Complete ITV programmes Issue 2 • August-November ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: You’re Nicked! MARMALADE ATKINS Every single Nick Rowan episode BURNSIDE of HEARTBEAT! SEE INSIDE THE KIDS FROM 47A TV ON AIR AUG-NOV Vol. 1 No. 2 e’re back, with a whopping four months’ worth of programme highlights in the Wsecond edition of your regular roundup of vintage telly treats on offer from NETWORK. This month, there’s a chance to see Richard Briers (right) in a rare ITV sitcom, while elsewhere we round up the complete adventures of PC Nick Rowan in a box set of the first seven HEARTBEAT series. There’s tough drama in the shape of PLAYS FOR BRITAIN, plus two spin-off series from THE BILL which is also back for a seventh volume. Still not enough? How about a dust-up with that girl- behaving-badly MARMALADE ATKINS? There’s latex comedy courtesy of SPITTING IMAGE, vintage ’70s “We will now sing hymn number 75 - We plough the fields and scatter... detection from NEW SCOTLAND YARD, and the first of Then we muck out the pigs.” our star portraits featuring songstress CILLA BLACK who stretches herself in two comedy outings from ATV. The Gospel according to Make sure you keep TV ON AIR handy for future reference... it’s your indispensible guide to everything “Don’t move, I think there’s a wasps’ nest in there!” on telly from Network. I bet you never knew there was Richard Briers... so much in it... WHO’S THAT... GIRL??? All in Good Faith - Sunday, ITV NEW Char very much! TV HIGHLIGHTS AT A GLANCE Kathleen Harrison returns as n his first comedy for ITV, RICHARD BRIERS stars as a beleaguered vicar who abandons the comforts of his affluent MRS THURSDAY SUNDAY... Oxfordshire parish for the more challenging climes of a run- HAT would you do if you inherited a multi- Idown Midlands town. ALL IN GOOD FAITH also stars Barbara million pound business empire, a mansion and Every single Nick Rowan episode... W Ferris and Nigel Humphreys, with scripts from noted screenwriter HEARTBEAT (see page 4) a Rolls Royce to boot? That’s the question facing John Kane, and direction courtesy of multi-award winner John cheery charlady Alice Thursday (Kathleen Harrison) Howard Davies. Mischief-maker MARMALADE ATKINS who returns for a second series of this unlikely ratings (see page 5) THAT’S no lady... it’s PETER EGAN in wig and makeup, hit from 1967. When doubts begin to assail the Rev. Philip Lambe, he feels the appearing in Roger McGough’s play The Lifeswappers, MONDAY... problems of an urban parish might help renew his faith in himself. one of the more unusual entries in ITV’s PLAYS FOR Devised by Dixon of Dock Green creator Ted Willis, But before accepting a position in Edendale, he must convince his BRITAIN, a hard-hitting 1970s series of single plays, now CILLA BLACK is our poster star and MRS. THURSDAY’s blend of light comedy and family – particularly reluctant wife Emma – that the move will on release from Network. features in two comedy series (page 7) drama made it one of the most popular series of its day mean a fresh start for them all. When Philip and Emma finally Among the noted performers are Kevin McNally, Pete and provided one more milestone in the long career visit Edendale they discover that if anything, it’s even worse than WEDNESDAY... Postlethwaite, Denis Lawson, Sheila Gish, Miriam Margolyes of character actress Kathleen Harrison, who would reports suggested. In fact, one night spent there confirms Emma’s and Ray Winstone; directors include Alan Clarke, Philip Back on the beat with THE BILL continue to appear in films until the late 1970s, living worst fears, and reinforces Philip’s belief that Edendale really Savile and Michael Apted, while the series also includes an (see page 8) to the ripe old age of 103! needs him… early entry from acclaimed writer Stephen Poliakoff. “Am I bovvered?” Marmalade Atkins, a young lady with bad hair and a bad attitude... SPIT AND POLISH! Good kids, and bad ones fter ten series, SPITTING IMAGE is still going “I’m telling you, Mr. Rowan - just over yon hill it’s 1992!” Astrong, continuing to poke fun at the great and the MARMALADE ATKINS Vs THE KIDS FROM 47a ! not-so-good. John Major is still running the country, seen here with a ‘mini-me’ of himself. Across the pond, George HERE’S no contest: in a set-to between bad girl Berry’s back on the beat! TMarmalade and those nice kids from 47a, it’s all Bush senior (remember him?) remains in the White House, while elsewhere the likes of Michael Jackson and even the HEARTBEAT, THE ROWAN YEARS too obvious who would come out on top. Fortunately, it’s never going to happen, but you can place these two late Mel Smith put in appearances. Sundays, ITV top kids’ series head to head when they’re