HORNS

My official UK DVD of Horns (left) and a Horns publicity poster (right) (© Alexandre Aja/Red Granite Pictures/Mandalay Pictures/Dimension Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

When an actor is so closely associated with one particular character as Daniel Radcliffe is with Harry Potter, it is very difficult to watch them play any other role without their iconic character rising inexorably to the surface and obscuring their current performance. After tonight's eye-popping movie watch, however, I think it highly unlikely that I shall ever again view the afore-mentioned Mr Radcliffe in any future role without seeing not only his Hogwarts magician's hat and wand but also a pair of decidedly devilish horns sprouting from his forehead! And the reason why? Because the movie that I watched tonight was – yes, you've guessed it! – Horns.

Directed and co-produced by Alexandre Aja, based upon the 2010 fantasy novel of the same title by Joe Hill (novelist son of Stephen King), set in the USA's Washington State but filmed in British Columbia, Canada, and released in 2013 by Dimension Films, Horns is as twisted as the lead character's eponymous outgrowths – a surreal, way-out-there fantasy/horror movie with lashing of dark humour and touching scenes of tender romance thrown in at no extra cost. Moreover, unlike all too many movies that try to encapsulate a variety of different genres but fail miserably in the undertaking, Horns succeeds admirably with all of them.

The basic plot focuses upon mid-20s Ig (short for Ignatius) Perrish (played by Radcliffe), who stands accused (albeit with no tangible evidence) by almost his entire community of having murdered his lifelong girlfriend Merrin Williams (Juno Temple) following a very public and entirely uncharacteristic falling-out between them at a diner on the night of her death, just before he was about to propose marriage to her. Ig's only supporters are his older brother Terry (Joe Anderson) and Lee (Max Minghella), who has been his best friend ever since childhood and is now acting as his lawyer. Following a candlelit vigil in honour of Merrin, led by her father and attended by many community members but at which Ig dare not show his face, a very drunken Ig desecrates her memorial and beds a waitress.

The next morning Ig wakes up thoroughly ashamed of himself, but that is not the worst of his problems. When he looks in the mirror, he discovers to his shock and horror that a pair of devil horns have sprouted from his forehead! But these are not 'ordinary' horns (if any such horns can ever be deemed ordinary!), because Ig soon finds that anyone he talks to now is compelled to confess to him their innermost, darkest desires and secrets, and also do whatever he tells them to do.

In addition, if Ig makes deliberate physical contact with someone, he can directly see their recent activities. And as if these horn-engineered talents were not sufficiently startling, Ig realises that wherever he goes, snakes inexplicably appear all around him, though they are totally amicable to him, and he finds that he can even communicate with them telepathically to do his bidding (just like a certain boy magician could, if I remember correctly!).

After some hilarious and occasionally hair-raising experiences while learning how these newly-acquired abilities work, Ig suddenly has a lightbulb moment – he can use them to make people confess what they truly know about Merrin's murder and thereby uncover the real culprit. So this is what he does, which leads him down an increasingly dark pathway of discovery, amid revelations that he would sooner not have uncovered, such as his mother actually wanting him to go away and to disown him, with his father saddened only by Merrin's death, not by Ig's plight as her wrongly-accused killer.

Eventually, however, matters reach a truly horrific climax when Ig's horn-given gifts of exposing the truth finally unmask Merrin's real murderer. They also assist in providing him with the true, tragic reason for that explosive, wholly atypical argument with her during what would prove to be their final fateful meeting.

The ultimate confrontation between Ig and Merrin's killer is totally demonic, albeit for very different reasons! But I won't give any spoilers, other than to warn those of an ophiophobic tendency that the murderer's fate will definitely be one of those look-away-now scenes for them. For although most of the snakes in this scene are CGI-created, they are disturbingly realistic, and what they do – and where they go – in relation to their victim is, well...let's just say that the latter gets their comeuppance, in every sense! And if you've ever seen the gory orgiastic denouement of the 1989 horror movie Society, you'll know exactly what I mean by that!

Moving swiftly on, be sure to take note if you can of the registration plates on several vehicles prominently visible in Horns, because each one comprises an abbreviated reference to a passage from the Bible, each plate referencing a different passage, but all of them relevant in some way to events occurring in this film.

