Can it possibly have been another denuded week where fantastical shows on terrestrial TV and radio were concerned? Well, with even the recent weekly Star Trek repeat disappearing from BBC1’s schedule, things weren’t exactly looking up. But there were some interesting old movies & episodes, including one ghostly classic …
Saturday 15th July 1972
BBC2 – 11.50pm – Midnight Movie: X the Unknown (1956)
“X the ‘unknown’ lives at the bottom of a deep fissure on a diet of radiation and destroys all who come too close; that is, until it comes face-to-face with atomic scientist Dr Adam Royston” (Radio Times programme guide)
“1956 – the year of the Suez Crisis, a sharp increase in the crime rate and uneasy preparation for World War 3 – spawned a whole series of gloomy black and white thrillers (both here and in America) in which the weight of the military is mobilised against various alien organisms from the bowels of the Earth or outer space. This British entry (from Hammer) is photographed in shadowy monochrome by Gerald Gibbs with a sense of muted hysteria and despair underlying the stalwart attempts to defeat a radioactive thing which erupts in the Scottish highlands. If you don’t like horror or SF films it is unlikely to impress you as anything other than nonsensical trash, but others might agree that it communicates the atmosphere of Britain in the late 50’s more effectively the the most earnest social document” (Time Out, pg 65, 14/7/1972)
Sunday 16th July 1972
LWT – 1.15pm – 1964’s Stingray: Countdown (repeat)
Monday 17th July 1972
BBC1 – 10.50am – Adventures Of Tin Tin: The Crab With The Golden Claw part 1
BBC1 – 10.55am – Magic Roundabout
Radio 4 – 4.30 – Story Time: 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne
“Adapted for radio in five episodes by Julia Small. Narrative and voice characterisations by Geoffrey Matthews – It is the year 1866. A strange sea monster capable of producing a vivid phosphorescence and a remarkable turn of speed roams the sealanes of Europe and America: 1 – The Monster.” (RT)
BBC1 – 9.20pm – Doomwatch: Deadly Dangerous Tomorrow
“A bunch of Indians squatting in a tent in St James’s Park … one of them with malaria? What’s it all about?’ (Radio Times)
“An eco entertainment about malnutrition.” (Time Out)
Tuesday 18th July 1972
Radio 4 – 4.30 – Story Time: 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne 2/5
7.25 – Margaret Rutherford Stars … “Blithe Spirit”. (1945)
“When celebrated novelist Charles Condomine, who wants to write a book about spiritualism, invites to dinner a well-known ‘medium’, he little realises what – or rather who – is to materialise.” (RT)
“Gorgeously directed by David Lean in the days when he knew when to stop, this handsomely mounted, witty adaptation of the Noel Coward all-time hit was photographed in glowing Technicolour by Ronald Neame and starred Rex Harrison, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford (quite delicious) and Constance Cummings. It’s an important movie because it proved that the British screen could be just as sophisticated as those overheated Shaftesbury Avenue theatres, where – if you listen to the wrong people – you’d imagine all the wit of the land resided.” (Philip Jenkinson, RT)
Wednesday 19th July 1972
Radio 4 – 4.30pm – Story Time: 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne 3/5
ITV – 5.20pm – Ace Of Wands
BBC1 – 11.20pm – Sky At Night: Jupiter – The Colossal Planet
“An unmanned spacecraft, Pioneer F., is on its way to Jupiter, the largest planet in our system and one of the most mysterious. Patrick Moore explains why Jupiter puzzles astronomers, and what sort of picture of the giant planet we expect Pioneer F to send back.” (RT)
Thursday 20th July 1972
Radio 4 – 4.30pm – Story Time: 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne 4/5
ITV – 11.00pm – 1969’s The Avengers: The Rotters (repeat)
Friday 21st July 1972
Radio 4 – 4.30 – Story Time: 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne 5/5
The Almanac Of The Fantastical 