#Ted willis

[sesiondemadrugada]

No Trees in the Streets (J. Lee Thompson, 1959).

[mariocki]

Virgin of the Secret Service (ATV, 1968)

"A bomb, at Dawki, on Tuesday, killed nine enlisted men; an explosion in the mess at Chamba bereaved eleven British women; and furthermore, Major Hamilton lost three fingers of his right hand, a great loss! Major Hamilton was one of the finest polo players in the North-West Frontier."

That most prolific of TV writers, Ted Willis, might have been excused for resting on his laurels by 1968. He had two long-running hits under his belt already; Sergeant Cork (1963 - 1968) was just drawing to a close on ATV, whilst BBC juggernaut Dixon Of Dock Green (1955 - 1976) rumbled gamely on, and Ted himself was now Baron Willis of Chislehurst - he had well and truly made it. Never one to stay idle, however, Ted pitched a new series to ATV, something a little different: where much of his work until this point had concentrated on the police procedural, his new show was to eschew the groundings of realism in favour of dashing spies, exotic locales and grand comic book style adventures. So Virgin Of The Secret Service was born.

Even by the standards of mid-60s, non-ITC television, Virgin is pretty obscure, and there's precious little information out there about the series. I can make some informed guesses, but they are only guesses; clearly Ted wanted to try something different, and the series is certainly unlike anything he had created to that point - or indeed, much of what came after. Gone were methodical investigations and wise, older detective figures - in came sword fights and deadly tarantulas and exploding tennis balls. The subtle, wry humour of Cork and Dixon is replaced with outlandish, arch pastiche. Drawing heavily on the Boys' Own magazine style of serialised adventure story, with dashing heroes and foreign villainy clashing all around the British Empire of Old, the series is a larger than life tribute to a style of storytelling that had already fallen out of fashion.

Whether it was a success or not, I don't really know - like I say, there is very little information out there. I suspect not, and it certainly hasn't entered the public consciousness in anything like the way some of its' contemporaries have. Certainly it didn't last long - one series of thirteen episodes. I suspect - though I'm guessing again - that it was never conceived to be the sort of durable hit that Ted was known for. The sets and the costumes look impressively expensive, and the concept simply doesn't lend itself to multiple seasons of adventure. It is, though, for thirteen brief episodes, gloriously, brilliantly fun.

[kwistowee]

It was right there all this time... TED LASSO 2.01 | 3.12

[happygirl2oo2]

[thegoodmorningman]

Happy Friday the 13th!!!

[cristinadrawss]

Fellas is it gay to kiss your co-coach for good luck? 🤨

[trentcrimminallybeautiful]

[kcsplace]

[obvious-captain-rogers]

I've never been onboard with the "Ted as a father figure for Jamie" thing, but I am fully all for Beard as a weird uncle figure to him. I think that particularly after Man City and Beard After Dark, Beard would have a whole different understanding of what Jamie was coming from and could relate a lot more than Ted can. We need more Uncle Beard, getting Jamie away from his shitty father, recommending new books that Jamie should read, etc. Jamie waiting for Roy after a meeting runs late and Roy comes into the office to find Beard with his feet on the desk and Jamie lounging on the floor at the side both engrossed in a book, Jamie occasionally lifting the book to point out a word hes not sure of for Beard to define for him

Yes to all of this!!!

Just from the limited info we get about Beard's backstory, I fully believe that he didn't have a good childhood/home life so when he sees James, it fully engages his fight or flight response and everything he does is because he knows what it's like to be scared of a parent so he steps in to do what he would have wanted someone to do for him as a kid (yes, I know Jamie is not a child and Beard is fully aware of that but Jamie still looks so small and young in that scene in Man City)

Also just the fact that Beard has a much more grounded and realistic outlook on life that is more in-line with Jamie's own perspective rather than Ted's forceful optimism which seems to grate on Jamie in certain moments

The visual of Jamie sitting on the floor with his back propped up against the side of Beard's chair so he can just lift the book over his head with his finger on the word he doesn't know is just too good!!! He wants to learn and Beard is more than happy to glance over, tell him whatever it is he wants to know, and then let the two of them settle back into reading. Roy thinks it's super weird how well they get along but he also sort of loves it bc sometimes he can't keep up with Jamie's reading (Roy loves trashy thrillers and romance novels you cannot tell me otherwise) and having someone there that can is actually really nice

One day I will write the Beard and Jamie manifesto where I get to explore the funky little relationship I wish they'd gotten to have!

[fanficfanattic]

With the immense aid of @orbitalpirate, I present to you the Season 2 Players.

1 Kukoč (No 7) - Reserve Right Midfielder

2 Tyler Shannon (No 27) - Reserve Center Midfielder

3 Thierry Zoreaux (No 81) - Goalkeeper

4 Tom O’Brien (No 1) - Reserve Goalkeeper

5 Jack Dawkins (No 15) - Reserve Center Midfielder

6 Declan Cockburn (No 19) - Reserve Forward

7 Robbie Roberts (No 16) - Reserve Forward

8 Tommy Winchester (No 4) - Reserve Center Back

9 Paul Reynolds (No 20) - Reserve Center Back

10 Jan Maas (No 13) - Center Back

11 Richard Montlaur (No 8) - Center Midfielder

12 Moe Bumbercatch (No 21) - Center Midfielder

13 Kyle McCracken (No 28) - Reserve Forward

14 Gareth Canterbury (No 3) - Reserve Left Back

15 Jeff Goodman (No 17) - Left Back

16 Colin Hughes (No 12) - Left Winger

17 Dani Rojas (No 14) - Striker

18 Isaac McAdoo (No 5) - Captain & Center Back

19 Jamie Tartt (No 9) - Striker

20 Sam Obisanya (No 24) - Right Winger

21 Arlo Dixon (No 2) - Right Back

(Not numbered, but that is Coach Armada to the left in the second row. He shaved that beard off for season 3.) (Not numbered but next to Will is Kasali Casal. He is a former professional footballer who had a career ending injury 😭. He was brought on to help with authenticity and got put in a coaching uniform in case he ended up in shots 🤣)

[jamietwat]

[incorrectafcrichmond]

Ted: Beards' father actually died in Kansas' annual hot dog eating competition.

Beard: Yep. The runner up shot him.

[cowboybuckleys]

#my three moods

[tomlinfonda]

Not a day goes by without me thinking about this.

[its-a-show-stoppin-number]

Jamie: Hey Coach, are you wearing your running bottoms…and your hoodie?

Isaac: Coach are you going for a run?

Ted: *nods*

Trent: Have fun!

Keeley: Oh my god what is wrong with Ted, Trent?

Rebecca: Yeah, what happened, are you guys okay?

Trent: Ted is going for a run. If anything we should be asking what is right with Ted

Sam: He only goes running if he’s upset

Colin: And he’s wearing his sad hoodie

Zoreaux: and by the looks of it, it’s been washed

Dani: which is bone chilling

Trent: He’s fine, everything’s okay

Beard: I JUST PASSED TED ON THE STREET! RUNNING! ON PURPOSE! OH MY GOD

Trent: Maybe I was wrong

Beard: TED! ARE YOU OKAY?! I SEE YOU!! AND I LOVE YOU

Trent: In my defense, no one here emotes in a normal way

Roy: That’s fair

[gaytedlasso]

Doesn’t matter what they’re saying, it’s just always like this 🧡