Okay, then…

First up, a potted history: 'Gangsters' was a mid-Seventies crime drama which developed from a highly controversial 'Play For Today' which opened the series' 1975 strand on the 9th January, BBC1. Two six-part series followed in late-1975 and 1978. More details can be found at http://www.mjnewton.demon.co.uk/tv/gangmain.htm

The play and series was written by Philip Martin, produced by David Rose at Pebble Mill and variously directed by Alistair Reid and Philip Saville, the latter of whom is currently enjoying a retrospective at the National Film Theatre. His other work includes 'Boys From The Black Stuff', another series that rose out of a 'Play For Today' original. Martin has written extensively for radio and television, beginning on 'Z Cars' when scriptwriting began to appeal to him more than the acting profession.

'Gangsters' was an assaulting drama series, immersing itself knee-deep in the underworld of modern-day Birmingham and based on three-months of grass-roots research by Martin. It aimed at showing racial integration amidst social decay, with stylistic clashes to place this in an extra semiotic layer. This would include Bollywood film inserts that would feed into or signify the action, a Spaghetti Western influence on the plot that would simultaneously mock and pay tribute to the genre in equal measure. There was also a self-aware quality to the performance, which became more heightened in later episodes so that the series mutated from an original play directed like a French New Wave film, into a wildly Brechtian series which would eventually contain characters talking to the camera, revealing the studio hands and incorporating Martin on-screen as both narrator, author, villain and ally. It's narrative structure became ever more tangled and, unusually, the two six-part series follow much the same plot except that the stylising has altered, characters have switched roles and the whole thing has become much more self-aware. Just as the original play introduced the idea of a second city with both cultural and social redevelopment, the revisits in 1975 and 1978 introduce an ever more wild stylistic one as well.

The basic purpose of the series, on David Rose's stipulation, was to give Birmingham a screen identity that it had never once received in the past. Despite causing great controversy amongst Birmingham's residents, who accused it of being a gross slur on their city, many others came forward and argued that the world depicted in the original play was remarkably accurate. Martin maintained this last night when I quizzed him, and has qualified such a view in the past, during a 1989 interview available on the link at the top of this message.

The PFT actually got the highest audience appreciation figure in the history of the play strand. A series was immediately commissioned, which would then go on to achieve 10-11 million in a BBC1 slot for 1975. Martin's initial panic over composing six more hours of drama led him to the following conclusion, “you're watching a television play, but you know that you're watching a television play, so why get involved? Why can't you enjoy what it is without total empathy?” This led to the Brechtian qualities which I mentioned above.

By series 2 he was leaning more towards surrealism, with on-screen captions, ever-more bizarre deaths (Kline's torture paralleling a projection of a Bela Lugosi death on a cinema screen, in show 5) and equally strange fight sequences (one of them amidst a hundred spilling film cans). Martin was asked ten years on if this distancing was a deliberate riposte to the critics who accused the series of overly violent content: “it was a reaction to the way people were reacting as if it was corrupting the youth of the nation and destroying everybody's standards. But whereas the first series was drawing ten million, when surrealism came in the ratings dropped to six million - this making demands on the audience was taking away a comforting idea of "this is reality". I was saying "this isn't reality, it's just people in a studio, yes, it's entertainment, I hope it's amusing you, but it's only a script." It's really putting television in its place. In that first series, my criteria was that if someone was hurt you've got to show something happens; teeth are broken and things happen and it hurts, whereas a lot of stylised violence doesn't show this - like THE A TEAM later on, which doesn't have any come back. So if a kid thinks that if you point a gun at someone they do a somersault and that's it, whereas I was saying, look, guns kill, families are maimed; I was trying to say what violence is. But when you take that role you are open to misinterpretation.”

Only C4's 'Traffik'(1989) comes anywhere near to it in more recent years, coincidentally directed by Gangsters-hand Alistair Reid, but by no means containing the same stylistic verve. What 'Gangsters' shares with 'Traffik' is the narrative scale – dealing with the drugs network by representing it accurately as a global, multi-cultural organisation replete with personal-politics and co

What 'Gangsters' shares with 'Traffik' is the narrative scale – dealing with the drugs network by representing it accurately as a global, multi-cultural organisation replete with personal-politics and complex subterfuges, with characters and scenes dotted around the compass. It also shares the common narrative starting point of 'the outsider', involving the 'hero' in new or lapsed realms and triggering off a new set of relations within a community. Think of 'The Prisoner', 'Northern Exposure' or 'ER' just for starters. The key to 'Gangsters', and that which differentiates it, is that this 'outsider' technique is represented on many different levels, even to the point where the Brechtian influence renders every character, and the viewer, as an outsider.

