#special branch

[mariocki]

RIP Michael Gambon (19.10.1940 - 28.9.2023)

"Paul Schofield said something like, 'If I'm not acting in a play, I don't really exist.' Those weren't the exact words, but he meant it's only when I'm acting in a play that I've got something to say about the world. And then why should I talk, when people can come to see it?"

"Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me."

#michael gambon #rip #death ment tw #character actors #theatre #the singing detective #maigret #the borderers #fraud squad #the cook the thief his wife and her lover #softly softly: task force #nothing but the night #the beast must die #special branch #zodiac #mountain language #tales of the unexpected #absurd person singular #gosford park #doctor who #new who #the hollow crown #a genuine acting icon and a legendary screen presence. his journey to stardom and household name status was actually fairly slow but he #caught the attention of significant and influential figures within the theatre from the very beginning; Olivier was quick to see his #potential‚ he became a latterday muse of Ayckbourn and Pinter‚ and directors Peter Hall and Eric Thompson were instrumental in castings him #in big roles. i feel like his screen career never quite matched his enormous success onstage (and his later career was certainly a touch #quantity over quality in terms of projects chosen) but there were some diamonds in there; The Singing Detective high among them of course #as always a recommendation of a lesser known work: the tv broadcast of Pinter's Mountain Language‚ a short but devastating piece about #suppression via the prohibition of a native language. Gambon's sadistic soldier is very nearly a caricature of needless evil but he keeps #it just the right side of believability‚ resulting in one of the most disturbing + unsettling perfs of its type. rip to a very fine actor

[kwebtv]

Special Branch  -  ITV  -  September 17, 1969   -  May 9, 1974

 Police Drama (53 episodes)

Running Time:  60 minutes

Stars:

Derren Nesbitt as Detective Chief Inspector Elliot Jordan (1969–1970)

George Sewell as Detective Chief Inspector Alan Craven (1973–1974)

Morris Perry as Charles Moxon (1969–1970)

Fulton Mackay as Detective Chief Superintendent Alec Inman (1969–1970)

Patrick Mower as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Haggerty (1973–1974)

Roger Rowland as Detective Sergeant Bill North (1969–1974)

Keith Washington as Detective Constable John Morrissey (1969–1970)

Paul Eddington as Strand (1974)

Frederick Jaeger as Commander Fletcher (1970–1974)

Wensley Pithey as Detective Superintendent Eden (1969)

Jennifer Wilson as Detective Sergeant Helen Webb (1969)

#Special Branch #TV #ITV #1970's #Police Drama #Derrin Nesbitt #Wensley Pithey #Jennifer Wilson

[ludojudoposts]

RIP Dennis Waterman

#dennis waterman #minder #special branch #new scotland yard #pathfinders #colditz #new tricks #up the junction #thriller #play for today joes ark #the sweeney #screengrabs #screencaps #also in the pictures... #ronald radd #anthony valentine...side of head! #sinead cusack #angharad rees #john thaw #im not really religious but like to think george cole and john thaw are waiting at the pearly gates #also minder has *the* best theme tune ever! #i was listening to pavarotti and sinatra do a duet whike working on my computer... #i listen to classical music cause lyrics i can sing along with i dont get anything done #and paused it when i noticed the end on minder was on the tv! #waterman singing i could be so good for you or pavarotti and sinatra doing my way duet? #no contest! #rip

[thisbluespirit]

Jennifer Wilson as Det. Sgt. Helen Webb in Special Branch (S1, Thames TV, 1969).

#special branch #gif #jennifer wilson #helen webb #derren nesbitt #1960s #spies #<3 #my gifs

[tomsecker]

Subscribercast #87 - The Bank Job vs Inside Man

Continuing our vaguely Gary Devore-related explorations, in this month’s subscribercast we look at two unconventional bank heist films where the burglars aren’t looking for money, but for compromising material. One is a racist cockney crime drama, the other a big budget studio film directed by Spike Lee, but both are inspired by real events. This is a preview of subscribercast #87, to get access…

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#Films #MI5 #MI6 #NYPD #Special Branch

[njpjobspk]

Special Branch Intelligence Officer Jobs 2024

#Special Branch #Special Branch Intelligence Officer Jobs #Intelligence Officer Jobs 2024 #Intelligence Operator Jobs #Punjab Police

[seachranaidhe]

BBC News: Stakeknife: Prosecutors decide not to charge sixteen people

BBC News – Stakeknife: Prosecutors decide not to charge sixteen people https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-67635887

