Celebrate, Regenerate: Book Review

I'm back, with a vengeance and this time I'm reviewing a book celebrating 50 years of 'Doctor Who' written by the fans of the show, all edited by Lewis Christian in a very well made tome which is a fitting tribute to the show.

Each page of this book is devoted to one story of the show and now I'm not going to pick any particular articles as all the ones I have read have been made with the love of the show in mind and it certainly does show. Surprisingly this book also covers some extra material like sketches and charity specials and I've even learnt some scenes from 'The Curse of Fatal Death' which didn't make the final cut that I never knew of before and I find that particular interesting, even more surprising is that some brave soul has managed to write an article on one of the many failed attempts of a 'Doctor Who' video game and that is 'Destiny of the Doctors'.

The design and layout of the book would make people think that this was an official book as each page is very well displayed with each author's work laid out in a way so it's easy to see what they have done and you won't have a hard time finding any particular author's work, included in most of these pages is artwork from different artists which are done in various styles as well which is also a welcome sight.

Another highlight of this book is the interviews with some of the people involved in the show such as Anneke Wills (Who played Polly in the series) and Joseph Lidster (Writer of the Big Finish story Master and Torchwood: A Day in the Death), it also has a section on the popular 'Doctor Who' themed band 'Chamelion Circuit' so this book has a bit of everything for the fans. This is a good book to show to your friends and relatives, even more so if you were involved and personally I feel glad to be part of it too.

New Z-Cars Project

It's been a while since I last posted on here, for the past couple of months I have been starting to plan out and research for a book that I am going to write about Z Cars after reading comments from people who have read my articles on the show. It won't be a massive, encyclopaedia type book, it will be a book that will try to cover the less remembered eras of the show from the late 1960's onwards but will have some information on the early era as well. So far I am in the early stages, trying to produce a solid plan and doing some research, I do not have any idea when this will be finished (Or published if you like) and publishing this might be the hardest part and I have been looking into ways where I can get this book published.

I do realise that this will be far from easy to write about to say the very least but I will do my best to research as much information as I can, I am also interested in anybody who has an interest in the show and may be interested in contributing with the book (And also have your name in the book as well for contributing), I am open to suggestions.

You can contact me on my twitter account (Just type in @RyanMcGivern) if you have any suggestions.

Z-Cars: The Retrospective

It would seem unfair of me to just end with some reviews of Z-Cars episodes and not write about anything else about it so here I am looking back on the show, it's the least the show deserves since it's been over 50 years since the show started. Looking back at the episodes I have reviewed to me it still holds out today, a lot more than the likes of Dixon of Dock Green and the Sweeney, Z-Cars doesn't feel as dated as them two shows and to me, it is perhaps the best made show of the lot.

The show did in a way live on after it finished in 1978, it did spawn a number of spin off shows such as "Softly, Softly", "Barlow at Large" and two rather unusual shows called "Jack the Ripper" and "Second Verdict" all of these shows featured Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor (Expect for one series in his case) reprising their roles as Charlie Barlow and John Watt respectively. Personally I have only seen one episode of "Softly, Softly" (The rest seem impossible to find) and from what I have seen it's definitely worth watching. There is also a short film that was made a few years ago called "A Lot of Fuss About Light" which saw Bernard Holley reprise his role as Bill Newcombe recalling an incident that happened back in the 1960's and the film is done in the style of the series, this film is also worth watching (You can find it on YouTube).

What I do like about Z-Cars is firstly: the acting, I really haven't seen any bad acting in the show and the show is best remembered for the actors who were in it with the likes of Brian Blessed, Ian Cullen, Bernard Holley, James Ellis and many more that some would consider to be household names back in the day, the guest cast as well would put shows like Doctor Who to shame with the likes of John Thaw (Before the Sweeney), John Challis (Before Only Fools and Horses) and even Dame Judi Dench has made an appearance, so in a way Z-Cars can be considered a prestigious show in some respect with its impressive cast.
                               

The second part of what I like about Z-Cars is the production side of the show, it was broadcast live which is no easy task for any drama series and yet they managed it extremely well, especially with people like a young Ridley Scott who was part of the production team in the 1960's, you would expect high quality standards. The writers themselves managed to do what no other police drama shows did at the time, produce a show that shows the lives of police officers in a rough town up north with situations that are based on real life activities of police officers.

Personally I do think that this show has made a bigger impact on modern culture not just on TV shows, but in films, books and to an extent, comics as I do feel that the writers on the "Judge Dredd" comic strip from 2000AD were in some way influenced by Z-Cars and also the Sweeney in the way the law is portrayed as a questionable force, they are not bad people but people don't always trust them and there is corruption within the ranks as the comic follows the day to day life of a Judge in a similar format to Z-Cars, also in another comic strip from 2000AD called "Absalom: Ghosts of London", there is a direct reference to both Z-Cars and the Sweeney in that the main character has worked with both Charlie Barlow and Jack Regan in the past, so it looks like Z-Cars is not really forgotten.

