|
Post by christian bews on Jul 17, 2016 0:52:13 GMT
Double Deckers was very Americanised.It starred a very young Peter Firth aka Sir Harry Pearce in Spooks. it had a american feel as it was funded by the ABC network & distributed by twentieth century fox
|
|
|
Post by johnstewart on Jul 17, 2016 18:47:20 GMT
Jess Yates was best known as the organist & presenter on 'stars on sunday' but at the same time he was head of children's programmes at yorkshire television & was also responsible for 'the flaxton boys' & 'boy dominic'. Junior Showtime seemed at the time to be set in concrete in the schedules, nothing would shift the darn thing from it's slot LOL I think it was Jess' Yates baby and when he got fired it went with him. Not all bad then for me; wasn't keen on 'boy dominic' but really liked 'flaxton boys'. Those two were Sunday serials I think. Recall from 'Look in' at the time that Murray Dale, Jim Dales son played the title in boy dominic. Think the latter was on film stock. Those ones all seem to survive.
|
|
|
Post by johnstewart on Jul 17, 2016 18:47:42 GMT
Jess Yates was best known as the organist & presenter on 'stars on sunday' but at the same time he was head of children's programmes at yorkshire television & was also responsible for 'the flaxton boys' & 'boy dominic'. Junior Showtime seemed at the time to be set in concrete in the schedules, nothing would shift the darn thing from it's slot LOL I think it was Jess' Yates baby and when he got fired it went with him. But not junior showtime or stars on sunday bar in part.
|
|
|
Post by brianfretwell on Jul 17, 2016 21:32:16 GMT
One memory that has just came back, to anyone puzzled by the lyrics of "Gimme Dat Ding" you need to know that in the show it was sung to a metronome - hence the references to rhythm in the bar etc.
|
|
|
Post by Martin Dunne on Jul 18, 2016 10:54:09 GMT
It's been pointed out to me offline that a very good quality series 5 (1974) episode of Little Big Time exists in the Bob Monkhouse collection. It's a Philips N1500 off-air recording with Thames continuity, the full programme followed by an extensive trailer for the next episode and an advert for the Little Big Time LP. It was cleaned up further by Kaleidoscope and shown at one of their events. The clips shown on Southern Gold in 1993 were from an official colour recording of the final episode from a private source (possibly production crew). lostshows.com/default.aspx?programme=2cdae97e-413b-4b86-b11a-c4c0d4d4e4f9~iw If the Undercog song ("Don't underestimate the Under-Undercog!") is from the last episode of Oliver in the Overworld then that only requires the one episode to have survived, as it looks as if the Windy Bill and Freddie breaks down clips are from the same episode, #3.13 by Kaleidoscope's counting. @htwcentral says the "last episode" (of Little Big Time or Oliver isn't clear) was recorded by being filmed off a screen, which may be the same origin for the Southern Gold clips. So, #3.13 survived until at least 1993. This is a domestic video recording off that Southern Gold broadcast, and the original tape may still exist. The 4.37 sales pitch edit may include the clapperboard. That all brings us down to two surviving tapes, #3.13 and the sales pitch. Given the source of the upload is a former member of the Dreamers, I assume these were Freddie Garrity's own copies. Assuming that's correct, and unless there's more material in this horde (ie the rest of #3.13 or more of the sales pitch), can we eliminate any other video? Has anyone ever seen Oliver in the Overworld -- outside the 1971 broadcast, this 1993 archive show, and its regional screenings around Australia and the national repeat in 1977? Was it in all ITV regions? Was it repeated? Have there been other excerpts on other shows? And did it play anywhere else internationally -- was it successfully sold into the US? New Zealand?
|
|
|
Post by Martin Dunne on Jul 18, 2016 16:28:46 GMT
I have had a response from the footage owner. In brief, Freddie Garrity was the source, he has no more. However he worked with him through the late 1990s and has given me a wealth of context on this aspect. Additionally, he has more images from the series. I'm stoked. And he's also excited at the prospect an entire episode may exist.
|
|
|
Post by markdixon on Jul 18, 2016 20:37:05 GMT
The soundtrack album for "Oliver in the Overworld" was released in New Zealand in 1970, so there's a strong possibility that "Little Big Time" was broadcast there too.
|
|
|
Post by Ian Wegg on Jul 18, 2016 20:59:26 GMT
The Southern Gold clips were from the last episode of Little Big Time - 6.14.
