Rosalyn Connors BEM BCAc

Pleased to hear he referenced his time as Arthur Page. He seems to have enjoyed his role in 'The Colour of Blood' and was in admiration of Katharine Schofield for stepping into her role at a late stage.

Join me @rozzyc.bsky.social at 1pm for an eclectic mix of fine tunes, plus my special guest is Denis King, composer of a number of favourite TV themes of yesteryear. #SundayDelight on 97.8FM, DAB, and at www.gateway978.com

'Death to Sister Mary' is my #BrianClemensThriller rewatch this evening. Originally broadcast on ITV on Sat 15th June 1974 at 9pm, it is an episode I remember very well from that evening, particularly the final scene.

Oh no! How sad. I was only watching Norman the other day in a podcast from Lives in the Pictures about Return of the Saint, which also featured Ian Ogilvy & Kathryn Leigh Scott. In it he mentions his serial killer role in #BrianClemensThriller.

George And Mildred star Norman Eshley dies aged 80 George And Mildred star Norman Eshley has died at the age of 80, his agent said.

Final farewell to 'The Carnation Killer' @alanbriscoe.bsky.social @rozzyc.bsky.social @jabberwocky65.bsky.social www.rte.ie/entertainmen...

Prefab Sprout is a good way to start the show Ros. At work but will try to catch the David Hedison interview. Loved that show.

The comments about rehearsing such a dialogue sparse episode, and the reasons for casting Robert Lang were quite interesting #BrianClemensThriller

Join me at 1pm today for some #SundayDelight Playing you some top tunes. In an archive interview the late David Hedison talking to me about his acting work on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea & James Bond. 97.8FM, DAB, and at www.gateway978.com

Quite a few spoilers in that newspaper write up @martinmauthor1.bsky.social. I note it accurately describes it as "Thriller drama" rather than 'horror', something the #ITC publicity & the DVD box covers annoyingly lean towards constantly. #BrianClemensThriller.

Local press coverage of the episode

#BrianClemensThriller broadcast on ITV on 08/06/74 at 9pm, 'I'm the Girl He Wants to Kill'. One of Brian's favourites, & one of mine too. The plot perhaps wouldn't work in this age of mobile phone devices, computers, & CCTV, but truly gripping stuff in its day. I'll be rewatching it tonight at 9pm.

Agreed. #BrianClemensThriller.

The latter seems the most sensible and probably cost effective way to go #BrianClemensThriller

I think 2" was still the standard for editing, mastering,& tx in 1980. Distribution may have been a different story. The #BrianClemensThriller repeats ended 4 to 5 years before I joined ITV, by which time editing & distribution was all on 1". I never got to see any of the THRILLER tapes sadly. ☹️

The NTSC TVMs began in 1978 and were created on 2" AFAIK. The PAL TVMs weren't started until a full set of NTSC TVMs were ready - in 1980 (hence the potential Thames repeats in 1979 - aborted by the strike that year - were ATV originals). Was UK-TV still recording on 2" by 1980 or gone over to 1"?

There are two methods. Standards convert the NTSC master to PAL & insert edit the better quality PAL material into it. Or, use a PAL dub of the ATV original as the base line, & assemble edit marrying the converted NTSC bookend sequences making a new PAL master. The latter is what I think was done.

Those look like quadruplex tapes to me. #BrianClemensThriller. 🙂

A screenshot of #BrianClemensThriller quads stored at the BFI, as featured near the end of the 'Native Hue of Resolution' documentary from Kaleidoscope (was on DVD but long out of print)

PAL TVMs created on 1"(?) by marrying NTSC to PAL standards conversions of the new opening/closing sequences and (often) ad break-bumpers to the PAL master material of episodes proper, removing the fish-eyes except some break bumpers. ATV idents/end caps were lost with spinning ITC idents instead

And the TVM masters began as NTSC 525-line recordings as well didn't they as they were created by #ITC New York. A standards-converted set of a British show would have been unnaceptable for broadcasters here with its inferior picture, so what format were the eventual PAL masters of them created on?

That's a good question @martinmauthor1.bsky.social. There was a photo Ian posted on the Thriller forum of a row of 2" quads of #BrianClemensThriller at the BFI, & one of those I noted was 'Appointment with a Killer', which suggests the TVMs began life on 2" even if they were distributed later on 1".

Were the PAL TVMs created on 1" rather than 2" (excepting the issue of the NTSC to PAL converted newly shot titles from Film Rite and Dolphin)? Presumably they'd have similar compression/other issues to the 2" to 1" PAL 'fisheye originals' dubs? I guess its now academic in that we have what we have

Yes, you're right. The titles at very least, could have been lifted from the 1". That or 'The Devil's Web' would also have been a guide to where the commercial breaks should have gone. #BrianClemensThriller.

Absolutely ... the first pressings of the original 2005 release featured full colour artwork on the discs, this was followed by generic greyscale art featuring the stylised network globe, then black disc art and finally back to full colour disc artwork with the 2019 repackaging

Maybe there were such issue? I think the non-scrolling standard format UK captions on the end titles (and the UK opening titles - top strip of the attached pic) would have better suited the overall package as regards comparison with all the other episodes ('If It's a Man' excepted)

20-years of steady sales is very impressive isn't it. I wonder if some are people who have just discovered #BrianClemensThriller & are enjoying it for the very first time? A big thanks to the late lamented Network for bringing it & so many other old favourites back so we can watch again & again.

The 1" re-master as you call it, was merely a dub of the 2" though (or maybe a dub of another 1"), & inevitably will be of a slightly lesser quality. There were audio compression issues with all of the 1" dubs that I remember, & possibly other problems might arise that were not immediately apparent.

Marketing! The *horror label* is a big attraction, we can think back to the artwork of the 2004 Granada S1 release and the A&E cover visuals of the first US set. I would say 'horror' covers a wide spectrum including folk horror and ghost stories like 'The Innocents' not just slashers and splatter

Just after Network collapsed, the Amazon UK page for their release indicated that the Thriller set had sold 50+ copies in the previous month ... and that was just that one retailer. The discs were certainly repressed many times over nearly 20 years, indicating steady sales for a long period

I'd agree this was probably the case, it's just a pity that when the 2" UK/PAL original master of 'Nurse' couldn't be found that a deeper audit might have turned up the 1" re-master (that aired on Bravo and elsewhere) quite quickly, more cost effective than editing the TVM PAL footage into the ABC