Reviews

I am currently watching the sequel to this show "Hadleigh" starring Gerald Harper which is at times a glorified soap opera. I wanted to see where the idea for "Hadleigh" came from and its from this brilliant but obscure TV series from a fledgling YTV.

The pilot packs a real punch and draws you in, and I can't understand whilst it's not better known.

I am not sure if it was ever shown in colour as the production company YTV had colour equipment from the start, but it comes across in gritty black and white and is none the worse for it.

One thing that irritates is the over use of Yorkshire dialect with people saying "shut your gob" and silly things like that., but I guess the series was finding its own level.

Recommended. I am binge watching the series, but its a shame its not on TV more often.

One for Talking Pictures TV to show?

Hadleigh should be cult viewing, like The Prisoner or The Avengers, but uneven script writing means it is seldom seen. The first series was the best, but season two and three come across as glorified soap operas. This isnt a bad thing, given that back in the day this is what people wanted, but the series went downhill in this writers opinion. However, series four starts with a bang. Clever writing and his wife no longer around. Maybe she was in pantomime in Rotherham. I will be watching the next episode tomorrow, and cant wait, which means the series has got exciting again, but the uneven quality of the stories and scripts meant this would be the last series.

I was waiting for midnight when i could book an online shopping slot, and was flicking around for something to watch and found this film. It looked like a Quatermass ripoff, but if thats what made money at the time, then you cant blame the producers for giving people what they wanted. As soon as the film started, I remembered it was one I had seen in the 70's as a teenager at a house of a friend of my late father. I recall at the time, we were watching the film on a valve TV with a weird tuning dial and an aerial connection that I must not touch cos it might give me a shock. Anyway, at the time in the 70's it still looked high tech, but now it looked so old fashioned. However, despite its budget, I really enjoyed it. I kept thinking the main guy was the actor from Daktari, but the story and production was well worth watching. Recommended.

I have been a Norman Wisdom film since my pre teen days, when they showed them every tuesday night on TV. I couldnt get enough of his films, so funny, such a great snapshot of england in the 50's. As with all great artists, he made the occasional questionable film, notably "the girl on the boat", and fans are divided by "Whats good for the goose", but he made a lot of other great films, too many list here. I thought I had seen them all, til i learned about this film a few years ago, and how it was only shown for a few days, then pulled, as the film company didnt have the rights to the film. What a frustration, a film by one of my all time comic heroes, was there in the vaults and it couldnt be seen. I since learned it had been shown on TV twice in the 60's, so chances are I had actually seen it at the time, but i would only been about five and wouldnt remember it.

And then the unbeleivable happened, they were going to release it on DVD. Oh happy day!!!

Here comes the serious bit, it was supposed to be digitally restored, but the it still looked like an old print, even though technically the prints wouldnt have been shown that much, so most of the original copies should have been pristine.

Down to the film itself, Norman doesnt play his usual "gump", but he doesnt play it straight either. What you get is Norman trying to move onto to something better, and develop his gump character, but it wasnt the crowd pleaser, and it didnt sell well at the time. Was this the reason why it was originally pulled? The sleeve note seem to indicate this, but why has it gone unseen for 50 years? My two cents goes with the original copyright holder passing on, and that meant it could be shown again. Maybe we will never know, but at least its out there.

Down to the nitty gritty, was it worth the wait? The film has an odd story line, and takes some beleiving, but there are funny moments, and its worth watching, but time hasnt done it any favours, and maybe people nit pick about things more nowadays, something that brings to light the films shortcomings. Now dont get me wrong, i will be watching this again, and again and again and again. Its a long lost film that i should have seen a million times since the early 70's, and i think it will get better each time i see it.

Imagine there was a long lost episode of star trek, and it met a mixed reaction, you would be grateful to have a chance to watch, and you would watch it again and again...this is like this.

This would make great material for "Talking Pictures" TV, but its not as good as his best things like "man of the moment" , "trouble in store" or "on the beat", but better than the one with the lady on the boat.

Recommended for fans...........other people will watch it once, and then probably erase it from their set top box.

Me? I will watch it again and again.

I would have given five out five if the picture quality was pristine 35mm, but it was worth the 50 year wait in any form :)

Hadleigh is one of those series from the early 70's you dont remember, but recall seeing it in The TV times of the day. Watching the first two series were a bit of a curates egg, good in parts. Series Three is a revamp, or reboot as we would say now. However here is my concern, the writing is so sloopy it could have been written by a 16 year old school boy trying to pass his o levels. No doubt the producers thought it boost the ratings, but I found it boring and wrong. As they say, it it aint broke dont fixt it. Oh wait, its broke., Its like this, I have paid for the DVD and will watch the rest, but come on, no wonder it only lasted four seasons....

I know this is a TV movie remake of the original film, but I havent seen the original film, so I watched it with an open mind. To be honest, I quite enjoyed the film as the script was clever and made you think. If I watch a film, I give it to the commercial break and then make a decision whether I want to watch it, and after the first commercial break was over I carried on watching. The film has the good guys and the bad guys, but by the end of the film they seem to fight each other for about half an hour with the LOUDEST film sound track you ever heard. And here is the point, the LOUD film sound track make you want to turn it off, but you want to see how it ends. The end is worth waiting for, but to be honest, you wouldnt wanna watch the film again, Recommended you watch it, but dont bother with it again....

