Film Archive (73)

Twelve years ago on the first series of I am Alan Partridge, everyone’s favourite Norfolk DJ was pleading with the BBC Chief Tony Hayers to re- commission his show. When Hayers refuses, Alan came up with a wide variety of desperate TV ideas such as Monkey Tennis, Arm Wrestling with Chas and Dave and Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank.

In 2013, dire programmes such as Keith Lemons Celebrity Juice, Mrs Browns Boys and Miranda to name a few now make Alan’s ideas really sound quite appealing.

Brian Clemens is quite possibly Britain's greatest screenwriter. The man behind TV classic like The Avengers, Thriller and The Professionals and movies like Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter, The Tell Tale Heart and a firm ZANI favourite And Soon THE Darkness.

"Unfortunately I misjudged you, you are just a stupid police man... " When Joseph Wise's Dr. No character dismissed Sean Connery's James Bond with these words in October 1962, he also targeted the risky task that producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman had taken on in trying to bring Ian Fleming's wildly popular 007 to the screen. Along with director Terrence Young and Connery, the Eon Productions team succeeded beyond all expectations, catapulting Fleming's character into not only the biggest screen franchise in history but a pop icon of the first degree.

The Hero Myth is marbled throughout all cultures and all ages, it's part of the fabric of human civilisation. There are Freudian, Jungian and other various anthropological links to this myth everywhere from the beginning of recorded history.

In the 20th and 21st centuries nowhere has the classic myth of the superhero who will save us from evil, while making his own painful journey, been more evident than in the comic book

The archetypal encounter between Holmes and the curse of the Baskervilles is perhaps the best known of the consulting detective's adventure and most adapted for film, television, novel and radio. In brief, the story centres around Holmes and his ever trusty assistant, Watson, who together investigate the curse of Baskerville, a hound from hell seeking revenge on any member of the Baskerville family, and their task is to protect the newly adopted country squire Sir Henry Baskerville (just arrived from the USA). All set in the beautiful backdrop of Dartmoor, it is a classic story of murder, deception, red herrings, folklore and suspense, scattered with a host of suspects resulting in a climatic ending where the villain is unmasked and Baker Street's finest faces the evil hound.