Studio 64

1 9 6 4 (UK)
5 x 60 minute episodes

A group of television writers and directors were brought together in pairs to collaborate on a series of specially written drama productions for ATV’s Studio 64 series. The episodes aired fortnightly.

The Crunch

Airing at 9.35 pm on Sunday 19 January 1964, ‘The Crunch’ postulated a situation where the newly created independent Eastern State of Makang (formerly a British Colony) threatens the safety of London.

As the play opens, London is being evacuated, and in a quiet street of West London, the Makangese Ambassador (Maxwell Shaw) has secreted a nuclear weapon in the basement of their Embassy and is threatening to detonate it if his demands aren’t met.

Harry Andrews played the Prime Minister and Anthony Bushell the CO of the troops called out in this thriller by the author of the Quatermass series.

Prime Minister Goddard 
Harry Andrews
Mr Ken (Makangese Ambassador)
Maxwell Shaw
Mrs Ken
Hira Talfrey
President Jimson
Wolfe Morris
Lt. Gen. Priest
Anthony Bushell
Capt. Buckley
Peter Bowles
Lovell
Carl Bernard
Dr Kessell
John Gabriel
RAMC Major
John Cazabon
Bradshaw
Frank Crawshaw
O’Day
Michael Corcoran

Writer
Nigel Kneale
Director
Michael Elliott

Better Luck Next Time

Airing on 2 February 1964, ‘Better Luck Next Time’ revolves around William Foster (Michael Bryant), an intense young man in the publishing business who is trying to shake himself free of the pressure and strains of the New York business world and of a wife who wants him to stay in the rat-race and run even faster.

In a hotel room, William meets Jenny (Zohra Lampert), a shapely and sleepy-eyed girl who has come along as the “professional co-respondent” he needs to get a divorce. The pair prop themselves up in bed and chat like two nervous strangers as they wait for a private detective to “discover” them together.

During that wait, the two begin to fall in love – but things don’t work out, and William finds himself once again in another hotel room with another hired co-respondent.

William Foster
Michael Bryant
Jenny Zubitski
Zohra Lampert

Writer
Stanley Mann
Director
Silvio Narrizzano

The Devil and John Brown

Set in Scotland in 1835, Andrew Keir was seen as an Ayrshire miner who is trapped below ground for 23 days in ‘The Devil and John Brown’, which aired at 9.35 pm on Sunday 23 February.

Keir (once a Lanarkshire miner himself) gave a gripping performance as the man – trapped by a fall of rock – with the milestones of a bitter-sweet life passing before his eyes as he lay in the darkness waiting to be rescued.

Good use of flashbacks frees the plot from the picture of one man entombed.

It was acted and produced with competence, but too much of it called for exclamations of hoarse despair, and too much of it took place in the flickering light of a miner’s lamp to make this a really memorable play.

John Brown
Andrew Keir
Minister
Fulton Mackay
Master
Graham Crowden
Katie
Janet McIntyre
John Scobie
Leo Maguire
Robert Scobie
John Kidd

Writer
Len Taylor
Director
Stuart Burge

The Happy Moorings

Jocelyn Willow (Millicent Martin) hires the services of escort Oliver Strickland (Roy Kinnear) to obtain a divorce from her husband (Nigel Stock) in this offbeat comedy from Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall.

But unwelcome surprises await her and her flustered escort when they motor up the river to spend the night at her husband’s riverside hotel, where Jocelyn plots to confront her husband with the evidence necessary for the divorce.

JG Devlin and Jack MacGowran contributed character sketches as two old eccentric retainers at the hotel.

Unfortunately, the complicated carry-ons at the Boatel were hard to follow – there were eight characters, interconnected by the wildest coincidences explained mainly in gabbled dialogue.

Jocelyn Willow
Millicent Martin
Oliver Strickland
Roy Kinnear
David Potter
Brian Murray
Ewin Parry
Nigel Stock
Herbert Reynolds
Jack MacGowran
Walter Reynolds (Barman)
JG Devlin
Receptionist
Phillip Locke
Mrs Reynolds
Eleanor Darling

Writers
Keith Waterhouse
Willis Hall
Director
David Greene

The Close Prisoner

Henry Hutchins (Bernard Cribbins) was told at the age of 14 that his chest and back were literally turning to steel. But nobody is really interested in his steel torso.

In the television studio where his life story is being told, the director (Michael Gwynn) and floor manager (Michael Coles) care only about artistic merit and commercial acceptability. Where the truth doesn’t quite fit, it has to be massaged a bit.

Henry’s parents (Dandy Nichols and Norman Bird) like it to be “nice”.

“This is nicer,” they cry, ignoring Henry’s pleas as he chokes to death on the studio floor to watch a “hearts and flowers” version of his deathbed scene, which has been specially pre-filmed.

Once Henry existed. Now he doesn’t. Between his birth and death is just a space – a series of episodes which people can adjust to suit their own point of view.

Sheila Steafel deserves mention as Henry’s wife, Ethel, for a bedroom scene in which she has few lines but speaks volumes with a mere change of expression.

Bernard Cribbins was fitted into a special plaster cast at Elstree for the play.

Henry Hutchins
Bernard Cribbins
Director
Michel Gwynn
Floor Manager
Michael Coles
Father
Norman Bird
Mother
Dandy Nichols
Ethel Hutchins
Sheila Steafel
Dr Selinex
Oliver Johnson
Doctor
Ray Marlow
Medical Student
Nicholas Edmett
Landlord
John Sharp
Henry (aged 14)
Nicholas Clay
Henry (aged 8)
Nigel Clay

Writer
Clive Exton
Director
William (Ted) Kotcheff