Show Notes
Andy and Martin find themselves in their new slot of the 14th day of every month and thankfully (workload-wise) an episode with no extras to edit! This time we explore the culty 1998 6-part Channel 4 drama, Ultraviolet, written and directed by Doctor Who legend Joe Ahearne. Although they definitely didn't hate it, they are both struck by how serious and po-faced it is and question what might be missing. Humour? Engaging characters? The word vampire? Be nice.
As they critique the series they inevitably touch on This Life, Buffy and Being Human. They also consider whether a second series was expected and how they feel about the fact that Ahearne had to get this series commissioned as police procedural first and a supernatural drama second.
Also Andy would like to know if you went to that big Brazilian conference in Rio in 1992, because everyone who was 'green' was there.
Next Time: A Very Peculiar Practice.
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.