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#Collusion #decitives #INFORMER #MI5 #nutting squad #prosectors say no prosocutions #sixteen people #Special Branch #Stakekife #Supergrass

[culttvblog]

Special Branch: Catherine the Great (Seventies TV Season)

The introduction to this series of posts about 1970s TV shows can be found here: https://www.tumblr.com/culttvblog/729351469162233856/seventies-tv-season-introduction

Special Branch (1969 to 1970 and 1973 to 1974) is the show that will confuse you if you're not careful because it is more like two. The two halves divided over four series were done quite differently, despite both being about the same set up, with completely different casts, sets, filming approaches, and so on. Personally I think of series 1 and 2 as being the ones with Derren Nesbitt as the unexpected sexy piece (although I see he's been married four times and has five children so perhaps it's only unexpected to me) and series 3 and 4 as the ones with Patrick Mower as the more expected sexy piece. Despite Mower being the sexy piece, George Sewell still gets all the women. The pervading theme of this post will be that Special Branch always always surprises you.

Series three and four of 1973 to 74 are also noteworthy as being the first series made by Euston Films, as part of their proposal for a new type of television drama. From the start Euston always shot on film rather than videotape, and also had a trick of using two crews filming different parts of the same show at the same time. This gave its productions a speed and quick-change action that had previously been unknown. These 1970s shows seem to bring us to so many major turning points in TV and this is another one: this is the production technique that allowed shows like The Sweeney and its imitators later in the decade.

Catherine the Great is a series 4 episode about a German assassin called Helmut Rehfuss who has arrived in the country to perform the assassination of General Yqueras, the head Domegas, a former British colony who is also in the country. And who is, incidentally, as stubborn as a mule about resisting his protection. Thus far so pedestrian, and this plot could be that of many an episode of The Professionals or any other show.

Which is why I'm absolutely howling that the show has taken this pedestrian plot and essentially done it as if it was written by John Waters. This was broadcast on 21st February 1974 and could still give Ron DeSantis a stroke in 2023. It's absolutely wild. What makes it wild is the very simple plot device of having Rehfuss the assassin escape police surveillance by coming into the country dressed in drag, and so he repeatedly literally walks past them without them clocking him at all.

It's not only that he disguised himself but he is actually a drag queen and the show devotes quite a lot of time to his actual drag act and of course the Special Branch have to go to the club to see him perform. There is also quite a lot of discussion of drag and performative and notional gender, which again would be very sophisticated on today's TV. I love the bit where Craven's boss starts reminiscing about a 'friend' who didn't realise the bird he went with in Singapore wasn't. I have to say the scenes of a drag queen going around shooting people are very effective. In an age before people began to verbalise their misunderstanding that performative femininity is automatically sexual, I think the show was just intending to show all sorts of human life and indicate the way Special Branch's work took them into all sorts of odd corners of society. There's at least one other episode with a drag queen, played by Dame Hilda Bracket.

Just to add to the wokeness of the episode one of Rehfuss's contacts is a gay antiques dealer, although nothing happens because Rehfuss murders him.

There is further human interest in the episode by the way Craven isn't working with Haggerty but with Inspector North from CID, who he previously got kicked out of Special Branch for his failure to kill a suspect when he should have done. Here, he does get it together to shoot Rehfuss with reasonable force.

If I have one criticism of the episode (and I think this can tend to go for many Special Branch episodes) it's that the plot is a bit far-ranging and ambitious. It brings in gender politics, drag, sexual politics, national security, international politics, colonialism, post-colonialism, office politics, reasonable force, you name it. That said, this might just be an indication that this is another of those shows which require attention to be paid to them, although I feel like if I'd seen it on one viewing in 1974 I would have found it difficult to keep up. My only other criticism would be that if you have an actor doing a drag act you need to shave their pits or if they won't have them shaved put them in a dress with sleeves. This one's a blunder.

As you know I do get worried that writing about old TV will attract the gammons, so to ensure they're scared off, have a snatch of a Special Branch night out in the seventies:

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#70s tv #70s tv season #special Branch

[ponpasta]

they’re just funny little guys

#i also watched the christmas special im sick #trolls band together #trolls #my art #branch #poppy #trolls branch #trolls poppy

[guywithbeer]

SPECIAL BRANCH | SEASON 1

Does anyone remember the British TV show, Special Branch, from 1969? You can now watch the complete first season (all 14 episodes) on my GUYWITHBEER CLASSIC TV YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/-behjRok8m0 If I remember correctly, the first 9 episodes were all in black and white, then from episode 10 on its in colour. Check it out and maybe check out my other GUYWITHBEER channels too. Thanks, and enjoy.

