Film ’89 – tape 673

More from Barry Norman’s film review show. First episode reviews of:

• The Naked Gun – remember when OJ Simpson was funny?
• Slipstream – remember that? Directed by Tron’s Steven Lisberger, produced by Gary Kurtz, featuring Mark Hamill, Bob Peck and Bill Paxton. I remember being surprised when this appeared – a big SF movie that seemed to come out of nowhere. I saw it in the cinema, but I honestly can’t remember a whole lot about it. “The message is not clear, and neither, at times, is the narrative” says Barry.
• The Good Mother
• Maniac Cop
• Red Sorghum
• Ghost Chase
• Short Circuit 2 – Barry mispronounces Michael McKean as Michael McLean, and misses Steve Guttenberg. That’s something you don’t tend to hear.

Scandal gets a location report. Ian McKellen’s Profumo bald-cap was scary.

He’s a fine catch, to be sure

There’s a brief tribute to John Cassavetes, who died recently.

BBC Genome: BBC One – 7th February 1989 – 23:20

The next episode reviews:

• The Accused
• The Dead Can’t Lie – A US TV movie also titled Gotham.
• Mr North – reviewed plus a set report on the making.
• Virgin – a rarity, it’s a French film that Barry doesn’t like.

The Oscar nominations are due, so Tom Brook from New York presents his picks for the top awards, and the late writer TEB Clarke is given a short obituary.

BBC Genome: BBC One – 14th February 1989 – 23:00

In the next episode, Barry reviews:

• The Accidental Tourist
• Manhunter – “A doomy, gloomy movie […] relentlessly overdirected”
• Things Change
• Le Grand Chemin
• Fatal Beauty – “meretricious”
• The Big Blue

Tom Brook reports from America on Rain Man and its stars.

BBC Genome: BBC One – 21st February 1989 – 23:00

Next episode reviews:

• Rain Man
• D.O.A
• Scandal
• The Unholy

Tom Brook in New York talks to Dennis Quaid about his career, and the forthcoming Great Balls of Fire.

BBC Genome: BBC One – 28th February 1989 – 22:45

After this episode, Barry announces a competition for Comic Relief and introduces the clips nominated for the Barry award.

The next episode reviews:

• Dangerous Liasons
• Five Corners
• The Moderns
• Lair of the White Worm – Ken Russell’s insane horror film, which was filmed at the house where I worked, so I saw quite a bit of the filming, and therefore have a soft spot for this movie.
• Crazy Love

Tom Brook looks at the success in America of Working Girl.

BBC Genome: BBC One – 7th March 1989 – 23:15

Following this episode, there’s a trail for John Malkovich and Glenn Close on Wogan.

followed by a bit of Indoor Bowls, presented by a pre-messiah David Icke. You don’t see much bowls on television these days. Icke spoiled it for everyone.

Theater of Blood – tape 655

The wonderful Vincent Price horror Theater of Blood is the only thing on this tape, recorded from BBC1.

(sic)

A great cast of actors play the critics who are getting murdered one by one, in ways that mirror Shakespeare’s plays. I watched this first as a young teenager, and remember being thrilled by it. There’s some gory moments, including Arthur Lowe’s bedtime decapitation, and an impalement by spear that was so convincing to me that I couldn’t imagine it was possible without actually doing it. I was fairly young at the time.

BBC Genome: BBC One – 15th January 1989 – 00:10

The only extras on this tape are the weather report (bad weather again) and a rundown of tomorrow’s programmes which tries to maintain a filofax theme:

“There’s comedy in Only Fools and Horses at 7:15 when, complete with personal organiser, Del finds his flirtation with the yuppie world is dealt a blow by a shady deal.

“Having filed the facts in their minds, more contestants demonstrate their nerve and knowledge in the new series of Mastermind.”

Bravo.

Saturday Night at the Movies – tape 709

Saturday Night at the Movies was an LWT film programme, presented by Tony Slattery (who seemed to be on everything put out at this time, see also Clive Anderson Talks Back).

First episode on this tape looked at the merchandising of Ghostbusters 2.

This is the Fearsome Flush. Every bit as awesome as this picture implies.

There’s a retrospective on John Wayne, a look ahead to Robert Lindsay in Bert Rigby You’re A Fool, a piece about the Police who advise movies on technical matters, reviews of Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow, Da and Bob Balaban’s Parents. Then there’s a profile of Harvey Fierstein and Torch Song Trilogy.

Before the next episode, Anne Diamond talks seriously about the “fight against the consumer terrorists” – tampering and poisoning of jars was a big story around this time. For Anne Diamond on Sunday.

