TP McKenna RIP

[Stillhomewardbound]

Gosh! You're too kind to post this Caliban.

The business with the arm in the sling, by the way ... a genuine and ultimately very serious injury for Dad thanks to a pre-shoot party that got out of hand.

While it was regarded as just a dislocation to begin with, it ended up being the nastiest of aneurisms and eventually a seven-hour operation in which a a 6 inch length of vein was taken from the inner thigh and transplanted in to the shoulder to replace the damaged artery there.

It was touch and go stuff and I can still hear my mother's tears on the phone in Dublin when she had just spoken to the surgeon prior to the operation. 1971 that was. 40 years ago!

[Stillhomewardbound]

For the fun of it ... meet Stillhomewardbound, aged 5!!

[Nick Armstrong]

Gosh! You're too kind to post this Caliban.

The business with the arm in the sling, by the way ... a genuine and ultimately very serious injury for Dad thanks to a pre-shoot party that got out of hand.

While it was regarded as just a dislocation to begin with, it ended up being the nastiest of aneurisms and eventually a seven-hour operation in which a a 6 inch length of vein was taken from the inner thigh and transplanted in to the shoulder to replace the damaged artery there.

It was touch and go stuff and I can still hear my mother's tears on the phone in Dublin when she had just spoken to the surgeon prior to the operation. 1971 that was. 40 years ago!

Yes I saw a mention of the injury on the imdb page about the film...

So the sling during the making of Straw Dogs was still during supposed 'dislocation'? With the ghastly sounding op somewhat later?

[Nick Armstrong]

YAY! One of the episodes of 'Minder' I recorded over the holiday stars TP... as the no-doubt dodgy "J.J. Mooney" in an episode called "Sorry Pal, Wrong Number"...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jOEeY8qrvXo/TIq2API3A0I/AAAAAAAAAck/d_Qp1jKQi8A/s1600/001-3.jpg

Looking forward to seeing another classic performance!

[amateur51]

YAY! One of the episodes of 'Minder' I recorded over the holiday stars TP... as the no-doubt dodgy "J.J. Mooney" in an episode called "Sorry Pal, Wrong Number"...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jOEeY8qrvXo/TIq2API3A0I/AAAAAAAAAck/d_Qp1jKQi8A/s1600/001-3.jpg

Looking forward to seeing another classic performance!

I loved this series but have been reluctant to catch up with it more recently in case my memory didn't match the faded reality. I'd welcome a critical appraisal please, Caliban

Have I ever told you about the time I travelled in the same train carriage as 'Dave'?

[Serial_Apologist]

I loved this series but have been reluctant to catch up with it more recently in case my memory didn't match the faded reality. I'd welcome a critical appraisal please, Caliban

Have I ever told you about the time I travelled in the same train carriage as 'Dave'?

West Lunnun - common territory ams, innit - though tbh I missed the whole first series from the late 70s/early 80s, not having yet acquired a telly, and in retrospect wasn't as keen on the second, located nearer to your district than the first, Shepherd's Bush, nearer the childhood mine in era and geography. The Thatcher era seemed to turn the wonderful eccentric earlier Cole character into something darker and less easy to laugh off, and I missed Dennis Waterman as the literal sidekick.

[eighthobstruction]

yep fond memories SHB....peace at last....

[Stillhomewardbound]

There was an excellent Mark Lawson interview with George Cole last year and he was very interesting on his career but particularly on his work on Minder. A product of the wonderful Euston Films.

Just before Christmas I managed to track down a theatre programme for TP's fourth appearance on the London stage in 1965 (at the Garrick) when he replaced Kenneth Haigh as the Burglar in Frank Dunlop's Edinburgh Festival production of Shaw's Too True To Be Good and took his place alongside George Cole, James Bolam and [NAME DROP ALERT] Alastair Sim.

Yes, I was very proud to see that castlist.

And a good time to recall those names given the passing of Ronald Searle and St.Trinians with Sim's wonderful drag performance ('Girls, girls, girls!!') and Cole as the marvellous Flash Harry. A character so wonderfully crooked and devious that he had his own theme - like a barrel organ with a bag of spanners thrown in.

