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Post by Future-Diver on Apr 10, 2024 8:56:44 GMT
I don't know how many times I saw this before I suddenly realized John Normington was the same guy who'd been the main villain in THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI! Yes - Normington as Morgus is simply excellent in Androzani and Trevor Sigma's one of my favourite characters in The Happiness Patrol. John Normington has a brief role in the superb SF/Horror film; The Medusa Touch (1978).
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Post by profh0011 on Apr 10, 2024 18:19:04 GMT
It always amazes me when you have an actor playing such totally-different characters, yet with no special make-up or changes in appearance. The guy's face is right there, yet, somehow, I DIDN'T realize I'd seen him before or where!
Would you believe it? The same thing happened with me with Milton Johns-- who was in both " The Android Invasion" and " The Invasion Of Time" (which, over here, arrived in the SAME 4-season package of episodes). I've seen him in other things since, but by then, I knew who he was and would immediately think, " OH, it's HIM!" (I believe he played Adolph Eichmann once.) Jack Kirby's character "Desaad" physically reminds me of him, making me wonder if there could have been anything Kirby might have seen him in in the late 60s or so. He was also in a CAMPION story with Peter Davison.
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Post by GC on Sept 13, 2024 18:29:18 GMT
Sylvester McCoy, Sheila Hancock and the creators of Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol | BFI Q&A
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Post by Future-Diver on Sept 17, 2024 5:56:41 GMT
Would you believe it? The same thing happened with me with Milton Johns-- who was in both "The Android Invasion" and "The Invasion Of Time" (which, over here, arrived in the SAME 4-season package of episodes). I've seen him in other things since, but by then, I knew who he was and would immediately think, "OH, it's HIM!" (I believe he played Adolph Eichmann once.) Jack Kirby's character "Desaad" physically reminds me of him, making me wonder if there could have been anything Kirby might have seen him in in the late 60s or so. He was also in a CAMPION story with Peter Davison. Dont forget, he also played Benik in The Enemy Of The World. Milton Johns was a familiar face on British telly throughout the '60s,'70s and '80s - appearing in all sorts of TV programmes - Poldark, Some Mothers's Do 'Ave 'Em, The Good Life, Going Straight, Coronation Street, etc. You're right, he played the Nazi officer Adolph Eichmann in the mini-series War and Remembrance (1988). I've not yet seen The Intruder, an acclaimed children's TV series from 1972, in which he plays a mysterious character called Sonny. Have you watched this series? It looks very interesting (but is a bit pricey on DVD)..
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Post by iank on Sept 17, 2024 6:00:55 GMT
Never mind, no he wasn't,
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Post by profh0011 on Sept 17, 2024 15:36:58 GMT
Dont forget, he also played Benik in The Enemy Of The World. You're right, he played the Nazi officer Adolph Eichmann in the mini-series War and Remembrance (1988). If I'm around long enough to do it, I'd love to upgrade my massive DOCTOR WHO collection to Blu-Rays. But as of now, the only thing I've got in my collection that wasn't on PBS in the 80s is "The Tomb Of The Cybermen", which I got on VHS right when it came out.
My Dad taped both THE WINDS OF WAR and WAR AND REMEMBRANCE, and about 10 years ago, I sat thru both of them. It was quite a harrowing experience.
Nobody seems to mention this, but both Herman Wouk books are structured like a colossal SOAP-OPERA, given how it focuses on a single extended family during the time before and and through World War 2. So it kinda makes sense that Dan Curtis, who created DARK SHADOWS, should be the guy in charge of it, albeit on a MASSIVE scale. I was just listening to an interview with Barbara Steele. She talked about how leaving Italy was the worst decision she ever made, but, she'd fallen in love and gotten married to a man who lived in California, so she followed him there. Having spent many years in the Italian film industry, where people simply OFFERED roles to actors, she could not tolerate doing auditions in Hollywood! So she segued into producing. Having lived in Europe for so many years, Curtis hired her as associate producer to scout locations for THE WINDS OF WAR, and when they moved into WAR AND REMEMBRANCE, she got promoted to full Producer. With the multitude of location filming, the massive cast (all of who had "alternate" actors on contract in case someone couldn't make it all the way through the project), it took around 3 years to do and she described it as the equivalent of making 27 FEATURE FILMS back to back.
I found THE WINDS OF WAR interesting and refreshing as it was the first time I had ever seen Russians portrayed in a positive light in a Hollywood film. However, WAR AND REMEMBRANCE dragged on too long, and the subplot about the guy who found himself stuck in Europe, escaping to France, then being arrested and sent back to Germany, then Poland, then a concentration camp, then the GAS CHAMBER... to me, just made me NEVER, EVER want to sit through the interminable thing again.
What I found utterly baffling... was, after watching DARK SHADOWS and so many of Curtis' 1970s tv movies over the years, I felt he had a recognizable style. But I could see NONE of it in this Herman Wouk thing. Steele said Curtis really came into his own doing it, but if so, to me, he became someone completely different than the director whose work I'd seen for nearly 2 decades before that.
Again, when I thought about it, it made sense for Curtis to tackle this project, as it was a combination SOAP-OPERA and REAL-LIFE horror story!!-- which was MUCH more disturbing than any supernatural horror story could ever be.
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Post by dsjr on Sept 25, 2024 23:02:05 GMT
Like many fans, I kind of winced at Happiness Patrol to start with, and then the penny kind of dropped later and I've grown to regard it as a secret pleasure, it's so angry at the state of the UK at that time. Currently, our state is forcing us to be miserable early-in to a new government with an opposite but similar vibe (if that makes any sense at all), maybe giving us a few tid-bits come next election.
So, maybe in opposition to many others and Candy Man an' all, I can't help but love it!
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Post by dsjr on Sept 27, 2024 22:38:38 GMT
Interesting in the commentaries again. Apparently, the BBC higher-ups weren't interested in the show and regarded it as dirtying their hands if they got involved. J N-T wanted to go into light entertainment, which was also out of fashion back then and he was concerned about his mack of a comprehensive CV. Many fans also didn't like the way the show was going, altghough maybe that's softened now. All I can say os that Sylve 'does' dark, quiet and moody, brilliantly, but falls apart if asked to channel the character's inner '6th.'
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Post by rapscallion on Sept 28, 2024 9:39:49 GMT
Many fans also didn't like the way the show was going, altghough maybe that's softened now. For me, it was Season 26 that turned it around. I was a lot more forgiving of the 7th Doctor's era as a whole once I'd seen The Curse Of Fenric and could see that the programme was taking itself seriously. But if the whole of that era had been in the same camp style as the first three-quarters of Season 24 then I'd probably still be avoiding it.
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Post by dsjr on Sept 28, 2024 21:49:12 GMT
Many fans also didn't like the way the show was going, altghough maybe that's softened now. For me, it was Season 26 that turned it around. I was a lot more forgiving of the 7th Doctor's era as a whole once I'd seen The Curse Of Fenric and could see that the programme was taking itself seriously. But if the whole of that era had been in the same camp style as the first three-quarters of Season 24 then I'd probably still be avoiding it. The commentators on this story still insist that the show wasn't 'camp' and maybe by todays standards, it was silly more than anything. Some of the background music is enchanting and soulful, which really helps make it I think. I still think 'Fifi' was awful and comments were made about the over-lit 'indoor' sets...
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