Posted on November 23, 2024
My Favourite Actresses And Female Stars Of The Seventies
Hi guys, Welcome back to Big Blog Theory, I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m going to be talking about some of my favourite actresses and female sitcom stars of the seventies. A little while ago, I did a post about some of my favourite actors and male sitcom stars. I didn’t have enough time to talk about all of them.
I’ve got way more favourite male actors of the seventies who also deserve a mention, like Paul Eddington, Richard Briers, Brian Murphy, Norman Eshley, Tony an holt, Michael Crawford, Peter Bowles. So many great actors and male sitcom stars. This post, I’m going to be discussing some of my favourite actresses and female sitcom stars.
The first actress from the seventies that I would love to start with is Yootha Joyce. She has starred in quite a few things here and there, but she was mostly known for starring in a TV show called George And Mildred alongside Brian Murphy. I absolutely love George And Mildred, it’s such a good show. I’ve been binge watching this show for the last couple of months, watching episode after episode, I’ve literally been having this show on a loop, it’s so good and so much fun to watch. They’re just the funniest and they’re so good on screen together. I’ve had the pleasure of discovering this wonderful show and watching it and now I’m obsessed with it. George and Mildred are an ill matched couple and Mildred wants love and affection and George doesn’t really give a crap or he does it’s just a facade. Every single episode, she’s like this close to almost murdering him, ha ha. This show is just the best, George and Mildred was the spin off to Man About The House. Man About The House got such a positive response and it was a big success when it came out and the people who watched the show loved George and Mildred and they loved the way they interacted with one another, they decided to give them their own show. Those two shows are just absolutely brilliant. George and Mildred is just great, cosy TV, it’s very lovely and I can’t get enough of it. An absolute well loved classic. The schemes they get up to, their snobbish neighbours that live next door to them. Their son Tristram is just hilarious, I always enjoy watching him and I look forward to seeing what he’ll come out with next. He’s so unfiltered and adorable and bright for his age, curious, always asking questions about things he shouldn’t know about. The actor who plays him must be about 50 something now, it’s crazy. But yeah, I love this show, it just puts a huge smile on my face. I love everyone who’s involved in the show, Brian Murphy who played George, Obviously Yootha who played Mildred, Roy Kinear who played Gerry, the con man who’s always getting them into all sorts of messes, hilarious, especially the scene with the shower saying it’s going to be like the shower scene in Psycho, I’m laughing now just thinking about it. Their next door neighbours, Jeffery Four mile was really awful but really funny, I love Norman’s work.
I just love her, she was absolutely amazing, a terrific actress. She slayed her role as Mildred Roper, I just love her. I’m literally watching an episode of George and Mildred right now as I write this post, it’s probably not a very good idea because I’ll just be watching it for hours and I’ll forget about this post. I’ve discovered some of her other work. She’s been in a few episodes of Step toe and son, she was in this film that came out in the sixties called Sparrows can’t sing with Dame Barbra Windsor which is another old film I love. So many famous British comics in that film. Literally everyone is in it. That’s another great old film that I recommend. She was just incredible and there’s not one bad thing to say about her. Sadly, she’s no longer with us, I think she died in the early eighties. A great loss to us all and to British TV. Such a shame, I really loved her, she just shined in everything she was in even if it was just a small role.
I have read David Barry’s memoir. David Barry played the role of Frankie Abbot in the TV series Please Sir. I have read his book talking about his time working on the show a few months ago and I really loved it. Obviously me being a huge fan of Please Sir.I found it a very interesting, eye opening read. He talked about his experiences of meeting Yootha whilst filming the George and Mildred spin off film. It was really emotional for me to read and it brought a tear to my eye. There was this part where she would tell him about her happy place, her dream place where she always dreamed of going to, find her place in Devon and settle down happily but she never did. And then he wrote something along the lines of ” I hope she found her dream place in the end” I always just loved that. Such a beautiful memoir about a dear friend. She was just an amazing, lovely, incredible, inspiring woman. I recommend you to check her out if you love stuff like this.
The next actress I would like to talk about is Paula Wilcox. She was known for starring in a number of TV programmes and stuff here and there. I know her from The Lovers and Man About The House. Two great shows and she was amazing in both of them, I’ve always really liked her. Always lit up the room with her wonderful personality and she was gorgeous and she was a wonderful actress. I recommend you to check her out. The Lovers was a great show, I adore The Lovers. It’s a sitcom about this couple living in Manchester, she was in this show starring alongside Richard Beckinsale, both incredible and I loved their chemistry on screen, I love Richard even more now that I’ve discovered his really old poetry book full of lovely beautiful tributes that people made about him and I just love it, I’m obsessed with it, so beautiful.
The next actress I love is Hattie Jacques. Hattie was known for starring in the Carry on films. I’ve always loved her in the Carry On films. She has been in other films and TV programmes here and there. Starring in two Norman Wisdom films. Follow A Star in which she played the role of Norman’s opera teacher giving him elocution lessons, those scenes crack me up. And another being The Square Peg which is another fave Norman Wisdom film. She was great in both. I also know her from The TV show Sykes which she did with Eric Sykes in the mid to late seventies. Brilliant show, I love Sykes, it’s so funny. You had such a great cast, you had Derrick Gyler, Richard Wattis, Joan Sims and so many other great actors and actresses. Sykes will always be my favourite show. Hattie and Eric are siblings in the show and they got up to all sorts of schemes and havoc. Great show, one of my favourites. Peter Sellers also made an appearance in one of the episodes too. He played one of Eric’s old school friends who’s a criminal and he’s on the run and he turns up at their house and tries to get Hattie to marry him. It was so funny, I love that episode. I was not expecting him to turn up. I’ve always really liked Hattie, obviously a lot more now because I’ve been watching all of the carry on films, I really adore her. Sadly no longer with us but she’ll always be remembered for her amazing work in film and television
The next actress is Penelope Keith. I really adore Penelope, she was just awesome. There were times when she didn’t even need to say a word, her facial expressions said it all. The Good Life was a show I got into two months ago, I really enjoyed watching this show. It was a slice of the seventies, Tom and Barbra played by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall. Both take it upon themselves to run a farm in their back garden and continue to drive their neighbours Margot and Jerri mad. I loved Jerri, he just made every scene he was in just hilarious. My favourite character in The Good Life, he always made me laugh every time. Paul Eddington was a brilliant actor, I also loved him in Yes Minister a few years later. Penelope was just fantastic in everything she was in, I also loved her in To The Manor Born which is another brilliant show. Both great TV programmes, very lovely and easy to watch. Penelope was a gem of an actress and I was very fortunate to discover her at my age. One of my favourite comedy actresses, I’m sure there’s a lot more stuff she’s starred in that I’ve not discovered yet and that’s what I’m most excited about. It’s always fun going down some weird rabbit hole and discovering something you’ve never seen before and then turning around and saying ” Oh yeah, that’s my new favourite film or that’s my new favourite TV show. And then you ask yourself why you haven’t watched this years ago. I do this all the time. A great time for comedy and I know there’s been a lot of dross as well but we remember the good stuff. The good outweighs the bad every time in my opinion. So many great actors, so many great actresses, so many great writers, directors, comics that deserved to be remembered for their amazing contribution to the industry. Whether it’s film or television. Some great talent. British humour can’t be taught, you either have it or you don’t, these guys had it.
Two of my favourite things, Film and television. I find that field very fascinating and I love new discoveries whether it’s an old TV show from the sixties, seventies and eighties and falling in love with it, it’s so much fun. All these films and TV shows have shaped me into the person I am today and they’ve shaped my sense of humour. I love that I get to educate you guys on my classic TV and film knowledge even if you don’t have any interest in it. I do hope I’m not boring you at all, I do hope this information and my blog posts will become useful and help you in some way to learn and find out more about the seventies and what makes me tick. And if not then I’m still grateful for you stopping by and visiting my blog. Okay, carrying on.
Another actress from film / TV I love is Diane Keen. I love Diane Keen, she was an incredible actress. She was in a bunch of different things here and there. One show I know her from is The Cuckoo Waltz which I also really liked, partly because a really young Lewis Collins was in it, he was so cute and so funny, I loved his character. I’m sure I mentioned this show a few times on my blog before. It’s a very lovely TV show, very gentle, very seventies. I remember they had deck chairs in their living room. It was a pretty good series. It’s about this couple who take in a lodger who is played by Lewis Collins. they’re showing re runs on this channel we have over here called Rewind TV and they show a lot of classic TV and films like Thriller, Hammer House Of Horror, so much great stuff. I think Diane is incredible and she’s a very good actress and she’s so beautiful, I always really liked her. I would love to discover some of her other work. I recommend you check her out.
Pauline Collins is another favourite classic actress I love. I love a lot of her work on the telly. She was in Upstairs Downstairs, she played the role of Sarah, she was so funny, cheeky and smart and I just loved watching her get up to all sorts of havoc as one of the house maids in the household. There was an episode of Tales Of The Unexpected that I love starring alongside Joan Collins in the episode ” A girl can’t always have everything” I loved that one, they were both fantastic and the ending took me by surprise. Amazing bit of television with two wonderful actresses. Pauline is just an amazing, classy lady, very East End, I loved watching her in everything she was in, she’s a wonderful actress.
Another actress I love is Sally Thomsett. I know her from the classic TV show Man About The House where she played Jo. I loved her, she was just fabulous. Man About The House being my favourite show, I love it so much. She was also in this film The Railway Children, the original Railway Children because they remade it a couple of times, the original film is the one to see, it’s amazing. This was the first film that made me properly bawl my eyes out. A very beautiful, gentle, innocent family film. This is coming from somebody who cries at almost everything so there’s no surprise there, but good movies do that and it’s a wonderful thing because it means you’re so hooked with these characters and their stories. It’s such a beautiful film, the ending never fails to make me cry. A wonderful film, not just about railway trains but about family and friendship and kindness, love. A classic movie I fell in love with a few months ago. One of the most loveliest films you’re ever going to watch. Sally was so young in this film and she was fantastic. All of them were amazing, Jenny A gutter, Gary Warren, who were all siblings going through this really tough time, sticking together through the thick and thin they learn to love the railway as the journey goes on. Wonderful film, it deserves more recognition. But yeah, Sally is amazing.
The next is Michele Dotrice. Wonderful actress, really loved her in Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Playing the role of Frank Spencer’s wife and having to endure his antics. Another favourite show, so funny. I also thought she was great in And Soon The Darkness, I love that film so much. Very Creepy and I’m still shocked by the ending. Me and my dad absolutely love this film. It’s so Brian Clemens. The film is about these two nurses who go to France and ride their bikes together and the film takes a turn when one of the girls goes missing. That’s all I’m going to say about it. Fantastic film. I’ll put a link to both a short clip of the film and the opening tune.
Michele is a great actress.
Another great actress is Mollie Sudgen, I love Molly. I loved her in Are You Being Served as Mrs Slocombe. She was so funny, her and her pussy jokes, just hilarious If you know, you know. I love that show. Great actress and brilliant at what she did. She always cracks me up.
I’ve got so many more favourite actresses from British TV and film but I’m afraid I’m going to have to end it here because it’s going to be a very long post and I know you guys have got better things to do with your time. But thank you so much for reading my post, I hope you all have a lovely day/ night wherever you are right now. Stay safe, love you guys, stay tuned for more work here on Big Blog Theory
Posted on November 21, 2024
The Jesus Of Nazareth, My Thoughts On It, More Of a Deep Dive Into Robert Powell’s Career
Hi guys, welcome back to my blog, hope you’re all doing well. I remember a couple of months ago I did a post on Robert Powell and my favourite performances of his and how much I love his work and I just fan girl over him for the entire post. I also briefly mentioned him being in this series called The Jesus Of Nazareth and I said I haven’t watched it yet but I would check it out some time in the future. Well, I watched it only a couple of weeks ago and it was absolutely incredible. A must watch for anyone, it doesn’t matter if you’re religious or not religious, everyone should watch it at least once in their lives, it’s fantastic. I was hooked.
If you don’t know what it is, basically, it was a four part British/ Italian drama series that came out in 1977 directed by Franco Zefferelli which originally started off as a miniseries but was later adapted into a film about the life of Jesus running up to his crucifixion. It starred Robert Powell whom I love so much, one of the best actors to ever come out of British cinema and television in my opinion, so many other incredible actors and actresses, we had Anne Bancroft, we had Anthony Quinn, we had Sir Laurence Olivier, we had Christopher Plummer, we had Peter Ustanov and many others. The cast were incredible, one of the best casts in my opinion, all gave such wonderful, powerful performances all did an incredible job with this. Robert Powell was just wonderful as Jesus Christ, he gave such a powerful, bold performance and it brought a tear to my eye. He earned more respect from me even though I loved him enough already. This will remain as one of my favourite Robert Powell performances, one of the best ever.