I watch a lot of TV from the late 60's and early 70's on DVD, and a common theme is the demolition of slums and the building of new flats......flats that have now been pulled down and people are now back in new houses.

This episode tells the story of how a little girl dies and how Hadleigh gets involved to help the father get justice.

I wont give any spoilers on this, but the gritty story is well written and makes you give it your full attention.

The story is not predictable as so many modern shows would be, but ends happily for the father of the deceasd child, but badly for Hadleigh.

There is a seond story about a farm show, but that is really only there to aid the progress of the main story.

Recommended and then some.

I am a great fan of mid 60's American films by the likes of Elvis and Jerry Lewis and was surprised that I had missed this gem. It almost felt like sequel to an Elvis film and the eye candy of Ann-Margret draws you in. You could almost take this as a serious film at the start, but it soon becomes toungue in cheek.

What becomes a good plot rapidly goes weird in the final reel. Its as if the director had run out of ideas and decided to make the final part of the film as some mad wacky chase scene. Fine, thats the way a lot of films end, but in this instance you are left wondering what's going on and how did we get there?

Brilliant 60's decor, but silly ending lets it down.

Recommended you watch it once, just to say you have seen it, but I will stick to my Elvis films ongoing.

I dont recall this being shown when first transmitted, and its no cult classic, but if you are a fan of whats left of early 70's drama its worth watching. This was a sequel to an earlier show called Gazette, but I dont remember that either. The initial problem with this series is that the pilot is rather lacklustre and I didnt really think I would stick with it. I am guessing that if you saw the Gazette series, it would naturally follow on from that. However, I continued to watch and found it to be more entertaining, and I will stick with it til the end, which will taking a lot of watching as they made a lot of series. Ignore the false painted backgrounds, and sit and be entertained by some clever stories and clever writing. Recommended.

When I was a child in the 70's, there were lots of Cliff Richard films on like "Summer Holiday", "The Young Ones " and "Wonderful Life" full of the same supporting actors singing songs for mums and dads making him an "alrounder entertainer". Then the 60's moved on and these films went out of fashion and Cliff made the bizarre "Finders Keepers" about a discarded bomb, that was probably only on TV once on a Bank Holiday in 1972. "Two a Penny" is an oddity, that I dont think was ever on TV and features Cliff Richard playing a bad guy for once. His girlfriend attends a Billy Graham convention and finds God, but the character Cliff plays is not convinced. Hers is the problem with the film, is it a film to promote Billy Graham, or is it an chance for Cliff to play a bag guy? The whole thing comes across as a script for the TV show "Budgie", with Cliff Richard playing the Adam Faith part. I enjoyed it, dont get me wrong, but was confused why they made it in the first place? Recommended, but it remains an oddity!

I stumbled on this show on BBC Four and was amazed that I had not seen it before. Its full broadcast quality in glorious PAL colour from 1968. I am not a fan of country music per se, but found this to be a guilty pleasure. However sometimes the music seems to be the same arrangement of the same kind of song. The thinking is "if it aint broke, dont fix it" but that strummed seventh note on the guitar motif on a lot of the songs gets annoying after a while. Another criticism is that she seems to be miming a lot to the original record in the background, but a lot of shows were like that back then. Its a shame that we cant see all 18 shows, but the five that survive more than make up for it. One last thing, she carries an acoustic guitar around with her, but doesnt seem to actually play it? But then as a guitarist myself that might be a bit of nit picking. Recommended and then some.

I love Sci fi films, and this looks like it could have been as epic as the film 2001. The effects are brilliant, you can beleive the film is for real, but the story line goes down hill almost from the start. It starts with "oxygen levels four percent" and loud bleeping, and buzzes filling the soundtrack. Then something haopens and Sandra Bullock goes. "no no no no no no no" and then a lot of wide angles and bodies whizzing about, and then they just make it. Phew. Then ten minutes the whols scene is repeated and its back to "no no no no no no no" until the crisis is averted. And then it repeats yet again...and again.... Not recommended.

I can recall this series first being shown on TV, and it was like "wow" its pretty good. Time hasnt done it any favours. Whilst the premise of the series is good ie "rich playboys solve crime", it all comes across as a "Jason King" where a lot of flash and fashion is supposed to make a good TV show. My problem with this episode is everything is as a a lighter shade of blue ie they eyes of the ladies are blue, the wallpaper is blue, the gunman is dressed is blue, so it goes. It might have been great for the early 70's Colour TV's we had in England, but it came across as a silly gimmick. Recommended for a few episodes, but I dont think I could watch more than one episode at a sitting..

This is one of those films that you saw once as a child many years ago, and it left a great impression on you, but after a few decades you remember the film but cant remember its name. I recenly caught up with it on Satellite TV and was hooked. The camera angles are superb, the cinematography is amongst the worlds best but the story is odd to say the least. I started to watch it and then wondered if I would see it through to the end, and I am glad I did. There is notling like this at all in any other film. You end the film wondering what it was all about in a good way. I like films that make you think, that are not just passive repetition of things you have already seen. Recommended, but wait a year or two before you watch it again.