Ad break:

• Petit Filous
• Old El Paso Tacos
• DHL – wargames ripoff
• Diet Sunkist – “With the great taste of Nutrasweet”
• Castrol GTX
• Do It All
• Heinz Weightwatchers
• Kronenbourg

There’s a trail for Capstick’s Law.

Next episode of SNATM contains a look at the Nightmare on Elm Street series, including talking to fans of the series.

I think someone should talk to this young man about his life choices

There’s a look at the video rental business and the video chart,  a set report on Nuns on the Run featuring a young Jackie Tyler.

Obligatory screenshot of Doctor Who-related actor

There’s a look at the 70th anniversary of Felix the Cat followed by reviews of Betrayed, Without a Clue and My Stepmother is an Alien.

A report on the use of New York in the movies rounds off the episode.

Next episode leads with the launch of Empire magazine – whatever happened to that?

Although since Tony says they’ve only seen one article, this must be a mock-up

There’s a report on Wired, and the closing of ranks in Hollywood against the movie; and there’s a look at Dean Stockwell’s career, following his Oscar nomination for Married to the Mob.

Behind the Screen looks at the role of Dialect Coach Robert Easton.

Reviews this week of Mississippi Burning, The January Man and Shame.

Finally, Jodie Foster is profiled and interviewed about her career.

Next episode, and on the eve of release of K-9, the programme starts with a look at animals on film, and their treatment and monitoring.

Liam Neeson is interviewed, at a time when he’s “still looking for that elusive starring role”.

Foley artists are the subject of this week’s Behind the Screen segment, looking at the work of Pam Finch and Pauline Griffiths on Branagh’s Henry V.

This week’s reviews are for Her Alibi, A Time of Destiny, and Vincent Ward’s The Navigator.

A report on Lenny Live and Unleashed looks at the transition from comedian to movie star.

The programme finishes with the trailer for Batman – I think this was one of the first programmes to play the trailer, and judging by the quality of the tape at this point, I think I might have watched it a few times. It’s the early trailer with no music.

And that’s it for this tape, apart from a trail for LWT’s Hale and Pace.

Sugarland Express – tape 680

The Sugarland Express was Steven Spielberg’s first feature film as director. His earlier film Duel had a theatrical release in Europe but had been made for American television, so Sugarland was his first official feature. It doesn’t get much play these days, and people tend to forget it when looking at Spielberg’s work. Duel and Jaws tend to get all the attention, but Sugarland is an excellent film with great performances, including a very young William Atherton, who would later turn in memorably sleazy performances in Ghostbusters and Die Hard, but who is very sweet as the slightly hopeless husband Clovis. Well worth watching if you find it.

BBC Genome: BBC One – 1st April 1989 – 22:45

This was the only recording on the tape, recorded from BBC1, obviously on a timer, since it runs the whole duration of the tape.

We have the end of an episode of The Odd Couple (looks like The Blackout). Then a trailer for Denis Lawson’s new series The Justice Game – of which I have some episodes recorded so they’ll show up here later. His character is “A lawyer with a reputation and a healthy disregard for the rules”. Of course.

After the movie, there’s a rundown of highlights for Sunday evening.

Remember when Mastermind was Sunday night prime time viewing?

It includes a programme called The Software Show which sounds like the kind of thing I should have been all over, but I have no recollection of it whatsoever. However, a little googling reveals it was presented by Carol Vorderman, and co-presented by Bruce Smith, a writer who I used to know a little in my BBC Micro/Acorn days. He wrote a couple of books about applications I had worked on, so we’d meet up occasionally at trade shows. I had no idea that he was a partner in dabs.com – I knew Dave Atherton at the time, as we were suppliers to Dabhand (as they were known) but I didn’t know Bruce was his partner. I now really wish I’d recorded some of The Software Show.

We then a complete recording of Elvis Aloha from Hawaii deep in his later spangly jumpsuit phase. I confess I didn’t watch much of this. A weather bulletin follows, then BBC1 closes down, complete with National Anthem and clock.

I miss the clock. Why don’t they bring the clock back?

Victoria Wood – Smith and Jones – tape 788

On this tape, some episodes of Victoria Wood‘s series of comedy stories. On this tape are the episodes:

• Mens Sana in Thingummy Doodah – BBC One – 16th November 1989 – 20:30
• The Library – BBC One – 23rd November 1989 – 20:30
• Over to Pam – BBC One – 30th November 1989 – 20:30
• Val De Ree (Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha) – BBC One – 14th December 1989 – 20:30

There is also an episode of Smith and Jones in there too. BBC Genome: BBC One – 23rd November 1989 – 21:30

Around the edges we have – the end of a Les Dawson Show (Special guests Leo Sayer, Christopher Timothy, The Fairer Sax and Odd Bod the Penguin) “Wayne Eagling appeared by kind permission of the General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden” Then a trail for an episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.

