darren2514's reviews

Much of the film was originally filmed for World Cup 1978 The Power Of Football with the interviews and flashbacks cut out and replaced with additional football and behind the scenes footage and the original film told the story of the tournament from the Brazilian point of view whereas this edit focused on the cup and the Argentina team though it touched on the fact that most of the world were able to watch the 1978 cup on television in colour whereas the domestic audience in Argentina were not able to watch it on television in colour they had to watch it in Black and white/monochrome over film of the TV centre that was built and a clip of Videla appeared in the beginning of the film.

I saw a trailer for this on Karate Kid 2 it was a PG rated trailer and the BBFC bumper had PG rated trailer of a 15 rated film and none of the nudity was shown in the trailer however when the film was released in UK cinemas in September 1986 with a 15 certificate despite the strong content (the distributor wanted a lower rating for cinema for more box office revenue) but when it was submitted to the BBFC in the very same strong version for video the certificate was raised to 18. And it has been 18 on video since then from VHS to DVD/Bluray and in the 1980s distributors tended to go for the lower rating for cinema and the higher rating for video.

The series was originally a 22 episode season but ended up split into 2 batches split into 2 seasons, 1 season of 8 episodes shown April/May 1986 on Tuesday Nights in the sweeps period and and a second season in 1987 from January to March which was shown on Friday Nights as a mid-season replacement for The A Team. I would suspect this was done as a possible replacement for The A Team for the 1986-87 TV season in the USA as originally The A Team was planned to end in the 1985-86 season but had to request a extra season as the 4 leads were contracted for another season and Universal TV wanted a extra number of episodes for re-runs in syndication in hindsight The A Team could have finished in the 1985-86 season with Stingray from the same stable and network as the replacement while The A Team could have carried on for another 2 or 3 seasons as a series of TV Movies which could have been split into 2 parts for syndication.

This true story drama was adapted for television by Gerry O'Hara who wrote for 2 of ITV's hit action crime dramas of that period CATS Eyes and The Professionals contained some dramatised/fictionalised elements that was influenced by The Professionals and Cats Eyes which Gerry O'Hara wrote and would be carried on to Touch Of Frost which Keith Richardson went on to produce for Yorkshire Television which went on to run for 18 years which was influenced by DI Richard Lee who was played by Colin Blakely who had previously played a policeman in The Pink Panther Strikes Again who had he not died in 1987 would have been cast as DI Frost.

Gobots was licenced to Tonka from Bandai who were doing the line as Machine Robo/Robo Machines/Machine Men in UK/Ireland/Europe/Japan/SE Asia/Australia/NZ. While Tonka had the North America rights. While Hasbro Licenced Transformers from Takara but Hasbro had the rights for the whole world except Japan. For GoBots which was the American branding for the Bandai Machine Robo/Robo Machine. Tonka just had the North American rights to the Bandai Machine Robo/Robo Machine line while Bandai dealt with the rest of the world Europe/Asia/Australasia. It is 2 different toy lines by 2 different companies.

Like the live action Spiderman TV films and the Buck Rogers pilot both the 2 films were released in cinemas outside the USA on the back of the Superman The Movie success which meant that on UK TV these could not be shown until 1983.

Between 1981 and 1984 ITV showed this on a regional basis either late before closedowns or Teatimes between 5:15, 6:00 or 6:30pm depending on which region showed their regional news bulletin if it was a 6:00pm bulletin it would either be 5:15 or 6:30 if it was a 6:30 bulletin it would be 5:15 or 6:00pm usually on Mondays or Fridays as these 2 days were non Crossroads nights.

It went out on Mondays at 8:30 where it got 15 million viewers usually thanks to the main ITV competition being World In Action the original episodes were 30 minutes the 1987 Christmas Special which ran for 45 minutes with Kate returning and Kevin Lloyd as a faded 60s pop star coming in for the final 2 episodes this with a eye to a 3rd series in the background plans for a 3rd series were being made with scripts being prepared and the BBC preparing a move to post-watershed 9:30pm slot after The 9'0 Clock News which would have given John Sullivan more freedom bring in more adult language and sexual situations but the lead actor Ralph Bates pulled out having developed pancreatic cancer in 1988 before that 3rd series could be made from which he eventually died in 1991. But the BBC bought the USA version and showed it late Sunday nights .

Stuart Whitman got the part of Reverend James Johnson/Jim Jones the first choice for this type of film Richard Burton who in 1978-79 was regularly doing tax haven made films may have been offered the role of the reverend or maybe one of the US Justice officials looking to bring the reverend to justice but most likely turned it down or the producer couldn't afford him (Richard Burton was along with Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Michael Caine in the late 1970s were the big 4 bankable British actors who would sell cinema tickets all over the world so producers around the world would be sending scripts to their managers/agents for them to look at) this was a Tax Haven funded project shot in the US, Mexico and the West Indies financed in Spain with American stars doing this film to pay off their tax bills.

In the UK the show was held back for five years us in the UK DID NOT GET TO SEE IT ON TV until 1985-1986 and even then only on Saturday Mornings at 11am, Sunday Lunchtimes at 1pm or Weekday Mornings in the School Holidays depending on where in the UK you lived this was likely due to the pilot film being released in cinemas outside the USA and Canada around 1982 as a Superman cash in and with the comedy was ideal in UK cinemas through the distributor UIP was double-billed with one of the Pink Panther films though would also show as a single feature.

Originally the film version was announced in 1976 just before the novel's 1977 publication (for a 1977 shoot for release in 1978) with a bigger budget and Caine cast in the title role, Oliver cast in the role of the head of British Intelligence, Susan George cast as the daughter and Robert Shaw originally cast to play the role (which was played eventually by Robert Powell) with Mike Hodges directing and was planned but the August 1978 death of Robert Shaw postponed the project and 6 years later in 1982 the project was picked up by Pakistani businessman Mahmud Sipra and Michael Caine, Sir Laurence Olivier, Susan George and Robert Powell were cast in the leads the first 3 were as cast in 1976 but as a result of Robert Shaw's death in 1978 the Robert Shaw role was re-cast and was replaced by another Salford born actor called Robert (this time Robert Powell) and was ultimately made on a low budget with filming being suspended after the money ran out and did not get a cinema release in the UK and suffered the humiliation of being the first Michael Caine film to not get a cinema release in the UK and ended up not being released until 1985 as a direct to video release through Thorn EMI.

This film was basically meant for TV with the quality of the cast and a largely well known in the US British cast and a script by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts and Philip Levene and was originally intended for showing on TV in the US and a theatrical release in the UK but it only got the latter.

Summer 1984 Originally James Caan was due to play the title role of Noel Holcroft but either quit or possibly more likely fired/sacked. But who could the producers get very quickly but for a major British film being made for Worldwide release and the need for a big name/profitable/bankable British actor playing the lead in a British film especially a big budget one. And in the late 1970s/early 1980s there were only 3 really bankable/profitable British actors which were Michael Caine. Sean Connery and Roger Moore and Dennis Sellinger who was the agent for 2 of them namely Roger Moore and Michael Caine who happened to end up with a script for a film version of a Robert Ludlum novel on his desk as a result of the American lead actor either quitting or being fired/sacked to offer to his 2 biggest clients Michael Caine and Roger Moore. Roger Moore would not have been able to do it as he was doing the James Bond film A View To A Kill which was being filmed at the same time but ended up going to Michael Caine who was available to accept the role as he had no work lined up