Complete ITV programmes Issue 2 • August-November

You’re Nicked!Every single Nick Rowan episodeof HEARTBEAT! SEE INSIDE

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

MARMALADE ATKINSBURNSIDE

THE KIDS FROM 47A

Char very much!

W HAT would you do if you inherited a multi-million pound business empire, a mansion and

a Rolls Royce to boot? That’s the question facing cheery charlady Alice Thursday (Kathleen Harrison) who returns for a second series of this unlikely ratings hit from 1967.

Devised by Dixon of Dock Green creator Ted Willis, MRS. THURSDAY’s blend of light comedy and drama made it one of the most popular series of its day and provided one more milestone in the long career of character actress Kathleen Harrison, who would continue to appear in films until the late 1970s, living to the ripe old age of 103!

The Gospel according to Richard Briers...

All in Good Faith - Sunday, ITV

In his first comedy for ITV, RICHARD BRIERS stars as a beleaguered vicar who abandons the comforts of his affluent Oxfordshire parish for the more challenging climes of a run-

down Midlands town. ALL IN GOOD FAITH also stars Barbara Ferris and Nigel Humphreys, with scripts from noted screenwriter John Kane, and direction courtesy of multi-award winner John Howard Davies.

When doubts begin to assail the Rev. Philip Lambe, he feels the problems of an urban parish might help renew his faith in himself. But before accepting a position in Edendale, he must convince his family – particularly reluctant wife Emma – that the move will mean a fresh start for them all. When Philip and Emma finally visit Edendale they discover that if anything, it’s even worse than reports suggested. In fact, one night spent there confirms Emma’s worst fears, and reinforces Philip’s belief that Edendale really needs him…

THAT’S no lady... it’s PETER EGAN in wig and makeup, appearing in Roger McGough’s play The Lifeswappers, one of the more unusual entries in ITV’s PLAYS FOR BRITAIN, a hard-hitting 1970s series of single plays, now on release from Network.

Among the noted performers are Kevin McNally, Pete Postlethwaite, Denis Lawson, Sheila Gish, Miriam Margolyes and Ray Winstone; directors include Alan Clarke, Philip Savile and Michael Apted, while the series also includes an early entry from acclaimed writer Stephen Poliakoff.

WHO’S THAT... GIRL???

Kathleen Harrison returns asMRS THURSDAY

TV ON AIRAUG-NOV Vol. 1 No. 2

TV HIGHLIGHTS AT A GLANCE

SUNDAY...Ever y single Nick Rowan episode... HEARTBEAT (see page 4)

Mischief-maker MARMALADE ATKINS (see page 5)

MONDAY...CILLA BLACK is our poster star and features in two comedy series (page 7)

WEDNESDAY...Back on the beat with THE BILL(see page 8)

We’re back, with a whopping four months’

worth of programme highlights in the

second edition of your regular roundup of

vintage telly treats on offer from NETWORK.

This month, there’s a chance to see Richard Briers

(right) in a rare ITV sitcom, while elsewhere we round

up the complete adventures of PC Nick Rowan in a box

set of the first seven HEARTBEAT series. There’s tough

drama in the shape of PLAYS FOR BRITAIN, plus two

spin-off series from THE BILL which is also back for a

seventh volume.

Still not enough? How about a dust-up with that girl-

behaving-badly MARMALADE ATKINS? There’s latex

comedy courtesy of SPITTING IMAGE, vintage ’70s

detection from NEW SCOTLAND YARD, and the first of

our star portraits featuring songstress CILLA BLACK

who stretches herself in two comedy outings from ATV.

Make sure you keep TV ON AIR handy for future

reference... it’s your indispensible guide to everything

on telly from Network. I bet you never knew there was

so much in it...

“We will now sing hymn number 75 - We plough the fields and scatter... Then we muck out the pigs.”

“Don’t move, I think there’s a wasps’ nest in there!”

NEW

Berry’s back on the beat!HEARTBEAT, THE ROWAN YEARS Sundays, ITV

Viewers who enjoyed Nick Berry’s tenure in ITV’s popular Sunday night nostalgia fest HEARTBEAT can now revisit

the first seven series featuring Berry’s popular character Nick Rowan in this long-awaited box set from Network.