We have a trail for The Ginger Tree which is notable for being the first BBC serial ever shot for High Definition TV.

Then, a short burst of the Nine O’Clock News. “Czechoslovakia’s army warns it will defend communism against anarchy”, “Sir Geoffrey Howe says a leadership challenge to Mrs Thatcher would damage the Conservatives and boost Labour”

This was during Josef Goebbels’ brief tenure as editor of BBC News

Rob Curling presents Newsroom South East, and Michael Fish reads the weather.

There’s also a Radio Times advert with Dennis Potter talking about writing and directing Blackeyes.

Before the next episode, we have the end of an episode of Blankety Blank, featuring Cribbins, Biggins and some people who needed two names.

Following a trail for Sports Review of the Year there is a brief promo for Bed, Chair, Table, Lamp, a four part series about furniture.

Following the last episode on the tape, there’s a Christmas Comedy promo featuring Only Fools and Horses and Bread – whose promo was specially shot.

More news follows, covering an Ambulance dispute and a Judge who was criticised by the appeal court for being “too sympathetic” in a rape case and he shouldn’t have awarded damages. I’d like to say things have improved over the years, but I’m not sure they have.

There’s also a report on the fears of the conservative back benchers over the number of people from Hong Kong being given the right to live in Britain. Then a story about forced repatriation of Vietnamese boat people, and a report about an IRA attack.

Then that recording stops, and a previous recording appears – an episode of Cagney and Lacey, in which Cagney appears to go undercover as a nun.

Force of Habit

The World According To Garp – tape 693

The World According to Garp was based on the novel by John Irving and directed by George Roy Hill (The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and starred Robin Williams, Glenn Close and John Lithgow.

And I still haven’t watched it.

We have some adverts before the main feature:

• Cathay Pacific
• American Express – wherein the excellent Owen Teale plays a suave businessman who stops to help an elderly couple whose car has broken down, and loses his Amex card in the process. Does it reflect badly on me that, given many of his subsequent roles as menacing antagonists (e.g. Torchwood: Countrycide) I imagined an unseen backstory where he murdered the old couple and buried them in the woods before continuing on to his swanky hotel? Don’t blame me, blame the unimaginative casting directors.
  

  This face would never kill and eat you before disposing of your remains in a shallow grave

  Don’t fear, readers, the lovely lady at American Express talked to the hotel manager and helped him establish his wicked alibi check in safely. Membership has its privileges.

• Fiat Uno
• Amstrad PCs – Neil Mullarkey and David Haig (among others) extol the massive capabilities of Alan Sugar’s computing behemoths: “Faster data retrieval… Sharpest, most realistic graphics available… (that’s VGA, folks) Up to 65Mb hard disc (sic)”
  

  with 4MB RAM. Yes they really did make that gesture on that line.

• Woolworths advertise Dirty Dancing
• Sunkist

Ad breaks in the movie.

• Lowenbrau beer
• Kelly’s London Directory
• Flymo
• Fiat Uno
• ADT
• Daily Mirror

After the movie, a trailer for Nineteen Eighty-Four, and The Channel 4 Daily’s Box Office strand. Then more ads:

• Liquid Gold
• Rover 800 Fastback.
• Carlsberg – complaints department
• Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
• Ikea

Then a trail for Good Morning Babylon. And that’s the lot.

The Last Machine – tape 770

The Last Machine was a documentary series presented by Terry Gilliam as part of the centenary of cinema celebrations.

Before the first episode, the end of Correspondent, then a trail for Reputation – AJP Taylor and Signs and Wonders which looks like my kind of programme, but I don’t remember at all.

The first episode here is The Body Electric which looks at the representations of the human body on film. Completely coincidentally, one of the first people discussed is Muybridge, who was also covered in the Equinox episode I looked at earlier. And along with Muybridge there was this chap.

A Gun that does not kill

Étienne-Jules Marey developed various ways to photograph human motion, including this rather impressive photographic gun.

BBC Genome: BBC Two – 21st January 1995 – 20:00

Before the next episode, a trail for coverage of the trial of OJ Simpson, and Reputations – Coco Chanel.

The programme is introduced by a specially created BBC2 ident.

This episode looks at how city life was captured in early history.

BBC Genome: BBC Two – 28th January 1995 – 20:00

Next episode is preceded by a trail for Clive Anderson’s travel show Our Man In… and The Dancing Room.

This episode looks at “how fantasy became a popular theme amongst the early filmmakers”.

BBC Genome: BBC Two – 4th February 1995 – 20:00

This is the last of the recorded episodes on this tape, but it runs on, with a trail for Arena: The Peter Sellers Story and The Buddha of Suburbia, on in 20 minutes.

