An A to Z of UK Television Drama

Andy and Martin travel back in time to the summer of 1965 and the adventures of HR consultant Drew Heriot and his sister-in-law Anne as they face up to the machinations of 'Undermind’: aliens who have brainwashed British citizens in order to cause national unrest ahead of their imminent invasion. Their various schemes include: spreading pirate radio misinformation; inciting youth violence in a seaside resort; influencing the works of a popular children’s author; the distribution of suicide-inducing birthday records; interference with the printing of exam papers, and most abominably of all, the assassination of Eamonn Andrews! Yes, really.

Starring Jeremy Wilkin (best known as Kellman in Revenge of the Cybermen) and Rosemary Nichols (Annabelle in ITC's Department S) Undermind is an, often overlooked, sci-fi oddity created and ‘evolved by’ Robert Banks Stewart and written by many familiar Doctor Who writers including Bill Strutton, David Whitaker and Robert Holmes.

Other regular cast members were John Barron and Denis Quilley, while big name guest stars included Michael Gough, Peter Barkworth, Barrie Ingham, Judy Parfitt, Derek Francis and Philip Latham.

Although there is much to enjoy here, the series' convoluted and sometimes incoherent plots tend to undermine (geddit?) its overall feel. Join Andy and Martin as they attempt to review all 11 episodes in 2 hours! And find out which of them was brainwashed into drawing Mulligatawny (a one-eyed turd with claws) while making their notes.

Next Time: Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (and Stand Up, Nigel Barton)

This month Andy and Martin review the highly regarded 1987 BAFTA-winning Scottish drama Tutti Frutti, written by John Byrne and starring Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson.

Unfortunately Andy disputes that high regard and is staggered that Fortunes of War (also with Thompson), another best drama nominee that year, lost out to it. He finds Tutti Frutti to be deeply unfunny and its joyful depiction of toxic masculinity difficult to stomach. Martin on the other hand believes it has merits with several characters and situations that are well drawn and memorable.

Not since GBH has an old show disappointed Andy so much and and as a consequence caused such discomfort to his co-host. Have you watched it recently? And if so, what did you think?

Next Time: Undermind

Twenty-one years after their first recorded interview on the first Survivors DVDs back in 2003, Andy catches up with Carolyn Seymour who played Abby Grant in Survivors.

Carolyn reflects on her relationships with the key figures who made the show: Terry Nation, Terry Dudley and original director Pennant Roberts; how she and other women actors suffered at the hands of chauvinism in the 70s; and reveals how she got through the tough winter location filming.

She also responds to the criticism that Survivors was too white and middle-class (she heartily agrees), explains where the series sits in her wider career, and how it was never far from her mind during the COVID pandemic.

This month Andy and Martin review the classic post-apocalypse drama Survivors created by Terry Nation. Specifically they review three episodes, one from each series: Law and Order, Over the Hills, and Law of the Jungle.

The pair reflect on what Survivors has to say about mankind and also consider the show from a post-pandemic lens. Andy also reflects on his relationship with Survivors now given he produced its initial DVD releases and co-wrote a comprehensive book on the series in the early 2000s.

Make sure you also listen to Andy's bonus interview with Carolyn Seymour who played Abby which is also released today.

Next Time: Tutti Frutti

Rock-a-bye baby in the tower block

Your Mum’s on the social

Your Dad’s in the dock

Your Mum’s in arrears

So, the Council’s gonna call

Down will come mother, baby and all…

Yes this month it's none other than that late 80s police drama Rockliffe's Babies in which we met the seven young and untested members of Victor Tango crime squad and their formidable skipper Det Sgt Alan Rockliffe played by Ian Hogg.

A ratings winner that lasted for 2 series and 18 episodes Rockliffe's Babies was the BBC's answer to ITV's The Bill which at that time was also putting out shorter series of 50-minute episodes.

The series introduced us to Joe McGann and Alphonsia Emmanuel and the lesser remembered, but just as talented, Susanna Shelling, Martyn Ellis and Brett Fancy. Producer Leonard Lewis also cast some of his favourite regulars from When The Boat Comes In including Malcom Terris and Edward Wilson. All this and Brian Croucher too and a whole host of familiar guest actors.

Andy & Martin chart the course of the series choosing 8 episodes that hopefully showcase and represent the drama, including the very first episode which barely features Rockliffe and the last in which one of the 'Babies' learns that they will be leaving the squad to train as a detective.

As well as discussion of its memorable theme tune, the pair celebrate its peaks and troughs and consider why after two successful series it produced a sleepier countryside sequel: Rockliffe's Folly.

'Georgiou! You burke!!! What have you done now?'