Horns is unquestionably one of the strangest but most engrossing movies that I've seen for a very long time, with Radcliffe an absolute tour de force throughout it (Joe Hill, author of the novel on which this movie is based, has also praised him for his performance). And if his brow-borne accessories are not sufficient in themselves to distinguish Daniel R from Harry P, his frequent, emphatic use of the F word in his role as Ig should certainly assist greatly in this distancing – but in view of Ig's traumatic travails on so many different levels, understandably tempers fray as tempus fugit. Interestingly, Shia LaBeouf was first choice to play Ig, but much that I admire his acting, I feel that the casting team made the right choice with Radcliffe.

The horror magazine Scream has described Horns as "Dark, slick, and enormously entertaining", and I entirely agree with that pronouncement on all three counts. So if you'd like to lock horns with a preview of this phantasmagorical film, click here to view an official trailer for it on YouTube.

Finally, as a piece of totally trivial trivia: watching Horns tonight brought to mind an offbeat teenage novel that I'd read quite some time ago, so had all but forgotten about. Written by John Brindley and published in 2000, it was entitled Rhino Boy, and concerned a youth called Ryan who was forever bullying and picking upon others at school, until one day he woke up to discover a huge rhinoceros-like horn growing out of the centre of his brow! Now, suddenly, the behavioural tables had been turned upon him, and Ryan was the youth being picked upon by others for being different. Here's the eyecatching front cover of the paperback edition I'd read:

 

Rhino Boy by John Brindley (© John Brindley/Orion Books – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only) 

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

RON STRYKER'S MOTORBIKE AND THE LIGHTNING TREE - REVISITING FOLLYFOOT

 

Publicity photograph of Christian Rodska as Ron Stryker from Follyfoot astride his trusty Triumph Tiger Cub motorbike, which appeared on the front cover of the weekly British TV magazine Look-In for 26 June 1971, an issue that also contained the first installment of a Follyfoot comic-strip serial (© Look-In/Independent Television Publications Limited/Yorkshire Television/TV München/ITV/ZDF – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Following yesterday's journey from MovieLand to TVLand in order to investigate the lost children's TV show Oliver in the Overworld (click here to read my Shuker in MovieLand blog article on this subject), today I am remaining in TVLand in order to reminisce about another children's TV show, one that isn't lost (it can be bought in its entirety as a DVD box set), but which changed my entire life. Let me explain.

Much as I loved horses, as an 11-year-old boy watching the first series of a then brand-new children's TV show here in Britain and swiftly realising that its equine stars were being totally overshadowed by what in my view seemed a singularly drippy and clearly doomed romance, between a young woman named Dora Maddocks (Gillian Blake) given to weeping oceans of tears and a young man named Steve Ross (Steve Hodson, replacing Robin Stewart, who'd played this role in the unaired pilot episode) who stared devotedly at her with big spaniel eyes despite being routinely spurned, I saw little reason in continuing to watch it. But then along came the show's rebel character, Ron Stryker (Christian Rodska), riding the motorbike of my dreams, and a dramatic, unforgettable theme song began playing that still haunts me to this day. Nothing more needed to be said – I was instantly, inescapably hooked! But first, some background details regarding Follyfoot the TV show.

 

The cast of Follyfoot, with Monica Dickens (standing on the right) (© Yorkshire Television/TV München/ITV/ZDF – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Produced jointly by Yorkshire TV in the UK (for screening by ITV) and by TV München in the then West Germany (for screening by ZDF), Follyfoot was a children's show inspired by Cobbler's Dream, a children's novel written by Monica Dickens (who subsequently penned others inspired in turn by the TV show) and first published in 1963 (but in which the farm was not actually named, Follyfoot being thought up specifically for the TV show). Follyfoot ran for three series from 1971 to 1973, with each series containing 13 30-minute episodes. It centres upon Follyfoot Farm, a sanctuary for retired and mistreated horses, which is initially run by a somewhat eccentric but kind, elderly man named Colonel Geoffrey Maddocks (Desmond Llewellyn, also famous for playing Q in the James Bond movie franchise) but known to everyone in the area simply as the Colonel. When his niece Dora arrives and he sees how devoted she is to looking after the horses, however, the Colonel eventually makes over the farm to her.

