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Alastair Stewart Dec 15, 2017

A salute to The Omega Factor, a seminal 1970s sci-fi TV series that paved the way for many more to follow...

One of the funny quirks about Scotland is that everyone can name a Scots actor, but very few can name famous Scottish TV shows. Beyond the standard native fare of cop shows and comedies, Scotland’s televisual output is well below its literary or film standing.

Of course, there’s Take The High Road (And if you get that reference, dear reader, you can mournfully reflect that you’re as old as me). But there are a few surprising gems beyond the cliched obsession with the Jacobites and Highland allure (ahem, Outlander).

In 1979, and all too briefly, The Omega Factor was BBC Scotland’s paranormal, Edinburgh-set drama. The series, as was so typical of (nearly) every show now considered iconic for the era, only ran for...

Alex Westthorp Sep 14, 2016

Did fantasy dramas Chocky, The Box Of Delights and Dramarama leave an impression on you as a kid? Revisit those nightmares here...

Spooky, always magical and occasionally downright scary dramas are the bedrock of kids' television. For me, the pinnacle of this sort of programme was reached in the 1980s. The decade saw a new approach to both traditional and contemporary drama by both UK broadcasters: ITV committed itself to regular seasons of children's plays with Dramarama (1983-89), a kind of youth version of the venerable BBC Play For Today (1970-84), which saw the 1988 television debut of one David Tennant. The BBC, building upon an impressive body of work from the early 70s onwards, produced some of its very best family drama in this era, embracing cutting edge technology to bring treats like The Box Of Delights (1984) and The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe (1988) to the screen.

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Ground-breaking, intelligent, prescient 1970s drama Doomwatch, now out on DVD, is a British television classic...

Playing on the public's fear that 'this could actually happen', Doomwatch had a veneer of credibility unusual in the escapist television drama landscape of the late 60s/early 70s. This spring sees the most comprehensive haul of Doomwatch episodes released on DVD for the first time. The nickname for the "Department for the Observation and Measurement of Scientific Work", the series first appeared on BBC1 on Monday 9th February 1970 at 9.40pm. It followed half an hour of comedy from Kenneth Williams, which must have surely heightened its dramatic impact.

The series would run in tandem with the early Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who; the first episode made its debut two days after part two of Doctor Who And The Silurians. The two shows undoubtedly shared a synergy of ideas - not to mention cast and crew.

Tony Jones is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Yet again, Big Finish has produced a powerful piece of audio drama any fan of the show or connoisseur of quality should listen to. In 1979, BBC 1 broadcast a ten-part series, The Omega Factor, written by Jack Gerson, starring Louise Jameson and James Hazeldine. It dealt with themes of the supernatural and psychic powers. Set in...

The post Reviewed: The Omega Factor Series 1 appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

'Nicholas and Alexandra': Movie starred Michael Jayston and Janet Suzman 'Nicholas and Alexandra' movie review: Opulent 1971 spectacle lacks emotional core Nicholas and Alexandra is surely one of the most sumptuous film productions ever made. The elaborate sets and costumes, Richard Rodney Bennett's lush musical score, and frequent David Lean collaborator Freddie Young's richly textured cinematography provide the perfect period atmosphere for this historical epic. Missing, however, is a screenplay that offers dialogue instead of speeches, and a directorial hand that brings out emotional truth instead of soapy melodrama. Nicholas and Alexandra begins when, after several unsuccessful attempts, Tsar Nicholas II (Michael Jayston) finally becomes the father of a boy. Shortly thereafter, he and his wife, the German-born Empress Alexandra (Janet Suzman), have their happiness crushed when they discover that their infant son is a hemophiliac. In addition to his familial turmoil, the Tsar must also deal with popular...

Trying to humanise pigheaded royals running full-tilt towards death is a tough call. Luckily the other side weren't much better

Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

Director: Franklin J Schaffner

Entertainment grade: C+

History grade: B+

Nicholas II Romanov became tsar of Russia in 1894. His reign was beset by social and political unrest, culminating in the Russian revolution of 1917.

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The film begins in 1904, with the tsarina, Alexandra (Janet Suzman), finally giving birth to an heir, Alexei. "I thought we'd go on having girls forever," she admits to the tsar (Michael Jayston, a dead ringer for the real thing). They have already produced four little grand duchesses. Meanwhile, at a political meeting, stony-faced Lenin (Michael Bryant) and exasperated Trotsky (Brian Cox) meet a bubbly young Borat lookalike calling himself Stalin (James Hazeldine). The film has elided a couple of events here: the Bolshevik-Menshevik split of 1903, in Belgium, and the All-Russian Bolshevik Conference of 1905, in Finland,...

Samaire Armstrong (The Mentalist) and British actor Sam Hazeldine (Raven) have been cast in ABC’s drama pilot The Returned, from Brillstein Entertainment, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and ABC Studios. Written by Aaron Zelman and directed by Charles McDougall, the project chronicles how the lives of the people in Arcadia are forever changed when their deceased loved ones return. Armstrong, repped by Leverage and Apa, plays Elaine, an attractive and snarky woman with a controlling personality who loses her composure when her father seems to have come back from the dead. Hazeldine, repped by Luber Roklin and UK’s Rights House, will play Abel, a mysterious man coming back from the past. Hazeldine, the son of British actor James Hazeldine, next co-stars in another Plan B project, the George Clooney-starring/directed feature Monument Man. This is Hazeldine’s second ABC drama pilot — he was in Scruples last season.