Can anyone ID this B&W tv series shown on BBC2 in the 1980s (poss around 1985)??

[woofity]

I've already had a look on the old BBC schedules site but not having any luck.

It's very half remembered. I think this was a series rather than a film. Some of this may be from a particular episode rather than general every episode stuff.

• Black & White. I think American.
• Was sort of sci-fi but not 'aliens' , more a lost world/lost civilization. Possibly repeatedly discovering lost worlds/civilizations in each episode by very unsure.
• A secret world that was accessed by rolling a massive boulder away from a cave entrance. [this could be a one episode thing rather than general]
• Some characters bare chested dressed in sort of native american indian/inca/lost tribe style - loin clothes and minimalist 'tribal' dress features like headdresses with one feather or a band round the upper arm.
• A large shiny silver metal Juggernaut (like a tank but more sci-fi modern) that was 'bad' - associated with bad guys. I remember this because it was the first time I'd heard the word juggernaut. This is how they were referred to. I remember it being as wide as the dessert passage it passed through with rocks on both sides so if it was coming, you had to get out of the way or you'd be killed.
• On BBC2 in that 5.30 - 7pm after school slot around the same time that they showed B&W Johnny Weismuller Tarzan films and Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes

It's possible that I've lumped more than one series in to a fake memory. I have a vague memory that it would be scary sometimes - plots with a threat of human sacrifice (but very 'clean' in that King Kong style way - a beautiful woman tided up losely by some men in tribal style dress who is wriggling around and tossing her head from side to side before the hero turns up to save her - no blood or gore it was post-school tv).

Any suggestions? I've googled a lot repeatedly over years and checked BBC2 schedule database from the 80s but they are difficult to search well.

It's definitely not:
Dr Who
The Boy from the Hidden Planet
The film The Phantom Planet

To be B&W it would have to date from the 1970s at latest and more likely 1950s/60s. Have you looked perhaps at 'anthology' series, where each episode is completely separate (a bit like a book of short stories, IYSWIM).

Outer Limits
Twilight Zone
Out of the Unknown

@WhereYouLeftIt Thanks for your reply. It's definitely not an anthology. It was a series with a degree of continuing story.

I can't remember if it was a series where the whole thing was set in the same world where the human non-tribal types were trying to get off the planet or out of the world or if it was one where they were in different worlds each time (more like Dr Who).

I am fairly sure there was more than one episode in the juggernaut place as I remember this very clearly - too clearly for it to be a one off - and the same for the rolling of the boulder giving access to the tunnel or cave or whatever it was.

Lost in Space?

I think it must have been waaay older than 1970s.
The look and feel of it that I remember was very much in the style of Johnny Weismuller Tarzan and those old b&w Sherlock Holmes which would mean it was probably late 1930s - 1940s.

There were loads of old b&w series from the 50s/60s repeated in the 80s, especially at teatime and Saturday mornings.

Lost in Space was on all the time and took place mostly not in Space.

Your post made think of some old films .... one million bc/ when dinosaurs ruled the earth. The women being tied up and tribes etc

The Time Tunnel?

This forum post lists quite a few, Time Tunnel being one of them: forum.80stv.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1294266102/1

@Lifelover16 Thanks for suggestion Lost in Space. I've had a look at that - it didn't ring any bells for me. The first seaon is in B&W. The 'look of it' (when they are standing in desert type places is right but I don't think this is is it as I dont remember any robots and I don't think there was a child in it. I've had a look through the episodes and trying to find a bit mroe about "The Lost Civilization one" as that sounds like it may be the closest content wise to be sure I'm not missing something but I don't think its that.

https://www.lostinspaceforever.com/season-1/

thanks @Lunde and @smallchange Time Tunnel was in colour it looks like and again not ringing bells for me
(although I'd quite liketo watch it - sounds v nostaligic great!)

Its not Lost in Space. If anyone else is interested I found the full episode of b&W Lost In Space The Lost Civilization from S1 here:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ie31d

(bit niche I know).

Could it have been the original Flash Gordon staring Buster Crabbe and Dale Arden? I think it dates from the 1940s so in black and white but it was definitely on TV in the 70s, possibly the 80s

@Palalala thanks but not that.

Was it Fantastic Journey?

There’s actually a subreddit for things like this, called ‘tip of my tongue’ I think.

The Quatermass Experiment?

The Time Tunnel was 66/67, so if there was a colour one I think it must have been a later version of remake.

The Land of the Giants?

@IAm16StoneHalloween2024

There’s actually a subreddit for things like this, called ‘tip of my tongue’ I think

I'm not on Reddit but I went to look for this at your suggestion @IAm16StoneHalloween2024 and MAN ALIVE my advice to you all is never go there! NEVER!

Rather than register and post my own query, I got sucked, sucked I tell you, into some turbo whirlpool of Other People's Strange Questions Mostly About Historic Popular Culture that sucked me down to the bottom of the Ocean of Useless Ways To Waste Hours and Hours of Time.

Unlike MN where you might clock one or two of these questions a day about 'find my book' or something, there are reams and reams and reams of stuff that is compulsive.

Back to my problem:

Thanks for suggestions so far.

I'm still looking. The closest think I've seen in terms of look/feel from things posted here is some of that Lost In Space Season 1 in black and white but the title is definitely not ringing a bell nor is the child.

The Quatermass Experiment? Not this

The Time Tunnel was 66/67, so if there was a colour one I think it must have been a later version of remake? I had a look and checked out some of the episodes but it wasn't feeling right I don't think. The look of my memory is very old school. I think it was earlier.

This is later - says 1957 and an unidentified B movie ( I wouldn't say it needs a trigger warning as no gore but drums, ritual and 'laying a woman on an alter) is very much the sort of style of the think I am thinking of but I think a bit earlier more likely

https://www.dvarchive.com/904-6771/1957-In-this-B-movie-a-woman-is-lain-upon-a-sacrificial-altar-for-an-Aztec-ritual.html

Gilliagan's Island? Thanks - no not this.

The Land of the Giants? It didn't have giants just normal sized people.

Been thinking a bit about this one.

How certain are you about the B&W? I have recently realised that some of the stuff I thought was B&W was due to my parents not upgrading their TV rental to colour until 1978 or things I watched on a B&W portable TV in my bedroom until the 90s.

As some of the things you write sound a bit like The Fantastic Journey (cancelled after 10 episodes) where a group of scientists find themselves shipwrecked on an island themselves shipwrecked on a mysterious uncharted island from which they cannot escape. The encounter Varian initially disguised as an indigenous person, but later revealed to be from the future. Varian explains to the travelers that, like he and many before them, they have been caught in a space/time continuum where people from the past, present, future and from other worlds are trapped, co-existing on the island in a series of "Time Zones". The only way to travel between Time Zones is via invisible gateways that instantaneously transport individuals or groups from one zone to another.

There is a Wikipedia page.

It is a similar trope to the one used by Stargate SG1 that was made in the 1990s but I don't thing Stargate was shown on BBC

Also Juggernaut was also the name of the futuristic tanks used to transport criminals on Star Wars - so not sure if you are mixing your scifi

King of the Rocket Men?

Oh, you said TV. I think that was a film so ignore me!

The Tomorrow People.
Blakes 7.
Tales of the Unexpected.

The Invaders?