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Post by Bungle on Apr 21, 2006 21:27:00 GMT
Please tell me that people remember this slice of genius? The apocalypse on a Liverpool council estate! Teenage bumming! An exorcism! Oh, all sorts. So good that Channel 4 shunted it to 4am, and showed it in triple bills to get rid of it ASAP. Still makes me mad.
It's also made by pretty much anyone of importance to the new Doctor Who, and devised by Paul Abbott. Can you imagine them launching this now? It'd be the most popular thing ever.
I'm also desperately looking for the first six episodes.
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Post by sultenfuss on Apr 22, 2006 15:24:29 GMT
I vaguely remember it. I think you've got a clouded vision of what it was really like though. I remember the dialogue being sledge hammer like subtle and the acting of an Orlando Bloom standard. There was something set on an estate on BBC2 that was good though, I forget what it was called, it had a black comedy/bleak/surreal vibe goin' on also.
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Post by Bungle on Apr 22, 2006 15:50:07 GMT
Can't agree there, I love it. It's a hundred shades of brilliance. Sledgehammer-like subtle? Maybe, but it's also frequently hilarious.
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Post by Tracy-Ann Oberman on Apr 23, 2006 10:59:57 GMT
Thank you Bungle for bringing this up - everyone I mention this to thinks I must have been tripping or blatantly making it up!
It was on Channel 4 at 6pm when it started and as you say got moved to 3am or something.
Possibly my favourite soap evah, it was like Brookside on acid - witches! Swapped babies! Possessions! Fit teens bumming each other!
My memories of the specific storylines are vague now but I remember it had a really creepy atmosphere, sparkling bitchy dialogue and Eva Morrigan (the witch who came back to reclaim her children from Avaline from Bread) has to be the best soap bitch of all time.
I want a DVD now!
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Post by Bungle on Apr 23, 2006 14:03:24 GMT
Network DVD now own the rights to the Granada catalogue - I'm currently badgering them for a release. Emailing them at networkdvdenquiries@deluxemedia.com would be a help, as they're not convinced that there's an audience...
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Post by lowculture.co.uk on Apr 25, 2006 7:16:25 GMT
I pronouce Springhill "amazing", and forbid anyone to express any negative opinions about it on this messageboard. And that means YOU, Sultenfuss.
Seriously though, I just loved it! I have the second series on VHS but no video recorder, which is one of the greatest sadnesses in my life. I liked the fact that Eva Morrigan always wore black and Marian wore white, to signify who was evil and who was good. But! At the end it turned out they were both evil. Hurrah!
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Post by Nick on Apr 25, 2006 9:29:42 GMT
I vaguely remember seeing the last two or three minutes of an episode once. There were two (upper-end of the teenage scale, probably) boys. One of them was explaining that he was sick of having to watch men he fancied on TV, rather than actually fucking them. "I'm living like a twelve year-old girl!" he said unhappily. He made some overture to the other one. I can't remember what the other one said. The first one went upstairs. Something else happened, and then we saw the second boy going upstairs as well. To fuck him, presumably. And then it was the end. I THINK.
That was the only bit I ever saw, but I never forgot it, although I don't actually remember it, either.
Was it anything like Night and Day?
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Post by sultenfuss on Apr 25, 2006 15:36:53 GMT
Sincere apologies to one and all. Maybe I just didn't get it at the time? Though I am glad someone has brought up Night and day, now there's a show I effing loved. It got a "bit" mental towards the end, but it was so well written, cast and acted (particularly by the young cast) well accept Stuart Manning. I miss it.
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Post by Tracy-Ann Oberman on Apr 25, 2006 15:37:48 GMT
Was it anything like Night and Day? It was like Night and Day with the crucial difference being that it was really good.
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Post by Bungle on Apr 26, 2006 19:33:28 GMT
I vaguely remember seeing the last two or three minutes of an episode once. There were two (upper-end of the teenage scale, probably) boys. One of them was explaining that he was sick of having to watch men he fancied on TV, rather than actually fucking them. "I'm living like a twelve year-old girl!" he said unhappily. He made some overture to the other one. I can't remember what the other one said. The first one went upstairs. Something else happened, and then we saw the second boy going upstairs as well. To fuck him, presumably. And then it was the end. I THINK. That's a brilliant scene for the gays. Oh, I wish I'd seen it at the time as I'd have been the right age for a bit of bum talk like that. It won't surprise you to know that this scene (which is pretty much exactly as you've described) was written by Russell The Davies, and marks the point at which the series becomes amazingly good rather than just mad and great.
