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Reviews
BBC2 Playhouse: The Brylcreem Boys (1979)
The Brylcreem Boys
I saw this when it was first broadcast back in 1979. It concerns a young man at an RAF base during the Second World War who is ordered to guard duty and spends an unpleasantly cold night trying to stay warm in the sentry box. He falls asleep and wakes up the next morning to find that he has a permanent smile due to frostbite. His superiors send him to recuperate at a nearby hospital which is actually a psychiatric hospital, as no other is available. There he encounters various aircrew who are all suffering from post traumatic stress with whom he has to share a ward. In the night they wake him and coerce him to join an imaginary bombing raid over Germany which turns all too real.
I remember that this particular story stayed with me for some days afterwards. I've not seen it since but would like to watch it again.
Rumble (1995)
strangler on TV
I vaguely remember this for only one reason. Hugh Cornwell, former lead singer and guitarist for the rock band The Stranglers, appeared in one episode as a hypnotist. I wasn't even watching it but had the telly on and happened to look at the screen at the very moment that Cornwell appeared. My mate rang me up about two minutes later to ask if I'd seen him. I told him that I was, indeed, watching the programme. We both watched, amused, as Cornwell gave it his all. After his scene was over my mate and I both agreed that his performance was dire. I looked up Hugh's name on IMDb recently to see what other programmes he'd acted in. I was quite surprised to find his appearance in this programme wasn't listed on his resume. I had to look on Brian Glover's resume to even find out the name of this forgettable tripe. A pity he ( Cornwell ) didn't appear in something a bit more memorable.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Satyr (1981)
Buck with a beard
Buck lands on some planet and after being attacked by a wild dog discovers a woman and her son living in a small cabin. Everything appears to be perfectly normal until Buck gets hints that the woman and her son are not telling the whole story. We later find out that the woman, Cyra Samos and her son, Delph are being menaced by a monstrous half-man,half-goat like being. This creature, armed with an electric whip and furry trousers torments the woman with demands for food and wine which she must supply to the creature ( a satyr, which Buck recalls from Earth mythology )in order to appease it. Buck asks why she just doesn't leave the planet but the woman says she can't but won't explain why. The satyr turns up and in an attempt to ward off the creature Buck withstands the attack but Twiki isn't so lucky. Buck manages to trick the satyr into using his electric whip in a pool of water where they are fighting and the shocked creature falls stunned into the water. Buck delivers the coup de grace by drowning it. Later, we discover the satyr isn't dead but only stunned. Buck learns the reason the woman didn't want to leave the planet is because the satyr was her husband, Major Jason Samos, and he was the victim of a strange transformation that only affected the men-folk on the planet. With Major Samos ( satyr ) out of the way a couple of other satyrs, complete with their very own electric whips, descend upon the cabin and kidnap Delph. All the while that Buck has been on the planet he has been slowly transforming into a satyr. He still manages to fix the damage caused to his ship in the satyr attack, fix Twiki and offer some comforting words to Mrs. Samos delivered in a husky baritone voice he is developing. Sporting a new curly hair-do, bristling beard, eyes that glow and some vestigial horns protruding from his forehead he sets off in pursuit of the two satyrs that kidnapped Delph and tricks them both into returning to the cabin for the food and wine that Buck has boasted was his. In the meantime, the still-stunned former Major Samos has crawled his way back from the scene of his near-death and approaches the cabin just as the two rival satyrs appear. They brush the weakened Major aside and enter a small building to the side of the cabin containing the wine and food. Little do they realise that Buck has rigged the building with explosives. It seems he found time to do that as well. Before Buck can set off the charges the wounded Major grabs the detonator and blows himself and the two other satyrs up. Buck along with the woman and her son return to Searcher where Dr. Goodfellow reverses Buck's transformation.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Mark of the Saurian (1981)
Buck has a lie in.
I saw this the other day and will try to relate what it's all about. Buck has come down with some kind of futuristic virus which keeps him confined to bed. He's OK though, he's got a TV and round the clock attention by nurses. While our hero is laid up a delegation of VIPS from Earth arrive. Buck is watching them via his TV monitor and notices something strange. An eerie green aura is surrounding the delegation and it seems no-one else can see it. Buck thinks it's a symptom of the virus and shrugs it off. He sees the same green aura again when the delegation visit him in his sickbed but neither Wilma, Hawk or anybody else from Searcher does. It turns out that the delegates are, in fact, Saurians. Reptile-like ( hence the name ) creatures who have cunningly managed to surround themselves with a field that fools everyone into seeing not Saurians but ordinary Earth men. When they realise that Buck can see through their disguise a quick tweak of the device they wear to enable this transformation means even Buck can no longer see the green aura. The ship then goes off course and is threatened with destruction unless they can steer it to safety. Through all of this drama Buck finally puts two and two together and realises the wool has been firmly pulled over everyone's eyes. He rushes into the control room with his laser pistol and, holding the delegation under gunpoint, turns the thermostat down. The rapid drop in temperature causes the Saurian interlopers to lose consciousness and ( somehow ) revert back to their slimy lizard-like forms. It all ends happily and Buck manages to get a decent kip.