1 9 6 4 – 1 9 6 5 (UK)
6 x 35 minute episodes
This six-part anthology of new television films was produced by BBC2 and aired on Saturday nights between 12 December 1964 and 16 January 1965.
The first of the stories, ‘The Diary of a Nobody: The Domestic Jottings of a City Clerk’ was directed by Ken Russell in the manner of a silent film and concerned events in the life of a self-important London clerk called Charles Pooter (Bryan Pringle).
The production – based on the 1892 novel by brothers George and Weedon Grossmith – also featured Avril Elgar, Murray Melvin, Brian Murphy and Vivian Pickles. The Grossmith estate disliked this adaptation so much (they apparently considered it anachronistic) that they forbade the BBC to ever repeat the transmission.
‘The Chase’ featured Ken Jones as Frank Bowles (pictured at left), who is driving to the office as usual when suddenly four terrifying ton-up boys (including Rodney Bewes as George and Melvyn Hayes as Scratch) surround his car and start screaming hysterically at him through the window. Panicking, he tries to shake them off.
‘Don’t I Look Like A Lord’s Son?’ – written and directed by Joe Massot – starred Brian Walsh, Margery Withers, Wendy Richard, Aubrey Morris, Jake King and Eamonn Laurenns.
‘The Day of Ragnarok’ found the nation on the brink of nuclear war with two mysterious women leading dozens of women to a vigil in a London park. The cast included Wendy Richard, Elizabeth MacLennan, Tamara Hinchco, Pauline Boty, Nicol Williamson and Harriet Devine. Music was provided by Dudley Moore.
‘The Logic Game’ featured David de Keyser, Jane Arden, Peter Henry, Bert Palmer, Aimée Delamain and Graham Cottrell.
The final instalment, ‘Andy’s Game’, was written and directed by David Andrews (from a novel by Michael Hastings) and starred Rickford Harris as Andy, with Gillian Smith, David Janson, Sharone Bullough, Alicia Biggerstaff, Helen Theyer, Daphne Foreman, Julia Walsh, Darryl Read and Johnny Wainwright.
Episodes
The Diary of a Nobody: The Domestic Jottings of a City Clerk | The Chase | Don’t I Look Like a Lord’s Son? | The Day of Ragnarok | The Logic Game | Andy’s Game
