#Frederick Peisley

[kwebtv]

The First Churchills - BBC Two - Septembr 27, 1969 - December 13, 1969

Period Drama (12 Episodes)

Running Time: 60 minutes

Stars:

Susan Hampshire as Sarah Jennings Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough

John Neville as John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

James Villiers as King Charles II

John Westbrook as King James II

Sheila Gish as Queen Mary, wife to James II

Alan Rowe as King William III

Lisa Daniely as Queen Mary II

Margaret Tyzack as Queen Anne

Roger Mutton as Prince George of Denmark

Robert Robinson as King Louis XIV

John Standing as Sidney Godolphin

Frederick Peisley as Lord Shaftesbury

Job Stewart as Lord Shrewsbury

James Kerry as James, Duke of Monmouth

Richard Pearson as Robert Harley

Moira Redmond as Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland

Richard Warwick as Francis Godolphin

Polly Adams as Henrietta Churchill

Graham Armitage as John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester

Colin Bean as Lord Russell

Consuela Chapman as Duchess of Portsmouth

Michael Culver as Charles Churchill

Andria Lawrence as Nell Gwyn

Michael Lynch as D'Artagnan:

Kay Patrick as Henrietta Wentworth

Arthur Pentelow as Marquess of Carmarthen

Bruce Purchase as Duke of Buckingham

John Ringham as Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester

Nicholas Smith as Titus Oates

Michael Attwell as Henry St John

Jill Balcon as Abigail Masham

Freddie Wilson as James Stuart, the Old Pretender

Yvonne Antrobus as Anne Churchill

Robert Mill as Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland

William Job as Adam de Cardonnel

Bernard Taylor as William Cadogan

Francis Wallis as John Churchill, Marquess of Blandford

The First Churchills was the first series telecast by PBS under the title of Masterpiece Theatre from January 10, 1971 - March 28, 1971

[mariocki]

Villains: Alice Sheree (1.5, LWT, 1972)

"Did he ever say anything about marriage?"

"I don't believe anything he says."

"But there's no idea of waiting for him? For his release?"

"I... don't want to see him again. How could I?"

[floxanul]

Subterfuge (1968) from Florin Cosma on Vimeo.

Subterfuge is a 1968 British espionage film directed by Peter Graham Scott and starring Gene Barry, Joan Collins and Richard Todd. A young wife is becoming very distraught over the fact that her husband, a secret service "spy" for Britain, has changed his mind about transferring away so that he can spend more time with her and their young son. He has grown cold and distant towards her; she thinks it's because of the secretiveness of his work. Meanwhile, a U.S spy comes to Britain and is induced to help the British "team" with an undercover spy ring... Cast

Gene Barry as Michael A. Donovan Joan Collins as Anne Langley Richard Todd as Colonel Victor Redmayne Tom Adams as Peter Langley Suzanna Leigh as Donetta Michael Rennie as Goldsmith Marius Goring as Shevik Scott Forbes as Pannell Colin Gordon as Kitteridge Guy Deghy as Dr. Lundgren Dermot Kelly as Van Driver Stuart Cooper as Dubrossman John Welsh as Heiner Clifford Earl as Policeman Ron Pember as Photographer Harry Locke as Tramp Frederick Peisley as Tramp

[mariocki]

Our House (ABC, 1960 - 1962)

“The housing shortage. You, Simon and a few others got together and bought this house between you, is that it?”

Created by Norman Hudis, the writer behind the first six Carry On films, Our House was a modestly successful sitcom that ran on ABC for two years. Reuniting with early Carry On stars Hattie Jacques, Norman Rossington, Joan Sims and Charles Hawtrey, Hudis’ premise was a disparate group of strangers pooling their money to buy a large house together - with shenanigans to follow.

Joining Hattie and crew were a mix of actors; the young Trader Faulkner and Leigh Madison as a pair of besotted newlyweds, Frank Pettingell and Ida de la Haye as an older couple, and Frederick Peisley as a bank clerk obsessed with order and spreadsheets. The format seems to have been a mix of episodes in which the entire gang is caught up in some outlandish scheme, and stories that relied on one or two plots involving specific characters (allowing the others to take holidays or freeing them for other work). Sadly, like much TV of it’s era, the show is poorly represented in the archives: of a total of 39 episodes made, only three are known to exist.

Those three episodes are all from the first series, which ran for 55 minutes (including commercial breaks) on Sunday afternoons - back when that was actually a fairly decent slot in the schedules. There seems to have been a shake-up between first and second series, as the running time dropped to 45 minutes and various members of the cast (including Joan Sims and Trader Faulkner) bowed out. Evidently ABC lost some confidence in the show, and much of the second series was not shown across the entire ITV network, but only in select regions.

What does survive shows a series that, whilst really quite dated, is also genuinely quite funny. The humour is never cruel or unkind, and rather than relying on tensions between the house-mates to move the plot along, more often than not the series stresses their mutual affection for one another and their camaraderie. This feels unusual, even for a show from this era; comedy is very often about disappointments and negativity (consider Hancock, which was contemporaneous, or Steptoe And Son, which was just around the corner). The characters in Our House still face adversities and problems, but they do so together, and with a smile. It’s… Nice.

The cast equip themselves well, and everyone has their moment to shine, but younger actors like Faulkner and Madison, and non-comics like Pettingell could never really hope to steal the limelight from more experienced comedy stars like Jacques, Hawtrey and Sims. It’s those three that shine, and who get most of the big laughs. The earliest surviving episode - the second to be transmitted - is really just a showcase for Hawtrey to play multiple members of the same family. This includes a maiden aunt, Wilhelmina, and Hawtrey is at his very best here, giggling and flirting with Peisley and trying whisky for the first time (“It’s wonderful!”).

In short, this is a lot of fun - if you like this sort of thing. As I say, it’s quite dated and gentle, and the longer format for a sitcom feels unusual. But sometimes it’s nice just to see something… Nice?