SPACE: 1999 ALIEN ATTACK VHS

From Moonbase Alpha:  I was sad to hear that Martin Landau died overnight (London time).  He had a long and distinguished career (including an Oscar for playing Bela Lugosi in ED WOOD) but, for Star Warriors, he'll always be remembered for SPACE: 1999.  Not least because the moon was still bouncing around the ITV schedules well into the 1980s... followed by 1990s reruns on BRAVO and BBC TWO.

The show's home video carrer was a little more complex.  The early releases were restricted to cut-and-shunt multi-episode presentations created by ITC after the show itself.  The 1990s saw the newly-launched ITC VIDEO add it to their roster... Although they initially had to skip the episodes already licensed elsewhere for the 'movie' versions.  Which, naturally enough, included the all-important opening episode Breakaway.

Polygram had inherited the rights to pump out the movies onto tape and this reissue - from the 1990s - was released alongside the ITC tapes.  It contains Breakaway and War Games with - unusually - some additional sequences, with none of the original cast, set at the International Lunar Finance Commission.  They are, understandably, quite busy after they misplace the moon.

SAPPHIRE AND STEEL ITC VHS VIDEO ADVENTURE 1

From the VHS era: More SAPPHIRE AND STEEL, this time in the form of the first volume (a double tape affair) of the ITC VIDEO releases.

It was so cool to see this on the shelves of OUR PRICE VIDEO way-back-when.  Not only was it a long-lost show that I fondly remebered from over a decade earlier but it also showed the potential for VHS to bring all sorts of old shows - previously assumed lost in the vaults forever with no chance of a repeat outing - back from the dead.

As we've seen in past posts (and will do again in the future) ITC (who had spent the previous decade cut loose from the ITV system and doing not very much) really woke up to the potential of the programme library they had previously been - for the most part - sitting on.

Despite being banished from the ITV tent by the early 1980s franchise round, which saw ATV and ITC split with the former being reinvented as Central Independent Television with a new ownership structure and renewed commitment to the midlands (part of the deal was that they had to sell Elstree Centre, home of many of the ATV shows), old ITV shows (mostly the Gerry Anderson ones) had continued to appear on ITV throughout the decade (FIREBALL XL5, in black & white, during the school holidays anyone?).  But these were mostly the high-end film series that were ITC's forte.  Far less likely to see the light of day again were any of the former ATV shows that had become part of the ITC library after the restructure.  

Suddenly, in part thanks to some vintage repeats on Channel Four, ITC opened the floodgates with all manner of old shows suddenly hitting the shelves.  Some of the heavy hitters were initially off-limits thanks to existing licensing deals which - possibly - left some gaps in the schedule for the more obscure stuff.  TV Heaven was born.  

As for this show?  I love it.  For the most part.  The two leads are great, the writing top-notch and the production and direction really make the most of the studio-bound nature of the series.  Indeed it feels weird when, in one story, they briefly decamped to the roof of the London headquarters of ACC, parent company of ATV and ITC.  The sedate pace would horrify viewers today... but it feels just right.  

This isn't the most memorable story.  Some may argue that it is the one with 'the man without a face' (and it is genuinely great) but, I think for many, it is the second adventure: The abandoned railway station.  It suffers a little from being several episodes overlong but the atmosphere and drama is exceptional.  It was the stody that was in mid-run when - in 1979 - a series of local industrial disputes across the ITV network conflated into an all-out shutdown (except, where things are calmer, in the Channel Islands) which halted all broadcasts and production for ten week.  No programmes.  No adverts.  No income.  No TV TIMES And no other option than to watch the two BBC channels.  Those were the days.  

Given such a long hiatus, ITV's schedulers opted to repeat the story from the start rather than rely on anyone remembering what had happened the best part of three months ago.  

Other contemporary S&S merchandise included a novelisation, an annual (with new stories) and - most memorably - a great LOOK-IN comic strip.

RETURN OF THE SAINT ITC VHS

From the VHS Years: A RETURN OF THE SAINT ITC tape.

The series has never really emerged from the shadow of the Roger Moore version from the previous decade and - as such - is one of the most underrated shows in the ITC canon and - indeed - one of the better action shows of the decade.

Ian Ogilvy is a likeable star (be sure to catch his recent movie 'We still kill the old way', it's great fun.  The sequel is not quite so good and suffers from a rather obviously small budget) who can certainly hold his own.  The luxurious budget certainly helps things as well.  There's plenty of location filming (including a lot of European locations... especially Italy as they were backers) which is a marked contrast from the interiors-backlot-stock combos that defined the ITC shows of the 1960s (best ever no-budget moment: the DEPARTMENT S team running on the shot whilst some ropey back projection of a running track plays behind them).  Even the London lensed episodes are a delight for location spotting.  And there are guest stars galore.

