Wednesday, February 05, 2025

elspeth ballantyne frenzy


This episode of Division 4 ('Senior Stewart', aired 8 November 1972) explores Meg Stewart finding the job all too much for her, and the situation she is dealing with is grim. Some really great performances with Patricia Leehy as the monosyllabic, slack-jawed Lola Hudson with a particularly gross wound (a graze? Idk) on her chin creating a character that should have got her a Logie.* The weird part is seeing Elspeth Ballantyne twice in two consecutive episodes playing very different roles. That seems like terrible continuity but I am not sure the episodes on the disc are in the right order. OK I checked and they're absolutely not in the right order, at least, not in the order they were screened 'back in the day'. Here, EB gets to deliver classic lines about 'opening up' a child who has been beaten by his father to find his liver has been somehow pulverised (unlike many Crawfords police shows, in this case, the child does not die). 

At least the double-EB shows on one disc is not a situation like the new Crawfords disc of the first episodes of Skyways (they put it out with the first two episodes missing but episodes 3-6 labelled as episodes 1-4). I thought my DVD player was broken! Or my mind was. Apparently they're supplying episodes 1-2 gratis to all who purchased the first box, but that appears to be taking time. L O L anyway I have enough on my plate with The Box and Division 4 right now. Oh, and I also have a day job. 

*I know almost nothing about Leahy. She doesn't appear to have done any acting at all after the mid-70s. 
 

Tuesday, February 04, 2025

joan letch again again again

Another marvellous small role from Joan Letch in Division 4 episode 'Two Pot Screamer' screened 5 March 1973. She plays Doris King. She's just a brilliant actor. 





elspeth ballantyne frenzy

This episode of Division 4 ('Senior Stewart', aired 8 November 1972) explores Meg Stewart finding the job all too much for her, and ...