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Post by johnstewart on Aug 5, 2011 19:51:51 GMT
The interesting thing about 'Boys and Girls Come Out to Play' is that we see Belinda's madness (she's played by Sarah Sutton) right from it's mischievous inception all the way through to her becoming evil incarnate. At the start of the play she is just an ordinary girl (she'd popped a few pills as we learn later but there is no suggestion she had any idea of the implications). We first see her lying alone in bed. It has been her birthday and one of the gifts she's received is the music box which plays the Boys and Girls...refrain constantly. As she slips into that twilight world between wake and sleep she starts to hallucinate. Moving to the window she sees the modern close outside has been transformed into a Victorian street complete with urchins playing in the moonlight (one of them was a young Lesley Ash apparently). When I saw this play for the one and only time I presumed it was a supernatural piece, only on reading the script did I realize it wasn't. Anyway, Belinda is excited about reviving the idea about moonlight play and talks a reluctant and weak-willed friend (Wendy) into joining her the following night. While engaging in their night time mischief they wander into the nearby park and through the bushes see a couple arguing. Wendy leaves the scene but Belinda witnesses a sort of crime of passion murder. She doesn't let on at the time but she recognises the murderer as the mother of one of her friends. The detective investigating the murder (played by Peter Jeffrey) the following morning happens to be her father. Not only this, but Belinda, who happens to always be in the right place at the right time, over hears a conversation between her mother and father later that evening, where her father confesses he has been on the take from the criminal fraternity for some time. In the meantime the moon light adventures of Belinda and Wendy become increasingly nasty. They torment an old man living alone and hang a cat from a tree. Later they set fire to their school. As the police net starts to tighten on them, Wendy becomes a liability and so using the information she has about the murder, Belinda involves another girl, Margie, the daughter of the murderer, into her plans. Fearing Wendy is going to spill the beans they kill her. The police mistakenly think Wendy has disappeared because she fears being questioned about the school fire. Meanwhile, an anonymous letter to the police seems to implicate to Inspector Sugden, Belinda's father, that his daughter is involved somewhere along the line. He confronts Belinda, but now in full ice maiden mode she says: "I won't tell on you Daddy if you don't tell on me." The penultimate scene is of Belinda and Margie overlooking a building site where concrete is being poured into a bridge pier. Belinda coldly says: "It's not London Bridge, but it will do," implying this was Wendy's final resting place. There's nothing in the script which says the police find the body, or that Wendy's hair can be seen hanging out of the concrete mixer. But these things can always be changed at the last minute. The final scene is back in Belinda's bedroom at night. She is watching the children outside again. "Look, there's Wendy," she cheerfully notes as a girl looks up at her. Behind her her devastated parents look silently on contemplating their shattered lives. The ending here fits in with something which was posted on 'Mausoleum Club'. Someone there recalled a final shot of the two parents faces in tears faded up over Belinda or something similar. It's probable that the script was adapted to make it more visual on screen. I just remembered that it was a friend who recalled the hair dangling. It would've been 1979 - 80. I was discussing the BBC series 'Out of the Unknown' and a friend called Clive said that the only Out of the Unknown he remembered was 'Boys and Girls come out to play'. I said that it wasn't in that series I remembered it as a one off play. The scenes he recalled were one in a school playground where a girl boasted to her friends that she 'could get pills any kind of pills you want'. This would relate to those that Belinda hallucinates on later. The other memory was of how the girls in it boasted they had killed another girl and non one believed them Then 'you got a scene showing a cement mixer with the girls hair dangling out of it proving they had'. It prompted my own memory of the scene. It makes sense that for TV they would want to add in a visual element to the story telling. But that was onviously a detail added later. It was a friend called Marcus at my College who said that the play had actually been a MENACE which I didn't recall at first; and that the girl had been Sarah Sutton; topical as at this time (1980 - 81); she had become an assistant for Dr Who. In an interview for TIMESCREEN magazine in the 90s Sarah talked about the play. I would think they probably discussed with her whether she had a copy as it was a TV archive magazine. The writer of 'Boys and Girls' was James McTaggart. McTaggart seemed to have a fixation on Lewis Carrolls 'Alice in Wonderland' and the Alice Character. I'm sure it was he that directed and produced 'ALICE' for THE WEDNESDAY PLAY in 1965. Dr Whos Debora Watling was cast as Alice. Later c 1973 McTaggart was involved in an adaption of ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS for the BBC. Sarah Sutton was cast in that I'm not sure if as Alice or not but she would fit the part, and she bore resemblence to Debbie Watling. The screenplay of 'Boys and girls' like Jefferson Airplanes song 'White Rabbit' refers to hallucogenic pills as does Carrolls story, and Belinda was a very Alice like Character to look at. It also quotes the nursery rhyme 'what are little boys made of' in the RT from the time. Thanks for verifying the point about the noose which is seen in one of the RT stills. I didn't recall that detail and I assumed it must have been the means by which they killed the other girl in the play. Bet some complaints were received at the time, its still a shocking idea now.