I once had a cheap and cheerful Alcatel phone which - pre proper ringtones - allowed you to somehow download (or programme?) a simple ringtone.  Amongst the slim pickings: a beep-beep-beep version of the RotS theme.  Loved that phone.

TISWAS: MORE OF THE BEST BITS ITC VIDEO

From ATVland: the second, and - I think - final, VHS release of TISWAS material left in the ITC vaults circa the mid 1990s.

Someone obviously pointed out to the designer that yellow was the colour palette most associated with the show... honestly you'd think they'd have used it for the first volume.

TISWAS VHS: THE BEST OF THE BEST BITS

From the VHS era: More cult tv... this time an all-too-brief (under an hour!) compilation of TISWAS highlights (aka the best of whatever material was left in the ATV archives when it was all transfered to ITC in the early Eighties) released on the briefly highly productive ITC label.

A second volume followed.

1998: PRIMETIME MAGAZINE CHAPTER 2

From 1998: a one-off (?) revival of the TV fanzine PRIMETIME.

Published by TV historians and trackers-of-lost-telly Kaleidoscope, this revived the earlier incarnation of the title.  And it contains some really excellent articles sure to tickle the fancy of Telly types.  For me, the best of the bunch is Andrew Pixley's inevitably comprehensive history of the TV output of ITC.  There's been a number of books and articles written about the company's extensive output but they almost invariably focus on the familiar suspects.  Pixley, of course, pieces together the whole ITC small-screen canon including shows barely seen (if at all) in the UK as well as Children's (THE MUNCH BUNCH anyone?) and other shows released under the ITC (rather than ATV) brand.  The complete history of ITC (including all their numerous movie projects, behind-the-scenes dramas, changes of ownership, remakes and more) is still to be written.  But, in the meantime, I consider this an invaluable reference.

I picked this up from - of all places - London's COMIC SHOWCASE when it was published and I've never seen another copy 'in the wild'.  I'm not sure how extensively this was distributed but - I imagine - not very much.

1992: JASON KING VOLUME 1 VHS COVER (ITC VIDEO)

From 1992 (or thereabouts): something for the weekend... the first JASON KING VHS (starring the ever-watchable Peter Wyngarde) released by ITC VIDEO.

The show was, of course, a spin-off from the earlier ITC drama (and something of a proto-X FILES) DEPARTMENT S.

I had a chance to meet Mr Wyngarde last year... and tick off another on my (actually pretty short) list of screen-icons-to-meet.

1998: PUPPETS PLAYBOYS AND PRISONERS from CULT TV MAGAZINE

From 1998: PUPPETS PLAYBOYS AND PRISONERS, the slim paperback devoted to the ITC shows of the Sixties and early Seventies presented free with CULT TV magazine.

Unlike the specially commissioned episode guide books published for SFX magazine, the CTV equivalent (presumably reflecting a more modest budget for commissioning freebies) was a straight forward and factual affair with no comment or commentary on the individual episodes. Which makes it a lot less fun to read.

The contents had actually first appeared in the fan-published book THE ROGERS AND GILLIS GUIDE TO ITC, the sort of old-fashioned reference book that flourished before the combining of the web. I have a copy on my shelves somewhere.

The two SFX episode guide books still occasionally surface in secondhand book stores but this one, perhaps reflecting CTV's lower sales, seems to appear far less frequently.

Future Publishing certainly had better freebies than the far more frugal Visual Imagination.

ITC HOME VIDEO

This was a 16-page A5 booklet, promoting ITC Home Video (VHS of course!) published sometime in the early 1990s and free from branches of OUR PRICE VIDEO (although they MAY have rebranded as PLAYHOUSE by the time this appeared) and, possibly, elsewhere as there is no retailer branding anywhere on it.

As you'll see, it's full colour throughout and printed on glossy heavy paper (really bordering on card).  A really nice little package.

After years of half-arsed VHS releases under the Precision (another ACC company) and Channel Five (not THAT one... but you can see the cleverness in that brand) labels, the early 1990s saw ITC finally fully exploit their back-catalogue of TV series.

ITC held the rights not only to the series originally produced under the ITC banner (generally shot on film and aimed at an international market) but also the ATV library (as a rule of thumb, usually shot on tape for the UK market), blurring the lines between the two production entities.

This was a boom time for TV fans, finally giving them a chance to see programmes considered long-buried with little chance of ever resurfacing.

Those pesky existing licensing deals did create a few headaches: THE PRISONER, U.F.O, THUNDERBIRDS and the SPACE: 1999 episodes cobbled together for the ITC faux feature films were all placed off-limits.  At least at first.

Many of the series only enjoyed a  couple of tapes, certainly not the full runs we've come to expect in the DVD, although SAPPHIRE AND STEEL, TIMESLIP etc. did enjoy a complete re-release.