Andy and Martin return for another series of an A to Z of UK television drama and in time-honoured fashion are keeping it alphabetical. First up is the iconic Mike Leigh Play for Today: Abigail’s Party. 

Devised for the stage, and performed over a 100 times before it was recorded for television, Leigh’s kitsch classic sees the monstrous Beverley (a tour-de-force of a performance from Alison Steadman) preside over an evening soiree which she, her neighbours, and the viewing audience at home would never forget. 

Grab your cheese and pineapple on a cocktail stick, get the Beaujolais in the fridge and fire up Demis Roussos on your record player and strap in for this glorious window into the conventions and aspirations of 1976. Another gin and tonic? Sue? Ange? Tony? Okay?

2.1 Abigail's Party

Andy and Martin turn their attention to a cult sci-fi classic from 1981: John Wyndham's post-apocalyptic tale of man versus plant: The Day of the Triffids. The pair consider how the series has aged, how it compares to similar dramas and what elements still make it rollicking good fun.

Along the way they consider hospital and home decor, the Triffid Gun Christmas of 1981 and why Bill Masen is so bizarrely determined that Triffids are just dumb plants. 

Enjoy and watch out for Heavy Plant Crossings!

2.4 The Day of the Triffids

This month Andy and Martin review the 1989 adaptation of Oswald Wynd's novel The Ginger Tree, a 4-million pound co-production with NHK Tokyo and WGBH Boston. Starring Samantha Bond and Daisuke Ryu, this 4-part series tells the tale of Mary Mackenzie's experiences in Manchuria and Japan in the first half of the 20th Century, first as an unhappy wife and then, effectively, as a concubine to a Japanese Count. After her son is taken from her Mary finds some self-worth as a dress designer but the Second World War is about to change Japan forever...

Andy is rather surprised not to get on with this series despite having watched it on first broadcast and first-time viewer Martin too has misgivings. They agree that the subject matter is interesting but also that the way it is presented is not always compelling despite beautiful cinematography and several good acting performances, particularly by Samantha Bond. 

Still they find more than enough here to encourage discussion of its key themes: the patriarchy and oppression of women; colonialism and nationalism; and suicide and death. Yes, not always the cheeriest series! 

If you want to find out why its called The Ginger Tree you like the viewers of the series you have to wait some way into the podcast, but only you can decide if the wait is worth it. 

Next Time: Harry's Game

2.7 The Ginger Tree

We return from our Christmas break for more of our second season of an A to Z of UK TV Drama...

We begin 2023 by looking back at the Granada mini-series Harry's Game. First broadcast in 1982, this hard-hitting drama is best remembered now for it famous end credits theme by Clannad, however, it has much more to recommend it. 

Set during the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the series follows British agent Harry Brown (Ray Lonnen) attempts to uncover and arrest an IRA gunman Billy Downs (Derek Thompson), while his nervy handler Davidson (Benjamin Whitrow) tries to keep him alive from back in England. 

Written by former journalist Gerald Seymour and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, Harry's Game covers a bleak period of recent history and is a stark reminder of the fragile peace reached through the Good Friday agreement, currently under threat due to the self-serving machinations of Brexiteer politicians. 

Andy & Martin find much to enjoy here but fail to resist the temptation to break into some 'Norn Irish', for which they can only apologise.

2.8 Harry's Game

This time Andy & Martin delve into Ngaio Marsh's Alleyn Mysteries which aired on the BBC in the early Nineties. 

Having watched the 1990 pilot 'Artists in Crime' and a 1993 episode 'Final Curtain' they are able to compare the performances of Simon Williams and Patrick Malahide in the title role. Belinda Lang is thankfully a constant as his artist 'friend' Agatha Troy, as is the characterful William Simons as Fox. 

While underwhelmed by the pilot, they are bowled over by the OTT Final Curtain especially due to the presence of Graham Crowden , Eleanor Bron, Michael Sheard and Michael Bilton and many more. Crowden even threatens to out-chew Soldeed here!

If you like your murder mysteries, campy, period and full of over-the-top artist or actor-y types this is the drama and podcast episode for you.

Their exploration meanders as usual as they also remember Moondial, M*A*S*H, 2 Point 4 Children and Victoria Wood Presents. There's even a guest appearance from Ru Paul.

We also have a question to ask you all, inspired by this episode: "Do you design for the theatre?'

Enjoy!

2.9 Inspector Alleyn Mysteries

Following their Secret Army episode last season, here Andy & Martin tackle its spin-off Kessler. The pair agree that its a very different show to its parent, which doesn't always hit the mark, but nevertheless boasts some fine acting, especially Clifford Rose in the title role, and wonderfully intricate scripts from John Brason and Gerry Glaister. 