Next Time: Survivors

Andy & Martin almost meet their match in the 1975 series Quiller. But once they get past the first 10 dreadful minutes of its opening episode they find much to enjoy in this Bond-on-a-budget BBC spy series starring Michael Jayston in the title role.

However, it would be lazy to say Quiller simply knocks off Bond, because Elleston Trevor's Quiller is quite different to 007. He doesn't like guns or gadgets and doesn't let women distract him from the job in hand. It's not a cheap series either. As well as some inevitable stock footage there's heaps of exotic location filming in Germany, Malta and beyond.

Jayston plays Quiller with a cool and appealing detachment. He is joined by Angus Kinloch (Moray Watson) as the Controller of the mysterious Bureau, and Rosalind (Sinead Cusack) who has more agency than most women on TV in 1975. At one point she even threatens to pinch Quiller's bottom!

The series boasts many familiar writers and directors of the time such as Brian Clemens, Peter Graham Scott, Anthony Read, and Viktors Ritelis. Guest stars are aplenty: Patrica Hodge, Shane Rimmer, Celia Gregory, Ed Bishop, and Lalla Ward to name just a few.

Andy & Martin select 5 of the 13 episodes to review in depth and find much to enjoy in this largely forgotten series that they believe deserves to be much better known.

Next Time: Rockliffe's Babies

Martin and Andy travel back to the early Eighties to uncover the birth of Agatha Christie on television. Before Joan Hickson's Miss Marple and David Suchet's Poirot came Tommy and Tuppence, two bright young adventurers from the Roaring Twenties played by Francesca Annis and James Warwick: Partners in Crime.

Andy also delves further back to explain how Why Didn't They Ask Evans? and The Seven Dials Mystery helped pave the way for Agatha Christie on TV. But what one factor linked these productions and Partners? Listen along as Martin fails to answer this question and others like it as he reluctantly takes his 'Christie on TV' O' Level live on the podcast without any revision time!

There is also a plea for the return of Annis and Warwick who are now the perfect age to play Tommy & Tuppence as an elderly couple as Christie had them in By the Pricking of my Thumbs and Postern of Fate. Are you listening big TV companies?

Next Time: Quiller

This month Martin & Andy tackle a 1976 curio: a 3-part examination of the Zionist military leader Orde Wingate.

Wingate is played by Barry Foster (Van de Valk, Fall of Eagles) in a drama scripted by Don Shaw (Survivors), script edited by Louis Marks (Doctor Who, The Lost Boys), directed by Bill Hays (Wish Me Luck) and produced by Innes Lloyd (Doctor Who, Talking Heads).

The production is notable for its theatrical feel and questionable innovations: a 'Blue Peter-style' desert and a 'toilet roll jungle' in the studio. But it is the subject matter that is more problematic, as it is hard to work out if the zealous and possibly insane title character is being lifted up by the drama or critiqued.

This tale of English exceptionalism and religious mania was a difficult watch, and if that wasn't enough there's also what the pair have come to term 'The Full Foster' to contend with!

It is worth noting that this episode was recorded some months before the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Next Time: Partners in Crime

After a longer break than intended An A to Z of UK Drama is back for the continuation of its second series, starting off the second half of the alphabet with the letter N and The Nightmare Man...

As the fog closes in on a remote Scottish island Andy and Martin are huddled by the fire remembering the time when there were many gruesome and mysterious murrrrrders and the local policemen endlessly downed whisky while on duty!

Starring James Warwick and Celia Imrie, and adapted by Robert Holmes and directed by Douglas Camfield - two legendary Doctor Who luminaries - The Nightmare Man should be a wonderful slice of drama but neither is entirely convinced by the end result, a 4-part drama that lurches uncomfortably between thriller, horror and science fiction.

Next Time: Orde Wingate

The year is 2003 and Earth's intrepid humans have managed to set-up several bases on the moon. There they face the implacable enemy that is the silence and darkness of space - a serious and apparently underestimated threat to the mental wellbeing of moonbase personnel...

Created by Doctor Who’s Barry Letts and Terrance DIcks this 6-part series from 1973 starred Donald Houston, Ralph Bates and Fiona Gaunt and had scripts from John Brason, John Lucarotti and Arden Winch. Moonbase 3 lacks Doctor Who's monsters and excitement and instead delights in technical details and psychological concerns. As such it is something of a hard SF curio which is widely regarded to be a misfire, even by Letts and Dicks themselves.

The big question is what will Andy & Martin make of it from the vantage point of 2023, some 20 years after its characters, with their very 70's attitudes, were meant to be surviving on the moon?

N.B. Having completed the first half of our second A to Z series, we are taking a mid-season break but will return in a few months with a drama beginning with the letter N...