Forgotten brit-fi FTW!

[pontisbright]

KNIGHTS OF GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!



Why yes, that is BLAKE AND TWO. HANGING OUT. IN WALES. MY CAPSLOCK IS ENTIRELY JUSTIFIED.  Bonus Trout in comments for the unbelievers!

How the hell did I never see this at the time? 1987, ITV, crazypants Nazis from 'Anglia' in black helicopters trying to defeat the citizens of 'the north' while being harassed by Welsh rebels. (CASTING GARETH THOMAS AS A WELSH GUNRUNNING REBEL? CRIVENS!) There are 13 episodes and I've only seen one, but we've already had:

• awesome credits with a burning Union flag and some marching jackboots
• Julian Fellowes (with hair!)
• a youthful Welsh hero called Gervase, who is now pretending to be called Llewellyn Ap Griffiths to prove how completely and entirely Welsh and heroic he is
• a quarry
• the only kid in the entire story getting killed off, despite this being kids' telly
• Paul 'The Castellan' Jerrico
• Nigel 'old bloke in loads of things including Time-Flight' Stock
• the immortal line 'You will go to Caernarfon when I tell you and not before!'
• BLAKE AND THE TROUT OMG

They're being v careful not to make it into anti-English nationalist propaganda, though.  Apart from the big where a chapel full of Welsh rebels who've been commanded by the Knights of God to bow before the nation of Anglia all stand up and sing 'Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau' instead, before being herded into trucks to take them to the 're-education' camps.  I've simply no idea what they were getting at there.

Has anyone else seen this wondrous thing?  I'd never even heard of it till kind friend sent me a dodgy tv rip. I foresee many happy hours of not going to Caernarfon in my future.

Comments

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

YES! I have seen it, yes. And it is quite awesome. BLAKE AND TWO. And and and EVERYONE. Isn't Michael Sheard in it too? Okay, he is in EVERYTHING EVER, but anyway. And and and FUTURISTIC DYSTOPIA WITH GARETH AS A WELSH REBEL AND AND AND PATRICK FUCKING TROUGHTON AND AND AND *brain asplodey*

...is win, yeah. It's so sad that this is such an obscure piece of telly, because more people need to see it. It's good stuff.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

For shame, I recognized Blake right off but I had to double take on Two. WHY DO THEY INSIST ON MAKING HIM AN OLD MAN!!

This looks quite epic though, wow.

[taleya.livejournal.com]

O.O

I'm torn between wanting to see it and running shrieking in terror because OH MY FUCKING LORD the Trout looks like my father there. Especially the buggy eyes if he's had to hit the asthma medication hard. Uncannily so.

So much so that my first reaction on seeing it was "wtf? Dad?"

*traumatised*

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

I figured if anyone would have, it would be you. :) No Michael Sheard so far, but I shouldn't be at all surprised. I'm so thoroughly entertained that this even got made, let alone as teatime kiddie fare. It passed me by completely at the time,, anyway.

The TV rip is horrible, but I suspect a dvd's fairly unlikely: stuff made by no-longer-existing bits of ITV and written by bloke who never did anything else = tragically never to see light of day. Yay for the internets!

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

He looks quite a lot like Edward Woodward in that shot (especially when he's being the Ghost of Christmas Present in that Christmas Carol that Stricko's in...oh god, my brain is so full of Whovian nonsense). Minute he speaks he's unmistakeable though, yay.

I think you'd quite love it. It's definitely more B7 than Sapphire & Steel. The accents are really fucking incomprehensible, though, and I say this as a card-carrying Welsh person.

I don't have any Blake's 7 icons, waaaah. :(

[wishfulaces.livejournal.com]

That is NOT Two with a Beard of Moses. I REFUSE TO BELIEVE YOU UNTIL I SEE HIS FACE PROPERLY.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

Tee hee, your Dad is talking to Blake and impersonating the Mighty Trout. Truly the world has fallen off its axis.

My mate says it gets really dull and slow, but possibly he doesn't watch quite as much 80s telly as me. Or get so excited about being able to shout 'the Castellan!' and the like. I might try and up the first one somewhere if people are interested, though.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

Hee, you made me go and play with episode 2 (which is much better quality, hurrah!).

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

Where, ahem, can I find it? Or is it a rental thing? You know me. I like my stuff easy to acquire. >_> And easy to cap. Ahahahahaha. I needs must see it. Are they both reoccurring or more minor?

b7icons, y0! You are also welcome to steal any of mine that take your fancy.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

I DONT WANT TO THINK SLASH FIC THOUGHTS ABOUT TWO AND BLAKE. SRSLY.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

I saw it only because I'd volunteered to transfer some Gareth stuff from tape onto DVD a few years ago as a favour to a few B7 fans. The tapes were crappy and whoever had recorded them, had snipped the end credits off, which always pisses me off enormously. But OMFG, so much win there.

And you're right--back in those days, they still did some challenging, hardcore stuff and expected kids/young adults to have brains. After the mid-eighties, dark and intense stuff like that has almost completely disappeared off the telly. Everything has to be nice and fluffy and not too scary and blah. Hooray for archive telly! And yay for internets indeed.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Thebox has a rip of that floating about, I believe.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

YES YOU DO. *awaits fic*

[wishfulaces.livejournal.com]

NOOOOO. BEARD OF MOSES. That's so wrong, Pat.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I knew it was The Trought's last thing what he did, but I did not know it also had Blake. V exciting, yes.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

Alas, my account there expired and, as I recall, they aren't taking new members. >_>

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

I have invitations aplenty. I could send you one, if you so wish.
Email me at snowgrouse at sci dot fi, and give me your email addy and I'll invite you back in:)!

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

You are on thebox.bz, right? It's definitely worth seeing:). BLAAAKE!<3 and TROUGHTON!!!!!!11<3

[ionlylurkhere.livejournal.com]

OK, you sold me at the first bullet point. Does this exist on DVD or sthg? (Downloads don't work for me, it took me longer than the length of the programmes just to download Now Show catchup.)

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

No idea where friend found the torrent, but these have the end credits too, yay. Quality horrible on the first ep but better from there, as always seems to happen.

80s kids telly was quite loony, yes. I watched Survival a while back and was really struck by how self-consciously political it was, in a manner you'd never even try now. It was quite craply self-consciously political, obviously, but props for effort. :)

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

No dvd or much chance of one, alas. Doubt I'd be able to up the whole thing without incurring the wrath of my IT dept, but can always send you a disc if you can't get it by *ahem* other means. I think the main focus is Blake's drippy son and his equally drippy-looking love interest, but they're both still major characters.

Ta for icon link, I foresee much ridiculously-costumed glee.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

It was quite hard not to while capping that scene: the director clearly was with those artsy two shots. :D Though actually Pat looking so different and being such a fantastic actor, he doesn't feel remotely Twoish, and Blake has a distractingly meandering Welsh accent despite his Actual Welshness, so you may be safe.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

Have you not seen The Box of Delights, then? It's even bigger then.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

It not only has them both, but them both hanging out in the pub together talking about how to defeat evil English people. It's quite, quite magnificent.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

Yay Now Show and its Torchwood ref this week!

Boo you and your lack of downloadability! No dvd, alas, but I can post you it if you like (and do not mind giving me your address, which obviously I wouldn't use for nefarious non-bonkers-80s-kids-telly-dissemination purposes).

[wishfulaces.livejournal.com]

You terrify me.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

OK, maybe not bigger, but definitely scarier.

[wishfulaces.livejournal.com]

...

I think he somehow went from Moses to Methuselah.

STOP IT, TROUT. STOP IT.