NETTLESOME

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

2011-12-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

"Follow the Yellow Brick Road" (1972) by Dennis Potter - not a Play for Today this time, but part of a BBC 2 series called Sextet.
The played featured Denholm Elliot as an actor who is undergoing psychiatric treatment; he believes himself to be trapped in a television play. He explains to his doctor how he has only been able to find work in television commercials, although he prefers these to plays as he finds the latter morally corrupting.
The production is lively, with the action broken up by a series of mock commercials for cereal and dog food. The former sees Elliot getting up in the night for a midnight snack, stepping down a metal spiral staircase into a living room bedecked with jewels and a beautiful woman reclined on a couch. His hand tentatively pushes open the pantry door to reveal his wife secretly helping herself to the Krispy Krunch. This scene is recalled later in the play, this time to reveal his wife in bed with his agent.

Here is Potter on the subject of television advertising, speaking shortly after the release of The Singing Detective

Double Dare

2011-12-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

Double Dare (1976) by Dennis Potter

Martin (Alan Dobie), a writer, invites Helen (Kika Markham), an actress, to meet him at a London hotel to discuss an idea for a play about a businessman who meets a call girl at a hotel. As he explains the story to her he notices a businessman and an escort girl (also played by Markham) at a nearby table who appear to be speaking lines from his yet unwritten play.

Speech Day

2011-12-16T04:01:00.000-08:00

Speech Day (1973) Play for Today written by Barry Hines.

Land of Green Ginger

2011-12-14T03:38:00.001-08:00

Land of Green Ginger (1973) by Alan Plater

Semi-documentary style Play for Today which records Hull at the point of relocation of the working class from terraced housing to council estate.
Features a soundtrack and an appearance by the folk group The Watersons.

Parents

2011-12-14T03:05:00.000-08:00

Parents (1989). Bob Balaban

"What are we eating?"
"Leftovers"
"We've had leftovers every day since we arrived, what was it before it was leftovers?"

Robert Rental and The Normal

2011-10-18T00:41:00.000-07:00

SNUB TV

2011-09-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

Been getting nostalgic on SNUB via Youtube

Horse Latitudes

2011-09-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

Tales Out of School

2011-07-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

Tales Out of School was a series of four plays by David Leland which were screened on TV in the early eighties. The most famous was 'Made in Britain' with Tim Roth.
'Birth of a Nation' featured Jim Broadbent as a newly qualified teacher who is appalled at the level of corporal punishment being doled out at a comprehensive school.
The whole series has recently been released on DVD.

Gloy Glue

2011-05-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Screenshot from 'The Golden Vision'; a Wednesday Play from 1968, directed by Ken Loach, and written by Neville Smith and Gordon Honeycombe, the ITN newsreader.

Comicalamities etc

2011-05-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

Children's Theatre

2011-04-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

From a 1962 book by Otto Maurice Forkert titled 'Children's Theatre ....That Captures its Audience'

Faber Books

2011-03-11T03:20:00.000-08:00

Here are lots more beautiful book covers from Faber books.

Arthur Lipsett

2011-03-11T03:06:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I bought an album called 'Arthur Lipsett: Soundtracks' which is a collection of audio recordings from Lipsett's films, that were produced for the National Film Board of Canada.
I've not actually seen any of the films - apart from this one; the others are elusive....

People Like Us

2011-01-28T14:27:00.000-08:00

I discovered People Like Us in the much missed Rough Trade shop in Covent Garden, and later online in Vicki's WFMU show DO OR DIY which is amazing and still available in archive form. 'Wide Open places' - a Western montage piece made with Wobbly and Matmos, is one of my favourite albums, and it was really great to see that the latest material on the PLU website does not disappoint...and just to balance things up, since Ergo Phizmiz is the co creator of this vidoe, here's the mix he made for 'illegal art' a while ago.

"Chess" by People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz from Vicki WFMU on Vimeo.

A Light in the Window

2011-01-09T00:57:00.000-08:00

Scene from the film '3 Cases of Murder' (1955)

Requiem for a Village 2

2010-12-03T02:26:00.000-08:00

One sequence which has been puzzling me in 'Requiem for a Village' is where a frog is caught, hung from a tree and then its bones separated and cast onto a stream.

The film is soon to be released on DVD

Where Adam Stood

2010-12-03T01:26:00.000-08:00

Dennis Potter's adaptation of Edmund Gosse's 'Father & Son' was screened in 1976. It is the story of Edmund and his father, the naturalist and minister Philip Gosse. The Gosse household, which is held together by religious piety and strict bible study, is suffering the recent loss of Edmund's mother.
Gosse believes the story of Genesis to be literary true, but his own research into marine life challenges this belief, as does the forthcoming publication of Darwin's 'Origins of the Species by Means of Natural Selection'.
Gosse's conclusion is to place himself 'where Adam stood' - he would see fully grown flora and fauna on the day of his creation, meaning God had created the world fully formed and thereby fitting in with the recent discoveries of fossils showing the natural world was far older than the Bible would suppose.
It is clear to see that even he acknowledges the weaknesses in his own argument, meanwhile the young Edmund too is learning how to play against his father's religious beliefs when he tells how God has allowed him to have a boat he covets in the toy shop window - something his father had forbidden him to even think about.
The play contains two instances of the kind of scenes we are more used to seeing with Potter - a mad woman who attempts to sexually assault Edmund, and depictions of the boy's nightmares, in which he is approached by a Christ figure who tries to lure him into the sea.
The feel of the play, and the scenes on the beach are reminiscent of certain Pre-Raphaelite paintings - this one in particular: WILLIAM DYCE, 'Pegwell Bay, Kent, a Recollection of October 5th 1858'

