An Everyday Story of Trucking Folk
Mar. 24th, 2021 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gervase_fenApart from a few orphan black and white episodes, I have now binged all of Softly Softly available on YouTube at one time or another, and so am in search of a new drama to escape in to. Preferably BBC, ideally 1970s. (I find myself pondering the production challenges of making drama in a time of COVID when I try and watch contemporary offerings such as Line of Duty or McDonald & Dodds). Hooray then for The Brothers, which is only two years younger than I am.
Going in relatively unspoiled on Series 1, Episode 1 ("The End of the Beginning") I'm delighted to see that the location filming is taking place under leaden skies. As a rule I like my 70s outside filming to take place either in a bright, summery heatwave (for childhood memories of the summers of 75 and 76) or in the grey, grim coldness I associate with Doctor Who quarries and Blake's 7 security bases.
(Here's Jennifer Kingsley, personal assistant to the late Mr Hammond senior - and, spoiler alert - much more than that - parking awkwardly outside the Hammonds' central depot.)
After the opening, a funeral with a soundtrack provided solely by the voice of Gabriel Woolf as the attending minister, we move on to the reading of the will. The oldest son Edward (Glyn Owen, jaw firmly clenched for most of this episode) soon learns that not only will he have to share the company with his two brothers, but the there is also a hitherto unknown sister to factor in. Neither of the other brothers have shown any inclination to muck in with the business before - Brian (Richard Easton) is a mld mannered accountant firmly under the thumb of wife Anne (Hilary Tindall, relishing her passive aggression) and the youngest, David, is a self-styled layabout with an arts degree.
All in the room defer to the feelings of family matriarch Mary (Jean Anderson, calm and inscrutable). This is a cleverly written and well acted role - how much of her shock is down to the revelation of the her late husband's mistress, that the mistress had a daughter, or that both are generously provided for in the will? Answers are not yet forthcoming.
I also enjoyed the presence later on of Gabrielle Drake as David's shoulder to cry on - and wondered if this was a role Katy Manning would have been a shoe-in for if she wasn't already embedded in UNIT..
(Note the candle on the table - we're in a bistro/wine bar, and somewhere out of shot Detective Inspector Harry Hawkins is meeting an informant. Or so I like to imagine.)
Other highlights include a game of snooker (I'm always impressed when the actors can remember their lines *and* make or miss their shots on cue), and Jennifer's magnificent coffee pot (centre stage as her daughter Barbara learns the family secret).
We end the episode in the board room, which sounds grander than it looks - the haulage yard is right outside the first floor window, the chairs look like they've been self assembled, and the serving hatch hints that this room has been retro-fitted for purpose. What state is the business in? Which unwilling director will sell out first? Only another 91 episodes to go...
Going in relatively unspoiled on Series 1, Episode 1 ("The End of the Beginning") I'm delighted to see that the location filming is taking place under leaden skies. As a rule I like my 70s outside filming to take place either in a bright, summery heatwave (for childhood memories of the summers of 75 and 76) or in the grey, grim coldness I associate with Doctor Who quarries and Blake's 7 security bases.
(Here's Jennifer Kingsley, personal assistant to the late Mr Hammond senior - and, spoiler alert - much more than that - parking awkwardly outside the Hammonds' central depot.)After the opening, a funeral with a soundtrack provided solely by the voice of Gabriel Woolf as the attending minister, we move on to the reading of the will. The oldest son Edward (Glyn Owen, jaw firmly clenched for most of this episode) soon learns that not only will he have to share the company with his two brothers, but the there is also a hitherto unknown sister to factor in. Neither of the other brothers have shown any inclination to muck in with the business before - Brian (Richard Easton) is a mld mannered accountant firmly under the thumb of wife Anne (Hilary Tindall, relishing her passive aggression) and the youngest, David, is a self-styled layabout with an arts degree.
All in the room defer to the feelings of family matriarch Mary (Jean Anderson, calm and inscrutable). This is a cleverly written and well acted role - how much of her shock is down to the revelation of the her late husband's mistress, that the mistress had a daughter, or that both are generously provided for in the will? Answers are not yet forthcoming.
I also enjoyed the presence later on of Gabrielle Drake as David's shoulder to cry on - and wondered if this was a role Katy Manning would have been a shoe-in for if she wasn't already embedded in UNIT..
(Note the candle on the table - we're in a bistro/wine bar, and somewhere out of shot Detective Inspector Harry Hawkins is meeting an informant. Or so I like to imagine.)
Other highlights include a game of snooker (I'm always impressed when the actors can remember their lines *and* make or miss their shots on cue), and Jennifer's magnificent coffee pot (centre stage as her daughter Barbara learns the family secret).
We end the episode in the board room, which sounds grander than it looks - the haulage yard is right outside the first floor window, the chairs look like they've been self assembled, and the serving hatch hints that this room has been retro-fitted for purpose. What state is the business in? Which unwilling director will sell out first? Only another 91 episodes to go...
