alfredstvthoughts

[alfredstvthoughts]

Beau Geste - Episode One (31 October 1982)

There have been many adaptations of Beau Geste, P.C. Wren's novel about the French Foreign Legion although before seeing this 1982 TV adaptation (thanks to Talking Pictures TV, always digging up treasures like this) I had not read either the original book neither watched any of the adaptations, in fact the closest point of reference for me was the 1967 film Carry On Follow That Camel, which while a parody with an original story was heavily inspired by the novel to the point the main character played by Jim Dale was called B.O. West (say it fast 3 times and you'll get it).

This first episode (out of eight - the remaining episodes will be shown over the coming weeks) begins with a curious mystery. A relief column commanded by Major de Beaujolais (David Sumner) arrives at Fort Zinderneuf but no one seems to be there and the men on the walls are all dead. The mysteries ramp up as the bugler sent to unlock the fort from the inside goes missing, a body of a bayoneted soldier disappears and later the fort explodes with no one alive apparently inside.

A letter is also discovered on the body of the soldier who later disappears mentioning a Lady Brandon from Brandon Abbas, which leads to de Beaujolais having a flashback back to when he was there with Lady Brandon (Wendy Williams), where the second half of this episode takes place.

The children of Lady Brandon including the Geste brothers Beau (Paul Hawkins), John (Paul Critchley) and Digby (Robin Crane) are spell-bound by de Beaujolais' exciting Legion stories. Lady Brandon also shows de Beaujolais the valuable Blue Water jewel which has a turbulent history.

The episode ends in apparently tragic fashion as Lady Brandon brings round a visitor while the children are playing with a suit of armor and the children hide to escape punishment. Unfortunately John's choice of hiding place seems to have been a poor choice, leading to a rather shocking cliffhanger that well merits the distressing content warning shown before the episode's broadcast on TPTV...

An interesting opening episode, I look forward to seeing what happens next.

[alfredstvthoughts]

Mona the Vampire - The X-Change Student/ Red Moon Monsters (Season 1 Episode 6; 2 October 1999)

Mona the Vampire always had a perfect knack for making the ordinary seem extraordinary through the all-too vivid imaginations of Mona and her friends Lily and Charley, and the 2 segments comprising this episode is more proof of that.

The first segment begins with Mona and her friends attempting to communicate with aliens, only to end up intercepting a TV wrestling broadcast with a wrestler pretending to be an an alien who they naturally mistake as being a real one. When a new student starts at school the next day, the trio suspect him of being an alien agent and things get even more awkward when he ends up invited to stay at Mona's...

While generally fun, I was a little troubled in this segment by the fact that Mona, Lily and Charley were effectively bullying the new student for being different due to their belief he's really an alien, however this is softened by Mona and her friends eventually becoming friends with him near the end and fighting a common foe.

The second segment is the superior one. Mona is hosting a cooking video when Lily arrives crying, fearing she will soon be moving away from Mona and Charley due to her mother getting a new job. The majority of the episode is framed as a flashback as Mona and Lily remember the first time they met, where the initially shy Lily reveals that she loves sci-fi movies and we also see how she became Princess Giant. They later go hunting for red moon monsters like in the movie they saw, but find they are harmless and misunderstood and go to free more of them, with consequences for Angela's Japanese themed birthday party...

Without a doubt the highlight of both segments is the first meeting of Mona and Lily, a really heart-warming moment showing the beginning of a great friendship, raising Red Moon Monsters to a very high standard indeed.

[alfredstvthoughts]

Mona the Vampire - The Dreaded Human Spider/ The Living Mannequin (Season 1 Episode 5; 27 September 1999)

The animated series adaptation of the Mona the Vampire books by Sonia Holleyman and Hiawyn Oram is one of my most recent obsessions joining a long line of animated series I have been obsessed with and this episode, consisting of the usual 2 segments comprising each episode is a fine example of what makes the show so good.

In the first segment, there is an infestation of insects in town and Mona suspects visiting insect expert Herb Crofton is behind it, believing he is really a giant living insect masterminding the insect invasion. When Mona and Charley find themselves shrunk down to insect size as they attempt to battle Crofton, it's up to Lily to face her fear of insects and rescue them...