6 episodes of absorbing drama take us from Germany to England to Paraguay in this continent spanning epic that was clearly inspired in part by The Odessa File and The Boys From Brazil.

Directed by Michael E. Briant and Tristan De Vere Cole, Kessler offers a memorable final chapter to the Secret Army story. The cast also includes Alan Dobie as Bauer, Nitza Saul as Mical Rak, Alison Glennie as Ingrid, Oscar Quitak as Josef Mengele, Nicholas Young as Franz Höss, Ralph Michael as Colonel Ruckert, Guy Rolfe as Yqueras and, of course, some cameos from Bernard Hepton, Angela Richards and Juliet Hammond-Hill. 

Next Time: The Lotus Eaters

2.11 Kessler

Summer is finally here, so Andy & Martin are off on their hols to Crete to spend some time at Shepherd's Bar in Agios Nickolaos! Back in 1972 The Lotus Eaters was the flagship new BBC2 drama and the first of Michael J. Bird's quartet of Mediterranean-set serials. 

Starring Ian Hendry and Wanda Ventham, the series focused on the failing marriage of Erik and Ann Shepherd and the lives and loves of the community meeting at their taverna. What no-one expects, including the viewer, is that Ann is a sleeper agent who is about to be activated, nor that despite this revelation such a development is not always going to be the focus of the show. Instead Bird's serial is about anyone who is running from something, looking for a place to start again and the threat that if you eat the fruit of the lotus you will never leave...

As well as Bird, the scripts were written by David Weir, David Fisher and Jack Ronder. The series was directed by Cyril Coke, Douglas Camfield, David Cunliffe and Viktors Ritelis, and produced by Anthony Read and Michael Glynn The Lotus Eaters was a new direction for UK TV drama which helped the package holiday market no end. Notably, it would find itself to be life imitating art, as Ian Hendry, just like Erik Shepherd, continued his battles with drink, love and life. 

With numerous other excellent regular and guest actors - Stefan Gryff, Sylvia Coleridge, Thorley Walters, Carol Cleveland, Maurice Denham, Susan Engel, Timothy Carlton, Anouska Hempel, Godfrey James, Alethea Charlton, John Savident and Julia Goodman - this Cretan-set series is a fascinating exploration of love, motivation, trust, deceit and spying, with a large side order of raki. 

So it's time to get you swimsuit on, slap on some lotion and get in the back garden. Put this in your ears for a couple of hours and float back in time to the Seventies.

Next Time: Moonbase 3

2.12 The Lotus Eaters

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...

2.13 Moonbase 3

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

2.14 The Nightmare Man

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

2.15 Orde Wingate

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

2.16 Partners in Crime

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

2.17 Quiller

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

2.18 Rockliffe's Babies

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

2.19a Survivors

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.

2.19b Interview with Carolyn Seymour

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

2.20 Tutti Frutti

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)

2.21 Undermind

After a brief hiatus, Andy and Martin resume the second season of A to Z with the letter V. Admittedly cheating a little, their choice was 'Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton', the second of two autobiographical Dennis Potter plays from 1965 in The Wednesday Play strand. They also cover the first play, 'Stand Up, Nigel Barton'. Both feature Keith Barron as the title character who we follow from childhood, to university, to a reluctant attempt to stand as a Labour candidate in the General Election.

Both plays stand up incredibly well and the subject matter is no less relevant today some 55 years later! 

As well as Barron himself, who is astounding, there are great roles for Janet Henfrey, Jack Woolgar and John Bailey too, more familiar to most of us for their Doctor Who roles. Vintage stuff.

Next Time: Who Pays the Ferryman?

2.22 Vote, Vote, Vote, for Nigel Barton (and Stand Up, Nigel Barton)

[Spoiler alert! This series is almost 50 years old but we will be revealing - around 90 minutes - in who spectacularly dies in the literal cliffhanger to episode 7. You have been warned!]

Hey sis, it's Christmas, but this month Andy and Martin are visiting sunny Elounda on Crete for Michael J. Bird's classic revenge drama Who Pays the Ferryman? Featuring Jack Hedley, Betty Arvaniti, Neil McCarty and Patience Collier the series gripped the British public in 1977 and after its BBC2 transmission was immediately repeated on BBC1. The following year it became an even huger hit in the Netherlands. 

The series also features prominent guest star roles for Lalla Ward, Gareth Thomas and Sally Knyvette, just before the roles that would make all three sci-fi icons. 

As they review this 8-part series the pair consider the birth of the package holiday, influence on Howards Way, and the inherent dangers of tiny tartan swim shorts. 

There are also lots of behind-the-scenes facts, many of which are admittedly lifted from the research of Dave Rice - do visit his website and buy his book. Patience Collier's biography by Vanessa Morton is also worthy of your attention.

