Where was Spring ? BBC2 1969/70

[Jeff Leach]

Was browsing though the Mark Lewisohn Comedy guide today and it lists this BBC2 comedy sketch series from 1968-70 starring Eleanor Bron and John Fortune has musical numbers from the Kink's - does anyone have any further information (what was performed)on this series.

there' precious little on the web and as per usual listed on Lost Shows as all wiped.

www.imdb.com/title/tt0235146/fullcredits#cast

[ajsmith]

Th scant info I know about it all pertains to the Kinks songs played on the first (1969) series. These were (in order) We Are Two Of A Kind, Where Did The Spring Go?, When I Turn Off the Living Room Light, Let's Take Off All Our Clothes, and Darling I Respect You.

They were accompanied by animations by Klaus Voorman.
The recent Kinks at the BBC box set contains the 2 surviving songs, Where Did The Spring Go? and Living Room Light, as well as newly discovered animation drawings by Voorman, giving for the first time some idea what the visuals were like for this segment of the show.

[Deleted]

A series I'd very much like to see again too! Speaking of Ray Davies' music for TV series, he previously wrote songs for The Eleventh Hour, of which he speaks in a new interview. Intriguingly, he makes reference to having only seen one episode but the way it's phrased almost implies present tense. As far as I know, nothing exists of either show but it would be a nice find if something was found. I know Ray is supposed to have had a video machine way back..! Just thinking out loud

[ajsmith]

Actually, 2 episodes of At The 11th Hour apparently do exist: the one featuring Ray's song "The Man Who Conned Dinner From the Ritz", and by sods law, the one episode he didn't write anything for.

[Deleted]

Ah, do they? Thanks for the correction. Are they with the BBC and recent recoveries or existing all along? I wasn't aware of those.

[ajsmith]

Think they've existed all along. Got this info years a go after making a query on this very forum, and got a response from someone who consulted the Kal listings.

[ajsmith]

A terrible quality off-air of one of the missing Kinks songs, "Darling I Respect You" can be heard here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTXomWX4cMQ

Would love to know what the origin of this off-air was- did they tape any of the rest of the show?

[John Green]

There was a thread on The 11th Hour in 2004: missingepisodes.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=481
Ah.Revived by Ray July 2012.The surviving episodes are 2/2/1968,and 17/2/1968.

I'm sure I'm linking to too many sites-I've only worked out how to do it recently-but this does seem very useful for Ray Davies/Kinks Kontributions to TV: www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/archive/index.php/t-280331.html AJsmith in gets a "thanks" there,I notice!

[Jeff Leach]

Had a bit more time to do a bit more delving and found this very interesting interview from 1996 with the producer Ned Sherrin where he describes a meeting with Ray Davies where they discussed what was the idea's for both series

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/how-we-met-ray-davies-and-ned-sherrin-1321081.html


Could this be from the series ?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5DibWsJW9Y

[Deleted]

No, that's from Once More With Felix. Roughly around the same time though.

[ajsmith]

Yes, to clarify, The Kinks ddidn't appear in person on Where Was Spring; their songs were accompanied on the show by animations by Klaus Voorman. The new Kinks at the BBC box set contains in it's booklet some of the drawings Voorman did for the show, for the first time shedding some light on how these sequences would have looked. If you're really interested I would adivce tracking a copy down (though it's limited edtion and many digital retailera have already sold out.

[ajsmith]

I just acquired (ordered it second hand off Amazon) the tie in book published for Where Was Spring?, entitled 'Is Your Marriage Really Necessary?'. It wasn't published until 1972 but I think all the material contained inside is sourced from the 69-70 TV series. It has a selection of scripts of sketches and photos, as well as two photonovelish fumetti type recreations of sketches using photo sequences at the back. I can post scans of some of the pages if anyones interested. Right now I'm trying to work out which (if any) of the sketches included relate to the Kinks songs that were written for the show.

[ajsmith]

FWIW, I had a bit of free time today, so thought I'd share one of the photo stories from the back of the book so online posterity can get a better idea of what the programme looked like visually:

[ajsmith]

Found some more images relating to this show in back issues of The Radio Times today: will try and share here soon.

[ajsmith]

Here we go..