Exclusive to Woolworth

2010-12-02T05:20:00.000-08:00

There were about 200 of these apparently, with titles including, 'Build Your Own Computer', 'Making Your Own Fancy Costumes' and 'Make a Home Museum'. Sadly, the contents never live up to the initial promise - when they say 'Computer' they mean it the same way as you might call an abacus a calculator, so even in today's money, the 3p cover price seems a bit steep.

Dennis Potter's Alice

2010-12-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

Potter's 1964 play was focused on Charles Dodgson's (Carroll) relationship with Alice Liddell and the creation of his most famous work.

Tap tap tap tap

2010-11-29T23:54:00.000-08:00

One of the girls' drawings of 'Pipes'

An actor was used to play the ghost and could be glimpsed momentarily throughout the programme. Here he is by the curtain.

Following on from the Enfield poltergeist post...

BBC's Ghostwatch (1992)

A mentally disturbed man, possessed by the spirit of a 19th century child killer named Mother Seddons, hanged himself in the under-the-stairs cubby hole in the 1960s, with only his hungry cats for company. Thirty years later, the current occupants of the property, a mother and her two daughters, are plagued by paranormal activity, the daughters claim to see a bald man in a black dress with no eyes. Cue some of the BBCs most high profile presenters of the time - Michael Parkinson, husband and wife pair Mike Smith and Sarah Greene, and, er, Craig Charles - to present a proto-Most Haunted live show on Halloween night to 'prove once and for all the existence of the supernatural'.
Except the programme was not live, but a pre-recorded, albeit convincing, drama in which 'viewers' rang in throughout the show reporting strange phenomena in their own houses or spotting 'Pipes'- the nickname the family had given the ghost - in the footage. The programme ended with the 'ghost' sabotaging the video to make everything look like all was well in the house before destroying the studio, whilst in the house itself chaos reigned' complete with a teenage girl belching out an Exorcist-style voice, and Sarah Greene trapped in the fateful cubby hole with Pipes himself.

Enfield Poltergeist

2010-11-29T07:38:00.000-08:00

Between August 1977 and September 1978 a series of events attributed to a poltergeist were investigated at a house in Ponders End, Enfield.
An account was published as 'This House is Haunted' by Guy Lyon Playfair. There's planty of details elsewhere on the internet and an interesting report from BBC's 'Nationwide' on Youtube, but the main fascination in these pics was always the posters on the wall.

Edward Gorey

2010-11-21T06:01:00.001-08:00

Images from "Les Passementeries Horribles" (1976) by Edward Gorey

Indoors and Out

2010-10-21T09:01:00.000-07:00

Details from 'The Things We See : Indoors and Out' by Alan Jarvis. Penguin Books 1947.

Leeds United!

2010-10-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

In 1970 30,000 clothing workers in Leeds, as well as parts of Yorkshire and the North East, went on unofficial strike for five weeks for a shilling (twelve pence in pre-decimal currency) pay rise and equal pay.
This 1974 Play For Today telling of the story was written by Colin Welland and filmed in black and white giving the play a stark quality that makes it reminiscent of German films of the 1930s, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, or even like Coronation Street meeting Eraserhead.
Conditions in the factories are revealed to have not evolved much since those of the 19th century, with one worker describing having to wipe 'rat shit' off her bench in the morning before starting at her machine.
The strike ultimately fails in its ends because the shop stewards undermine the workers they represent by reaching a deal with 'the masters' to go back to work for lower offer and the promise of talks.

MIchael Powell South Bank Show

2010-09-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

Above - From an early short film 'Travelaughs' 1927 which depicts Powell transforming into Pan in a dream.

This is a documentary made in 1986 to coincide with the release of Powell's autobiography 'A Life in Movies'.
The film begins with Powell talking in detail about 'Peeping Tom' before we hear the critics, represented as mouths through cut-out holes in newspapers, tearing the film to pieces, resulting in its withdrawal and Powell's virtual disappearance from the industry.
Then Powell takes us back to the beginning and precedes to wander through recreations of sets from his films, telling the story of his life up until the making of 'The Red Shoes.

REQUIEM FOR A VILLAGE

2010-09-07T09:36:00.001-07:00

Requiem for a Village (1975)

See also here

The film is soon to be released on DVD

Armchair Thriller

2010-08-29T07:56:00.000-07:00

Alan Garner

2010-08-29T07:55:00.001-07:00

House of Hammer 13

2010-08-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what the reason is for my lifelong fascination with this series of magazines from the 1970s. Perhaps it's due to the fact the lady in the newsagents shop asked if my mum and dad knew I was buying this when I picked up this copy whilst on holiday aged about 8.
HoH ran for about 20 or so issues, changing its name to Halls of Horror, although later issues were poor in comparison with the earlier ones.
The magazine featured a comic strip adaptation of a Hammer film in each issue, a 'Van Helsing's Terror Tale' as well as articles on horror films in general, including Hammer, Universal and contemporary oddities.
Issues 2 - 6 were always impossible to get hold of, even back then; the reason, apparently, was that the whole lot of back issues for those editions were sent to Australia. Issue 6, with its Dracula Prince of Darkness cover, was particularly in demand and fetches around £20 to £30 on eBay.