In the second segment, Angela's suggestion to organize a fashion show as this year's school fundraiser is accepted and Mona is unhappy about it, but Lily wants to take part and sketches an outfit she wants to wear for the show that she's seen on a mannequin. When Mona and Lily return to the shop to find the mannequin gone and later sees someone wearing the same outfit (who turns out to be Tiffany, the fashion show judge), Mona suspects the mannequins are alive and being used as part of a plot to replace the people of the town with their living mannequin duplicates...

Both segments are really enjoyable, with my preference going slightly to the 2nd one mainly as it is really fun to see Mona and her friends do battle with the mannequins and the presence of Angela, Mona's rich rival is always welcome.

[alfredstvthoughts]

Z Cars - Family (3 June 1974)

Z Cars was a long running British TV show focused on the police force patrolling a fictional Merseyside town called Newtown which ran between 1962 and 1978. Though much of the show has been unseen since it's original transmission (with over half of the episodes now sadly missing from the archives), Talking Pictures TV's current fragmented reruns of surviving 1970s episodes have been a golden chance to see these rarely seen episodes.

Family, written by Bill Lyons sees DC Skinner (Ian Cullen) receiving information from a snout about an upcoming bank robbery. One of the names mentioned is Stan Giles (Cyril Varley) who has been struggling financially since leaving prison, living in poverty on an obviously run-down estate with his wife Brenda (Maryann Turner) and daughter Susan (Sara Clee), forming the family of the title. It is not a happy family with Stan at odds with his daughter who while afraid of him is prepared to defy him and encourages her mother to stand up to him instead of weakly submitting.

Stan has been hired by his former partner in crime Lennie Bowles (Kenneth Colley) who when younger learnt much from Stan, but has since then become a lot more successful and is living a more comfortable life in London and this, coupled with his boasting about his new lifestyle while mocking Stan's poverty makes Stan resentful of him.

With the bank robbery due to go ahead with Skinner and Inspector Bert Lynch (James Ellis) ready to arrest the robbers, an unexpected spanner is thrown in the works by PC Quilley (Douglas Fielding) who, responding to a report of an attempted car theft where the thief left instead with the victim's watch ends up arresting Stan shortly before the robbery is due to take place...

This episode starts off slowly but gets better as the robbery nears and with Quilley's arrest of Stan providing the first twist in the tail, there's also another good twist at the end and there is no neat resolution here, with the ultimate outcome of Stan's arrest and the robbery still up in the air by the episode's conclusion, a good episode overall.

[alfredstvthoughts]

ChuckleVision - Funny Money (Season 17 Episode 4; 27 January 2005)

Throughout ChuckleVision's 22 year history, many episodes provided the opportunity for the Chuckle Brothers to display their versatility by portraying various alternate versions of themselves. Their Scottish relations the McChuckle Brothers have made various occasional appearances throughout the show since the very earliest episodes while the Season 10 episode The Gathering was an extremely ambitious effort featuring the Chuckle Brothers' numerous relatives from around the world. Sometimes playing alternate versions of themselves was also an opportunity to reverse their usual personalities, like in the Season 13 episode Cousins at War where Barry's alter ego Harry shares Paul's arrogance and Paul's alter ego Saul has Barry's kind-eyed innocence.

Funny Money (written by the appropriately named Emma Millions) features Paul and Barry visiting their elderly Uncle Richie (played by Paul) who is so stupidly rich he uses scrunched up money as golf balls and lights candles with burning £10 notes. Claiming he wants to get rid of all his money, Richie gives Paul and Barry all his money which they end up carting around in a wheelbarrow. Barry wants to fulfil the mission by giving away all the money but Paul is determined to spend it all to live a life of luxury.

Meanwhile the other elderly relation, Bob Beans (Barry) visits and demands his share of the family money from Richie who claims debt collectors took it all away. Soon Bob Beans encounters the Chuckle Brothers and finds they're carrying the money, but even the money Richie gave them is not as it seems...

Paul and Barry as Richie and Bob Beans don't necessarily convince as elderly people as their blond wigs make them look more like a pair of Boris Johnson impersonators (particularly Richie with his blue tie) and their hobbling with walking sticks is far too exaggerated, but their personalities come off a lot more convincingly and it's entertaining to once more see the Chuckle Brothers play alternate versions of themselves.

A little bit of an uneven episode overall and definitely a step down compared to the preceding episode Who's Minding the Store, one of my all-time favorite ChuckleVision episodes, but a chance to see the Chuckle Brothers playing alternate versions of themselves is never anything less than fun to see.