~iw
|
|
|
Post by Martin Dunne on Jul 19, 2016 4:01:10 GMT
The soundtrack album for "Oliver in the Overworld" was released in New Zealand in 1970, so there's a strong possibility that "Little Big Time" was broadcast there too. Thanks Mark, very well spotted! The Southern Gold clips were from the last episode of Little Big Time - 6.14. ~iw To be absolutely clear, the Southern Gold clips (Don't Underestimate The Undercog, Windy Bill's Song and "Freddie breaks down") are from 6.14 on 25 September 1974, not 3.13 on 3 August 1971? On first blush I'd imagine you're wrong as it would make Graham Haberfield and Christopher Benjamin repeat these performances, on the Oliver set, in series six. However I don't know much about the series beyond the Oliver year (series three). Kinny told me his stage show will be based on the series two Oliver material and album, so I don't know for instance that they didn't also include more Oliver in the subsequent three series. We only got series three in Australia. This could also explain why Southern Gold say the first clip is from "1973". OK, is it likely the advertising pitch is entirely from series three?
|
|
|
Post by Ian Wegg on Jul 19, 2016 6:41:35 GMT
My understanding is that all the researchers for Southern Gold had available to them in 1993 was a telerecording of the final ever episode of Little Big Time, i.e. 6.14 from 1974. The clip with Freddie breaking down must, I am sure, be from that episode. I had thought that the cast reprising their original performances was indeed what happened but as you have alluded, neither Christopher Benjamin nor Graham Haberfield were involved with the show by then (and in fact even The Dreamers had left after series 4). I'll speculate that perhaps 6.14 itself included clips from the Oliver in the Overworld serial of three years earlier. This was the last show and Oliver was undoubtedly its finest hour so it would make sense to have included a "retrospective". Viewing the full show would answer it but I'm told that frustratingly it has gone awol since 1993 and only the clips remain.
The "Oliver in the Overworld" story began as a 5 minute segment in series 2 of Little Big Time and it was the popularity of that, with its song "Gimme Dat Ding" charting at number 6 in 1970, that lead to a dedicated serial the following year. That curious American promo compilation could be from series 2 but I think the number of characters identifies it as the "full fat" series 3.
~iw
|
|
|
Post by Martin Dunne on Jul 19, 2016 7:26:30 GMT
Ian, still unsure. Even the Freddie breaks down sequence has him reference Debbie (presumably Debbie Bowen) to Fred Dinenage. All three could be clips from the final episode of Little Big Time, but it does rather beg the question (a retrospective show about an earlier retrospective show?). On the other hand, if 6.14 is known to have existed and presumably been accessible to the Meridian researchers, and 3.13 is not known to have existed and is totally mysterious except for this one sighting, it makes the existence of an earlier, one generation higher copy of the exact same material they covered seem superfluous.
|
|
|
Post by Ian Wegg on Jul 19, 2016 21:46:02 GMT
All three could be clips from the final episode of Little Big Time, but it does rather beg the question (a retrospective show about an earlier retrospective show?). Meridian's two series of Southern Gold used clips from Southern's own 21st anniversary programme of 1979, complete with the "21" logo.
|
|
|
Post by Martin Dunne on Jul 21, 2016 0:12:22 GMT
ITV's responded they hold no footage. I have asked again about Southern Gold.
|
|
|
Post by Ian Wegg on Jul 21, 2016 6:22:48 GMT
Have you contacted Kaleidoscope? They will be be able to help a lot more than ITV, they have people very knowledgeable about Southern programmes. www.kaleidoscopepublishing.co.ukIt's also worth seeking out contemporary editions of TV Times and Look In magazine, if you haven't already. There is a wealth of information in there. ~iw
|
|
|
Post by Martin Dunne on Jul 22, 2016 2:11:33 GMT
Thanks for the help Ian, I've tweeted Fred Dinenage in case he knows anything about this. Would it be possible to trace the production people? Does anyone know producers Trevor Hampton and Peter Swain?
|
|