"THE TROUBLE WITH YOU LILIAN" [2.7.71]
After the relative success of "For The Love Of Ava"- 14 episodes over two series - it was probably inenvitable that someone would try a weekly comedy about a pensioner, Marge,[Patrica Hayes] who rents a room from her best friend, another elderly woman, Lilian, [Dendy Nicholas - the "silly old moo" of "From Death Us Do Part"].
Madge thinks she hears a prowler. Madge and Lilian go to a laudrette. Lilian goes to hospital for a check up. Madge deals with the privacy intrusion of a telphone. Going on the slight story lines given in Radio Times program listings the show was largely character driven and the constantly changing broadcast time which varied between 6.15 to 9.00 pm indicated the powers that be really did not know what audience it would appeal to.
First broadcast as a 1967 radio show this short lived [six episodes] series was probably one of the casualities of the three month ITV Colour Strike
link to Wikipedia ITV Colour Strike article
Grainers eccentric and jolly theme for banjo, tuba, clarinet, trumpets, xyphone, flute, saxaphone, piano - and who knows what else - parodies World War Two troop concert favourites the Glen Miller Band in the middle eight section and seems an unlikely line up for a program about two grumpy old women stuck, for better or for worse, with each others company like steptoe and son.
As no archive copies of the show have been found it is not possible to know if the opening and closing credits film clips put Grainers signature tune and arrangement in an understandable context.
"THE OMEGA MAN" [1.8.71] Film
"Nothing to live with but his gadgets, his cars, his guns [and] gimmicks". Life in Los angeles after Sino-Russian germ warfare is not the friendliest of places. Thanks to an experimental serum Scientist Neville [Charlton Heston] seems to be the last healthy human left. His days are spent scavenging from no longer functioning shops and warehouses. At evening he fakes a normal existence with an imaginary friend while battling a religious cult of plague ridden mutants intent on destroying him as a symbol of the civilisation that caused their condition.
For a modern audience the most frightening scene could be the one where Neville realises he is living in a world where he will never hear a ringing phone again
When Neville most needs help there enters a medical student, Dutch, and a soul sister Liza [Rosalin Cash] with an afro and a motorbike. Neville and Liza, later joined by Dutch, escape to a country retreat where a small group of relatively healthy children are living.
Nevile's eventual death is the result of his human emotions but Dutch appears to be a worthy successor to a quest to spread the cure for the disease and rebuild the foundations of civilisation without fanatic over-reaction to the mistakes of the past.
Filmed between two other Heston starring Sci Fi movies with future shock themes [1968s"The Planet Of The Apes" and 1971's"Soylent Green"] the completed work is dated because of its early 70s fashions and flawed because of the large number of careless staging mistakes [Imdb curently lists 38 bloopers and various online film review web sites keep adding to the total].
However the saviour of the project is Grainer's lush orchestral score and his beautiful central theme which weaves itself throughout the movie like the virtue of hope that keeps the central characters alive and always seems to re-establish itself despite numerous interuptions and variations.
THIEF" [9.10.71]
After the melodic triumph of "The Omega Man" Grainer could be excused for not putting much creative effort into a minor made for TV movie of the week that was very likely to just have a single showing and then be forgotten. Instead he came up with a fresh and dynamic opening credits theme for brass, orchestra and vibraphone that has such an easy going no restrictions energy it demands replay listening.
There are some music arrangement and plot similarities to "The Omega Man".The string section sounds like it has almost the same configuration of players and the story is also set in Los Angeles but a very populated and wealthy city this time around. Although the hero of "Omega" helps himself to other peoples property he does so because he knows how important his survival and the protection of his knowledge is to the rest of humanity. The anti hero of "Thief" helps himself to other peoples property solely to protect himself from the physical consequences of not paying back a gambling debt
"Thief" gained some critical recognition possibily because of its stars Angie Dickinson and Richard Crenna. IMDb awards for "Thief" but the story line is not new and while sympathy for the thiefs plight is encouraged the crime does not pay ending seems abrupt and forced.
