[dhosek]

I was just thinking about Danger UXB recently and remember watching it on PBS with my Mom. Another show of that era that I remember loving was the miniseries of the Barchester Chronicles (adapting the first two of Trollope’s Barsetshire novels). During the DVD-by-mail era of Netflix, I revisited that one and it still held up, although I did not at the time realize just how star-studded the cast was.

[ahartmetz]

I should mention that all of the programs that I mentioned are things that I watched for the first time about 7 years ago at most. So in my case, nostalgia doesn't play into it. There aren't many things that I watched as a kid that I'd consider brilliant today. The (original) TV series of Das Boot comes to mind and Todesspiel, a docudrama about a crisis situation with the RAF aka Baader-Meinhof group, of the eponymous effect ;)

[nephihaha]

I think one has to cut old series some slack. I tend to find they come with slower pacing and can be very set-bound in some cases. That is partly because the old cameras used to be much bulkier. However, I think the acting is often better than today so there is some trade off.

The Baader-Meinhof series is good. I enjoyed the film they made about them some years ago. I was impressed by how nuanced it was, i.e. showing all the various angles.

[dhosek]

I remember during the audio commentary for one of the Peter Davison–era Doctor Who stories,¹ Davison commenting that in the 60s/70s the acting on the BBC was more theatrical than cinematic. After hearing that, I could never unsee it.

⸻

1. The Davison-era audio commentaries are a hoot. You can tell that he, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Matthew Waterhouse are delighted to be back together again (and Fielding always seems like she’s shone up with a bottle and a half of wine, having drunk that first half).