August 12, 2010

The Best of Britain

A Television Article by Bill Kunkel

Now that we've blown off the requisite number of fingers necessary for the appropriate celebration of another Fourth of July, I find myself thinking a lot about the colonial oppressors against whom we fought our revolution.

And you know what? Maybe we should have stuck around with them the way Canada did, because those Brits not only appreciate American culture – music, movies, TV, videogames – they frequently improve upon it.

So, as the last remnants of bottle rockets are disposed of, I began to think back on some of my favorite U.K. televisions shows (series and mini-series alike) and these were the first few that came to mind. The rest will appear in the second installment of this column, same site, same channel.

* The Avengers (1961-69)
You could rarely make the rounds of a TV set in the 60s without running into a Spy Show and, in the wake of the Bond movies' "Star Wars"-like impact on American media, many of the spies were, like .007, Brits. Nonetheless, these TV spies came in all flavors. There were mainstream "buddy" series like "I Spy"; there were spoof spies ("Get Smart") and there were tongue-in-cheek spies ("The Man from U.N.C.L.E." and "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E."), but the best spies remained English spies.

Patrick McGoohan's "Danger Man" was pretty good stuff, but when it spun off into "The Prisoner", it became a chapter in television history. But the best spy show out there throughout the entire 60s was, without a doubt, "The Avengers."

Originally spun off from a show called "Police Surgeon", which was a dud until the character of suave MI6 op John Steed (Patrick Macnee) was introduced. As often happens in continuity-based entertainment forms, secondary characters often wind up taking over an entire TV show, movie, comic book, etc. Just ask Fonzie. (Krotchy and the Postal Babes were unavailable for comment.)

Once Steed was paired with a hot female operative (Honor Blackman, the original Bond Girl "Pussy Galore"), the boilerplate for this series was reinvented and, presto, it was now an intelligent and risqué spy series that nonetheless laughed up its sleeve at the conventions of the spy drama.

But as the show began its third season, a volcanic casting change took place. The show was on its way to America, would be shot in color and Blackman's Cathy Gale was replaced by Diana Riggs' iconic Emma Peel. Riggs was the sexiest woman on English-speaking TV in the 60s and the "Emm-appeal" of her character, from the functional-yet-fashionable leather jumpsuit wardrobe to her mastery of the martial arts, made her among the most formidable figures at the dawn of the women's' liberation movement. (Comic book scribe Denny O'Neil even revamped Diana Prince/Wonder Woman into a jump-suited, Peel-like figure in an attempt to reboot the ailing Wonder Woman series.)

With writers like Brian Clemens and well-schooled BBC directors churning out a perfect combination of class, kink and kinetics, the show broke new ground with everything from the comic book transition scenes in "Winged Avenger" to US TV's first dungeon scene with Emma in peril at the hands of the Hellfire Club in the episode "A Touch of Brimstone."

Peel left in 1967 and Linda Thorsen was given the thankless task of trying to follow an icon. The show was briefly revived by series creator Sydney Newman in the form of a Canadian production dubbed "The New Avengers" with none other than Ab-Fab's Joanna Lumley playing up to perfect gentleman Macnee. They still had writers like Clemens contributing scripts and it wasn't bad, but without the M-appeal, The Avengers was never the same.

But at its best, this series was bulletproof.

* Fawlty Towers (1975 and 1979)
Many excellent projects have emerged from the birthing chamber called "Monty Python's Flying Circus" but none of them produced as many power laughs per minute as this amazing compendium of physical comedy about a third-rate English bed & breakfast/boarding house/hotel and its owner, a ball of fury and contempt named Basil Fawltey, played to riotous perfection by John Cleese. Fawltey is a pretentious social climber whose own machinations invariably foil his grandiose ambitions. And when that happens, the rage seems to erupt from Cleese's body like sweat off a marathon runner.

Only 12 shows were filmed – half a dozen in 1975 and six more in 1979 – but their relentless watchability makes this a member of my hall of fame. Whether Basil is physically assaulting Andrew Sachs (as hapless Spanish-speaking hotel employee and whipping boy Manuel), or grievously offending a group of visiting German tourists when he starts an argument while under the influence of prescription drugs, he makes you tremble with laughter. For example, when the Germans beg him to stop the insane squabble he has created, Basil chides them: "But you started it!"

Almost speechless, the Germans look to one another and object: "No, YOU started it!"

"YOU started it," Fawltey insists. "YOU invaded Poland."

The Forsythe Saga (1967)
When this series launched in England, it practically invented the mini-series. When the show was broadcast each week, the streets of the UK would supposedly empty as the citizenry religiously viewed this dramatization of John Galsworthy's epic saga of Victorian life as told through the lives of a prosperous, upper middle class London family.

The acting (by Eric Porter, John Barcroft, Nyree Dawn Porter, Kenneth More and a thoroughbred cast), writing and sets were all top grade (though due to a cameraman's strike, the show was unfortunately shot in black and white) and the series drew relatively stunning ratings for PBS when all 26 episodes were aired in the USA.

* UFO (Gerry Anderson)
The Brits have traditionally done sci-fi and supernatural TV as well as or better than anybody. Stuff like "Dr. Who" (Tom Baker version especially) and the Quatermass series, even given the most minimal "special" effects, demonstrate a genuine knack for the stuff (a tradition being upheld to this day by series such as "Being Human").

But perhaps the most compelling and visually arresting of these shows came courtesy of "Supermarionation" master Gerry Anderson, the fellow who brought us "Supercar", "Thunderbirds", "Fireball XL5" and "Space: 1999" among other series. And given all the TV content that Gerry (and wife Sylvia) Anderson's have produced, it was their first live-action effort (under their Century 21 banner) – "UFO" – that holds the warmest place in my memory. The idea behind the show involved a secret war being waged against Earth by an unknown alien race, complete with secret military organizations, abductions and organ theft. And boy, did they do it well.

The actors did the acting here, instead of the jerky marionettes seen in previous Anderson efforts, and the spacecraft models were reserved for the special effects scenes. Under the cover of running a film studio, Commander Straker (Canadian actor Ed Bishop) actually oversaw SHADO., a multi-layered defense and detection system with bases on the moon, here on Earth and under the sea (the sub sea structure housed the formidable Skydiver, a submarine that launched a piloted attack fighter from its front-mounted torpedo tube). The battles between the spinning, saucer-like alien assault vehicles and the SHADO fighters made for some amazingly good science fiction action, while the character dramas that created the show's subtext were always intelligent and well written. They even managed to squeeze in some interesting science.

As it later did with "Space: 1999" (heavily influenced in terms of sets, props, costuming, etc. by UFO), Century 21 had a merchandising deal with the legendary Dinky Toy company to produce magnificent metal models of the various vehicles seen on the show.

In the second and concluding installment of our look at the best in English TV, we'll take a look at classic Brit comedies, from Spike Milligan's "Q" shows and "The Rutles" to "Yes, Minister" and "Blackadder". Then there are the Just Plain Classics, such as "I, Claudius" and "The Naked Civil Servant".

Cheers until then.

--Bill Kunkel

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