[amateur51]

There was an excellent Mark Lawson interview with George Cole last year and he was very interesting on his career but particularly on his work on Minder. A product of the wonderful Euston Films.

Just before Christmas I managed to track down a theatre programme for TP's fourth appearance on the London stage in 1965 (at the Garrick) when he replaced Kenneth Haigh as the Burglar in Frank Dunlop's Edinburgh Festival production of Shaw's Too True To Be Good and took his place alongside George Cole, James Bolam and [NAME DROP ALERT] Alastair Sim.

Yes, I was very proud to see that castlist.

And a good time to recall those names given the passing of Ronald Searle and St.Trinians with Sim's wonderful drag performance ('Girls, girls, girls!!') and Cole as the marvellous Flash Harry. A character so wonderfully crooked and devious that he had his own theme - like a barrel organ with a bag of spanners thrown in.

Great stuff, shb - I loved Sim & Cole in those films but the first Rupert Everett remake was the only film I have ever walked out of - total travesty (if you see what I mean )

[Nick Armstrong]

Great stuff, shb - I loved Sim & Cole in those films but the first Rupert Everett remake was the only film I have ever walked out of - total travesty (if you see what I mean )

It's a bit of a tangent, but that remake is a shocker, I lasted about 90 seconds.

The Sim-Cole "St Trinians" on the other hand: classic. There may be one or two on over the next week I should think, in memoriam the great Searle!

Interesting to see them on stage with your pa, SHB - of course Cole was a protégé and sort of surrogate son to Mr & Mrs Sim, wasn't he? Would love to see that Lawson show, hope BBC4 repeat it.

[Nick Armstrong]

I loved this series but have been reluctant to catch up with it more recently in case my memory didn't match the faded reality. I'd welcome a critical appraisal please, Caliban

Have I ever told you about the time I travelled in the same train carriage as 'Dave'?

I've seen a good few again lately. When they were first on, I was a nipper up in Nottingham... now I know Arthur's manor like the back of me wotsit, it's fascinating just to see West London back then (one has Lancaster Gate as a location)... plus the general nostalgia: the motors, the adverts, the newsagents etc.

The programmes themselves are variable, of course. One or two duds but more than one or two gems. The one where Arthur is conned by two northern gents at The Winchester into going to kidnap a prize bull out in the country is priceless. Your mate Dave (Glyn Edwards) much in evidence... Or the one where quite apart from the main plot, Arthur is knocking out garish tweed jackets.... and more and more people in the show are wearing them... till at the end just about everyone in The Winchester has one, as well as a couple of coppers... Double-takes all round, but no one ever says anything

The ones with Patrick Malahide (effortlessly sleazy then, as now albeit rather differently in the latest 'Endeavour') as Mister Chisholm from the nick are especially good... the Cole-Malahide eyeball to eyeball routines just as good as the Allam-Malahide version this week.

And above all, George Cole's reactions and one liners. I could watch them all day and night.

DS Morley: Why is it that everyone seems to take such an instant dislike to me?
Arthur Daley: Saves time.

I can't wait to see George C and TP McK sparring!

[Stillhomewardbound]

I only saw it the once when it originally transmitted and I don't recall it being a vintage episode particularly, though I think its a good enough storyline.

You'll notice that the shooting territory for Minder is the same as that for The Sweeney as the Euston Films production centre was located in that district

[vinteuil]

You'll notice that the shooting territory for Minder is the same as that for The Sweeney as the Euston Films production centre was located in that district

... part of it very much my old manor - I used to live in Brook Green, and always delighted in the opening credits of Minder, filmed a few hundred yards away (to be specific, in Augustine Rd looking north towards Blythe Rd... ).

Which is the Alastair Sim / George Cole film where Sim is the mad assassin and Cole the vacuum salesman who defeats him??

[amateur51]

Which is the Alastair Sim / George Cole film where Sim is the mad assassin and Cole the vacuum salesman who defeats him??

You been hitting the wine gums again, vints?

[mercia]

Which is the Alastair Sim / George Cole film where Sim is the mad assassin and Cole the vacuum salesman who defeats him??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Man_(film)