Triangle | |
---|---|
Genre | Soap opera |
Created by | Bill Sellars |
Directed by | Marc Miller John Bird Andrew Morgan Darrol Blake Terence Dudley [1] |
Starring | Kate O'Mara Larry Lamb Michael Craig Paul Jerricho |
Opening theme | Johnny Pearson |
Composer | Johnny Pearson |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of series | 3 |
No. of episodes | 78 |
Production | |
Producer | Bill Sellars |
Production location | MS Tor Scandinavia |
Running time | 25 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | BBC1 |
Release | 5 January 1981 – 6 July 1983 |
Triangle is a BBC Television soap opera broadcast in the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry that sailed from Felixstowe to Gothenburg and Gothenburg to Amsterdam. A third imaginary leg existed between Amsterdam and Felixstowe to justify the programme's title, but this was not operated by the ferry company. The show ran for three series before being cancelled, but is still generally remembered as "some of the most mockable British television ever produced". The scripts involved clichéd relationships and stilted dialogue, making the show the butt of several jokes—particularly on Terry Wogan's morning Radio 2 programme—which caused some embarrassment to the BBC. [2] (BBC Classic sitcom Are You Being Served? in Season 8, Episode 1 "Is It Catching?", hinted at the show being nausea-inducing for more reasons than just its setting. Even the anarchic BBC sitcom The Young Ones poked fun at the series, when one character says, "Even Triangle has better furniture than this!")
In 1992, the BBC screened TV Hell , an evening of programming devoted to the worst that television had to offer, and the first episode of Triangle was broadcast as part of the line-up.
The ferry used in the first series was the Tor Line's MS Tor Scandinavia. This was replaced in the second and third series by the DFDS vessel Dana Anglia (DFDS having acquired Tor Line by this time), probably because she had a less intensive schedule, and the longer time she spent in port made on-board filming easier. [1]
Interviewed for a TV Hell segment in 1992, the show's producer, Bill Sellars, and the leading actor, Larry Lamb, spoke of several problems with the show's production.
Using a ferry as the setting for a television series had originally looked like a promising idea. The regular cast, playing the crew, could be joined by a constantly changing guest cast playing the passengers as the ship sailed to interesting European locations (a format used in the American series The Love Boat ). Advances in portable video cameras and recording equipment meant that the show could be videotaped on board a real ferry with more realism than using studio sets and more cheaply than using the 16mm film that was normal for location television drama at the time.
Unfortunately, the plan was revealed to be flawed almost as soon as location shooting—largely conducted in the North Sea—began. The inclement weather made the exterior scenes appear gloomy and dull, and far from glamorous. In making the first episode, Kate O'Mara had to endure a scene in which she sunbathes topless on a clearly freezing deck.
Another problem involved lighting. The cameras were perfectly comfortable with either natural or artificial lighting conditions, but a mixture of the two always produced unnatural-looking colour. The video cameras of the day did not cope well with contrasting light levels between inside and outside, so interior scenes often had to be shot with the windows or portholes curtained—so that as far as the audience was concerned they might as well have been shot in a studio anyway.
The relatively new "electronic field production" portable video technology (used for location footage in place of the traditional 16mm film) also exhibited serious problems—owing to, amongst other things, the movement of the ship which disrupted the stability of the video recorders. [3] Rough seas also induced seasickness in many of the production crew, making shooting an uncomfortable experience.
The programme was broadcast every Monday and Wednesday.
Michael Craig and Larry Lamb were the only cast members to appear in all 78 episodes of Triangle. Kate O'Mara left at the beginning of the second series.
Starring
Recurring cast listed alphabetically:
|
|
A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television.
Are You Being Served? is a British television sitcom that was broadcast from 1972 to 1985. It was created and written by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd. Croft also served as executive producer and director. Michael Knowles and John Chapman also wrote certain episodes. Produced by the BBC, the series starred Mollie Sugden, Trevor Bannister, Frank Thornton, John Inman, Wendy Richard, Arthur Brough, Nicholas Smith, Larry Martyn, Harold Bennett and Arthur English.
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and white from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974 in colour. The lead roles were played by Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. The theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 poll by the BBC to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the United States as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert, in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon, in Portugal as Camilo & Filho, and in South Africa as Snetherswaite and Son. Two film adaptations of the series were released in cinemas, Steptoe and Son (1972) and Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973).