Coming to live with the Colonel after her disinterested parents move to South America, Dora soon settles very happily into her new home with the horses, the Colonel, and his two farm helpers – retired boxer Slugger (Arthur English) and his second-in-command, the young, rebellious, but deep-down good-natured biker Ron Stryker (the afore-mentioned and above-depicted Christian Rodska). And then into their lives comes Steve Hodson, a young man hired by the Colonel after he had been unfairly dismissed from his previous job looking after the local Squire's horses at another farm, and what must surely have been one of the most diffident and dawdling romances ever seen on the small screen duly begins between him and Dora, spanning the entire 39 episodes in a saga of soulful soul-searching but little else.

 

Ron posing with his beloved, creatively-customised Triumph Tiger (© Look-In/Independent Television Publications Limited/Yorkshire Television/TV München/ITV/ZDF – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

During the show's three series, the mercurial Dora releases Niagara-proportioned torrents of tears at the slightest provocation, leading poor Steve such a merry dance of frustration at only ever being thought of by her as a friend, nothing more, that in the very last episode of the final series he departs Follyfoot Farm for pastures new, in every sense, leaving Dora behind to stare mistily into the distance, tear ducts filling yet again, ready to gush forth at any moment, no doubt. But enough about rural Romeo and Juliet, what about Ron's motorbike?

I can still readily recall, 50 years later, the first time that I saw it. I was watching Follyfoot through somewhat bored eyes if truth be told, when suddenly a veritable vision rode into view – causing me to snap out of my desultory daydreaming. There was Ron, wearing his usual scruffy jeans but not his usual matching denim jacket. Instead, he was wearing an awesome black leather biker jacket that was quite simply the coolest item of clothing I'd ever seen, and was riding an even more awesome red and gold motorbike. Something stirred deep within me that I now realize was my hitherto-sleeping inner biker, suddenly awake and unleashed!

A selection of snaps featuring Ron enjoying his motorbike (© Yorkshire Television/TV München/ITV/ZDF – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As far back as I can remember, animals had always been my greatest passion and still are today, but, prior to watching Follyfoot, as far as vehicles were concerned I'd always been drawn to the four-wheeled variety, and like many other boys back then I was the proud owner of a decent collection of Corgi, Dinky, and Matchbox toy cars (seeing the phenomenal prices that they sell for nowadays, I wish that I still were!). Motorbikes had seemingly never even registered on my consciousness, or so I thought – until my reaction to Ron's mean machine readily demonstrated otherwise!

From the first moment that I saw it, my interest in cars vanished into thin air and was instantly replaced by what became an unwavering, enduring love for motorbikes and biking. Moreover, the fact that Ron's motorbike, a Triumph Tiger Cub, had been extensively customized increased its attraction for me even further.

 

Ron, his motorbike, and Slugger (© Yorkshire Television/TV München/ITV/ZDF – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Ron had clearly wanted to make it look as much like a rebel riding machine as his meager wages could afford. So in addition to adding a tall metal triangular back-rest that straight away gave it a very chopper-like appearance, he had also fitted its mirrors to incredibly tall vertical stems that once again imitated the ape-hanger handlebars of bona fide chops, and the horn was a klaxon horn that looked somewhat incongruously like an old-fashioned ear-trumpet. Nevertheless, the overall effect was irresistibly exciting to my youthful eyes, as was its loud, deep-throated roar!

Interestingly, Ron's motorbike was actually one that in reality had been abandoned in a barn but was rebuilt and repainted by Christian Rodska, adding all of its eyecatching extras too, including the klaxon horn, which Christian had found in a junk shop. Moreover, according to a recent book on Follyfoot, Christian still owns Ron's bike today, although it's been in bits in boxes for some time now after he sent some parts away to be chromed but never received them back, thereby hampering his plans to rebuild it.

