Retro TV

[Kashgar]

Always loved the work of comic character actor Ken 'Horrible Ives' Jones. Particularly in 'The Squirrels' an office-bound sitcom written by the brilliant Eric Chapell ...

Ellis Jones was also a star of The Squirrels and I'm just watching him in Network's release of Pardon My Genie Series One, mostly by Rentaghost writer Bob Block, a 1972 ITV kids' sitcom which also has some adult appeal. The triumvirate of Ellis Jones, Hugh Paddick as the genie of the watering can, and Roy Barraclough on top form as Mr. Cobbledick is often very amusing.

Used to love Pardon My Genie. Didn't David Jason's elder brother Arthur White (who played the cop in charge of the police records in Touch of Frost) take over from Hugh Paddick as the genie in subsequent series.

[grumpy old man]

and isn't that an older looking Doogie Howser M.D. on that sitcom with Willow out of Buffy on it?

There’s a secret Buffy spin off? I think you mean the alleged comedy How I Met Your Mother with the actress Alyson Hannigan rather than her character Willow. You had me going for a minute there!

[brisey]

and isn't that an older looking Doogie Howser M.D. on that sitcom with Willow out of Buffy on it?

There’s a secret Buffy spin off? I think you mean the alleged comedy How I Met Your Mother with the actress Alyson Hannigan rather than her character Willow. You had me going for a minute there!

Someone must like it.It is on it's 5th Series.And heading towards it's 6th.

No,I don't get it either

[Raven]

Used to love Pardon My Genie. Didn't David Jason's elder brother Arthur White (who played the cop in charge of the police records in Touch of Frost) take over from Hugh Paddick as the genie in subsequent series.

Yes, he was the genie in the second and final series. Was he as good as Hugh Paddick?

Series one of the next kids' comedy series Bob Block wrote for Thames, Robert's Robots - which I remember much better as i was a bit older -- is also out on Network, also only as an exclusive via their website:

http://www.networkdvd.net/featured_prod ... 0001da8a95


It's also often very amusing, and well worth a revisit.

[Raven]

Children of the Stones was amazing. Looking at that, and at stuff like Moondial, Sky and Timeslip, some of the kids dramas of the 70s were a damn sight better than a lot of supposedly adult drama today.

King of the Castle, available from the link I posted above, is also very much in this vein. One of the weirdest and creepiest.

And the forthcoming, packed Look Back On 70s Telly, Volume 2 (with free comic!) will be quite unmissable, containing an episode each of scary kids anthology series Shadows, Nobody's House, Four Idle Hands, Raven, The Paper Lads, rare time travel fantasy Jamie, and many more.

http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info. ... ts_id=1056

Flintlock fan steelclaw will be pleased to know that episodes of You Must Be Joking and the controversial Pauline's Quirkes are also included.

I wonder if the free comic will be Look-In-esque, and new or reprint.

[grumpy old man]

Anyone see last night’s One Show where they claimed that only 1% of children’s TV is produced domestically these days? I think that this proves you can make statistics prove anything (as a recent survey I carried out amongst myself proves).

Interesting to see how they came to this figure and I bet they’re getting some interesting internal memos today from the BBC’s Children’s dept who produce two channels of in-house content. Granted CITV don’t produce anything these days because a certain celebrity chef drove away the advertisers. But you’re hardly going to expect non UK channels like Disney and Nickelodeon to show anything but US content. Plus if you lump in music channels then there will be a large US content.

[Digifiend]

In Fox Kids/Jetix/Disney XD's entire history, I think the only British shows they've aired are Dennis and Gnasher (1996 version) and the forthcoming K9, which is an Australian production with British financing and licencing. Disney Channel did show Art Attack for a while. Nickelodeon has shown a few British shows over the years, including Mr Bean (the live action one, which isn't even a kids show!) and My Parents Are Aliens (even after CITV's launch, which I think is a bit strange). CITV is getting more Americanised too, due to the closure of Granada Kids - given the timing, they shouldn't have bothered making the last series of My Parents Are Aliens (did they do it for Nick I wonder?), which ditched most of the original cast (only the actor who played Brian remained from the first episode - Sophie was recast for series 2 and everyone else was replaced for the final series).