The Young Ones is a British sitcom written by Rik Mayall, Ben Elton, and Lise Mayer, starring Adrian Edmondson, Mayall, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan, and Alexei Sayle, and broadcast on BBC Two for two series, first shown in 1982 and 1984. The show focused on the lives of four dissimilar students and their landlord's family on different plots that often included anarchic, offbeat, surreal humour. The show often included slapstick gags, visual humour and surreal jokes sometimes acted out by puppets, with each episode also featuring a notable selection of guest stars and musical numbers from various performers.
All Gas and Gaiters is a British television ecclesiastical sitcom which aired on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. It was written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, a husband-and-wife team who used the pseudonym of John Wraith when writing the pilot. All Gas and Gaiters was also broadcast on BBC Radio from 1971 to 1972.
Kate O'Mara was an English film, stage and television actress, and writer. O'Mara made her stage debut in a 1963 production of The Merchant of Venice. Her other stage roles included Elvira in Blithe Spirit (1974), Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (1982), Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra (1982), Goneril in King Lear (1987), and Marlene Dietrich in Lunch with Marlene (2008).
Springwatch, Autumnwatch until 2022 and Winterwatch, sometimes known collectively as The Watches, are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The programmes are broadcast live from locations around the country in a primetime evening slot on BBC Two. They require a crew of 100 and over 50 cameras, making them the BBC's largest British outside broadcast events. Many of the cameras are hidden and operated remotely to record natural behaviour, for example, of birds in their nests and badgers outside their sett.
Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. It follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his friend Maggie Jacobs and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-list sitcom star.
New Tricks is a British television police procedural comedy drama, created by Nigel McCrery and Roy Mitchell, produced primarily by Wall to Wall, and broadcast on BBC One. The programme originally began with a pilot episode on 27 March 2003, before a full series was commissioned for 1 April 2004; New Tricks concluded after twelve series on 6 October 2015. The show had an ensemble cast, of which Dennis Waterman was the only constant over all twelve series; the cast variously included Alun Armstrong, James Bolam, Amanda Redman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, and Larry Lamb.
15 Storeys High is a British sitcom, set in a tower block in south London. Created and co-written by Sean Lock, it originated as two radio series broadcast in 1998–2000, transferring to television in 2002–2004. The television series starred Sean Lock and Benedict Wong.
Weavers Green is a British television soap opera, made in 1966 for ITV by Anglia Television. It was created based on an idea by Dick Joice. It was the first rural soap opera.
Lawrence Douglas Lamb is an English actor and radio presenter. He played Archie Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, Mick Shipman in the BBC comedy series Gavin & Stacey and Ted Case in the final series of the BBC drama New Tricks. He also appeared on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2016.
In filmmaking, television production and video production, the single-camera setup or single-camera mode of production is a method in which all of the various shots and camera angles are taken using the same camera.
The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, multi-camera or simply multicam is a method of filmmaking, television production and video production. Several cameras—either film or professional video cameras—are employed on the set and simultaneously record or broadcast a scene. It is often contrasted with a single-camera setup, which uses one camera.
DFDS Seaways is a Danish shipping company that operates passenger and freight services across northern Europe. Following the acquisition of Norfolkline in 2010, DFDS restructured its other shipping divisions into the previously passenger-only operation of DFDS Seaways.
The Dad's Army missing episodes are lost episodes and sketches of the British television sitcom Dad's Army. The programme ran for nine series from 31 July 1968 to 13 November 1977. Three out of six episodes from the second series and two of the four Christmas sketches are missing because, at that time, the BBC routinely reused videotape as a cost-saving measure.
MS Moby Otta is a cruiseferry, currently owned by the Italy-based shipping company Moby Lines and operated on their Genoa–Olbia service. She was built in 1976 by Flender Werke, Lübeck, West Germany as MS Tor Scandinavia for Tor Line. Between 1991 and 2006 she sailed as MS Princess of Scandinavia.
TV Hell was a BBC2 theme night broadcast on 31 August 1992, showing a whole evening of archive television clips widely regarded by critics and the public alike as among the worst ever produced in Britain. It followed an unrelated series of archive theme nights called "TV Heaven", shown on Channel 4 earlier that same year.
Limmy's Show! is a Scottish surreal comedy sketch show broadcast on BBC Two Scotland, written, directed and partly based on the 2006 podcast Limmy's World of Glasgow by Brian "Limmy" Limond, who stars as himself and a variety of characters in a series of observational, surreal, dark, and bizarre sketches. Limmy frequently breaks the fourth wall by directly talking to viewers through the camera. The show stars Brian Limond, Paul McCole, Alan McHugh, and Kirstin McLean. The first series featured a completely different supporting cast, consisting of Debbie Welsh, Tom Brogan and Raymond Mearns. The show has amassed a cult following since its release.