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Post by mikemk on Jul 12, 2004 15:17:04 GMT
- not to be confused with Howard's End, which is just a bit more upmarket. Britain's answer to Dynasty, set in the throbbing, vibrant city which never slept, er, Lymington, Hampshire. A simple tale of everyday rich folk who made boats and lots of money. Classic moment - Leo being pushed into the swimming pool in his white trousers, to which one character commented that "I can see your class". You could see more than his class once those kecks got wet, I can tell you. Oh and a jaunty nautical theme tune too.
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Post by QuincyMD on Jul 12, 2004 15:41:29 GMT
Top Howards Way moments:
1: Any moment Jack Rolfe said "this is my boatyard!" (which admittedly was a third of his lines.) 2: The fashion designer being run over by a Speedboat. 3: When Gerald found his balls and finally shafted Charles and that horrible wife of his. 4: Kate O'Mara 5: Ken Masters , a genius creation, scripted to be the most hated man on TV and played to oily perfection by Stephen Yardley.
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Post by zaffra on Jul 13, 2004 14:50:33 GMT
Speaking of boats and Kate O'Mara, do you remember her Triangle?
No, the series about a boat that went from Felixstowe to Gothenburg and Amsterdam.
Shot on location (in the middle of the north sea) it was supposed to be a glamourous alternative to Dallas or Dynasty, in reality the production values were poor and the cast looked freezing cold most of the time.
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Post by mikemk on Jul 13, 2004 15:26:53 GMT
I'll always remember the opening scene as the camera swept in across a very grey looking North Sea onto the deck of a filthy old ferry where the lovely Kate O'Mara was sunbathing topless (baps down).
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Lisa
Slabface
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Post by Lisa on Jul 23, 2004 1:21:26 GMT
Oh and a jaunty nautical theme tune too. My sister and I had an extremely hilarious lyrical accompaniment to that tune: 'Howard's Way Should go on holiday. Cos all it's creepy credits Are enough for today.' It's hilarious when you're seven, and genius now.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2004 11:00:08 GMT
My sister and I had an extremely hilarious lyrical accompaniment to that tune: 'Howard's Way Should go on holiday. Cos all it's creepy credits Are enough for today.' It's hilarious when you're seven, and genius now. That is even better than the relyricised version of Fun House I used to sing with my best friend at that age. (FYI, it went "Fun House, it's a whole lot of cack / You have to give the prizes back / It's a really rubbish show / Where anything will go.")
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Post by Nick on Jul 23, 2004 11:45:40 GMT
That is even better than the relyricised version of Fun House I used to sing with my best friend at that age. (FYI, it went "Fun House, it's a whole lot of cack / You have to give the prizes back / It's a really rubbish show / Where anything will go.") Though not as good as the Brookside lyrics we (I) invented after they fiddled around with the theme tune circa 1990 to make it more Casio keyboardy and less like an air-raid siren: "Brookside, Brookside, Brookside, Brooksi-ide / Brookside, Brookside, Brookside, Bro-okside / (Brookside, Brookside, Brookside) / Bro-okside, Brookside, Brookside, Brookside, Brooksi-i-i-ide!" If you look at the word Brookside too much, it stops making any sense. Much like the soap, really. Anyway, I remember the majestic chug of the Howard's Way opening theme, and the crazy playboyish rock'n'roll version that played out over the end credits, but that's all I remember. Though I'm guessing there were quite a few deck shoes involved somewhere along the line. I want to remember more. Was it a Sunday night thing?
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Post by klee on Jul 28, 2004 16:17:59 GMT
So I take it none of you can remember the Marti Feldman? Pellow? Webb sung version of the theme tune Always There.
Jan Mark was my runaway favourite. True British glamour (for that read buck teeth, Jaeger scarves and a perm the wind swept through a very long time ago).
