The Tyrant King (1968) User Reviews

A London Adventure

[steve-3036 · 8/10 · 19 August 2006]

Although aimed at kids & teenagers, this drama contained numerous elements for anyone interested in London's lesser-known museums and heritage. Indeed, the Tyrant King novel (author Aylmer Hall) was published by London Transport, and I suspect may have even been commissioned by them, possibly as a vehicle for increasing public awareness of some of the capital's forgotten and overlooked treasures.

But it's not dusty and dull: it is a drama, after all, and based on an intelligent story line. I remember being totally absorbed as the youngsters chased (and sometimes were chased) around London.

The choice of incidental music was inspired, and provided an extra atmospheric quality; it was only some years later that I discovered this to be the Moody Blues. Ah, 1968. Nostalgia!

Exciting swinging 60s teenage mystery drama with a superb psychedelic soundtrack!

[last-picture-show · 10/10 · 4 December 2011]

This long-forgotten Thames TV children's drama series (originally broadcast 1 October - 7 November 1968) was directed by Mike Hodges (best known for Get Carter) and was scripted by Trevor Preston who wrote other Thames series Ace Of Wands and episodes of The Sweeney. It combines a psychedelic pop soundtrack with swinging London locations and fashions, to great effect. So while not a music show as such it tapped into the genre with its self-consciously hip style of writing and direction, and by utilising current trends in pop.

The 6-part series was made to promote the London region whose territory Thames had just secured. Based on a novel by Aylmer Hall (published by London Transport), it was designed to encourage teenagers to visit the Capitol's various locations and was described by director Mike Hodges as "a microboppers London trip"! The story centres around three teenagers who search London for the mysterious 'Tyrant King' after overhearing a telephone call in an old house. The only clue they have is a strange drawing found in a wallet dropped by the villain. The trio visit numerous London locations including The South Bank Centre, St Pauls, The Shell Building, Carnaby Street, The Tower of London, The Commonwealth Institute, Kew Gardens and Greenwich. Being filmed entirely on location gives the show a fresh, urgent feel and dispenses with harshly-lit studio scenes that bog down so many dramas of the period and the London landmarks are shown off to good advantage.

Guest stars include Phillip Madoc as the mysterious 'Scarface' and Murray Melvin as the creepy villain 'Uncle Gerry'.

But it is the score which gives the series most of its cult appeal today. The pop art opening titles are displayed on a billboard in a busy London Street to the accompaniment of The Nice's obscure psych-pop anthem 'Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack'. The various episodes utilise further tracks from The Nice's debut album as well as material from Cream's 'Wheels Of Fire' and 'Disraeli Gears', The Moody Blues 'In Search Of The Lost Chord' and most memorably Pink Floyd's 'Saucerful Of Secrets" and 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn'. In some cases the vocals have been edited out leaving the instrumental passages, perhaps best displayed by Jack Bruce's haunting cello intro from 'As You Said' which crops up in several paces.

Some tracks are cleverly used to accompany the action on screen so that the Moody Blues' 'Dr Livingston I Presume' with its 'we're all looking for someone' lyric features during search sequences, Cream's 'Passing The Time' is heard during a somewhat boring trip to The British Museum and Roger Water's 'Corporal Clegg' accompanies some soldiers marching in Hyde Park. Also the closing titles utilised the dramatic, building drum and piano part from Floyd's 'A Saucerful Of Secrets', a title which could easily sum up the plot.

Some of the locations are perhaps included to pad out the episodes and there are a few continuity errors, mainly involving the brightly-coloured fashions the teenagers wear (eg when they leave Kew Gardens and get on the bus). But all-in-all this is a must-see show for anyone interested in children's drama or with a love of 1960s London and pop music.

Superb ,Swinging 60's, Childrens Drama, In Glorious Colour!

[alsmess · 10/10 · 7 November 2018]

Fantastic little curio of a bygone time.London in all it's sixties glory with fashions and music of the time.Some fantastic character actors of the day pop up. Murray Melvin as the arch baddie alongside a sinister Philip Madoc chasing a young Candace Glendenning and her pals across famous London landmarks.Get the dvd if you are at all interested in the sixties period and you won't be disappointed.

A brilliant romp around 1960's London

[bryan_williams-2 · 10/10 · 22 August 2018]

A most unusual children's programme from 1968 with a soundtrack that includes such groups as The Nice (from their album "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack"), Cream, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, ...to name but a few... to provide incidental music to this rather surreal romp around some of London's better known landmarks. I was particularly intrigued to see these landmarks prior to their surface washing and still grimed by industrial London's fallout; just as I remember as a child. Shot on location using 16mm film by the company that was eventually to become Euston Films, responsible for such ground breaking film series as "The Sweeney", Van Der Valk and Minder, this is more in the French "La Nouvelle Vague" (not to be confused with the group) mode than traditional English children's television and is a real treat to watch, if only for the Swinging Sixties feel that it generates. A young Candy Glendenning (full Christian name: "Candace" who remains best known for her later work in horror films of the 1970s such as The Flesh and Blood Show, Tower of Evil and Satan's Slave) has more costume changes than Widow Twanky on speed but, considering her age at the time, carries it all off with a good deal of aplomb. The wonderful Murray Melvin turns in a camper than camp performance as the villain of the piece and whilst the storyline does not really hold together it does deal with some strong themes for a children's series (drug smuggling, stalking) and does, at least, have a climax that tries to explain the adventure which develops over six full episodes. It is probably because of the 16mm format that it was not "wiped" as so many series from the other British TV channel of the time (the BBC) were and it is a great shame that more of our British television series were not filmed in this way as the BBC would never have been able to wipe them as they so shamefully did to so many of our Nation's great TV dramas and sitcom's. The child actors are good and very stylish for the period and their homes are to die for and even today would be mouthwateringly expensive. I saw this when I was a London schoolboy, in black and white, of course, and it's a joy to see the series in full colour as it really does add another dimension. Enjoy!

Excruciatingly dull

[kmoh-1 · 23 March 2018]

As a period piece, this is perhaps beyond criticism. The soundtrack is fascinating to any lover of 60s psychedelia, with Pink Floyd foregrounded (almost every track from A Saucerful of Secrets is sampled at some point), as well as the Moody Blues, Cream and so on. And the lover of London's history gets to see the locations in its 'swinging' period.

But, as a Londoner of the time would say, it ain't half dull. Had the brainwashing techniques of the Ipcress File been adopted by the London Tourist Board, the result wouldn't be too unlike The Tyrant King. Long montages of the three children exploring the Imperial War Museum, or Hampton Court, or St Paul's, are interspersed with dialogue to the effect of how impossible it would be to find the villains in a city the size of London, followed immediately afterwards with the three children bumping into one of them, and then running away. Which makes you wonder why they were looking for them in the first place.

The anorexic plot doesn't help - there is virtually no motivation for the children at all, they just bumble through a series of incredible coincidences, starting with the initial overhearing of a telephone call in an unoccupied house, in which they have no business, at the very moment that someone decided to use its phone. Incredible that this classy production team could create something so spectacularly tedious.