Weekend with the Babysitter is an outrageous satire on the sexually-emancipated (and often testosterone-fuelled) late 1960s. Don Henderson (of The Babysitter fame) has kneaded the lumps and round edges out to the extreme; in moulding this film that invokes the spirit of Russ Meyer.

“What happens when a Middle-Aged man reaches out to hold the illusion of youth“

Thanks to the generosity of the amazing folk of the Adelaide branch of the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust, Ard and I got to stay a few days in beautiful Norwood. (If you are a children’s writer or illustrator go here to see how you can apply for a residency at a May Gibbs apartment in Brisbane, Adelaide or Canberra.)

Norwood is so lovely. They have these incredible things called ‘seasons’ down south and depending on the ‘season’ the trees change in various ways. I reckon we should get something like that for Queensland. Our trees change too, but usually into housing developments. Apparently it helps to control the koalas.

This artwork was in the street outside where we were staying. It was to do with the history of Norwood. Quotes about the area are written inside the rings. I was excited at first because I thought it was a monument to Tolkien. “One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to lead them all. One Ring as back up in case that last ring doesn’t actually bind them. One Ring just to show off with. One Ring as a spare. One Ring to remind you all, that the other six rings are there!”

On our first night we went to the Welcoming Ceremony at the Entertainment Centre. Ard took this photo of me with Norman Jorgensen (The Last Viking) and Ernie Tucker. I thought it was great how she managed to make my nose look even bigger. I don’t think those extra couple of drinks affected her at all.

At the Conference I was honoured to be on a ‘Humour in Teen Fiction’ panel with these talented writers – Phil Cummings, Doug MacLeod and Don Henderson. Sort of the CBCA’s answer to One Direction.

On our day off we went to the Adelaide Zoo which was terrific. This statue outside is dedicated to one of the zoo’s original gorillas. What were they thinking? “How can we best represent the power and majesty of this magnificent creature? I know, let’s just do his pinkie!’ Still, it gives you some idea how enormous he must have been!!! Just imagine the size of the nail-clipper they would have had to use!

This is a monument to Nicolas Baudin. I think he was a zoologist who sailed with Matthew Flinders. Tragedy struck one day when he fell overboard and lost most of his body in a gruesome white-pointer attack. In a medical first they tried to save his life by replacing his missing body parts with a block of granite.

It didn’t work.

Here Ard mortally embarrasses a rare cockatoo by turning up in the same outfit.

What I learnt from these guys was, ”If you have to be a duck, at least be a classy duck!”

This fellow was particularly unhappy about being blinded by my camera flash. I really didn’t appreciate the negative look in his eye. I call him ‘Bad Karma Chameleon”.

This guy on the other hand looks far too relaxed. I think he’s making a mockery of being a zoo exhibit. Well all I’ve got to say to you pal is, “Bad boy, bad boy, whatcha iguana do? Whatcha iguana do when they come for you?” (Oh, stop your groaning! I’m doing the best I can with limited resources and grey matter.)

At feeding time, the hungry lionesses go completely psycho!

 Of course they have nothing on Ard!!!

And finally it was time to leave Adelaide Zoo and head home. Now while there could possibly be an hilarious and witty caption for this photo which cleverly links the concepts of jeans, appearances and big buttresses, I can’t for the life of me think of what it would be.  So I’ll just say, “Doesn’t Ard look lovely?”

Cheers
Michael

Here I am with charming SA author Don Henderson (Half the Battle; Keepinitreal). Not sure if the thought of being photographed with me has given Don the mother-of-all migraines or if my witty conversation has sent him in to a coma. Of course it could just be that Don is giving us all a taste of his ‘bedroom eyes’.  

Now despite appearances, the lovely Karen Tayleur (Chasing Boys; Love notes from Vinegar House) was quite happy about having her photo taken beside me – right up until the ‘inappropriate touching’ thing happened. Then all hell broke loose!

