TV 2015 : Viewing from the Vaults, August edition

[gervase_fen]

Comments

[parrot_knight]

How much of the Gazette format and continuity carries over into Hadleigh?

[gervase_fen]

Well, the first episode spends some time separating Hadleigh from his day to day interest in the paper, so the continuity is there. Susan Jackson is still working for the Gazette, but she doesn't visit the office, report to the editor, or even hang out with the Gazette's senior reporter, Bill Spence (Michael Blackham, 26 back then, very good, but not carried over.) In terms of format, hard to say so far. Something I've noticed is that (and I know imdb is not infallible but...) a lot of the writing credits are the sole entries on the scripters' CVs. So episode two is a wine fraud story that could be a dull Z Cars or Public Eye, episode three is a boardroom drama but with hardly enough characters to make up the board, and episode four sees Hadleigh fly out to Greece to rescue Susan from the clutches of the Colonels. (That's what happens if you go backpacking with a very young Simon Cadell.)

[parrot_knight]

Hm. Writers commissioned cheap and scripts reworked up in the production office perhaps? Or pseudonyms?

[gervase_fen]

Seems likely - episode 6 is so well done I can't think why 'John Norton' never wrote for the series again. The Greek episode, inevitably, is written by Michael J Bird!