I remember seeing this. I'm sure it went out on a Sunday afternoon. I still recall the scene in the lift at the end of the first episode. One thing we do well in the uk is make great kid's television.
3 Reviews
Weird but worth it.
royculshaw18 March 2021
Don't show this series to your kids...
stephen-lambe15 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I remember this series from 1977, when I was fifteen, and it made a huge impression of me. Now it's finally available on DVD, I can understand why.
First of all, it's not recommended for kids of today. The pacing is slow - a modern day show would polish this off in 90 minutes or less, rather than three and a half hours. The special effects are rudimentary and the fight sequences laughable. It has dated very badly.
But - beyond that - it's brilliantly inventive. A mixture of macabre, deadpan comedy, social satire and dream-like Fantasy.
In the plot, a meek working class lad - Roland - has a scholarship to sing in a choir, but he's failing. He's also being bullied by a gang in the tower block in which he lives. After getting stuck in a lift which is under repair, he plunges into a netherworld, where he's now in a castle. His mission? To climb up to the top and escape. But he is not his own master - he is being manipulated by the sinister Vein (Taffryn Thomas, in delightfully creepy form). Each character he meets is paralleled in his real life, and is, of course, played by the same actor.
As he ascends, he meets a Frankenstein-like inventor (Fulton McKay chewing the scenery magnificently), an overprotective mother, is put to work in a ridiculous, terrible kitchen and suffers at the hands of pointless bureaucracy. He wins, yet there is a twist; he faces a trial and a final battle.
The use of film for the modern sequences and pristine video for the fantasy ones is an obvious yet clever device, while the dialogue is powerful and deliberately repetitive, almost leaving prose behind and lapsing into blank verse, at times.
And it's dark. Very dark. In the opening episode, the choir are performing a choral piece by Bartok at his most discordant. In episode four, the workers in the kitchen are told 'Work brings freedom'. Arbeit Macht Frei. I don't ever remember the Holocaust being referenced in such a way in a show for children. It's chilling, but it's effective nonetheless.Elsewhere, there are shades of Kafka - a clear influence on the writers, Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who also contributed to Doctor Who.
It's not all great. Some of the modern day set ups for the fantasy sequences don't quite make as much sense as they should, and the central performance by Philip Da Costa as Roland is a bit weak at times. The ending to the fantasy section is also disappointing, although the final end to the show, back in the real world, does satisfy. But the rest of the cast are terrific and if you shift your mindset to the late 70s, when kids TV ran to different pacing and tiny budgets, my guess is you'll really enjoy this incredibly inventive series.
First of all, it's not recommended for kids of today. The pacing is slow - a modern day show would polish this off in 90 minutes or less, rather than three and a half hours. The special effects are rudimentary and the fight sequences laughable. It has dated very badly.
But - beyond that - it's brilliantly inventive. A mixture of macabre, deadpan comedy, social satire and dream-like Fantasy.
In the plot, a meek working class lad - Roland - has a scholarship to sing in a choir, but he's failing. He's also being bullied by a gang in the tower block in which he lives. After getting stuck in a lift which is under repair, he plunges into a netherworld, where he's now in a castle. His mission? To climb up to the top and escape. But he is not his own master - he is being manipulated by the sinister Vein (Taffryn Thomas, in delightfully creepy form). Each character he meets is paralleled in his real life, and is, of course, played by the same actor.
As he ascends, he meets a Frankenstein-like inventor (Fulton McKay chewing the scenery magnificently), an overprotective mother, is put to work in a ridiculous, terrible kitchen and suffers at the hands of pointless bureaucracy. He wins, yet there is a twist; he faces a trial and a final battle.
The use of film for the modern sequences and pristine video for the fantasy ones is an obvious yet clever device, while the dialogue is powerful and deliberately repetitive, almost leaving prose behind and lapsing into blank verse, at times.
And it's dark. Very dark. In the opening episode, the choir are performing a choral piece by Bartok at his most discordant. In episode four, the workers in the kitchen are told 'Work brings freedom'. Arbeit Macht Frei. I don't ever remember the Holocaust being referenced in such a way in a show for children. It's chilling, but it's effective nonetheless.Elsewhere, there are shades of Kafka - a clear influence on the writers, Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who also contributed to Doctor Who.
It's not all great. Some of the modern day set ups for the fantasy sequences don't quite make as much sense as they should, and the central performance by Philip Da Costa as Roland is a bit weak at times. The ending to the fantasy section is also disappointing, although the final end to the show, back in the real world, does satisfy. But the rest of the cast are terrific and if you shift your mindset to the late 70s, when kids TV ran to different pacing and tiny budgets, my guess is you'll really enjoy this incredibly inventive series.
Trippy times beneath the tower block...
canndyman30 December 2020
It was great to see this series again on DVD, having not seen it since its original screening back in 1977.
I can remember at the time quite liking the first episode... and then it all going 'a bit weird' after that! This still seems like a fair description watching it today - it's certainly a very unusual, and at times quite a trippy watch.
It all revolves around the imaginary world created by put-upon grammar schoolboy Roland. One day, to escape his tormenters at the tower block where he lives, he takes sanctuary in a broken elevator - which then plummets him to his doom! Or does it... could this be where his adventures start, and where he can perhaps learn a few useful life lessons.
It all looks a bit primitive now, especially the CSO effects. But it's clearly an imaginative and inventive story (by former Dr Who writers Bob Baker & Dave Martin), and one that maybe the budget couldn't do justice to at the time.
Philip DaCosta in the main role can be a little wooden at times but, to be fair, he did have to carry the whole show and certainly made the most of it. There's a host of familiar faces from 1970s TV in the supporting cast too - clearly having fun playing the different versions of themselves that the story demanded.
It's not dated that well, and can't really be regarded as a classic in the true sense of the word. It's more of a curious oddity of its time, and quite a brave piece of television - but will definitely be of interest to anyone who viewed it in the 1970s who fancies another look and a bit of nostalgia.
I can remember at the time quite liking the first episode... and then it all going 'a bit weird' after that! This still seems like a fair description watching it today - it's certainly a very unusual, and at times quite a trippy watch.
It all revolves around the imaginary world created by put-upon grammar schoolboy Roland. One day, to escape his tormenters at the tower block where he lives, he takes sanctuary in a broken elevator - which then plummets him to his doom! Or does it... could this be where his adventures start, and where he can perhaps learn a few useful life lessons.
It all looks a bit primitive now, especially the CSO effects. But it's clearly an imaginative and inventive story (by former Dr Who writers Bob Baker & Dave Martin), and one that maybe the budget couldn't do justice to at the time.
Philip DaCosta in the main role can be a little wooden at times but, to be fair, he did have to carry the whole show and certainly made the most of it. There's a host of familiar faces from 1970s TV in the supporting cast too - clearly having fun playing the different versions of themselves that the story demanded.
It's not dated that well, and can't really be regarded as a classic in the true sense of the word. It's more of a curious oddity of its time, and quite a brave piece of television - but will definitely be of interest to anyone who viewed it in the 1970s who fancies another look and a bit of nostalgia.
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