Everything about the series is perfect, a literal masterpiece. The cinematography was amazing, the music was amazing, amazing, powerful performances from everyone in the cast, just so damn beautiful. Told the story of Jesus so beautifully, just fantastic. I was in tears, it brought out so many emotions in me that I never knew I even had. One of the best things I’ve seen in so long. It’s the definition of wonderful. You can see why it was nominated for so many awards, it’s a fantastic bit of television with stand out performances and just everyone was wonderful in it. It had a great music score, the person who did the music for it knew what they were doing. Sometimes, music is the heart and soul of the film/ TV series, it creates emotion and the music itself tells a story and it makes you feel all kinds of emotions. That plus the acting, the writing and the cinematography and you’ve got yourself a masterpiece.
Jesus Of Nazareth is incredible. Even with the scene where he was being crucified I felt his pain and it was so emotional, I generally felt like I was there watching it play out, that’s how powerful it was. I felt like I was experiencing it with those who watched him being slowly driven to his death. It was incredible, I was holding my breath and praying for him the whole time. My heart shattered loads of times, especially the bit where that guy who was also on a cross asked Jesus if he will remember him when he goes to heaven and the bit where someone said ”He saved people but he can’t even save himself now” very heart breaking scenes that were shot so beautifully, I just really loved that. A very beautiful series that some may have forgotten about but I love that a lot more people are digging it out and talking about it on You Tube even younger people about my age even older. Damn right it’s a fantastic series, one of the best ever and you’re not going to get a cast better than that. So many famous faces, so many legends from big films at the time even older. It’s just brilliant and this series introduced me to all of them. Except for Robert Powell who I already knew way before but everyone else was mostly new to me and they were all outstanding in every way. Antony Quinn is also in it, my dad has got this massive framed photo on the wall in our living room of him doing some Greek dancing and this woman took a photo of him, it’s a very iconic picture. I love that.
It was so beautifully shot, I think they filmed it in Morocco and Tunisia. Some really beautiful places. I watched an old interview that came out in maybe late seventies with Robert Powell talking about it which I also loved. I’ll put a link of the video down below so you can easily find it if you’re interested.
He also mentioned the film The 39 steps that he did in 1978 which I watched and I really loved. One of the best versions for sure and I just loved watching Robert playing the role of a man being wrongly accused of murder and going on the run, a very good movie. I totally recommend it. Asylum is another fantastic film he was in, it’s this horror film I’ve mentioned on my other other Robert Powell post. I’ll put the link for the trailer down below
Also, fun fact, after they did the film/ series, he became Christian, I believe before he did this he was an Atheist so I think it left an impact on him somewhere. Because he was so great in the role, people used to run up to him and start praying and he’s like ” Don’t worship me, I’m not Jesus, I’m Robert Powell, I’m just an actor” which I loved, poor guy. There are just certain fans where their mind boggles because they just can’t get their heads around the fact that an actor is an actor and he can have a life outside of a role he’s played. I don’t know, but this story cracked me up when I first heard about it. The fact that he was amazing in the role, people started believing that he was Jesus. That couldn’t have gone down well, but Kudos to Robert for dealing with it graciously, I know others would have gone slightly mad. I don’t know if this story is true because some people make up fake stories for clout and it never happened but if it did then I know how he feels. Some fans can be difficult but some can also be really lovely so it’s kind of like a lottery.
I remember when I was talking about Robert Powell in my post, I said that I don’t know why I love him so much, apart from the fact he’s an amazing actor, I knew I loved him but I just couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I’ve been thinking about it for these past few weeks and I’ve come to a conclusion. He has this incredible ability to stare at the camera when he’s saying his lines and when he’s acting, it’s almost like he’s staring into your soul talking to you, it’s kind of creepy but I love that, I think it’s great. And he doesn’t blink either, so yeah haha. This especially becomes evident in this series. I also watched the film Harlequin that he was also in a few months ago, I love that film. It’s one of those mad, demented horror films that came out in the seventies and eighties, like Scanners and Phantasm. Robert Powell in his demented element once again, looking really demented putting curses on people, being more of a menace than a messiah. I think Robert Powell’s Harlequin would be a great idea for a Halloween costume, I wonder if anyone’s done that, I know I would have done. It would scare a few people and frighten the living daylights out of people but I think it would be great. That’s another great film that I recommend. Very different to a lot of normal horror films. Basically it’s about this faith healer, played by Robert Powell who cures this kid’s leukemia and they all think he’s the new messiah but it’s not as it seems and it’s a lot more sinister than that, this person whom they’ve taken into their lives might be doing more harm than good. Great film, one of my favourite Robert Powell roles. There’s something so creepy about that character. Throughout the film you’re wondering who this guy is and what’s he after?. Fantastic early eighties Australian horror film that I’ve taken a liking to two months ago. It’s so twisted and so demented, it’s so good. I’ll put a link below so you can watch the trailer, so you can see how demented this film is. If you think that’s demented then you have no idea what the actual film is like. It is pure insanity but very entertaining and mysterious. It’s got to the point now where whenever I see a weird looking bird or a crow or something I think ” Oh crap!”
I must admit that it’s really weird if you watch Jesus Of Nazareth first and then you watch Harlequin because they’re really the total opposite of each other. I watched Harlequin first then I watched Jesus Of Nazareth which is probably better. The good and the evil, ha ha. Robert Powell’s so good at portraying these kinds of roles, especially horror. This is why Jesus Of Nazareth took me by surprise, he really lost himself in that role and gave it all he got and we got something wonderful out of it.
I just loved Jesus of Nazareth and it opened my eyes to this story. I remember learning bits of it when I was at school, obviously doing the Nativity play a lot too, but this series gave me a bit more of an understanding. It’s such a crazy story with so many flaws and this series, it really made me think, it was thought provoking. Good films and TV programmes are not just entertaining but certain ones make you think and that’s what I love about it. This is a great example of something being very thought provoking.
I totally recommend you guys watch it if you haven’t already. I’ll always remember this series/ movie, it left a huge impact on me and I’ll always have a special place in my heart. Some really beautiful scenes, I remember the scenes where he forgave some people’s sins, I remember the scenes where he was giving his lectures to his followers, I remember the scenes where he raised a little girl from the dead, I remember the scenes where he cured the blind man, I remember the resurrection of Lazarus, I loved the bits where he told stories, I loved the Prodigal Son story, very beautiful and there were loads more, especially the part where the Romans went to kill everyone and they were relying on someone to come and save them
. Some really powerful scenes that were shot so beautifully . The whole series is wonderful but I got really emotional especially at the last part of the series. A beautiful way to end the story. The bit at the end where he goes. ”Don’t be afraid, I’ll be with you til the end of time” I was in tears, it gave me goosebumps. Amazing. Every episode is about two hours long, which I thought was going to be really long but once you get into it, you don’t really worry about the time because you’re so hooked on this story. When it was over I wanted to go back and watch it all again. I recommend you all to watch it right til the end because honestly you won’t be disappointed. It will stick with you just like it did with me. I’ve heard that they show this film sometimes on Greek Easter. I celebrate Greek Easter with my family so if they do end up showing it then I’ll be watching it. I’m happy to watch the whole thing all over again if I could. Incredible.
I remember when a little while ago I went to the cinema with my family to watch the 1969 film The Italian Job and Robert’s character was so funny in it. He only had a few lines and a few scenes in it but he was great, I loved him. He played Yellow, And I love the bit where he’s like ” I don’t want to sit in the back, I’ll get me migraine” and he had a small rant in his Cockney accent and you could just see Michael Cain slowly lose it with those three guys standing there discussing where they’re going to sit in the van for the job, I love that part, so relatable. I always quote it whenever I can. He was so cute in that film and he was so young. In every scene he was in, he just looked like he didn’t want to be there. His facial expressions kill me every time. Especially the scenes where they’re in the van with the gold. When there’s always something going on, you just look at Robert and he’ll make a facial expression looking like he’s had enough. Robert did a great job of putting on his Cockney accent especially because he’s really posh. I’ll put the link of the clip down below so you can see what I mean, just in case some of you are new to the film or for those of you who have already seen the film, we can enjoy this clip together and laugh along with Robert and his endless rant about his migraines and watch Michael slowly go mad as he tries to dominate the gang. I think it’s a brilliant clip because if you look very carefully at everyone’s faces, you can see that they’ve all just given up and I just think that’s funny. What I need is a bunch of friends who also love this film so we can reenact this scene and just have a laugh, it would be so funny, it would be such a fun scene to film with a bunch of your friends. Just a few friends goofing around. I really do apologise if the quality of this video is really bad, it’s the only one I could find.
It’s a miracle they even succeeded at doing the job, they were utterly useless but I love those characters deeply and it felt like we knew those characters and we were going on this journey with them. And the film literally had us on a literal cliffhanger, like literally. One of my favourite endings to any film it made me laugh so much. That geezer driving the van, literally throttling it, he can’t wait to crash or drive it off a cliff and everyone just holding on for dear life. I just love this film. As I said, I’ll put a link for you guys down below.
I’m such a nerd for films, I love films and I love watching classic cinema and discovering actors and actresses from the old days of British cinema. I will be doing a post on some of my favourite films some time in the future, if you guys want to read about that.
The Italian Job is a classic and it will forever be one of my favourite films. Watching it again the second time, it reminded me of how much I loved this film, so many quotable lines. Before I move on, I would like to mention another thing about the Italian Job film. Literally the whole film is a masterpiece but I’ve got some favourite scenes. In the film, there’s this montage of different scenes whilst they’re doing the job. There’s this scene where this young guy is flirting with this girl in the car opposite side him and he starts stroking her face and the girl slaps him, hilarious, she weren’t having none of it, that bit always made me laugh especially because you can see it coming. Then there’s this other bit while the chase is going on, there’s a wedding going on and Michael Caine’s character strolls by on his motorbike and shouts out ” Good luck!” and then carries on again and the bride and groom are thinking ” What on earth is going on?” and there’s another bit in the same scene where whilst the chase is going on and everyone’s having it out with each other, there’s this geezer playing the violin just being completely oblivious and he just carries on playing the violin. If you’ve seen the film, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Then there’s the bit where that old woman’s talking about Annette, that scene makes me laugh so much, we were rolling about the cinema with laughter, literally one of the funniest scenes. I reenact this scene every time because my auntie has cats. The looks on their faces kill me every time, the comedic timing is brilliant. I’ve put the link down below.
I love those scenes and obviously I always quote ” You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!” the scene where they’re testing out the cars and this one guy ended up blowing up the whole car when he was only supposed to blow the doors off. You can see Robert crouching down with smoke on his face and he’s just thinking ” What the bloody hell is going on” the look on his face cracks me up every time.
Here are some more of my favourite scenes from the film including the opening sequence which is brilliant, I’ll put links down below
iconic movie, brilliant characters and I think it was a great film for Robert even though he only had a minor role in it, he was still absolutely brilliant. I think it was a nice introduction because he’s been acting since he was 11 or something so he was really young. His first ever role was in this film called The Robbery which came out in the sixties and he was so young in it. I don’t think he knew how much of a success he was going to be a few years on from there, I don’t think he knew what he had in store for him. I’ve always admired his approach to acting. He’s a very unique actor/ performer and I really love his uniqueness.