The crucial differences between making a drama series in the Seventies and the present day, are more obvious examples of changes in programme making. David Rose had free reign to commission untested writers as he wished at the time of 'Gangsters', leading to a provoking, complex work which would not get very far in the commissioning process of today. It is too risky a formula now, with it's habit of constant reinvention, drama devoid of a moral stance and a style which veers between documentary realism and surrealist fantasy. As has been seen in the past, 'documentary realism' can be troubling if it is amoral or reductive of actual life. 'Gangsters' was not reductive, neither was it incessantly realistic, yet this instability left the viewer either confused or entranced. Certainly modern audiences are a little more sophisticated and film-literate, but where a show with as many dimensions as 'Gangsters' could be placed in the schedules today is beyond me.

It is as unique a programme (in terms of a writer following his own path) as 'The Prisoner' or 'The Singing Detective', yet with little of the cult following. I certainly can't imagine any new writers having the freedom to develop works as complex and idiosyncratic as these were in modern TV, let alone get them commissioned. Can you?

I interviewed the writer (and "White Devil") Philip Martin about it once, and sent several rows of Doctor Who fans who had never heard of Gangsters fast asleep. This was before the series was repeated on UK Gold. I thought it charming, but ultimately quite hard work.

Was the original play what was shown at the NFT last night?

He writes two Dr Who stories and a Star Cops and SF fans think that Martin owes them a living...poor bloke.

Yep, the original play was shown last night. Lovely film print it was too. Much better than mine.

Or, to quote TV Cream:

GANGSTERS (1976-7)
BBC PEBBLE MILL

CONVOLUTED MURKY-DEPTHS shooting and shagging melodrama set in the pressure cooker multi-racial atmosphere of Britain's Second City (that's Birmingham, by the way, not Norwich). MAURICE "HOWARD'S WAY" COLBOURNE led a small-star cast of several (ELIZABETH CASSIDY, SAEED JAFFREY, ROBERT LEE) as the bodies piled up and the plot drifted away. Came back for a contractual obligation second series but the game was up by the end of the first run. Additional laffs accrued from the irrelevant stand-up comedy snippet at the beginning of each episode.

TV CREAM immortality rating -
...WHO SAID BRUMMIES ARE DUMB?????...

One of Martin's DW stories "Vengeance On Varos" got a fair number of complaints for its violent content, if I remember rightly.

'Vengeance' reworked some of the ideas in 'Gangsters', whilst his second story for 'The Trial Of A Timelord' featured Alibe Parsons, who was a regular in both series.

I wasn't going to mention TV Cream, Mike. The dates are wrong, the "contractual obligation" remark is wrong, the stand-up comedy was not a "snippet" nor just at the start of the episode, their spelling of "laughs" is of course wrong. Mind you, some of the verbs are correct.

That's what originally annoyed me about TV Cream - the fact that you can point out all the errors and the response will be 'ahhhhh, who cares, fuck off trainspotter ha ha'. What I don't understand is why the TV Cream style (nothing wrong with it, so long as it doesn't lie or rewrite childhoods) is seen as acceptable, while Bent's proper and interesting dissection above would be written off by many as anoraky. Is it because TV Cream is designed to closely resemble a blurry pub conversation?

Anyway, back to Gangsters. It reminded me of Performance, the Mick Jagger film. Only much better. I wondered how well known it was, that's all.

>Anyway, back to Gangsters. It reminded me of Performance, the Mick Jagger film. Only much better. I wondered how well known it was, that's all.

Don't know about better than "Performance" but it is brilliant. The second series is, as Bent has explained, extremely bizarre to say the least. Philip Martin plays the villain known as W.D.Fields who speaks and looks exactly like W.C.Fields. The fact he is also devastatingly attractive to women and skilled in martial arts is both funny, and an obvious illustration of the way a writer can exercise wish fulfillment.

When you look at it now it's a wonder the second series ever made it to the screen at peak time. I think Martin and the crew clearly knew the game would be up, as evidenced by the funeral scene in the last episode. It featured headstones to the memory of Brian Cowgill (recently departed to Thames television) and to the career of Philip Martin (I think I remember that correctly). Martin was right as he didn't work again on TV for ages.

I agree with Bent that it is comparable to "The Singing Detective" and "The Prisoner" in that it's largely driven by one man's somewhat obsessive vision and a clear dedication to the project on the part of the cast. The final scene when Martin finishes dictating the script, and then throws it to the waiting crowd is both moving and exhilarating, but more importantly it is exciting. How often does TV excite us at the moment?