Happy Days

2010-08-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

This is the paperback adaptation of "Children of the Stones" published in 1977 by a division of Transworld Publishing and written by Jeremy Burnham & Trevor Ray.
Each chapter is headed with a small illustration which looked to have been drawn from the series in a naively charming manner.

West Country Tales: The Beast

2010-07-14T05:41:00.000-07:00

'West Country Tales' was a BBC TV series from the early 80s comprising of stand-alone tales of the supernatural based on ideas submitted by the public.
The episodes are distinctive in the fact that dialogue between characters is kept to a minimum, or set low in the sound mix, in favour of a voice-over narration (in most
cases by Keith Barron) which calls to mind public information films or the English-language TV versions of 'Tales from Europe'.
This one,'The Beast' begins with a man taking a train journey back to his childhood village, called back by a letter from his sister. The tone of which brings forth a distant memory of an incident from his youth. Forbidden by his parents to use the shotgun he has been cleaning and restoring, he gets up at the crack of dawn and sneaks out into the fields to try it out. In the early morning, the fields and woods have an unnerving menace, but the boy's alarm is only awakened when he finds a gored sheep. As he continues to explore the woods he increasingly feels he is being watched, until there is a brief but frightening encounter.
Now, years later, it appears the beast has returned...

A Walk Through H

2010-06-18T08:43:00.000-07:00

Tulse Luper arranged all these drawings in order for me one Monday afternoon when he heard that I was ill.
This was one of the drawings, in fact, he'd given me himself. It's one of a pair, though he told me not to bother to look for the other one.
These two drawings I had received anonymously on different occasions through the post.
This one I'd bought. I remember it cost me very little.
And these two were stolen though not by me. I was just the receiver.
This one I copied from a drawing at Bridsaw.
And this one I did steal - from the man who looked after the owls at the Amsterdam Zoo.
These two were given to me, probably as a birthday present.
Tulse Luper came back about eleven in the evening and told me that this drawing was probably the one I would need first.

So begins Colin Cantlie's narration for this amazing 1978 Peter Greenaway film in which the camera travels across a series of drawings - or maps as they are referred to - which we initially see en masse located in a gallery space before being emmersed in 40 minutes of ink and watercolour.
As the film progresses, there are increasingly frequent cut-ins of scenes of birds; the film's full title being 'A walk through H: The reincarnation of an ornithologist'. The wonderful score is by Michael Nyman, with a shorter version of the piece appearing on the Les Disques du Crepuscule compilation 'From Brussels with Love'.

The Boy Who Turned Yellow

2010-06-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

Made for the Childrens' Film Foundation in 1972 by Powell/Pressburger.

LE MYSTERE PICASSO

2010-04-29T00:53:00.001-07:00

Kuhle Wampe

2010-04-21T01:58:00.000-07:00

Spirited 1932 German film which follows the fortunes of a family during the depression. Directed by Slatan Dudow and written by Bertolt Brecht and Ernst Ottwald.

Spend Spend Spend

2010-04-01T08:31:00.001-07:00

Play for today 1977

Nuit Fantastique

2010-03-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

Marcel L'Herbier film about an over-tired student who is visited by a woman in white in his dreams. Here is the opening sequence with the ghostly figure descending from the roof of a market hall.

Puffin Post

2010-03-05T08:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some scans from a set of Puffin Post magazines I picked up. The publication was sent to members of the Puffin Club (Puffin being the junior imprint of Penguin Books). Subjects included are a feature on Edward Lear, 'How to print your own book' and a poem by 'Liverpool Poet' John McGough.

Calling Occupants

2010-02-24T10:35:00.000-08:00

'Society for Scientific Inquiry of Paranormal Atmospheric and Cosmic Anomalies' is an A4 magazine printed on newsprint and very fine it is too.
It presents, in a very imaginative way, data on UFO sightings.
The dense grey images work beautifully on the grey newsprint, above are details from the pages.
It's available to buy here

Don't Vote Vote Vote

2010-01-15T22:15:00.000-08:00

With an election looming, here's the Dennis Potter method for getting rid of unwanted canvassers, from 'Vote Vote for Nigel Barton'

The woman on the doorstep who says she hasn't vote in 50 years, on asked whether she thought she 'ought' to:

"Ought? Ought" Did you say Ought? "There's too much ought, sonny. Ought to have a telly licence. Ought to have a dog licence. Ought to keep the hedge cut. Ought to pay the rates on time. Ought to wash your hands after using the lav. Ought to pay threepence for it too. Ought to got to church. Ought to stand for the national anthem. Ought to help the hungry. Ought to avoid the rush hour. Ought not to drink and drive. Ought to post early for Christmas. Ought to be thankful. And all the oughts is about money, sonny....and nobody says they ought to give me that."