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Post by Tracy-Ann Oberman on Apr 26, 2006 19:37:05 GMT
I didn't know Russell T was involved in this, although that actually explains a lot!
I'm still just really pleased that other people have confirmed Springhill existed, sometimes I wondered whether I had dreamt it all...
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panda
Slabface
Where is CamRob?
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Post by panda on Jun 30, 2006 12:39:27 GMT
This series was indeed stunning though mucked about poorly by Channel 4. I seem to recall it sort of possessing my mind for about a year as I frequently rewatched some of the series 2 episodes on video.
Bits that stick in my head...
- When Marion the evil angel/cleaner sits down to a big family dinner and reveals that "these two boys have been sodomising each other!"
- Also a bit where the strange youngest son, John Paul, says very creepily "I keep dreaming about fire", only for someone to pipe up "I keep dreaming about Russ Abbot, it's driving me mad!"
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Post by Bungle on Jun 30, 2006 13:24:05 GMT
Yes Panda, yes!
Springhill's brilliance summed up in two scenes.
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Post by Bungle on Jun 30, 2006 14:56:32 GMT
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Post by raspberry on Jul 1, 2006 11:08:13 GMT
Thta was great, but nothing like I remember. I thought there were two mums, one being some kind of witch, and some kind of confusion about the kid's ages and materinity.
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Post by Bungle on Jul 1, 2006 11:12:23 GMT
There is/was... neither of the mums are in that scene. Most of the battles are in the first series.
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Post by [james] on Jul 1, 2006 11:21:08 GMT
I've never seen Springhill in my life (mainly because I think it was aired before I was born) but that clip is amazing. The shonky sets, the ominious music, the sodomy! It might just be me being uneducated in Springhill but the brother who said 'Anthony is no brutha of maahn' is the gayest sounding one on the show.
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Post by Bungle on Jul 1, 2006 11:28:21 GMT
You were not born after 1997!
John-Paul's campness is a source of much hilarity to my and my Springhill watching mate. He is, however, a brilliant character. You'd have to be completely heartless not to feel for him in the last episode.
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Post by [james] on Jul 1, 2006 11:30:50 GMT
1997? Geez. It has such a late 80s/early 90s feel to it. Although, in my defense, I was ten when it aired so I was probably wasn't going to be up at 4am watching religious-themed soap operas. It's a shame it's not coming out on DVD, I'd quite like to see it.
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Post by Bungle on Jul 1, 2006 11:40:39 GMT
I didn't see it on transmission either - I was given tapes for research on something, and they sat unwatched for over a year. What a wasted year!
The campaign goes on - networkdvdenquiries@deluxemedia.com are the people to ask, as they still think I'm a bit of a nutter.
I would love to see the series on DVD, not just for my own gains (I'm still missing three or four episodes) but also so the love could be spread at Lowculture. Honestly, you'd love the endings of each series. Proper big gay semi-supernatural drama.
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Golden Meg
Jane Asher
"pour me a port, Anne"
Posts: 102
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Post by Golden Meg on Jul 6, 2006 8:54:44 GMT
This looks brilliant! Where was I? Obviously wasting my time instead of watching this. Consider me on-board for the DVD petitioning.
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Post by Bungle on Jul 6, 2006 12:25:04 GMT
Seeing as it was shown at 4.30am you were probably sleeping!
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Post by Bungle on Sept 3, 2006 11:31:36 GMT
I finally got to see the first episode this afternoon.
Amazing
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Post by David on Sept 3, 2006 14:41:38 GMT
Am I right in thinking that Springhill was made straight after Families ended, so Granada used the same sets to save money?
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Post by Bungle on Sept 3, 2006 15:10:15 GMT
Sounds unlikely - Families finished in '93, and Springhill didn't start until '96. I can't see any particular similarity in the sets but I've not seen Families for about 15 years!
Sounds like the sort of thing Granada would do though, especially as Springhill's budget was... limited!
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