“But before that, BBC2 goes live to Kenya for an update on Flamingowatch”.

I’m not lying

It’s presented by a young Chris Packham.

A burbling geyser spouting hot air. And Chris Packham (on the right)

Simon King takes a look at some of the technology and teamwork that goes into a live broadcast like this. They brought 16 tons of equipment.

Unfortunately, even Simon’s huge squariel was unable to pick up BSB.

After Flamingowatch, we’re invited to turn over to BBC1 to watch Ghosts: Massage

Why would you want to miss this?

I’m sure it’s better than it looks, written by Stephen Volk of Ghostwatch fame.

Then a trail for Blood and Peaches (no, me neither) and the tape ends with quite a large chunk of the final episode of Hanif Kureshi’s The Buddha of Suburbia which I never watched at the time, and from a brief dip into it, I think I made the right choice. However, there’s an excellent scene where we follow the lead (a young, pre-Lost Naveen Andrews) as he mingles with guests after his triumphant stage performance. It’s one continuous shot where various characters drift in and out of conversation, or are heard in the background, and it’s very impressive. The music for the show was by David Bowie, by the way.

A Bit of Fry and Laurie – tape 650

This tape contains the first series of A Bit of Fry And Laurie, almost certainly from the first broadcast. They were mostly taped ‘live’ rather than timer recordings, so there’s not a lot of extra stuff around them.

Episode One: BBC Two England, 13 January 1989 21.00

Episode Two: BBC Two England, 20 January 1989 21.00

Episode Three: BBC Two England, 27 January 1989 21.00

Before episode 4, there’s a nature documentary which appears to be German in origin, retaining the German titles. It’s called Der Quastenflosser, the German name for Coelocanth, the so called living fossil. BBC Genome:BBC Two England, 3 February 1989 20.30

There’s a trailer for the Dabney Coleman series The Slap Maxwell Story.

Episode Four: BBC Two England, 3 February 1989 21.00

Episode Five: BBC Two England, 10 February 1989 21.00

Episode Six: BBC Two England, 17 February 1989 21.00

Before episode six, there’s the end of Gardener’s World, then a trail for A Romantic Imagination – a programme about Berlioz. After the final episode, a trail for Clive James’ discussion programme Tonight (which was presumably the same programme which was interrupted by Lenny Henry in Comic Relief, so perhaps it did go out live).

The tape plays out with the start of an Arena documentary about Eugene Ionescu. BBC Two England, 17 February 1989 21.30

The Lion In WInter – tape 729

Katharine Hepburn and Peter O’Toole star in The Lion in Winter, recorded from Channel 4. No ads during the film, but it’s followed by an apology for transmission breakdown in Inverness, and a trail for Tale of Two Cities.

Ads:

• Holsten Pils – Great Escape
• Hotpoint
• BT – calling Australia
• Perrier
• Virgin Atlantic

Then a trail for Fail Safe.

The Vampire Lovers – tape 657

At the start of this tape, there’s the end of a programme from Yorkshire TV called (it seems) Pick of the Week, presented by Anna Walker. “Get your entries in as quick as you can, but please, no giant envelopes.”

Adverts:

• Love Match Horoscopes
• Inter-City – ‘Kick off Your Shoes’ directed by Tony Kaye.
• Direct Line
• Teledisc – Tell It Through the Song. “Not available in shops.”

The movie The Vampire Lovers follows, an AIP/Hammer films co-production directed by Roy Ward Baker

Ad break one:

• Levi jeans – a rip-off of The Hustler/Color of Money backed with The Clash’s Should I Stay or Should I Go
• Horoscopes again
• Pizza Hut
• The Naughty Jokeline – 0898 654321

Ad break two:

• Chatback – “If you’re sat around at home, make new friends on the Telephone”
• Royal Life pensions
• Cadburys Dairy Milk

Ad break three:

• Levi jeans again
• Yellow pages – racing bike
• Dime bars

There’s a lot of stuff after the movie. Ad break:

• Daily Star scratchcard
• Halifax Instant Extra – tap dancing
• Horoscopes
• Teledisc – Halfway to Paradise
• Lunn Poly – flying pigs
• Public Information film – Don’t Give Fire a Chance

Next we have an American film programme – Backstage with Beverley Shenken, covering Back to the Future Part II (just clips) and The Abyss with plenty of on-set interviews and footage. Beverley Shenken also co-wrote the rockin’ theme tune for the show.

Next, ITN morning news (Mon 4th Feb), utterly dominated by the early stage of the first Gulf War.

Ad break:

• Teledisc
• Liquid Gold – George Cole
• and
• BT – Beattie goes to Paris
• Three Men and a Little Lady
• Cheddarie