BBC CHILLS IN LIVE DRAMA WITH MORE THAN SNOWMAN : THE FIRST TUESDAY TOUGHY OF 2019

 

HERE IS OUR FIRST CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY of 2019! You'll be pleased to see, I haven't spared the trickiness 😏 When Peter Cushing's BBC 1954 drama of THE CREATURE was broadcast LIVE over two evenings back in January and February of 1955, it was ONLY just FIVE weeks after Cushing and the BBC had shocked the whole nation with their live broadcasts of George Orwell's 1984. With front pages of newspapers screaming the cries of a trumatised telly watching public and questions being asked by the government in the House of Commons about if Cushing and the BBC had gone too far, all eyes were on Cushing's latest 'nail-biting' SUNDAY evening BBC television drama. 

THE KNEES OF THE BBC must have been really trembling, but not enough to stop this planned drama to not only star the lead responsible for last year's controversial show, but also the same director, Rudolph Cartier! This production was also granted a larger budget, with exterior shots of the snowy mountains and hillsides of the Himalayas filmed on location in Switzerland, just two weeks before the live broadcasts. Surprisingly, the production was allowed a substantial amount of filming to supplement the modest BBC studio facilities available for the otherwise live transmission. Location filming was essential to establish the mountainous environment of the play, though the play's designer Barry was uneasy with Cushing’s involvement in this location filming, fearing for the star’s safety, and suggested a double be used instead. Typically, Cushing said he disliked the use of doubles and the loss of continuity of performance that this entailed, and wrote to Barry to personally assure him of his preference to take part in the location expedition!

GALLERY OF RARE IMAGES from the BBC production, Hammer films version and more besides! Catch up on our PCAS feature on Peter Cushing's 'The Abominable Snowman' elsewhere at this website or go directly to it HERE!

DESPITE ALL THE PRE PUBLICITY and advanced column inches in newspapers, this script and story by Nigel Kneal, was a quite different affair to 1984. No torture, but lots in the way of tension and a moral for all to think about later. Hammer films, never one to miss an opportunity, invited Cushing to play his role of John Rollason, for their big screen version. Sadly actor Stanley Baker was not invited along to join him and US actor Forest Tucker, played the role of Tom Friend, producers following their mantra of always casting actors from across the Atlantic, to improve the box office potential when the film was released overseas. Cushing's Rollason was also guven a wife in Hammer's revamping. She was also called Helen. Richard Wattis returned for gentle comic relief as Rollason's assistant Peter Fox. Arnold Marle also repeated his performance as the Lama, giving a very memorable and yet weird performance. 'Act in the name of Mankind and act humbly' the Lama warns Rollason, as he sets out in search of the YETI. 'For man is ndear to forfeiting his right to lead the world'. A message from over 60 years ago, that in today's world means more than ever . . 

YOUR ANSWER to our previous CUSHING TUESDAY TOUGHY! How did YOU do with YOUR answer?

HAMMER FILMS PRODUCER ROY SKEGGS DIES AGED 83

VERY SAD TO HEAR ROY SKEGGS, one of the very few left of the Hammer films 'home guard' sadly passed away on the weekend. Roy was a producer for Hammer Films and began his connection with the company way back at Bray studios in 1963 as production accountant. Roy was then promoted to 'company accountant' and secretary. He became production supervisor in 1970 and (with Brian Lawrence) took over the reins of the company when it fell into receivership in 1979. Was latterly chairman of Hammer films, based in Elstree.

ROY WAS BORN in 1934. He was a very capable and respected producer and production manager, and probably best known for his work with Hammer films. He was responsible for Peter Cushing's last return to the company with the tv series, Hammer House of Horrpr' in 1980. The series expanded into 'Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense' in 1984, and became a winner overseas and the US. He worked alongside Peter on 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' (1974), Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula. 

A PERIOD OF ILLNESS took Roy away from his love of Hammer films in the 1990's... but in the last few years, although always having been a very shy man, he stepped out to one or two conventions and signing days .. and was surprised not only how much he enjoyed the attention...but how fans and the public remembered him and his work with Hammer films. A hard worker, very good at 'math' and was responsible for bringing Hammer back to the small screen and Cushing's final bow as Frankenstein. Thank you Roy 

BERNARD CRIBBINS HITS 90 YEARS OF AGE AND WE REMEMBER THE QUEEN OF CREEPY WOMEN TODAY!

IT'S A VERY HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY to BERNARD CRIBBINS TODAY! Born in 1928, Cribbins started his acting career at the tender age of 14! An actor since the age of 14 and was a major star on the London stage by his mid-20s. It would be another ten years before he became a national star with success in film comedies, with likes of Peter Sellers and a string of hit records, the most popular probably being, 'A Hole In The Ground' and 'Right Said Fred'. He appeared in several of the "Carry On" series, and also achieved a great degree of success doing voice-overs for cartoons and TV commercials. One of his biggest successes being the 1970's children's animated puppet series, 'The Wombles'.

