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Post by Michael Connolly on Aug 18, 2022 14:30:56 GMT
The Saint fights giant ants in a 1968 episode "The House on Dragon's Rock".
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Post by ripper on Aug 18, 2022 15:08:02 GMT
The Saint fights giant ants in a 1968 episode "The House on Dragon's Rock". I don't recall seeing that episode. It sounds like it belongs in The Avengers rather than The Saint. I see that Annette Andre was in it, prior to her stint as Jeannie Hopkirk. Also Talfryn Thomas, who seemed to be in every programme that was set in Wales or needed a Welsh character, and who came up against giant maggots in the 3rd Doctor adventure The Green Death. Just looking through the list of episodes, the Saint series had consistently good casts of guest stars.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 18, 2022 15:54:26 GMT
The Convenient Monster has Templar meet the Loch Ness Monster. Sibao is a voodoo episode. The Man Who Gambled With Life is cryonics in Cornwall. The Saint Plays With Fire is the Saint versus British Nazi's. We got a fair size thread from Charteris and the TV show; The Saint
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Post by ripper on Aug 18, 2022 16:47:04 GMT
The Convenient Monster has Templar meet the Loch Ness Monster. Sibao is a voodoo episode. The Man Who Gambled With Life is cryonics in Cornwall. The Saint Plays With Fire is the Saint versus British Nazi's. We got a fair size thread from Charteris and the TV show; The Saint Thanks, Dem. The Saint is being screened currently on ITV4, so I shall have to keep my eyes peeled for those episodes. Anyone remember The Zoo Gang from 1974? Set in France about a group of ex-resistance members fighting crime and starring John Mills, Lilli Palmer, Brian Keith and Barry Morse. It was screened in ATV-land on Friday evenings, but not many episodes were made. Also, if we are talking about ITC we have to mention UFO from 1970. What a series that was and as a child I loved it. Ed Bishop, George Sewell, Michael Billington, Peter Gordino, Gabrielle Drake with her purple hair, the Moonbase interceptors, Skydiver submarine and SHADO mobiles. It was a strip in Countdown and TV Action. Those red-suited aliens with their green-tinted skin from the liquid they breathed were so creepy, especially as they were kidnapping people to harvest organs.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 18, 2022 18:52:28 GMT
Anyone remember The Zoo Gang from 1974? Set in France about a group of ex-resistance members fighting crime and starring John Mills, Lilli Palmer, Brian Keith and Barry Morse. It was screened in ATV-land on Friday evenings, but not many episodes were made. Never heard about it. Lilli Palmer was one of those legendary actress in Germany whose name stood for class. But if needed she could lay it on as thick as William Shatner. Also, if we are talking about ITC we have to mention UFO from 1970. What a series that was and as a child I loved it. Ed Bishop, George Sewell, Michael Billington, Peter Gordino, Gabrielle Drake with her purple hair, the Moonbase interceptors, Skydiver submarine and SHADO mobiles. It was a strip in Countdown and TV Action. Those red-suited aliens with their green-tinted skin from the liquid they breathed were so creepy, especially as they were kidnapping people to harvest organs. As a child interested in sf it was a must see. I also loved it. I still have the Gorgi interceptor and the mobile which were birthday gifts. When I bought the DVD set I was surprised how good a lot of episodes weathered the time. For all the daft things - the secret HQ under a film studio of all places for instance - there were so many great concepts. It took only 50 years to make real E-cars, so hooray for Anderson's crew.
I was astonished today how many ITC series are on YT. Don't know what to watch first. I browsed a few episodes. How good the music was.
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Post by helrunar on Aug 18, 2022 21:03:24 GMT
UFO had a vibe all its own. Vladek Sheybal was in some episodes and his acting was always camp on a kind of creepily transcendental level. Sheybal's stories emphasized the complicated psychological dynamics of so many of the scripts--the real theme seemed to be "how resisting an alien invasion will make you really paranoid and neurotic."
Michael Billington's body was an object of desire for myself and some of my friends. I corresponded with Billington very briefly via email in 2001. He died very suddenly within one week of Ed Bishop, I seem to recall.
When the fabulous Wanda Ventham came on board for the final group of episodes, the writing became really fascinating. They played with some very intriguing concepts.
Gabrielle Drake, who was so poised and charming, was enigmatic, short-lived singer-songwriter Nick Drake's sister. Dolores Mantez, who had a deftly played role in the pilot episode of Randall & Hopkirk, was one of Drake's colleagues on Moonbase. Another glamorous presence was Ayshea, who went on to become well known in the UK as a presenter on some kind of variety hour--or something.
