Question regarding Softly Softly

[Folkal Point]

The end credits of this show (about 1968) used to feature music which I believe was based on a well known hymn.

I can recall singing it at morning assembly. There is a clip on youtube of the later "Task Force" which has a more upbeat version of the tune. Anyone know what it is.

BTW - A bit of useless trivia - The original Softly Softly end credits were filmed on Hadleigh Downs, Essex with the camera panning across Leigh marshes towards the Thames. Hadleigh Downs now is the Olympic venue for the off road cycling events.

Cheers and goodnight

[Mark O]

The end credits of this show (about 1968) used to feature music which I believe was based on a well known hymn.

I can recall singing it at morning assembly. There is a clip on youtube of the later "Task Force" which has a more upbeat version of the tune. Anyone know what it is.

BTW - A bit of useless trivia - The original Softly Softly end credits were filmed on Hadleigh Downs, Essex with the camera panning across Leigh marshes towards the Thames. Hadleigh Downs now is the Olympic venue for the off road cycling events.

Cheers and goodnight

Can't help with the hymn, but living in the vicinity of Hadleigh I was intrigued to see it, unfortunately I can't find the 'original' credits, but in this clip (a later series?) I think it's the Strood/Rochester area of Kent that's seen at the beginning and end, Medway Bridge, Rochester Cathedral, etc; though an obscured Tube station sign is seen also, so I guess whatever the name of the town (did they use one?) is fictitious.


http://youtu.be/poXZ749_GMA

[Folkal Point]

Yes Mark - The town referred to in both Softly Softly and Task Force was "Thamesmouth". I never recognised the original location until we were taken on a geography field trip in 1968

[Mark O]

Yes Mark - The town referred to in both Softly Softly and Task Force was "Thamesmouth". I never recognised the original location until we were taken on a geography field trip in 1968

Thamesmouth, yes, that's most appropriate for the area (though the Tube doesn't come out quite that far!), I probably watched it back in the day but remember virtually nothing bar the dour Stratford Johns character, I'll have a google round and see if there's any photos from the early part of the series which I'd love to see.

[Freddy]

The end credits of this show (about 1968) used to feature music which I believe was based on a well known hymn.

I can recall singing it at morning assembly. There is a clip on youtube of the later "Task Force" which has a more upbeat version of the tune. Anyone know what it is.

According to Wikip.

The original theme music was, like Z-Cars, a folk-song arrangement by Fritz Spiegl. It was released as a single (credited to the London Waits) on Andrew Loog Oldham's "Immediate" record label in 1966.

and here is the single info from
http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=486973

[Folkal Point]

[QUOTE=Freddy;2088734]According to Wikip.

The original theme music was, like Z-Cars, a folk-song arrangement by Fritz Spiegl. It was released as a single (credited to the London Waits) on Andrew Loog Oldham's "Immediate" record label in 1966.

Yes I did see that. The end theme was different I think . A sort of brass band arrangement I think, and it was definately a hymn

[Moor Larkin]

[I]The original theme music was, like Z-Cars,

It sounded very much like a tweaked arrangement of Z-Cars to me.

[Folkal Point]

According to Wikip.

The original theme music was, like Z-Cars, a folk-song arrangement by Fritz Spiegl. It was released as a single (credited to the London Waits) on Andrew Loog Oldham's "Immediate" record label in 1966.

and here is the single info from
http://eil.com/shop/moreinfo.asp?catalogid=486973

Now it is getting interesting. The picture of the single gives the writing credit simply to "Fry" - A quick google came up with Charles William Fry who wrote hymns in the 18th century. I am on the case now ! Cheers - Who needs a sultry blonde in me bed when I have the internet.

[wadey]

Is the sultry blonde well up on 18th century hymn writers ?

[wadey]

Softly Softly was based on Lancashire's Task Force but they decided to move it to the Thames area

[Moor Larkin]

Is the sultry blonde well up on 18th century hymn writers ?

Is her name Bridget?....
In addition, he was the composer, with his first wife Bridget Fry, of the theme for the police series Z Cars, an adaptation of a Liverpool skipping song which reached the Top Ten during the mid-1960s.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...z-Spiegl.html#

[Folkal Point]

Is her name Bridget?....
In addition, he was the composer, with his first wife Bridget Fry, of the theme for the police series Z Cars, an adaptation of a Liverpool skipping song which reached the Top Ten during the mid-1960s.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...z-Spiegl.html#

YesI think that "Fry" is Bridget Fry and not C. W. Fry who appears to have been a boring old git - Sally Army, Blood & Thunder, Temperance and all that.

