The Man is Oldenshaw: an immodest, ex-Oxford type with a mind trained to devour information like a computer. He rose to prominence during the planning of D-Day. His partner is Defraits: Oldenshaw's red-brick equal. Room 17 is the secret centre of operations for the Department of Special Research, a unit set up to study the criminal mind and handle cases that have baffled the police and security services. Answerable only to the Prime Minister, the men in Room 17 pull the strings that make the...
A surreal crime/fantasy adventure series in the mould of the The Avengers, The Corridor People ran for only four episodes yet has garnered considerable cult devotion. A host of unlikely characters include Kronk, a paternal CID agent, his henchmen Inspector Blood and Sergeant Hound, and American, Bogart-worshipping private eye Phil Scrotty; each episode sees them pitched against the avaricious schemes of Syrie Van Epp, a beautiful, treacherous Persian millionairess. Written by Edward Boyd (The Odd Man), the series stars larger-than-life character actor John Sharp and Elizabeth Shepherd, the actress originally cast as Emma Peel; guest stars include Windsor Davies and Pauline Collins. With wildly inventive storylines, offbeat, often humorous dialogue in which characters frequently break the fourth wall, strikingly original photography and heavily stylised sets, it's no surprise to find it described as 'the Twin Peaks of its day', or akin to 'a lost Harold Pinter play with an added dash of Monty Python'..! This unique series, unscreened since its original transmission in 1966, is now available on DVD for the very first time.
A sly sideways look at the standard '60s police procedural The Man in Room 17 concerns the ponderings of Oldenshaw and Dimmock - two exceptionally clever chaps whose minds are so highly trained that they can solve cases that leave the ordinary authorities baffled. Created by novelist and playwright Robin Chapman (from a concept by Granada supremo Denis Forman) each episode was essentially constructed as a game of two halves with the Room scenes for each episode being solely written by Chapman - who would receive a script and then deconstruct it plan where Oldenshaw and Dimmock's scenes were to appear and how the crime was to be solved.
Set in the turbulent years of the later 17th century, this action-filled adventure series follows the fortunes of a brother and sister caught up in the dramatic events surrounding the Duke of Monmouth's doomed attempt to wrest the throne of England from his newly crowned uncle, King James II. Starring Frederick Jaeger, Pretenders comprises 13 episodes and is released here for the first time. June 1685: one of the most colourful power bids in English history begins, as a motley rebel army sets out to replace the Catholic, seemingly pro-French James with the Protestant Monmouth. Passions rage, and as the decisive battle of Sedgemoor draws closer, Elam and Perfect believed to be Monmouth's own son and daughter are assisted by a German mercenary, Joachim. Facing danger on every side, they must use all their ingenuity to evade capture by Royalist forces in the desperate hope that they will one day meet the father they have never known
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