Today, 1970s British child/youth actor Gary Warren is probably remembered only for two roles. Namely, as Cedric 'Owl Face' Collingford, a modern-day youngster who is friends with the anachronistic medieval wizard Catweazle (memorably played by Geoffrey Bayldon) in the second, 1971 series of the eponymous children's UK TV comedy show; and, above all else, as Peter Waterbury, the youngest of the three Railway Children in the timeless British period drama movie of the same title, released in 1970, which also starred Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett, Dinah Sheridan, and Bernard Cribbins.
However, as I originally mentioned in a 26 August 2023 post on Facebook, I also well remember and greatly enjoyed watching a third, slightly later, yet nowadays all but forgotten role of his, as the title character in a 1970s British TV sitcom entitled Alexander the Greatest, in which he played Alexander Green, a rebellious teenager (is there any other kind? lol).
Created by Bernard Kops, directed and produced by Shaun O'Riordan, running to two series collectively containing 13 half-hour episodes (6 in Series 1, 7 in Series 2), and screened by ATV for the ITV network in 1971-72, Alexander the Greatest focuses upon the comic trials and tribulations of the middle-class Greens, a Jewish family living in Golders Green, North London.
Much of these woes are of course caused directly or indirectly by their restless 16-year-old son Alexander, amusingly aided and abetted in a number of episodes by his bespectacled best mate, the unflatteringly-nicknamed Four Eyes (Spencer Banks).
(Spencer Banks, incidentally, is another former British child/youth star active in the early 1970s, appearing in everything from the very popular 1970/71 UK children's sci fi TV show Timeslip to Walt Disney's 1973 family comedy/crime movie Diamonds On Wheels, appearing in the latter alongside yet another 1970s British youth star, Peter Firth – aka Scooper in the much-loved, oft-repeated 1970 UK children's TV show Here Come The Double Deckers).
For Alexander has reached that tumultuous teenage time of life that all parents know so well, and dread so much, when he (over-)confidently believes that he knows everything about everything, and yearns to put his adolescent omniscience to the test out in the wider world far beyond Golders Green (fantasizing accordingly in best Billy Liar style) – much to the frustration and confusion of his long-suffering father Joe (Sydney Tafler), who works as a West End furrier in central London's Great Portland Street, and mother Fay (played by Libby Morris in Series 1, Stella Moray in Series 2), not to mention his troublesome sister Renata (Adrienne Posta).
The eponymous theme song to Alexander the Greatest, performed and co-written by the coincidentally-named Barry Green (a British singer/songwriter who subsequently swapped name shades to achieve several mid-1970s UK chart hits as Barry Blue), was very catchy – so much so, in fact, that although the show has never been repeated on TV for decades, I've always remembered its sing-along chorus.
(All 13 episodes of Alexander the Greatest do still exist, btw, but eleven of them now only in b/w form rather than in their original colour versions, which were wiped after their first TV screening.)
Moreover, I was both surprised and delighted to discover recently that not only had this theme song been released as a single (which I'd never even known about, probably because it failed to chart, sadly), but also it could be listened to on YouTube (click here to do so). So now, after more than 50 years, I've finally been able to re-familiarize myself with its verses too, not just its chorus!
Conversely, I have so far been unable to track down any excerpts, let alone complete episodes, of Alexander the Greatest anywhere online (not even the indefatigable YouTube contains any). Consequently, I am presently unable to provide in my customary fashion any clickable links to such here, other than the above one accessing this show's theme song, but if anyone reading this review can point me in the right direction with regard to any such clips or episodes, I'd be extremely grateful!
Finally: 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.
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I also have always remembered the theme tune. I didn't realise it was one of the Railway Children but I remember it was advertised somewhere as a vehicle for him to achieve stardom/success. Its lack of success probably put an end to any ideas of those commissioning programme about his ability to be the lead in a show. None of my contemporaries remember the programme. If I remember correctly, they lived in a high rise.
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