Wha'ts on the cooker this Tuesday, October 11, 2016 you say?
Ittttt's Couch Memory Television, so come and join me on this magic couch ride and anecdotal revue -
that kinder, gentler televisual past from your television screens of yore, both sides of the Mason-Dixie line and transatlantic treasures to be found too.
The prolific penning Keith Waterhouse, would certainly cover many areas with that quill of his and among his credits - author of one of the most notable of the kitchen sink dramas; Billy Liar, which Waterhouse wrote and published in 1959. And the fibbing William would lead to every possible adaptation, including stage, screen, as a musical and ultimately television. A pedigree such as Waterhouse would assure that nary a creative foot would be put wrong. Some prolific creators have been known to fall into the trap of becoming middling and achingly mediocre but not our Waterhouse, with this Yorkshire lad, the best was always yet to come, and so it did in 1971. Now Budgie truly had a unique plot device, there was also a variation on the theme, the one constant was our titular anti-hero, the lovable larcenous one, that often got himself into pickles, but managed to sweeten his way out of them. Adam Faith's Budgie had varying degrees of how much he would disappoint you, the one who got the brunt of his mishaps would be his extremely tolerant gal pal Hazel (played by the fetching Lynn Dalby). Budgie, often bumbling, did surprise us from time to time with a cheeky line or two. Not exactly morale supportive was Charlie Endell, (the unstoppable Iain Cuthbertson) Endell was perhaps the most complex in the cast of characters. Although he looked down upon his employee Budgie, he oft himself was far more insidious, and just as eager to earn a few bob, no matter what the method would entail or how illegal it was. Endell also knew how to emote, and at times to intense proportions - there are moments this character appears as if he is shifting and morphing into several alter personalities.
Dobie Gillis the philosophizing philanderer stars in Love, American Style - Love and The Phone Booth, but as always some lass is always leaving him hanging on the telephone...
Verite, I say unto thee - celebrating the direct cinema works of Joe Saltzman - Junior High School, which was indubitably inspired by Frederick Wiseman's masterwork High School (1968)
