Indie publisher delving into forgotten TV programmes, the great and the not so great...
Classic Television lovers! Discover the history and the stories behind two long lost BBC series from the 1960s - the controversial soap that failed - 'Swizzlewick' - and the people from the Ministry of Research Centre No 3 - or 'R.3', which featured Oliver Reed and John 'Quatermass II' Robinson. Available only from shop.saturdaymorningpress.co.uk
A rather pleasant review of Drama in the Lab The R3 Story, and one of Roger Lewis' latest work which is most certainly not a biography, oh no. Copies still available!
Rare is the Christmas break where I don’t have a pile of research to catch up on, so it was a pleasure to luxuriate in books for a change. Two new arrivals were devoured instantly…
The new improved Drama in the Lab - the R.3 Story is now available to buy from shop.saturdaymorningress.co.uk
Those who requested a free copy to replace the one they originally bought will receive them this week - providing the next series of storms don't get in the way.
Still on sale, and still relevant in the twenty-first century - the missing episodes of 'DOOMWATCH'! Written by the formidable talents of Terence Dudley, Martin Worth, Ian Curteis, Harry Green, Dennis Spooner, Louis Marks, Roger Parkes and Keith Dewhurst.
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Sir Michael Gerrard has grumpily asked me to inform you that 'Drama in the Lab - The R3 Story' has sold out and new corrected stock is on order. Many thanks to all of you who bought a copy. I never thought this would occur so quickly!
Happy birthday to SMP (and dozens of other publishers and acquirers of high quality art)cover artist Robert Hammond, who provided the four covers for our books this year, and also back at the beginning when I was published by MIWK. They are all marvellous covers, but this cover was the first of the new imprint, and will always have a very special appeal for me. Plus lots of lovely, dangerous red! That's not me in the suit, by the way. Far too thin.
Many thanks for your custom this week, and indeed this inaugural year. It's been so good Paypal are sending me 'Eh? Not a criminal, are you?' emails. And I may have to order reprints soon for a couple of titles - i.e. the recent ones! Even 'Taste and Decency - The Swizzlewick Story' is doing well, my favourite title of the year! Take that, Mrs Mary Whitehouse, and her lazy defenders. (Why lazily describe them as 'lazy'? The answer is within the book.)
There may be a pause soon while reprints are authorised, and 'Drama in the Lab' (who would have thought that one would sell so well??) is corrected. Really, Seeley... Sellers indeed. But I am grateful when these things are flagged up, and try not to get too vengeful or depressed and launch the Pursuit Ships.
I hope you have all received from these titles what is intended - entertainment through the sharing of obscure television research. My thanks to Robert Hammond for the covers and Candy Gent (no longer on Facebook) for the SMP logos.
Here's to 2024!
For a limited time, the price has dropped to £10.99. Find out how Anthony Coburn, Donald Wilson, Sydney Newman, John Wiles, Michael Imison, Morris Barry, Douglas Camfield, Julia Smith, Hugh David and other Doctor Who luminaries (all working for the BBC Drama Serials Department), became involved in this extraordinary BBC1 faux pas which upset morality campaigners including Mary Whitehouse, and pompous Victorians who dominated local government in the 1960s, or rather, the letter pages of the Midlands press.
A fascinating story of how the BBC tried to do something different with a twice weekly serial (or soap), and got it very wrong, but very right, both at the same time.
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Happy Boxing Day! Drama in the Lab - the R3 Story is now on sale, price £11.99 plus p&p from shop.saturdaymorningpress.co.uk
And no, it is not about Radio 3, nor the A3, but another long lost television series, sometimes thought to have been a fore-runner to Doomwatch. But as you will find from the twenty six episodes of the series, detailed within the book, our boys from Observation & Measurement may have had a few sharp things to say to Sir Michael Gerrard...
Coming soon after Christmas, the series which some believe was a precursor to 'Doomwatch'. And now you can find out whether that is true or not! 'Drama in the Lab' presents a guide to the production of the series and detailed storylines for all 26 episodes.
