Red-Barracuda

This fun documentary works mainly as a bit of nostalgia for people of a certain age (me!). It focuses on the Children's Department of the BBC and how it produced a disproportionate number of well-remembered and interesting programmes between the mid 60's to the mid 80's. The narrative suggests that the advent of ITV kickstarted this, with the BBC being forced to up their game to compete and ended with the introduction of the satellite stations, when the corporation could no longer compete financially. Whatever the case, in the years in question, the BBC certainly did put out a good amount of memorable telly, both internal productions and more odd-ball foreign imports, such as The Magic Roundabout and The Singing Ringing Tree. The historical context is definitely interesting but at the end of the day, this doc really works best as a concise reminder of many shows we experienced in our infancy and there is sure to be one or two that jog dormant memories. All-in-all, a quality slice of TV history.

A conman and his young accomplice - who may or may not be father and daughter - travel around the mid-west during the Great Depression, trying out various illicit money-making schemes.

This Peter Bogdanovich movie is a product of the New Hollywood era. Like his earlier effort, The Last Picture Show, this one shares the specific black and white period drama presentation. Its in effect a road movie, where the characters are the driving force. Ryan O'Neal illustrates his screen charisma here and he has - perhaps unsurprisingly - great chemistry with Tatum O'Neal, who is his actual daughter after all! The latter puts in one of the great child acting performances out there, with a fair amount of depth and humour. Madeline Kahn pitches up memorably too in the role of Ryan's overbearing female suitor. The acting is all very good and the period detail and monochrome cinematography an ideal accompaniment. And even if it feels like the story sags a bit somewhere in the middle, its still an all-round good movie and certainly shows just how reliable Bogdanovich was as a director up to this point in his career.

Island of Lost Souls (1932) was one of the more controversial horror movies of the 30's. It was made pre-Hays Code and was regarded as quite shocking and perverse for its time. Fast forward 45 years later and U. S. independent studio AIP stepped in and remade this film. In the event, it not only was not shocking at all by 70's standards but was also somewhat bigger budget and classier than AIP films generally were. Its cast certainly gave some clues that this one had money behind it, with Burt Lancaster as Dr Moreau, Michael York as shipwreck survivor Andrew Braddock, Barbara Carrera as the love interest and Nigel Davenport a bit of cynical mercenary muscle. The story is basically the same, albeit, it massively cuts to the chase with this one and just gets on with it without any pre-island messing about whatsoever, with York's character shipwrecked on a remote island at the turn of the century; an island, more to the point, where genetic experiments are carried out by the doctor of the title, turning people into animal hybrids - humanimals!

This one benefits from great on-location tropical sets and fun Planet of the Apes style make-up effects for the humanimals. The cast all acquit themselves well too, even if Lancaster's Moreau is a little less perverse than Charles Laughton's original interpretation in Island of Lost Souls. Its overall a fine bit of period-set sci-fi, which has enough production value about it to ensure it gets the job done with something to spare. If you enjoyed this one then 1979's Island of the Fish Men could be worth checking out as well - it's a slightly sillier Italian riff on this kind of thing, which also manages to include a nice tropical backdrop and half-decent cast.