Reply With QuoteI only wish I could...I too would love to see such a thing.
Smudge
I'm guessing someone here has the only surviving episode of this 1970 sci-fi thing, The Benefits of the Earth? Have been frustrated so far in that people I've found who do have it won't trade because they aren't interested in anything I have, and won't sell either.So nothing ventured, nothing gained - can anyone help? Thanks.
I only wish I could...I too would love to see such a thing.
Smudge
I can remember Ronald Lacey being in it. Going by this odd utube, I'm guessing Ian Hendry was the Don.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VemfvLBgwC8
You'd be right Moor ...
I also have a memory that it was a bit *racey*, as we used to say. My (entirely subjective) impression is that this led to it not really *fitting in* anywhere as adults found the Sci-Fi a bit childish and it wasn't really fit for children in 1970, and this was why it wasn't prolonged.......
I would have been about 13 - neither one any longer nor quite the other yet...........
I can rembember bits of it. There was an episode where Ronald Lacey pulls a beautiful alien girl but he couldn't undo his space suit in a moment of passion!
Also there was one where Don Quick (Ian Hendry) decides to help a planets primitive populace by speeding up the planets revolution to make it a more
seasonal climate. This resulted in sunshine & rain alternating every five minutes forever!
It was certainly a series with something different!
All I know about it (not being born at the time) was that the main characters were based on Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and that they visited different planets where they got on people's nerves. The series wasn't a success and after the third episode was quickly dispatched to a graveyard slot where it played out without much of a fanfare. And at some point all the episodes except the first disappeared.
It sounds like a fascinating idea that might just have been ahead of its time. Or not. It might just have been a crap idea. Wadsy, I'm intrigued by your memories of this series - do tell us more!
That's about all I can remember didi but I think your right with the crap idea theory. I recall I didn't find it very funny but I was only 15!Originally Posted by didi-5
I remember liking it as a kid, but I can recall next to nothing about the episodes I saw then.
It wasn't quite the failure that legend would have it, though. In most of the UK it remained in its Friday at 9pm slot for the entire run. ATV, whose relationship with LWT was notoriously fractious anyway (partly, at least, because LWT had "stolen" their London weekend contract) bumped it to around 10.30pm from week two onwards and Granada did the same for the final episode only, otherwise they'd followed LWT's timing too. HTV were completely independent and showed it on Saturday nights. So to be honest, it was treated like a typical LWT series - most regions being fairly happy with it but ATV doing their damnedest not to show it at all, to move it about in the schedules, or to give it a crap slot, just like they also did with Tales of Unease, The Frighteners, The Guardians, Frost on Friday/Saturday/Sunday even, in its early days, On The Buses which - if not exactly classy - was nothing if not popular and yet ATV begrudingly scheduled the first series at 10.30 at night.
Thanks for that Simon. Legend does seem to consign it to the dustbin of history and of course, when most of a series is missing it is hard to make an assessment. All we have is memories of four decades ago from those who did see programmes like this when they first aired.
Well, whether it is rubbish or not I still live in hope of tracking it down. I have patience ...
Ah that explains in the same era why LWT dumped ATV's very popular The Golden Shot in with the kids programmes on Saturday morning.
Of course it was rather stale by then, having been live on the other channels the previous Sunday.
Last edited by Arfur Teacake; 05-03-12 at 10:53 PM.
I've got this, let me know if you are still interested in having a copy.
I'd be very interested in a copy of this, if you can send me a PM I have plenty to trade.
Thanks
Sent you a pm Steve.
Well ... yes.Thanks to the kindness of a forum member I have now seen this. Obviously LWT were pushing out the boat on budget (heavy sarcasm). A craptacular planet and a general feeling of WTF throughout. It did make me laugh though but I can see why it failed. Oh dear oh dear! I guess just after the moon landings this seemed like a 'good idea'. LOLEdit: it is a bit HHGTTG though ...
Last edited by didi-5; 13-03-12 at 10:16 PM.
Sounds just as I remember it...............
And the almost Dallas theme tune - don't forget that!
TVTimes coverage for 'The Adventures of Don Quick'
Ian Hendry was the cover star of the 31st October 1970 edition, which also included a feature on then wife Janet Munro:
Guests in the last episode included Kara Wilson & Lorna Heilbron:
[
I haven't seen much of these Scottish actreses so far. Kara Wilson, wife of Tom Conti, was in an episode of The Adventurer I watched not long ago. She'll no doubt become a familiar face when I get round to buying the recently released Adam Smith. Her other recurring roles include a lost adaptation of The Children of the New Forest, co-starring cult favourite Petra Markham, and Dombey and Son.
Lorna Heilbron, who I know slightly better, is the younger sister of Vivien and was married to the sadly late Nicholas Clay. She made an impression in an episode of Van Der Valk but I'm struggling to remember her in Napoleon and Love. One of Ian Holm's obliging servant girls, maybe? Interesting that Lorna played a character called Flick (with Miss Colby very much in my thoughts), in a film called The Girl in a Swing, and that she was in a few episodes of the still elusive Beryl's Lot. Gave up acting to become a therapist, apparently.
Last edited by cornershop15; 14-03-12 at 02:11 PM.
THREE PAGES of stills for you to look at here, didi:
The Adventures of Don Quick at Rex Features.
A pity they won't make it to a DVD Image Gallery.
Flippin Nora!! Seventies Sauceriness writ large!!......
Moor to do with Barbarella than the Moon Landings, methinks..............................
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