Transcript
Speaker: Happy day, Hannah. Happy day, Pete. There's lots of children around the cafe again, aren't there? Plenty of chanting. But you know what? I'm happy about it, Pete.
Speaker: Well, the cafe is looking very picturesque outside. The neat lawns, everyone's smiling. Even that monochrome kid in Victorian fancy dress that's looking at me. Why is it looking at me?
Speaker: Surprisingly cheery for someone so pale. Didn't quite catch sight of Ray, though. But um he couldn't face me for some reason. I wanted to ask him about these photos he used to have above the TV. You know, Rod Hull, Bernie Clifton. But they're gone and there's that faint smell of Bernie.
Speaker: Yesterday, in the cafe, I met a man who wasn't Ray. He wasn't there again today. i wish... i wish he'd go away. Pamay's got nothing to fear, but she's the only one. but I think this cafe visit might revive some childhood nightmares. MUSIC
Speaker: Welcome to Cathode Rays. Each episode we pick a theme and use it to discuss three episodes of British television. The only rule is we must have been able to watch the programmes on a CRT television set.
Speaker: This episode's theme is Terrifying Children and we're going to chat about three 1970s children series. Or are they? are they We're looking at eerie and spooky goings-on in Nobody's House...
Speaker: Sapphire and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.
Speaker: And Children of the Stones.
Speaker: I'd never heard of Nobody's House. ah Nor had I. Yeah. like I really quite liked it um It's quite a nice, fun, light fare.
Speaker: Yeah. ah very very very So much in common with our other contributions this episode. It's really just setting the tone, Jolly. do you got to What could be more fun than having an ethereal, spooky presence of a dead child that died of horrible disease in your house living with you?
Speaker: I mean, it's it's it's classic ghost story of having a Victorian ghost child haunting you. I don't think they've all got Northeastern accents, but this is what you get when it's a show produced by Tyne Tease.
Speaker: So he's played by Kevin Morton, who had... quite a decent child actor career on telly and he's the nobody of the title. It basically sees the Sinclair family have moved out to somewhere a bit more rural, we get the impression, and...
Speaker: Their father, played by William Gaunt, wants to open antique shop and this great big old house seems the perfect thing and it's going for a snip because no one wants to buy it because it's supposedly haunted. and It turns out it's haunted by this lad who who has no name because he was an orphan who didn't have a name. ah i don't buy this, but the teenage children who are able to see him and nickname him Nobody. and hence, every episode title is a play on this. We have Nobody's Perfect, Nobody's In Charge, um and yeah, and um Nobody's House.
Speaker: How did you die, Nobody? Plague? Starvation? Like most of us kids? Hey, could he keep a secret? Yeah. i'll show then, it's in the cellar. as long as he doesn't have to wash it out of many decorations.
Speaker: And yeah, he died of plague. Not just like a kind of thing. But you know what? I quite like the fact how much nobody is really quite laid back. He doesn't think about the fact that he's dead. Like, he's not... it's He's quite happy to talk about it. there it doesn't No emotional blackmail particularly attached to it either. I'm sorry.
Speaker: he's He's really just quite chuffed to have some friends, some people around. He seems to have just amused himself for a hundred odd years of haunting other people on his house as he sees it, because the house is built on the site of the workhouse where he died. It's not the actual house, but it is on the same site, and therefore it's his Oh, they make a point of that, don't they? Yeah, yeah. And um ah so we watched episode two and episode four.
Speaker: um there Was that kind of a random selection thing? Because I thought you were maybe, you'd found this when you were younger and and you loved it. I didn't realise you were as new to it as I am. So it's one of these I so spotted in a network sale and she just likes the sound of. um but I'd not got around to watching it until we were sort of thinking about this. And I've watched a lot now, actually. the um But had... So i bit this so the second the first episode sees them all settling in. um And then the second one, i nobody's perfect. ah
Speaker: it i pi point Because it has this nice turn from Brian Blessed as another ghost, Jack Dreadful, um who nobody seemingly knocked around with. It sounds like a bit of a Fagan character. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Bressed is really getting into that at one point, isn't he? And this is like, this this is 76, isn't it? So he's still, he's not Ryan Blessed yet. He's he's still ah ah the stomp a slightly larger than life character actor. He's getting there, isn't he? Yeah. You can see that this is this is the Blessed to Come is in there. Come
Speaker: on, Isia, I've got him for you. Hurry up, let's go in. Come on.
Speaker: Delighted to meet such a fine gentleman, I'm sure. Allow me to introduce myself. Jack. Shredful. Friend to them who has no friends, and a burglar extraordinaire.
Speaker: Yeah, he's, despite the fact he's dead, he still enjoys thieving and nobody's still quite scared of him, which is is interesting. no Nobody is clear he's he's a good ghost for the most part.
Speaker: He's just playing around and mucking about when he's doing things. yeah But there are other bad ghosts the series that the series shows us and, yeah, Jack Dreadful is one of them.
Speaker: And um I mean, okay, we've got to say it's 1976. If your mansion house needs haunting, then call nobody. Because it's this is ITV's answer to Rent-A-Ghost, isn't it? It's like that about nine months after Rent-A-Ghost starts, I think. I mean, I don't and and know Rent-A-Ghost didn't invent the notion of a kid's show about ghosts, but this...
Speaker: This feels like a we we better do something like that. But ah watching this, I was interested how sort of public servicey it was. um you got you You could learn things about being sent to a workhouse. You could learn that ah you could learn about that that sort of thing. that There's a bit where he just sits down and explains to them how horrible it was for some time, but sort of at length. And and then they um and then they go on doing getting involved in shenanigans with with Brian Blessed.
Speaker: They're quite, I feel, quite a like middle-class family. Although their father seems to have given up a job in the city to come and run this antique shop. and and But there' them their mother's a nurse, and so they've clearly got some relatively good income. They've got this big house. The children, yeah they they do ballet classes and stuff. And they're made to stay at home on Sundays if they haven't done their homework. um Yeah. Yeah, mum is a nurse, dad has quit his job in order to maybe set up an antique shop or something. And so they're living in a massive detached six bedroom Victorian house.
Speaker: ah Yeah, ah ah as people, yeah I'm sure they all paid off their mortgage by the time they were 30. It's one of those. Yeah. But I love actually, so I think kind of my last reference point for William Gorn before this is the champions, which is good sort of decade um earlier.
Speaker: He's such a dad in this. i've so For me, he's always been um no place like home's William Gorn, which was, which, ah ah which he plays exactly the same character he plays in this, just with lodgers instead of ghosts or, oh, and we should mention, so it's only the kids, the only the kids know about the ghosts, don't they? Yes. So the other people can see him, but um So he but he has a scarf he can tug to disappear. and and But he only chooses to reveal himself to the children. And it all comes back in the first episode, there's a soldering iron that's been left on in the basement um and a fire starts and he wakes them all up because he doesn't want his house to burn down. and and He manages to get the children up.