..."I'm in sympathy with none of you. All promises now, ennit? Butter wouldn't melt in your mouths, would it? Then up go prices, up go rents, up goes the electricity, the gas, the coal, up go fags, and God knows what else. Right up, I know, oh I know all right. You can't kid me, sonny.
..."And I can't stop gassing no more. Got the dinner going. And I ought to get that ready, oughtn't I?"

Mystery Train

2010-01-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

Stills from the intro to a Dutch film, De Spooktrein (1939), directed by Carl Lamac.

Blue Line Period

2009-12-05T12:56:00.000-08:00

This is from the excellent FOUND magazine, issue 5.

Found by Tim Halderman. "A bum sleeping on the Blue Line El train was arrested by the police for sleeping. As the two policemen began to remove him, the bum said. "May I please take my artwork?" The police simply laughed at the old, dirty bum, and dragged him from the train. These drawings were left behind.

William L. Hawkins 1895 - 1990

2009-11-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

Robotech Collage, 1988

Christ Giving the keys to St Peter, 1989

King Kong, 1985

Oneohtrix

2009-11-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

Capel Court Caravan Site

2009-10-20T08:20:00.001-07:00

Here are four VistaScreen images of Capel Court Caravan Site - thrilling stuff, especially in 3d...

Saul Steinberg

2009-10-06T10:50:00.001-07:00

Taken from 'The Passport'. An amazing book which collects his illustrations circa the 1950s from The New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue.

New Age Tapes

2009-07-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

I really like these sleeves from a series of releases by James Ferraro and Spencer Clark.

JAMES FERRARO - HEAVEN'S GATE (2009)

VODKA SOAP - SHEE-RO GATEWAY TEMPLES (2008)

BLACK JOKER - WATCH OUT! (2008)

K2 - ECINO MAN (2008)

MONOPOLY CHILD STAR SEARCHERS - PRINCE OF PARROT SHOOTERS (2008)

VODKA SOAP - OCEANSION ISLAND (2008)

VODKA SOAP - UN CHAND PYRAMIDELIER (2006)

IT

2009-06-19T12:38:00.001-07:00

From International Times magazine circa 1967

Scala Cinema

2009-06-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

This is a programme from the old Scala Cinema at Kings X London. The month's screenings used to be presented on an A2 folded poster with amazing cut and paste collages like this on the front and details on the back. This is from Oct 1988 with highlights including a 'PREGNANT JUVENILE DELINQUENTS' triple bill (A taste of Honey, L-Shaped Room, Blue Jeans), several Herschell Gordon Lewis features and the regular Saturday all-nighter (ALL-NIGHT URBAN TERROR, ALL-NIGHT (VINCENT) PRICE FRIGHTS, ALL-NIGHT FEAR OF THE FUTURE etc).

arches marbles demo

2009-06-18T03:23:00.001-07:00

This I found inside the pages of a second-hand book

Conjuring Tricks

2009-06-17T04:48:00.000-07:00

These are taken from a German book, secret of magic tricks revealed.

2009-06-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

More 80s Illustration

2009-06-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is a comic strip which used to appear in the NME in the 1980s. I'm not sure who it is by, possibly Chris Long.

80s Illustrations

2009-06-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

These scans are taken from the Christmas editions of the NME from 1986 and 1988, they made up the paper's Illustrated Songbook, which must have been an annual feature for a few years. Each illustration filled the whole page.
Included here are, Steven Appleby's illustration for The Smiths' 'Panic', Run's 'Everyday is Like Sunday' by Morrissey, Jill Mumford's 'Fast Car' by Tracy Chapman, Shaky Kane's 'Love Missile F1-11', and Andrew Crummy's illustration for The Pet Shop Boys' 'Opportunities' single.

The Bushes Scream..

2009-06-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

Vampires

Play For Today - 1979

Stu is fascinated by vampires after watching a horror film with his younger brother. His fascination begins to merge into the reality of his home life when his friends tell him they have seen a vampire at the local cemetery.

CROOKT, CRACKT, OR FLY

2009-05-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

Angels Are So Few (1970) by Dennis Potter

This is the first of Potter's visitation plays (see also Schmoedipus, Brimstone & Treacle), featuring Michael, an 'angel' who visits Cynthia, a bored and frustrated housewife. The question of whether Michael really is an angel is not clear - his 'curse', "I feel very sorry for you" seems to result in two deaths; the sneering postman and the elderly Mr Cawser, plus he also seems to be able to transport himself to the scene of the postman's accident while sat at Cynthia's kitchen table. On the evening after her first visit, Cynthia watches a TV 'Epilogue' delivered by a priest who reminds the viewer that angels were messengers from god who sometimes were the deliverers of death.
It's only at the end of the play, after he has been seduced by Cynthia, that the truth is revealed, although not in an altogether satisfactory manner. Potter has been here before. His Jesus in 'Son of Man' could quite as easily be a mortal man who is under the delusion that he is the Messiah - something which at the time aroused the irie of Mary Whitehouse et al.

Witchcraft Through The Ages

2009-05-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

Haxan (1922)

Directed by Benjamin Christensen, this documentary film on witchcraft was also released as "Witchcraft Through the Ages' in the 1960s, with a jazz score and narration by William Burroughs.

