Two of my ongoing passions came together quite pleasantly today.
One of them is my interest in old TV programs. Every now and then, disappointed by the quality of fare offered on the 100s of TV channels at my disposition I think back nostalgically to programmes of yore. I then usually start on an Amazon / ebay hunt to see if I can find DVDs of stuff you simply never see broadcast these days. I have managed to pull together episodes of “Public Eye”, “Danger Man” , “Ghost Squad”, “Interpol” “Gideon’s Way” and even one episode of “The Sentimental Agent” (about which the only thing I could ever remember was the theme tune). Its not that these programmes are substantially better than stuff produced today (although they do stand up remarkably well), its just that I get a remarkably cosy feeling watching them again. I suspect there is also something about black and white that I like too but cannot explain.
Another passion is the radio. We are lucky here in the UK to have a brilliant talk radio service, courtesy of the BBC, with dramas, documentaries and comedies of the highest order broadcast over various media (DAB, FM, Satellite, Internet and pod-casts). There is also an enormous back catalogue available via BBC7. What in the US they call “OTR” (Old Time Radio) is still alive and well in the UK. I record stuff greedily off the Internet, transfer it to my .mp3 player and use it to ease the burden of my daily commute.
These two passions came together today when I discovered that The Avengers (which naturally I have complete on DVD) was also broadcast as a radio serial! It seems that during the 60’s there was no effective TV service in South Africa (people used to hire 16mm film projectors and rent films to show at home). Consequently radio was the main medium and when “The Avengers” became such a hit in Europe and the US, a company called Sonovision produced a set of Avengers adventures for the radio. The voices were provided not by McNee and Rigg but two English actors, Donald Monat and Diane Appleby. The scripts used were the original drafts for the TV series adapted for sound-only. As such they did not incorporate subsequent revisions (of which there were many) that did affect the later TV version and the story differences can be substantial.
You can download all the restored versions here for free! Sound quality is not so hot but it is interesting to hear how Monat and Appleby interpret their parts and how different many of the stories are from the TV equivalent. One interesting aside: they kept with the Emma Peel character even after the TV series had changed to Tara King just by changing the references to “Miss King” to “Mrs Peel” and using the same actress. The net result must have been confusing for listeners since the Emma Peel of earlier episodes (with a PhD and proficient in martial arts) inexplicably became incapable of reading a map, clumsy and frequently helpless.
Pet Peeves
It was in thinking about my habit of recording stuff to play back at my leisure that I was reminded of another of my bugbears – the way ti
me is represented. There are two issues here. One of them is the old saw about 24-hr clock versus this a.m. / p.m. nonsense. Whoops I’ve given away which side I’m on. Well really – we live in a 24 hour world with round-the clock services where “7:00″ is just as likely to mean a.m. or p.m. Its not just that we don’t need the a.m. and p.m. stuff (the time can be expressed more efficiently and unambiguously as either 07:00 or 19:00) it is also that it is frequently forgotten leading to confusion and mistakes. But whichever side you are on in this argument there is the other issue – TV and Radio Listings.
I don’t know where you get your listings info from but all the sources I use seem to have unilaterally decided that the “day” begins at 07:00 (am) and ends at 06:59 (am). Want to know what will be on the TV at 6:00 Monday morning? You will find it listed as a “late night” programme on Sunday in TV guides, newspapers and websites everywhere. Why???
The fact is we are increasingly moving to the point where everything that can be broadcast may well be accessed by people all over the world so these cultural peculiarities of the host broadcasting companies or listings agencies are becoming a hindrance – particularly if you are programming something to pick up the broadcast.
Right I feel better now. Time for a game.
Games
Today’s offering – Hoshi Saga - is not so much a game as a set of 30 or so little puzzles – some would even say adventures of discovery. Each little box when opened will reveal “something” (exactly what varies) which, when you interact with it in some way (that’s for you to find out) will reveal a star. Find the star and you can move on to the next one. Its beautifully done – and its all in black and white! Mmmm…
That’s all for today. My kids are bouncing on the bed again – more repairs on the way I think…