Speaker: um Yeah. So there is a great one. Actually, the final episode... sees nobody he's he's although he's always seems to be quite he doesn't care he seems to care much about the fact he's dead he's not sad and maudling about it he's just so chuffed to have other people and about um he vion he seems to have been watching the family and he's quite sad about the fact that they are a family and they have parents who get to go off and do stuff with them which I thought was quite sort an interesting thing. And they decide to throw him and a party, a fancy dress party, which means he can come along as this Victorian child. And he kind of tries to grab William Gaunt so he can have a dad chat because he's never had that. ah So that's really nice. But...
Speaker: but That was the other episode. what The other episode we watched was Nobody's in Charge, in which the kids and their dad go away for the weekend um to meet their grandmother and mum's staying at home because she's got to be on a shift the next day.
Speaker: And William Gordon's given far too much information away to a insurance salesman. He's like, can I just see you're safe? um Yeah. um'm And oh, can you show me all your burglar alarms, please?
Speaker: your Your dad is being taken in by the wallet inspector at this point. you You're going to be asking questions about what whether mum really is a nurse or is that just a uniform she wears? like let's go let's get Who is pulling how much wool over this man's eyes? Because maybe that's how they afford the house.
Speaker: and There's a whole thing of him haunting his mum's decorating a cake and ah so we so nobody does some hijinks with mixing up the ingredients or moving things around. It's low-level poltergeist antics, isn't it, though? yeah Yes. He wants more jam on the cake. He wants more everything on the cake. i mean Surely you're not eating the cake, ultimately. yeah yeah but Yeah. so he made So no surprise, some burglars turn up in the night. and and but Nobody manage to manages to see them off, proving that he is doing some good haunting and, you know, making the most of um of what he can do.
Speaker: And he wears a monkey mask in order to scare people, which, like, but but a ghost wearing a mask. Or did i was I getting confused? It was later. Did I mix that again? Yes, yes, that's it he He wears this mask as is as he's coming down the stairs. at i mean, you're already a ghost. Why do you need to wear be a mask? You're already a ghostly white Victorian child. It's a ghost wearing a mask. ah Maybe nobody doesn't think that's scary. LAUGHTER Yeah, suppose so. And then he gives them all a slideshow about what was like being in the warehouse when they get back. Oh, yes, they brought him like a slide projector thing that he can play with because he's a proper hard light ghost stuff of he can touch things and move things.
Speaker: I don't you think we see so much of it in in ah this ah episode, but they they use a mixture of practical effects and a bit of camera trickery. You you can definitely see the strings um in so some of the other episodes.
Speaker: But ah and yeah, it's it's it's it's all right. It passes for so and what it needs to um and far more of the show really is about this nice relationship he has with Gillian Tom and he's finally got some friends and stuff and yeah it's really quite too nice to see him share what life was like for him growing up and them trying to get him involved as much as they can in their nineteen seventy s lives yeah i've got it said it were the only house i ever had um i can't sorry if that way cockney it's really hard to not do a cockney voice when trying to do impersonate him because he's so artful dodger yeah ho did as you'd say but very very much yorkshire yorkshire dodger uh and it's um one of the burglars is wally batty from um last of the summer wine norah batty's husband uh whose name is escaping me but yeah uh And yeah, my final comment that I wrote down in my notes on this was, it's just a really nice vibe.
Speaker: And the theme tune is a banger. It says, it's the 70s. There's ghosts. We're going to have fun. It's a bit spooky. It's all going to be a bit of a, yeah. It's marvelously jaunty. i know um And actually, I i like that, and I don't know if you got this, but on the end of the DVDs, you get a next time trailer for some of the like next episodes. You also get a trailer for the for a book, like a novelisation of it. And and it's just based on how many TV novelisations there were in the 70s. They're like no, we've made one series of this and I quite want to see it out.
Speaker: Yeah. It's great fun. oop
Speaker: I just don't understand it. When I got down this morning, there was the snuff box almost exactly where I left it. Sounds to me almost as if Jack Treadful's been paying us a return visit. How do you know about Jack Treadful, Mum?
Speaker: I've been reading your story, darling. Not a story. It's real. No, it's very real in your essay, Tom. It's very good. it is. I've got one criticism, though. What's that? Your handwriting's terrible. Well, nobody's perfect.
Speaker: So, Pete, I'm going to ask you something I'm sure you've given much thought over the years. and What medium atomic weight element would you be? It's difficult. There's so many good ones out there. There's uranium, there's atomium, there's ennui.
Speaker: I think I would be Tupperware. That would be my atomic symbol, Tupperware. Yeah? Yeah. What are your reasons for this? ah flexible, durable, ah keeps things keep keep keeps things fresh. ah But also, I do tend to warp in a dishwasher.
Speaker: So um yeah, that's my bad. Some people can take time back. Some people are just strong and break things. I i tend to melt when and drying cycle of a dishwasher. What about yourself?
Speaker: I'm going to say time is rarely your strong suit. It must be. Oh, if I could take time back, I would not be the person that I am. You don't know how late I really am for everything. I actually, yeah. Well, ah I think I'm quite friendly, sociable,
Speaker: conductive, and therefore i I think I'm probably copper. and I like bringing people together, getting the energy flowing. I think I'm quite warm and creative, and but that there is always a big risk of me suddenly burning out. And you'd be perfect, um a member of the police force, of course.
Speaker: I like to think I'd pair well with and Silver, but that is mainly because he is my favourite character. in He's amazing. But he's not in this one. He's not in this one. i'm ah So... Yeah, moving on from Jolly Ghosts, who everybody likes, we're coming to Sapphire and Steel. Now, this is an interesting one because it wo if you don't know Sapphire and Steel, it ran for, well, for technically they're sort of grouped into four or three series, but it's six serials, as we would call them, although assignments is the Sapphire and Steel preferred term, although they sometimes get called adventure too. Adventure's nice, but Sapphire and Steely, ah assignment sounds cooler. Assignment is much better. ah We looked at assignment four series.
