Show Notes
Rock-a-bye baby in the tower block Your Mum’s on the social Your Dad’s in the dock Your Mum’s in arrears So, the Council’s gonna call Down will come mother, baby and all…
Yes this month it's none other than that late 80s police drama Rockliffe's Babies in which we met the seven young and untested members of Victor Tango crime squad and their formidable skipper Det Sgt Alan Rockliffe played by Ian Hogg.
A ratings winner that lasted for 2 series and 18 episodes Rockliffe's Babies was the BBC's answer to ITV's The Bill which at that time was also putting out shorter series of 50-minute episodes.
The series introduced us to Joe McGann and Alphonsia Emmanuel and the lesser remembered, but just as talented, Susanna Shelling, Martyn Ellis and Brett Fancy. Producer Leonard Lewis also cast some of his favourite regulars from When The Boat Comes In including Malcom Terris and Edward Wilson. All this and Brian Croucher too and a whole host of familiar guest actors.
Andy & Martin chart the course of the series choosing 8 episodes that hopefully showcase and represent the drama, including the very first episode which barely features Rockliffe and the last in which one of the 'Babies' learns that they will be leaving the squad to train as a detective.
As well as discussion of its memorable theme tune, the pair celebrate its peaks and troughs and consider why after two successful series it produced a sleepier countryside sequel: Rockliffe's Folly.
'Georgiou! You burke!!! What have you done now?'
Next Time: Survivors
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.