Peter Wyngarde  (1927 - 2018)

Today the death has been announced of Peter Wyngarde for whom the term of cult actor is more than approiate. The son of a diplomat he moved around many countries due to his father's work as a diplomat at one time in China he found himself in an interment camp along J G Ballard who famously wrote about the experience in Empire of the Sun. Wyngarde started his acting career in the 1950's. In the 1960's he made guest appearances in such hit TV shows like The Avengers, The Prisoner and The Saint. His greatest fame would come with the show Department S playing the role of Novelist Jason King who was part of a team that investigated impossible crimes. The character of King proved to so popular that he was given his own spin off show and has provided the basis of many spoof character the most famous being Austin Powers. However after being fined for gross indecency in 1975 Wyngrade's career suffered. in 1980 he appeared as Ming the Merciless henchman Klytus while he appeared in the 1984 Doctor Who serial Planet of Fire. Wyngarde's last film/TV credit was an episode of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett in 1994. With his discintive voice Peter Wyngarde leaves behind some memorable characters.

Laying on the shelf

While ITV were content to put onto a 2 and a half hour countdown of the most popular dog breeds in the UK, 2 episodes of the ever popular Midsomer Murders still remain unshown. The episode were filmed at the end of 2016. What makes the slow wait ridiculous is that both episodes have already been shown in Australia. You have wondered what is going through the minds of ITV top brass.

Ultimate filler

Tonight on ITV for 2 and a half hours there is a count down on the 100 most popular dog breeds. Now this is what as known to uninitiated as filler TV, companies with nothing important to show will put on programmes just to fill the space. The countdown faces BBC1 comeption from Eastenders, Holby (Scotland gets home grown soap River City) City and Silent Witness. Next week though ITV should have higher figures with the National Television Awards,

On thin ice

After a 6 year gap Dancing on Ice the pro-celeb Ice Dancing competition came back onto the screens. However the shows commenter Tony Gubba had died in the intervening period. His place was taken by Matt Chapman known for his work on Horse Racing however after a fan outcry he was dropped after just 1 show and replaced by Football's Sam Matterface. As they say the show must go on.

Sing a-long with Russ

The death of Bella Emberg has course brought up her work with Russ Abbot most famously playing the Wonder Woman spoof Blunderwoman. in another sketch Abbot takes on the guises of George Michael, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Palmer and Simply Red's Mick Hucknell. The Palmer section is of course a spoof on his Addicted to Love video where his backing band is made up of very thin models, of course this is far from the case in Abbots version there is the far from thin Emberg and 2 men including his long collaborator Les Dennis. You can see the sketch on Youtube.

Do you remember these shows?

Here is a list of 3 TV dramas that lasted for just one series

Moon & Son

A clairvoyant and her son solve crimes. The show was created by Robert Banks Stewart who also created Bergerac which in complete comparsion ran for 10 years.

Specials

This show focused on a group of part time police officers in Birmingham. The concept proved to a be turn off for viewers.

Seaforth

A drama set in a fictional northern town post WWII. Despite having a cast made up of such respected actors Linus Roche and Ciran Hinds the show failed to find a audience.

Radio Review: Angstrom

Radio 4, 6:30pm, Wednesday

Starring Matthew Holness

Holness is still best known for his 2004 TV show Garth Marenghi's Darkplace which spoofed the Horror genre and now he stars in this spoof of the Scandi-Noir. The show is written by Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley and plays on the conventions of such material as Wallender, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc. There is only one actual Scandinavian accent and that is for the narration leaving the cast to use British accents. Holness in the title role comes off across as a take on British Detectives because though that is no bad thing as his character curses sharks for always getting away with murder, dealing with visions of his dead Wife and pet and a murder case with no corpse. As long you have some knowledge of the genre you will have laughs anyway it is good to have Matthew Holness back in a high profile venture.