I also really loved him in those two episodes of Thriller where he plays a mad, horrible man in one and then he plays a psychopathic fan in the other. He was great in both, I’ve mentioned these a couple of times. I live for British seventies horror and thriller, a bit bias because I am British but I just love the old horror TV dramas and films they made in the seventies. Where basically either someone gets knocked out cold with a hard object, some woman gets strangled, someone chucks a shoe at someone, or someone goes into the cellar/ basement and gets an axe swung in their face or assaulted, some mad man hiding in a cupboard, some girl goes missing, mad devil worshippers and that’s seventies thriller and horror, ha ha. Brilliant. I recommend you watch Robert in Thriller, it’s truly an experience, you will love him and hate him at the same time, which basically started off my mini obsession with Robert Powell and his work. I’m not going to tell you what Lady Killer is about because I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. Just watch it and enjoy the ride and figure it out for yourselves, I just love this one so much. The theme of the episode, love, manipulation, greed and betrayal and I loved where it was shot, somewhere in Hertfordshire around the cliffs, beautiful scenery with the murky waters. It really set the scene, it was very creepy and I loved the performances from everyone in the episode, the two actresses playing the two American girls were fantastic and obviously Robert was amazing and he really put on quite a performance, he was terrifying and unhinged and you notice it throughout the episode. I’ve got a book about Thriller and there was this little segment about this episode that I really liked. Robert was talking about how he came to love the countryside and he said he was in love with this girl at the time but she always busy and wasn’t interested in him and he just kind of followed her and he found he loved the countryside. He put it like this ” I just kind of followed her and I fell in love with her, the countryside not the girl” which was a great touch. I read it in the book and I found it funny. The book is a must have for any Thriller fanatic because it talks about the locations where the episodes were filmed and other things too. I recommend you watch those two episodes of Thriller. Death To Sister Mary and Lady Killer
I’ll put a link down below so you can watch the episode when you’ve got the time and see what you make of it. I’ll also put the link to the episode Death To Sister Mary as well. If you like these then I recommend you find the whole series and watch them, they’re really entertaining and they give off a really creepy vibe. All of them are really good but there are certain ones that will blow you away. There’s a reason why I’m a big fan of Thriller. If you’re a fan of the horror anthology series then this is the one for you, I highly recommend this. And it’s a good way of discovering new actors and actresses of the time.
. You can find episodes of Thriller on You Tube. You can get a taste of some great classic British seventies thriller made for TV. every episode is about something completely different and you don’t know what you’re going to see next. It might not even be horror episode about murder, it can just sometimes be about spies and other things. I love Brian Clemens and his work. Obviously he created The Professionals which I love. He was so good at writing mystery and throwing all kinds of red herrings around making you think it’s one person but then it completely throws you off and you’re like ”hang on a minute here” In Thriller, everyone is suspicious, no one is ruled out, I always really liked that. I like the characters and the situations and the plots these characters find themselves in. Most of them turn out to be living nightmares. I love the actors they chose to be in this series. Robert Powell was a good one because we all know he went on to achieve greatness and became really famous throughout his career. This series made loads of these actors and actresses famous when they were just starting out in the industry. And also, at the beginning of every episode, you’ll hear this announcer guy saying ” Thriller, blah, blah blah, episode 1, take one” and he’ll say the name of the episode in a really cheerful way like there’s this one where this psycho basically finds rich women, marries them and drowns them and it’s called A Coffin For The Bride and the announcer guy talks really fast and says ” A Coffin For The Bride!!!!! take one” like he always sounds so cheerful, I want whatever drug he’s on. He probably doesn’t even take drugs he’s just high on life, ha ha. Me and my dad always laugh about this. After a couple of episodes, you never see him again, they probably sacked him. The episodes of Thriller my dad has got, always starts off with this announcer saying it in a really cheerful way. Then there goes the person who’s watching it, thinking it’s going to be a very lovely comedy and then they see a clip of this geezer drowning this woman in a bath. Oh dear. Also, you see a very young Helen Mirren in it too before she was a national treasure that we all know and love. Also, at the beginning of every episode, when I’m watching it with my family, I always say ” Get ready for one hell of a nightmare!” ha ha. As I mentioned in another post, me and my family love Thriller and it’s because of my dad that I discovered it and now I’m obsessed with it and I can’t get enough of this series.
Thriller is my favourite TV series, I’m a nerd for Thriller and it’s how I first discovered Robert. What an introduction! to see Robert playing the role of this young chap who tries to push his girl friend off a cliff, ha ha. Or him talking to himself at the hotel whilst trying to impress this girl. I remember the part I was telling you about where he killed his old friend by whacking him with a sock with a glass scotch lid in it and starts laughing hysterically and the fact that throughout the episode the phone line keeps connecting to their phone upstairs as if someone’s listening to their conversations, I always found that interesting and mysterious for some reason.
Thriller is so good and so entertaining, it’s such a good series, I’ve got so many favourite episodes. It has started my obsession with classic seventies horror, this was my introduction to seventies horror except for watching loads of horror films made for TV with my family most of them came out in the seventies, they’re so good. Mostly American ones, like Somebody’s Watching Me {1978} He knows You’re Alone [ 1980, When A Stranger Calls{1979} all three are incredible movies. My dad introduced me a clip from Thriller, it’s the intro that gives me nightmares and it’s a scene from an episode where these people are having a dinner party and this woman stands behind a curtain and murders everyone with a pair of scissors. I know, I was like ”What the hell?” I’ll put the link for the episode down below, check it out when you get the chance
And then he also showed me this thing called Dressur. With these three geezers in this room just driving themselves mad, walking on wooden planks, some of them making weird noises. It’s literally like an open air asylum.That thing is so demented, the video is about an hour long or half an hour long, there’s different parts to it, try not to watch it and go insane. One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen but I kind of love it. Me and my dad always joke about this from time to time. I recommend you check it out, it’s called Maurcio Kagel Dressur. I’ve got no idea what they were trying to achieve with this, I think it’s some weird art form. The first one’s just as demented and then the next one slowly ventures off into vanishing heads, it’s bizarre and slightly disturbing. One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen, but for some reason because I’m just as warped, I really love it and I find it funny. My dad remembers in the early eighties they used to show this thing very late at night on Channel 4. I think they showed it once and they never showed it again . They used to show some bizarre stuff late at night. Like weird documentaries and stuff. The stuff they used to show in those days they would never show now. Nowadays they’re using the same idea for the theatre which I’m sure is good but in my opinion nothing can beat the original. There’s just something so odd about this piece, the fact that it’s so quiet like there’s no talking throughout the entire thing but only sounds, it’s almost like they’re trying to make music with only making sounds, that’s what it feels like to me and he remembers being with his friend who was from Thailand and he saw it and he shouts ” Bloody Psychos man! lock them up! they need to be locked up, these geezers are driving me mad!’ My dad told him it was an open air asylum and he said ” No man, don’t go there man!! I don’t want to go there!” Which was hilarious. There’s this bit where the three guys in the clip, one of them is wearing these wooden shoes walking on a wooden plank, ha ha. So demented. I recommend you check it out when you have the time, it’s one of the most warped things ever. My dad is the reason why I’ve got such a demented, warped, twisted sense of humour. There’s something about this thing that appeals to me. Just these three geezers doing their thing, making sound effects. The bit where this geezer is walking in these wooden shoes on this plank of wood and the other geezer is just looking at him slowly losing his mind. Watching it for the first time is truly an experience and it gets even weirder the more you watch it if it’s not odd enough already. It’s pure insanity, whenever anyone asks me what’s going on in my head I just show them this and it normally ends the conversation. I’ll put a link down below
Part One:
Part Two:
But yeah, that was my first introduction to Thriller and the first ever episode I watched was called Someone At The Top Of The Stairs and it’s about these two girls who move into this bed sit accommodation but there are some strange goings on. That’s all I’m going to say, it’s another fantastic episode of Thriller, I’ve seen it so many times, it’s just so good. I’ll put a link down below too.
I’ve got so many favourite episodes of Thriller. Some of them being Lady Killer, Possession, Someone at the top of the stairs, File it under fear, When the killing starts, I’m the girl he wants to kill, The colour of blood, A place to die, Ring Once For Death, If it’s a man hang up, Murder Motel, One deadly owner, Only a scream away, Kiss me and die, Sign it death, A Coffin for the bride, Death To Sister Mary, Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are, Screamer, Night Is The Time For Killing, Killer With Two Faces, Good Salary, Prospects And a Free Coffin, Sleepwalker, The Next Victim, Dial A Deadly Number, Won’t Write Home Mum I’m Dead, A Spell Of Evil, The Next Scream You Hear, In The Steps Of A Dead Man, Murder In Mind, The Eyes Have It, Nurse Will Make It Better, A Nightmare For Nightingale, K is for Killing. All of these are incredible, a fantastic series indeed. If you can get hold of these on You Tube, check them out if you love classic seventies horror/ thriller anthology drama series, you won’t be disappointed. I watched Robert Powell’s Thriller episode Lady Killer by myself one night and then I made my family sit down and watch it. Usually it’s supposed to be the other way round, my dad shows me something but I’m showing my dad stuff from his own generation where he grew up. Isn’t it funny? I love seventies British TV and American, not going to lie they had their share of wonderful TV shows too. Welcome Back Kotter being one of them, I love that show, it’s also how John Travolta became famous. When you watch an episode of Thriller, you’ll get an idea of what they used to wear in the seventies. Like big sideburns, flares and spats, they looked demented. The hairstyles were demented too. If you look up men’s hairstyles in the seventies, you’ll see a couple of photos and you’ll soon realise that they look like mugshots of criminals. They look like they’ve come straight out of Borstal or Worm wood Scrubs or something, they looked mad. File it under fear was another terrific episode of Thriller, this one takes place in a library and it’s got one of the most shocking, unexpected twists of all time. I totally recommend this one as well, I’ll put a link down below.
Robert Powell had a great filmography as well as the TV stuff he did in the seventies. Now I understand that Robert had great success with this role. Through Jesus of Nazareth, loads of people all over the world discovered Robert. The fact that I discovered Robert myself is a blessing, he is a gem and I love his work. One of the best actors to ever grace our screens, in my opinion, he was just incredible. Every role he plays, he brings something new. He’s also just so entertaining to watch and I just find him so enchanting, his voice, ugh I love his voice. The way he acts and the way he talks, he just sounds so poetic and he has a very calming voice, I just like hearing him talk, he had a certain aristocratic charm about him.I remember mentioning the classic horror stories programme he did in 1986. Him sitting in his arm chair telling weird horror stories. I loved it. Him telling a story about weird things, a big black worm thing sticking out of the ground, some venomous creature, pure insanity and I love it. The stories were actually really good, creepy and chilling.
Seeing Robert slowly drives himself mad by telling these stories for the television. I recommend you watch these with your lights off. Don’t watch these before you go to bed because they’ll keep you up at night, ha ha. I’ll put a link down below so you can watch them too. Watch these when you get the chance, if you love anything spooky or horror, I’m sure you’ll love this. And you can watch Robert slowly go loopy whilst he’s telling these stories whilst the light slowly flickers and dies. The video link down below has all the horror stories in one so you don’t need to find them all separately. It’s all here. Enjoy
I’m glad I watched Jesus of Nazareth because it just blew me away and when it ended, I felt like I knew these characters and what they were going through, it was such a beautifully put together piece of drama. And also George Camiller is in it, the actor who played Giovanni in the show Mind Your Language. He had an English accent in the series too probably because he wasn’t Italian in real life he was just putting on the accent for the role. I was like ”What’s Giovanni doing there?” it’s insane, I keep expecting Giovanni to come out and say ” Professori, or like Santa Maria ” and I keep expecting Max to come out of nowhere and start having a punch up with Giovanni and Mr Brown coming out to break it up. He was actually really good in this series. There was not one single actor who I didn’t like in the cast, they were all incredible.
I wanted to show you something else before I go. There was this song that came out in the seventies called The Boston Tea Party by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band who were this Scottish rock group in the seventies which was about the American protest in 1773 by the sons of liberty of Boston in Colonial Massuchsettes, they decided they were going to put a tax on tea and the Americans went away with it and they gave up British tea. This group went off and wrote a song about it. I love this song, me and my dad discovered this song on an old episode of Tops Of The Pops from 1976. It’s very catchy, it’s very brave of them to write a song about something like that especially in the seventies. Their outfits are very interesting indeed. It’s almost like they got a bunch of maniacs and misfits and put them all together in a group. You’ve got one geezer who looks like one of the baseball furies from the film The Warriors, you’ve got another guy who looks like he’s from Saturday Night Fever or Spinal Tap and the main singer just looks like some random drunken pest that looks like a pirate whom they’ve taken off the streets to perform on stage. I just absolutely love it. You really don’t know where to look because they all look demented. Listen to the lyrics very carefully because you’ll realise what they’re singing about. I’ll put a link below
Another bunch of songs for you guys to listen to. Listen when you get the chance
Another great song, Okay Fred by Errol Dunkley, a great Jamaican song that came out in the seventies. My dad used to play this to me when I was little and I used to fall asleep straight away, it’s so catchy, I love this song. I’ll put the link down below
This is another great song from the seventies, this clip was from The Old Grey Whistle Test and it’s called Roxette by DR Feelgood. I love this song and this clip, Everyone in this group looks demented. You could just see Wilko Johnson pacing back and forth jerking his head, playing his guitar and he looks nuts. It’s one of those clips where you don’t know where to look because all of them are doing their own thing. This clip always makes me laugh. I’ll put the link down below so you could watch it.