I think the aliens were almost never seen in the shows--I remember one was shown in the very first episode. Those comics must have been fun.
H.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 19, 2022 7:50:34 GMT
UFO had a vibe all its own. Vladek Sheybal was in some episodes and his acting was always camp on a kind of creepily transcendental level. Sheybal's stories emphasized the complicated psychological dynamics of so many of the scripts--the real theme seemed to be "how resisting an alien invasion will make you really paranoid and neurotic." Michael Billington's body was an object of desire for myself and some of my friends. I corresponded with Billington very briefly via email in 2001. He died very suddenly within one week of Ed Bishop, I seem to recall. When the fabulous Wanda Ventham came on board for the final group of episodes, the writing became really fascinating. They played with some very intriguing concepts. Gabrielle Drake, who was so poised and charming, was enigmatic, short-lived singer-songwriter Nick Drake's sister. Dolores Mantez, who had a deftly played role in the pilot episode of Randall & Hopkirk, was one of Drake's colleagues on Moonbase. Another glamorous presence was Ayshea, who went on to become well known in the UK as a presenter on some kind of variety hour--or something. I think the aliens were almost never seen in the shows--I remember one was shown in the very first episode. Those comics must have been fun. H. I liked George Sewell. He was a great second in command and easily recognizable. I discovered him in other series before the IMDB made searching for actors so easy.
I think the UFO comic was on link of British comics here recently. I don't have it on this PC but will provide it later. As far as I can remember the comic was the typical commercial affair.
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Post by ripper on Aug 19, 2022 11:15:43 GMT
UFO had a vibe all its own. Vladek Sheybal was in some episodes and his acting was always camp on a kind of creepily transcendental level. Sheybal's stories emphasized the complicated psychological dynamics of so many of the scripts--the real theme seemed to be "how resisting an alien invasion will make you really paranoid and neurotic." Michael Billington's body was an object of desire for myself and some of my friends. I corresponded with Billington very briefly via email in 2001. He died very suddenly within one week of Ed Bishop, I seem to recall. When the fabulous Wanda Ventham came on board for the final group of episodes, the writing became really fascinating. They played with some very intriguing concepts. Gabrielle Drake, who was so poised and charming, was enigmatic, short-lived singer-songwriter Nick Drake's sister. Dolores Mantez, who had a deftly played role in the pilot episode of Randall & Hopkirk, was one of Drake's colleagues on Moonbase. Another glamorous presence was Ayshea, who went on to become well known in the UK as a presenter on some kind of variety hour--or something. I think the aliens were almost never seen in the shows--I remember one was shown in the very first episode. Those comics must have been fun. H. Yes, Sheybal's character could be quite creepy at times. I never quite trusted him, and wouldn't have been surprised to find out that he had his own agenda. I agree on the scripts in there was often much more to them than one would expect. Billington's character was one of my favourites of the series. I believe he was considered for the role of James Bond--not sure if that was for On Her Majesty's Secret Service or Live and Let Die. Ayshea presented Lift-Off with Ayshea, a pop music programme for children, which featured bands of the time performing live. It was very popular with dads as well as Ayshea would often be kitted out in hot pants and gogo boots--think I also remember her singing as well. The comics were must-buys for me. As well as UFO, Countdown also featured reprints of Gerry Anderson strips for Stingray, Fireball XL5 etc, plus an original strip also called Countdown. TV Action was more mainstream in that strips of shows like The Persuaders, Hawaii Five-O and Cannon were included. It did, however have a strip of DR Who featuring 3rd doctor Jon Pertwee.