Rotten Fodder

2009-05-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

White Lady

1987 play on the subject of pesticides by David (Penda's Fen) Rudkin which feels like one long public information film, until you realise there's not going to be a shock denouement - the damage has already been done.
Gil looks after his two daughters, living frugally in a farmhouse which the father is rennovating. The surrounding landscape, which consists of arable land and fruit trees, though beautiful, carries a hidden danger.
The story is intercut with images from a university research lab showing cell samples of animals which have been exposed to pesticides and data which reveals the amount of chemicals present on various fruit and vegetables.
A woman in a white dress is seen watching the children as they sleep. In a scene reminiscent of Dreyer's "Vampyr", we see the shadow of a sythe cast over the room as they sleep. Later, when the children wander through the fruit trees and find a banquet of sumptuous harvest (placed on draped chemical drums) the 'white lady' delivers an ominous speech in which she hints at the 'gift' she has already given them.

Below from Carl Dreyer's "Vampyr"

Gentlemen take Polaroids

2009-05-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

'A PHOTOGRAPH'
Cracking Play For Today from 1977 by 'Robin Redbreast' writer John Bowen, who once again examines a case of the bourgeoisie coming up against 'country ways'.
Snobbish radio arts presenter Michael Otway (John Stride) is anonymously sent a photograph of two girls sat outside a caravan which raises suspicions from his wife, Gillian (Stephanie Turner) over his fidelity. The marriage is already under strain and it is suggested that Stride, who we see is having an affair, is consciously trying to drive his wife to suicide. Gillian becomes obsessed with the photograph to such an extent that Stride sets out to find the location of the caravan....
The play is notable for Freda Bamford, who plays a role similar to the housekeeper Mrs Vigo in 'Robin Redbreast' - another practitioner of forgotten magic....

The First Big Weekend

2009-03-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

"Just a Boy's Game" is a Play for Today from 1979, set in and around a Greenock estate, Scotland. Jake McQuillan is the local hard-case, who is frequently called upon to defend his status. He lives with his grandparents. His grandfather, it transpires, killed Jake's father in a gang fight when he was a child. Jake wants to make him see that he doesn't blame him for his father's death, he understands that it is just the way things are.
After a heavy night on the booze, Dancer (Ken Hutchison from Murphy's Mob) decides Friday is a holiday and takes a bottle of VAT69 round to the docks, where Jake works, to lure him out for the day. After a visit to the estate's prostitute, Clatty Bella, who is paid in alcohol - a half bottle of wine, and a rendezvous with a young Gregor (Rab C Nesbitt) Fisher, the night ends in tragedy.
However 'authentic' the recent slew of TV series set in the 1970s and 80s may claim to be, it's notable how cosmetic they appear in comparison to this, which looks like it has been filmed in actual houses, rather than a set designer's idea of 70s interiors. A nice touch includes the kids getting up in the morning and switching on 'The Open University' - in those days, 'proper' TV didn't start until about 1.30pm, and then it was 'Pebble Mill'.
You don't see any shops apart from the off-licence, with its stock safely behind cages, and the local shop, in the form of an ice-cream van, which serves to reinforce the very basic daily lifestyle of work, pub, fight. The fight scenes themselves are very realistic, in fact the whole play is charged with a sense of simmering menace; you expect someone to jump from a doorway or alley throughout.
The play closes with the death of Jake's grandfather. It's a chance for them to make peace, and Jake explains how he bears no grudge for his father's death, but his grandfather, straining to choke out his last words says; "I was never fond of you, and when I was your age I could've taken you anyday".

Russian Futurist Books

2009-01-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

King Terry's Bad N Nice

2009-01-15T04:24:00.000-08:00

King Terry is a Japanese artist illustrator. The book Bad N Nice puts together literally thousands of his drawings over 600 pages. As the book is about as thick as a telephone directory, it's impossible to scan, so please excuse the quality of some of the images.

Here's some more examples
http://www.intergalactico.com/blog/king_terry_from_japan.php

TRICKFILM

2008-12-03T03:16:00.000-08:00

These images are taken from a German book on animation. The book is translated into five languages and doesn't say where each film is made, so I have given each the English title.

VALIANT HANS - KLAUS AND KATJA GEORGI

THE MAGIC SCISSORS - BRUNO J. BOTTGE

THE GHOST IN THE VILLAGE - ERICH HAMMER

THE DRAWING ON THE WALL - LOTHAR BARKE

THE DRAWING ON THE WALL - LOTHAR BARKE

THE DRAWING ON THE WALL - LOTHAR BARKE

"THE DRAWING ON THE WALL" - Stefan, a bright twelve-year-old, arrives late at the dentist, because he had lingered on the way to join other children drawing on the wall. He is angry because the dentist tells him to come again tomorrow at a time when he wanted to be playing. In 'revenge' he draws a caricature of the dentist, armed with a corkscrew, on the wall at the entrance. In the night Stefan dreams of his caricature, and is very frightened. Next day, when the dentist is treating him, he realises what a mistake he has made, and wipes his picture off the wall.