The last two song recommendations of the day, it’s this song that came out in the seventies called Telephone Man by Meri Wilson, I love this song, I know all the lyrics, I sing it every time someone calls me, I’ve played it so many times, It’s about time I shared it with you guys. I’ll put a link below
The next one is this song called Calling Occupants Of Interplanitary Craft by Carpenters. Such a wonderful song, The Carpenters were an amazing group, they made great music, this song is just wonderful. I’ll put a link
The last three
Give these songs a listen when you can, when you get the chance, they’re all wonderful, great songs.
This is another song is called DR Kiss Kiss and it came out in the seventies. I discovered it on an episode of Top Of The Pops. It’s such a catchy song and the two young guys on the guitars make me smile every time, they’re so cute in that performance. I’ll put a link down below as it’s the last song recommendation of the day.
Going back to The Jesus Of Nazareth. There is this really beautiful film that came out in the early seventies called God spell which is an American musical about the teachings of Jesus. It’s very beautiful and very colourful, the cast is incredible, all of them played their characters beautifully. There were so many great songs in the film like Day By Day, By My Side, Praise The Lord and so on. The whole film was amazing but there was one scene that really made me shed a few tears when I first watched this film. It’s the bit half way towards the end of the film where Jesus is about to be crucified and all his followers, they’re all saying goodbye one by one and the beautiful song in the back round called On The Willows over the scene when they’re all saying goodbye to him, knowing it’s the last time he’s ever going to see them or the last time they’re ever going to see him unless they die and go to heaven then they’ll meet again and they’re just all sitting in a circle saying their final goodbyes, it’s a very beautiful scene and I cry every time I watch it. They’re all so childlike in that scene not knowing what’s about to happen, breaks my heart every time. A very beautifully written scene from any film I’ve seen, it just captures the emotions. It just feels like they’re all one big family and it feels like you’re saying goodbye to your school friends knowing most of them are going to go their separate ways and you probably won’t see them again. I totally recommend you watch the film, I love that film so much. I’ll put a link to the clip below so you can watch it and see what I mean. So beautiful, I don’t think there’s been a scene from a film that’s hit me emotionally like this one has. It’s shot so beautifully and the cast is amazing.
If there are any young Dexter Fletcher fans on here, I’ve got the link for this old TV interview from the nineties where he was being interviewed for the TV show Press Gang, I absolutely love Press Gang, such a good teen drama series about these young people who run a newspaper gazette, I fell in love with this series when I first discovered it a couple of months ago, so I love this interview. I’ll put a link down below if you guys are interested
And seeing as I have a little bit more time to share something else with you. I’ve spoken about how much I love the TV series Minder, it’s such a brilliant TV series and I watch it all the time with my family, we all love it. You just can’t beat a bit of Terry and Arthur, their antics make the show as well as the other characters. I’ve got this video of this song Dennis Water man and George Cole did together for a Christmas single on Top Of The Pops, it’s called What Are We Going To Get For Er Indoors? I love this, I just love their cameraderie and the song is really catchy and funny, we watch it every year at Christmas it gets us in the Christmas spirit. What I really need is a friend who I can renact this performance with, that’s all I need. Brilliance from both Dennis and George. I’ll put a link to it down below. I can’t find the Top Of The Pops one for some reason but I’ve got the one where they turned up on Russel Harty. I’ll put the link, enjoy.
There’s this music clip I also love of this guy called Bobby Conn. It came out in the nineties, I’ve always loved this for some reason and found it quite funny because his voice, the way he sings and his dance moves throughout the performance, if you look very carefully at his face, he just looks demented looking like he’s going to punch someone or violently attack someone, it’s so funny. My dad had this clip and he showed it to me and I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s a very catchy tune and I like the fact they made it look like he was on a live music show when it wasn’t, it fools you thinking he’s on a music programme. All the kids in the back round standing in a circle dancing to the wrong rhythm, everyone clapping to the wrong beat, no clue what they’re even doing, so funny and obviously him dancing and singing in high pitch like a complete nutter makes me laugh every time. He looks like he’s having some breakdown or something, it gets more demented as it goes on. I’ll put the link down below and watch it when you get the chance.
Thank you so much for reading my post, I hope you liked it. I hope you all have a lovely day wherever you are right now, stay safe, love you. Stay tuned for more work on Big Blog Theory.
Posted on September 8, 2024
New Script Series, A Bunch Of Mad And Demented Doctors From The Seventies Using Zoom
Contains strong language and adult humour, out dated attitudes of the time}
Doctor Tar Quinn Winnie, Doctor Todd, Doctor Mathews, Doctor Thompson, Doctor Cyrano and Doctor Pharaoh each have their first ever online zoom meeting as they discuss the ever changing world of modern medicine and medical research and continue to drive each other mad and make their professor’s life a living hell. Zoom, which neither of them have any experience in whatsoever, other than chasing all the nurses, performing surgeries and other medical procedures, getting rid of hernias, examining patients and causing havoc in the hospital and embarrassing themselves. Also, this is the internet so anything could happen. Enjoy
First scene, Doctor Tar Quinn is trying to figure out the whole modern technology thing}
Doctor Tar Quinn: Ooh, oh bloody hell! I’m pressing the bloody buttons, I seem to be going round in circles, Cor blimey this thing is driving me loopy!
Doctor Thompson joins the chat and so does everyone else
Doctor Thompson: Oh hi Tar Quinn, hello everyone, it’s good to see you guys, really
Doctor Tar Quinn: You over the hump?
Doctor Thompson: No, me, I’m still bloody on it!
Doctor Tar Quinn: How about you John? got it to work yet?
Doctor Mathews: Yes, I’ve finally gotten this thing to work. I thought it was never going to work, this bloody thing, but it did, this is just brilliant!
Doctor Tar Quinn: Ooh, I’ve never done this sort of thing before
Doctor Thompson: Don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing
Doctor Mathews: Of course it’s a good thing. Experience! you need all the experience you can get these days, money is tight
Meanwhile, their professor, Professor Funk o, joins the meeting along with the Dean. The Dean seems to be having a bit of trouble with Zoom, serves him right considering he never had technology
Professor Funk o: Again, press the button! Oh see, you’ve only gone and hit the bloody restart button, you bungle! Go back!
The dean: I am pressing the button, this bloody thing is driving me mad!
Then he proceeds to start talking to the computer, like that’s going to solve anything
The dean: Hello, hello, can you work, please?
Professor Funk o: Oh my God! this man, honestly, talking a bloody computer, this one!{He face palms}
The dean: What, how else am I supposed to get this bloody bit of sham to work!
Finally works
The dean: Ah, see, this looks like familiar, see, I told you I’d get it working. Man of the moment
Professor Funk o: Yeah, do yourself a favour, when you’re not doing these hernia operations, go and take some computer lessons, you bloody weed!
Professor Funk o joins all his young doctors
Professor Funk o: Okay, are we all ready to start this meeting? let’s use this as an opportunity to crack some sense into your thick skulls. I’m not here to teach you how to play the bloody banjo, I’m here to test you on your medical knowledge. If any of you decide to use this meeting as an opportunity to get up my nose, you’ll be kicked out of the meeting, do you understand?
Doctor Thompson: Oh bloody hell, I thought I knew what I was expecting when I woke up, this morning
Doctor Mathews: What, Professor Funk o?
Doctor Thompson: No, a great big fella who looks like a boiled egg wrapped in a hurdle of cement. Alright, are we all done with being bubbled headed idiots here? cos, you know? hospitals are filled with these so called nut jobs, not the doctors, I mean the patients. Just one more thing, you better get proper coffee pods. A few months ago, I ended up drinking the whole coffee machine and I’ve been bloody bed ridden for months. I think I need a new bleeding valve, let alone Mr bloody jones!
Doctor Mathews: God, you and that Mr Jones, what are you like?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Uh, sir?
Professor Funk o: Yes, Winnie, is something the matter?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Uh yeah, I’m afraid Frank is not here, sir
Professor Funk o: Frank? who the blazers is that?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Frank, You know Doctor Todd, sir, I don’t know where he is
Professor Funk o: What, you mean he’s not here in this meeting?
Doctor Thompson: Uh no, no shit he’s not here. What is he, a wizard?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Ah, he’s probably just chickened out or something, maybe something’s come up. You know how things are
Professor Funk o: Well, where the bloody hell is he? he’s one of my top students and he can’t even be bothered to turn up for this meeting
Doctor Mathews: Top student? that’s a bit of a stretch, I wouldn’t go that far if I were you, sir
Professor Funk o: What are you saying, man?
Doctor Mathews: Well, you know, he’s just a bit Boo!!!!
Doctor Tar Quinn: Boo what?
Doctor Thompson: Oh for Goodness sake, old chap! use proper words, you’re speaking bloody Chinese!
The dean: It’s Chinese!!
Professor Funk o: Will you shut up!!
Doctor Mathews: What I’ve been trying to say is, he’s just a bit mad, that’s all, a bit of a liability.
Professor Funk o: A liability?
Doctor Mathews: Well, yeah you know? I have my doubts. The fact that he didn’t even join this meeting sums it up. It’s a joke, I mean, when you’re doing a ward round, I’m not mucking about with some blonde tart, chasing a bit of skirt, getting a bit of crumpet, am I? I’m on duty
Doctor Thompson: Yes you bloody do, you liar!
Doctor Mathews: Yes I do, in fact but not during an operation, you womack!
Doctor Thompson: Oh cobblers! what about that tart you saw the other day then?
Doctor Mathews: What, who, Victoria?
Doctor Thompson: Yes, of course I mean Victoria, bloody, who else would I be referring to, bloody Medusa?
Doctor Mathews: Oh yeah, Vicky, oh I loved that girl, you know? boy, she was something else she was. Yeah, she carried a spare shoe in her hand bag though, that’s the only thing what concerned me
Professor Funk o: Would you just bloody get on with it! this is a meeting on behalf of all the medical staff at St Harry’s hospital, just stop! I’m not having you qualified doctors rabbiting on with each other like this! we’ve got a lot to go over, so if you want to continue, I’d be more than happy to sit quietly and wait. I haven’t got all day, you know!
Doctor Tar Quinn: What have you got for us today, Uncle F?
Professor Funk o: Call me that again and I’ll knock your block off!
Doctor Tar Quinn: Alright sorry sir, what have you got for us?
Professor Funk o: Well, I’ve got some news for you
Doctor Thompson: Ooh, am I going to be assistant surgeon, sir?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Ah, bloody hell
Professor Funk o: No you’re not, Thompson, unless you want to
Doctor Thompson: Oh, I would love to, sir, it’s been my dream
Professor Funk o: You’re not qualified though
Doctor Thompson: I can learn, how hard can it be?
Doctor Cyrano: Look mate, you can’t even cut an orange in half, how are you going to cut someone up, you silly man?
Doctor Thompson: Ooh, I’m bloody sick and tired of being a radiologist, always looking at bloody X ray charts. I’ve had enough of this you know? I’m fucking telling you!
Doctor Pharaoh: You think that’s bad, I have to actually talk to the patients!
Doctor Cyrano: Why is that even a bad thing? I talk to them, it’s a part of being a doctor, I mean, how else are you supposed to find out what’s wrong with them if you can’t even speak to them?
Doctor Pharaoh: Well no, but actually talk to them. The amount of… look man, I haven’t been getting enough sleep these past few days, do you honestly think I’m getting that from my late night work shifts! bloody!
Professor Funk o: If you’re tired, that means you go to bed late then
Doctor Pharaoh: Oh bloody hell!! see this is what really does me in! sleep! I go to bed early, wake up, get a lovely breakfast down my gullet, then I go to work and then I see bloody woman who looks like horror!
Doctor Mathews: Yeah, Casualty’s the same, no one knows what the bloody hell is going on there. Then I go home and I wonder why I’ve got grey hairs.
Doctor Thompson: Normal healthy work regime
Professor Funk o: Yeah, you need to get that sorted out.
Doctor Mathews: Yes sir.
Professor Funk o: Right, Doctor Thompson, What’s the relationship, like between you and your patients, Doctor Thompson?
Doctor Thompson: I would say it’s pretty average, nothing mad, nothing insane like. I do daily check ups on my patients and I’m not consulting bloody banana man so I’m alright. {Suddenly goes all high pitched} ” Yeah, yeah, it’s bloody lovely”
Professor Funk o: Ooh, are you alright, Thompson, you look a bit stressed?