Compare and contrast: Heartbeat’s seventeenth and penultimate series is also on release in October, with Joseph McFadden now riding the vintage motorcycle, ably supported by the series’ other well-loved regulars, one of whom - Phil Bellamy - bows out in heroic style. The set includes a special Farewell Phil episode shown at the time in tribute to one of the series’ most enduring characters.

And yes, after seventeen series, it is still the 1960s in Aidensfield. Who wouldn’t want to live in a place like that?

“I’m tel l ing you, Mr. Rowan - just over yon hil l i t ’s 1992!”

I heard it through the Woodvine... police procedural, 1970s-style in NEW SCOTLAND YARD.

John Woodvine’s not pretending - it really is the 1970s where he’s standing. Returning

for a third series, NEW SCOTLAND YARD demonstrates a solid, no-nonsense approach to television detection, updating the familiar format of No Hiding Place to reflect the changing times.

.

AND MEANWHILE, BACK INTHE REAL-LIFE 1970S...

...and here’s Johnny... for real!

THERE’S no contest: in a set-to between bad girl Marmalade and those nice kids from 47a, it’s all

too obvious who would come out on top. Fortunately, it’s never going to happen, but you can place these two top kids’ series head to head when they’re released on DVD this autumn.

EDUCATING MARMALADE and DANGER MARMALADE AT WORK both star Charlotte Coleman as the teenage terror who makes Dennis the Menace look like softy Walter’s poodle. Less anarchic but very welcome on DVD at last are the KIDS FROM 47A, who show endless resourcefulness when they have to cope without their mum. Look out for a youthful Christine McKenna, several years away from stardom in Yorkshire Television’s Flambards.

Good kids, and bad ones

“Am I bovvered?” Marmalade Atkins, a young lady with bad hair and a bad att i tude...

LUNCHTIME ROUNDUP...

SPIT AND POLISH!

Spitting Image favourite Sir John Gielgud can be found reciting classic poems alongside other luminaries of the acting world in SIX CENTURIES OF VERSE. Joining him are Peggy Ashcroft, Ralph Richardson, Anthony Hopkins and others, all contributing to a highly-regarded series compiled by writer and poet Anthony Thwaite.

Classy serial THE CEDAR TREE returns to your lunchtime screens for a second series... while a seventh volume of CROWN COURT brings us up to date with courtroom drama in Fulchester. Don’t expect to see Billy the Fish or the Fat Slags standing trial, though - Crown Court is where Viz Comic found the name of its now legendary provincial town.

After ten series, SPITTING IMAGE is still going strong, continuing to poke fun at the great and the

not-so-good. John Major is still running the country, seen here with a ‘mini-me’ of himself. Across the pond, George Bush senior (remember him?) remains in the White House, while elsewhere the likes of Michael Jackson and even the late Mel Smith put in appearances.

MARMALADE ATKINS Vs THE KIDS FROM 47a !

TV ON AIR STAR PORTRAIT

You wouldn’t think it to look at her, but our

Cilla is celebrating an incredible fifty years

in showbusiness. Back in the 1970s, ATV

took singing star Cilla from the familiar variety

format of her BBC show and launched her into

the world of sitcom. Two series followed in quick

succession: CILLA’S COMEDY SIX and CILLA’S

WORLD OF COMEDY, and both are available from

Network this October.

“‘Ullo John, wanna buy some diaries?” Alexei Sayle mugs it up in SELLING HITLER.

FUHRER FOR SALE!

The sensational ‘discovery’ of Hitler’s diaries and subsequent realisation that they were forged caused a world-wide scandal in 1983. SELLING HITLER,

Alastair Reid’s tongue-in-cheek five-part dramatisation, based on Robert Harris’s best-selling novel, exposes the machinations that led to Stern magazine’s announcement of the scoop of the century, the ensuing bidding war for serialisation rights, acrimony among the eminent historians who were taken in and, finally, the diaries’ exposure as an elaborate hoax.