THE CONTEST - BRUNO J. BOTTGE

THAT'S HOW I SEE IT - BRUNO J. BOTTGE

THAT'S HOW I SEE IT - BRUNO J. BOTTGE

"THAT'S HOW I SEE IT" - A painter leaves it up to luck what subject he will choose for his picture. At a building site he begins to make a sketch of a worker in abstract style. The worker protests that that is not how he looks. The painter replies: "That's how I see it". Then the worker draws the artist. The painter protests that he has drawn a donkey, and not him. "That's how I see it" replies the worker.

PUT IN THE SACK - ERICH HAMMER

LITTLE HAEWELMANN - KURT HERBERT SCHULZ

ADVENTURE IN SPACE - HANS ULRICH WIEMER

Random Asst I

2008-10-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

Quatermass and the Pit - BBC TV

Witchcraft

Quatermass and the Pit

Hob Nob

The Fall 'Slates' back cover

HP Lovecraft paperback

Quatermass and the Pit

The Fall 'City Hobgoblins' 7"

A nice wee present from.... Ivor Cutler

2008-10-10T12:47:00.001-07:00

In 1998 I sent one of my books to Ivor Cutler, c/o the BBC, and was thrilled to receive a package a few weeks later containing several of his famous 'stickies' and the above note.

A collection of Ivor Cutler's stickers was produced by the small press 'PICKPOCKETS'. entitled 'befriend a bacterium'. It's probably out of print by now, but is well worth tracking down.

Most of his albums have been getting re-releases over the past few years. One omission is PRINCE IVOR, which is a wonderful collection of plays for Radios 3 and 4. Although separate pieces, they flow so well together they form a kind of modern equivalent of Alice in Wonderland, in which Ivor encounters, among others, a mole, a miner, a mermaid, and King Neptune. There is such a lot of space in the recordings; you listen to a lot of silence - sometimes punctuated by footsteps - but it is totally entrancing. There are extracts of eastern European folk music, and a piece from Burundi - the latter in the form of Ivor's new disc which he plays for his dad.
Highly recommened, and which hopefully will at some point get a release on CD thanks to this site:
www.hoorgihouse.com

From my scrapbook - part 1

2008-10-10T12:33:00.001-07:00

This photograph was clipped from the International Herald Tribune, probably late 1990s, early 2000s. It accompanied a motor racing report. The only reference to the eagle in the whole piece was in the strapline of the picture, which said that the winner was attacked by the bird as he stood celebrating on the podium. I found it bizarre for nothing else to have been written on the matter.

Pictures on my wall

2008-05-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

Here's some smartly dressed British illustrators at work on various murals.

Eric Fraser (standing) with assistants

Edward Bawden (standing) and Eric Ravilious

Eric Ravilious

Edward Bawden

Edward Bawden

They're Coming to Take Me Away!

2008-04-08T03:57:00.001-07:00

'Robin Redbreast'
An unnerving 1970 Play For Today title in the village conspiracy vein.

Excellent article about this to be found here;
http://www.hull.ac.uk/filmstudies/FilmPFTRobin.htm

Fever

2008-03-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Murrain by Nigel Kneale aired 1975 as part of ATV's 'Against the Crowd' season of plays.

This is a superb example of Kneale's art. To the casual observer, Kneale writes about the supernatural, but in actual fact the writer held such mystical beliefs in contempt. Kneale uses the tricks of supernatural fiction but what he actually is writing about is all perfectly plausible and can be explained in scientific terms. The fact that so many of his stories are set in every day surroundings adds to their power. In this play, everything which happens could, feasibly, be explained by both the villagers' view of events, or the more rational reasoning of the vet. Even at the end, the viewer is left in doubt.

SPOILER ALERT: This, as well as the following post 'Baby' are now available on the Beasts DVD collection.

The scene is a gnarly northern hamlet, where a vet (David Simeon) arrives to tell farmer Mably that he still doesn't know the cause of an illness affecting his pigs. As he approaches the farm, several of the hands are sweeping the road.
The farmer is hostile to the vet, and following the short consultation over the animals, takes him to the local stores, where the onwers' child has been sick in bed for the past five weeks - illness also unexplained.
Mably goes on to tell Simeon that an old woman, Mrs Clemson, is the cause of both illnesses - a present of a jar of jam has also resulted in the crippling of one of his farm hands, while the storekeeper's child was caught playing in Mrs Clemson's garden. He wants Simeon to take his bag, filled with the dust brushed from the road (which all in the hamlet have passed over) and tip it over the 'witch's' head.
Simeon is indignant, but concedes to do do before tipping the bag on the floor and running up to Mrs Clemon's cottage. Here he finds a lonely old woman, who is without water, and being denied food from the village store, 'They're trying to starve me, they want me to die', she says, and our sympathies. along with Simon's are instantly transferred to her.
He promises her a visit from the social services and attempts to buy her some groceries from the local stores, under the guise that he is buying himself some provisions on his way home, but is rumbled by the angry locals. The shopkeeper's wife shrieks in horror after realising she has handled Mrs Clemson's money.
The following day Simeon returns with a box of groceries he bought in town. As he is unpacking the goods, he gets his first feeling of unease about the woman's cottage when he discovers a hand-made doll on a shelf (one of the farm hands has already alluded to the 'witch' using her magic on her hand-crafted dolls).
As he leaves the cottage, the farmer and his mob take him to the stores where the storekeeper's wife is now shown to have developed an illness similar to her sons as well as having swollen, reddened, hands. He remonstrates against the gathering who insist that her predicament is a result of handling Clemson's money, which leads to the enraged group heading towards the old woman's cottage intent on their revenge.
Simeon follows, but only to see Mrs Clemson meet them on the path and utter a curse to the advancing Mably who drops down dead.
As Simeon assess the situation he concludes that the farmer died of a heart attact - natural causes - due to the excitement. The farm hands are unconvinced and tentatively collect the body.
As a shaken Simeon turns once more to look at Mrs Clemson, she exclaims "YES!"