Speaker: Yes, and then they never had official titles. Fans gave them titles, and some of those titles have attained um ah attained ah consensus of being good, but but that's not what they were ever actually called. doesn't appear on screen. This is the fourth, and it's a four-part one. Most of them are longer than that, including one that one of the ones that's best remembered is the one set on the railway stations, um story two well one of the other best remembered ones I think this one is probably the best remembered certainly best remembered by me who had nightmares about it for years and years and I i think it was a thing just like the episode of Hammer House of Horror that traumatized me with the guy in the yellow Mac I was so traumatized by this when I was six that
Speaker: I wasn't allowed to watch the next episode, having watched... So I just had the episode that ends with someone trapped in a photograph that's on fire and they scream and they scream and they keep screaming. And I got quite upset by this. i thought, oh, so I wasn't allowed to watch it again.
Speaker: And so that's that was just... But that's worse than not finding out how... Like, and you're left with them trapped. Yeah. It's simply using things from here as part of its game. It?
Speaker: The child. what appeared to be a child. I saw you. From here I could see you. I couldn't move but I could see. i could see you. Yes? It was... It was as if you were part of a photograph.
Speaker: You were the same. Now, there's debate about whether this counts as a children's programme, which is not an uncommon debate for shows to have. It was never, it's not made by the children's department, but children do, feed feed children feature very prominently in the first assignment, and also in this one there are children, and they're scary children, and this one, this is is this is frightening children in both senses, because children watching it will be frightened, and the children who are in it are very frightening, and they' they're ghostly sepia-tinted children. Now, we come to ah So we start with ah with Sapphire and Steel. Oh, we should say, sorry, the eight episode one lasted so much longer because of the ITV strike. They were halfway through it when ITV went on strike. So when after the strike finished, they went back to the beginning again. So this one serial of them just being stalked around a railway station lasted for about four months in total, because it was eight episodes anyway, with the gap in the middle. So this one is a punchy four-parter.
Speaker: they arrive in a house which has just got seems to have one resident a very friendly lady called liz who is getting ready to go to work in a nightclub but her friend her flatmate mysteriously disappeared a while ago the original landlord mysteriously disappeared a while ago there are spooky children in the hall doing in in the courtyard doing victorian uh singing which is creepy because it's clearly set in the modern day modernish day anyway And um there's a man who has taken over from the landlord and she can't remember his face and we see him talking. But when he turns to camera, he's got no face at all. But he's talking to the children downstairs.
Speaker: ah And a thing just follows are all about the notion of photographs and that it's the it's the idea of a photograph stealing you and capturing you and being trapped in it.
Speaker: Him? Him? No, they have their own faces. The figure we're looking for will always be half seen or turned away like that one or not even seen at all.
Speaker: What about that one?
Speaker: Could be behind the fence or in the street beyond or in the next room. But all was in there somewhere. Yes. So every photograph is a photograph of infinity.
Speaker: It's just such a brilliant idea for something very spooky. And it's so cheap. They're one set with like three rooms. And it was a huge, this show was top 10 at its peak. I think it was always top 20. This show is as big as Dallas. You know, this is not, this isn't a kid's show that's also doing quite well. I'm not being disparaging to kid shows. We love them. But this is in the wrong box if you're putting it in that box. This is just an absolute mainstream hit uh but they also appear on the front of look in magazine with words or gummage which obviously is a bit like ah kids loved it i loved it i'm not allowed to watch it what did you make of it had you seen it before
Speaker: Yes. So I've kind of watched them originally a bit out of order. I watched Assignment 1 and I weren't that taken with it. But then I watched Assignment 6 and went, this is amazing, and went back and watched them. And it's interesting you're talking about the number of episodes in each serial because I didn't know how many episodes were in each serial when I watched it. So I remember watching Assignment 2 going...
Speaker: this is lasting forever. I have been, like I had no ITV strike. Well, imagine if there was a two-month-long strike in the middle of it as well. So it's quite interesting to watch them, not knowing how many episodes um and there were. a Simon 4 is one of my favourites, and it is, the the creepy children sort of add to it, but it's not, because you don't see a great deal of them. I think the thing about, like, the man who doesn't have a face, you don't see his lack of face for ages. He's he's got his back to you and stuff. And you don't even kind of...
Speaker: think about that that much until Saffron still asks Liz what does he look like and she can't describe him and it's only then you kind of realise how much you you're not being shown him um it is like I i' on a got cru absent into this and i was like i don't you don't know what's going on at all that's pretty much it with Sapphire and Steel. And at some point, I think I realised watching these, you just you're not meant to be plotting it all together. You are just meant to be going with the flow. And PJ Hammond, the writer-creator of them, he was interviewed later and described the show as about atmosphere, fear and creaky stairs, and that's it. and You've just got to go with this atmosphere. It is very... like visual and it doesn't rely on music I think as much as some other sort series do to set the tone um it's um it's that it's it does that lack of
Speaker: any sound thing of you're just watching, to figure out what on earth is going on. And I do find, like, the main characters so compelling. And I increasingly find myself drawn down, like, of into the discussions about, like...
Speaker: are they a couple? Because there is clearly some sort sense sexual tension there that you can read into. And they are both, like I personally find them both quite sexy.
Speaker: Joanna Lumley, basically, God, yeah, how could like that that's a that that's a given. And and then it plays into the fact that you know, Sapphire, the character, she is sensual and is a proper contrast having hard steel. And then yeah he he takes his he takes his jacket off and rolls his sleeves up and actually he so gets down to him stuff. I find I understand steel more and more than like when as as I watch it and he's yeah he gets frustrated more and he's quite logical about things.
Speaker: He wants to be sort certain of stuff. But they clearly both, they they trust each other completely. And actually, like it when Liz assumes they're a couple. She keeps talking about, oh, your boyfriend, oh, your girlfriend. And they don't correct her. And I wonder if this is simply because they they don't have a definition of what they are. They kind of refer to like the other elements like silver as colleagues and But sometimes they kind of sometimes come across as more. And then yet it's Silver who like Sapphire has but the more flirtatious relationship with.
Speaker: Yeah, i'm not even I don't think of them as even human. I think of them as as as alien, and not and un by alien I don't mean either life form from another planet. I mean as you know ah as a a different a different concept of being that is taking that has got that have got these forms that that do represent them truthfully in our three-dimensional format and show that they are different types. And that's thing, yeah, she's so charming. he's blunt uh but also but he's blunt but not callous but like there's a bit where he'll say to someone she'll say someone asking know i can't remember that bit but it's like you is my friend dead and he'll he'll be like probably or it's not that but it's along those lines yeah where and then but then there's there's a very a bit that's really in my in my mind is when um from just re-watching it where uh she the the woman's getting liz is getting really upset and she's great too she's a shakespearean
Speaker: you an RSC trained, exactly what you want ah for for a guest role. The episodes, it's just them and her 90% of the time. And they've got to click. And she's got to have just the right... Why isn't she more confused about who they are? She she just sort of accepts it and gets on with the story.