[grumpy old man]

There’s a showbiz story about the Banana Splits Show; the TV network decided to take it on the road as has been done with The Monkees and the four actors who played the characters were expecting a big payday.

However to save money the TV Company sent the costumes out on the road and hired four local actors to run around and fall over to comic sound effects in each city of the tour.

[NP]

Always loved the work of comic character actor Ken 'Horrible Ives' Jones. Particularly in 'The Squirrels' an office-bound sitcom written by the brilliant Eric Chapell ...Sadly neither of these series seem to have made it onto any of the retro TV channels or onto DVD.

Squirrels was also written by others, notably Phil (Brookside, Hollyoaks, Grange Hill) Redmond and Ken (Randall and Hopkirk) Cope. Some years ago they told me that Squirrels would never be re-shown because of a very tangled rights issue. Fascinating, but I never found out what! I agree, Ken Jones was excellent in it, as ever, a sort of sweatier, sneakier Roy Kinnear.

[Kashgar]

Always loved the work of comic character actor Ken 'Horrible Ives' Jones. Particularly in 'The Squirrels' an office-bound sitcom written by the brilliant Eric Chapell ...Sadly neither of these series seem to have made it onto any of the retro TV channels or onto DVD.

Squirrels was also written by others, notably Phil (Brookside, Hollyoaks, Grange Hill) Redmond and Ken (Randall and Hopkirk) Cope. Some years ago they told me that Squirrels would never be re-shown because of a very tangled rights issue. Fascinating, but I never found out what! I agree, Ken Jones was excellent in it, as ever, a sort of sweatier, sneakier Roy Kinnear.

And you'd have to go some to be sweatier and sneakier than Roy Kinnear! Never knew that about the multiple writers Nigel although a lot of ITV sitcoms did adopt a variation on the US 'team' approach to sitcom writing. And I'm sorry to hear that an issue over rights has kept in from our screens in modern times, an issue which no doubt makes it also unlikely that we will be seeing it released as a Network boxed set anytime soon. Just like to add that Patsy Rowlands was a superb deadpan foil as Ken Jones' wife in the sitcom.

[steelclaw]

King of the Castle, available from the link I posted above, is also very much in this vein. One of the weirdest and creepiest.

And the forthcoming, packed Look Back On 70s Telly, Volume 2 (with free comic!) will be quite unmissable, containing an episode each of scary kids anthology series Shadows, Nobody's House, Four Idle Hands, Raven, The Paper Lads, rare time travel fantasy Jamie, and many more.

http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info. ... ts_id=1056

Flintlock fan steelclaw will be pleased to know that episodes of You Must Be Joking and the controversial Pauline's Quirkes are also included.

I wonder if the free comic will be Look-In-esque, and new or reprint.

[/quote]


Wow cheers just seen this I will buy this next monday when it's released from Amazon for £8.98.

[Raven]

Wow cheers just seen this I will buy this next monday when it's released from Amazon for £8.98.

HMV.com are already posting them out - my volumes 1 and 2 were posted today. £8.99 each. Should have them for the weekend.

[steelclaw]

Wow cheers just seen this I will buy this next monday when it's released from Amazon for £8.98.

HMV.com are already posting them out - my volumes 1 and 2 were posted today. £8.99 each. Should have them for the weekend.

I wonder if they're selling them instore HMV or just by mail order, I'll have a look on friday.

[Raven]

I wonder if they're selling them instore HMV or just by mail order, I'll have a look on friday.

No, it'll definitely only be mail order that they're sent out early. And this kind of Network title often takes a few weeks to crop up in the shops - where you can also expect it to be £14.99 instead of £8.99.

I'd order from the HMV website; they're very good with an especially secure payment system and good packing. They often send Network's DVDS and other items out a little early. (I've received a few CDS the Friday before release.)

[steelclaw]

Catweasle has to be one the best kids programmes of 1970/71, I watched both series the other week it was brilliant.