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Post by ripper on Aug 19, 2022 11:23:55 GMT
UFO had a vibe all its own. Vladek Sheybal was in some episodes and his acting was always camp on a kind of creepily transcendental level. Sheybal's stories emphasized the complicated psychological dynamics of so many of the scripts--the real theme seemed to be "how resisting an alien invasion will make you really paranoid and neurotic." Michael Billington's body was an object of desire for myself and some of my friends. I corresponded with Billington very briefly via email in 2001. He died very suddenly within one week of Ed Bishop, I seem to recall. When the fabulous Wanda Ventham came on board for the final group of episodes, the writing became really fascinating. They played with some very intriguing concepts. Gabrielle Drake, who was so poised and charming, was enigmatic, short-lived singer-songwriter Nick Drake's sister. Dolores Mantez, who had a deftly played role in the pilot episode of Randall & Hopkirk, was one of Drake's colleagues on Moonbase. Another glamorous presence was Ayshea, who went on to become well known in the UK as a presenter on some kind of variety hour--or something. I think the aliens were almost never seen in the shows--I remember one was shown in the very first episode. Those comics must have been fun. H. I liked George Sewell. He was a great second in command and easily recognizable. I discovered him in other series before the IMDB made searching for actors so easy. I think the UFO comic was on link of British comics here recently. I don't have it on this PC but will provide it later. As far as I can remember the comic was the typical commercial affair. Sewell was a popular character actor who turned up in many guest roles. Alongside Patrick Mower, he starred in the later series of Special Branch, of which I was a fan. The Countdown comic had a reverse page numbering arrangement in that the first page was labelled as page 24 and the last page as page 1, like a rocket countdown. Pretty sure there were also articles, but those are very hazy in my memory. I think it had a larger page size than other comics and was also printed on thinner paper. There was a full-page photo of Ed Bishop as Straker in one issue, on the back page I think.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 19, 2022 12:49:11 GMT
Forgot all about this. Pulp fair treasure from what seems like centuries back (i.e., pre-lockdown #I) Robert Miall - Kill Jason King I'm sure there were plenty of Space 1999 or UFO tie-ins?
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Post by ripper on Aug 19, 2022 14:08:36 GMT
Forgot all about this. Pulp fair treasure from what seems like centuries back (i.e., pre-lockdown #I) Robert Miall - Kill Jason King I'm sure there were plenty of Space 1999 or UFO tie-ins? Hi Dem, I don't know how many Space1999 novels were published, other than there were many. I believe that most episodes were novelised. I had one back in the day, but remember hardly anything about it. There were two UFO novelisations, both written by John Burke under the name Robert Miall, so I assume that the Jason King book is also a Burke. UFO: novelises episodes Identified, Exposed, Close-Up and Court Martial. UFO 2: novelises episodes Computer Affair, Dalotek Affair and Survival.
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Post by pulphack on Aug 19, 2022 14:15:36 GMT
There were two UFO tie-ins, both written by John Burke in his Robert Miall guise and novelising episodes. Published by Pan.* I think there were six Space 1999's, published by Orbit, I think, and probably on here somewhere. Ted Tubb did one, and Michael Butterworth did three or four - I think his have been republished in some form or another. This is the Savoy Books/Hawkwind books Butterworth, not the Trigon Empire comic strip writer and crime novelist.
The Protectors is carried by the actors - Robert Vaughn, Tony Anholt and Nyree Dawn Porter, whereas the scripts are tied by time. NDP was quite an unpleasant lady by all accounts - called Gerry Anderson a c*** in a packed restaurant when she was pissed just because he replaced her make-up person with the one she had actually asked for (go figure). The late Brian Doyle, film publicist and kids fiction expert, worked on a few productions with her and reckoned that she was a nice lady early in the day until she started drinking - then she became the worst kind of nasty drunk.
UFO is a very underrated series in many ways. It deals - like Strange Report - with a lot of issues in a way that isn't obvious or preachy and never gets in the way of the story, using its displacement in the then-future to look at contemporary issues like all good sf. And despite the cheap cracks about wooden acting 'like the puppets' theres some very good acting in there. Wanda Ventham and Vladek Sheybal as mentioned are excellent additions - Sheybal is just watchable in anything and did good line in KGB men in 70's TV as I remember. Michael Billington was brought in as George Sewell was considered too ugly by the suits in the production office. They're both excellent actors, but George is definitely hard man rather than heart throb.
I have a soft spot for George - he belonged to the Old Boys Book Club and was an avid collector of the Magnet and Gem and Sexton Blake. He also went to school with my aunty. His brother Danny was a champion boxer. His mum had a florist in the Seven Sisters Road. Most of all, they wouldn't have dared bin him from UFO if they knew who his dad was - George Snr was a right hand man for Billy Hill, who was the enemy of Jack Spot and mentor to the Krays. My chum Paul has George's ghosted autobiography in mss, inherited from his dad (who was friend of the Sewells) and its a cracking read on the racetrack exploits of the London gangs between the wars.
* (Beat me to it Rip)
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Post by pulphack on Aug 19, 2022 14:25:11 GMT
Oh nearly forgot - The Zoo Gang was based on a book by Paul Gallico about a group of ex-resistance fighters who, in older age, reunited to fight a few indiscretions. It was hard going for me as a kid but I wouldn't mind seeing it again as I think I'd like it more. Barry Morse was in this, as well. It only did the one series. The name comes from their code names in the resistance being animal based.