Oh you daughters of Themis!

Next Time: 'X' (and yes we're going to be cheating)

2.23 Who Pays The Ferryman?

The first episode of our A to Z of UK television drama in which we describe the scope of the series, preview future content, and explore our first drama: the Sunday night BBC classic All Creatures Great and Small. We focus specifically on an episode which aired in 1980 called "Big Steps and Little 'Uns" which was written and directed by Terence Dudley.

Next time: The Beiderbecke Affair

1. All Creatures Great and Small

Quinctilius Varus, where are my eagles?!?!?  

Andy and Martin celebrate the BBC's classic 12-part Roman epic I, Claudius, which first aired in the UK in 1976 and starred Derek Jacobi, Sian Phillips, Brian Blessed, John Hurt and George Baker. 

Dramatised by Jack Pulman, from two award-winning novels by Robert Graves, I Claudius has quite rightly wowed audiences for over 40 years. The series secured Jacobi and Phillips and designer Tim Harvey BAFTAs and has been shown all over the world gaining particular appreciation in the US where it was shown as part of the 'Masterpiece Theatre' strand. 

A tale of love, murder and intrigue, the series charts the tempestuous reigns of four Roman Emperors and the dawn of a fifth, via the writings of the most unlikely man ever to become one himself, the lame, stammering, stuttering Claudius.

Andy and Martin choose their favourite scenes and performances, go back to Graves' novels to see what Pulman missed out and even dig out some 1st Century quotes from Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius. They also inevitably discuss that one legendary missing clip that everyone is convinced they've seen. 

Get that thar toga on and get yersel down t'Forum!

Next Time: Jonathan Creek

9. I, Claudius

Andy and Martin appraise the classic murder mystery series Agatha Christie's Miss Marple which starred Joan Hickson and was initially produced by Guy Slater. The series saw all 12 full Miss Marple novels adapted for the small screen between 1984 and 1992. 

For the purpose of this episode they turn their attention to two of their favourites: A Murder is Announced starring Ursula Howells, Samantha Bond, Simon Shepherd and John Castle, and Nemesis starring Margaret Tyzack, Peter Tilbury and Joanna Hole.

Along the way they compare the series with its later ITV counterpart and explain why they feel Joan Hickson is the quintessential Miss Marple. 

Next time: Nice Work

13. Miss Marple

Andy interviews Juliet Hammond-Hill about her memories of playing Natalie Chantrens in Secret Army. This is the second of three extras accompanying Andy and Martin's regular episode exploring Secret Army.

19c. Interview with Juliet Hammond-Hill

Andy interviews Clifford Rose about playing Kessler in Secret Army and its sequel Kessler. This is the third and final extra accompanying Andy and Martin's regular episode exploring Secret Army.

19d. Interview with Clifford Rose

Andy interviews Angela Richards about playing Monique in Secret Army. This is the first of three extras accompanying Andy and Martin's regular episode exploring Secret Army.

19b. Interview With Angela Richards

There were so many series we could have covered for ‘S’ but quite honestly it was only ever going to be the BBC’s Secret Army, after all Andy devoted four years of his life to researching and celebrating this exceptional wartime drama. Rather than trying to explore all three series and 42 episodes, in this episodes we have decided to turn our attention to the last four instalments of the nail-biting third and final series. 

Those episodes are: Collaborator, in which Albert is reunited with Monique, and Reinhardt discovers that Lifeline has been running out of the Candide; Days of Judgement in which Natalie seeks to save Albert and find Monique, while Kessler goes on the run with Madeleine; Bridgehead in which Monique faces the mob and falls in love, while Van Broecken meets his tragic end; and The Execution in which Kessler tries to have Reinhardt court martialled, Lifeline helps one last person, the war comes to an end and Monique says goodbye. 

We explore the set-up of the third series, key scenes, the performances of the regulars, its place in the best Saturday night line-up in history and how, more than perhaps any other series, Secret Army manages to go out on a total high. 

Martin teaches us how to spell restaurateur as well. We’re just too good to you, non?

All this and Andy’s exclusive new interviews with Monique (Angela Richards), Natalie (Juliet Hammond-Hill) and Kessler himself (Clifford Rose), specifically recorded to coincide with this review of the series, which are available as separate podcast episodes.