Met this guy Nicolas Baudin in the grounds of Adelaide Zoo. Apparently he was some big wig with Matthew Flinders. Talk about a grouch! Couldn’t get a smile out of him to save my life. I’m thinking he might have been upset about that enormous pimple forever on the end of his nose. In any case, I found him very cold and inflexible.

And finally, here I am with another wonderful South Australian author, and good friend, Phil Cummings (Danny Allen was Here and many more). Now it might appear that Phil is filled with the utmost horror at the thought of being captured on film with me but personally I like to think that he’s just star-struck! Sadly though, it does seem that Phil’s mind is going. Just after this shot was taken I heard him muttering, “Who the hell was that!?!”

Stay tuned. Coming soon there’ll be a photo blog covering my four day visit to Adelaide. All will be revealed!

Cheers

Michael

Mike McCormack in costume as Cesare Borgia. Photograph by Marja Giejgo

The Borgias dramatisation involved original research and writing by Richard Shannon and was initially produced for the ‘Tales From The Courts of Law’ strand on the Steve Jones lunch-time show of the London speech independent radio station LBC. ‘Tales From The Courts of Law’ was conceived in something of a panic by the station. They had not expected radio drama in the form of the dramatization of Samuel Pepys’s diary to be successful.

One executive famously said to Tim Crook: ‘We thought  your foray into radio drama was something of a premature mid-life crisis and you could go back to concentrating on reporting the legal system when you had run out of money and the plays sucked.’

‘Portrait of Gentleman, aka Cesare Borgia’ by Altobello Melone (1490–1543)
Original picture in Galleria dell’Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italia

But the response to Pepys was immense. Listeners asked if they could hear it again, could buy it on cassette, and listening tracking surveys carried out by a marketing company showed an upward spike in audience in the 10 minutes before the 2 p.m. news that was not purely attributable to the news bulletin being broadcast.

Furthermore, the survey suggested that the Steve Jones programme was taking listeners away from BBC Radio 4. With a week to go before the station ran out of Pepys episodes, the programme’s executive producer Colin Parkes enquired if Tim, well-known then as the station’s Old Bailey reporter, could become a contemporary Edgar Lustgarten, going back in time to interrogate crimes past. Tim and Richard had less than 7 days to begin. The budget was not increased. But the fact that they had any continuing budget at all for radio drama in UK independent radio was extraordinary and unusual. An LBC sequence editor at the time, Robin Malcolm, was highly influential in supporting the development of radio drama on the news and speech station. The station’s Programme Editor and later Managing Director at the time, the late Peter Thornton, was intrigued by the success of radio drama. He  was beginning to take an interest in film screenplay writing himself.

‘The Borgias’ was produced later in the series and involved the enthusiastic participation of the late Don Henderson who had written to the drama team at LBC in his characteristic eccentric handwriting to ask if they would be interested in his coming in for an audition.

Tim and Richard did not receive his letter for a number of weeks because anyone sorting out the mail at LBC did not recognise that the station either produced radio drama; let alone had a drama team. Eventually 2 letters from Don were passed on, but ‘the drama team’ was by then so exhausted and tired working through the night to write, edit, cast, direct, post produce and edit, the significance of Don’s interest was not fully realised.

Archive sound extract from the production of the Borgias

Don’s first day with  ’the drama team’ involved playing Socrates and then an Italian renaissance hitman Michelotto. By the time ‘Tales From The Courts of Law’ was commissioned the Parliamentary recess was over so that the only LBC studio with a stereo desk was unavailable.

Only news reporter recording booths at Gough Square were available during the week. Don’s inaugural performance for IRDP involved being crammed into a 6′ by 6′ monophonic recording booth with a four fader channel desk, 2 cardioid microphones, the director Richard Shannon, Tim Crook as a latter day Edgar Lustgarten and any other other actors who could fit in the space for the purposes of the production.

LBC shared its facilities with Independent Radio News and IRN and LBC news reporters were increasingly finding that they were being kept waiting to complete their news packages or that news events of hundreds of years before were emanating in sound on the talk-back circuit. Tim, as the quintessential journalist, would mischievously enquire of the LBC/IRN reporters about the status of their stories before giving way: ‘Is it a plane or train crash? Have we declared war on anyone? Has the Prime Minister resigned?’