Jason King is ropey film wise - apparently the desire to cut costs led to the 16mm over 35mm decision, and it shows. To get the international flavour Berman and Wyngarde took a few flights, had a nice holiday, and got some film that they could get the writers to work around. What I like is to spot the difference between Wyngarde's own thinning bouffant in the filmed travelogues and the luxuriant wig in the interior shots...
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Post by ripper on Aug 19, 2022 14:58:38 GMT
There were two UFO tie-ins, both written by John Burke in his Robert Miall guise and novelising episodes. Published by Pan.* I think there were six Space 1999's, published by Orbit, I think, and probably on here somewhere. Ted Tubb did one, and Michael Butterworth did three or four - I think his have been republished in some form or another. This is the Savoy Books/Hawkwind books Butterworth, not the Trigon Empire comic strip writer and crime novelist. The Protectors is carried by the actors - Robert Vaughn, Tony Anholt and Nyree Dawn Porter, whereas the scripts are tied by time. NDP was quite an unpleasant lady by all accounts - called Gerry Anderson a c*** in a packed restaurant when she was pissed just because he replaced her make-up person with the one she had actually asked for (go figure). The late Brian Doyle, film publicist and kids fiction expert, worked on a few productions with her and reckoned that she was a nice lady early in the day until she started drinking - then she became the worst kind of nasty drunk. UFO is a very underrated series in many ways. It deals - like Strange Report - with a lot of issues in a way that isn't obvious or preachy and never gets in the way of the story, using its displacement in the then-future to look at contemporary issues like all good sf. And despite the cheap cracks about wooden acting 'like the puppets' theres some very good acting in there. Wanda Ventham and Vladek Sheybal as mentioned are excellent additions - Sheybal is just watchable in anything and did good line in KGB men in 70's TV as I remember. Michael Billington was brought in as George Sewell was considered too ugly by the suits in the production office. They're both excellent actors, but George is definitely hard man rather than heart throb. I have a soft spot for George - he belonged to the Old Boys Book Club and was an avid collector of the Magnet and Gem and Sexton Blake. He also went to school with my aunty. His brother Danny was a champion boxer. His mum had a florist in the Seven Sisters Road. Most of all, they wouldn't have dared bin him from UFO if they knew who his dad was - George Snr was a right hand man for Billy Hill, who was the enemy of Jack Spot and mentor to the Krays. My chum Paul has George's ghosted autobiography in mss, inherited from his dad (who was friend of the Sewells) and its a cracking read on the racetrack exploits of the London gangs between the wars. * (Beat me to it Rip) Thanks for the interesting information on George Sewell and The Protectors. I have read about Billy Hill and Jack Spot, but to hear that actor George Sewell had a connection to them via his father was a big surprise. I have to say, though, that Sewell does look like he could handle himself--darned good actor as well. I had read that Nyree Dawn Porter could be unpleasant, but not about her drinking. It's a shame it affected her that way as she was a decent actress and easy on the eye. Yes, agree completely that the three leads carried the show. I remember buying the 45 of the theme song Avenues and Alleyways by, I think, Tony Orlando. Still have it somewhere in our loft.
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Post by ripper on Aug 19, 2022 15:10:24 GMT
Oh nearly forgot - The Zoo Gang was based on a book by Paul Gallico about a group of ex-resistance fighters who, in older age, reunited to fight a few indiscretions. It was hard going for me as a kid but I wouldn't mind seeing it again as I think I'd like it more. Barry Morse was in this, as well. It only did the one series. The name comes from their code names in the resistance being animal based. Jason King is ropey film wise - apparently the desire to cut costs led to the 16mm over 35mm decision, and it shows. To get the international flavour Berman and Wyngarde took a few flights, had a nice holiday, and got some film that they could get the writers to work around. What I like is to spot the difference between Wyngarde's own thinning bouffant in the filmed travelogues and the luxuriant wig in the interior shots... I haven't seen Zoo Gang since its first transmisiion. I remember liking it as a kid, but it only lasted 6 episodes I believe. Yes, Jason King did look rather cheap when compared to other ITC series. I had a laugh when you said about Wyngarde's wig. I wonder if the decision to go for 16mm rather than 35mm had anything to do with the cost of making The Persuaders! With the salaries of Curtis and Moore, perhaps they decided to save money with Jason King? Just a thought
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