burn after viewing (or, preferably, don't)

Oh, BBC¹, how your old 1960s-1970s habit of wiping programs makes me sad. Apparently there are hardly any episodes left of the first two series of Callan (which is sort of like the bastard child of kitchen-sink drama and John Le Carré, and stars Edward Woodward and the brilliant Anthony Valentine) and none whatsoever of Codename (another spy drama, also starring Anthony Valentine, and produced by Gerard Glaister who later made Colditz and Secret Army).

It's so frustrating to know something was recorded and so could still exist, but doesn't because people chose to discard it. It's a different feeling from "Oh, how I wish I could have seen Antony Sher play Shylock in 1987," because with the latter there's not the same feeling that it ought to still be possible.


¹ETA: Oops, Callan wasn't actually a BBC show, it was made by ABC Weekend Television, later Thames Television. Apparently burnination was a widespread British TV habit. The Beeb still gets the blame for wiping all of Codename, though.

some things

1) This afternoon I finished reading The Cruise of the Condor, the second Biggles book in publication order after The Camels Are Coming (the latter is aka, to me anyway, Biggles Develops War Neurosis). It predates W. E. Johns's decision to retcon Biggles as an invulnerable hero for boys, so there are a large number of moments in which Biggles is terrified, creeped out, upset, or depressed. ( I made a list of Things That Scare Biggles )

2) I have now watched 4 episodes of Callan, and I am badly in need of Callan/Meres hatesex fic. (Really it would be more like "I hate you but grudgingly respect you sometimes, and even though I literally use pictures of you for target practice I want to keep working with you and therefore will keep you around by coercion if necessary" sex.) I know that Meres is supposed to be a bad guy, and I haven't missed that he's a vicious bastard under the slightly oily charm, but . . . it's Anthony Valentine! I can't hate characters played by Anthony Valentine! Also, when Meres is bored he plays cat's cradle by himself and it's the dorkiest thing ever.

There is also ample justification for shipping Callan with his weird little friend/pet, a burglar aptly nicknamed Lonely who has all the social graces of a flea but of whom Callan is enormously protective. The show does put up a huge (deliberate?) eroticism barrier between them by frequently mentioning that Lonely stinks--he sweats when he's nervous, and he's always nervous. But Callan could always make him have a bath first, I suppose. And afterwards. And, if possible, during.

3) It seems that in 1983 there was an ITV show called Chessgame, another spy show starring Terence Stamp (!), Michael Culver (who later played one of my favorite characters in Secret Army), and a young Robin Sachs (!!!! later to play Ethan Rayne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I think you can guess what's next on my viewing agenda. Although I also need to watch the WWII fighter-pilot drama Piece of Cake, and finish watching Dunkirk, and possibly read the ginormous book about Dunkirk that I got from the library, not to mention listening to the radio adaptation of Graham Greene's play The Return of A. J. Raffles, wherein Raffles is gay. Canonically gay. Ah, well, having too much to watch and read is so much nicer than the opposite problem.