Sunday, 16 June 2013

A Rarity


I can't remember seeing this, though I was certainly a keen watcher of such things in the Seventies. It may be one of the 'lost' programmes that the BBC wiped in those days. It's certainly never been released on DVD. See what you think. I was sold from the moment I heard Valentine Dyall's voice.

2 comments:

Aonghus Fallon said...

Funnily enough - despite his reputation and the many films in which he was in - I only ever saw one play in which the late, great T.P. McKenna acted and he played a magician in it. The play was called 'Nightshade' by Stewart Parker. McKenna plays a conjurer/undertaker who has recently lost his daughter. The persona is very similar to the one adopted in the film (which I enjoyed) - ie, a controlled man undergoing a breakdown. The young man at the beginning is another Irish actor, Stephen Brennan, best known for 'Eat the Peach', and given that the director and the cameraman are both Irish, I'd say this film was probably shot in Dublin.

McKenna came from a tiny, one-horse town in the middle of Cavan. I remember passing through it on a bus once and understanding why he was in such a hurry to leave.

valdemar said...

Sounds fascinating! McKenna was also in the very spooky story 'Baby', part of the ITV series Beasts, written by Nigel Kneale.

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