Doctor Thompson: Yeah I’m alright sir, it’s just, I just realised there’s a train strike tomorrow
Professor Funk o: What are you getting the train for? where to?
Doctor Thompson: Shepherds bush
Doctor Mathews: Where the hell is that? what are you going to do in Shepherds bush?
Doctor Thompson: That’s where this hospital is, isn’t it? it’s down in Shepherds bush
Doctor Tar Quinn: Oh yes of course
Doctor Pharaoh: Wait a minute, I always thought the hospital was located somewhere around Bristol or something
Professor Funk o: Well, you’ve been working here for five years now, you should know well enough by now that it’s in bloody Shepherds bush!
Doctor Cyrano: Ooh, alright sir, don’t over exert yourself, you’ll get a heart attack like that you know?
Professor Funk o: What, do you mean, me, get a heart attack! I should be the one who’s giving you a bloody heart attack! Look at how you’ve been treating me these past bloody weeks.
Doctor Tar Quinn: If I get you as one of my patients in my ward, I’m going to go spare!
A few minutes later, Doctor Thompson’s light suddenly goes out
Doctor Mathews: Oh bloody hell, what’s just happened?
Doctor Tar Quinn: I think his light’s just gone out
Doctor Mathews: Oh well, that’s just brilliant, that is! terrific! We get to see Funk o as a bloody Dracula!
Doctor Thompson: I used to be terrified of the dark. I used to be scared because I couldn’t see where I was going. I thought I’d bump into something really bloody awful.
Doctor Mathews: I think you’ve just stumbled upon it, matey.
Doctor Tar Quinn: I get even more terrified when I can see where I’m going. That’s been a problem since birth, not knowing who the father is, you know?.
Doctor Pharaoh: Here, do you know what’s going on here? cos I’ve got no clue. I’m bloody confused
Doctor Mathews: No, we’re just as clueless as you are
Doctor Tar Quinn: I still don’t know why I even became a doctor in the first place
Doctor Pharaoh: What, you mean you didn’t know?
Doctor Tar Quinn: No. A lot of them say they wanted to be doctors early on when they were kids. You know, the doctors kit, playing doctors and nurses. Me? I don’t know where it bloody came from
Doctor Pharaoh: What did you want to be then?
Doctor Tar Quinn: A writer
Doctor Pharaoh: A writer?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Yes, that’s right
Doctor Pharaoh: So, why didn’t you become a writer then? why are specialising in modern medicine if you weren’t even interested?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Nah, because I couldn’t even hold a pen. I tried but it was shit, my fingers got jammed and then I had a nervous breakdown
A medical student just casually listening to this conversation and starts cracking up with laughter very quietly
Doctor Pharaoh: Ah, that makes sense
Doctor Tar Quinn: Yeah, so then I decided to pack it in and take care of people instead. Ah, anyway, there’s one too many writers in this world. Make way for the bloody junior doctor!
Doctor Pharaoh: That’s mad, you know
Doctor Mathews: Wait, but hang on a minute. If you could not hold a pen for your writing, then when you’re consulting your patients, how do you get it down on paper?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Uh no, I’ve actually got photo graphic memory. I can remember every little thing
Doctor Mathews: Cobblers!
A few minutes later
Doctor Thompson: How do you get the birds, John? I’ve been wondering for so long. Cos you know? you’re the Casa Nova, the Romeo of Romeo and Juliet
Doctor Pharaoh: Oh dear lord{Face palms}
Doctor Mathews: Well you know, it’s just experience, it’s the charm, it’s the humour, the sparkle in your eyes. Your eyes have got to sparkle
Doctor Thompson: My eyes sparkle!
Doctor Mathews: No, you just look tired
Doctor Thompson makes a sad face
Doctor Mathews: I think you’ve got a wee eye infection, mate, it doesn’t look normal to me. It’s alright man, it gets better with time, trust me
Doctor Tar Quinn: Okay where the bloody hell is Professor Funk o? actually, you know what? forget Funk o, where is the dean?
Doctor Pharaoh: I don’t know, man, my mind has just gone the other way, to be fair.
Doctor Mathews: Have you lot realised that he looks a bit worn, he looks like he’s going to die
Doctor Thompson: When you get to his age, you’ll understand
Doctor Tar Quinn: Christ! I need a cup of tea, I’ve been having a long day today talking to you gits!
{He gets up to make himself a cup of tea}
A few minutes later, Professor Funk o has suddenly joined the chat again and he doesn’t look too happy
Doctor Thompson gets scared
Doctor Thompson: Ah! bloody hell, I think I’ve just wet me trousers!
Professor Funk o: What the bloody hell do you think you’re playing at! my doctors misbehaving like this, dismissing patients when they need help!
Doctor Thompson: What, I didn’t know we even had patients at this moment
Doctor Mathews: If there were, then it would probably be nothing more than a middle aged woman with a headache who doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. Either that or some great big nit’ s got some cooking pot stuck on his bonce, so we’re good.
Professor Funk o: Thompson! Thompson!
Doctor Thompson: Oh God! he’s talking to me, he’s talking to me!
Professor Funk o: Thompson, do you remember Miss Peterson?
Doctor Thompson: Miss Peterson? who the bloody hell is that?
Professor Funk o: Your patient, she was one of your patients. Come on, man! last week you managed to diagnose a difficult case of Rig a mortis, now you don’t even know her bloody name!
Doctor Thompson: Well, she slapped me, that’s probably the reason why
Doctor Mathews: Bloody hell, Mick! I always thought you were the most gentle doctor here, what are you bloody doing?
Doctor Thompson: She slapped me, I didn’t slap her
Doctor Pharaoh: Well, what were you bloody doing then? putting your hands down her knickers? you fut!
Doctor Thompson suddenly flips and gets hold of a syringe
Doctor Thompson: You can’t kill me, I’m invincible! Ha ha ha, I can turn you into a frog! Fucking Wizard man!
Professor Funk o: Thompson!!!
Doctor Thompson leaves the chat, abruptly as well as Professor Funk o
Doctor Tar Quinn: Oh God blimey, ha ha ha
They all start quietly laughing unable to take in the shock of what’s just happened
Doctor Pharaoh: Oh dear, is there a doctor in the house?
Doctor Mathews: That’s the worst case of Rig a mortis I’ve ever seen
Doctor Pharaoh: I don’t think that was Rig. And to think I knew everything there was to know about medicine, I think take another two years
{Doctor Frank Todd suddenly joins the meeting after being absent for a while}
Doctor Todd: Hey guys, good meeting?
They all just stare at him,
Doctor Tar Quinn: Yeah, I think we’d better have a chat
Doctor Todd: Is it bad?
Doctor Tar Quinn: Yeah, it’s quite bad
Doctor Todd: Oh bloody hell, I’ve only gone for half an hour, all hell’s already broke loose
End of meeting
Posted on September 3, 2024
My Robert Powell fan post, his work, why I love him, my favourite films, TV shows and roles
Hi guys, welcome back to Big Blog Theory, hope you’re all doing well. Today, I’m going to be talking about Robert Powell. Now, I’ve already spoken about him on, this blog post about some of my favourite British actors and male sitcom stars of the seventies. As you all know, I love Robert Powell, he’s like my favourite actor. He’s in so many films and TV programmes I love, the more I see of him, the more impressed I am by him and the more I love him. So many great films, so many great shows. Running scared { 1972} Secrets[1971] Harlequin{1980} The Jesus of Nazareth{1977} The Thirty Nine Steps{1978} Asylum{1972} The Four Feathers{1978} The Italian Job{1969 and obviously Thriller. He’s just so amazing, such a marvellous actor. He was so handsome and so cute when he was young. He’s also in the Italian Job, I love The Italian Job, which I forget he’s in this. This is out of pure coincidence, because me, my brother, my mum and my dad are literally going to go to the cinema to see The Italian Job tomorrow, I’m super excited. Love The Italian Job, Michael Caine, Robert Powell and everyone else involved in the film are just amazing, fantastic cast.
I also really love his ghost stories that he told in 1986, they’re really great and very spooky and I always watch them with my lights turned off, very good. These five ghost stories, all about different things and he’s just sitting in his arm chair and telling these spine tingling stories and I just love them so much. He’s such a great storyteller, I could listen to him talk all day long. He could literally read the whole entire phone book and it would still be interesting.
I feel like Robert would have made a great doctor in Doctor Who. Especially in the early seventies, I could totally imagine him travelling in the Tardis through space and time.
I know that he was very famous for his portrayal of Jesus in the Jesus Of Nazareth, it was the most defining part in his career. I haven’t seen it yet, but I will check it out some time in the future. I’m making time for it.
This guy is such an amazing talent, I love him so much, he’s got so much charm and charisma and he’s got such an enchanting personality. If I could go back to any decade, I would pick the seventies. If you don’t count the racism, the strikes, the poverty and all that, I think it would be a great decade to be in. Great music, great films, Great TV, the people were different. I would have loved to have gone back in time and to have met Robert Powell, he just seems so lovely. I’m so proud to be a fan, I’m probably one of the only teens who even knows who he is which is so sad to me. I have yet to meet someone my age who loves him like I do.
I just love discovering these actors from this decade. I just love watching the stuff they’re in, discovering their work on screen. Robert Powell is just one of those discoveries that I made at the age of 17. I just started to really appreciate him. I’m still 17 so I don’t know what I’m talking about. 17, but I’ll be 18 next year. Yeah, I just really love watching him. It was like love at first sight even though I don’t really know him personally but I was just enthralled by him and his approach to acting and some people have said that he’s a very lovely guy, so that’s a bonus.
The detectives is a show that still makes me laugh and smile, I watch it whenever I’m feeling down. It just shows that Robert can also do comedy and not just serious acting, he’s so versatile. I have yet to discover some more stuff he’s featured in. This guy deserves his own post, because I’ve got so much to say about him. Discovering this amazing actor has just been a huge blessing and a huge joy for me.
I’ve talked about Asylum[1972] and what a great film it was. It takes place in this old mental asylum and it’s these patients who tell their stories and reveal how they got there in the first place. Robert Powell plays this doctor/ psychiatrist who goes in and starts to investigate what’s going on but realises he’s out of his depth. It’s another one of those hammer house, of horror films of the seventies and it’s just fantastic. Really loved that one, I keep on forgetting that he’s in it. It wasn’t until a little while ago when I watched an episode of Thriller that he was in that I realised I might have seen this guy’s face somewhere before. Amazing film, it’s one of those films where it’s all these stories rolled into one, I love those kinds of films. Three other of my favourite Hammer house of horror films are From Beyond the grave, Doctor Terror’s house of horrors and the Vault of horror. All these are great films of the genre. All really great, spooky and sinister and just so much fun. Me and my dad always put one of these films on at Halloween. We either watch this or we put on an episode of Thriller. They’re both horror, thriller related, both amazing. But Asylum was truly something else. Anything with Geoffrey Bayldon and Robert Powell together is a winner for me.
I just think this guy is amazing, he’s got such a beautiful smile and I just adore him. He’s a very special talent, we won’t be seeing the likes of him anymore nowadays, unfortunately. His acting skills and charisma and charming personality will never be matched. One of my favourite actors for sure and he’ll remain that way. I love discovering this guy’s work and it’s an absolute joy to see him doing his thing. I would love to see more from him in the nearer future and if not, then you could always go back and watch his early work which is fine by me, I love his early work in the early seventies.
So that’s all I have time for for you guys today, thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are right now. Stay tuned for more work on Big Blog Theory. Next, I’ll be talking about some of my favourite actresses and female stars of the seventies, I’ll be giving a brief mention to all the actors and male sitcom stars that I haven’t had enough time to talk about. So stay tuned.
I couldn’t find any gifs of Robert Powell, so I chose this for now, Haha, enjoy.
Posted on August 11, 2024
My favourite seventies male sitcom stars and drama actors / TV and film
Growing up, I have really enjoyed discovering so many older actors and actresses who have existed way before my time and some of them are sadly no longer with us. Ones who have starred in British sitcoms and comedies to TV drama series and so on. I love particularly actors from the seventies, I watch so many old TV shows from the seventies such as Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Doctor in the house, Doctor at large and Doctor in charge, Bless this house, Please Sir, Step toe and son, Citizen Smith, Mind your language, Rising damp, porridge and so many more. This is just one for male actors and sitcom stars but I will be doing a separate post for all my favourite actresses from the seventies at some point, because there are so many actresses and female stars from the seventies that I also really love.
