Author, editor & co-host of the ITC Entertained the World podcast. Latest publication: A Splash of Objection on a Canvas, celebrating 60 years of The Prisoner.
Joined April 2011
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Nelson Brenner (Pat McGoohan) invites Columbo into his lair for some Madame Butterfly, Mah-jong, a glass of Beaujolais...and plenty of mind games. The scene was shot multiple times and took a day to complete, with both actors suffering from the giggles. (Identity Crisis).
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Back to the 80s. The heyday for period drama at Granada TV. Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Sherlock Holmes: fabulous locations, inventive sets, top tier casts, lavish productions.
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For many, Jeremy Brett is the ultimate Sherlock Holmes, particularly once Edward Hardwicke joined. Colin Jeavons as Lestrade, Eric Porter as Moriarty, Charles Gray as Mycroft. A full-scale outdoor replica of Baker Street was built at Granada's studios in Quay Street, Manchester.
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As my dad discovered at Granada in the mid-80s, it was an incredible company to make drama for. Writers were left to create, budgets were generous, filming overseas was not considered a problem. For a short period of time, it was a golden TV age...
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Bert (Timothy Carey) is delighted to welcome the number one customer to Barney's Beanery. He even knows Lieutenant Columbo's routine: scan the extensive menu carefully...then inevitably order the chili/chilli - with saltines/crackers. A culinary creature of habit (πΊπΈπ¬π§ tweet).
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Identity Crisis: a crazy spy-themed rollercoaster ride where we change location as often as McGoohan changes identity, bouncing between urbane business consultant Nelson Brenner, shifty government agent Colorado, under the pier killer & fictitious bearded enemy agent Steinmetz.
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1959. Pat McGoohan arrives at ATV, having been cast - at Lew Grade's request - as secret agent John Drake. My mother remembers the entire typing pool of secretaries bowled over by him: the polite charm and good looks; typewriters abandoned as all six offered to get him a coffee!
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Location, location. The half-hour Danger Man frequently filmed in Wales, using some spectacular backdrops. The dam at Lake Vyrnwy was a popular choice, often used as an East/West border post.
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That's Two of Us Sorry takes us from the 1960s concrete Brutalism of Trawsfynydd nuclear power station in Snowdonia National Park - which had not yet opened at the time of filming - to the historic coastal village of Penmon with its 12th century stone priory on Anglesey.
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Llyn Gwyant, Bethesda, Capel Curig, Betws-y-Coed... the half-hour Danger Man offers a love letter to Wales, and to the spectacular scenery of Snowdonia in particular. A huge advantage of shooting on 35mm film, even if black-and-white didn't capture the area's colourful nature.
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Danger Man makes its TV debut on 10th September 1960 with an episode partly filmed in Portmeirion. Douglas Twiddy was the man who 'discovered' the village - but rarely gets a mention in Prisoner history books - and a certain John Schlesinger directed the North Wales sequences.
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Someone on here challenged me to name four Michael Caine films which I enjoyed as movies but also in terms of his performance, while avoiding the obvious ones like Alfie, The Italian Job and Get Carter. So here we are...
Educating Rita; Mona Lisa; Last Orders; Children of Men.
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David Hockney. What a career and life. From his refusal to write an essay at the Royal College of Art - forcing RCA to change its antiquated rules - to coming out when homosexuality was still a criminal offence. A huge cog in the Swinging 60s and the Pop Art movement. 1/
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Unlike many modern artists, there is probably a Hockney painting to please (almost) everyone. From quintessentially British ones...
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...to iconic American ones. His work will no doubt continue to inspire artists, photographers and filmmakers.
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