Winner of a Royal Television Society award, this Euston Films mini-series features a luminary cast – including, among many others, Jonathan Pryce, Alexei Sayle, Tom Baker, Alan Bennett, Barry Humphries, and Dr. Who in waiting Peter Capaldi.

SELLING HITLER

NEW

CILLA BLACK

Girls from Auntie...

Worries and Wackers

This touching drama series charts the fortunes of three

young women who, having returned from their voluntary

service as ambulance drivers during the First World War,

decide to set up a ‘universal aunts’ agency to help those less

fortunate than themselves. This set comprises the complete

series alongside the pilot episode, scripted by Upstairs,

Downstairs’ Alfred Shaughnessy and screened in 1985 as a

drama in ITV’s Storyboard anthology.

TWO extremes of sitcom are on offer this autumn from

Network. In a third series of IT TAKES A WORRIED

MAN, writer Peter Tilbury once more steps in front of

the cameras as anxiety-ridden Philip Roath, a man whose

confidence is diminshing as rapidly as his hair and teeth

(though judging from the photo, he doesn’t have much to

worry about on the tonsorial front).

At the other end of the scale, the only worry likely

to trouble the protagonists in Vince Powell’s THE

WACKERS is where the next pint is coming from. Highly

controversial in its day, the series’ final episode was never

scheduled, and will appear for the first time on this new DVD

release. Don’t say we didn’t warn you...

LADIES IN CHARGENEW

Peter Tilbury and Sue Holderness try not to worry while Ken Jones (inset) contemplates seeing that missing episode.

THE BILL went from strength to strength in 1988 when it was restructured into the half-hour

format that stormed to the top of the ITV ratings, and the show remained a Top Ten UK drama for over two decades – becoming the longest-running police procedural drama ever screened on British television.

Starring fan favourites Sgt. Cryer (Eric Richard), WPC Ackland (Trudie Goodwin), DS Ted Roach (Tony Scannell), DC Lines (Kevin Lloyd) and the ever irascible DI Burnside (Christopher Ellison), this seventh collection contains 48 consecutive episodes – originally screened in 1989.

HORSE POWER FOR THE BILL...My lovely horse... two Sun Hill officers check out an illegally parked quadruped.

... AND FURTHER ON FROM SUN HILL

MURDER INVESTIGATION TEAM was the second post-watershed series spawned by

The Bill, the UK’s longest-running police procedural. Sharing its parent show’s realism but stripped of soap-style content, this compelling and altogether darker spin-off centres on an elite unit tackling homicide in the capital – from drive-by shootings to ritual murder. Impressively researched (former Metropolitan DCI Jackie Malton acting as story consultant) with high-profi le guests, the this compelling, CSI-style spin-off was executive-produced by The Bill’s Paul Marquess and ran for two series.

Christopher Ellison reprises his role as Frank Burnside, one of The Bill’s best-loved characters,

in this grittier, post-watershed spin-off fi rst aired in 2000.

Having built his reputation on good detective work – combined with his unique approach of putting suspects’ heads down the toilet and making their lives hell – BURNSIDE is back on familiar form heading a crack unit in the National Crime Squad, Britain’s equivalent of the FBI.

BURNSIDE

NEW

MURDER INVESTIGATION TEAMNE

W

Not a wobble amongst them - the MIT team pose on the Millenium Bridge.

“Who are you looking at?” BURNSIDE and chums looking mean and moody in black.

Liza Goddard and Donal Donnelly star in this sparkling sitcom which follows the romance and marriage of Matthew Browne,

a struggling composer, and wife Lily. Spinning off from LWT’s popular No – Honestly (starring Pauline Collins and John Alderton) and written by the same husband-and-wife team of Terence Brady and best-selling author Charlotte Bingham, Yes – Honestly fi rst aired in 1976 and 1977; this complete second series – boasting a theme song by pop star Lynsey de Paul – is now available for the fi rst time on DVD.

YES TO A SECOND SERIES...

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NEXT TIME IN TV ON AIR...

We present our Christmas & New Year Double issue, featuring this year’s festive favourites MORECAMBE & WISE whose Christmas specials selection is available from October.

PLUS: we’ll be looking forward to some of the highlights of our schedules for January and February. Get out of that!