Forgotten Drama’s
As our “forgotten” season continues we take a look at some several drama’s, from across the decades, that for one reason or another have fallen out of public memory. While shows like Upstairs, Downstairs and Tenko are still fondly remembered today, and repeated regularly, these dramas have mostly been left in the archives. How many of these do you remember?
As our “forgotten” season continues we take a look at some several drama’s, from across the decades, that for one reason or another have fallen out of public memory. While shows like Upstairs, Downstairs and Tenko are still fondly remembered today, and repeated regularly, these dramas have mostly been left in the archives. How many of these do you remember?
Attachments – BBC2
Drama series set at the turn of the century and at an internet company – during the .Com boom that was forever in the news. As the internet allowed new ways for people to make their fortunes it also 
offered drama new ideas to explore and new settings. So it wasn’t long before someone was cashing in on the topicality of the dot.com boom and along came attachments on BBC Two. The show ran for two seasons, clocking up 26 episodes, and had the typical love-triangle storylines mixed in with storylines about server crashes and internet spam. The series starred Amanda Ryan, David Wallaims, Iddo Goldberg, Claudia Harrison and was created by Tony Garnett who was responsible for Ballykissangel and This Life – which also followed the lives of twentysomethings but they were lawyers not internet geeks.
The Duchess of Duke Street – BBC One
Period drama set between 1900 and 1925 and created by John Hawkesworth who was producer on LWT’s critically acclaimed period drama Upstairs, Downstairs which was also set during the same time period. The BBC series ran for 31 episodes between 1976 and 1977, Hawkesworth having finished work on Upstairs, Downstairs in 1975. The drama revolved around Louisa Leyton who works her way up from maid to owner of an Upper Class hotel. The series starred Gemma Jones, Roger Hammond, June Brown, Lalla Ward, George Pravda, John Carter and John Welsh.
The State Within – BBC One
Conspiracy thriller starring Sharon Gless, Ben Daniels and Jason Isaacs that dealt with terrorism and rogue Middle Eastern countries. British Ambassador Sir Mark Brydon is witness to an explosion on a commercial plane that comes crashing down onto a Washington Highway and the bomber is revealed to be a British Muslim extremist. This sparks a wave of witch-hunts in America but evidence slowly comes out that connects the bombing with rogue country Tyrgyzstan and a conspiracy at the very heart of the American government. The tense six-part drama not only dealt with terrorism, human rights issues and conspiracy theories but also touched upon controversial subjects such as the Iraq War. Sharon Gless played Secretary for Defence Lynne Walker who’s son died fighting in Iraq and is determined to stop to make America secure at any cost. The series co a production between BBC and BBC America but didn’t attract huge audiences this side of the pond.
Wish Me Luck, ITV
World War Two based drama about British spies working behind enemy lines in occupied France. The series mostly focused on the female spies who risked their lives working undercover in France to gather up intelligence on Nazi forces and sabotage the war effort. The main focus of the series was Liz Grainger [Kate Buffery] who went from being a bored English housewife, knitting socks for the solders, to a fully fledged spy. Working alongside Liz in the first series was half-French girl Matty [Suzanna Hamilton] who had fled France during the early days of war. Running the operations back in London was Faith Ashley [Jane Asher] and ‘Cad’ [Julian Glover]. The first series also introduced the on-off relationship between Liz and Kit [Michael J Jackson] which would continue throughout the drama’s complete run. The series was slightly revamped for its second season with a new theme tune, opening sequence and new characters – Suzanna Hamilton didn’t return. Joining the cast were Jane Snowden and Lynn Fairley. In the third season Kate Buffery only appeared in the final two episodes while Julian Glover left the series all together. New cast members included Terrence Hardiman, Jeremy Nicholas, Shirley Henderson and Catherine Schell joined. The series has been released on DVD.