The Borgia family coat of arms

Cesare Borgia was performed brilliantly by Mike McCormack, who had become a stalwart member of the IRDP for LBC ‘acting company.’ He was artistic director of the Finborough Theatre in Earls Court, an admirer of Orson Welles, and found participating in this pioneering and improvisational venture into audio drama for UK independent radio at the end of the 1980s both exciting and professionally interesting.

The production of ‘The Borgias’ consisted of 2 phases: the first as a ‘Tales from the Courts of Law’ format with Tim Crook as participating investigative reporter; the second as stand alone radio play. Both were later combined to provide 1 hour and 35 minutes for a double cassette pack for The Stereo Theatre publication first distributed by W.H.Smiths in 1990.

The full cast and credits for ‘The Borgias’: Don Henderson as Michelotto; Mike McCormack as Cesare Borgia; Cate Hamer as Lucrezia Borgia; Ian Bamforth as Pope Alexander Borgia; Richard Shannon as Giovanni Sforza, Alfonso and Juan; Carolyn Jones as Vanozza and Caterina, other parts by the cast; Written, directed and produced by Richard Shannon and Tim Crook.

Archive holding:

Digital audio tape master for the Drama Collection 1990

Cassette pack including 2 audio-cassettes, inlay card and plastic case.

Mini-disc master for LBC retransmission 1990s.

The marketing and cueing information for ‘The Borgias’ in terms of on air broadcast and cassette publication involved the following information:

‘The name Borgia is synonymous with treachery, murder, incest, and betrayal. The real nature of this ruling family of Renaissance Rome in the fifteenth century is brought to life in a stereo sound epic. A story packed with action, passion and drama begins with an inquisitorial approach by criminologist Tim Crook with the assistance of a rather dubious mercenary, or hitman played by Don Henderson. Tim Crook then introduces the second part of the Borgias epic and we learn the fate of the Borgia family through the voice of Lucrezia’s mother Vanozza.

A glass of wine with Caesar Borgia painting by John Collier

No opposition was tolerated by the Borgias. The few who did raise their voices were found dead in the River Tiber with weights tied to their necks, or were forced to flee abroad; although even in exile no-one was safe. It was said the Borgias had ‘denti-lunghi’ – long teeth – and could reach their enemies no matter where they had hidden.

Central to the Borgias story is the murderous behaviour of Cesare Borgia played by Mike McCormack.’

Some of the strange plotting might be because it’s from a novel and the screenwriters are keeping as much of that source novel as possible. Or not. I haven’t read the novel.

But it’s an odd type of action film.

Campbell casts No Escape quite well. He gets a great scene out of practically every actor. Lance Henriksen and Jack Shepard do some excellent work here, as do Ernie Hudson and Don Henderson. Stuart Wilson runs hot and cold as the villain. He’s never quite frightening and the more forced lunatic moments fail… but there are occasionally these quiet ones and they work.

Kevin Dillon’s okay; his part is the weakest written. Except Michael Lerner. Though Lerner’s just goofy overall.

As for lead Ray Liotta… Liotta spends most of the film being a disaffected action hero. But it all works out—even though it’s obvious, when he finally does get emotional, there’s a significant resonance.

Campbell’s direction is excellent. Phil Meheux’s photography and Terry Rawlings’s editing are essential.

No Escape sort of takes itself too seriously. And that sincerity makes it work.

CREDITS

Directed by Martin Campbell; screenplay by Michael Gaylin and Joel Gross, based on a novel by Richard Herley; director of photography, Phil Meheux; edited by Terry Rawlings; music by Graeme Revell; production designer, Allan Cameron; produced by Gale Anne Hurd; released by Savoy Pictures.