Speaker: But there's a bit yeah there's a bit where she's saying, know are we in danger? And Sapphire says, no, it's fine. You're not in danger. And you know she's lying. You know that not only is the the woman's in danger, her friend's in danger, Sapphire and Steel are both acknowledging that they're in danger.
Speaker: They can talk, they can do telepathy to each other just very just casually, but but but they don't bother when they're in the same room. So they will just talk to each other. But then sometimes one of them's not in a scene and the other one will chip in in in their thoughts. and Just be like, no, get rid of a Sapphire or something like that.
Speaker: um would would would just remind you again that they're not on that that plane. How many children? Seven. What did they look like?
Speaker: I don't know, they were just children. It wasn't very clear. Were they real? I didn't really see enough. From what you did see?
Speaker: No, I don't think they were real. Nor do I think they were images. I think there was something in between. Is this the place?
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: I do like it when they meet the man without a face and he's taking on some faces. they They ask him to kind of show himself to them. And they there's a talk about he has multiple faces and they say about, these are the only ones we have.
Speaker: um And I wonder if that is just they they don't have any choice over the human form they take. They just get this. good They're always talking about, you know, humans in a...
Speaker: It's not a kind of patronising way, although you probably could sit say it is sometimes. um but it's But it's definitely like other. and they're quite They're interested in humans. They care about and and them, and but they don't fully understand them.
Speaker: And why they keep messing with time? Well, they never learn. Yeah. Yes. well Oh, yeah, that's such a good idea. Taking what? I don't want to do spoilers of of key pot plot points, but that is a recurring motif throughout the whole show, that people have done something that has created a crack in time. And and it's something that's actually really, I mean it's quite, you could easily do an update of this, elements of this plot with AI or something. It would be really easy to do a version of this about that.
Speaker: Part of the thing of this is it's basically, it's hard to talk about this without giving anything away, but yeah time is coming through the photograph photographs and there's a lot to talk about them being physical and chemical reactions and stuff. And I think this could be yeah know as interesting if you did it with like in a world of digital photographs as well. There's so much more like you can lead into there and I find what the man without a face, what he kind of is. So the creepy children that he's kind of created from or given physical form to through the photo, like from these photographs, It's never entirely clear like what these sort of children are. they
Speaker: They're not the children who are in the photographs. They've not travelled in time or something like that. They have been created from the photographs. um But it's really just a bunch of them that kind of follow around and this one sort of girl who has a line. When Sapphire and Steel have arrived, she's... There are some people here. People?
Speaker: Yes. What kind of people? A man and a lady. Can we hurt them? Oh please, let's hurt them. What's wrong?
Speaker: Can we hurt them? Why, that's bloody awful. Oh my god. And as you say, they're very they're restrained with the music, but when the music does come in, it's it just it's perfect it's always perfect, and ah yeah setting things on edge. but So are these children like the projected personality of himself? like has is it Are they a part of him? Or has or are they separate, but he's projected something like a personality onto them?
Speaker: um It's one of those very Zafras still things that you never can get all the answers. And so why you wouldn't necessarily think it rewards repeated viewing because you know what happens at the end.
Speaker: However, you kind of never really do. like You never know exactly how things have have happened. you're all You still want to try and go back and piece it all together because it's so weird. And it's like a it is like its own universe. It has its own rules because Throughout it, you feel like you're learning more and more about time and what it is and what a threat it is.
Speaker: And it's so well written that it's always got... I won't talk about sometimes there's episodes of people just creeping up and down a staircase or creeping up and around a station. that could be That could be rubbish, and it's not rubbish. It's because because the script just has you on tenterhooks about...
Speaker: what's happening and then the the performances are so good. ah and you You know that um Lumley and McCallum are just ah loving these roles and were making, cutting out little, because they were just filming a few episodes every year ah but at Central here here in Birmingham, of course.
Speaker: And they were, um these these are these are A-list stars and they love being they love having this show. It's a little bit of a sort of, i get the impression for both of them, it's a sort of ah ah ah a quirky thing that they're very fond of on their CVs. And Joanna Lumley, when I saw she did a one-woman show reminiscing about her career quite while ago now 10 years or more went to see her at Warwick and she talked really fondly about this which was which was lovely because of that know I didn't know where this people who were in some in something like this could be a bit poo-pooing it and and not afraid of that you know she's oh it's great I'm terrifying everybody I love doing that you Yeah, going but back to what you said about, yeah, if you if you if you want to sit down at the end of a of a TV show and feel that you've got it all worked out in your head and I see he did that because she said that and that's why they did that, and then that is that is the one but situation in which this might not be the show for you.
Speaker: But if you normally are, but if I would even say even if you are that type person, this might convince you that once in a while tv does a good a really good script does not need to do that. I always come away from it with the sense that there's this war going on among these gods almost and they are passing through, and and and and it could be happening all around you, and and they look like humans, but but and this is this is you it firing my brain to fill in the gaps, which is exactly what it's trying to do, and anyone else will fill and could fill in the gaps differently. they could no point, as it said, they're not humans, but but for me, that's where it takes me, and that they're um yeah and and their attitude towards the humans is is sort of a little almost paternalistic, but not even that, but kind yeah we don't want to...
Speaker: yeah I don't want to step on any snails while I'm sorting out the garden. I'll try not to, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over the risk that it might happen because I've got a much bigger thing to do here. This this thing is breaking out again. And they mentioned they mentioned that they have met this thing before.
Speaker: There's a reference a very quick reference to a house with a painting in it and they had to burn down the house. which is just one line. and ah And if you miss it, it doesn't really matter. But when when you if you just when you catch it you like, ooh. But just there's so much imagery. still far Of course, if Steel is creeping around in the basement, he finds a scary puppet. Just like little things like that. like Lines like Sapphire saying, there's something wrong here. Like all I can smell is dust and paper and copper and chemicals.
Speaker: And that's it. you're I'm in that corridor. As soon as she says that, I'm in that corridor and I can smell all those things. I love the cut because Sapphire can control time to an extent.
Speaker: Um, and yes, super yeah, but it has its limitations. And I love the quite succinct, uh, explanation of this, which was, I can only borrow time. i can't keep it.
Speaker: Um, and I think they kind of talk about kind of only watches can keep time and stuff that, you know, the idea of keeping time or trapping time. It, in other stories.
Speaker: And it's it just makes you think about existence, life, the universe, slightly differently. Like, it is a slightly running thing of all these, is that you you can't fully ever get rid of the past. you You can't, you know, detach yourself completely from it. And i time means it is always with us in some way.
Speaker: Do you wish we knew for certain who Sapphire and Steel are or know more of their backstory? Or are you happy with the mysteriousness?
