# The Tudors



## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

The Tudors .... what a load of crap ..... like East Enders in costume









Anyone remember the days when the BBC made quality period dramas?


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## langtoftlad (Mar 31, 2007)

JoT said:


> Anyone remember the days when the BBC made quality period dramas?


Not BBC made

_"BBC Two has acquired the exclusive rights from Sony Pictures Television International to broadcast The Tudors... The Tudors is produced by Peace Arch and TM Productions in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Showtime Network... "_ BBC Press Office.

Unfortunately, I doubt the BBC has the cash to make one episode let alone ten.


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

langtoftlad said:


> JoT said:
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> > Anyone remember the days when the BBC made quality period dramas?
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I wonder how much they spent to buy the rights









Apparently it has won Emmy awards







I dont get it


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

JoT said:



> Anyone remember the days when the BBC made quality period dramas?


You can catch the last episode of Tenko, Season Three on UKTV History +1, right now if you hurry.

Not as good as the first two seasons with Louise Jameson and Stephanie Beacham







I think it all started to go wrong around the mid-1980's for BBC drama.


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

rhaythorne said:


> JoT said:
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I am only on Freeview Rich


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

There's lots of good vintage stuff emerging on DVD now though









_Secret Army_ and _Survivors_ are two BBC favourites I've mentioned before. I'm toying with the idea of tracking down _Poldark_ which seems to have been deleted for the moment but there are a few second-hand copies floating about.

And some good ITV series too. _The Professionals_ and _The Sweeney_ are obvious candidates for purchase. I got another Euston Films classic recently; _Widows_, remember that? Still struggling to find _The Fear_ though which seems to have been overlooked for release or maybe has contractual problems perhaps?


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

rhaythorne said:


> There's lots of good vintage stuff emerging on DVD now though
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ITV4 are running the Sweeney now and were running the Professionals up until a couple of months ago .... as well as watch spotting I enjot trying to guess the locations







Sad I know









I saw the classic WW2 propaganda film "The Way Forward" on Film4 last week ... I was stunned by how good it was .... I can also see where they got the ending for "All The Kings Men" from.


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## unlcky alf (Nov 19, 2006)

rhaythorne said:


> There's lots of good vintage stuff emerging on DVD now though
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Wasn't "Widows" a Linda La Plante series?

Does anyone remember a series from the early 80's about an outbreak of Rabies? I have no idea what it was called, but I enjoyed it at the time. I thought that "Threads" was very good, but my all time favourite was "The Edge Of Darkness", I don't think anyone's going to top that one.

There have been some decent productions recently, "Jekyll" springs to mind, it was a daft story but I find James Nesbitt very entertaining, and it wasn't yet another police related drama, which seems to be about all that the Television companies are producing these days. I'm sick to death of police dramas, except of course for "Life On Mars", which was brilliant.


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

I remember the 'Flambards' a series about posh WW1 era avaitors?

The music used to freak me out...

And as mentioned before, Sapphire and Steel was scary too.....


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## Bladerunner (Jun 4, 2006)

Poldark is a good series & well worth getting on DVD as is the Onedin Line IMHO. Rich - will pm you about Poldark









Have to agree with you Jase - the music to Flambards was a bit too etheral....

Sapphire & Steel scary!? Not the word I would have used for it!









Others I would suggest worth watching are _Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy _& _Smileys People _both with the late Sir Alec Guiness based on the John LeCarre novels.


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

JoT said:



> ITV4 are running the Sweeney now and were running the Professionals up until a couple of months ago .... as well as watch spotting I enjot trying to guess the locations
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I do that too







Lots of it seems to be based around Peckham / South London.

unlckyalf said:



> Wasn't "Widows" a Linda La Plante series?
> 
> Does anyone remember a series from the early 80's about an outbreak of Rabies? I have no idea what it was called, but I enjoyed it at the time.


Yes, _Widows_ was penned by Lynda Plante. An armed robbery (filmed along Waterloo Bridge and in the Strand Underpass) goes terribly wrong and the robbers are all killed (or are they?). Dorothy (Dolly) Rawlins and the other robbers' widows discover the detailed plans of the plot and decide to re-enact it and perform the robbery themselves. I've got all of _Prime Suspect_ to get through too









The rabies drama may be _The Mad Death_. If I remember rightly, a cat is smuggled into the UK without going through quarantine after being bitten by a fox abroad and this instigates the spread of rabies in the UK. I remember being really shocked by the scene where a rabid fox, foaming at the mouth, slams itself against a car window, desperately trying to attack the person inside. I saw it again a few years later and this time was aware that the "fox" was little more than a glove puppet, not impressive or scary at all







Enjoyable at the time though, as you say.

bladerunner said:



> Poldark is a good series & well worth getting on DVD as is the Onedin Line IMHO. Rich - will pm you about Poldark


Nice one


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## hippo (Jun 27, 2006)

Had my first real job working in Peckham, for a photographer called Dick Painter (100% true).