CRIBBINS also took PETER CUSHING snorkelling in the Gulf of Aqaba! The pair were in Israel filming the Hammer films 'She', and Bernard recalls: “We did a couple of films together and that particular one was out in the Negev desert and we used to have a little swim at lunchtime. Peter was a very athletic gentleman. He played rugby, he told me, ‘I used to love to tackle people’ and you can’t imagine that ostensibly gentle man knocking people over! He was a good swimmer but he’d never been snorkelling, diving down and having a look at things, and he kept talking to me underwater, sounding like Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men which had me in hysterics!"

BACK IN 1974 Cribbins was interviewed for the role of DOCTOR WHO in 1974, as the BBC prepared for Jon Pertwee, leaving the role. 'I didn't actually audition. But when Jon Pertwee was leaving, the producer Barry Letts - who died quite recently - interviewed a lot of actors, one of whom was me. I went along and sat down and he said 'now then what can you do?' I said 'I'm a very good swimmer, I was a paratrooper, I could fight' - and he said 'Oh no, no fighting no, the Doctor is never seen fighting at all!' So Tom Baker became the next Doctor, and one of the first things I remember him doing was knocking somebody out.'

BERNARD also appeared in many tv drama programes as a guest star throughout the 1960's and 70's including the popular 'The Avengers' in TWO episodes. 'The Girl From Auntie' and the weird, 'Look, Stop Me If You've Heard This One, But There Are These Two Fella's'! Of all his movie roles, Cribbins has a fondness for 'The Railway Children' directed by Lionel Jeffries in 1970, where he played Albert Perks. Cribbins has a longstanding association with the science-fiction series Doctor Who (1963). 

ABOVE: Cribbins as Arkwright in The Girl from Auntie (1966) ... his first role in the UK television series, 'THE AVENGERS'

ABOVE Cribbins as Bradley Marler, with comedian Jimmy Jewel in "Look - (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers..." his second appearnce in The Avengers in 1966. 

NOT ONLY DID HE play a companion in the second Peter Cushing film, 'Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.' (1966), which was 40 years before his regular role as a companion, Wilfred Mott, in the Russell T. Davies version of Doctor Who (2005). It certainly has been a very active and sucessful 90 years for sure. Please let us know what your favorite Cribbin's films, roles and shows so far . ..over at the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE. I think he is far from over yet! HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY BERNARD and have a wonderful day😀

TODAY WE ARE ALSO REMEMBERING and marking the BIRTHDAY of actress . .  FREDA JACKSON who was born today. 29th December in 1907. Was there ever a more frightening actresses in a Peter Cushing Hammer film? Here we see her as the 'hair-raising' Greta in 'The Brides of Dracula' (1960) starring Peter Cushing, Yvonne Monlaur and David Peel. I have always thought it was a great shame that Hammer didn't cast her in any of their other films. She does appear in that 'is it a Hammer film or isn't it?'... 'Shadow of the Cat' (1961) as Clara the maid. But what a waste! Freda's performance as Greta in 'Brides' is as powerful now, as it was when the film was released all those years ago. What an actress! Happy Birthday, Freda!

FRED JACKSON'S GRETA, was also one of the very few feamle roles in Hammer's films, that also featured Cushing, that could give his character Van Helsing a fair fight on screen!!! 😮😉

DID SANTA HIT THE BEST ON YOUR WISH LIST???

2018 WAS ANOTHER GREAT YEAR for adding new and remastered releases of Peter Cushing best ofs on blu ray to your collection! The cherry on the cake for many being the LONG awaited final Lee and Cushing Hammer DRACULA films, Dracula AD 1972 and THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA from Warner Brothers archive! Granted both of those films, are not everyone's 'cup-o-tea', but cleaned and remastered, they look frighteningly FAB! Much appreciated was another remastering, the Twilight Time 'SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST' with Peter as the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham! All featured as prizes in our PCAS competitions over the past fews weeks and now available for all! SO, did Santa put a smile on YOUR face and place any of these or other Peter Cushing titles among your Christmas goodies, this year? If so, you may want to swing by the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE   where everyone is being asked to share what of the bunch, they found under the Christmas tree this year! You can also gain points, by posting a pic of any your  favorites too!

REMEMBERING : CARRIE FISHER SHINES ON

IT SEEMED, quite surreal last year writing this, and even more so, today . . . TWO years on. Today, I am sure many Star Wars fans and lovers of Carrie's work will be feeling the same, sharing posts and photographs of a woman, who was never dull, touched all she met, was a mountain of energy and fun and yet sadly, like many of us, carried another life, that sometimes worked against her, making even the sunniest of days, dark and exhausting. On December 27th 2016, the day we lost CARRIE FISHER, the shock rippled around the world, and I am sure today, many will again feel that disbelief. Many here of course will know her connection to Peter Cushing, through the movie, STAR WARS.

