Old TV shows & personalities

TheTallGuy

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
Following on from comments on another thread, I got to thinking about how great TV used to be - particularly in terms of rural outlook. I can remember the likes of About Anglia tackling rural & farming issues, plus we had the likes of Dick Joice in Bygones providing quality programmes that filled their slots without the endless "coming up", "still to come" & recap segments wasting time.

I also remember the "Survival" nature program produced by Anglia & in my opinion that knocks the spots off the modern stuff - even the stuff produced by Attenborough has lost the charm & integrity I seem to recall.

Maybe it's just rose tinted specs looking back, but is there anything or anyone on TV these days that compares?
 
I watch Jack Hargreaves on YouTube while having dinner some days.



There’s quite a good Facebook page with snippets from his shows .
IMG_4200.jpg
 

Paddington

Member
Location
Soggy Shropshire
There was another series Country Boy ? where he taught a lad from a city about rural things. I actually believed he was an old pipe smoking boy that some producer had discovered in a pub somewhere and had been encouraged to show his country skills, not one of the top bods of Channel 4 living in a mansion in Hampshire, but good luck to him.
 
I like the Talking pictures TV channel

https://talkingpicturestv.co.uk/

Then I can watch those wonderful series from my youth in the 70's & early 80's. Some still seem good such as "Secret army" (sorry drama that one) but often the acting is dire & woodern & the sets are made of old cornflake packets. Van de Valk had a wonderful theme tune but the actors & accents are dire.

Some of the cop dramas from the 1950's & 1960's much better than I expected. Some great old films on there too.

What I most enjoy is seeing Actors who would later find sucess in minor roles.

The most classic film in my opinion is "Hell Drivers" at the time most of the actors were B listers (apart from Gordon Jackson). But within 5 years the entire cast were A listers, leading in Hollywood fims. Sean Connery, David Mc Callum, Sid James, Charles Bronson's wife, That Hungarian bloke who always played Arabs or Indians, Dr Who
 

Gordy1

Member
I like the Talking pictures TV channel

https://talkingpicturestv.co.uk/

Then I can watch those wonderful series from my youth in the 70's & early 80's. Some still seem good such as "Secret army" (sorry drama that one) but often the acting is dire & woodern & the sets are made of old cornflake packets. Van de Valk had a wonderful theme tune but the actors & accents are dire.

Some of the cop dramas from the 1950's & 1960's much better than I expected. Some great old films on there too.

What I most enjoy is seeing Actors who would later find sucess in minor roles.

The most classic film in my opinion is "Hell Drivers" at the time most of the actors were B listers (apart from Gordon Jackson). But within 5 years the entire cast were A listers, leading in Hollywood fims. Sean Connery, David Mc Callum, Sid James, Charles Bronson's wife, That Hungarian bloke who always played Arabs or Indians, Dr Who
My misses always records talking pictures & we watch them in the evening, better than the rubbish that's on these days, like you say there are some young actors on there that went on to be famous, I see the young John Thaw the other day & look how he got on.
 

jendan

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
My misses always records talking pictures & we watch them in the evening, better than the rubbish that's on these days, like you say there are some young actors on there that went on to be famous, I see the young John Thaw the other day & look how he got on.
They put some good old films on.Some are favorites like the original 39 Steps,and Hobsons Choice with a young Jon Mills,Prunella Scales,and Brenda DeBanzi.Its interesting reading up about the actors/actresses in later life.Some of the women were incredibly good looking in their day,and their timing in acting humourous scenes was near perfect.
 

Gordy1

Member
I liked listening to the Archers quarter to seven every night then the hour long catchup on a Sunday morning, that was until that got political as well & the hooray henries & the country set invaded it, there was an old farmer near us who swore it was a real farm, he said he was going to visit it one day!! :scratchhead:.
 

Gordy1

Member
People have a short span of attention now a days, that's why they have to do recaps, also there seems to be on TV all the time,,,,,,, bugger I forgot what I was going to say
Trouble is there are too many channels to watch most full of rubbish & people flick from one to the other & never watch anything for long. Mind you like I said a lot of it is rubbish these days.
 

Danllan

Member
Location
Sir Gar / Carms
I watch Jack Hargreaves on YouTube while having dinner some days...

The Jack Hargreaves programmes were made by Southern TV, the ITV company for the South and South East of England. My late step Dad worked for Southern and he always said that Jack was a thoroughly decent chap and well worth listening to. Very clever man.

I like the old Jack Hargreaves shows, and have been given DVDs of the lot of them by Mrs Danllan. He was a very good presenter and very knowledgeable, he'd been a very high-powered TV executive too.

But he was also a bit of a fraud, he often claimed great poverty when he was growing up, yet he (with his brothers) was sent to the same public school that I went to and then on to the Royal Veterinary College (although he did have to leave that when his father's business went downhill).

Nonetheless, his shows are still very popular online and my children regard them as a treat; I'm sure that they would go down well and do good nationally if broadcast again, but what chance of that happening? :(
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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