Starring Ray Liotta (Robbins), Lance Henriksen (The Father), Stuart Wilson (Marek), Kevin Dillon (Casey), Kevin J. O’Connor (Stephano), Don Henderson (Killian), Ian McNeice (King), Jack Shepherd (Dysart), Michael Lerner (The Warden) and Ernie Hudson (Hawkins).

Related posts:

• GoldenEye (1995, Martin Campbell)
• The Mask of Zorro (1998, Martin Campbell)
• The Crow (1994, Alex Proyas)
• Aliens (1986, James Cameron), the special edition
• Aeon Flux (2005, Karyn Kusama)

Picking up a few months after the end of Strangers, in which Chief Inspector George Bulman walked away from the job and left a nation in mourning, Bulman sees our hero turn private eye and opening up a London clock hospital.

The trappings of the job may be gone, but thankfully the gloves and love of poetry are still present and correct.

Joined by Lucy McGinty (Siobhan Redmond) and occasionally aided by ex-colleagues Jack Lambie (Mark McManus) and Derek Willis (Dennis Blanch), Bulman’s desire for a quiet life never quite materialises as the underworld and the British Secret Service, the latter in the shape of Dugdale (Thorley Walters), infringe upon his solitude.

Fans will recognise find healthy traces of Strangers in Bulman, particularly the blend of humour and drama which, in lesser hands, could derail an episode.

Murray Smith’s One of Our Pigeons is Missing, in which a tramp is found dead and Bulman must go undercover as a down and out, is a typical example, the bizarre idea that the Anglo-Soviet conflict hinges on a small area of London’s Docklands given a touch of pathos by Murray Melvin and Maggie Jones.

Throughout these 13 episodes we’re given a new spin on various well-worn police procedural themes, Bulman’s move away from the constraints of the law allowing for a new lease of life for the character. The series has a breezy air about it, helped no end by Henderson’s skill at knowing how read a line and Smith’s perfectly pitched scripts.

Redmond is undoubtedly the other star of the piece, even if McGinty’s credentials are never fully explored. Though one misstep of an episode seems to bin most of what we know of McGinty as she goes undercover for British Intelligence without question, the rest of the series offers up scripts which should be required reading for screenwriters today.

By not shoehorning too much of Strangers into the programme – the odd appearance of Willis and Lambie is always a treat – and letting George K Bulman have the lion’s share of screen time, the series isn’t merely an opportunistic spin-off, but a fully fledged programme in its own right which should appeal to those unfamiliar with its predecessor.

Bulman The Complete First Series is a web exclusive from Network DVD

Image via Wikipedia

Vancouver Canucks center Rick Rypien was suspended, pending a hearing, after his altercation with a fan Tuesday in Minnesota.

*****

British television in the 1970s was something of a haven for cop shows, a place where men were men, slags were slags and Guv was seemingly the preferred title for any officer above the level of Constable.

Viewers more used to the gentle methods of PC George Dixon would soon be choking on their TV dinners as a decade of The Sweeney, The Professionals and a whole new lexicon comprised of shooters, blags and shouts was introduced to the national conscience, not to mention a host of imitators and rivals to Regan and co.

It was in 1976 that ITV brought author Kenneth Royce’s novel XYY Man to the small screen, the story of cat burglar William ‘Spider’ Scott (Stephen Yardley), his extra Y chromosome and the resultant criminal tendencies.

Co-starring in XYY was gruff actor Don Henderson, a man with a face for playing villains, who went against type to portray DS George Bulman, a no-nonsense copper with a violent edge.

XYY would only last 13 episodes, after which Bulman should have been relegated to TV history along with colleague DC Derek Willis (Dennis Blanch) – that is until Granada TV decided they wanted their own version of The Sweeney and lured Bulman away from the safety of the Met to the frozen North West of England circa 1978.

Thanks to Bulman and Willis’ anonymity in the north (they are the Strangers of the title), and after being joined by WDC Linda Doran (Frances Tomelty) and DI David Singer (John Ronane), the pair could go undercover in various operations which would have proved impossible for the local police.

