It's been great to re-watch this so far. I'd forgotten the clever way in which Joanne Whalley appears and disappears as she floats in and out of his imaginary conversations with her. It's one thing which really elevated the show above a lot of other decent TV dramas at the time.
I wish the BBC would show more old stuff like this. I thoroughly enjoyed watching I Claudius, which I was too young to see first time around, and there must be so much more classic drama in the archives.
I saw I Claudius first time round, but didn't understand it at all. I rewatched it a couple of years ago, and oh my god, it's good! Dated in style, but so good!
The things I remember from around this period were:
The Singing Detective (I was old enough first time round to begin to understand it, and to feel very clever that I did, and to feel very grown up that I was allowed to watch this thing with some very RUDE bits). Still wonderful.
The Day of the Triffids - sparked my love of apocalyptic and post-apocapyptic fiction, and a massive crush on John Duttine, and men with beards.
A Very British Coup - for many years, in my memory, this was what I thought Edge of Darkness was. Turns out, I've never seen Edge of Darkness, or if I have, I don't remember it. A Very British Coup is brilliant, really fantastic.
Spyship - we had to miss the very last episode for my primary school carol concert, and it took me 30 years to find out how it ended! And it was worth the wait.
I have no idea how Edge of Darkness is going to end, and I'm loving that!
I saw that the next episode (five) is at eleven pm,so having watched
episodes one to four on BBC4, last night I watched episodes five
(and six!) from my own DVD, as I can't be arsed with all the chopping
and changing! Still a mesmerising series though and Joe Don and
Bob are the best duo in it...although Pendleton and Harcourt are a pair
of devious buggers too! Class stuff!
this is so my most favourite TV programme of all time.
I've watched it loads of times.
Tried to persuade my 16 year old to watch it this time round and he has moaned constantly - yes it is of its time and nowhere near as frenetic as modern programmes are but it is still wonderful.
I also really enjoyed the rather surreal scene of Craven and Jedburgh sitting down to dinner in the old nuclear bunker. They knew the authorities were on to them but they still found time to have dinner, wine and a cigar!
Yes I am watching this as well; I remember the first transmission 30 years ago but worked nights at the time so only watched one. .. The one with Jedburgh at the conference.......
Yes I am watching this as well; I remember the first transmission 30 years ago but worked nights at the time so only watched one. .. The one with Jedburgh at the conference.......
Good to see Edge of Darkness repeated again. It is one of those shows alongside BBC Scotland's The Mad Death that I remember from my childhood. It would be great if BBC Four were to repeat The Mad Death as it has never had a repeat showing in years.
Good to see Edge of Darkness repeated again. It is one of those shows alongside BBC Scotland's The Mad Death that I remember from my childhood. It would be great if BBC Four were to repeat The Mad Death as it has never had a repeat showing in years.
Repeat? I hope not, 'The Mad Death' was downright terrifying!
I watched this last night and then Utopia - I'm a happy clappy chappie!
BBC4 seem to wheel out two classics a year, sometimes three so hopefully we;ll have something else before the years out - Pennies from Heaven is due a screening I'd say.
I thought it fell apart after the first four excellent episodes. The fifth episode with the raid on the plant was not very good and the last was just used to deliver the author's polemic in a beating the viewer around the head manner. Just goes to show that starting off with a good idea but not being able to close it out successfully is not a modern trait.
Couldn't watch it for a few weeks and watched eps 4 - 6 last night. Great characters, great writing and great acting, but a very convoluted plot that I'm not sure really went anywhere or actually answered the central thread. Did we (i.e. Craven) actually discover why his daughter was killed? Maybe I've forgotten with the gap between watching eps 3 and 4 - 6, but I don't recall that being specifically addressed. We know who, in as much as the character was brought back into it (briefly), but he was taken out just as he was about to 'name names', but whose name? Was there a 'Mr Big' at the top of everything (Grogan? The Minister seen in ep 6? The CIA?) ? How did the shooter get involved? Was it 'just' a revenge attack from Craven's NI days and therefore nothing to do with her GAIA involvement? How did Emma alone manage to get out of the flooded chambers that killed everyone else? I feel like I've either missed an entire episode, and/ or have forgotten large chunks of the ones I watched.
IIRC, Emma is killed on the orders of Northmoor Security because she knows too much about what's going on in there. Northmoor also want Craven dead because they assume Emma will have told him about her findings. They hired ex-IRA informers to do the work as a 'blind' to muddy the waters. I assume Bennett was responsible for this since Grogan hadn't yet purchased Northmoor, although he may have been complicit in the action.
Emma presumably was left as a 'rear-guard' when the GAIA team entered Northmoor and escaped when she realised they were flooding the mine; either that or she just got lucky.
Of course, nothing is completely black and white in EOD - everybody seems to be working on several different levels and nobody is ever quite what they seem.
Comments
I saw I Claudius first time round, but didn't understand it at all. I rewatched it a couple of years ago, and oh my god, it's good! Dated in style, but so good!
The things I remember from around this period were:
The Singing Detective (I was old enough first time round to begin to understand it, and to feel very clever that I did, and to feel very grown up that I was allowed to watch this thing with some very RUDE bits). Still wonderful.
The Day of the Triffids - sparked my love of apocalyptic and post-apocapyptic fiction, and a massive crush on John Duttine, and men with beards.
A Very British Coup - for many years, in my memory, this was what I thought Edge of Darkness was. Turns out, I've never seen Edge of Darkness, or if I have, I don't remember it. A Very British Coup is brilliant, really fantastic.
Spyship - we had to miss the very last episode for my primary school carol concert, and it took me 30 years to find out how it ended! And it was worth the wait.
I have no idea how Edge of Darkness is going to end, and I'm loving that!
episodes one to four on BBC4, last night I watched episodes five
(and six!) from my own DVD, as I can't be arsed with all the chopping
and changing! Still a mesmerising series though and Joe Don and
Bob are the best duo in it...although Pendleton and Harcourt are a pair
of devious buggers too! Class stuff!
I've watched it loads of times.
Tried to persuade my 16 year old to watch it this time round and he has moaned constantly - yes it is of its time and nowhere near as frenetic as modern programmes are but it is still wonderful.
"GET ME PENDLETON" Goosebumps every time
Yeah that's a great moment.
I also really enjoyed the rather surreal scene of Craven and Jedburgh sitting down to dinner in the old nuclear bunker. They knew the authorities were on to them but they still found time to have dinner, wine and a cigar!
K
Anyway, it's been great to see this, I think I've seen it before but a long time ago and I can't remember anything about it.
Class.
I remember that - a real "wow!" moment.
Repeat? I hope not, 'The Mad Death' was downright terrifying!
Very good series with some great acting. Bob Peck and Joe Don Baker were superb.
The final shots of the black flowers were pretty ominous but felt the ending suited the dark nature of the series.
Originally Troy Kennedy Martin wanted to turn Bob Peck into a tree at the end.
BBC4 seem to wheel out two classics a year, sometimes three so hopefully we;ll have something else before the years out - Pennies from Heaven is due a screening I'd say.
Emma presumably was left as a 'rear-guard' when the GAIA team entered Northmoor and escaped when she realised they were flooding the mine; either that or she just got lucky.
Of course, nothing is completely black and white in EOD - everybody seems to be working on several different levels and nobody is ever quite what they seem.