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Post by mikemk on Jul 29, 2004 7:54:19 GMT
So I take it none of you can remember the Marti Feldman? Pellow? Webb sung version of the theme tune Always There. Jan Mark was my runaway favourite. True British glamour (for that read buck teeth, Jaeger scarves and a perm the wind swept through a very long time ago). If only it had been Marti Feldman. (Hard to imagine, but he did actually make records back in the old days - my Dad had a copy of one which included such delights as "There's a big brown thing in the coal shed" and him singing the label on an HP sauce bottle in French as if it were a love song. I kid you not.)
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Post by max on Aug 2, 2004 17:56:28 GMT
Anyway, I remember the majestic chug of the Howard's Way opening theme, and the crazy playboyish rock'n'roll version that played out over the end credits, but that's all I remember. Though I'm guessing there were quite a few deck shoes involved somewhere along the line. I want to remember more. Was it a Sunday night thing? yes, i think the song was called "always there", i have a vague memory that "marti webb" sung it, because i remember stuff i read in credits, i have no idea who she actually is. EDIT - doh, really must learn to read to the end of the thread before replying. i always fancied the blonde woman (tracey something)who married the french bloke ? mind you, i was very young... was Jan Mark the horsey looking woman who was married to tom? (i think she was tracey something's mum too)
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Post by QuincyMD on Aug 3, 2004 10:16:16 GMT
Tracey Childs was Howard Jr.
She had an affair with Charles Frere then married the Frenchman, he was killed by a speedboat and then she sailed the Atlantic single handed.
In real life she married Tony Anholt who played Charles Frere despite him being 25 years older. It didn't last but she was at his bedside when he died a couple of years ago from a brain tumour.
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Ben
Jane Asher
Posts: 169
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Post by Ben on Oct 13, 2006 12:17:46 GMT
"Howards' Way... it's bloody Howards' Way...."
Simon May's theme tune is a classic, as is this delightfully cheesy, chintzy British take on the 80's glamour soap following the ups and downs of some crappy boatyard amidst the intrigues of the inhabitants of real "gin-and-Jag" country down in deepest Hampshire. In its own staunchly BBC way, it really does evoke that period of the rising middle-classes and the money and power they chased.
It all kicks off with the exceptionally wooden Tom Howard and his mid-life crisis, sinking all his "golden handshake" redundancy money into the Mermaid boatyard, ran by the gravel-voiced alcoholic Jack "This is my yard!" Rolfe and his yummy daughter Avril, who shivers Tom's timbers no end.
The rest of the Howard family comprises Tom's status-conscious spouse Jan, whose "story arc" is a tale of emancipation via capitalism, developing from unfulfilled housewife (in the first episode she chastises her children for not "stacking the dishwasher") to shoulder-padded fashion house diva amidst the "glamour" of the rag trade. The kids are drippy, fish-eyed Leo, whose boy-to-man story involves him dropping his green Friend of the Earth principles and becoming a yuppie powerboat salesman, and Lynne, a pouty, busty beauty obsessed with her pursuit of sailing. ("Dad. I don't think I could love any man as much as I love the Flying Fish.")
Then there's zeitgeist-defining medallion wearing "Loadsamoney" opportunistic chancer Ken Masters, ruthless smoothie Charles Frere, Tom's sensible mother-in-law played the divine Dulcie "Now come along, man, pull your socks up!" Gray, gay Gerald Urquhart, the "Smithers" to Charles Frere's "Mr. Burns" and his troubled, illegitimate daughter Abby, who's meant to be sympathetic but is a complete pain in the butt throughout and his alarmingly vacuous wife - the wonderfully arch, bitchy and scheming Polly.
All in all, a great show and when the plotting gets a tad too convoluted, there's always a nice boating scene and a burst of syrupy incidental music to enjoy.
Series 1-3 (out of 6) are out on DVD right now. Buy them!!
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Ben
Jane Asher
Posts: 169
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Post by Ben on Mar 4, 2007 17:53:55 GMT
I've been rewatching the DVDs and this is a hilarious, brilliant, much underrated 80's soapy serial. I do hope the second half of the series (more shoulder-pads, more glossy location filming in Malta and Gibraltar - this was where the BBC was spending its petty cash back in the late 1980's - and Kate O'Mara) makes it onto DVD.