 

The full Follyfoot-themed front cover of my own long-retained, greatly treasured copy of the 26 June 1971 issue of Look-In, which, as you'll see, also includes mention of an Oliver in the Overworld competition! (© Look-In/Independent Television Publications Limited/Yorkshire Television/TV München/ITV/ZDF – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

As for adopting Ron's biker attire: like most of my mates, scruffy levis were standard gear for me once I became a teenager, but it took several years of arm-twisting before my mother would consent to my stepping out in a black leather biker jacket in order to complete my rebel biker streed cred.

Once I'd done so, however, the inevitable motorbike purchase soon followed – in my case it was a blue Honda CG125, the first of many motorbikes that I've gone on to own and ride down through the decades, sources of immense pleasure and relaxation. And all of this – a major, defining turning point in my life, in fact – was due entirely to Ron Stryker and his truly terrific Triumph Tiger! Thanks Ron!

 

Astride my much-loved Honda CG125 motorbike during the early 1980s (© Dr Karl Shuker)

Now for The Lightning Tree. This was the title of the uniquely memorable, and mesmerizing, theme song that played over the opening and closing credits of every Follyfoot episode (click here to listen to it on YouTube, accompanied by photos of the cast and scenes from Follyfoot). Its lyrics told the thrilling tale of a tree that had defiantly survived being struck by lightning, in spite of its trunk and branches being burnt and bent "where the lightning went", and urged the listeners to "never give in too easily".

Its direct relevance to Follyfoot Farm was never overly clear to me, unless its message was referring to the horses there having defied their previous ill-treatment elsewhere under other ownership, living on to enjoy their greatly-deserved retirement at Follyfoot and their kind care received there. Nevertheless, it is an iconic, intrinsic part of the show – so much so that even today, half a century later, 'The Lightning Tree' is still very much remembered and associated with Follyfoot.

 

Ron on left, Steve on right, with ne'er-do-well Lewis 'The Louse' Hammond (Paul Guess), centre, astride Ron's motorbike – a friend of Ron's, The Louse is also the unscrupulous leader of The Night Riders, a thuggish biker gang (© Yorkshire Television/TV München/ITV/ZDF – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

So popular did the song become, moreover, performed by an English folk-music group named The Settlers (sometimes confused with their comparable Australian contemporaries The Seekers, but hailing from my own West Midlands stamping ground), that when released as a single in 1971 it reached #36 in the UK singles charts. This was the highest-placed chart entry for The Settlers, who can be viewed here singing it on a TV show (possibly Morecambe and Wise?) from that same time period.

So now you know what ignited my passion for motorbikes (not to mention my subsequent habitual attire of black leather jacket and levis!), and spurred me on to becoming a biker. And just to prove this, here I am in 2011, my teenage years and my humble little Honda CG125 long gone but my favoured gear still evident, together with my latest motorbike incarnation, a Harley-Davidson Heritage Soft-Tail Classic 1500 cc. Some things never change!

 

Alongside my Harley (since sold, sadly) in 2011 (© Dr Karl Shuker)

Last but definitely not least, click here to watch an awesome collection of the best motorbike-themed clips from Follyfoot (including what for me was the above-described  life-changing one!), and suitably featuring that classic mid-1970s song Motorbikin', by the incredible Chris Spedding, one of my early rock heroes. [UPDATE: sadly, this collection of clips is no longer present on YouTube.]

Speaking of whom: click here to watch Chris performing Motorbikin' (his biggest UK chart hit) on Top of the Pops in 1975. 

 

How I'll always remember him - Christian Rodska as Ron Stryker astride his awesome customised Triumph Tiger Cub motorbike in Follyfoot (© Yorkshire Television/TV München/ITV/ZDF – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

UPDATE, 17 July 2024:  Today I was very sad to learn that less than four months ago, on 21 March 2024, Christian Rodska had died, aged 78, after succumbing to cancer. Another of my childhood heroes gone, but never forgotten. RIP Christian, and thank you for inspiring me via your iconic screen character Ron and his awesome customised Triumph Tiger Cub to become a biker myself and enter into the exciting motorbike world that has afforded me so much pleasure down through the decades ever since.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film/TV reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Chris Spedding (© Look-In/Independent Television Publications Limited – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

OLIVER IN THE OVERWORLD / LITTLE BIG TIME – SEEKING A LOST TV SHOW FROM MY CHILDHOOD

 

Publicity photograph from the second Oliver in the Overworld serial, and depicting (left to right) Graham Haberfield as the Undercog, Peter Birrell as Oliver the Grandfather Clock, and Freddie Garrity as himself (© Graham Attwood/Southern TV/CBS – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Today's Shuker In Movieland blog post features another trip across the border from MovieLand into TVLand, but presents less of a review and more of an investigation.