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## Bladerunner (Jun 4, 2006)

Yes, Edge of Darkness is superb, though it gets somewhat bleaker after the main characters break into "Northmoor".

Another series was _The Sandbaggers _with Roy Marsden; anyone else remember it?


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## langtoftlad (Mar 31, 2007)

Oh Boy! I love these threads. Remembering forgotten gems - just hoovering Widows from the Inter-Webby now. Thanks for the nudge


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## Russ (Feb 7, 2006)

JoT said:


> The Tudors .... what a load of crap ..... like East Enders in costume
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The words 'Period Drama' fill me with dread....

The BBC seems to run a charity where it allows out of work actors to fart around in costumes while we all pick up the bill.


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

[quote Remembering forgotten gems...


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## JoT (Aug 12, 2003)

Russ said:


> JoT said:
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> > The Tudors .... what a load of crap ..... like East Enders in costume
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I agree with respect to the BBC of today, but it wasn't always like that

In 1970 the BBC aired "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" it was an excellent series and Keith Michell who played Henry was brilliant. They followed this up with Elizabeth R also a first rate series, with Glenda Jackson playing the lead role.

Now they are airing a series about young Henry (which I now know they didn't make) which is dumbed down with a bit of tits and ass thrown in, dreadful dialogue, wooden acting, and such wonderful bloopers as tarmac driveways, music from a later era and modern radiators in the kings bedroom! Just to add insult to injury they have just bought the second series







They should never buy anything that originates in Canada or Australia!

From the modern series the only one which was done well was "Rome" although the BBC were junior partners to RAI and HBO; historical inaccuracies aside it was well done and the performance of Kevin McKidd and especially Ray Stevenson in the lead roles was very good. The tits and ass content was also a lot higher standard than in "The Tudors"


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## unlcky alf (Nov 19, 2006)

rhaythorne said:


> JoT said:
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Thanks Rich, I'll keep a look out for it now, it's bound to be shown again on one of the satellite channels, although I suspect that it'll be dissapointing nowadays, much like the "Day of the Triffids". "Survivors" held up pretty well though.

I never used to like "Allo Allo" Chris, then I moved to rural France and realised that the entire cast of French characters were based on real people, and they all live in my village. Even funnier was the realisation that, to them, I must sound like Arthur Bostrom's gendarme character.

Has anyone seen the new BBC take on "Robin Hoodie"? What an utter load of sh**e. How can the same organisation that brought us "I Claudius" have sunk to producing sewage like that?


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## rhaythorne (Jan 12, 2004)

Oddly enough, many of the _'Allo 'Allo!_ characters genuinely are based on real people and they're taken almost character for character from those portrayed in _Secret Army_. The most interesting is probably Michelle ("Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once") from the Resistance, played by Kirsten Cooke. In _Secret Army_, that character is Lisa Colbert, code name "Yvette", played by Jan Francis. In real life, she was a 24 year old Belgian nurse called AndrÃ©e de Jongh, code name "DÃ©dÃ©e" who, with her father Frederic, set up the ComÃ¨te Line - an evasion line which helped downed British pilots escape back to Britain through occupied western Europe. Her father was arrested by the Gestapo in June 1943 and was executed, but she evaded capture until January 1944 whereupon she was sent to Ravensbrueck concentration camp. She survived there until liberation in April 1945.


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## alexeberlin (Oct 16, 2007)

The Sandbaggers was a brilliant series..got them all on DVD.

I probably owe my watch fixation to the Professionals


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

unlcky alf said:


> Has anyone seen the new BBC take on "Robin Hoodie"? What an utter load of sh**e.


I love Robin Hood, yes it has hardly any historical acuracy but it's primarily a kids / family fun saturday evening show

and of course the lovely Lucy Griffiths is in it!










Oh and the 710 adores Richard Armitage


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## langtoftlad (Mar 31, 2007)

If anyone is motivated to download any of these vintage series being discussed, then may I suggest The Box Website where many can be found.

I've found Widows Series 1 & 2 and now three series of Sandbaggers


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