Series One was clearly a something of a baptism of fire for all involved, the desire to create a fast-paced crime show somewhat neutered by the decision to shoot the series on video and give it a Light Entertainment-style theme tune which wouldn’t have seemed out-of-place on a Bruce Forsyth game show of the era.

Still, over seven episodes something resembling a formula becomes apparent, with small time crooks coming into contact with Bulman, Willis and Doran as their unconventional methods lead to arrests and the impotent rage of their superior, DCI Rainbow (David Hargreaves).

Just as each week’s new case brings new crimes to the fore – dodgy post men and horse racing scams are at the centre of some plots with the team going undercover as reporters and coroners when needed – the other element of the show which seems to shift on a regular basis is its tone.

The Complete Strangers

Endowed with peculiarities such as always wearing woollen gloves, carrying a plastic bag and having a tendency to quote poetry at inopportune moments, Bulman isn’t your typical action series lead.

Though the programme never devolves into pure farce, the comedy elements do sometimes collide head-on with the drama, the abilities of Henderson and Blanch to play both frequently saving an episode.

The series begins to show a nice line in continuity in these early episodes, with episode five, Briscoe, introducing a maverick copper played by Michael Byrne who returns a few episodes later after earning Bulman’s grudging respect.

A high calibre of guest cast also helps maintain the quality of the series, Hywel Bennett, William Russell and David Daker all popping up to lend a hand.

The same format would be used for Series Two, though Willis is given a makeover which befits his role as the most physical character in the series.

Things get far more interesting with the arrival of Series Three as the team, now minus Doran and returned to their original patch of London, are recruited to the shady Inter-City division of the Metropolitan Police.

Led by tough-talking DCI Jack Lambie (Mark McManus), joined by new member WDC Vanessa Bennett (Fiona Mollisson) and given a revamped theme tune and title sequence along with added swagger, this is Strangers as it always should have been.

Thanks also to now being shot entirely on film, Strangers looks the part of a grittier police drama and the storylines often try to reflect this change.

With the introduction of shady Home Office liaison William Dugdale (Thorley Walters) the series also found itself gaining some more espionage-tinged stories, the character shoe-horned in more regularly to emphasis these were not just common-or-garden thrillers.

Though the leads’ personal lives were never delved into too deeply, a relationship between Willis and Bennett is alluded to while Lambie’s ex-wife is also mentioned more than once. Thankfully this was still an era of non-soap opera drama, when the main story was based on a clever plot rather than the painful behind-the-scenes shenanigans we’re so used to today.

As the final few series roll on the rapport between the cast becomes stronger, the joy of seeing what new scenario the team will end up in this week paired with wondering which authority figure Bulman will wind-up or who Willis will have a punch-up with.

One aspect of the series which does become obvious when watched in rapid succession is the amount of times the Inter-City squad end up back in the north of the country. Presumably many interior scenes were still filmed up in Granada studios while a few more exteriors than usual took place in London, one even moving up to Edinburgh.

It’s also clear that the series makers had something of a rep company which they would repeatedly return to, a number of actors – step forward Shirley Stelfox, Malcolm Tierney and Daragh O’Malley to name just a few – popping up in different roles throughout the series. This can be both ingratiating and distracting, especially when a character is killed off in one episode only to return as a vaguely similar one a few episodes later.

Held together by the glue that is Don Henderson and Dennis Blanch, working mainly with perfectly paced scripts from lead writer Murray Smith that still sparkle thirty years on, Strangers can lay claim to being one of the quirkier entries into the British crime canon as well as one of the most  entertaining British series full stop.

Mostly forgotten in favour of those other cop shows which get repackaged and re-released on DVD every few years, Strangers deserves the attention of TV aficionados who might want to spend some time solving the crimes the bigger boys wouldn’t touch with a bargepole, let alone a pair of grey woollen gloves.

Extras: Tucked away across these ten discs are various episodes of other British series starring Don Henderson. These include the little-remembered New Scotland Yard, three episodes of daytime favourite Crown Court and a segment of Crossroads in which Henderson plays a very Bulman-like detective.

The Complete Strangers is out now from Network DVD