Back to the beginning again with another early tape.
First on this tape, Films Of The Year 1984. It’s always fun to see the films that were around, ones I’ve forgotten, and ones I can’t forget.
On Barry’s official list of the best of 1984 are:
- Under Fire
- The Right Stuff
- La balance
- Greystoke
- Splash
- Romancing the Stone
- Broadway Danny Rose
- Paris, Texas
- Once Upon a Time in America
- The Natural
- A Private Function
- The Killing Fields
BBC Genome: BBC One – 22nd December 1984 – 22:15
Next, recording switches to LWT for an episode of Space 1999 – All That Glisters. As I said when I looked at this episode from a later broadcast on Bravo, this was the first episode I was able to record of a show I loved as a child, and it was very sad that the story really wasn’t up to much. Even the inclusion of Patrick Mower as a guest star didn’t lift this out of the realm of the ordinary.
One thing I would say – when they discover that the magic rock that’s menacing them needs water, Alan says “They didn’t have to commandeer our Eagle” and Koenig says “Maybe it’s like humans. When they panic, they din’t think too well” and I can’t help thinking about the current (as I write) kerfuffle with government adviser Dominic Cummings who, when the whole country was in lockdown, decided, when he apparently believed both he and his wife were infected with Coronavirus, to get in a car with his wife and 4yo son, and travel 260 miles to his Parents’ farm, so that his niece could drop off some shopping. And that’s the kind of panicking I feel Koenig is talking about. I know I like drawing parallels with things that are happening today, but I can’t help it.
After this, the recording stops, and underneath there’s an older recording, the end of an old Hammer film, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb. It looks like this was recorded the day after FIlms of the Year, and I clearly didn’t want to keep it, and recorded Space 1999 over the top later. BBC Genome: BBC Two – 23rd December 1984 – 00:00
After this, BBC2 closes down, and that’s the end of this tape.
The adverts on these early tapes can be fun. There’s one for Marathon – back when the world was right – and one for Colgate Blue Minty Gel featuring Madness’ Baggy Trousers – but who is this young performer. I swear he was an actor as an adult, but I can’t quite place him. Any ideas?
Adverts:
- Creme Eggs
- Love Songs
- Weetabix
- Colgate Blue Minty Gel – Madness
- Cardata
- Bovril – Lewis Collins
- Wendy’s
- Marathon
- Batchelor’s Soup
- Coco Pops
- Colgate Blue Minty Gel – Madness
- St Ivel Shape
- British Telecom
- Topic
- Day Nurse
- Cardata
- trail: Saturday Night on LWT
- B+I Line
- Ever Ready
- Leeds Liquid Gold
- Flake
- Love Songs
VHiStory 
The Colgate Kid is actor Lee Ross https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0743605/
That’s right, from Press Gang, which is why he was familiar.
The actor in the Colegate advertisement is a young Nigel Harman (whom I was at school with…).
Colgate kid is Lee Ross, who was in Press Gang a few years later and in adulthood is one of those actors who turns up occasionally in things with a recognisable face – he was in Eastenders for a couple of short spells.
I’ve gone off Best Of Lists…
I guess Barry’s list is from before Top Tens were the norm. But four of his choices I’d say were indeed the best of 1984, The Right Stuff, Broadway Danny Rose, Romancing the Stone and Paris Texas. Greystoke is a strange one, though, I thought it was generally regarded as a turkey?
Greystoke was surprisingly well regarded. Don’t think it did well commercially, though. But it was a SERIOUS film by Hugh Hudson the SERIOUS director of Chariots of Fire, whose next SERIOUS film, Revolution, pretty much bankrupted Goldcrest films.
Sheesh, Revolution is so bad, at least with Greystoke it’s pretty much Tarzan gone po-faced so there’s some entertainment value thanks to Burroughs’ concepts.
Space 1999 – 05/01/1985.
Once Upon A Time In America is probably overall my favourite film of the ’80s. Directed by Sergio Leone and featuring excellent, moving, career-best turns from Robert DeNiro and James Woods before they typecast him as a rent-a-nutter. Some very smooth, auteurish touches from the Italian master and iconic moments. Highly recommended.
I own The Right Stuff on blu-ray. Truly epic movie with likeably macho, intriguing characters, impressive hardware, genuine special effects and a majestic score by Bill Conti. ITV4 showed it quite a fair bit. Nice cast too.
Remember the Bovril advert with Lewis Collins. Even though I was very young, I knew he was in a little show with Martin Shaw called The Professionals which I always wondered if you ever taped.
Heard once that Barry himself wrote a screenplay, a quirky noir about an unconventional private eye.
I used to watch The Professionals a bit, but it predated my getting a VCR so I don’t really have any. It wasn’t a favourite of mine.
Wow, I’d be fascinated to see what Barry Norman thought of Once Upon A Time in America. Its one of my favourite movies but can’t recall ever seeing Barry reviewing it. And he’s got The Natural on that list too, bit of an odd one for Barry I think.
A Private Function has an unbelievable cast – performers who were established then but would later become household names.
Being Handmade I should imagine it was made for pennies. I think it might be AB’s best work, before he made the terrible mistake of trying to set things in the present.