Tenko

[SammyScrounge]

Tenko is back on the Drama Channel!. One of my favourite series ever. It had such powerful characters and didn't spare the nastiness of events in the camp.
It was out at around about the same time as Cagney and Lacey A great era for strong female characterisation.

Wise Me Luck was about a group of people in the SOE (Special Operations Executive - aka undercover spies). It was on ITV but written and created by Lavina Warner and Jill Hyem - the women that also created Tenko.
No one remembers Bluebells though.

@saveforthat yes the famous Dorset gravel pit !!
Apparently sometimes it was freezing cold but they had to pretend they were in the heat.

@Needmorelego i remember Bluebell; I used to watch it with my mum. Caroline Pickles was the lead I think? I would love to see it again

@Needmorelego I remember Bluebells! I think about it every time I see Caroline Pickles in anything (eg newspaper editor in Broadchurch).
Was it on a Sunday evening?

@Weedkillerworks it was probably a Sunday evening one. I only vaguely remember it - but remember really liking it.
Bits I remember it was in occupied France and the main character was British and was going to be arrested but she pointed out she was born in Ireland so should be counted as Irish and therefore neutral and she had a baby called Florence which I remember thinking was a beautiful name.
That's all I remember to be honest 😂

So according to Wikipedia it was "Bluebell" not Bluebells - no S on the end.
I would have been 10 when it was originally shown so not surprised I don't remember much.
(obviously I was younger when Tenko was originally show but I must have seen it on one of the many repeats. I remember renting the videos from the library when I was in my early 20s)

It wasn't all written by women! The episode "Escape from the Bamboo Noose" was written by Ed Reardon.

I remember ‘Bluebell’ !! It was in the mid 80s ….Carolyn Pickles played the lead

@StoatofDisarray yes it wasn't literally only written by women but the idea of the drama was created by women, the story was about women and the main characters women and it was aimed at a female viewership.
That was still unusual in the early 80s.

@Needmorelego You remember more than I do. Amazing how a singles series of eight episodes has stayed in our memories though.

@Weedkillerworks I loved the series "Lillies" that was on about 15 years ago.
Written by Heidi Thomas (who has written for Call the Midwife) it was another one that only had 8 episodes so a lot of people don't remember it.
There was one in the 90s (?) called Berkeley Square I enjoyed too
Anyone remember that one?

Watched this on Sunday night when I was a kid.

Then in the early 00s I rented a floor in a house from one of the cast. She was really lovely.

I remember Bluebells! Wow, that takes me back, I must have been about 12 or 13. Loved it. Dramas like this made me fall in love with Paris (not hard, admittedly).

Also loved Tenko but don’t really remember the characters.

Cagney and Lacey, now you’re talking! Just the first riff of the theme tune and I’m there!!

For some reason the era segues into Moonlighting from there in my head…

Yes, one of my first holiday jobs at the Holiday camp that's now there.

I hope they show the reunion after series 3 ends a week on Thursday. If anyone wants to catch missed episodes, the whole lot is on Britbox on ITVX.

If anyone wants to watch We'll meet again with Susannah York, it's all on YouTube.

What day and time?

Sorry, I guess it was a bit of an in joke.

I was referencing the radio show Ed Reardon's Week about a curmudgeonly hack writer, whose one claim to fame was that he had written an episode of Tenko. Stephanie Cole plays another character in the show, which is why the writers decided to reference Tenko.

@StoatofDisarray
Well that went completely over my head 😂

I used to watch Tenko with my mum but I don’t remember much about it but I’d like to watch it again as an adult. I remember watching Bluebell too and like a past poster I remember her arguing she was Irish and having a baby name Florence. Her husband was called Marcel and he was Jewish and I remember him hiding in a flat and she would have to sneak in to visit him. I’d like to watch Bluebell again, I feel I’d understand it better as an adult.

Well thanks to this thread I have been on World of Books and ordered the 3 Tenko novelisations - which I used to own but were passed on during a book clear out.
As the books are 4 for the price of 3 I added the "House of Elliot" book too 😂

I'm watching Tenko again, 40 years after the first time I saw it. I remember how exciting it was to have something mainly about women, women who were individuals, not there as apendages to men.
I had a crush on Nellie /Jeananne Crowley, it was so good to see a possible gay character, lesbians were rare in TV, or plain grim in films. She's still my favourite today.
Must say it has aged pretty well, imperfect but excellent.