The Dracula Business [1974, BBC]

[valdemar]

I was just flicking through the BBC i-Player's contents, when I happened upon this show, presented by Daniel Farson, Broadcaster, and well-known Soho 'Character' [the book 'Suggs In The City', by Madness' singer Suggs, paints an informative and affectionate picture of him.], who was also the great nephew of Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula. What a great fun show this was - I can remember watching it when it was broadcast, and the shots of Farson walking through the [then] tremendously overgrown Highgate Old Cemetery are extremely evocative, and the start of my long fascination [unhealthy?] with burial grounds. A lost world indeed, where people smoked like chimneys, and normal-looking people bought books from 'Occult' bookshops; the conversation Farson has with a recently separated lady is tremendously, and darkly funny. Full of treats for the horror fan: a visit to Hammer Films' Michael Carreras, and another to the office of The Lorrimer Press, whose book 'The Seal Of Dracula' is a favourite of mine, along with their 'Savage Cinema' - both books guaranteed to be confiscated if taken to school, I might add, because of the excellent picture selections in each - violence, blood, and nudity; everything a teenage horror fan needs. Nudity in this show, too, but all in the cause of art, and, as the late, great Kenny Everett would tell you, all done in the 'best possible taste'. Small question here - does anyone know what film this was [I'm not sure of the time period, because of the use of a Walther P-38 automatic], and was it Peter Sasdy directing?

There was darkness too, as Daniel Farson spoke to several clergymen, and I do remember the chill of fear as one described the appearance of a blank expressioned doll-like face, full of evil, encountered by him at a haunting, and which then appeared at his home. The conversation with a Transylvanian lady, who, quite nonchalantly described the staking of a relative who had died, but did not stiffen with rigor mortis, which Farson sombrely concluded that, in his opinion, the person had been still alive when put into the grave. Brr. This was a programme that brought back many memories for me, and which the BBC always seemed to do so well. Needless to say, I enjoyed it immensely. If you have not seen it, I urge you to do so, if only to enjoy just how very, very 'nineteen seventies' it all is, and Daniel Farson is an excellent host indeed.

P.S. Also on the i-Player is a very entertaining programme from 1986 about 'Frankenstein', presented by the always interesting Bob Symes, and another, more recent show, presented by Ian Rankin, about the origins of 'The Strange Case Of Doctor Jekyll And Mr Hyde', by Robert Louis Stevenson.

[dem bones]

Here you go, Mr. V. Dan's documentary caused quite a flutter on here this time last year:

The Dracula Business.

[valdemar]

Cheers for that - I don't often go through the TV shows, but I had just enjoyed the latest episode of Doctor Who, and was feeling saucy. Found these gems. Last time I went through the shows on the i-Player, I found, again, completely by chance, programmes by the simply wonderful Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Archaeologist. What a great 'character' - there are literally no people like him about any more, which is a shame. He could explain something fascinating, but complicated - and you'd get it immediately. Superb. And he actually looked like an Archaeologist, too.

[pulphack]

The BBC iplayer is well worth a browse as they have themed collections (London, trains, etc etc) that give some fool the excuse to exhume loads of really old documentaries that have been gathering dust for years, which then seem to sit there indefinitely. Mortimer Wheeler is just a name to me, and I now intend to see if this is still there as I don't recall stumbling on it before. I watched the Farson Drac Doc the other year and it is everything everyone says on here and more. We live in a world where dipshits like Bear Grylls (a proven faker) can proclaim that they are making better docs than David Attenbrough because they can have bells and whistles and appeal to 'the kids' more. I don't wish to fall into the 'modern life is rubbish' trap as it isn't (it's like any era, a mix of good and bad bits), but there are some areas where you really do wonder...

Anyway, I've watched John Betjeman in a helicopter, Alexis Korner analyse the blues without it seeming like an analysis, and seen Georgia Brown and Lionel Bart go round the east end and explain why picking on immigrants is stupid, pointless and self-defeating*. And that's not all... Spend some time on it if you get a chance, the best bits are sometimes hidden away. The BBC remembers part of its public broadcasting charter! About time.

