the surviving Maigret episodes. They cant be doing any good stuck where they are.

Maigret showed me a France that excited my imagination and caused me to read every book that George Simenon ever wrote. I was not disappointed by Simenon. And Rupert Davies would have had a hard time convincing me that he was not genuinely French if we ever met. As for Ewen Solon, I could never see him as anything but Lucas in any subsequent appearances.

You could not grow up in the UK in the fifties without seeing a Smiley flick. They were almost exotic in that all the actors were speaking English, but it was that spicy Aussie version. These flicks colored or informed my view of Australia and Aussies in many ways. Aussies I met later in London did not always like the impression that Smiley had made on the Brits. The felt that it gave the wrong view that all Aussie were hicks, and did not know Shakespeare from milk shake. Australia was so far away and yet connected to the UK by a really thick umbilical. The flick was released as the emigration of thousands of UK citizens to Australia was beginning to ebb, and I wonder what effect it might have had on those who were thinking of leaving the 'old country' and going to the 'lucky country'.

Too bad Netflicks does not have it....what was I thinking?

In 1966 when I lived in London I fully expected to see this movie. Many of my friends, especially the girls, were raving about it. Funds diverted to beer, or girls, deprived me of the chance. So it has taken me nearly forty years to actually see it. Thoroughly of the time, and yet it must have seemed so radical even then. I watched it as a chaser to Alfie (Michael Caine) and it was interesting to compare the styles of two icons of British female acting, Redgrave and Asher, in one evening. Both movies dealt with serious and potentially unattractive issues; adultery, abortion, promiscuity and mental illness and injected enough humor into the screenplay to keep ones attention the while. I am prompted to revisit "Up the Junction" and " A Taste of Honey" with Rita Tushingham, another sixties icon.