Forum:BFI visits

70s Street Fan asked on our twitter account for any more additional observations on the old episodes we watched last week at the BFI to enable us to update the pages on this site. As always, we divided and conquered with David watching one batch (mainly from 1971-5) and me watching episodes from 1969 to 1971. In truth, the episodes from 1969 and early 1970 we had seen before but at a time when we weren't logging places on the episode pages so I quickly went through these again to get that information. The first thing to note about episodes from late 1969 is that they are very studio based as the Grape Street set was out of commission as it was being rebuilt in brick in the last two months of 1969. There's a hilarious moment in Episode 938 (22nd December 1969) at the salon opening party where the camera has to move between two extras to get into shot two of the regulars in the background and the female extra looks straight to camera and pushes the guy out of the way to enable the camera through! Another noticeable thing about some episodes then was how often characters just walk in and out of each other's houses without knocking on the front door and you can't help but feel this was to reduce the need to have the hallway sets erected in studio as they are often not seen and doors into back rooms are placed such that they open towards the camera and you can't seen what lies beyond the main set.

Scenes on the Grape Street set in 1970 are a mixture of film and outside broadcast with the latter being used as the most frequent option. Scenes elsewhere are rarer but almost always on film. The gypsy encampment scenes (on film) look as if they were shot on waste land near to Moss Side but I can't be sure of that. Certainly you can see the construction of some typically horrible 1970s-style flats going on in the background. The scenes in the Victoria Street mission in February 1970 and the Salvation Army hall in September of the same year are studio sets and are quite large and elaborate ones at that. The fight on the gypsy encampment in September 1970 is on film but most of the scene is from the viewpoint inside the studio based caravan belonging to the Smiths with the fight carried on from the noise outside. Although I couldn't be sure as the shot is so quick, it looks suspiciously like Ray Langton is the one who puts the axe through the caravan window but this goes against his non-violence instruction to Eddie Pritchard.

Mark Howard is an interesting character who first appears to be charming and well-mannered (though with the most then-fashionable but hugest mutton chops you've ever seen this side of Amos Brearly!) but you sense something is not quite right with him. He slowly reveals what a nasty piece of work he is as the weeks wear on. I've seen these episodes in stages over several years now so I've got to piece together his character biog from scattered notes.

David and I both agree that a character who is a real revelation from this period is Albert Tatlock. He is so funny it just isn't true. Basically, he's a naughty child who gets away with it because of his age. He tells it like it is and Jack Howarth's comic timing is impeccable. Prior to this period he's a nice old man (which is dull) and in the late 1970s he becomes just a moaner (which is also dull). The funniest episode I saw was Episode 1055 (24th February 1971) where Irma Barlow's posh voice when she pretends to be the Howard's daughter (or "mommy and dard-eh" as she calls them) is a scream! A gem of an episode and, like the one before it, all the location filming is in black and white while the studio footage is in colour as a hangover from the ITV Colour Strike. By the way, we have just 8 more episodes to watch from 1970 and we've seen all 96 though some we have to go back for to get the aforementioned places. For 1971 to 1975 we have some 50 eps a year yet to see and verify our plots, credits and cast information.--Jtomlin1uk (talk) 11:50, February 11, 2014 (UTC)