One actor I would like to start off with is Robert Powell. If you don’t know who he is, basically he was an actor who rose to fame in the seventies but he’s also quite famous and he did so much stuff throughout the years. I discovered him through Thriller which is a seventies anthology horror TV series that I am obsessed with. He was in two episodes, he was in Lady Killer and Death To Sister Mary. Lady Killer is one of my absolute favourite episodes of the entire series, I love it so much. When you find out what this guy is up to, what his plan is, it’s a fantastic bit of television. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but there’s this scene where his old mate turns up and he wants some of the money after Robert’s character finds out his wife is rich and he’s just being an absolute parasite. There’s the scene where they’re in the living room, he finds the glass lid on his bottle of scotch and he puts it in this sock and his friend makes a very absurd joke and they start laughing. Robert’s character turns psycho and he wacks him one with his sock and he kills him and even after he kills him, he still carries on laughing. Then his wife is reading in bed upstairs wondering why she could only hear his voice and not the other guy. It’s so terrifying and creepy but I love it, lord knows how many times I’ve re winded that part, I must have crashed my TV because of it, I don’t know, I just love that so much, it always gives me goosebumps that scene. He was incredible in that scene, it’s a master class in acting, it shows you what this man is capable of. A great episode of Thriller, one of the best, I always go back to it.
Death To Sister Mary is also really amazing. In Death to Sister Mary, it was about this girl she’s an actress who plays a nun in this serial and she’s been stalked by this mad psychotic fan and the cast and the team who are all involved in the making of the show all end up in near fatal accidents all because of this one man, I love that one so much, I was hooked from beginning to end. You also get to see a very young Derek Fowlds who I know from Yes Minister which is another show I really love. He plays Bernard, I loved Bernard, I love his explanations. Those two are some of my favourites along with loads of other favourite episodes of the show. Very creepy and spine tingling but very enjoyable and exciting, one of my favourite TV shows, I class them as short horror films, they’re brilliant. Me and my family, we put one on every single night, we love this programme.
I just love Robert Powell, there’s just something about him that I love so much, I really don’t know why, one of the reasons being he’s such a terrific actor, he’s so versatile in his roles, he’s so cute and handsome, I fan girl over him every single day even though he’s older now but still, he’s so handsome. I love seeing him act, he’s so enchanting and I love his work. He was also in a TV series called The Detectives that came out in the nineties which is another brilliant show. So I discovered him mostly through Thriller but he’s also in some really great films too, like The 39 steps which he’s in that I really really love, it’s one of my favourite films. Not the Alfred Hitchcock one but the other version that came out in the late seventies. It’s actually quite funny because they did quite a few versions of this film but this one was just my absolute favourite. Everything about that film I love and he was amazing in that. It’s just an innocent man on the run kind of film and I love it so much, I just fell in love with it when I watched it for the first time and I’m thinking of going back and re watching it at some point. Another great film he was in was The Four Feathers which came out the same year and it’s a remake of the fifties classic. I haven’t seen the original but I really loved this version. I might check out the original some time in the future. He was amazing in that, it’s a great war film and he made me cry in it, so yeah, it was fantastic.
The film is about this guy who’s in the regiment. Ever since he was young, he had an overbearing father who’s also in the regiment and he was persistent that he did it too. A few years on from now, he’s planning to retire from the regiment because he just got engaged to this woman and he wants to retire just so they could be together. When he gets sent these telegrams ordering him to go to Egypt to fight in the war, he rejects and he burns the telegrams in the fire. When he is found out, he gets sent these white feathers which in those days was a symbol of cowardice just because he wanted to retire and he went out to Egypt to redeem himself. I don’t say anymore then that because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone but it is an amazing film. It’s stuck with me for a while now. Robert Powell is amazing in that film.
He’s also in Asylum, which came out in 1972 and it’s a port monto horror film, kind of like the hammer house of horror films. I loved it so much and I remember me and my dad sat down one Halloween night and we watched it together and it was so good.
Robert Powell is just amazing, I love him so much. I love discovering stuff that he’s in. I definitely recommend you check him out if you love classic TV and film from the seventies.
Another actor I love from the seventies is Robin Nedwell He’s starred in a couple of sitcoms and comedies from the seventies. I know him from the doctor series, mostly Doctor in the house and Doctor in charge, but he was also in the Up chat line and the up chat connection, The Shillingbury Tales which I also really loved. Great programmes but I would love to start off with Doctor in the house. Mostly how I discovered him and since then I really loved him and the characters he portrayed on the telly.
Doctor in the house was a British sitcom, comedy series that came out in the late sixties, to the early seventies about a bunch of medical students and it just follows the messing around, chasing girls and doing a bunch of wacky stuff whilst training to become doctors. It’s so politically incorrect and it’s very nudge, nudge, wink wink humour and most of it wouldn’t go down well today but it is an amazing TV show, it’s so funny, I love all the doctors and I love the scenarios and situations they find themselves in. It’s absolutely hilarious and when I discovered this show, I was obsessed with it and it just instantly became one of my favourite shows. My dad used to love this when he was about my age even younger and now I love it so it’s kind of like a pass it on to the new generation kind of thing.
It’s like my favourite show, I’ve got hundreds and hundreds of favourite TV shows as well as films and it’s definitely up there on my list of favourites. Ever since I watched this show, I’ve just loved him and he was one of my favourite characters in the show.
I just really love him, there is something about him, the way he just eases into a role he was portraying on screen and it felt so natural. I love the doctor shows, I had a little crush on him when he was in Dr in the house, I just loved him so much he was so funny in that show, Dr in charge, he was amazing in that too. His character Dr Duncan Waring was a real force of nature. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know what I mean. Barry Evans who played Michael Upton was calm, refined and then when he left to go and star in Mind Your Language, along came Duncan and he was more like a bull in a China shop kind of character but it worked and he will always be iconic .
He’s always been one of my favourite sitcom stars of the seventies, discovering him through Dr in the house, Doctor in Charge and then seeing him in the Shillingbury tales later on which is another brilliant series, that only ran on for six episodes. I love his work. Unfortunately he passed away quite young and he died of a heart attack in his doctor’s surgery which is so upsetting to me because he was known for playing the role of a doctor in the doctor shows and it’s a waste of talent. But he was incredible and he’ll always be remembered as a brilliant comedic actor in the history of classic British television. There’s him and pretty much any one of the doctors on the show, I love them all. Barry Evans, who’s sadly no longer with us, George Layton, Geoffrey Davies, all of them are amazing and they made the show so enjoyable and fun to watch and they gave us some hilarious and iconic moments and quotes and I’ll continue to watch the shows and cherish them forever. It’ll always be one of my favourites and I’m proud of it. There’s an episode of Give Us A Clue that he was on, I’ll put the link down below. And there’s also a funny clip from The Doctor In Charge series too that I’ll put below so you can watch both. I’m sorry if the quality is really bad, it was the only one I could find.
Another actor I love is Richard O Sullivan. He’s starred in loads of British sitcoms and comedy films like Man About The House, Robin’s Nest, Dr at large and Dr in Charge and loads more.
He was in a few films, mostly old films from the fifties and the sixties, such as Every day’s a holiday which I mentioned in my Joe Meek post, he was in this other old film called Spare the rod which is a film set in this school where this teacher, played by Max Bygraves comes to this school and he’s got different methods of discipline but the school system has other ways. Another great film, one of my favourites. Richard played one of the students and yeah he was great in it. Another film he was in that I love is No time for tears which is a film that came out in the fifties. It follows the lives of the doctors and nurses working in a busy children’s hospital and I loved that film so much, he was one of the little kids on the ward. Great movie and it was very touching, just a very lovely film that I discovered on, talking pictures. He was also in Carry on Teacher which is another one of my favourite Carry on, films, so funny. I recommend all four of these films if you like Richard O Sullivan’s work.
I just love him. Man about the house is a great TV show, it was a very brave idea back in the early seventies because people weren’t so used to seeing a man share a flat with two women. You also had people like Mary White house critiquing everything left right and centre. But it was a success and I’m so glad it was because it’s brilliant. Highly enjoyable classic TV, I still go back and watch a few episodes, great classic comedy from a bygone era, very seventies. He was also in the spin off series Robin’s Nest with Tessa Whyatt which I also really love. It’s great comfort TV, very cosy and I used to watch this a lot with my mum and dad when there’s nothing on and we still do from time to time. Absolutely brilliant. I recommend you to check him out, his work is incredible and he was so chilled out as an actor, his on screen presence was amazing. It’s so sad seeing all these actors and stars getting old because we loved them so much when they were young. You know, back in the day, people got far because they were talented, not like now, where people are successful because of how they look. All these stars and icons were famous and successful for a reason, that being because they’re actually talented and good at what they do. I just love seeing them at work, it’s wonderful to see. He was also on an episode of This Is Your Life that I really enjoyed watching because you get to see his personality and his charm, he seems like such a lovely person. I’ll put a link below
Another actor I love is Richard Beckinsale. Richard Beckinsale was a young actor in the seventies who was known for starring in TV shows like Porridge which I love, I’m an avid fan of Porridge, I love this show and for other shows like Rising Damp, The Lovers and the follow up to Porridge which is called Going Straight. These four shows I absolutely love. The golden age of British comedy for sure, absolute gems. He was just an incredible and a massive talent, it’s such a shame he died so young and it was so sudden and such a shock to the nation. No one deserves to die that young, it’s too young, thirty’s too young. He had so much more to give and I can’t help but wonder what he would be up to, what projects he would be working on if he was still around today. A great loss to us all, it’s so sad. He was a massive talent and he had a beautiful smile and a heart of gold and he’ll always be remembered in British television history, he was a star. Rising Damp, Porridge are just the best, you can’t get any better than that. Absolute comedy geniuses at work. Playing the role of Lenny Godber alongside Ronnie Barker, two absolute legends and they were a dynamic duo put together and their comedy just bounced off of each other. Both are sadly no longer with us, the same with Richard and the legendary Leonard Rossiter, both are sadly no longer with us but they’ll always be remembered and celebrated through watching and enjoying these masterpieces of television. So please, to show some love, go and check out Richard’s work, you won’t be disappointed. He also appeared on This Is Your Life in the seventies, the show where they invite famous actors and stars onto the show and they get people who were close to them to talk about them and stories from growing up, it is amazing. I’ll put the link down below if anyone’s interested.
Moving on, another actor I love is Christopher Beeny. Christopher Beeny was known for starring in quite a few programmes but I mostly know him from the TV series Upstairs Downstairs. He played the very cheeky butler Edward. Loved Edward, he was just a very cheeky chap, he was such a character and he made every scene funny in his own unique way. I discovered Christopher through Upstairs Downstairs and it’s encouraged me to check out some of his other work. A very brilliant actor, he was one of my favourite characters in the show and it was hilarious to see his interactions with all the servants and house maids. Incredible series, one of my favourites and I got my family into it. My dad used to hate it when he was younger, the minute it came on, he used to go ” Turn that shit off” but I finally managed to convince him to sit and watch it with me and now he can’t seem to shut up about it. I guess this is just a great example of how your tastes in certain things change when you get older. We have to watch it all at least once a year. The same with my big brother, he usually hates stuff like this, it’s not really his cup of tea but now he watches it was every single night and he can’t wait for the next episode to come on. We’ve decided to go back to the very beginning and watch it all over again starting from the very first episode at some point. Brilliant TV series and I’ve never stopped being obsessed with it. Everyone in the show is just so incredible and they’ve given us some beloved characters we all know and love and some fantastic telly. Because that’s what it is, fantastic telly and it’s inspired me to carry on with my writing. So please, if you’ve not seen it, go and watch it, because it’s amazing and to be honest, this is coming from a girl who’s not a fan of period dramas, I usually don’t like them but this, I love and I really enjoyed it. Terrific writing, great acting, amazing stories and they all just felt one big family and it’s like you’re growing up with them, just amazing. So, that’s Upstairs Downstairs.
Another favourite actor is John Alderton. He was known for starring in loads of TV programmes and other things such as Please Sir, Tales of the unexpected, No honestly, Upstairs Downstairs, The up chat line, Forever Green and so on. The Up chat line and the up chat connection are both fantastic and I’ve re, watched both of them over and over again. So good, it kind of gives me Billy Liar vibes which is another one of my favourite films from the sixties. The Up chat connection is good also even though John’s not in it, Robin Ned well takes on the role instead and it’s still really good. Both deserve a watch nonetheless if you like classic British telly. I’m not going to tell you what it’s about because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone and I want you guys to figure it out for yourselves, but yeah, brilliant stuff.
