The Plane Makers

[glyn horton]

Network have put this, the prequel to The Power Game, up on their site for release in June! It's a website exclusive and features all of series 2 with the one surviving ep from series 1 as an extra. Hopefully we'll see more soon

[darrenburnfan]

I don't know if I'm able to paste in YouTube videoes anymore, but here goes. The wonderful theme music to The Plane Makers, if you're old enough to remember it from 46 to 47 years ago, is Citizens of the World by Trevor Duncan.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fy0ilyuyfQ

[Nick Dando]

name='darrenburnfan' date='21 June 2010 - 01:35 PM' timestamp='1277123725' post='442418']

I don't know if I'm able to paste in YouTube videoes anymore, but here goes. The wonderful theme music to The Plane Makers, if you're old enough to remember it from 46 to 47 years ago, is Citizens of the World by Trevor Duncan.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fy0ilyuyfQ

I'd say that you weren't able to post it in. The link wasn't visible until I started to create this reply. I copied and tried the link but it said it was malformed at the YouTube site. Have another go.



Nick

[darrenburnfan]

name='Nick Dando' date='21 June 2010 - 05:07 PM' timestamp='1277136432' post='442486']

I'd say that you weren't able to post it in. The link wasn't visible until I started to create this reply. I copied and tried the link but it said it was malformed at the YouTube site. Have another go.



Nick

That's strange, it shows up perfectly on my computer. Copied and pasted from Network's YouTube pages.

[darrenburnfan]

Well, here's another go at it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fy0ilyuyfQ

[marker]

name='darrenburnfan' date='21 June 2010 - 05:38 PM' timestamp='1277138328' post='442491']

That's strange, it shows up perfectly on my computer. Copied and pasted from Network's YouTube pages.

Your first attempt worked ok for me

[darrenburnfan]

name='marker' date='21 June 2010 - 07:03 PM' timestamp='1277143401' post='442526']

Your first attempt worked ok for me

Maybe Nick's computer had a fit on it. I've emailed others to ask if they can see it and it shows up alright for them.

[dpgmel]

name='darrenburnfan' date='21 June 2010 - 07:10 PM' timestamp='1277143809' post='442527']

Maybe Nick's computer had a fit on it. I've emailed others to ask if they can see it and it shows up alright for them.

..and for me worked fine

[Nick Dando]

name='darrenburnfan' date='21 June 2010 - 06:06 PM' timestamp='1277139960' post='442501']

Well, here's another go at it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fy0ilyuyfQ

Well the link works, but I still have to start a reply to see the weblink. There has to be something amiss, so I'll try quitting Safari (after posting this message to see what happens.



Nick

[Nick Dando]

name='Nick Dando' date='21 June 2010 - 09:24 PM' timestamp='1277151887' post='442589']

Well the link works, but I still have to start a reply to see the weblink. There has to be something amiss, so I'll try quitting Safari (after posting this message to see what happens.



Nick

Restarting Safari has done the trick.



Nick

[JohnB_Toronto]

name='darrenburnfan' date='21 June 2010 - 08:35 AM' timestamp='1277123725' post='442418']

The wonderful theme music to The Plane Makers, if you're old enough to remember it from 46 to 47 years ago, is Citizens of the World by Trevor Duncan.

A very good light classical composer. He features on several CDs that I have of light orchestral music. His best known piece is probably his "Little March" which is remembered as the theme music for Doctor Finlay's Casebook. I've never seen The Plane Makers but I think I'd like to, if only to hear the theme.

[darrenburnfan]

name='JohnB_Toronto' date='22 June 2010 - 12:35 PM' timestamp='1277206524' post='442791']

A very good light classical composer. He features on several CDs that I have of light orchestral music. His best known piece is probably his "Little March" which is remembered as the theme music for Doctor Finlay's Casebook. I've never seen The Plane Makers but I think I'd like to, if only to hear the theme.

I haven't seen it for decades, John, in fact, not since its original transmission. But I remember it as a fine, character driven and well acted drama series and I loved the music to it. I have "Citizens of the World" on a Trevor Duncan CD that was released about five years ago. The Plane Makers theme was so popular at the time that I feel sure it must have been released on a single during 1963 or 1964, but if it was, I've never come across it in all my many years of record collecting. However, the theme music to the sequel series The Power Game, was released on a single on the Pye label in 1966. If anyone here knows if The Plane Makers theme was released on a single, please let me know.

