television heaven
TV Tuesday: The Queen Street Gang 1968
Fifty-five years, ago, today, the British, Thames Television TV show The Queen Street Gang was released. There were nine episodes from Aug. 1 to Sep. 26. Directors were Nicholas Ferguson and Adrian Cooper. Writers were Roy Russell and Desmond Skirrow. The main cast was Sebastian Abineri (Big Bill), Liz Crowther (Phillipa), Len Jones (Sniffer), Anthony Peplow (Speedy), Michael Feldman (Mini Morris), Michael Gwynn (Professor Morris) and Maureen O’Reilly (Mrs. Morris).
Comedy drama series. A group of kids manage to get involved in adventures with spies and the like.
IMDb Storyline
Well trained, highly organised and working from a secret H.Q., The Queen Street Gang were, undoubtedly, an attempt by Thames television to create a modern day Famous Five. There were even comparisons to be drawn with the Enid Blyton created characters, including one of the children being the daughter of a top secret researcher. The series was based on a 1966 children’s adventure book called The Case of the Silver Egg by Desmond Skirrow and adapted for TV by Roy Russell. The first of the two stories made involved a silver egg that was able to hold all the electricity in the world, which was then stolen by a group of criminals […]. It was up to the gang to recover it, rescue the kidnapped professor and make the world a safer place for us all.
Television Heaven UK
Noel Onely
January 24, 2019
This series is believed lost. ~Vic
The Queen Street Gang (Nostalgia Central)
TV Tuesday: Just For Fun 1947
Seventy-five years, ago, today, the black & white TV Movie Just For Fun aired on the BBC. Created/devised and written by Richard Hearne, he stars as Mr. Pastry:
…an old man with a walrus moustache [sic], dressed in a black suit or raincoat and with a trademark bowler hat. [T]he the bumbling old man would have adventures, partly slapstick, partly comic dance, with two young friends. Jon Pertwee also starred in the show in a variety of roles. The Mr. Pastry character had originated in the 1936 stage show Big Boy in which Hearne had appeared with Fred Emney.
Directed and produced by Walton Anderson, it also starred John Blore Borelli (and his orchestra), Buddy Bradley, Joan Heal, Yvonne Hearne, Jean Kent & Henry Oscar.
Hearne first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in March 1954, with many subsequent visits. Buster Keaton was a fan. He was interviewed by producer Barry Letts for the role of Doctor Who when Pertwee departed but, wished to play The Doctor as Mr. Pastry. Letts, in turn, offered the role to Tom Baker.
I couldn’t find any clips for this movie but, I did find Hearne/Mr. Pastry on Ed Sullivan. ~Vic
Additional:
Just For Fun (BFI)
Just For Fun (British Comedy Guide)
Cosmic-Observation 