He was also in two episodes of Tales of the unexpected, another show I love right next to Thriller. Every night would not be complete without an episode of Tales of the unexpected. I would watch an episode of this show every night before going to bed, absolutely brilliant TV series and there’s so many episodes to choose from, I’ve already seen almost all of them, I would read the short synopsis and watch it, so much fun and my mum would sit and watch it with me as well. That and Thriller are two of my favourite anthology series, I also really love these other ones like Shadows and Shadows of fear. They are all amazing and I love the little stories for every episode and you just didn’t know what you were going to see next. I love a good mystery.
He’s also in No honestly which he did with the amazing Pauline Collins and they’ve actually been happily married for a few years. They were in Upstairs Downstairs together. He’s also in Please sir. I love please sir, one of my absolute favourite TV shows, he plays the teacher and it’s just hilarious to see him slowly being driven mad by all the students. They all look older than him, I think they were all in their mid twenties during the making of the show. Brilliant show, I love the film too. Me and my dad watched it on my 17th birthday as a birthday treat and I was just obsessed with it, it reminded me just how much I loved the show, it just felt like you were going on a school trip with a bunch of your friends from school. So much fun, Please Sir is an absolute classic. I got my dad to find me the whole series and he put them on my laptop and I watched them all in like two or three weeks, I loved it so much and I was also watching a bunch of other TV shows at the same time one after the other. Doctor in the house, Citizen Smith, Mind Your language, The cuckoo waltz, Home to roost. I loved all these shows and I have to go back and start watching them all over again. John Alderton has starred in so many things in the seventies, he was one of the busiest actors at the time. I love him though, he was great. So please, check him out, you won’t be disappointed if you love classic British telly from the seventies.
Another actor I really like is Barry Foster. Now, he’s not really a comedy actor nor is he a sitcom star in any way, he’s more of a serious drama actor. He was in a TV detective drama series called Van Der Walk which I have never seen but I know him from a film called Frenzy. Frenzy is one of my favourite thriller, horror films from the seventies. One of my favourite Alfred Hitch cock films next to Psycho, Shadow of a doubt and Strangers on a train. Barry plays the role of this geezer who goes around strangling women but his friend gets mistaken for the strangler and it just goes down hill from there, a total living nightmare. An amazing film that my dad introduced to me one night. It had me hooked from the first few minutes right until the very end of the film. Great film, it’s so British and Barry Foster was so horrifying in it, he took that role and made it his own. A fantastic performance. It’s also filmed in Covent Garden and we go down there sometimes, so knowing it’s filmed down there is just so crazy to me. They used real locations and not a green screen which I love. If you love seventies politically incorrect horror films, watch Frenzy, it’s fantastic and I feel like it’s never talked about that much, it needs more recognition, it’s an amazing film. One of my favourite thriller horror films right next to Fright which also came out in the early seventies, two great films. He was also in The Family Way which is another film I love from the sixties. Still plays a jerk but at least he’s not a homicidal maniac who strangles women. So, please check them out, they’re great.
The next actor I really like is Robin Stewart. He was an actor in the seventies, he starred in a few things here and there. I know him from a TV show called Bless this house. Bless This House is a great show, it’s one of my favourite old TV shows from that time period. He played their son Mike who was a hippy, basically. Bless this house was such a funny show, featuring some big names such as Sid James and Diana Coup land. I really love this show so much. I remember when I first discovered this show and I became obsessed with it, I really loved it. It’s this show about this family and it’s just really funny. The schemes their son and daughter get themselves involved in. It’s just so much fun, I’m always entertained watching them on screen. I also really loved the film version they made, it was amazing. I really liked how Robin portrayed the role of Mike, he was really funny in the show and he had some great moments that I just think about and laugh at from time to time. Another classic show. It’s up there with all my other favourite TV shows. It doesn’t have to be just old TV shows just TV shows in general. I totally recommend any of you to give this show a watch if you like old stuff like this because I promise you that you’ll love this show.
Another actor I really like is Jim Dale. Jim Dale was known for starring in the Carry on films. Not really seventies related but I just wanted to mention him on here. A fantastic comedic actor, I love him so much. I loved watching him in Carry on Doctor and Carry on again doctor, he was amazing and he’s so cute, I couldn’t keep my eyes off him, a legendary actor. It’s through the Carry on films that I discovered him. He’s in a couple more Carry on, films as well but these two are my favourites and I had so much fun watching them, they’re up there on my list of favourite films for sure. I love the carry on films, they make me so happy, I have to watch one in the morning when I wake up, they’re so good and so wonderful. My favourites would have to be Carry on doctor, Carry on again doctor, Carry on teacher, carry girls, carry on camping, carry on screaming, carry on abroad and so many more. Yeah, great films and a great source of entertainment, I love the actors involved and I’m growing to appreciate them, especially Jim Dale. I just love him. If you’re a fan of the carry on films too, I’m sure you’ll agree with me. There’s this quote in the first carry on doctor film that I love so much, it goes , so Kenneth Williams says” I was once a weak man” then matron goes ” Well, once a week’s enough for any man” I just love that quote so much, it’s so witty and genius and I’m going to use it from now on.
Another actor I like is James Bolam. He’s starred in a few things but I know him from a show called The likely lads which he starred in with another actor called Rodney Bewes. Yeah, great TV show and it’s follow up Whatever happened to the likely lads? was also amazing, two great programmes, I love them. I also know him from a programme called Grandpa in my pocket which is a show I used to watch when I was little. Great young actor, I totally recommend you check him out.
The last actor I wanted to talk about today is Michael Caine. Michael is a famous, iconic actor and he’s starred in loads of films over the years. Two of my absolute favourite films he’s starred in are The Italian job and Get Carter. Two fantastic films. He delivers every performance and every role he plays. An absolute legend. A proper East End legend. I haven’t seen that many of his films but one day I’m going to watch some of them to see what other stuff he’s done. But he’s a great actor. The Italian Job was a great film, the quote ” You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off” is iconic and me and my dad are big fans of this film, we love it and we use this quote so many times. A terrific film as well as Get Carter, a fantastic East End gangster film and it’s up there with all my other favourite films. So please if you don’t know him already, go and check him out because you’ll see a legend at work.
That’s all I have time for for you guys today. I’m sure there are loads of other actors from that time that I’m not thinking of or I just simply don’t have time to talk about them but I hope you all enjoyed reading this post. I will be doing a post on my favourite actresses and female icons of the seventies so stay tuned for that. Bye for now, love you guys, stay safe and have a lovely day wherever you are.
More work to come on Big Blog Theory
Posted on August 4, 2024
My Joe Meek post
Hi everyone, hope you’re doing well. Today I’m going to be uploading the long awaited post some of you have been waiting for, this is my blog post on Joe Meek. In this post, I’ll be talking about Joe Meek. If you don’t know who Joe Meek is, basically he was an English record producer and audio engineer in the sixties. He was responsible for most of the iconic songs from that decade. Pretty much, if you listen very carefully to a song you can tell straight away that it was recorded by Joe Meek. Have, I the right by The Honeycombs, Tel star and so on. He recorded all of these in his apartment, believe it or not which was situated on 304 Holloway road which you can still visit the place even today. I always found Joe Meek a very interesting kind of character, he was a genius and he had a certain ear for sounds and he would get the band members and singers to rehearse and play their instruments on the stairs and in the toilet. He would make them drop marbles in the toilet to create a water sound effect. It makes me laugh even now but the overall finishing product was amazing because it still sounds incredible. Unfortunately, he ended up driving himself mad and sadly he killed himself. I think that’s just horrible because he was a legend, he was an odd ball but a legend but he was very troubled, he contributed a lot to the music industry.
He managed so many great bands and singers. The Honeycombs, The outlaws, The Tornadoes. Some of my favourite groups from the sixties, their music is timeless and I still listen to their music from time to time. You also had singers like Heinz Burt, Gene Vincent, Billy Fury, John Leyton, Screaming Lord Sutch who went into politics shortly after. There’s that music video for Jack the Ripper and it’s bloody terrifying when he suddenly appears in the audience with that knife. My dad showed me the video and I was like ” What the bloody hell is this?” All those girls screaming, nightmare fuel. Anyway, those were some of the artists who Joe Meek managed. Band members in the outlaws, You had Ritchie Black more, Clem Catini and Chas Hodges who would soon go on to achieve great success. Johnny remember me is a fantastic song sung by John Leyton, written by Geoff Godard who was working with Joe Meek at the time and he was also psychic. Such a good song, it just gives me chills every time I listen to it, especially that beginning sequence. I’ve listened to the whole album too and it’s got some great songs on there.
Have I the right has got to be one of the best songs to ever come out of the sixties or just to ever come out in general, it’s so catchy and it’s hard to believe that this geezer recorded it in his apartment getting the band members to rehearse on the stairs and in the bathroom, it’s nuts. I totally recommend you to check it out, it’s one of my favourite songs.
I love sixties music just as much as I love seventies and eighties music, I’ve got a special place in my heart for either. I’m an old soul, what can I say? I love some of the pop culture from the sixties, the fashion, the music, the actors, the actresses, the singers, the comedic actors. I love The Beatles, A hard days night is another film favourite of mine, love that film so much, the chaos they caused, it was hilarious, another classic, I love the ongoing gag about Paul McCartney’s grandfather played by Wilfred Bramble who I know from Step toe and son, which is a brilliant show. ”He’s very clean” Love it, if you’ve seen the film, you’ll get the reference. I’m not actually sure whether that was Paul’s grandfather or it was just some random old man who they just pestered and tagged him along with them on the train. Whatever it is, it’s just fantastic. Another great film is Live it up
Live it up is a film that came out in the sixties about this group of young lads who are in this band called The Smart Alecs and they’re trying to make it on a live music programme and trying to get a record deal and it goes through the highs and lows of being in a band and trying to make a name for themselves. It also features a lot of music that Joe Meek worked on with other artists and musicians of the time. Live it up is one of my favourite films, I just love it so much, I loved the music, I loved the friendship dynamic and banter between the four friends and it was just a very fun film to turn on. My dad introduced the film to me as he does with loads of classic TV shows, music and films and I found it on Talking Pictures TV and it instantly became one of my favourite films. That’s a great classic if you want to see what kind of stuff he did. I’m definitely going to go back and re watch it again at some point because it’s such a good movie. If you love live it up then it’s also work checking out Be My Guest
It’s a follow up to Live it up. It hasn’t got Heinz in it but it’s got Steve Marriot and David Hemming and so on. Be My Guest is also amazing and I watched it not long after I watched Live It Up and those are two of my favourites out of classic British cinema. I love these films so much, I’ve had a great education about classic British cinema from the forties, the fifties and the sixties and I’ve grown very fond of them. I find it’s a great way to unwind. I’m also just discovering the carry on films, Carry on Doctor is my favourite carry on film but there’s loads I haven’t seen yet, I’m making time for them, they’re also really funny. The Norman Wisdom films are also some of my absolute favourites, I love Norman Wisdom, an absolute legend, I really love his films. Follow a star, The early bird, Trouble in store, One good turn, A stitch in time, On the beat and the square peg are my favourites but there are loads more I haven’t seen yet, they’re on my list, I’ll get round to them very soon. I could talk about his films forever, I love them so much. They always cheer me up when I’m having a bad day. I discovered Norman Wisdom and his films only a while ago and I’m 17 now and I’m still obsessed with them, nothing much has changed. I just love discovering new things, I’ve got no idea what this has got to do with Joe Meek but I just felt like putting it out there. One day I’ll be uploading a post about some of my favourite films and classic TV shows, so stay tuned.
Everyday’s a holiday is a film starring John Leyton is another one of my absolute favourite old films from the sixties but that’s got nothing to do with Joe Meek but John is incredible and really cute in it. It is an amazing film and I had so much fun watching it and it instantly became one of my favourite films. In the summer time, sing song, love it, I always watch it during summer. Freddie and the dreamers are also in it. Those are some great films, I’m sure there are loads of other films I’m not thinking of but these are some of my favourite films and I felt like they deserved a mention. In the film, John Leyton joins this holiday camp with all these other youngsters and they make friendships and relationships through music. Another classic. It’s got a very young Richard O Sullivan in it too who I also really love.
Tel star is also a great film about Joe Meek, I’m sure I’ve mentioned it so many times here on my blog, it’s got a great cast and it’s very well made and I think everyone did a great job. The ending still makes me cry, it just makes me think about how difficult all that really was that he slowly drove people away from him and his genius had finally caught up with him and it drove him mad to the point of self destruction. It’s a shame it went that way in the end. I can’t help but wonder what he would be doing today if he was still around.