Signed copies of Andy’s book The Complete Secret Army – a comprehensive celebration of the series, which details the behind-the-scenes story of the series creation and production, as well as all the real-life historical events that inspired its storylines – are still available for just £20.  http://www.classictvpress.co.uk/completesecretarmy.htm 

And all of Angela Richards wonderful songs from the series are available on a music CD entitled An Evening at Le Candide that was professionally recorded back in 2006 and costs £9.99 http://www.classictvpress.co.uk/secretarmymusic.htm

Next Time: Tenko

19a. Secret Army

What else could it be for the letter T than Tenko? Once again, Andy wrote a comprehensive book on the series ‘Remembering Tenko’ and considers the series to be one of the greatest ever made. Martin likes it too, but perhaps not so rabidly as his co-host. Together they explore this drama which charted the fortunes of women prisoners of the Japanese during World War II over 3 series and 30 episodes from 1981 to 1984 and became a runaway success for the BBC. As well as covering its creation and the crucial roles of Lavinia Warner, Jill Hyem and Anne Valery, they examine three episodes in particular, picking out key performances, action and themes: the aftermath of Blanche’s escape from Series 1, the events leading up to Sally’s suicide in Series 2, and Dorothy coming to terms with all that has happened to her and who she is in her final episode in Series 3. 

They also talk about shopping channels, Martin's radio show and how Tenko passes three important tests with flying colours: Bechdel, Makomori, and Sexy Lamp. Find out more in today's episode. 

Next Time (35 years on since its first broadcast to the day): Tenko Reunion.

20a. Tenko

An exclusive new interview with Claire Oberman who played  Aussie nurse Kate Norris in all three series of Tenko as well as the Reunion Special. In addition to reminiscences of her Tenko years, Claire recalls playing Mortimer in Fortunes of War.

20c. Interview with Claire Oberman

Andy and Martin stutter a bit at 'T' in their alphabetical journey through archive TV, following up last time's Tenko episode with the Christmas finale to the popular series, first shown 35 years ago today. They decide that the Reunion special is not only perfectly crafted, but also a fitting end to Tenko as a whole. 

Elsewhere, Andy shares his adventures in Singapore: visiting both the Jefferson residence and Dominica and Teddy's plantation house. Meanwhile Martin asks important questions about the narrative's treatment of Chinese characters and the communist pursuit of independence. And he and Andy inevitably also end up discussing the state of democracy as a result.

Elsewhere the pair agree that Jill Hyem should have scripted The Five Doctors given her genius for juggling characters and her subtlety.

All this and an interview with Tim (of the Doctor Who Missing Episodes podcast) about his 2020 binge on all of Tenko in one week!

An A to Z of UK TV Drama will return on 14 Jan with an episode exploring Ultraviolet.

Happy Christmas!

21a. Tenko Reunion

In this episode we celebrate the BAFTA-nominated A Very Peculiar Practice and explore 'the swamp of fear and loathing' that is Lowlands University. Starring Peter Davison, Graham Crowden, Barbara Flynn, David Troughton, Amanda Hillwood and Joanna Kanska, this is one of master adapter Andrew Davies's only original drama series and it is widely recognised as a masterpiece. Indeed, in 2010, The Guardian ranked the serial at number 5 in their list of The Top 50 TV Dramas of All Time.

The first series, first broadcast in 1986, follows Dr Stephen Daker (Peter Davison) as he joins the unhappy team who staff the Lowlands University medical practice. They include the alcoholic head of the practice Jock McCannon (Graham Crowden), manipulative feminist doctor RoseMarie (Barbara Flynn), and public school-educated idiot Bob Buzzard (David Troughton). Daker quickly realises that his new post will present him with many challenges but also new opportunities, including the chance to fall in love again, with policewoman and behaviourist Lyn Turtle (Amanda Hillwood), and  to overcome some of his personal foibles along the way. The schemes of the poisonous self-serving Vice Chancellor, Ernest Hemmingway (John BIrd) also regularly threaten Daker and his colleagues.

A second series, which went out in 1988, sees Daker promoted and in charge of a new medical centre but a sinister new Vice Chancellor, Jack Daniels (Michael Shannon) presents him, his colleagues and indeed the entire University with even more serious problems than his predecessor. Thankfully his attention is diverted by a new Art History lecturer, Grete Gratowska (Joanna Kanska) who is terrible in bed and a self-confessed 'rude nasty girl'.

The series was wrapped up in a Poland-set feature-length sequel A Very Polish Practice in 1992.

The series was ably produced and directed by Ken Riddington and David Tucker respectively, who had previously teamed up on Tenko and Diana. 

Andy and Martin almost run out of superlatives as they uncover the series themes and concerns, especially as they find that it has so much to say about the world today and is more advanced in its attitudes and conceits than seems possible for a drama from the late Eighties. 

Next Time: The Woman in Black

23a. A Very Peculiar Practice

Archive television podcast in which Andy Priestner and Martin Holmes explore a new UK drama every episode, offering informal critique, insights and trivia. Join them every fortnight for televisual-based larks.

An A to Z of UK TV drama

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