"Always there. Your love is always there."
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Post by pauliepoos on Mar 4, 2007 18:11:59 GMT
I will always love this series for bringing the much underused word Boutique to my attention.
And did everyone know that young Freddie Highmore, star of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland is the son of Leo Howard himself?
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Ben
Jane Asher
Posts: 169
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Post by Ben on Mar 4, 2007 18:30:01 GMT
A fine series and the possibility for DVD extras is endless.
A "drag'n'drop" menu where you can select a medallion and vile Noel Edmonds sweater for Ken Masters or dress Jan Howard with gowns and accessories from her boutique.
Or instructions for a Howards' Way drinking game. Take a swig when one of the characters says:
“I built this business up from scratch….” “This could destroy all I’ve worked for.” “Two can play at that game.” “If Tom Howard/Jack Rolfe/Charles Frere/Ken Masters etc. wants a fight, he can have one!” "I'll teach him/her a lesson he/she won't forget!"
Or when:
Jack Rolfe gets sloshed.
Abby Urquhart is feeling moody and miserable (practically every scene she was in).
Kate Harvey is dispensing some sound advice to Tom, Jan or Jack Rolfe.
Gerald Urquhart or Avril Rolfe are talking about share prices, business portfolios etc.
Jan Howard is fretting over the organisation of her fashion house's latest collection.
Better have an ambulance standing by in advance.
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Ben
Jane Asher
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Post by Ben on Mar 4, 2007 18:38:49 GMT
And did everyone know that young Freddie Highmore, star of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland is the son of Leo Howard himself? I see your Edward Highmore and I raise with the fact that Nigel Davenport (Sir Edward Frere) is the father of Jack "Miles in This Life" Davenport.
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Post by QuincyMD on Mar 6, 2007 15:36:19 GMT
Drinking Game : Add :
Every time Charles Frere walks into a room carrying a briefcase. Someone is drinking Champagne. You see a Powerboat (excludes titles). The incidental music is a slowed down version of the main theme. You can see the hair chest on the Masters.
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Post by latoyajunkie on Mar 13, 2007 10:11:18 GMT
It gets so much better when Kate O' Mara is in it. I must of seen all the way through at least twice, my mother loves it!
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Ben
Jane Asher
Posts: 169
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Post by Ben on Mar 13, 2007 13:14:38 GMT
I will always love this series for bringing the much underused word Boutique to my attention. Yes, Paul, but have you bought the DVDs? If not, please do so.
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Post by jetsetwilly on Mar 13, 2007 14:06:46 GMT
It gets so much better when Kate O' Mara is in it. Doesn't everything, though?
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Post by Adrian on Mar 13, 2007 17:14:15 GMT
I will always love this series for bringing the much underused word Boutique to my attention. Yes, Paul, but have you bought the DVDs? If not, please do so. Do you work for a DVD company or something? A
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Post by latoyajunkie on Mar 13, 2007 17:32:01 GMT
It gets so much better when Kate O' Mara is in it. Doesn't everything, though? I couldn't agree more! I think they should bring her back in Dr Who before she gets sent to a nursing home, not long now...
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Ben
Jane Asher
Posts: 169
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Post by Ben on Mar 13, 2007 17:53:44 GMT
Yes, Paul, but have you bought the DVDs? If not, please do so. Do you work for a DVD company or something? A No. But there hasn't been any news since series three was released last year. Perhaps if more people bought it, they might hurry up and release the rest of the series. It'd be a shame if they stopped because HW really does shift gear during its latter half, and then of course Kate O'Mara turns up in series five.
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Ben
Jane Asher
Posts: 169
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Post by Ben on Mar 16, 2007 13:18:36 GMT
The word from the BBC is that they are currently reviewing their plans to release the latter half of the series on DVD based on sales figures for the first half and will make their decision within a month or so.
So if anybody else wants to see the full series out, please buy series 1-3.
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Post by QuincyMD on Mar 16, 2007 15:07:19 GMT
It's like a Relton Marine shareholders meeting.
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