For I am trying to uncover as much information as I can concerning a fantastic, fascinating kids' TV programme that I absolutely adored as a child but of which, tragically, not a single episode is currently known for certain to exist. The progamme in question is Oliver in the Overworld.

Oliver in the Overworld began life as a serial that was included as just a short segment within each of the 13 25-minute episodes of the second series of a British children's TV show entitled Little Big Time, screened in 1970. However, it proved so popular that in the third Little Big Time series, screened in 1971, all 13 25-minute episodes were devoted entirely to a new Oliver in the Overworld serial, with no other content at all. Conversely, it did not feature at all in either the first or the fourth series of Little Big Time, screened in 1968/69 and 1973 respectively. Now, having set the scene, here is what I have discovered about Oliver in the Overworld so far.

Produced by Southern TV, one of the many local ITV stations that existed back in 1968 when Little Big Time began, the latter show was a zany affair starring the madcap and famously bespectacled British pop singer Freddy Garrity – given to high singing notes and even higher leaps into the air when energetically fronting his formerly highly-successful but recently-disbanded Manchester beat/pop band Freddie and the Dreamers.

 

Freddie and the Dreamers (Freddie is saluting), 1964 (no copyright)

Freddie's friendly, exuberant personality (he was even affectionately dubbed 'the clown prince of pop' back in the day) made him an ideal choice to present a children's show like Little Big Time, brimming with crazy games, silly songs, all manner of variety acts, slapstick sketches, and much more – including an ongoing weekly segment entitled Oliver in the Overworld. This was a quite weird but also very wonderful fantasy-themed serial that centred upon Freddie as the only human in a bizarre realm of living machines, the Overworld. Freddie was accompanied on his adventures there by his friendly but exceedingly forgetful grandfather clock, named Oliver, played by the Dreamers' former bassist, Peter Birrell (who was often confused with a popular lookalike British inventor/presenter from that same time period named Wilf Lunn).

Reminiscent of other on-screen fantasies that feature a single human amidst a world of strange, surreal characters, such as the various movie versions of The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, Oliver in the Overworld was brought vividly to life with studio sets that were very striking and colourful, and the Overworld characters encountered by Freddie and Oliver were even more so. Giving the show extra zest was the fact that it was filmed live in front of an audience made up entirely of children.

By featuring merely as a short segment within each weekly episode of Little Big Time, the plot of the first Oliver in the Overworld serial was less complex and detailed than that of the second serial (which as noted earlier was a full 25-minute episode each week). Basically, Freddie was woken up one night by a highly distressed Oliver, who had lost his memory, and needed to visit the Clockwork King who ruled the Overworld, the hidden land of living machines, in order to obtain a new one. The Overworld is situated on the roof of our world, which is painted blue to disguise it as sky, but when they arrive they find that the Clockwork King has problems of his own. This is due to someone having stolen the royal central heater's matches and the royal metronome's ding, thereby leaving him bereft of both heat and music.

Moreover, after examining Oliver, the king informs him that it's not his memory that is at fault, rather it's the fact that he is missing an undercog, without which his memory cannot function properly. But where can one be found, and who has stolen the royal heater's matches and the royal metronome ding? Once again, an undercog is at the heart of the problem, but not just any undercog – no indeed. In fact, the culprit is none other than THE Undercog, the most villainous villain in the whole of the Overworld, aided and abetted by his two heinous henchmen – Spanner in the Works, and Spoke in the Wheel (Oliver in the Overworld featured some fantastic punning names for its characters!). Somehow, Freddie and Oliver have to right the Undercog's wicked wrongs if they are ever to fix Oliver's memory and restore heat and music to the Clockwork King's palace – but that's not going to be easy…

 

Advertisement for the first Oliver in the Overworld LP album (© Albert Hammond/Mike Hazlewood/John Burgess/Shair Music Ltd/Star Line/Regal/EMI Records/Southern TV – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

A host of catchy songs also feature, sung by Freddie and various of the characters, which were written specially for this first Oliver in the Overworld serial by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood (Hazlewood also served as the serial's narrator), and were also sung along to with great gusto by the children in the audience (who had presumably learnt them during rehearsals). Indeed, these proved so popular that they spawned the release of an official Oliver in the Overworld soundtrack LP album containing many of them.

