Quote: Billy Bunter @ 9th August 2020, 9:33 PMAm enjoying the re-runs of William Tell (with Conrad Phillips) & Robin Hood (Richard Greene).
Amazing the people that turn up in them too: Leslie Phillips, Sid James, Paul Eddington, Alfred Burke, Michael Caine...,
... And in tonight's Robin Hood, the 11 year old Prince Arthur was played by Peter Asher, brother of Jane, and one half of Peter & Gordon of "World without Love" fame.
I saw that Irene Handel was going to be in "For the Love of Ada" but I could only take 10 minutes.
Quote: john tregorran @ 29th August 2020, 9:40 PMYes,it is.With a young Thora Hird having fun shooting people.
And one of my favourite actors Mervyn Johns, albeit it briefly
A possible date for your diary: 11.50am on 23 September TPTV is showing the Val Guest directed "cult sixties outbreak thriller", 80,000 Suspects (no me neither). about an epidemic sweeping England and the attempt to control it. Might make interesting viewing in the current circumstances.
Now It Can Be Told (1944)
Superb and genuine WWII story from the IWM of the undercover agents flown into France who used every means possible to destroy the Nazi advancement towards the UK, and every person in this 68 minute film was playing themselves, which meant for a little bit of stilted acting with cut glass BBC accents, but that was easy to overcome when you realised that this was the actual people involved, it being a small miracle that any of them came out of it alive.
Parachuted in, with bombs, radios etc. etc AT NIGHT, then having to set up a local network of French agents with all that entails that can go so very, very wrong - you can't help but admire their courage.
Brilliant and gripping from start to end.
I love watching Robin Hood at 5.30 on a Sunday afternoon.
There's usually some humour and it's fun trying to recognise the old actors. Only 30 minutes an episode too.
Flying with Prudence (1946)
A short information film for pilots who may have become too blasé about their job, with the Prudence being an attractive girl who keeps appearing to him (his conscience maybe?) putting him right on his lazy attitude to flying his passenger plane. The pilot is the only one who sees the girl, but in the end the navigator, who is also a bit slapdash, sees her when she reprimands him too.
Only two people listed in the cast, although there were many more in this 50 minute "training" film and I'd never heard of either of them - apparently the girl, Patricia Cutts was another case of suicide aged 48.
Enjoying the re-run of Enemy at the Door on Sunday evenings. I never watched it first time round. With our very own Jeffrey Fairbrother as the SS Officer, of course, before he went on to become Camp Commander at Crimpton on Sea.
Ditto me and my wife with "Public Eye". We watched them all about 5 years ago on DVD, and now it saves me trying to find that box set to enjoy again. Love Alfred Burke as the (no, not private detective) enquiry agent, although at the moment it's the surviving B&W episodes, post him coming out of prison before he starts his business up again.
I've been enjoying enemy at the door as well but before it was advertised on tptv don't think I ever heard of it
Read All About It (1945)
Unusual IWM short via the Army Kinematograph Service, via The War Office, with Ealing Studios paying for it - the sole purpose it seems was to explain the way three different newspapers handle the news i.e. a tabloid, middle of the road and up market broadsheet, especially relating to a striptease at the local theatre compared to the outbreak of a war in Eastern Europe. So not the usual propaganda film, so I wondered what the point was - perhaps now the war was over, they had some money spare and decided to blow it.
Nobody received a casting credit - the main actors being John Laurie with barely a Scottish accent, Alfie Bass with an almost posh accent, which seemed odd, John Slater much the same as he always was and an actor I'd never heard of. So, here's the three of them in a club reading the three different newspapers and not understanding why they each report the news differently and an elder John Laurie enters to explain the reasons.
Quite interesting and I did ponder on the fact the John Laurie and Alfie Bass both went on the play significant parts in an Army based sitcom i.e. Dad's Army and The Army Game.
What's the Next Job? (1945)
Interesting short Ministry of Information film on getting people out of uniform and back into civvy street, with (again) a young well spoken Alfie Bass.
TPTV Calendar 2021 (if there is to be a 2021) available now:
https://www.renownfilms.co.uk/product/the-talking-pictures-calendar-2021/
My calendar has arrived. Very pleased with it. Lots of snippets of information, quotes, notable dates (births, deaths, film releases, etc) as well as pictures (Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Jack Warner, Sam Kydd, Kay Kendall, Norman Wisdom, Honor Blackman) and two months dedicated to "tv sleuths" and "beautiful battleaxes" from Peggy Mount to Rita Webb.
Message from Sarah of Talking Pictures TV:
Hi folks. We need you as the ambassadors of #TPTV to really shout from the roof tops about your favourite channel. Things are tough. We NEED YOU to spread the word now more than ever. Please share this poster and post in any groups or pages you belong to about the channel and things of interest. Now is the time. I cannot tell you how important it is to get the word to more viewers. From the bottom of our hearts we thank yew 
x phone a friend , tell them about a premiere, call your radio station of choice , write to your clubs and magazines, ring your long lost auntie Doris who you haven't spoke to for 59 years and tell her about #TalkingPicturesTv we must be here next year x
The Stable Door (1966)
Wouldn't normally go for 1960s films (unless they were exceptional) and this was an oddity as it was a sort of warning film put out by the insurance industry to show clients (?) how burglars break into warehouses easily when the security is lax.
This was a story of Harry Locke (one of those faces that turn up now and then - he played a main part in Light Up the Sky! comedy film I recently reviewed) coming out of prison and organising a warehouse robbery via his "apprentice" son and a motley crew of faces that included Harry Fowler.
Only ½ hour long B&W, but a good plot and finale.