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Post by nickconnor1961 on Aug 7, 2011 16:20:59 GMT
My dad was in a epsoide of this called Man with a mission which is one of the few surviving epsoides , would love to see it www.missing-episodes.com/
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Post by A J Meredith on Aug 8, 2011 20:46:25 GMT
The script of 'Boys and Girls...' is a rather fun read. James McTaggart obviously enjoyed writing it and there are several written asides to the director in a jocular tone regarding the budget they had to work with. For instance, regarding the concrete mixer scene (already mentioned here) and how it echos the nursery rhyme's legend that children were buried into the foundations of London Bridge as a sort of offering to ensure the bridge stood firm against the river. McTaggart makes a note to the director along the lines: "We need a bridge under construction here (for Wendy's resting place). Obviously we won't find one, so any building site will do as long as there's loads of wet concrete!"
As mentioned in the posting above, the content of this play is controversial at face value. Child on child murder is rare, and this was made only a few years after the dreadful Mary Bell incident. But in defence of 'Boys and Girls...', it hardly goes for gritty realism. In many respects it's a black comedy. Wendy's murder takes place off screen and other events are referred to only in dialogue (budget again one presumes). And yes, comparisons to a dark 'Alice in Wonderland' are irresistible due to the hallucinogens alluded to in the script.
Would it be made today? If it was, it would look and feel very different and be a bit too preachy for its own good I'd have thought. Barring a miracle, those of us lucky to see it in 1973/74 will have to hold on to our memories!
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Post by johnstewart on Aug 20, 2011 20:27:39 GMT
yeh I doubt bearing in mind social events of the last 2o years; and the effect of media on young people any producer would touch it. I could imagine Channel 4 doing it just to be outrageous or Hammer.
Producer Jordan Lawrence according to the RT feature on MENACE was a fan of Hitchcock. Hitchcock is known for black humour in very dark pieces so that was possibly why it may have been used.
I recall all the menace though as being handled in a shadowy muted way; downbeat and depressing. The existing episodes are so and I seem to recall girls and boys being likewise.
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Post by felixdembinski on Mar 4, 2012 19:28:01 GMT
Sorry to bring back an old thread, but I've just found out something interesting on imdb. For all of the season 1 episodes, 'orginal music' is credited to Don Harper who wrote the theme tune. As no incidental music is in the surviving episodes, it can be assumed that there was no incidental music for the entire series, as none is shown on imdb.
Herbert Chappell is credited as 'orginal music' for all of season 2. No season 2 episodes exist sadly, so he could of written incidental music or the theme tune, as it was different for season 2. As Chappell wrote a lot of stock music, the theme music could of been stock music, and then could exist on a stock record somewhere.
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Post by johnstewart on Mar 4, 2012 21:55:35 GMT
I reckon it was probably the title theme. I thought it was different; two sinister organ chords; rather like a horror film or sombre Pink Floyd track. Would that be he of the 'Chappells' west end stores?
Recall my older niece at time watching 'Deliver us from evil' and commenting that it had no music at all in like the film 'The Birds'. Of course the letter does have special electronic sound by Bernard Hermann.
'Killing time' also seems to have no obvious music. Again when the George Cole character is deluded, the natural sounds such as that of a TV become phased and distorted. I don't actually recall MENACE having any incidental music though if an episode did it would likely be just library sourced.
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Post by felixdembinski on Mar 4, 2012 22:04:01 GMT
Herbert Chappell composed incidental music for television on some occasions, but he is probably best known for a piece of stock music he wrote called 'The Gonk' which was used on the film Dawn of the Dead, and then in many other places after that. It's possible he created the Chappell music library, or it may be a massive coincidence!
If only season 2 had been made just a year later, and it would most probably survive today.
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Post by nickconnor1961 on Mar 8, 2012 19:14:59 GMT
Freind of mine has managed to get some from a sale he wento , he was looking for man with a mission for me as my father was in it , no idea of condition or quality as yet
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Post by felixdembinski on Mar 8, 2012 19:42:11 GMT
I have a copy of that episode, but it is in a horrible condition and is time coded
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2012 12:43:07 GMT
No trading, chaps (read forum rules)!
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Post by felixdembinski on Mar 9, 2012 16:28:00 GMT
I wasn't planning to trade, but sorry anyway
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Post by Rob Richmond on Jun 4, 2014 12:40:33 GMT
I reckon it was probably the title theme. I thought it was different; two sinister organ chords; rather like a horror film or sombre Pink Floyd track. Would that be he of the 'Chappells' west end stores? Recall my older niece at time watching 'Deliver us from evil' and commenting that it had no music at all in like the film 'The Birds'. Of course the letter does have special electronic sound by Bernard Hermann. 'Killing time' also seems to have no obvious music. Again when the George Cole character is deluded, the natural sounds such as that of a TV become phased and distorted. I don't actually recall MENACE having any incidental music though if an episode did it would likely be just library sourced. I believe the theme music for the series was adapted from the second movement of Bohuslav Martinu's "Double concerto for 2 string orchestras, piano, and timpani" (1938). If you want to remind yourself, the whole concerto is available on YouTube, and the second movement is 6 minutes and 9 seconds in. Does anyone know if the surviving episodes of this brilliant series, which gave me sleepless nights as a young teenager, are available in any shape or form?
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Post by andyc on Jun 4, 2014 19:36:54 GMT
Bit of an unfortunate thread title, in hindsight.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2014 21:39:47 GMT
Does anyone know if the surviving episodes of this brilliant series, which gave me sleepless nights as a young teenager, are available in any shape or form? No, they aren't available. Unfortunately!
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Post by darrenj on Oct 9, 2015 9:43:58 GMT
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