division 4 - the clean skins

This is a good episode (early January 1972), but I don't have a huge amount to say about it (the one following it, 'No Hard Feelings', is a bit of a masterpiece if only for the safebreakers' argy bargy at the beginning... anyway, that's not this). The thing I really wanted to say was yet again, amazing situation of Ian Smith and Anne Charleston cast once again in one episode of a Crawfords' show (IYKYK - they were married for a lifetime in Neighbours). Smith plays a character called 'Smith'.

Also, fabulous single scene from Joan Letch, who never letchs us down. 

 

homicide 'the hermit' (& 'a ticket to the grave')

This episode of Homicide aired two days before my seventh birthday, and I didn't watch it. I might have enjoyed, briefly, the central role played by Ernie Bourne in the show however as not only did I know Bourne's work from Adventure Island (he played Fester Fumble) I also, strangely, had met him - at a party (as previously discussed on this blog 13 years ago, remember?). 

In this fairly nonstarter ep he plays an unsavoury character called Dudley Roberts, by this time living under the name Dudley Brown. He is an artist (the Ds keep saying he's not a very good artist but I don't know, I've seen worse art) and kills a model because she says she'd charge him $20 more to pose nude for him. We don't see the killing. Not that I wanted to. 

This is a shot of the boyfriend of the mother of the model, Cindy. Played by John Stanton. I was more interested in the background, wherein you can see a point of sale poster for the very short-lived newspaper Newsday which confuses me as this episode went to air in early 1972 and Newsday closed in May 1970 (at least that's what Wikipedia says, can't necessarily trust that information). Maybe Crawfords had a standard bunch of newspaper posters for scenes like this. Or maybe I'm wrong and it's New Idea, though it's weird to think of magazines being advertised the same way as newspapers. Also, note the Taranto's gelati sticker in the window. Me and my mother used to love their Tartufo. 

I see why IMDB insisted the character we know through most of the show as 'Dudley Brown' is 'Dudley Roberts' - because that's what it says in the credits.* 

This has pissed me off for quite some time watching these old eps. If I went back in time and killed Hitler, could I also stop in 1970something ((c) Barry Divola) and fix this fuckin' apostrophe? 

PS note to self - 1972 is when the Homicide theme started to end on a different note. I mean literally. Like they re-recorded the whole theme, and ended it with that one change. 

* OK but weirdly the next episode, 'A Ticket to the Grave', features a character who calls himself Nigel but whose actual name is Norman. Yet here he is, credited as Nigel. 

OK I know what your eye was drawn to... Ian Smith! Here he is, age 34 and credibly playing someone surely at least ten years younger. 

Btw I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the dreadful habit of faking newspaper stories in Homicide. They did it again in this episode. 

What the hell is that picture?! 

fcuwm4

Word is I should treat this illness as though I needed more rest than I feel like I do, which is hard. This morning I felt dreadful on waking but now aside from a mild headache I feel completely fine. So figure that out. Yesterday I watched a lot of Homicides. Saw some interesting people. I'm not even going to ask you to guess these two because the two people I showed them to who were very au fait with their body of work a few decades later, were unable to place them at all. OK, one little clue (aside from the one dropped in the previous post) just in case you want to play: They were famous together. Bizarrely, they were in consecutive eps of Homicide. 

'Ray Fox' in the episode 'Wasp Nest'

'Alice Baker' in the episode 'Let's Get Together' 

OK it's Ian Smith and Anne Charleston. Well I was excited. 

I wonder if they regret making that record. I would. 

Someone I am really loving in these Homicides Gerard Kennedy. He's fabulous. He had bit roles in Homicide four times in 1966. Here he is as the jive talking boxer Eddie Stevens in 'Knife and Beads'.

And here he is as 'Peter O'Brien', the deluded escapee who shoots Bronson in Elsternwick. He's 90 years old this year, fabulous actor. 

One more thing in 'Knife and Beads' is this funny little moment when the three detectives get out of the car with their guns ready for a shoot out in a suburban house and this little kid waddles down the street. I wonder if they even noticed she was there (I mean, the camera crew). That kid is my age lol. 

Along with my comfort watching of old Homicides I am indulging in comfort listening to the new series of Just a Minute on the BBC app. I'm conflicted, because although (or because?) it's well-stocked with all the favourites from the last decade plus, and while the last few years of Nicholas Parsons was a little awkward as there were clearly moments when he didn't know what was happening and the others indulged him, now without him they do seem to be floundering a little. What's odd is that Paul Merton, who was definitely in cahoots with Parsons as the kind of second-in-command, and would in other circumstances make the move up to being the new host, clearly doesn't want to because he can't then do what he does best - be funny as a contestant - and so others like Sue Perkins (who's always good) and Jenny Eclair (ditto) and Gyles Brandreth (who despite myself I find hilarious) are doing it. I actually think that NP's great value was that, while he could be funny himself, he really just took a schoolteacher role, trying to reign in the mayhem, and being strict with the rules. I think there is a slight air of desperation here with JAM at the moment, and this series certainly sees a lot more interruptions that NP wouldn't have tolerated - of the 'What's your challenge?' 'I just wanted him to stop' kind of variety. 

The show still has not secret weapons exactly, but definitely weapons. I love Sheila Hancock, and I certainly hope I'm half as switched on as she is when I'm 89 (I'm not even sure I am now). I actually really enjoy almost everyone on the program. But I suppose I would have to say that it's not as good as it was with NP, and it won't have a chance of getting there again until they instal a new chair who is either slightly less funny and slightly more clueless than the rest of them - or can fake being so.