THE MORECAMBE AND WISE SHOW
Loved by the public and critics alike, the legendary team of Morecambe & Wise were a staple ingredient of British television for four decades. Unseen for many years and available for the first time on DVD, this set comprises not only their first series for Thames in 1980 but also their first four Thames Specials - including three of their wonderful Christmas Shows and their first special for Thames Television from 1978. Bad puns, botched song and dance numbers, short fat hairy legs and something a little bit magical are brought together to form hilarious entertainment from the nation’s favourite comedians with aid from Terry Wogan, Hannah Gordon, Hugh Paddick, Dave Prowse, Deryck Guyler, Suzanne Danielle, Gemma Craven, David Frost, Glenda Jackson, Donald Sinden, Judi Dench, Leonard Rossiter and Alec Guinness.
Disc One: The Complete First Thames Series
Originally transmitted in Autumn 1980, this six episode series shows Eric and Ernie contending with pop music, rentable giants and, of course, Ernie’s outrageous ambition to be the best playwright in the world!
Disc Two: Special Features
This disc contains the first four specials made by Thames Television, including their first show (from 1978) and three Christmas Specials (1978 to 1980). Now a part of popular culture, these specials were required viewing on first transmission - after all, where else could you expect to see Eric’s impression of the last turkey in the shop!
Released from Network DVD on 20th March this is Television Heaven's recomendation of the month.
20TH MARCH
EMERGENCY-WARD 10
Pre-dating television favourites 'Casualty' and 'Holby City' by decades, 'Emergency - Ward 10' was Britain's first medical soap opera. Initially thought of (much like 'Coronation Street') as a filler programme, the twice-weekly serial rapidly became a favourite with the nation's viewing public. Between 1957 and 1967 it regularly pulled in audiences in excess of 15 million and spawned two spin-off programmes and a feature-film adaptation. Set in the fictitious Oxbridge General Hospital, 'Emergency - Ward 10' concentrated as much on the private lives of the staff as it did on their jobs, setting the template for today's modern medical soaps. It also introduced the viewers to medical procedures, earning praise from the British Medical Council for helping to allay the public’s fears of hospitals. High in dramatic content, the series had a low mortality rate (patient deaths were strictly limited to five per year) and made stars out of the doctors, nurses and indeed patients who walked the wards. This series, in common with many from the 1950s and '60s, no longer exists in its entirety; included in this set are 24 of the earliest surviving episodes from 1959 and 1960. Emergency Ward 10 Vol.1
MARCH 20TH
ARTHUR OF THE BRITONS
With the roman withdrawal from Britain,the tribes have entered into a period of feudal warfare. Arthur is the war chieftain of a tribe of Celts who has his eye on the bigger picture - unifi cation of the tribes in the face of the Saxon threat. Assisted by his adoptive father, Llud, and Saxon friend,Kai,he has his hands full keeping the peace withopposition from the various feuding factions as well as his duplicitous cousin, Mark of Cornwall. Starring Oliver Tobias as Arthur, leader of the Britons, this early-70s swashbuckling adventure series from HTV also stars Jack Watson and Michael Gothard as his compatriots Llud and Kai, Brian Blessed as Mark of Cornwall and an impressive guest cast including Michael Gambon, Tom Baker, Michael Craig, Bernard Bresslaw and Peter Bowles amongst others. Featuring a rousing and memorable theme by Oscar-winning composer Elmer Bernstein, 'Arthur of the Britons' presents strong stories from such creative talent as Terence Feely and Robert Banks Stewart. Arthur Of The Britons - Series 1-2 - Complete
MARCH 20TH
SMUGGLER
Set during the Napoleonic wars of the early 1800s, Oliver Tobias ('Arthur of the Britons') stars as Jack Vincent, a swashbuckling ex-British naval captain turned smuggler.
A strong-willed, independent man who lives by both his wits and the sword, Vincent is ably assisted by petty thief Honesty Evans (Hywel Williams Ellis), Sarah Morton (Lesley Dunlop - 'May To December') and Sarah's grandfather, Captain Konig (Peter Capell), in his struggle to stay one step ahead of the Excise Men and other rebels such as the infamous Kemble gang.