>Philip Martin plays the villain known as W.D.Fields who speaks and looks exactly like W.C.Fields.

What was his first line again? "Birmingham - personally I'd prefer San Francisco!" All in a ridiculous W.C. Fields drawl. I can't remember off-hand, but his credited character name is that of one of Fields' many non-de-plumes.

>and to the career of Philip Martin (I think I remember that correctly).

Certainly one for Martin, but another to "The cast of Gangsters 1975-78. In loving memory". And then Dermot's maniacal comeback for virtually no reason at all, given that he slammed down on the roof of a lorry after being thrown off a very high building in series one.

>Martin was right as he didn't work again on TV for ages.

He told me last night that he left BBC Radio about five years ago after a fair old career of writing plays. He's now freelance. God knows what his CV looks like. You never hear about him, which is baffling to say the least. I've never tracked down any info on him, except...

Doctor Who Magazine did make mention of a series he was writing for C4 in 1992. It never materialised, but focused on a late-night radio phone-in and followed those individual lives in yet another example of his grand visions of society. Last night I finally discovered what happened to it. There was a reshuffle at C4 around the time of commission and the new guys in charge scrapped the idea. I take it this was in connection to David Rose's departure as Head of Drama at the time.

>The final scene when Martin finishes dictating the script, and then throws it to the waiting crowd is both moving and exhilarating, but more importantly it is exciting.

Absolutely. Series 2, despite its habits of wilful obscurity, never forgets to entertain and thrill. The moment PJW mentions above is one of my few punching-the-sky moments of this year, having dug out all the episodes for an American friend who needed copies.

The final episode is stuffed with these moments: the White Devil's slow-dance around Kline's restaurant, to the final scene with Saeed Jaffrey and Elizabeth Cassidy, where Rafiq and Kuldeep announce that they are now members of the Birmingham constabulary's Drug Squad! Anne turns to camera and stifles a giggle as she says "That's got to be the end!", and then walks off set as the camera drags back to reveal the studio staff being invited to the bar. Utterly astounding TV. I would say "a video release now!" but it's so obscure now it would never sell. A pity.

Was the heavenly Veronica Taylor, the BFI's Television Officer and hopefully the future Mrs. Thingy, at last night's NFT thing? It's either her or Dick "TV Heaven" Fiddy doing the intros when an actor or writer turns up at the screenings. (Also, Bent, did you get my e-mail of last night all right? the PC have been very silly lately.)

Dick Fiddy was there. And yes, I got your mail. Busy day, honest...

Why must you record my phone calls?Are you planning a bootleg LP?

>I can't remember off-hand, but his credited character name is that of one of Fields' many non-de-plumes.

Larson E.Whipsnade.

Apart from anything else the programme deserves to be remembered for the best, laugh out loud, credit sequence in history. Saeed Jaffrey in silhouette with a pipe, crazy dragons and a rip-snorting vocal performance of Greenslade's title music. I used to feel drained before the main action had even started!

Chris Farlowe sang the theme in series two, namely the one with the ridiculous title-sequence. He really does milk that vocal to considerable effect. "You won't get far without runnin'!" Really?

I once saw Chris Farlowe singing in the rain at a council do in the North East. Not pretty.

Martin also wrote and directed the excellent Horizon drama-special 'Wings of Angels' two years back. The Sunday Times had a (very short) interview with him.
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/1999/08/01/sticultvv03004.html?
It's shown on BBC Knowledge every few months.

>Chris Farlowe sang the theme in series two, namely the one with the ridiculous title-sequence. He really does milk that vocal to considerable effect. "You won't get far without runnin'!" Really?

You have to tape up the windows and protect your glasswear in lead canisters when he attempts to hit the "runnin'" note.

His phrasing of the first couple of "rrruunn!"s is brilliant, but has there ever been a more histrionic crescendo than the final "Gangsters-er-er-erssss!"

Bring it out as a single rapidement, and I'd be willing to arrange a buying scam that sees it to number one with a bullet. Surely Chris deserves that much - any kind of singing must have been difficult after such a storming performance.

And is the Horizon writer/director really the same Philip Martin?

>And is the Horizon writer/director really the same Philip Martin?

No. It's the other one:

http://www.pfd.co.uk/scripts/get.py/filmandtv/?ftdirectors%20Philip%20Martin

>No. It's the other one:
>
>http://www.pfd.co.uk/scripts/get.py/filmandtv/?ftdirectors%20Philip%20Martin

Cheers Bent- I had just seen his imdb entry and just thought it had'nt been updated since he wrote for'Hetty Wainthropp Investigates'- do you know what he's been *really* up to recently?