Denis Lill (Charles Vaughan) appears briefly in the dramatic closing episode of the latest Jack Bauer ‘real-time’ adventure drama 24: Live Another Day, playing the role of the captain of the ship Letitcia, whose vessel, based at Southampton docks, is intended to provide the escape route for one of the series’ main villains – until Bauer intervenes. This ninth series of 24 (which was twelve one-hour episodes long, rather than the customary twenty-four) was based in London, and featured a large number of British actors in supporting roles – including Stephen Fry, who took the role of the British Prime Minister Alastair Davies. The final episode of the series, which was shown on Sky 1 and Sky 1 HD in the UK, was first broadcast on 16 July 2014.
Category: On TV
SFX review of The Walking Dead equates the show with Survivors’ ’emotional power’
In an online review of this week’s brilliant, emotionally-wrenching episode of post-apocalyptic zombie serial The Walking Dead (“The Grove”, 4.14) SFX compares the shocking drama’s emotional power to that of the ninth episode of the first series of Survivors.
SFX suggests that the agonised moral texture of this latest installment of The Walking Dead puts the episode:
in the same one-to-watch-with-a-stiff-drink company as the infamous 1975 Survivors episode, “Law And Order”
SFX. 2014. The Walking Dead 4.14 “The Grove” review, SFX online, 17 March.
BBC Roger Lloyd-Pack tribute includes Lights of London clip
A ten-minute Tribute to Roger Lloyd-Pack (the television, stage and big-screen actor who died on 15 January 2014, aged 69) broadcast on BBC One (2 February, 23:10) included a short clip from series two Survivors episode Lights of London I, showing Lloyd-Pack’s first appearance in the role of Wally.
The brief sequence showcased Wally’s opening speech: “You won’t get rid of me. I’ll get back. You see. I’ll get back”. The clip was part of a montage of extracts from TV appearances the actor made in the 1970s, before finding popular acclaim in long-running situation-comedies Only Fools and Horses and The Vicar of Dibley. It it the first time since its original broadcast in April 1976 that any footage from Lights of London has been shown on BBC One.
The Tribute to Roger Lloyd-Pack, presented by The Vicar of Dibley‘s Dawn French is available (to UK viewers) on the BBC iPlayer until 23:19 on Sunday 9 February 2014.
BBC. 2014. A Tribute to Roger Lloyd-Pack. BBC One, 2 February.
Lucy Fleming on The One Show to discuss Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Lucy Fleming (Jenny, Survivors) appeared on the 23 August edition of The One Show on BBC One.
Fleming featured in a film segment, being interviewed by Cerys Matthews about her uncle Ian Fleming’s authorship of his well-loved 1964 novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
For viewers in the UK, this episode of The One Show is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer until 19:29 on Friday 30 Aug 2013.
Remake of Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 takes new turn
The tortuous story of the long-running plan to revive and remake Survivors‘ creator Terry Nation’s space drama Blake’s 7 has taken yet another turn this week.
In April 2013 it was announced that FremantleMedia International would produce a 13-episode series remake of Blake’s 7 to be broadcast of the cable channel SyFy. This was to be a ‘re-imagining’ of the original (1978-81) show.
On Thursday 15 August, the Financial Times, BBC News and Digital Spy all reported that these plans had been shelved. Instead it was announced that the revival of Blake’s 7 would now be funded by Microsoft, with the series airing on the Xbox Live service. The London-based Motion Picture Capital company was reported to have taken over responsibility for the show’s development.
Digital Spy suggests the development is “part of Microsoft’s ambition to reposition Xbox as an ‘entertainment hub’, and to directly compete with other online subscription services.”
However, a Freemantle spokesman told BBC News that it was “not aware of any deal” with Microsoft, while both Microsoft and Motion Picture Capital declined to comment. Rights owner Andrew Mark Sewell told BBC News: “When we have news to report, we’ll let everyone know.” It seems clear that position remains far from settled.
Blake’s 7 was the show that Terry Nation created shortly after his departure from the original Survivors at the end of series one in 1975. Later in his career, Nation sought to get an American network to revive Blake’s 7, as he also (unsuccessfully) attempted to do with Survivors.
Terry Nation’s Blake’s 7 finally secures remake treatment
After a series of false starts stretching over more than a decade, a remake of Survivors‘ creator Terry Nation’s science-fiction space drama Blake’s 7 (1978-81) has finally been confirmed.
The BBC News site reported (10 April 2013) that, with the licensing of the project agreed with the Nation estate, a first series of thirteen episodes had been ordered by the SyFy channel, and will be distributed by FremantleMedia International, and produced by Georgeville TV and Marc Rosen. Initial reports indicate that the series will be written by Joe Pokaski (Heroes, CSI) and directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, GoldenEye).
Freemantle Media has outlined the show’s premise:
The year is 2136, Blake wakes up on one side of the bed. He reaches for the other side. There’s nobody there. As reality sets in, this handsome ex-soldier sits up, and looks at a photo of his wife Rachel. Beautiful. Deceased.
A revolutionary reinvention of the long-running BBC series made in the late 1970s, Blake’s 7 tells the story of seven criminals – 6 guilty and 1 innocent – on their way to life on a prison colony in space, who together wrestle freedom from imprisonment. They acquire an alien ship which gives them a second chance at life and become the most unlikely heroes of their time.
Blake’s 7 was the show that Terry Nation created shortly after his departure from Survivors at the end of series one. Later in his career, Nation sought to get an American network to revive Blake’s 7, as he also (unsuccessfully) attempted to do with Survivors.
Original series episode Genesis features in BBC ’70s documentary
Several extracts from the original Survivors first series episode Genesis feature in Dominic Sandbrook’s new BBC 2 documentary TV series The ’70s.
In the third of four episodes, which focuses on the mid-1970s [‘Goodbye Great Britain 75-77’], Sandbrook makes reference to the resonances between the widespread ‘pessimism and paranoia’ gripping Britain at the time and the post-apocalyptic preoccupations of Survivors.
Sandbrook’s commentary (33ms 20s – 35ms 04s) is illustrated with extracts from Genesis (showing Anne Tranter’s first meeting with Greg Preston; and Abby Grant’s encounter with Arthur Wormley) and an oddly irrelevant aerial shot of some moorland (sourced from some other show).
Viewers in the UK can catch the episode on the BBC iPlayer service (until 9.59pm on Monday, 21 May 2012)