A fondly remembered series, 'Smuggler' was a hit with both children and adults alike on its original transmission in 1981. With taut, adventurous plots from Richard Carpenter, Bob Baker and John Kane, the series was directed by Dennis Abey, Jim Goddard and Charles Crichton. This thirteen-part series was originally shown in 1981. Smuggler - Complete Series
20TH MARCH
AND MOTHER MAKES THREE
An early hit for BAFTA-winning comedienne Wendy Craig ('Butterflies,' 'Not in Front of the Children'), ... 'And Mother Makes Three' showcases her talents as a slightly dotty young widow trying to hold down a job while bringing up two rather challenging sons, Simon (Robin Davies) and Peter (David Parfitt. Quite innocently, and with the best will in the world, widow Sally Harrison has a great facility for putting her foot in it - in fact both feet, right up to her neck. Somehow she always manages to win through in the end, but not before dealing with an array of problems involving Auntie Flo (Valerie Lush), the children and her long-suffering boss. Eventually Sally meets David Redway (Richard Coleman), a widower with a daughter (Jane played by Miriam Mann). David owns an antiquarian book-shop where Sally eventually goes to work. When they got married the series came back as 'And Mother Makes Five' And Mother Makes Three - Series 1 - Complete
10TH APRIL
ENEMY AT THE DOOR
The only piece of British soil to be occupied by the Germans during World War II, the Channel Islands are the setting for 'Enemy at the Door' - a gripping and sometimes harrowing account of the Islanders living under German rule. Whereas other TV stories of this type have concentrated on resistance 'Enemy At The Door' is all about survival and the effect the occupation had on everyday life, and in particular on the Guernsey based Martel family headed by Dr. Philip Martel and especially his 20-year old daughter, Clare. The action begins in June 1940, with the Islanders awaiting the impending invasion by German troops. Wealthy landowner Peter Porteous (Richard Heffer) tries to escape but his brave attempt leaves him wounded and trapped on Guernsey. The German Officer Major Richter tries to impose the occupation with an even hand hoping that a somewhat stern but relaxed attitude will give the Islanders less excuse to rebel but SS Hauptsturmfhrer Reinicke favours more rigid methods. Starring Alfred Burke as Major Richter, Bernard Horsfall as Dr. Martel, Emily Richard as Clare and Simon Cadell as Reinicke, 'Enemy At The Door' is a stark reminder at just how close the German's got to invading England and gives an insight into what might have happened if they'd succeeded.
30TH APRIL
DEPARTMENT S
Handling cases that are too baffling to be solved by normal police routine is all in a day’s work for Department S - a shadowy Interpol department that specialises in the inexplicable and the illogical. Its small core of operatives include flamboyant novelist Jason King (Peter Wyngarde), who uses his overactive imagination and droll wit to help solve the most difficult of cases, Stewart Sullivan (Joel Fabiani), a man of action who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, and Annabelle Hurst (Rosemary Nicols) as the gorgeous computer expert with an eye for detail. 'Department S' was another of the jewels in ITC’s crown - created in 1968 by Monty Berman and Dennis Spooner, the series catapulted Peter Wyngarde from local success to global phenomenon. In each episode the team solved the most convoluted and perplexing of cases with charm and humour. Never before released in its entirety in the UK, this box set contains all 28 episodes.
OUT NOW
WATCHING
This offbeat comedy series follows the on-again, off-again romance of a totally mismatched pair, Brenda Wilson (Emma Wray) and Malcolm Stoneway (Paul Bown). The series begins in 'The Grapes' pub on Merseyside where Brenda and her sister, Pamela, spend most of the time people-watching and pondering their lifestyles. One day Malcolm comes in and when Brenda is encouraged by Pamela to go over and speak to him she discovers that he's a watcher too. However, Malcolm's passion is bird-watching (the feathered kind). Amazingly, Brenda agrees to go on a birdwatching trip with Malcolm. He takes her on his 1939 Norton 500 motorcycle, or rather in it because instead of riding pillion, Brenda ends up in the 1936 sidecar that is attached to it. The path of true love is far from smooth and there are tears and break-ups, rows and reconciliations galore, but there is also an inexplicable attraction which brings them back together after every stormy parting. This top-rated comedy also stars Liza Tarbuck and Patsy Byrne. Watching - Series 2 - Complete
OUT NOW
THE RAG TRADE
Set within the working class environs of Fenner Fashions, an East End sweat-shop owned by Harold Fenner (Peter Jones) that turned out coats, dresses or just about anything else 'the client' wanted in the way of women's apparel, but run by feisty shop steward Paddy (Miriam Karlin) who could bring production to a stand-still with a cry of "Everybody Out!" a call that became so popular that it was adopted as a national catchphrase. "The Rag Trade" is a comedy that is designed to get you laughing...A huge success in the early 1960s for the BBC, public demand was so great that, a decade later, cast and writers reunited for further series - only this time made by LWT. As well as Jones and Karlin reprising their roles as antagonists, new additions to the cast included Christopher Beeny (Upstairs, Downstairs) as Tony and Anna Karen (On the Buses) as Olive. This set contains all fifteen episodes that comprised the first LWT series, including the festive special, shown on Christmas Eve 1977. Available from Thursday 31st January. The Rag Trade - LWT Series 1 - Complete [1977]
OUT NOW
AGONY
Hugely entertaining comedy series about a magazine 'agony aunt' who also runs her own radio phone-in and who, like Dr Frazier Crane many years later, could solve everyone's problems except her own. Unlike Frazier Crane, Jane Lucas was level headed and angst free. It was the people around her that seemed to make life impossible. Between her suffocating, manipulative, widowed Jewish mother, Bea, to her estranged non-Jewish public schoolboy psychiatrist husband, Laurence, and between her obnoxious editor at People magazine, Jane, to her shallow colleague at Happening Radio 242, DJ Andy Evol, there were very few people that Jane could turn to in order to find a bit of sanity. BAFTA-nominated actress Maureen Lipman stars as Jane. A huge hit for ITV in the late 70s and early 80s, "Agony" lasted for three series, with a sequel made fifteen years later. Based on the experiences of real-life Agony Aunt Anna Raeburn. Agony - Series 1 - Complete [1979]