WITH CUSHING playing the evil TARKIN and Carrie the vulnerable PRINCESS LEIA Tarkin, together they played a key scene, with Peter cranking up his performance, as the cruel and most Machiavellian of characters in the Star Wars universe. Carrie later shared how difficult it had been for her to find the motivation, to hate Peter's Tarkin. She too,like many before her, had been charmed and moved, by his kindness and manner on set, it was quite a task to actually say those lines. Even though she left us a wonderful library of work on screen and on the page, it's a weird feeling, knowing, she isn't around to cheer us up and make us laugh in her interviews. As a teen she was my first crush, she dazzled and shone very brightly . . on screen and in life, a real Princess! 🙂 We remember Carrie today . ..

HAVE YOU WON COPIES OF WARNER BROTHERS 'HORROR OF DRACULA' REMASTERED BLU RAY IN OUR PCAS COMPETITION?

CONGRATULATIONS to MARLA AND BEA, on winning our Warner Brothers remastered Blu Ray of the BFI restored Hammer film classic... 'Horror of Dracula' / 'Dracula' ! Well Done 😀  It was great to see so many enteries, and I think it's a fair indication of how popular this release is and hopefully, that will being us MORE Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee classics released through Warner in the near future 😉

THE ANSWER to the Competition, which wasn't guessed by everyone, was PHOTOGRAPH E! This was a publicity pic of Christopher Lee and Barbara Shelley, from Hammer films 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness' and not from the 1958 Dracula!

FIND OUT MORE ON THE WARNER BROTHERS release of Hammer films 1958 'DRACULA' / 'HORROR OF DRACULA', in our feature and review! JUST CLICK HERE!  

THIS IS THE LAST of our FIVE competitions that I planned over the last six weeks. I hope you have had a lot of fun, enjoyed them, even if this time, you weren't a winner. THERE is ALWAYS next time 😉 Again, many, many thanks to the guys at Warner Brothers for sponsoring this and our others competition over the past few weeks! Here's to our next PCAS Competititon... SOON! 

YOU CAN ORDER AND PURCHASE YOUR COPY of this MUCH awaited classic now on release in the US! RIGHT HERE! 

 

 

THE EVANSON TOUCH WITH CUSHING PRICE AND LEE ARTWORK : CUSHING COLLECTING WEDNESDAY

#COLLECTINGCUSHING Wednesday! Andrew Evanson has been busy! Here's his latest set of three individual pieces of artwork, each featuring the face of one of the fearsome three! See if you too can work out the influence of the text or design in the back ground of each portrait? Nice touch! Each would make a fine addition to anyone's Cushing Collection! Andrew has told me... ' I did them on my ipad Pro 12.9' with an apple pencil using Auto Desk Sketchbook Pro. They have been done to match my colour scheme as the intention is to frame them. Obviously, as they are digital, I can easily print them off onto A4 using archival quality paper and inks if people are interested but any larger prints would have to be done through a print firm' ....Thank you Andrew for sending this in today😉

Remembering Today.. the birthday of director Roy Ward Baker, whose work with Peter Cushing includes 'Asylum', 'And Now, The Screaming Starts!'. 'The Vampire Lovers' with Amicus films. 'The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires for Hammer films and 'The Masks of Death' with Peter Cushing for Tyburn films. Starting as a tea boy at the Gainsborough Studios in London in 1934, raising to the role of assistant director with Alfred Hitchcock on 'The Lady Vanishes' by 1939, then onto a career as director in Hollywood, working with Marilyn Monroe...Ward Baker had a very full career that covered just about every genre! Today we remember his birthday and the contribution to not only Peter Cushing's career, but the the world of cinema...

ABOVE AND THE LINK HERE! is for a great feature I put together a few years ago, in which WARD BAKER talks about Peter and the several different films he made with him! 

FIDELIS ET MORTEM? TUESDAY TOUGHY ANSWER AND RARE SIGNED DRACULA 1958 LINK!

ABOVE IS THE QUESTION  and ANSWER to last week's Cushing Tuesday Toughy! It seems as though either script writer Jimmy Sangster's or set designer, Bernard Robinson's LATIN was a bit lacking! We asked you where were the Latin words we posed, seen in a Peter Cushing film, AND what did they mean? Well, the latin is seen on the family crest, above the fireplace in Hammer films 1958 'DRACULA' and it looks as though didn't quite translate, in the way they probably wanted or intended. FIDELIS ET MORTEM translates as 'FAITH AND DEATH', where what they thought they were displaying was, 'FAITHFUL AND DEAD'. Oh dear! Utinam Non!

ABOVE is a RARE and INTEREST LINK to REMIND you, that TODAY is  the LAST DAY in which to send us YOUR answer to WARNER BROTHERS REMASTERED BLU RAY OF HAMMER FILMS 1958 DRACULA! IF YOU TOO would LOVE to WIN yourself a copy of this EXCELLENT remaster of the BFI print, there is just HOURS TO GO before the competition entries time, pulls up the draw bridge! SO CLICK HERE!