(Georgia did it by talking to people. A tit like Grylls would probably have CGI and graphics while talking very loudly and patronisingly, ignoring the fact that he's pure Anglo-Saxon public school. No, I don't like him...)

[valdemar]

Bear Grylls. What a c**t. If his next 'adventure' was that he was going to parachute into the crater of Mount Etna on one of it's grumbly days, then I'd watch it. He is supposed (and I'm sure a lot of his life is supposition) to be a survival expert. I was friends with a bloke who WAS a survival expert - he instructed Air-Sea Rescue crews for a living. He said two good rules for staying alive were (1) Don't jump from things if you are not sure how high they are - in fact, just don't jump from things, period. (2) Try, at all costs to keep yourself and your kit dry. Bear Grylls (what the F**K kind of name is that?) usually jumps from helicopters on to mountain tops, or, as his show trailer demonstrated, off a cliff into water. He has no idea. He thinks he's bloody Action Man. The Cock. No, I'm not a fan. Can you tell? On the other hand, I could listen to Messrs. Betjeman and Korner until the cows come home. I've not seen the Bart and Brown programme, but it sounds excellent. The last four people mentioned are folks who all know stuff. Interesting stuff that needs to be heard, not throwaway toss peddled by the likes of Bear 'C**t' Grylls (I bet his real name is something like Ray Jarvis). Sir Mortimer Wheeler, by the way, was the Archaeologist who can very possibly be credited with making the subject accessible, and indeed, fun. No 'Time Team' without this man. He excavated the huge Maiden Castle hillfort near Dorchester in Dorset, and, to the horror of the Archaeology establishment - let the public in to the dig, to see what was going on. All over the site were uncovered piles of small stones - these were ammo dumps of 'Sling stones', to be flung at invaders. There were millions of these carefully graded stones on site, so what did Sir Mortimer do after collecting some for the museums? Yup. Get them bagged up so that visitors could buy them as a souvenir, and have some ancient British history to take home with them. Inspired. You'll find his shows in the 'Archaeology on the BBC' collection. Most entertaining are a series of chats (and they are chats, easy-going, humourous and warm), with the late, great Magnus Magnusson. Well worth a watch, after which, you will wish that you could have gone out for a swift half with both gentlemen.

[andydecker]

I don't know this, but watched a fair amount of Dracula documentaries.

Even if they are bad, they deliver a few nice shots of country and people. I have forgotten how it was called, but I remember a particullary dumb show where there were a "journalist", an attractive historian, a third guy I have forgotten what he was for and a medium presenting historical mysteries. They send the medium down into the dungeon where he could tell about suffering. I don't know what was more ridiculous, the fake seriousness of the presentation - you really waited that they finally discovered cleopatras corpse or Noah's arc or something waiting in barn - or the medium. Was this bad!

I also love it when they spice it up with historical battle reenactments  or actor scenes. Always good for a laugh.

[valdemar]

The 'Medium' wasn't Derek 'Taking The Piss, Actually' Acorah, was it? Every place he goes to, he encounters the 'spirit' of 'A little lad'. If the 'Little Lad' was Alan Ladd, then it might be entertaining, but no. It must be nice to make a living by talking bollocks, you know. Wish I'd thought of it. As a thought, is the 'Fraudulent Mediums Act' still on the statutes? I believe that's what they replaced the old 'Witchcraft Act' with, in the 1940's. Yes, that recently.

[Dr Strange]

Oct 24, 2015 2:58:55 GMT valdemar said:

is the 'Fraudulent Mediums Act' still on the statutes? I believe that's what they replaced the old 'Witchcraft Act' with, in the 1940's. Yes, that recently.

The Fraudulent Mediums Act was introduced in 1951 and repealed in 2008, when it was superseded by EU consumer protection regulations. There was some discussion at the time about whether "mediums" could be prosecuted for misleading their "customers" under the new law - but I think the general consensus among lawyers was that it didn't actually change anything in that regard, as neither the old Fraudulent Mediums Act nor the new laws applied to anyone who was doing it as "entertainment".

[valdemar]

Pity.