[darrenburnfan]

I tried to order The Plane Makers DVD set directly from Network, as it's a Network exclusive, but, having bought quite a few DVD sets off them in the past, I forgot my password and requested a new password that never came through. So I created a new account using my secondary email address. However, I found that their payment system, which operates through something called WorldPay, wouldn't let me pay for the item with the MasterCard credit card I've used to pay for things off them before and kept asking for my LloydsTSB ClickSafe number, which, whatever that is, I don't have. So the payment wouldn't go through and I cancelled the order. I won't be buying anything off Network directly again. So I looked on amazon uk and luckily, a Market Place seller in the UK called CULTtvDVD, who has 100% Positive Feedback, had a copy in stock for the same price, £34:99 plus postage costs. So I've bought it off him now. Network must lose a lot of sales with their ridiculous WorldPay payment system. They should move onto PayPal and then they'd sell a lot more.

[darrenburnfan]

Well, I received my copy of The Plane Makers Volume One a couple of days ago and am now halfway through disc two of the four disc set. This should be regarded as a serial rather than a series as the storyline follows on in each episode. The storylines are very well written and the acting is top notch, especially by Patrick Wymark; Barbara Murray and Reginald Marsh. However, one thing looks very out of place after forty-seven years. The main characters, especially Wymark's character, John Wilder, are forever drinking and smoking and seem to get through two bottles of Scotch and sixty cigarettes during every episode. Example: Wymark comes into the office (or the lounge of his home) and immediately lights up and pours himself a drink. Then, during the course of his conversation with his colleagues, or his wife; or his fellow board members, he has another drink and another. In theory, he should be absolutely sloshed and collapsed on the floor after all this alcohol comsumption, but he drinks it all like it's water (well, of course it is water). I think it was the fashion back then for the characters to be continually pouring a drink while talking or lighting up a cigarette while talking so that the actors would have something to do with their hands while delivering their lines. Of course, they never get drunk no matter how many Scotches they consume and never have a coughing fit even though they are obviously chain smokers (the cigarettes, unlike the "Scotch", are real enough). If Wymark was as much of a heavy drinker and smoker off screen as he was on screen, then I'm not surprised he had a fatal heart attack in 1970. A damn fine actor, though.



The contents of the DVD set: All episodes are in monochrome and oddly, although they were probably taped in 405 lines, there is no sign of this in the image and the image is as clear as a 625 line picture. Only the first episode of series one (from February, 1963) has survived and that's been included on Disc One as an extra. There's no sign of Patrick Wymark in this episode and the theme music is very different. A sort of John Barry Seven rock n roll type number. Also, the episode is all set on the shop floor with no scenes in the office. The set contains the first thirteen episodes of series two (September to December, 1963) and Wymark appears at the start of the second series, which also features the famous Trevor Duncan "Citizens of the World" music as the series main and end titles music. The series was all filmed on videotape at the time and all the episodes on this compilation seemed to be very well done telerecordings of those tapes. Outdoors location videotaping looks a bit odd, like an underexposed photograph, but the interior scenes are perfect. Considering the age of the source material, the picture and sound quality are very clear indeed and I highly recommend this release even if you're not old enough to remember seeing the series when it was first transmitted. I just wonder why it has never been repeated on television. Disc four also contains two image galleries of stills and behind the scenes photos of the episodes.

[thatllbetheday]

Does anyone else remember that originally The Planemakers was set on the factory floor. It was set to be part of the 'kitchen sink/gritty realism' dramas that were actually becoming rather predictable by the early to mid-sixties. The first five or six episodes all concerned the workers then someone came up with the idea of a confrontation between the union representative (Reginald Marsh) and the managing director, John Wilder (Wymark). The episode was electric. From then on, through series one, the episodes alternated between floor and office (I only watched the office ones). By series two the factory floor had been left behind though Reginald Marsh's character was retained for dramatic tension. A legend had been born.

[stuartfanning]

We get to see Don Henderson's snobby wife in the episode 'The Cat's Away'. She is only mentioned in The Power Game but never seen!