AlaGls1 Reviews

Gems (1985–1988)

Serial set in London's Covent Garden

[5 October 2001]

Gems was a daytime serial networked by ITV, and broadcast 3 times a week Wednesday-Friday. It ran for three series, and was set in a small fashion house in London's Covent Garden. 'Gems' was a company ran by two brothers, Stephen and Alan Stone, who, despite being business partners had little in common, and therefore friction arose. Stephen was a designer with a roving eye for women, while Alan, who looked after the financial affairs was happily married with two children, however, in the second series Alan's wife was killed in a car crash, whilst doing some work for the company, and much of the latter half of the second season saw Alan trying to come to terms with his wife's death, and trying to look after their two young children alone. As Alan's involvement in the company became distracted, there were financial difficulties which forced them to seek an outside partner. The relationship was not a harmonious one, as their new partner was a financier and involved in big business, and Stephen distrusted the new partners motives.

The third and final series was something of an anti-climax and ended with the company being sold and Stephen deciding to go and live and work abroad.

The programme was well acted and produced, and was quite pacey and fast moving. Strangely, UK Gold, a satellite channel in the UK has never repeated this series, though it was made by Thames TV, for whom UK Gold hold the rights. The cast were not well-known, with the possible exception of GINA MAHER, an attractive girl who appeared in several comedy series in the late 80s/early 90s.

The Last Appointment (1954)

A Man With A Grudge Kills 5 men

[5 October 2001]

Another short B-picture made in Britain this concerns a man, who, having been court-marshalled during the war, kills five of the six officers who took part in his case. A newspaper reporter (played by John Bentley) and his girl friend (Elanor Summerfield) discover the identity of the sixth man, now a solicitor (Hubert Gregg) and protects him from the killer. But there is a twist in the tail, for the suspect is not the man we have been led to believe it was....

Thunder Over Tangier (1957)

Forged Passports lead to murder

[9/10 · 5 October 2001]

Like many British B-Pictures of it's time, this was made by Butchers Film Distributors. Running for an hour, like most of these pictures it is a taunt fast-moving story involving a mysterious girl on the run from a passport forger, and, after meeting a film stunt man, who offers to help her, they get involved in further killings, until the villians are bought to book

Twice a Fortnight (1967– )

Crossed Wires

[1 October 2001]

There were two series made in 1967, one for commercial TV called 'At Last the 1948 Show'. I think Terry Jones may have been in it. I mention it because it was very similar to 'Twice A Fortnight', and Terry Jones most certainly was NOT in TAF. I have very clear memories with that programme having been involved with the BBC at the time. The full cast were: Graham Garden and Bill Oddie (who did the majority of the writing) Jonathan Lynn, Dilys Watling, Tony Buffery and Ronald Fletcher with music by The Dave Lee Group. It ran for thirteen weeks on Saturday nights at 2245-2315, ending on December 23rd 1967, the programmes being recorded at the BBC TV Theatre, Shepherds Bush the previous Sunday. Ronald Fletcher, who died in the mid 1990s was a former newsreader and announcer on BBC Radio Home Service & Radio 4 and was an 'establishment' figure called upon to sometimes appear outlandish (in one episode dressed in a toga, he was fed grapes by Dilys Watling)

Secret Agent (1964–1967)

Saved for video

[1 October 2001]

I agree 100% with the previous comments. A nice departure for this series was that the hero wasn't forever slobbering over women - in fact Drake remained impervious to their charms - a sort of 1960s Sherlock Holmes - without an Irene Adler!. Only 2 episodes were made in colour, and these were to form part of the 1967 series, but after the two episodes were filmed PMcG wanted to drop the series and make 'The Prisoner' which is another story. It is probably because they are in black and white that domestic UK TV has not rebroadcast these stories, but the UK satellite channel Granada Plus has the rights to the ITC catalogue, which made Danger Man, but they seem reluctant to repeat B/W adventure series, though they do repeat B/W comedy shows like the earlier series of 'On The Buses' and 'Nearest and Dearest' etc. Perhaps if enough people contacted them they might think again?.

At least one videotape is available commercially of Danger Man, I have seen it recently in a store in London, as there are 4 episodes on one tape I assume that these are from the 1960 series, when the stories ran for 30 minutes. In the early days of Channel 4 (1982) they rebroadcast all 39 episodes of the original series twice a week.