In some way, Z-Cars did pave way to a new generation of police drama series such as "Juliet Bravo", "The Gentle Touch" and "The Bill" all of which were made in the 1980's and they did become popular shows at the time as well, to me modern police drama shows never have the same impact as shows like Z-Cars did in that the characters feel less original, the acting is questionable and the plots tend to be on a far darker tone and in some ways less realistic, for some reason, some of the more darker dramas make me think they are getting closer in style to something you would see in foreign police dramas like "The Killing" which has a more stylish approach.

Sooner or later this is going to lead to the inevitable question: will Z-Cars ever see the light of day for the general public to see?

Personally I hope so one day and there are rumours going around that it may actually see the light later this year according to one DVD company called Acorn Media who did surprisingly release "Dixon of Dock Green" last year, so there may be hope for Z-Cars. It would also be interesting for a new audience to see this show as well with shows like the Sweeney being constantly repeated on ITV 4 (And also a cinema remake last year which I didn't watch due to it not being the Sweeney that I know, I won't get into that argument here), there is always a chance for people who never watched it when it was originally on to have an opportunity to watch it now.

It would be nice if the BBC would have thought the same with their programmes that are not available on DVD as I think there is great potential, otherwise all those episodes of TV shows that haven't been released would just gather dust in the archives which does seem rather pointless if people can't watch the material, why keep them if no-one can watch them?

I may have digressed a bit back then but it is a relevant question to think about and here is where I shall conclude my retrospective. I can definitely see how people look back on this show with nostalgia , to me it does feel like an important part of television history and it is a show that deserves to be remembered. If there is anyone that I would thank for inspiring me to write about this show and watching it through an old VHS tape it would be both Bernard Holley and Ian Cullen, without them I think I probably would never have ventured into this classic series, I do feel as if I have learned a lot from watching this series and I feel as if I have learned a lot from the cast members that I have met. I might do more reviews one day but for the moment I'm taking a rest from it so to everybody who had read them and this, thank you.

Z-Cars: Day Trip Review

I continue in this trip through this legendary show as we move back into colour with the episode Day Trip that also includes an appearance with Elizabeth Sladen before she was in Doctor Who which does make this episode some interesting viewing. This episode deals with a known thief who tries to fool the police that she has mended her ways but she hasn't and of course, gets caught again in the end, but it's not as simple as that as there is more to this as we find out during the course of this episode...

The episode starts off in a routine manner seeing PC Quilley (Played by Douglas Fielding) back on the job after the events of a previous episode called "Breakage" (I did a review of that a while back.) and PC "Geordie" Skinner (Once again played by Ian Cullen), both are under the supervision of Detective Sergeant Haggar (Played by John Collins). From the start there is a sense of Skinner not liking Haggar that much which I'm guessing part of it is because Haggar always calls Skinner "Geordie" due to where he is from (The accent is a give away), Skinner doesn't seem that pleased to see Haggar when he hints that he may be back in Newtown for good.

During the course of the episode, Haggar is keeping an eye on Dilly Watson (Played by Hilary Tindall) who is know to him as a thief and she's come to Newtown to do some more theft, it's interesting to see that these two have got some history in that Haggar is doing some good in trying to keep her out of trouble but ultimately fails at the end. Dilly does have a friend called Rose played by the ever brilliant Elizabeth Sladen (Sounding like a proper Scouser too!) who seems fed up of her situation in that nothing exciting happens in Newtown, so they go around looking for stuff to steal and they don't go unnoticed.

Another thing that is surprising was that Dilly used to go stealing with an old associate called Fang (Played by Carolyn Jones) who is now a traffic warden on the straight and narrow, but she doesn't forgive herself for what she has done which makes the character have an extra dimension so she doesn't feel like a last minute addition. Looking back at the character of Haggar, to me it feels as if he was partially an inspiration for the character of Gene Hunt from Life On Mars and Ashes to Ashes and I do say partially because the way Haggar addresses people is similar in the way Gene Hunt does if you lose some of the more offensive words he likes to say.

This story is good to watch not just from the fine performances of the cast (Which I would say for pretty much every episode of Z-Cars I've seen) but for the fact that there is more depth to the guest characters than I expected, especially from the traffic warden which can make you think if anybody from the law might have been involved in trouble in the past.

Z-Cars: Eleanor Rigby Slept Here Review

It's been a while since my last Z-Cars review and I was originally going to finish off a retrospective on the show but after a lot of thinking and some positive feedback from one of the main cast members, I have decided to do a few more reviews. I hope you continue to enjoy reading them as I write them.

What first caught me was the title of the episode itself, as someone who does like the Beatles I thought it was interesting, at first I thought it was the name of a character in the episode and that the series is set outside Liverpool you can connect them, but the character in question is actually called Helen Carter (Played by Anna Cropper) but I think it's because she lives alone is where the link to the title is since Eleanor Rigby in the Beatles song lived alone. The situation is that Helen is becoming more terrified by a stalker who is continuously outside her flat door until the Police arrive.