R.3 - the Ministry of Research Centre No. 3 ran for just two series, and starred former (the best) Quatermass John Robinson (OK I love the others too), and at one point Oliver Reed, in a series which wanted to do for the scientist what 'Dixon of Dock Green' or 'Z Cars' did for the police - humanise them, and strip away their white coat.
In the first series, we watch their day to day struggles with economic realities as they carry out their pain staking researches and experiments, while fighting penny pinching civil servants, jealous rivals and international intrigue of a type perhaps unfamiliar to television audiences. In the second series, R.3 are now technological and scientific trouble shooters, working for big business or assisting troubled government projects.
And sometimes, I think 'Doomwatch', had it existed in 1964, might have been called in to take a long, hard look at what they were doing... 324 pages, price only £11.99 plus p&p.
Nicholas Courtney played John Ridge's brother in law in the episode 'Cause of Death' by Louis Marks. Making a change from playing the Brigadier in Doctor Who or other authority figures, here is a husband and son in law to a dying man. He has some blistering dialogue to deliver to Ridge, who has just discovered that the father he hasn't seen for a long time is dangerously ill..
PHILLIP: I’ll tell you what you were doing. You were so busy saving the world with your Doomwatch nonsense that you forgot you’d promised to come up here for your father’s birthday. He had to make do with a card. A card we posted with your name on so that he shouldn’t feel too neglected by his favourite child.
MANY THANKS to all of you who have ordered a copy (or copies!) of 'Burial at Sea - Five more missing episodes of Doomwatch'. Those who ordered over the weekend will hopefully have their copies en route even as we speak.
Early next year there will a form of companion piece released about the R.3 series from the early sixties which some considered to be a precursor to Doomwatch as it involves the lives and struggles of career scientists, and even featured some Doomwatch themes - but from the other side of the fence...
And it will be cheaper...
ON SALE NOW! Burial at Sea - Five More Missing Episodes of DOOMWATCH. 'Friday's Child', 'Burial at Sea', 'Hear No Evil', 'Without the Bomb' & 'Cause of Death', by Harry Green, Dennis Spooner, Roger Parkes and Louis Marks. PLUS Roger Parkes' original storylines, and at last, a complete set of Doomwatch viewing figures.
£14.99. 224 pages. Only from shop.saturdaymorningpress.co.uk
Coming very soon, hopefully early next week, a companion for my solo Doomwatcher...
A rather lovely review of 'Taste and Decency The Swizzlewick Story'.
It is a difficult book to promote. I have no easy to clear and cheap publicity photographs with which to interest review sites who are interested in the subject matter but want illustrations. Reviews, therefore, are absolutely essential, especially if they are positive!
When British television was once the envy of the rest of the world, and our productions were being sold across the globe to widespread acclaim, it would have been easy for people to see the whole c…
And here is the cover by Robert Hammond.
The fifth and final script to be reproduced in the forthcoming Doomwatch script book is the amazing 'Cause of Death' by Louis Marks. Another story which explores social issues without any science fiction, it concerns the plight of the elderly - who looks after them when they can no longer look after themselves or no longer wish to be a 'nuisance' to their families? Can they let their lives end with dignity if they fall ill by refusing treatment? Or does that make the practitioners caring for them euthanasians?
Plus the return of John Ridge. Fun fact: his sister appears in the episode and she is played by Jennifer Wilson, who was Miss Wills in two earlier episodes, the secretary to John Barron's ministers. Both of them... Oh yes, the Minister seen in 'The Plastic Eaters' played by John Barron is not the same character played again by Barron in the second series. I didn't get where I am today by not knowing the difference...
The fourth script coming soon in 'Burial at Sea - Five More Missing Episodes of Doomwatch' is 'Without the Bomb' - Roger Parkes' second script for the series, and this one tackled how to encourage voluntary birth control in a world considered back then dangerously over-populated. Lots of debate and exploration of 1970s sexual attitudes and the strict role played by men and women in who makes the first move...