A hard hitting story about a genius, his story still lives on, his legacy still lives on. Hopefully, people will still continue to listen to his music and one day hopefully they’ll realise what a legend and a genius he really was. I also watched a really good documentary about him with my dad once and that was also very good.
If I might add, I’m really sorry it took me so long to upload this post, I’ve just been really busy, life’s just been super hectic and really chaotic these past few months, stuff going on in the family that I needed to deal with so it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything on here, so I do apologise but it’s here now, so I hope you enjoy it.
So yeah, that’s all I have time for, for you guys today, there is so much more I haven’t talked about yet but I’m just going to keep it nice and short. Thank you for stopping by, hope you all have a lovely day wherever you are and stay safe
Next time, I’ll be talking about some of my favourite male actors and sitcom stars from the seventies, so stay tuned
More to come on Big Blog Theory
Posted on November 21, 2023
Sweet Dreams, The Story Of The New Romantics
Hi guys, hope you’re all doing well. So, very recently, I have finished reading a book called ”Sweet Dreams, The Story Of The New Romantics” as you can tell by the title. This book was written by Dylan Jones. I thought that it was a very good book, it was just amazing in every way, very well put together. It was about the story of the New Romantics scene in the seventies and the music. One thing I also loved was that a lot of the musicians, singers, band members and icons from the time would open up about their own experiences of growing up in the seventies and their influences, it was just really good, I enjoyed reading it so much.
You hear various stories from the likes of Boy George and his experiences of being in the group, Culture Club, you hear from Malcolm Mclaren, you hear from Souxi Soux, you hear from David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Gary Numan and many other artists who were quite popular in that scene. It was very insightful, it took time to explain certain things, it didn’t rush it took time, so I liked that, it really went into detail. There were some really funny stories in here as well, I loved the story about Malcolm got a little job as a wine taster and then he got himself sacked because he hated the job, I thought that was just brilliant. Loads of famous icons and artists all talked about their experiences of being in the industry, their experiences growing up and their childhoods, all of which were all in the seventies.
I just really loved it, I think it was absolutely brilliant. You hear about the groups and bands like Spandau ballet, Duran Duran and others. It would often talk about when people’s music tastes change and punk would fade and it would suddenly venture off into Disco, then new romantics, then New Wave, they would all have these different phases and they would all experiment. My sister brought me this book for my birthday last year and I just loved it, I’m just a book worm, I’m a film worm, I love films, I love TV shows, I love art, I love books and music, I love this sort of stuff.
They talk about the clubs that were a huge part of this specific music scene. The economy was just about on its last legs, what Margret Thatcher up to her usual antics again, so I think that all this music stuff was just escapism. It’s just absolutely fascinating, I find it absolutely fascinating. My dad and I would often sit and watch documentaries about this sort of thing so I already know an awful lot about this already, hence, my dad used to be a DJ in La Betroute during the New Romantic Scene and used to do scratching on the decks and remembers Mick Jones from The Clash going up to him and just raving about it, it’s just absolutely nuts, my dad’s got loads of stories from that period of his life, just serenades us with these stories, just love it, in those days, no one knew what on earth was going on and just took it all in. It’s somewhat cool to hear from their personal experiences and their perspectives of seeing all this stuff for themselves.
I don’t want to ramble on about it for too long, because by the time I’m done, all of you would have found a job, found someone, gotten married, had kids and died so I’ll just keep it short, haha, I want you lot to read this book yourself so that’s all I wanted to say about this book. If there are any of you who have any interest in this sort of thing, I totally recommend, it was such a fantastic read and it opened my eyes to this whole thing and realised how crucial they all were to this scene, they really paved the way for many artists.
Thank you so much for reading my post, I hope you found this helpful, I hope you all have a lovely day, love you guys.
More work to come here on Big Blog Theory
Posted on November 20, 2023
My tribute to the amazing Anna Scher
Hi guys, I hope you’re all doing well. Today, I wanted to talk about something different. So, as some of you might know, Anna Scher sadly passed a few days ago. I mentioned her on a post a little while ago. I think it’s absolutely heartbreaking, a great shame. She taught loads of youngsters about drama and acting. Brought so much light and hope to many youngsters at the time. She helped loads of young kids, teenagers and created loads of great talents and stars in the process. I never met her because I never had the chance to, but my dad did, he had her for a teacher for a little while. Nothing but lovely and nice remarks and nice things to say about her, such a lovely person with a big heart and helped kids, taught them and made their lives so much easier and fun just by being amazing and being the amazing person she is. I’m kind of sad I never had her as my drama teacher but that’s okay, I guess. I stopped going to Anna Shears a little while ago. There was nothing bad going on, nothing nasty, nothing that would put me off of going there, but the reason I stopped going was because there was a rule where if you had just left school then you can’t go and if you still wanted to stay then you would have to join the adults sessions and I didn’t want to do that, so I just stopped going all together. Which is absolutely fine, I had a great time, I had some great memories and I’m just proud that I went to Anna Shears because it’s a really iconic drama school and so many of my favourite actors and actresses used to go there.
In my other post, I was talking about Grange Hill and how much I adore this TV show, I think I would like to talk about it a bit more since I feel like it just wasn’t enough, words can not explain how much I love this show. These last few months, weeks, I’ve been watching lots of Grange Hill, even more than I used to. I just love it so much. I have this thing where every night, before I go to bed, I have to watch at least one or two episodes of Grange Hill. Grange Hill was so ground breaking at the time, it really highlighted what kids went through in school in those days. I think a lot of kids nowadays would watch it and go ” Oh yeah, but it’s so droll and depressing” but I just think ” Oh okay, that’s what life was like back then, it’s real, it’s not fabricated”. I’m just obsessed with Grange Hill. I’m just coming to the end of series 3 at the moment, I’m going to start watching series 4 in a little while, it’s just never ending fun, love this show. Great cast, great writing, all the kids are just so amazing in their roles as well as all the teachers. Another thing I love about this show is that it feels like you’re a part of the friendship group and you’re invested in all the drama and it feels like you’re really there. I love the Peter Jenkins, Benny, Alan, Doyle, Martin and Trisha Yates era, I just love watching Tucker and his mates get up to all the chaos, it’s just brilliant. It will forever be one of my all time favourite shows on the telly. I haven’t watched Tucker’s Luck in a while also, so I think it’s time for a re watch. Anna will forever be honoured in all of our hearts. My dad remembers her being so lovely, kind, she had the students best interests at heart and she made learning fun.
I still think it’s an absolute travesty how she was treated. She was treated poorly, they just really treated her like crap at the end of the day. Such a sad ending to her life. I had to do a little tribute just to say how incredible she was, she was responsible for so many great acting talents. I know that I was never in her class but I’m just glad I went there just for that alone. I’ve done my bit, I enjoyed it, I’m going to move on and spend time on my writing.
Anna will missed my many. She was just being herself at the end of the day but she didn’t realise she was creating so many amazing talents who would go on to do great things and who were destined for greatness.
That’s all I have for this post, that was my little tribute to Anna, her death was a great loss to all of us and she will be forever missed. Have a nice day everyone, love you guys. I’m going to go and binge watch Doctor in Charge, Minder, The Professionals, Grange Hill and Monty Python, haha.
More work to come on big blog theory
Posted on October 20, 2023
Mad World, An Oral History Of New Wave Artists And Songs That Defined The Eighties
Hi guys, welcome back to Big Blog Theory, I hope you’re all doing well. A few days ago, I finished reading a book called Mad World, An Oral History Of New Wave Artists And Songs That Defined The Eighties. The foreword was written by Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran, one of my time favourite eighties bands and the afterword was written by the artist, Moby, Lori Majewski and Jonathon Bernstein. This book was about new wave music in the eighties and in every segment there was a band or a singer from that time talking about their journey through fame, their music, how they formed and other stuff too. One thing I really liked was that in every segment, it was based on their number one hit, which I thought was quite interesting. This book was amazing, I really enjoyed reading it, it’s a fantastic read. I also really loved it because this book had most of my favourite bands and singers from the eighties, I think that also played a part in it as well.
This book was really interesting too, so many great bands, so many great singers, so many great songs. We have bands like Adam and The Ants, Duran Duran, New Order, ABC, Devo, Echo and the Bunny men, Spandau ballet, The Human League, Heaven 17, Dexy’s midnight runners, Bow, Wow, Wow, The Waitresses, The Normal, Kajagoogoo, The Psychedelic Furs, Depeche Mode, Berlin, Soft Cell, A Ha, A Flock Of Seagulls, Joy Division, Yazoo, Tears for Fears, Modern English, The Smiths, Orchestral Manouvres in the dark, Ultravox, I,N,X,S, Thompson Twins, Animotion and Band Aid. It was really interesting reading about these bands. This book also had segments about singers and artists like Gary Numan, Kim Wilde and Thomas Dolby and Howard Jones. This book was so well put together, I enjoyed every minute of it, even if they were one or two groups that I don’t really listen to that much, it was still really interesting.
I got this book for my previous birthday and I really loved it. My sister and my dad knew how much I love this kind of stuff, I’ve always been interested in learning about certain decades, like the sixties, the seventies and the eighties. I think it summed it up, pretty well. I now know so much more about my favourite artists, bands and duos from the eighties. New Wave is a very fascinating topic indeed, so much to learn. If there are any eighties new wave fans out there, who thoroughly enjoy this stuff like I do, then you’ll love this, I’ll be reading this again, without a shadow of a doubt, awesome book. I don’t want to give too much away, because I want you, lot to see all this stuff for yourself, get your hands on it, you won’t be disappointed.
Thank you so much for reading my post, I hope you liked it. Have a lovely day, love you guys
More work to come on Big Blog Theory
Posted on October 5, 2023
Midge Ure at The Royal Albert Hall
Hi guys, welcome back to Big Blog Theory, hope you’re all doing well. Yesterday, I went to see Midge Ure at the Royal Albert Hall. If you don’t know who he is, basically, he was in this group in the eighties which was called Ultravox and they were involved in the new romantics scene. I’ve mentioned this band a few times on this blog and I’ve talked about their music. I went to see him play with my family yesterday and it was absolutely amazing. The music was incredible, he gave us a fantastic performance, he completely owned the stage. He sang all my favourite songs, I’m so glad they did Reap The Wild Wind, The Voice, Hymn, Dancing with tears in my eyes, great songs. I can’t forget to mention Vienna, Vienna is one of their best, iconic songs, the floor literally shook when he started singing it, I had goosebumps, it was incredible. He also did songs like Yellow Pearl which was Phil Lynott from Thin Lizzy but he originally wrote the song, it’s a great song. It was also used for the TV programme, Top of The Pops a little while later. He also did the song, Fade To Grey which is Visage, he wrote the song too, I had no idea he wrote those songs, the geezer’s a genius.
He still sounds great after all this time. It’s just great to see these guys doing their thing. He also talked about the first group he was in, it’s called Slick and he was in this group way before he was even in Ultravox, they did a lot of stuff that sounded like The Bay City Rollers, it’s really good music.
There were some really funny things that happened during the gig that I would like to share with you guys. Every time we go to the Royal Albert Hall, something weird happens, some weird crap, there’s always someone. About a few seats down from us, there was this woman who just couldn’t stop screaming, so she was just deafening us left right and centre, she was cheering more for the supporting act more than Midge. It just got so annoying and irritating, just constant. And then, there was this geezer in front of us egging this couple on to buying tickets, he was saying that if you sit at the front, they get the women to come up on stage. Then, he was looking at pictures of this bloody motorbike, I’m like ” What the bloody hell is going on?” then there were these two people dancing in the corner, I bet they had a few drinks, I bet they didn’t even know who Midge was. One drop of alcohol and you lose it. Just a bunch of drunk people moving their hands around and not knowing what on earth is going on. It was a great experience, for sure. The supporting act was great too, they were so creative, so talented, I think they were called, The Electric Company, I’ll definitely look out for them, they’re great.
It was a great day, we all walked away absolutely buzzing, great music and it really lived up to my expectations. It’s really cool to see the oldies still doing their thing. I definitely had an opportunity to listen to more of his music, it’s just amazing. It’s one thing when you hear their music but seeing them live is completely different ball game.
Thank you so much for reading my post, I hope you all enjoyed it. I hope you all have a lovely day, love you guys
More work to come on Big Blog Theory