PC Lynch (Played by James Ellis) arrives on the scene, as the story progresses you do notice some sort of relationship between him and Helen as they find similar interests and with that he borrows a book from her, one might expect this relationship to continue but sadly it doesn't, in a way this is what this story is about: relationships, because the stalker actually admires her but he is going the wrong way into showing his affection by hanging outside her flat whereas with Lynch, he shows some affection with her but in the end in his case it's about doing his job and also when Helen talked about the last time she went to court which didn't end well, that also influenced his decision.

Out on patrol in Zed Victor One is PC Skinner and a quiet PC Newcombe (Played by Ian Cullen and Bernard Holley respectively), they both take more of a back seat in this story with Newcombe suffering from a case of tooth ache and Skinner jokingly suggesting some pliers as a solution (At least I think he is?), they do have some involvement by checking up on Lynch at the scene of the incident but nothing substantial sadly as these two characters are pretty interesting and it's a shame they were not used that much in this story.

This story is certainly an interesting one with a sense of a Hitchcock thriller to it that also includes lighter (If quieter) moments from Bernard Holley and Ian Cullen which evens the tone of the story, the cast in general are also on top form which makes this even better.

It's Friday, it's Five O'Clock, it's...

Yes I am going to review an episode of Crackerjack, the children's variety TV series which aired from the 1950's to the 1980's, this should be interesting and unique as I never grew up in the 50's, 60's, 70's or 80's so shows like this never existed in my childhood. The show is made of of sketches, game show and music segments as part of the variety format which became an outdated format even when this show was broadcast. I have heard some people compare this to the likes of Blue Peter (Must admit I didn't make any comparisons myself) in that this was the complete opposite, the Anti-Blue Peter, the people who watched Crackerjack were considered rebels whilst the more educated type would probably watch Blue Peter.

So let's get into this show, will it be a cringe worthy look into old TV shows or will it be worthy of some nostalgic value?

It starts off with a pre-titles sketch that vaguely reminds me of the "Dennis Moore" sketch from "Monty Python's Flying Circus", except a lot shorter and a lot less gags but this is only the start so it may improve later on. Next up is a game show segment where you have to carry a marble on the underside of a plate from one end of the studio to the other, kids must have had a lot of imagination for this to be entertaining but it is still better than any game shows that are on today, the prize for this game? A Crackerjack pencil, no badges like in Blue Peter, no medals like in Jim'll Fix It, a pencil, I'm guessing that the BBC must have had budget cuts or something.

Now we move onto another sketch called "The Mystery of Mousetrap Manor" which is a murder mystery sketch and Peter Glaze is holding what looks like a very large marrow which reminds me of the "Hancock's Half Hour" episode "The Marrow Contest", something tells me that a marrow pun is imminent and now Don Maclean appears as a character called Inspector Blower (Trumpet Included, a blowing into trumpet gag imminent too?) with Basil Brush (BOOM ! BOOM!). Wonder what other gags might happen, a Cluedo gag? A Blankety Blank gag? Well yes to both of those actually and the sketch end in a guinea fowl pun, so the sketch entirely relies on cheap puns and cheap gags yet the acting is not bad so good points for the acting but it's debatable on weather the puns and gags work.

Presenter: "What do you think of the show so far?"

Me: "Um kinda meh so far to be honest."

Presenter: "That's not a very nice thing to say here on Crackerjack."

Me: "Yeah well it's my opinion so far."

The next segment is another game with just as much use of imagination as the first game so I won't go into more detail, this is now followed on with a music segment with the band the Bay City Rollers as guests, I think I'll skip this bit. After the music segment there is yet another game segment called Crackerball or Pong if you prefer, you got to give them credit since video games were not popular back in the 70's. Well this episode is nearing it's end with a musical sketch called "Annie Get Your Goon!", in a way the format is like the Two Ronnies series which could be considered a variety show but with more sketches and well scripted ones at that. This sketch isn't bad until Don says a gag about Gary Glitter... Anyway moving swiftly on, the gags are better in this sketch but the musical elements do have a specific taste, that concludes this episodes viewing.

In conclusion I can probably understand why this show was never repeated, it was a product of it's time and the people of my generation (Excluding me of course) will probably have no understanding or respect for a show of this type. The jokes are outdated for today's standards but maybe the cheap gags are deliberate? I can understand why some people see nostalgic value in this show, the acting is surprisingly not bad, notably the performance of Peter Glaze who feels to me at least, the main star of the show. If you are part of the generation that grew up with this show, it's worth a re-watch, if you are not part of that generation, I would give it a miss but maybe watch it for the curiosity value.

The Update

Well I haven't posted for a bit on here so I'll write to say that I am working on a retrospective on Z-Cars, that is definitely on the cards but I'm not sure when that will be published. I will be doing other reviews on old TV shows in the meantime and I will be posting one up soon so stay tuned, but for me it's a busy time in both good and bad ways, I won't go into any details so forgive me for the lack of updates. Must admit I'm pleasantly surprised for the amount of positive feedback I got for my reviews so thank you all for reading my reviews. For now I will be publishing another review, but it's nothing to do with Z-Cars this time...