A wonderful collection of Kneale's early fiction can be found in the early collection 'Tomato Cain', which, although out of print, can be found on Abebooks, Amazon and occasionally eBay. After this short spell as a writer he went on to devote himself to screenwriting, most notably as the creator of Quatermass.

Rapt in a blanket

2008-03-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

Baby written by Nigel Kneale 1976

This was part of the series BEASTS made by ATV in the mid-seventies.
Vet (Simon MaCorkindale) is desperate for some real experience, as opposed to treating pets in the city, and his wife, who is desperate to conceive, move to an old cottage in the country.
Whilst renovations to their house are taking place, they discover a strange mummified creature in an alcove between one of the walls. Part pig-like, part lamb, neither the vet, or his boss, can identify the creature. His wife just wants the thing removed from the house, especially after one of the workmen, with knowledge of the 'old ways', says it was put there by someone wanting to put a curse on the place, adding that nothing grows on the surrounging land - and in a chilling foretaste of what is to come says; 'That was suckled by a human'.
MaCorkindale's wife wants the creature removed, but unbeknown to her, he stashes it in a cupboard in what is planned to be the nursery. As his wife grows more disturbed by a strange atmosphere in the cottage, she is awakened one night to noises downstairs, and as she descends the staircase we hear sucking noises. As she stares in horror at the rocking chair we see a horrific figure feeding the creature, now alive in her arms.

The Village Green Preservation Society

2008-03-05T00:39:00.000-08:00

The Britannia Coco-nut Dancers

The Thaxted Fool

Gloucestershire Mummers enact the 800-years-old play, whose characters include Old Father Christmas, Beelzebub, and the Doctor who heals the wounded man with 'medicine'.

Abbots Bromley

Hobby horse at Minehead May Day celebrations

Dancing round the May Pole in Minehead

Oak Apple Day, Wishford, near Salisbury

Oak Apple Day

Hobby horse at Abbots Bromley

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

2008-03-02T15:47:00.001-08:00

Details from the illustrations from a book entitled 'The Tears That Saved a Town' (Dobson Books (in the UK) 1975). Written by Peter Brenner and illustrated by Adam Wurtz.

The Light Pours Out Of Me

2008-02-29T06:28:00.000-08:00

Stigma. 1977.
The penultimate of BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas departed away from adapting stories by M.R. James and Charles Dickens in favour of a modern tale written by Clive Exton. The play explores similar themes as had appeared in productions such as the childrens' series 'Children of the Stones' and Nigel Kneale's plays 'Murrain' and 'Baby' - that is the ideas and themes of witchcraft and folklore in a modern day setting.
It starred Kate Binchy and Peter Bowles as Katherine and Peter, an affluent middle-class couple who move to the country with their teenage daughter. When workmen attempt to unearth a large menhir stone from their cottage garden, it unleashes a supernatural force which wreaks a ghastly curse on the wife. She begins bleeding heavily despite having no wounds. At first she is able to disguise it from her family but by the morning she is lying in a pool of blood with her husband and the local doctor looking on helplessly. Simultaneously the workmen discover that a human skeleton had been buried under the ancient stone. The remains of someone who seems to have been killed in a ritualistic manner.

A Box for Black Paul

2008-02-29T02:44:00.000-08:00

Longing (detail) 1983

Child in the Wake of Death (detail) 1983

Escort (detail) 1979

Death's Bookkeeping (detail) 1982

Death of the Poor Man (detail) 1983

Finnish outsider artist Viljo Gustaffson (1927 - 1994)

I am kurious oranj

2008-02-28T13:19:00.001-08:00

A warning to the curious. 1972. Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark.

Another of the BBC's adaptations of M.R. James ghost stories.
An amateur archaeologist discovers the lost crown of Anglia in a remote Norfolk coastal area. From the moment he unearths the treasure he is followed by a black-clad figure.

I had too much to dream last night

2008-02-28T12:51:00.000-08:00

Whistle and I'll come to you. 1968.
This, the first of the BBC's adaptations of M.R. James' stories was aired as part of the Omnibus series and directed by Jonathan Miller.
An old whistle has emerged in the displaced soil of a grave, and a bumbling academic holidaying nearby, played by Michael Horden, discovers this and cleans it up. The artefact is adorned with a latin inscription which he translates to be; 'Who is this who is coming?' A blow through the instrument is seen to unleash a psychic disturbance. The room Horden is staying in contains two single beds, and he experiences a disturbed sleep due to the sounds of someone twisting and turning in the other bed, which facilitates a dream that he is being pursued on a desolate beach by an unseen figure. In an extraordinary moment we see what appears to be a bed sheet rearing up on the sands, moving towards him. The following morning the maid asks him which of the beds he has slept in, as both are disturbed. Horden converses with another guest in the boarding house, giving the viewer the opportunity to discover that the professor doesn't believe in the supernatural, finding a rational explanation for any suggestion of ghostly presences.
But later that night, there are further disturbances in his room, and turning to the empty bed, Horden sees the knotted sheet rising up. The sight of the terrified professor's thumb finding its way into his mouth, as he starts blubbering, is chilling.