#special branch #full episode #tv show #season 1 #full series #complete series #youtube #british tv #drama #action #crime #cop #60s tv

[mariocki]

RIP Stephen Greif (26.8.1944 - 23.12.2022)

"I think [Blake's 7] was character-driven, and that’s really what counts in the end. The fact that the effects were fairly – you know – not slick in the way that Star Wars was…but then they had a hundred times more budget than we did, and rightly so. That doesn’t really come into it. It’s the stories, really, and the interrelation of characters which I think always interests people.

Oh I loved it. I loved every minute of it. I loved it because of the people. We all became great friends and we all wanted it to work. We all worked very hard on it. The director was great, the producer was a good guy, and yes, I loved it. It was good fun."

#stephen greif #rip #death ment tw #blakes 7 #blake's 7 #travis i #armchair thriller #rachel in danger #special branch #citizen smith #the persuaders! #the merchant of venice #the protectors #treasure island #dixon of dock green #thriller #the new avengers #spaghetti two step #the sandbaggers #return of the saint #and so the b7 family gets a little smaller once again :( and so soon after chris boucher #stephen was a superb villain in b7 and a consummate character actor across various old tv guest spots #but he was also a stage actor of subtlety and range‚ and spent several years with the National Theatre #working with Olivier and Peter Hall and all manner of theatre legends across his long and distinguished stage career #i usually try and rec something lesser known in these posts but Travis really is such a wonderful performance #i would say that his comic turn in Jack Rosenthal's Spaghetti Two Step is something very wonderful and deserves to be more widely seen #rip stephen <3

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt in Memes 5

Once more, have a prompt entirely in memes because I'm too lazy to properly write one right now lol.

#dcxdp #dpxdc #prompts #De aged dan #de aged ellie #dad danny #mom danny #Fuck it make this a Hazmat Au too with a hint of eldritch Phantom form #Hence why no one realizes Danny Fenton & Phantom Dark are different people #No Danny is not ghost king he's just a little shit #Jazz is in Metropolis & Danny is around depending on where the “field trips” are #Sometimes he's in Gotham because Scarecrow or Ivy offers a lecture #Most of the time they're in Central though because it's safest for the baby villains in the making lol #Danny is taking classes for both medical stuff (thx Frostbite) and engineering #A couple of time travelling villains ADORE him and his kids lol #“So u a monsterfucker?” “What” “I mean I saw that ghost hero & I'm just sayin that's not human y'know-” #Tucker stop laughing at him #Tucker and Sam and Val are also in the same villain school but taking different classes #Save for Tucker also being in an engineering class #Sam is fighting for that Ivy internship #Val is in the specialized Anti-Hero course that focuses on teen heroes who are done with that bs #She got in by telling them (not lying) that she's going to take down a branch of government even if she has to blow the whole thing up #Evil College Au #Danny made a mistake & now everyone thinks that he Val Sam AND Tuck were in a relationship with Phantom at some point #Eveery other student now refers to them as the Petty Exes #memes #meme

[sukiiwake]

Did another silly scene redraw🫶🏼

Full photo here because some of poppy’s pretty pink princess hair got cropped

#trolls #trolls fanart #trolls movie #trolls branch #branch #dreamworks trolls #trolls brainrot #dreamworks #trolls poppy #branch x poppy #broppy #branch and poppy #queen poppy #trolls holiday in harmony #trolls broppy #trolls Christmas special #I LOVE THEM SO MUCH IMFHWJDNHDJSBF #one of my favorite Broppy scenes #cutie patootie

[thozhar]

மாவீரன் மலேயா கணபதி

#s.a.ganapathy #special branch

[pippinscribs]

More fic fanart, this time for a sweet memory in chapter five of It Runs In the Family

#the floyd and branch moments in this fic are so special to me #dreamworks trolls #trolls fanart #branch trolls #floyd trolls #floyd fanart #comic #sketches #fic mention #trolls band together

[tomsecker]

Was Manchester Arena Bomber Salman Abedi Working for MI5?

Was Manchester Arena Bomber Salman Abedi Working for MI5?

The Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017 killed 23 people and injured over 1,000.  On the fifth anniversary of the bombing I take a critical look at newly-available evidence and ask whether Salman Abedi was actually working for British intelligence, and why MI5 have lied about what happened. Since the bombing, questions have persisted about what MI5 and the counter-terror police knew about…

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#Al Qaeda #MI5 #MI6 #Special Branch #war on terror