Speaker: Yeah, i'm i'm I'm really happy with the mysteriousness. Yeah, that's that's their thing. Take that away. and And yeah, it's just, why would you do that? No, yeah, I definitely like the mysteriousness. And I mean, the fact that it keeps on teasing, edging this thing for all these episodes for for for ah for several years. It went out at the top. there there was It has a, try to avoid spoilers for the ending if you can, dear listener, because it's one it is one of those. yeah fantastic endings uh so don't even read the wikipedia article or if you start reading the wikipedia article do not really get because they're still famous for its amazing ending where don't read the ai overviews no yeah uh but um but as with blake seven the writer in this case pj hammond said actually he he just thought he was writing the coolest cliffhanger ever which is what um gris boucher said about the last episode of blake seven as well having previously written what he thought was the last episode of blake seven the year before
Speaker: um but uh it's supposed to just be a cliffhanger but the fact that it becomes an ending instead is is uh is fantastic too so yeah so so yeah but what about you um i i i am similarly i like it i like that we could we have our own ideas about it and um and we could yeah go off and imagine whatever I know Big Finish have done um'm a few volumes of audio adventures, which I listened to the first volume of, and I'm quite curious whether they decide to kind of unravel um a bit more of that and put their own thoughts on it. If they've got them back at the office, just checking out. Oh, my God, cannot believe the paperwork every time we meet the man without a case.
Speaker: I will riot. No, I'm sure I've heard good things about them. There was some little rights problem, there? They disappeared. They couldn't sell them for a while, but then they got the right back again. Yes, time recording for us. Yes, I'm back. And yeah, I did the first volume. And despite it being such a visual show, they've managed to translate and do quite scary stuff on audio. Yeah.
Speaker: And I mean, Susannah Harker and David Warner, if you're recast, well, that's good. Yes, I think that's of things you kind of worry with this, of the recasting, but it was excellent and, you know, happy to get the shit put up me again. Yeah, based on that, probably very much recommend them, yeah.
Speaker: I'm off to go and burn every photograph that has has ever been of me.
Speaker: What's happening? What's happening? No!
Speaker: So we're going to take a leaf out of Sapphire's book and turn our time back a little bit, back to 77 again. for the Children of the Stones, which was a production from
Speaker: service to the ITV network in January and February of 77 and this is another one of those things that when I was young people a bit older than me I didn't I didn't say it I was like two three but um people a bit older than me would remember it and the sp the thing they really remembered about it most of all is the music the scary vocalizing music that is what sounds like a swirling noise of kind of screaming or just voices in in in distress um that escalates into a sort of satanic chant that then you can hear the phrase over and over in it, happy day, happy day, happy day. And that turns out to be what everybody in this little village of Millbury, which is actually Avery, wishes
Speaker: If you are one of the happy day people, but if you are an outsider, and if you're that and if you were a single parent a child with a single parent of the same gender as you, which is which they said is an accidental thing, they just didn't realise they'd done it until the end. But so but but still, mid-70s, a place where every family is a single parent family, is so is it so supposed it's just to be unnerving, I think.
Speaker: So, Hannah, was this your first time watching Children of the Stones? Yes. So you signed episodes one and two quite sensibly. um And that's all I've watched so far. i'm And i kind did get to a point where I'm going,
Speaker: I'm not sure i want to watch the rest. This is so scary. The opening alone. So that is so unnerving. And I i hadn't clocked like that. They were um singing happy day. It has just been noise and screaming and terrifying, like motif throughout. Like, and it the way it's shot where you've got like these cuts between the stones, it's like, it's, coming from within the stones and i don't know what's going on i got to the end of two episodes and and and i was like i don't know what's going on at all i feel like it's one of like has there been a plot here i feel like hardly anything has developed i felt like it's just been two like two episodes of like scene setting and i but i'm so gripped it's like so weird and
Speaker: I'm loving the folk horror vibes of it. And, you know, it the thing of that, like we figured like this, what we know, like they're trapped in the village, like supposedly they can't, like anyone who comes, they can't leave. i'm You're getting sort of prisoner-esque vibes along with the, you know, happy day. It's very, be seeing you. Yeah, of course.
Speaker: And, yeah, these new arrivals of Adam, Breaker, and and his son Matthew are, like, our at sort of entry points. And I really quite, like, ah I watched them both, and I did re-watch them again um for this.
Speaker: And I really, quite early on, Ian Cuthbertson's character talks about them staying on. They're only supposed to be coming for three months while I'm... Gareth Thomas as does this research, but actually these plantations from so initially on that like that that they'll be staying. They don't know it yet, but apparently they'll be staying. And I i love it. There's a scene later with Matthew and he's met Di, who's like this kind of poacher who gets the imp impression he's homeless. um And Di's very straight-faced, scared, telling him about the fact that like you know you can't leave. You can't leave. you can't leave um
Speaker: And just almost laughing at the idea of it, but he's still quite horror-struck. And it doesn't kind of almost go into the horror movie style of Matthew instantly believing him or anything. Matthew's just carrying on chatting as normal. He hasn't really picked up about Di saying this. He's like, what are you on about? Yeah, I was staying here for three minutes, let me go in. What do you mean can't leave?
Speaker: on But there's just all sorts of odd things going on in this village of the children. And have no idea what is going on. have so many questions, Pete. Yeah. Why can't they leave the village? Why can't they touch the stones? with with the stone there of like Adam and Matthew are flung back. what's with the sort of like ah don't know if they're flashbacks or flash forwards. They're having up these scenes around the stones where it's almost like an overlay image of people in the circle around the stones. And it looks like it's modern day, but it clearly I don't think it's happened yet. Or I'm not i'm not sure.
Speaker: um What is with the creepy singing? And why are only some of the people happy ones? And why are not the others? I just, and I feel like you've answered this. Is it just the single parents? Good kids?
Speaker: um The ones we get to know, um that's where say is it absolutely everyone or is it just the central characters? who is it and That's a good point, actually. enlighten that them We've got the new people. so it's but but but But they do talk about the um the boy Matt meets ah a girl who's also relatively new, whose mum has just been made curator of the Stones Museum, who's called a Margot. She's really good. and And there's an immediate thing between her and the boy's dad. And are they going to be... And the boy at one point the boy gets a little bit... um It's funny when ah his dad is going off to to meet to meet her in the pub in the evening. And and and the boy's like, oh, after all you have your fun, eh, dad? He's like, he's a bit blokey. can like them But right. um he He wants his dad to to have a nice time. ah and But... some
Speaker: Yeah, so they're the two newest arrivals. And there's one other boy in the school in the class who's still not one of the happy day people yet. But the happy day kids can all are are being set these equations by the math teacher and they're all finding it really, isn't really easy. And when the math teacher says, did you do all that? Well, it's a math teacher, teacher. it's a village The village school is just a room with some like pub drinking tables in it. that It's basically the redressed pub set, I think.