Doomwatch fans will note how this episode would have tied in very nicely with themes explored in 'S*x and Violence', the infamous banned episode, pulled only because of its near copy of a genuine government committee and its members. 'Hair Trigger' tackled the violence... Originally, 'Without the Bomb' would have played after 'S*x and Violence'.
The script comes with two storylines written by Roger Parkes, allowing us to study how the story - a difficult subject to dramatise - evolved into what you will read.
Coming soon... The original, and the uncredited rewrite by Harry Green...
Coming very soon...
Also coming soon... I know it looks like A3, but actually it is R3... As in what Quatermass II did a few years later...
The next Doomwatch script book, featuring five more episodes is now at the printers and will be on sale in a fortnight's time. The superb cover will be unveiled next week and then you will know which three episodes will *not* be appearing just yet. Doomy Xmas!
Available now! For lovers of lost and controversial television from TV's earliest Golden Age. From shop.saturdaymorningpress.co.uk
More scripts from missing episodes of Doomwatch anyone?
Today's page preview from our latest publication, 'Taste and Decency The Swizzlewick Story' features Mr Sydney Newman, head of the BBC's Drama Group, who is trying to set up a new twice weekly soap to rival the mighty 'Coronation Street' and 'Emergency Ward 10', and replace the BBC's own derided effort, 'Compact'. Except, he has now discovered that an ITV planning something in the same region 'Swizzlewick' is going to be set... Now, whatever in the name of Benny and Meg could that programme be?
With any luck, first orders shall arrive tomorrow. Happy reading!
A preview of a page from our new book Taste & Decency The Swizzlewick Story. May 1964, and Birmingham Town Hall is hosting a rally from the newly launched Clean Up TV campaign... If only they knew the impact their campaign would have in three months time on a new television comedy/drama which was supposed to rival Coronation Street, or at the very least, their own slushy soap, Compact... Available from the website only.
TASTE AND DECENCY THE SWIZZLEWICK STORY by Michael Seely
Saturday Morning Press investigates the true story behind a controversial serial from 1964 which made the BBC censor its own programme, forcing the writer to quit in disgust, and allow a burgeoning morality campaigner to claim her first victory.
In 1964, the BBC wanted to do something different with a twice weekly on going serial rather than create another Coronation Street or Emergency Ward 10, ITV’s big hitters. They asked David Turner, an emerging and talented Midlands playwright and he devised Swizzlewick, a bold, satirical comedy set within a Midlands town council, populated by outrageous stereotypes with enormous character flaws, making some within the BBC nervous.
Its broadcast immediately sparked outrage from local government dignitaries who did not see the funny side. It outraged the recently launched Clean Up TV campaign who were sent a script they considered disgusting and in bad taste. This caused the BBC to cut out the offending scenes hours before transmission to ward off any further criticism, and Turner quit his programme in disgust with the BBC.
Spearheaded by an evangelical Christian Shropshire school teacher called Mrs Mary Whitehouse, her first rally had already crossed swords with Turner three months before Swizzlewick aired. Some believe now that the programme was then ‘mysteriously’ created purely to attack her, (although his anger was aimed more at the chairman of the meeting for refusing to give him a right of reply when an earlier play of his was criticised). Mrs Whitehouse later wondered in her memoirs whether her husband also became a target in later episodes. This view has never been investigated.
Taste and Decency The Swizzlewick Story tells the true story behind the birth and death of Swizzlewick. Was Whitehouse responsible for its downfall, or was it a nervous BBC swiftly hitting self-destruct on a mis-firing programme? Was Mrs Smallgood really created to attack Mrs Whitehouse? Did they really take aim at her husband? And just what is the mostly missing serial all about? And was it any good?
Taste and Decency The Swizzlewick Story charts the production of the serial and details all twenty six episodes of the serial.
Price £14.99 plus p&p. 224 pages.
Cover by Rob Hammond.
Get it from: https://shop.saturdaymorningpress.co.uk/product/taste-and-decency-the-swizzlewick-story
Coming soon...
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With thanks to Oliver Crocker, Rob Hammond and the amazing Natalie Roles. No idea who played the cymbals.
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