Furthermore, the most famous one, 'Gimme Dat Ding', recalling the tragic tale of the royal metronome's stolen ding, was released in 1970 as a single by British novelty duo The Pipkins (Tony Burroughs and Roger Greenaway), and actually reached #6 in the UK singles chart, and even #9 in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart! (Click here to listen to it on YouTube.)

As noted earlier, due to the great popularity and success of the Oliver in the Overworld serial segments within the second series of Little Big Time, the third series of it, screened the following year, was given over entirely to a new Oliver in the Overworld serial. This featured another set of specially-written songs by Hammond and Hazlewood, and a second LP soundtrack album containing many of them. Although I can remember little of the first Oliver in the Overworld serial and its songs (other than 'Gimme Dat Ding'), I can remember the second one and its songs very well. My three favourite songs from it were (and still are) 'The Little Girl Who Never Cried', 'Don't Underestimate the Undercog', and 'The Song of the Hungry Drains' (we used to sing the Hungry Drains song all the time at school!) – and if you click their titles here, you can listen to them on YouTube. Nowadays both of the Oliver in the Overworld soundtrack LPs are highly collectable and therefore very costly to purchase, which means  that I was exceptionally lucky to find – and buy – a near-mint example of the second one at a car-boot sale here in England about 15 years ago for just 50p!

There was also an Oliver in the OverWorld Annual, and no doubt some of these much sought-after books are still out there somewhere too, but I have yet to see even a photograph of one, let alone a copy. Nevertheless, I live in hope, and keep my eyes peeled at car boot sales, charity shops, and bric-a-brac fairs, just in case!

 

High Pipe, Chief of the Hungry Drains (© Graham Attwood/Southern TV/CBS – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

In this second Oliver in the Overworld serial, Freddie and Oliver (Peter Birrell again) return to the magical land of living machines in order to attend its greatest annual celebration, Inspiration Day, only to discover that whereas the formerly villainous Undercog (Graham Haberfield, also playing Jerry Booth in Coronation Street back then) is now a reformed character, the Clockwork King (Philip Ray), his daughter Princess Necessity (Debbie Bowen), and the entire Overworld are imperiled by a dastardly and immensely rich criminal mastermind – the Mighty Dictaphone (David King), assisted by the equally malign Grim Gramophone (Blake Butler). Additional, rare photographs depicting some of these characters can be found here, on the Little Big Time page at Nostalgia Central's website.

Also on the scene are the untrustworthy Belle Telephones (The Satin Bells), an attractive but amoral singing trio who may be easy on the eye and tuneful to the ear but have no scruples whatsoever if the chance to earn some ready cash is readily offered to them. Nor should we forget High Pipe (Gordon Clyde), Chief of the (ever-) Hungry Drains – another formidable adversary definitely not to be underestimated, or overlooked.

Freddie and Oliver, however, aided by the Undercog and also the Deferential Gearbox (another superb punning name!), have no option but to confront all of these fearsome foes and more, because they find themselves plunged headlong into a desperate search for the Clockwork King's stolen Royal Wind Up Key. For without it, he will be unable to wind himself up each morning, and if he can't wind himself up, he can't function as king – indeed, he can’t function at all!

And guess who is responsible for this all-important key having been stolen? Let's just say that if Freddie and Oliver can't track it down and return it to the Clockwork King before Inspiration Day, there will be a new Overworld ruler – the Mighty Dictaphone!