Speaker: ah but um and and so yeah and And it's all filmed in Avebury, which is one of my favourite places in the world. I'd been there at least once before I'd seen this, and i'd when I was there, I'd seen things saying this thing existed. it was one of the I think it was one of the... I read somewhere it was one of the first 1970s children's programmes to come out on video ah for for the first ITV ones, because it was so had such good dumb reputation. and and But they always released it in an edited movie version, which is six or seven episodes. Oh! which isn't how it's designed to be. It's it's building up to a cliffhanger every week.
Speaker: ah ah The pacing is a little bit repetitive, but that's because it's designed to be watched once a week and to take you back into that. And at start every episode, it's assuming you know you've not seen it for a week, so it takes time to take you back to that world again.
Speaker: ah So I don't think it is best watched as a movie because it'll start to wear off a little bit. But yeah, watching it in in in little ah little bursts is is probably much better. Freddie Jones is the the extremely character actor playing the apparently probably quite drunk local tramp type guy. Every village has one. Ours did when I was growing up. um Although our even ours didn't make a habit of watching the children coming out of school through a telescope.
Speaker: That's That, in the first episode, yeah there's so many things that make this creepy. yeah But just that added on a whole other the layer and of it. And you are wondering that something quite horrific is going to go on there as this bloke is watching two young boys.
Speaker: You nutter! Look at my bike, you stupid old fool! Look at my jacket! Go on, swear of it. Call me worse. Oh no, the village idiot. Just my luck. What do you mean?
Speaker: Get out of my way before I whack what's left of this bike round your straggie neck. You're different then. What do you mean? Not mindless like the others.
Speaker: What's your name? Matthew. you Friends are few and far between dear Matthew. If you want one, go to the sanctuary and wait.
Speaker: No, he's the old, he's the friendly village drunk who's actually going to help them see through of the people you really can't trust, like the Squire. and Ian Cuthbertson is is the is the starring Ian Cuthbertson in the credits. Of course, Gareth Thomas is is um someone who fans of cult TV are going to be a bit more um immediately drawn to, perhaps, or or might have assumed that he had top billing because he's playing, in effect, the lead, the the male lead. he's the Yeah. Now that this pre-Blake 7 for him. is the last thing he did before Blake 7, I think. Yeah. Yes, previous to this, he's done um he's he he's he's you know he's done quite um a few things, including Star Maidens, which I'm sure we'll look at one day.
Speaker: It's not British, but it was show ah semi-British. We're not flag shaggers. We're not flag shaggers. We just needed to make our list of a million shows slightly shorter. We'll have a word with Ray. We'll get in. Yeah. Yeah, Ray doesn't mind having a theme night once in while. Ian Closetson appears in that first episode, and then I don't think he's in the second episode at all. He takes Gareth Roberts to the pub, says, hard-drinking man, I hope, and goes to whiskeys at lunchtime, as soon as the pub's open. And was like, I think this pub's going to do well with the two of you here, aren't they?
Speaker: Yeah, and he's not, I mean, he's sinister as hell. He appears in the room when no one's looking and suddenly, Mrs Crabtree, the lady they're renting a room from, is a great little archetype a fussy landlady sense.
Speaker: ah who um who's looking after them and fussing after them. But then he says something about the stones and she drops, suddenly drops her tray because it's so shocking. And we're getting into lay lines. And I was still, I was more open-minded about this sort thing in my twenties. I would have felt when i when I first saw this was in twenties and I was like, yeah I loved having ley lines riffed on and and I was getting in, visiting Avery and Stonehenge and and getting and going into megaliths and things, which is still a hobby of mine. But um I was pouring over my Julian Cope books and he was plotting the ley lines around Britain.
Speaker: And there's just lovely, fascinating folklore. um And yeah, I was surprised how quickly we progressed. by the end of episode two, it's we've will it's the whole but spoilers, but yeah, they were covering the end of e episode two isn't a huge spoiler, is it? But it turns out a lot of people in the village are up to something at night, which again, this is the children. This is the CITV equivalent of its day.
Speaker: You want me to touch it.
Speaker: This is like so nailing yeah all the folk horror yeah um and vibes. It's that setting of like you an isolated and village. They clearly found this in you know summer or spring because we've got you know bright sunlight. It's a very idyllic childhood of them roaming around wherever they fancy, freeing rabbits caught in traps. um And I'm getting Wicker Man quite quickly as well with this. um And i'm I'm quite concerned about Adam and Matthew and as as as things go on. and there's like There's other, i I love like the early modern typescript that they use, um I think the titles, but also like the end of part one. It's, you know, it's just, it's evoking something else. And... um Yeah, that mixture that mixture of lowercase and up and small uppercase. Yeah. um And also, I'm quite intrigued, actually, how violent the kids are in this. So...
Speaker: isn that it you you know it's It doesn't feel very... like it It feels more ITV than BBC, certainly when we're in a kind of pre-Grange Hill i'm i'm world i'm where yeah the kids on on on on TV, certainly our leads, don't normally behave so badly. and But you've got a fight in the classroom which is clearly meant to just test Matthew on his first day. and He, like, when the die sort of stands in his way and he gets knocked off his bike he's he's quite violent and threatening you know ah towards him i am and then we've got the great bit with um Bob who's the of boy that ah Matthew befriends um and shows him around the village and takes him to school on first day
Speaker: He's then there like squaring up with like one of the other lads who I think is not a happy one. i am and i'm so but I think he's unhappy because he's not made the what sports team of some sort. His name's and not up on the board. and It's almost like Bob's kind of pushing his buttons a bit by just being...
Speaker: so calm about it. And our thrashing thing. You questioned authority. you like But I scored all the goals. and then You questioned authority.
Speaker: I've been dropped. I'm not in the team. did you expect? scored twice. Marvellous, isn't it? Top scorer and you get dropped. You argued with decisions. That's no way to be happy. Happy? That striker deliberately fouled me and the ref took no notice. Well, perhaps he was unsighted. Perhaps he was stone blind. You certainly told him so.
Speaker: Did it make you feel better? I'll tell you what would make me feel better. Go on, then. Thump me.
Speaker: See? Didn't solve anything, did it? And he does. There's no hesitation. He proper lays in and lamps in one. dick lamp just See? It didn't solve anything, did it?
Speaker: And that's just a great answer to someone thumping you. for like one um But it's so... like What is going on here with these kids? Yeah...
