Show Notes
Following their Secret Army episode last season, here Andy & Martin tackle its spin-off Kessler. The pair agree that its a very different show to its parent, which doesn't always hit the mark, but nevertheless boasts some fine acting, especially Clifford Rose in the title role, and wonderfully intricate scripts from John Brason and Gerry Glaister.
6 episodes of absorbing drama take us from Germany to England to Paraguay in this continent spanning epic that was clearly inspired in part by The Odessa File and The Boys From Brazil.
Directed by Michael E. Briant and Tristan De Vere Cole, Kessler offers a memorable final chapter to the Secret Army story. The cast also includes Alan Dobie as Bauer, Nitza Saul as Mical Rak, Alison Glennie as Ingrid, Oscar Quitak as Josef Mengele, Nicholas Young as Franz Höss, Ralph Michael as Colonel Ruckert, Guy Rolfe as Yqueras and, of course, some cameos from Bernard Hepton, Angela Richards and Juliet Hammond-Hill.
Next Time: The Lotus Eaters
More from An A to Z of UK Television Drama
[Spoiler alert! This series is almost 50 years old but we will be revealing - around 90 minutes - in who spectacularly dies in the literal cliffhanger to episode 7. You have been warned!]
After a brief hiatus, Andy and Martin resume the second season of A to Z with the letter V. Admittedly cheating a little, their choice was 'Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton', the second of two autobiographical Dennis Potter plays from 1965 in The Wednesday Play strand. They also cover the first play, 'Stand Up, Nigel Barton'. Both feature Keith Barron as the title character who we follow from childhood, to university, to a reluctant attempt to stand as a Labour candidate in the General Election.
Andy and Martin travel back in time to the summer of 1965 and the adventures of HR consultant Drew Heriot and his sister-in-law Anne as they face up to the machinations of 'Undermind’: aliens who have brainwashed British citizens in order to cause national unrest ahead of their imminent invasion. Their various schemes include: spreading pirate radio misinformation; inciting youth violence in a seaside resort; influencing the works of a popular children’s author; the distribution of suicide-inducing birthday records; interference with the printing of exam papers, and most abominably of all, the assassination of Eamonn Andrews! Yes, really.
This month Andy and Martin review the highly regarded 1987 BAFTA-winning Scottish drama Tutti Frutti, written by John Byrne and starring Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson.
Twenty-one years after their first recorded interview on the first Survivors DVDs back in 2003, Andy catches up with Carolyn Seymour who played Abby Grant in Survivors.