 

The Mighty Dictaphone – flanked to the left by the Undercog, and to the right by the Grim Gramophone in obsequious attendance (© Graham Attwood/Southern TV/CBS – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Interestingly, in spring 2017 a UK touring stage version of Oliver in the Overworld was performed by the Krazy Kat Theatre, in which Freddie is a small deaf child who visits the land of living machines with Oliver his grandfather clock, and has all kinds of thrilling adventures there. Created by multi-award-winning artistic director Kinny Gardner, and featuring wonderful puppetry, dancing, and songs, this was the first new stage musical in which sign language was fully integrated (click here to view a short trailer for it on YouTube).

As I'm sure Freddie Garrity would have been very happy to have known had he still been with us (sadly, he passed away in 2006), this magical story from the early 1970s is clearly far from forgotten even today – which is just as well, because…

At this point in one of my Shuker In MovieLand blog posts, I would normally point you in the direction of trailers or clips from the movie or TV show under review that are available to watch on YouTube, but here is the great tragedy enveloping Oliver in the Overworld, as well as Little Big Time in its entirety. As previously mentioned, they were filmed live, and back in those days live shows were often not recorded, meaning that they were not preserved for future viewings. Also back in those days, even many shows that were recorded were subsequently wiped and recorded over with new programmes, because video tapes at that time were extremely expensive, as well as very bulky, making it far more economically sound simply to reuse tapes rather than to keep purchasing new ones, and storing used ones whose contents may never be watched again anyway (or at least that is what TV bosses mistakenly thought back then). And so, for one or both of these reasons, not a single episode of Oliver in the Overworld (or Little Big Time) is known to exist today.

Having said that, a remarkable find was made only a few years ago. If you click here, you can currently view on YouTube a very precious, presently unique 8-minute video recording, posted there on 14 November 2017 by a member of the last iteration of Freddie and the Dreamers, under the YT user name Bubble TV. Its first half consists of a series of brief excerpts from the second Oliver in the Overworld serial, linked together in what may have been an advertising show reel created to sell the show to the USA. And its second half is a section from a TV show in which English presenter Fred Dinenage is chatting to Freddie Garrity about Oliver in the Overworld, which is again interspersed with short clips. Moreover, these even include a brief but moving snippet from the very end of the last segment in the first Oliver in the Overworld serial, in which Freddie is so overcome with emotion while singing the song 'I'll Come Back And See You Again' to the children in the audience that he is unable to continue singing and has to duck out of camera range for a few moments in order to compose himself.

 

The soundtrack LP album from the second Oliver in the Overworld serial (© Albert Hammond/Mike Hazlewood/Graham Attwood/Southern TV/CBS – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

During my researches when preparing this Shuker In MovieLand blog article, I read that someone while watching it on TV at home had apparently recorded the whole of that final episode from the first Oliver in the Overworld serial (and which is apparently where that clip of Freddie singing the serial's closing song originates) – by the simple yet effective expedient of pointing a home cine-camera at their TV screen while the episode played (for the most part, videocassette recorders had yet to appear on the scene back then). Home cine-cameras were very popular gadgets back as far as the early 1970s, so who knows – if one person did that, perhaps others did too. Among collections of old home movies there just may be some footage of favourite TV shows recorded in this same manner, and which might conceivably include Little Big Time and Oliver in the Overworld.

I have also read about someone who used to tape the episodes of the second Oliver in the Overworld serial on audiocassettes, but sadly they were apparently mislaid 30-odd years ago during a house move. Yet if somehow those ostensibly lost cassette recordings, or others like them, have actually been saved or salvaged somewhere, at least the complete soundtracks to those episodes, i.e. including not just the songs (already preserved on the LP albums) but also the full dialogue (currently lost), will have survived.

Consequently, readers, if you still own any home recordings that you may have made of TV programmes dating from the early 1970s, whether they are video or audio, now that you are aware of Oliver in the Overworld and Little Big Time it might well be worth your time checking through them – you may be the proud and very fortunate possessors of immensely significant, archive-worthy footage that could resurrect fascinating TV programmes like these from small-screen oblivion!

And if you do think you have any such items, or any additional information concerning Oliver in the Overworld, please let me know – I'd greatly welcome any details!

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film/TV reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Freddie Garrity (1936-2006) (public domain)