Speaker: yeah They're quite good, actually, they several of the child actors in this. it The lad who plays Matthew, he he reminded me so much of um one of the lads who's later in Grange Hill. It's a double check, but it's not the same actor. He's got very sort of similar voice and accent, so i kind of wouldn worry wonder whether they went to the same stage school or something like that. um But yeah they're all the kids are all giving very naturalistic performances. um Yeah, and it's nice we've got quite... We say we talk about is it a children's series because we don't... We follow the children as much as we do the adults in these first couple of episodes, certainly. So it it doesn't feel like one or the other, which...
Speaker: Yeah, it that it i but i did I got a bit bored with the ley lines, but I'm just like, I don't know about this. i don't care. what we Get to the point, guys. It's just shag or something. yeah You do youngsters are just so obsessed with it. um Yeah, they... um Yeah, that's but that's a really good point that the two the plotline of the adults and the plotline of the kids goes to the A plot and the B plot switching back and forth, really. Yeah. And it's just so well placed. And it's definitely, it's like the the seven episodes are a story. You know, it's it plays out as if it was just ah ah based on a book, although it isn't. um They did novelise it eventually. But it's it's got a beginning and a middle and an end. it's not It's not something that could have run and run. it's It's got a specific story that it tells. Yeah. I do enjoy Gareth as well.
Speaker: Similar to William Gaunt, he's what I associate with doing quite heroic roles. And then he's here in full-on, like, dad, university lecturer, tweed um and mode. And it's it's hard to believe that he's about to sort of go on and be running around shooting at people. He's a more of a home in this, isn't he? I mean, there's another world, Gareth, where this was this was where your career went of playing dad and university lecturers. and ah Because like he's actually he's not that old, really, probably.
Speaker: But it's that thing I think of in the 70s, people being like um could be look that much older than they were. Probably. By the time Stonehenge was completed, people have been worshipping here for a thousand years or more.
Speaker: Worshipping what? The sun, maybe.
Speaker: Here's the circle. With the village inside it. Scary. What is? Not known anybody. We soon will. Suppose they all turn out to be nutters.
Speaker: Do we have to stay the whole three months? Yes, we do. If I don't complete my research, the university's going to want their grant back. Unless we've already spent half of it.
Speaker: Yeah, he's 32 or something. I think he's about 32. Freddie Jones, who's playing who's playing oh Old Die, the slightly scary old man, is is two years younger than me right now. Oh, my God. Yeah, he's 50.
Speaker: Of course, he's probably aged up. That's what it is, yeah. Yes, yes. But this is one of number of of HTV children's series. They did quite a few of these quite eerie children's series that I'm not familiar with the rest either, but clearly worked out well for them. They'd done Sky um a couple of years before, which um I've been intrigued by for and and some time. and And they follow up with...
Speaker: its King of the Castle and Clifton House Mystery um so over the following years. and it This just does feel like peak period, you know this mid to late 70s period of...
Speaker: creepy children's series of and not just creepy but this eeriness of it there's not much like that much earlier that I'm aware of and certainly not that I'm familiar with Yeah, so probably, I mean, what was this, four years after Wicker Man, three and a half years after Wicker Man, that's probably inspiring these creatives to, like, let's do a kid's version of that. I'm simplifying, I'm sure there's lots of things in the pot, the things were inspiring that could inspiring this too. But it's the zeitgeist, it's definitely, it's in the air to do stuff like this, and let's do kid's version Yeah, they're all, you know, it's the confined spaces you know, they're all trapped in different places. You know, we've got the village here, we've got the house in Sapphire and Steel, you know, and they've always got like quite contained locations, whether it's a house or a train station or petrol station or whatever.
Speaker: um And that always, I think, feeds into that, you there's there's you know You can do a certain amount of minimalism, whether that's, you know, sound or visual um and just the repetitiveness in this of that.
Speaker: So unnerving, screaming, singing. It goes on for so long. Exactly. so it's like it reaches into my soul and is telling me something is wrong and I don't know what yeah and the the cliffhanger to the end of part one is Gareth Thomas touching a stone and and that's and and ah ah various points you hear that the the the music as they're just driving by the way I give it some practical credit that as well to the script that I love the very first scene of of the the dad and the boy in the car as they drive into the village which incidentally you can drive into the village today and it's exactly the same because it's all heritage design nothing's been built on it the oh my gosh Pete road trip yeah yeah yeah that are definitely they've cleaned you it's probably all a bit a bit more neatly pruned now than it was in 1977 around the verges but
Speaker: There's just really effective and not too clunky at all info dumping where the boy and the and the dad are saying, know, well, you know, we'll give it three months, like they said. And it's that kind of thing, you know. It's almost like he's reading out the guidebook, Matthew is. um ah They keep it conversational. They keep it chatty.
Speaker: Yeah, like he's quite, it's clearly like him excited about it. He's he's he's obviously interested in his dad's work, which I think it helps it work quite well, you know, and is because he's kind of like, why the hell are you dragging your child off here? But actually, yeah, he's as interested in it and when Ian Cuthbertson asks, oh, what do you think, you you know, your lad's going to sort do? He says that he, yeah, he's probably going to go into the same field. um And it's clearly got that passion as well, which, yeah, not surprising. the lad's also got a really scary painting, which he just happened to buy impulsively before he even knew he was coming to this village. And it's clearly a painting of the village with some satanic, that's how why i keep saying satanic, obviously, was up with with with some dark, mysterious ritual being carried out and a giant snake, ah figurative, presumably, that everybody's dancing on, or is it? ah By the way, this is another Wikipedia classic. If you look at the Wikipedia article for this, it starts as an overview. The overview is fine. Then there's a list of the episode. And then there's ah then there's a section called plot outline. And the first sentence of the plot outline is something really important that isn't revealed until the penultimate episode. So it's like, thanks, Wikipedians. I'm really glad I've not gone near it. Yeah. Yeah. um yeah but i
Speaker: I'm enjoying and ah And I'm really looking forward to watching the rest. um It's one of those work that has always been, like, I've heard of for a number of years and has talked about as being really good. People don't tell you what it's about. And it's one of those where clearly it's quite hard to tell you what it's about without spoiling it. um Yeah, yeah. and im it's the I feel like we've done a sort of reasonable job of the fact that I don't know what happens. Yeah. yeah um Yeah.
Speaker: You mentioning satanic stuff chimed because... Probably because it riffs off so many of these 70s things, just Hot Fuzz immediately so comes to mind. Yes, there no way they had not seen this. Yeah. um And it's one of those, like the more 70s folk horror-y stuff I watch, I want to go back to like watch stuff like Hot Fuzz and things later. My equivalent of it, like similar of...
