Rooms

I've only just discovered this drama from the re-runs on Talking Pictures but I have to say it really has got me hooked. Very good acting and nice to see some people who went on to bigger things like Brian Cox ,Bernard Hill and Jill Gascoigne who has recently passed away.

A largely forgotten afternoon gem from Thames Tv that ran for several years which followed the goings on at 35 Mafeking Terrace, a large Victorian house converted into bed sits. There were 2 main characters landlady Dorothy Lawson played by Sylvia Kay (Penny's mum in just good friends) and long term resident Brian Marshall (Spindoe) and the scenario of rented accommodation allowed for a regular mix of new characters with episodes focusing on various tenants escapades. It had a high calibre of writing with TV greats such as Fay Weldon, Willis Hall and Trevor Preston contributing and boasting a cast including Jill Gascoine, Bryan Marshall, Brian Cox, Bernard Hill, Bill Dean, Nigel Havers, Miriam Karlin, Alfie Bass, Lewis Collins, Jan Francis, Tessa Wyatt, Arthur Brough (Are you being served) and strangely Brian Protheroe who had a hit in the 70's with the song Pinball) - Sure to find a new audience when it begins a run on the UK channel Talking Pictures TV in the summer.

Re-run by Talking Pictures 2020/21, and never has the standard Talking Pictures warning of, ".....may contain some offensive and discriminatory language which reflects the prevailing attitudes of the time" been more apt. It astonishes me to think that I was alive, (just), when this went out as mainstream TV. In one episode, one of the main protagonists, (the landlady, played by Sylvia Kay), is portrayed as kind of "decent" and "normal", when she tells a tenant that most places "charge more" for "them", when referring to a black guest of the tenant. The racist epithets are removed but the far more offensive opinions remain. Then there is the attitude towards domestic violence. In another two-parter, the new tenant, a young woman, is obviously attempting to escape an abusive relationship and she has the bruises to prove it. Yet the prevailing attitude/advice seems to be, "....stop moaning and go home./"WHY" did that happen?/Life isn't easy." etc. Most of this "advice" was offered by another woman! Continuing on the theme of male attitudes towards women, when talking to a woman who you've just met in Mafeking Terrace circa 1974, feel free to put your arm around her for the duration of the 'conversation', touch her hair as you please, and if her bottom looks appealing, don't just look at it... Disturbingly, most of these assaults are met with a smile! There's much, much more to cringe at. And some genuinely disturbing storylines too. ( A young Joyce Barnaby being sexually abused by her father for instance.) Oddly, in some ways this improves it as a period piece. This must reflect the attitudes and behaviours of the time to some degree. Imagine if this was made now, but still being set in the mid-70s? The behaviour would still be there, but it would be made clear how "wrong" it is. I'm not sure many of us need that pointing out, which is one of the reasons why this is worth viewing. Another is the quality of the cast. The late Marshall and Kay work well together. There's also Jill Gascoine, Brian Cox, Bernard Hill, Nigel Havers, Clifford Rose, Annette Crosbie, Lewis Collins, T.P. McKenna, Nicholas Clay and Tariq Yunus, to name but a few. Surprisingly for UK '70s TV, the set is good apart from the 'out of the front door shot'. (How many of us open our front doors to a drawing of a street?) But the dowdy brown gloss paint, the worn carpets and the faded, dated wallpaper all add to the ambience, or rather to an appropriate lack of it. All in all, well worth a watch, as a spectacle as well as a drama.

Talking Pictures have started another re-run of this (Sept. 2021) with two episodes on Mondays. I'm already hooked! I'd caught several before when they were showing on different days but this format seems to be better, and I should think will hook many other viewers.

I would agree with the other comments here-it's slightly gritty, slightly sad, a little downbeat; but oh so representative of those times. The early 2-parter "Miss Peebles & Mr. Busby" is superb with the pernickety lady obsessive about her elderly neighbour; you gradually realise in the second part that she has a "history"; the twist at the end with the landlady making a surprise decision is only partly satisfying, as one can sympathise with both parties, so there isn't a complete resolution. Truly an episode to reflect on well after it's over-the mark of good writing and acting.

Today's generation brought up on today's increasingly hysterical soaps with their fashionable "issues" may find this too "kitchen sink". Well, that's their loss...and our gain.

A Postscript

Talking Pictures have just ended the current run (October 2022)-it petered out a little disappointedly towards the end-I assume that the studio didn't recommission. But what little gems of stories there were, especially with Bill Marlowe and his (ultimately) frustrated romance with Jill Gascoigne; and Ray Smith (remember him as the detective in the Windsor episodes of "Public Eye"?) as the alcoholic fighting his demons; the young couple played by the superb Jenny Twigge and Ian Redford combatting poverty, postnatal depression, redundancy, an interfering mother, you name it.....! Lovely portrayal by Julie Shipley as a sweet-natured, sometimes vulnerable Northern lass...

And an honourable mention for the annoying busybody on the ground floor-Anne Dyson as Mrs. Beale-glimpses of vulnerability make this a well-rounded role. I can't mention everyone but I'm sure that others have their own personal favourites.

Inevitably, as is the nature of soaps, many characters don't really develop, and promising plots are unresolved (e.g. The new landlady-played by Ann Curthoys-really should have had an affair with Bill Marlowe!).

It seems that there are quite a lot of missing episodes-not sure if Talking Pictures couldn't get them all, or they are "lost". I can't glean any information from the Internet.

As said in my original review, I can't get any interest in current soaps (have only ever seen one episode of "EastEnders", and none of "Corrie", "Emmerdale" et al.) but this one was addictive. Was it a nostalgia thing? I never was in digs myself but several of my friends in the south London factory we worked in the '70s were, so memories of their trials and tribulations do ring a bell.

Or is it just another case of that era having a superb roster of writers, actors...?

Just seen my first episode of ROOMS on Talking Picture TV in the UK. The episode I saw was from 1977 and was about a divorced man having a visit from his daughter. The writing was superb and the acting was terrific. The young actress who played the teenage daughter, Debbie Farrington, was exceptionally good. I couldn't have enjoyed the episode more and am looking forward to the next episode. It's currently showing in the UK on Talking Pictures TV at 2pm and 5:30pm, every Wednesday and Thursday.