#Richard Briers

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Hamlet (1996)

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Video Killed the Radio Star

If you don't already feel sufficiently alienated from the culture of your generation, consider getting into old time radio. It's pretty easy to do: Radio was mainstream media from the 1930s well into the 1950s, and it hung on for quite a while after it started losing ground to television. There's a huge amount of programming in various genres, and a surprising amount of it survives; there was a cottage industry in OTR cassettes and CDs for many years, a lot of shows can be found in MP3 format without much effort, and some of it pops up regularly on streaming platforms.

The easiest way to get into it is if you're already got a fondness for some older Hollywood star: If they were a movie star between 1930 and 1960, there's a good chance they guest-starred in various radio shows, and they might even have had their own show for a while. For instance, do you like Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall? Around 1950, they had their own syndicated radio adventure series, BOLD VENTURE, which was essentially an extended riff on their characters in the 1944 film version of TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT. Orson Welles, of course, was a big radio star, playing the lead on THE SHADOW in 1937–38 and then bringing his Mercury Theatre company to a number of different one-hour and half-hour radio series. Vincent Price starred for several seasons as Leslie Charteris's Simon Templar on THE SAINT. And almost everyone who was anyone showed up now and again on SUSPENSE or LUX RADIO THEATRE (which produced all-star one-hour adaptations of popular movies). If you're a Superman or Sherlock Holmes fan, the radio versions of those characters are a must — Holmes was a perennial presence on English-language radio for decades.

If you want something more modern, the British kept producing generally high-quality radio dramas in surprising volume until relatively recently, including a range of both adaptations and originals. Unlike American radio, the survival rate for older British programs from the '40s and '50s is poor, but the BBC has continued periodically airing its better material from the '70s through the '00s, a lot of which has been offered on cassette and CD. For instance, there were excellent BBC radio series dramatizing the Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster stories (with Michael Hordern and Richard Briers); Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series (with Ian Carmichael); and Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries (with John Moffat), along with standalone plays on programs like SATURDAY-NIGHT THEATRE. The big limitation with British radio dramas is that the number of British radio actors who can do convincing American accents is not high (and is definitely lower than the number who mistakenly think they can), and the availability of American actors who know how to act for radio is clearly even more limited, which can become a grating problem when dramatizing American material.

One of the reasons that listening to older (and/or British) radio shows will contribute to your cultural alienation is that it will make a lot of modern dramatic podcast series and audio dramatizations excruciating, because it will reveal to you how bad a lot of modern audio dramatists and performers are at this once commonplace art. (If you are or are contemplating doing a dramatic podcast or audio drama, please, for the love of dog, make a close study of radio shows created before you were born, and diversify enough to recognize the mediocrity of hacks like Dirk Maggs, who's been stinking up audio drama on two continents for four decades now.)

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All in Good Faith - ITV - December 30, 1985 - May 30, 1988

Sitcom (18 Episodes - 1 Short)

Running Time: 30 minutes

Stars:

Richard Briers as The Reverend Philip Lambe

Barbara Ferris as Emma Lambe (series 1 and 2)

Susan Jameson as Emma Lambe (series 3)

Lydia Smith as Miranda Lambe (series 1 and 2)

James Campbell as Peter Lambe (series 1 and 2)

James Cossins as Major Andrews (series 1)

Robert Bridges as Wilf (series 1)

Frank Middlemass as Desmond Frank (series 2 and 3)

T. P. McKenna as Oscar Randolph (series 2)

John Woodvine as Oscar Randolph (series 3)

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favourite movies wached in 2022

4. Much Ado About Nothing (1993) dir. Kenneth Branagh

If it proves so, then loving goes by haps. Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.

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Title: Peter Pan

Rating: PG

Director: P.J. Hogan

Cast: Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Lynn Redgrave, Richard Briers, Olivia Williams, Geoffrey Palmer, Harry Newell, Freddie Popplewell, Ludivine Sagnier, Mathew Waters, George MacKay, Harry Eden, Patrick Hurd-Wood, Bill Kerr

Release year: 2003

Genres: fantasy, adventure

Blurb: In stifling Edwardian London, Wendy Darling mesmerises her brothers every night with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling, and the fearsome Captain Hook...but the children become the heroes of an even greater story when Peter Pan flies into their nursery one night and leads them over moonlit rooftops, through a galaxy of stars, and to the lush jungles of Neverland.

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Terry-Thomas and then newcomer Richard Briers in A Matter of WHO (1961)

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In the Bleak Midwinter (A Midwinter's Tale) (1995) Kenneth Branagh

December 10th 2023

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"Hamlet" (1996) - Kenneth Branagh

"February Film Favourites" 8/28 (1/2)

Full film on Archive.org.

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Much ado about nothing, 1993

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“Peter Pan” is the Perfect Child’s Fantasy

“Peter Pan” has always been one of my favorite stories. I’ve seen many renditions and was filled with joys when the 2010’s saw a boom in Peter Pan films and limited shows, some better than others, but I loved them, nonetheless. This is no exception to the 2003 “Peter Pan” film, made Released 50 years after the Disney animated film. This is a family adventure, fantasy extravaganza. It’s hard to…

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Am I wrong?!

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Much Ado About Everything

Much Ado About Nothing (1993) by Kenneth Branagh This is where it all began for me: this movie made me love Shakespeare – and Branagh as a director. While there’s a lot of water under that latter bridge, my love for Shakespeare remains. And I think that Branagh did the same thing for many people with this masterpiece and one of my all-time favorite movies. What’s it about? Don Pedro of Arragon…

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Fan Art Friday - Roobarb and Custard

This week's #FanArtFriday features Roobarb and Custard from the BBC's animated television series from 1974, and they're remembering their original narrator Richard Briers, who passed away, ten years ago on this day.

Characters © The estates of Grange Calveley and Bob Godfrey

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Barbara Ferris as Emma Lambe, James Campbell as Peter Lambe, Lydia Smith as Miranda Lambe and Richard Briers as The Reverend Philip Lambe in "All in Good Faith"

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Macabre Month 7 Part XI: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)

In today's review, I find that sculpting the perfect man is a lot harder than first thought. As I attempt a #positive review of the 1994 adaptation of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein #RobertDeNiro #KennethBranagh #RoryJennings #TomHulce #HelenaBonhamCarter

Sometimes, a great idea is all you need, a single spark to ignite greatness. Sometimes, it doesn’t even have to be your own idea; sometimes, it doesn’t even have to be good. Sometimes, it can just seem like a good idea, like creating the perfect man. In 1994, the next Universal monster got their origins told, in great gothic detail of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Kenneth Branagh directs and also…