Smash it up!

2008-02-27T03:11:00.000-08:00

THE CHANGES

A BBC Childrens' serial first aired in 1975, based on a trilogy of books by Peter Dickinson. The programme was introduced with the words 'A science fiction serial for older viewers...' - something of an understatement, it could be said. Looking more like a government information film on how to survive a nuclear war, rather than a piece of tea-time entertainment. The series begins with a seemingly ordinary family becoming crazed by a weird droning sound which impels them to smash up all the electrical equipment in their home, outside, the chaos is widespread; mobs are overturning vehicles or setting them alight, while a preacher warns of the end of the world. As the series develops, the heroine, a teenage girl named Nicky, loses her parents and eventually ends up in a country village where she is subject to a modern-day witch trial, complete with a self-styled witchfinder intent on 'dipping her in the pond'. Welcome to childrens' television in the 1970s.

Watch a ten-minute montage of the series, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYkkfBMK-7c

It's alright ma, it's only witchcraft

2008-02-27T03:08:00.001-08:00

Bizarre Love Triangle

2008-02-26T12:45:00.000-08:00

The Owl Service. Granada Television. 1968.

This serial, adapted by Alan Garner from his prize-winning novel, was a sexually-charged tale of adolescent jealousy that broke new ground by pushing hard at the boundaries of children's television.

The Welsh legend of Blodeuwedd is a tale of betrayal retold in the 11th Century book of The Mabinogion. Blodeuedd, a woman made of flowers, was unfaithful to Lleu Llaw Gyffes with Gronw Bebyr. Gronw then killed Lleu with a spear so that Lleu became an eagle - Lleu's magician Gwydion turned the unfaithful woman into Blodeuwedd, the owl, as punishment.

Now three modern-day teenagers are revisited by Gwydion's curse. Upper-class Alison, her haughty public school stepbrother Roger and working-class Welsh boy Gwyn are similarly locked into a triangle of love and hate that threatens to destroy them. Gwyn later learns of the father he's never known and discovers that his mother was once possessed by the same old plates Alison uncovered in the attic.

Clear Spot

2008-02-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

These paintings by the Marquis d'Hervey, a nineteenth century French theorist of dreams, are attempts to depict images that appeared to him in those moments when he was passing from waking into sleep. Such images, sometimes abstract as here, sometimes vividly naturalistic, are thought to occur in the condition of half-consciousness that precedes slumber and in those moments just prior to fully-awakened consciousness.

Borstal Breakout

2008-02-25T15:10:00.001-08:00

The cover feature in the OBSERVER magazine 11th March 1979 was entitled 'NEW JERUSALEM GOES WRONG' - In the early 1960s Kirkby (Merseyside UK) Labour Party was told by Barbara Castle (on the prospect of a new council estate development): 'This is your chance to build a new Jerusalem.' These photographs tell the story a decade and a half on. A pigeon fancier is about to release one of his birds in the final picture.

Further reading : 'ESTATES' Lynsey Hanley (Granta)

Suspicious Minds

2008-02-24T12:53:00.001-08:00

Many of today's superstitions derive from ancient concepts of the supernatural. Bad luck caused by a broken mirror derives from the idea that a man's reflection represented his soul. A black cat and a tooth that is salted and burned to save it from witches are relics of a belief in witchcraft. The rhyme 'step on a crack, break your mother's back', shows that to children, lines on a pavement may become magical symbols. The superstition that it is unlucky to walk under a ladder is based on an idea that a ladder symbolises the soul's ascent into heaven.

Two Ragged Soldiers

2008-02-24T12:44:00.000-08:00

Kevin Brownlow. Winstanley. 1976.

David Grubbs. Rickets & Scurvy. 2001.

Wessex Tales: The Withered Arm. 1973.

Soul Kitchen

2008-02-23T12:49:00.000-08:00

Penda's Fen. Play for Today BBC 1974.

Written by David Rudkin and directed by Alan Clarke, Penda's Fen was first broadcast in 1974 as part of the BBC's Play for Today series. It tells the story of seventeen year-old Stephen, a middle-class pastor's son who has a bizarre series of encounters with angels, the composer Edward Elgar, and King Penda, the mythical last pagan ruler of England. These encounters - whether real or imagined - force Stephen to question his religious beliefs, his politics and his sexuality.

Central to Rudkin's drama is the timelessness of the countryside and its place in the construction of 'Englishness'. At the beginning of the play, Stephen has a solid if somewhat conservative sense of nationality defined through his Christianity, his belief in the sanctity of marriage, faith in the military, distrust of socialism and a love of the music of Elgar. His encounters, coupled with the discovery that his father's beliefs are far from orthodox and his realisation that England has a religion much older than Christianity, compel Stephen to re-evaluate not only his own values, but also his notion of what it means to be English.