Speaker: I've watched a bunch of 60s spy stuff. I go back and watch Austin Powers and realise actually how many things they're riffing on. um And it's always, you know it's far more than you realise sometimes with and these things. You start to appreciate how much people these people, when they to do these tribute sort type things later, how much they actually so really care about the genre and how much it means to them.
Speaker: Who's she? That's Sandra. Her mum looks after the museum. She's strange. Yes, I know. She says funny things. Happy day, boys. Happy be day, Mrs Warner. That's because she's not a happy one.
Speaker: What's a happy one? Someone who's happy, of course.
Speaker: ah This did get a yeah get a repeat. It was originally shown in January 77, then it was repeated in summer of 78. Quarter past four. that's just It's just incredible that this went out at 4.15.
Speaker: ah just Just in from school. Here you go, kids. Sit down and enjoy some otherworldly screaming. Can the characters hear the screaming? No, they can't. It's just like, oh, now the the characters are all covering their ears. They can hear it now. Because it the switches between being diegetic and not, um which is a sort of a way of doing a fourth wall break, I suppose.
Speaker: Just for a day or two, mind. Thanks. There's so much to do before we leave.
Speaker: Leave? What do you mean? Leave the circle. Leave Milbury. Yes. Leave.
Speaker: Leave the stones.
Speaker: You never will. What do you mean? Nobody leaves the circle.
Speaker: pete it's time for the test card rating so on a scale of zero you would rather watch the test card or five you'd spend hard-earned money on a lovingly crafted box set are you doing with nobody's house um it's nice it's fun but i'll be honest i'm not spending money on it good on another nice time uh but um so on that basis it's But it's ah it's a three.
Speaker: um I have spent money on it and I'm still like, yeah, it's it's it's it's the three. I've spent enough money on it. and ah And unfortunately, it's one of those where secondhand now it's a network DVD that goes for quite a bit. course, yeah. But yeah, it does it does. And it does suffer from being the second best ghost-based children's favourite thing made in 1977. It's unfortunate that it's going to always be in Rent-A-Ghosts. We also haven't even mentioned and the Ghost of Motley Hall.
Speaker: um which was also i get it very in 1976. And um that there's clearly sort of similarities there, but that probably, think because they have multiple ghosts there, probably it might well trump and you're sick the single Victorian ghost child. But they but some but a bo some little bonus thing for the for the theme tune. I'd love to hear thats that theme tune remastered in stereo. It is a banger. ah sapphire and steel where's that on your scale sapphire and steel is not on the scale sapphire and steel are sideways glancing through to what could be the scale in a different dimension there's no yeah um it's sapphire and steel is is off the scale for me it's uh yeah that' it's it's
Speaker: It's a strong five and um for me. like although as wish there are There's stories that i like less than so the others, but actually, and every time I rewatch them, even those, i feel like I enjoy more. I don't know what I like on my lovingly created box set of Sapphire and Steel because I don't want to know how it works and things. and I don't even know what extras I'd have on this. um But...
Speaker: Yeah, sometimes I imagine what would what would production note subtitles be like on this show? And I think they'd really be struggling if a sapphire and stiff, but maybe they wouldn't. maybe they're but But because it's such a bottle show, because there's a finite number of people making it,
Speaker: I don't think there are... Full details of the ITV strike. Full documentary on day-by-day progress because someone did a Twitter account of that some years ago of the ITV strike and that was just like, hook it to my veins. notenit The negotiations and everything, that's what it should be.
Speaker: It's like, yeah, there's people doing the Second World War, there's people do there's people doing the downfall of the Tudors and there's someone else doing the ITV strike. That whole build-up to Christmas, where you're like, oh, my God, are we going to have Christmas without ITV? um Yeah.
Speaker: Finally... children of the stones well you go first on this one you go first on what you've seen but you've only seen two episodes yeah i'll put two episodes in i'm i'm five i'm five on this uh i want the full remaster i want a return to milbury um i i want interviews with the local children and where they are now i want like i i mean i don't even know if want to ask whether the stones are really there shortly they're not really there and they were placed there for filming uh but i want they're not really there oh god they added a couple yeah i mean they added a few so so the but some of the some of the scariest ones are the ones that are actually there yeah i think there's like 53 we don't see 53 in these kind of episodes and i don't think um there's 30 odd i think yeah and some them are quite small but the big one but there's plenty big ones too yeah but not that many yeah Yeah, I'm quite sold on this and I'm hopeful that it doesn't let me down but the rest are already there paying out for this Vox set. What about you? Yeah, well worth it. Again, it's another five from me. It's just something that could only have been made when it was made in quite this way. don't know...
Speaker: I was about to say, don't remake it, but I thinking, actually, okay, you probably could actually make something a bit like it They did a radio remake of it in 2010 with Reese Shearsmith without the visuals, without actually being able to see the stones. It's kind of, it's ah it's a very visual thing.
Speaker: um so yeah this is this is another five for me now if i had to if the build if if the building was burning and i was having to rescue one of them it would probably be sapphire and steel by an edge but but um i'm really splitting hairs because yeah both just stunningly good sorry nobody but there's a little sad victorian ghost stood over my shoulder it's all right i don't mind that you didn't like my show or that you can't do my yorkshire accent i'll stop please stop it okay i'll toggle on my neckerchief and disappear like he does with a sound effect that i think is familiar the little sound effect almost yeah yeah yeah it sounds ah like is it just that it's very similar to the rent-a-coast one that miss popoff does i can't remember but she wasn't in it yet by then anyway that's something for future historians to worry about
Speaker: That's my new thing, by the way, when I can't think of, when I don't know something. Future historians will look at that one.
Speaker: We're closing down for the night at Cafe Rays. So thank you for listening to the Cathode Rays podcast. This has been a HPTV production from the Midlands. You've been listening to me, Hannah.
Speaker: And me, Pete. We hope you'll join us for another chat about CRT era telly. That might be a bit less terrifying, but you never know. For now, we will wish you goodbye. Hope you've had a happy day. But please remember, number one, find every photograph of yourself and burn it. And do remember to turn off your set.
Speaker: Goodbye. Happy day.
Speaker: Pete and Hannah have been assigned. Sorry, I've lost ahve lost the tab that's got the script on it. Okay. Even that strange black and white kid in... No, that sounds wrong. that monochrome kid in Victorian fancy dress that's... Actually, sorry, let's both just do a happy day instead of a goodbye.
Speaker: Okay. And turn off your set. Happy day. 1, 2, 3, 2, 1. No, 1, 2, 3, happy day. 1, 2, 3, happy day. one two three Happy day.
Speaker: I can line them up in the edit. Because now we're multi-track. This is a huge breakthrough. knew you'd be so pleased.