released on DVD this autumn. ...and here’s Johnny... for real! iewers who enjoyed Nick Berry’s tenure in ITV’s popular Sunday night nostalgia EDUCATING MARMALADE and DANGER Spitting Image favourite Sir John Gielgud can be found reciting MARMALADE AT WORK both star Charlotte fest HEARTBEAT can now revisit classic poems alongside other Vthe first seven series featuring Berry’s popular Coleman as the teenage terror who makes Dennis the luminaries of the acting world in SIX character Nick Rowan in this long-awaited box set Menace look like softy Walter’s poodle. Less anarchic CENTURIES OF VERSE. Joining but very welcome on DVD at last are the KIDS him are Peggy Ashcroft, Ralph from Network. FROM 47A, who show endless resourcefulness when Richardson, Anthony Hopkins and they have to cope without their mum. Look out for others, all contributing to a highly- I heard it through the Woodvine... police procedural, 1970s-style in Compare and contrast: Heartbeat’s seventeenth regarded series compiled by writer a youthful Christine McKenna, several years away NEW SCOTLAND YARD. and poet Anthony Thwaite. and penultimate series is also on release in October, from stardom in Yorkshire Television’s Flambards. AND MEANWHILE, BACK IN with Joseph McFadden now riding the vintage motorcycle, ably supported by the series’ other LUNCHTIME ROUNDUP... THE REAL-LIFE 1970S... well-loved regulars, one of whom - Phil Bellamy - bows out in heroic style. The set includes a special Classy serial THE CEDAR TREE returns to your ohn Woodvine’s not pretending - it really is Farewell Phil episode shown at the time in tribute lunchtime screens for a second series... while a seventh Jthe 1970s where he’s standing. Returning to one of the series’ most enduring characters. volume of CROWN COURT brings us up to date with for a third series, NEW SCOTLAND YARD courtroom drama in Fulchester. Don’t expect to see Billy demonstrates a solid, no-nonsense approach to the Fish or the Fat Slags standing trial, though - Crown And yes, after seventeen series, it is still the 1960s television detection, updating the familiar format Court is where Viz Comic found the name of its now in Aidensfield. Who wouldn’t want to live in a of No Hiding Place to reflect the changing times. legendary provincial town. place like that? . TV ON AIR STAR PORTRAIT Girls from Auntie... NEW LADIES IN CHARGE his touching drama series charts the fortunes of three young women who, having returned from their voluntary Tservice as ambulance drivers during the First World War, decide to set up a ‘universal aunts’ agency to help those less fortunate than themselves. This set comprises the complete series alongside the pilot episode, scripted by Upstairs, Downstairs’ Alfred Shaughnessy and screened in 1985 as a drama in ITV’s Storyboard anthology. “‘Ullo John, wanna buy some diaries?” Alexei Sayle mugs it up in SELLING HITLER. FUHRER FOR SALE! SELLING HITLER NEW he sensational ‘discovery’ of Hitler’s diaries and subsequent realisation that they were forged caused a world-wide scandal in 1983. SELLING HITLER, T Peter Tilbury and Sue Holderness try not to worry while Ken Jones (inset) Alastair Reid’s tongue-in-cheek five-part dramatisation, contemplates seeing that missing episode. based on Robert Harris’s best-selling novel, exposes the Worries and Wackers machinations that led to Stern magazine’s announcement WO extremes of sitcom are on offer this autumn from of the scoop of the century, the ensuing bidding war for Network. In a third series of IT TAKES A WORRIED CILLA BLACK serialisation rights, acrimony among the eminent historians TMAN, writer Peter Tilbury once more steps in front of the cameras as anxiety-ridden Philip Roath, a man whose who were taken in and, finally, the diaries’ exposure as an ou wouldn’t think it to look at her, but our confidence is diminshing as rapidly as his hair and teeth Cilla is celebrating an incredible fifty years elaborate hoax. (though judging from the photo, he doesn’t have much to in showbusiness. Back in the 1970s, ATV worry about on the tonsorial front). Y took singing star Cilla from the familiar variety Winner of a Royal Television Society award, this Euston t the other end of the scale, the only worry likely format of her BBC show and launched her into Films mini-series features a luminary cast – including, to trouble the protagonists in Vince Powell’s THE the world of sitcom. Two series followed in quick WACKERS is where the next pint is coming from. Highly among many others, Jonathan Pryce, Alexei Sayle, Tom A succession: CILLA’S COMEDY SIX and CILLA’S controversial in its day, the series’ final episode was never WORLD OF COMEDY, and both are available from Baker, Alan Bennett, Barry Humphries, and Dr.