[Freddy]

Is her name Bridget?....
In addition, he was the composer, with his first wife Bridget Fry, of the theme for the police series Z Cars, an adaptation of a Liverpool skipping song which reached the Top Ten during the mid-1960s.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...z-Spiegl.html#

I wonder if it was this one, begins at 3.40. The same scene is from Terence Davies's Of Time and the City but without the beautifully haunting 'Watch and Pray'

[Mark O]

Softly Softly was based on Lancashire's Task Force but they decided to move it to the Thames area

Does anyone know what TV Studio was used for the interior scenes of Softly Softly?

[Westengland]

You are failing to distinguish between Softly Softly (1966-1969) and Softly Softly: Task Force (1969-1976), which are different, distinct, series, despite SSTF's first series following on directly from SS's last (fifth) series. You'll find most of the answers to your questions on the series's IMDB sites and... by doing Searches...on the internet...by yourselves...

I'm sorry if that comes across as arrogant or know-all but I do know a lot about Softly Softly; furthermore, people who know far more about the whole Z Cars Plus Police Procedural series than me are producing a detailed guide to them, something that has taken years, not helped by the principal writer's health problems, which will answer most factual queries about the programmes and those who worked on them (and just because I know something about something doesn't mean my interpretation of that knowledge is necessarily "correct").



Perhaps Britmovie can have a permanet thread on doing basic internet research (amongst other things explaing how IMDb works for those who can't be bothered to find out from IMDb's site)?

[Steve Crook]

Perhaps Britmovie can have a permanet thread on doing basic internet research (amongst other things explaing how IMDb works for those who can't be bothered to find out from IMDb's site)?

I often tell people how the IMDb works, what it does and what it doesn't do. It's a great resource, but you must understand what it offers, and what it doesn't offer

But telling people is one thing, them understanding and remembering is something very different

Common errors:
"The IMDb doesn't give a date of death for Fred Bloggs so he must be still alive"
No, it just means that his death hasn't been reported to the IMDb, yet. Many people just slip off the radar without their death

"Why is there no information for title X on the IMDb?"
Because nobody has submitted any information about it yet. The IMDb doesn't generate (much) information, they just give film fans like us and people in the industry a way to record information about films, TV shows etc and the people involved in them

"Why is there no information about person Y's credits on the IMDb?"
Possibly because they have never had an on-screen credit. You need to have had an on-screen credit in a title listed on the IMDb for your name to be recorded in the IMDb (although there is an exception to this for work before 1980). Once your name is on there for that listing then you can also list any other uncredited work that you did

"Why is there no personal/biographic information about person Y on the IMDb?"
Because nobody has submitted any - yet

Steve

[Moor Larkin]

You'll find most of the answers to your questions on the series's IMDB sites and... by doing Searches...on the internet...by yourselves... I'm sorry if that comes across as arrogant or know-all but I do know a lot about Softly Softly;

So what hymn is this bloody music from?........

It's funny actually because when I watched that music clip from yoohootube it didn't strike me as the music I remembered from Softly Softly, so were there three tunes by Fritz Spiegel? Or were they all just variations on a Z-string? I will accept your interpretation of the facts because I haven't got a bloody clue myself......

[Euryale]

It's Wither's Rocking Hymn by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Sung here by Olivia Newton John:



E.

[alan french]

Hi,
The original Z-Cars theme was from a Liverpudlian folk song called THE JOHNNY TODD THEME or JOHNNY TODD. It got in the charts circa 1962. It was played by Johnny Keating.

But as it has been stated more or less, there were two spin-offs. I get a little confused on this, but in at least one of them, if not both, the police headquarters was a building, which was known at the time as Shendish House. It was the sports and social club of my first employer John Dickinson; famous for Basildon Bond; and was a major employer here in Hemel Hempstead.

I am interested in the reference to place names in Essex for the titles. This is because during the mid 1960's, John Dickinson merged with a company called Robinson. It became The Dickinson Robinson Group aka DRG. Robinsons' had a building in Bristol. Someone informed me that the credits for one of the spin-offs was filmed from the Dickinson Robinson Building in Bristol. So now I am confused. But interested.

Alan French

[Mark O]

I am interested in the reference to place names in Essex for the titles. This is because during the mid 1960's, John Dickinson merged with a company called Robinson. It became The Dickinson Robinson Group aka DRG. Robinsons' had a building in Bristol. Someone informed me that the credits for one of the spin-offs was filmed from the Dickinson Robinson Building in Bristol. So now I am confused. But interested.

Alan French

So am I, I ascertained as we were directed to do on IMDB that the interior scenes for the original series were filmed at the BBC Television Centre at White City, presumably the 'Task force' interior scenes were filmed there also.

Confusion now reigns as the original series locations were filmed in the Bristol/Gloucestershire area, but going out to the Thames estuary to film the opening and closing scenes, miles and miles away, seems rather futile, unless there was some specific reason..