That's What We Watched On TV Year Ago # 13

It sounds maybe funnily that I write about a series which one should assign to the genre children's program. I was a teen when I first saw the first episode and was fascinated from the actors and the story. Catweazle is an odd, goat-bearded, anglo-saxon sorcerer who lives in 1066 and tries to fly with the help of a magic drink from henbane, hemlock, thimble and buttercups in vain. Instead, he is catapulted on the run before England attacking norman lascivious for murder in the 1970s when he jumps a charm calling in a river and appears from a marshy pool again. Catweazle is amazed about the electric inventions of the modern civilisation whose innovations he holds for powerful magic. In the first relay he makes friends with the farmer's son Harold Bennet who helps him to get over the malices of the modern world. Catweazle's spell "Salmei, Dalmei, Adomei" with which he arranges a lot of mix-ups was as famous as his loyal companion, toad Touchwood in our time. For me and my friends this series was then simply a cult. Why - this we cannot understand any more. Maybe it is just due to the fact that Catweazle was just different as all other what was offered us at that time. It went even so far that a friend who was a big fan of the principal character Geoffrey Bayldon is called till this day Geoff.

And here's a song from 1974 by an artist that looks and acts alike Catweazle.

That's What I Watched On TV Years Ago # 3

I remember very well the Sundays in the early 1970s. Mostly me and my father left home after lunch to watch the football game of our local team (often we supported our team as well on their away matches). When we came home round tea-time we used to watch TV. There was one series we both loved to watch. It was Softly, Softly (in German known as Task Force Police). It is a British television drama series showing us the work of regional police crime squads. The series took its name from the proverb 'softly, softly, catchee monkey', motto of Lancashire Constabulary Training School. What has impressed me in this series mostly, was her humanity and that it has acted of 'normal' people and their destinies. It not always had to be a murder and manslaughter which have tied up me. I remember very much with pleasure Superintendent Watts, to Barlow, to P.C. Snow, to Hawkins, also to the plump Welshman. Maybe this is the a reason that I am drawn to Britain. I was fascinated by the normal criminal offences, "real" investigating activity, real tempo, tone without constant din or music in the background. I can still remember well an episode in which it was about football hooligans. Till then it was completely unknown to me that there can be violence in the football. Even more astonishingly it was for me like the investigators the motives of these hooligans questions have. I would like to see this series again but I think it's impossible because German TV deleted this series (I don't know how this can happen) and a lot of series got lost by a fire at BBC.

That's What I Watched On TV Years Ago # 2

One of my earliest recollections of a TV serial is The Prisoner. Therefore, I remember so well that I have not understood this series. In addition, I was also irritated about the equipment and the acting figures. It's typical for the late 1960s that British television tried to go new ways in making series. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama. Because of the controversial subjects – like permanent control, conformance compulsion, to drug experiments, torture, the idleness of democratic elections and other – all 17 results were not emitted everywhere. Thus the first entire radiation occurred in Germany only in 2010. Over the years I forgot this series until our cultural transmitter showed all 17 episodes in a row over summer period.

This is the plot like Wikipedia tells us:

The series follows an unnamed British agent who abruptly resigns his job, apparently preparing to go on a holiday. While packing his luggage, he is rendered unconscious by knockout gas in his apartment. When he wakes, he finds himself held captive in a mysterious seaside "village" that is isolated from the mainland by mountains and sea. The Village is further secured by numerous monitoring systems and security forces, including a mysterious balloon-like device called Rover that recaptures – or kills – those who attempt escape. The agent encounters the Village's population, hundreds of people from all walks of life and cultures, all seeming to be tranquilly living out their lives. They do not use names but instead are assigned numbers, which give no clue as to any person's status (prisoner or warder). Potential escapees therefore have no idea whom they can and cannot trust. The protagonist is assigned Number Six, but refuses the pretence of his new identity.

Number Six is monitored heavily by Number Two, the Village administrator acting as an agent for an unseen "Number One". A variety of techniques are used by Number Two to try to extract information from Number Six, including hallucinogenic drug experiences, identity theft, mind control, dream manipulation, and various forms of social indoctrination. All of these are employed not only to find out about why Number Six resigned as an agent but to extract other dangerous information he gained as a spy. The position of Number Two is filled in on a rotating basis; in some cases, part of a larger plan to confuse Number Six, while other times as a result of failure in interrogating Number Six.

Number Six, distrusting of anyone involved with the Village, refuses to co-operate or provide answers. Alone, he struggles with multiple goals: determining for which side the Village works, remaining defiant to its imposed authority, concocting his own plans for escape, learning all he can about the Village, and subverting its operation. His schemes lead to the dismissal of the incumbent Number Two on two occasions, despite their failure to facilitate his escape. By the end of the series the administration, becoming desperate for Number Six's knowledge and fearful of his growing influence in the Village, takes drastic measures that threaten the lives of Number Six, Number Two, and the rest of the Village. A major theme of the show is individualism versus collectivism.

If you ever get a chance to watch this series - go for it.

And in addition a gem from 1968: