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Telly addicts

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

35 replies

woofity · 11/01/2025 18:56

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

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woofity · 28/01/2025 11:27

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.

100% sure it was black and white. We had a colour TV.

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

I am fairly sure this was in this programme because it was the first time I'd ever heard this word and the machines were a bit scarey to me. It's possible I'm wrong about the name but the programme definitely had these large silver machines that came barrelling down open cuttings in rock/rugged terrain and in my mind they were 'bad' part of the bad guys not the good guys.

Definitely not Tales of the Unexpected or Blake 7. It was definitely black and white and had this type of look about it (the link is to an image from a film google image search image from the original Black & WHite Lost in Space Season 1) - that sort of strange perfect clarity to the actors set against the almost sanistised flatness of the scenery. Perfect looking bits of dessert and rocks. I think based on the 'look' of this sort of stuff and my memory it is most likely to be late 1930s/1940s.

EDITED - link fail - will find the one I actually wanted to post.

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woofity · 28/01/2025 11:38

This sort of look 0

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-johnny-weissmuller-tarzan-and-the-amazons-1945-30953573.html?imageid=E096C655-A707-4825-9A12-0165D0558004&p=1253986&pn=1&searchId=b0d3d0e51e14e48917fee6d6aa00c346&searchtype=0

or this

https://grafxflow.co.uk/storage/app/uploads/public/676/195/3c9/thumb__600_0_0_0_crop.jpg

Do you know what I mean? The scenery has this weird 'precise' perfect look about it. Very defined. The scenery equivalent of a chimney sweep with just a darling little smug of coal on his nose.

https://grafxflow.co.uk/storage/app/uploads/public/676/195/3c9/thumb__600_0_0_0_crop.jpg

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woofity · 28/01/2025 11:38

Another example of the 'style'/look and feel I have in my mind of this show (it wasn't either Lost In Space or Tarzan).

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-johnny-weissmuller-tarzan-and-the-amazons-1945-30953573.html?imageid=E096C655-A707-4825-9A12-0165D0558004&p=1253986&pn=1&searchId=b0d3d0e51e14e48917fee6d6aa00c346&searchtype=0

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PithyMentor · 29/01/2025 03:41

Undersea Kingdom?

woofity · 29/01/2025 10:31

@PithyMentor
Undersea Kingdom?

YES! YES! YES! and YES!
Oh my god! Years and years I've been trying to find this. Every so often I'd think of it and google again.

Thank you Sooooooooooooo much. My mind is at rest. It was released in 1936 so I was in the right era ballpark.

How did you think of this? Was it something you watched on BBC2 like me?

On the Wikipedia page is even a picture of a juggernaut

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undersea_Kingdom#/media/File:Undersea_Kingdom_Juggernaut.jpg

(in the background here)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undersea_Kingdom#/media/File:Undersea_Kingdom_Robotsandtank.jpg

Thank you so much and to everyone else who answered. Now to see if I can watch it online or get a DVD....

Undersea Kingdom - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undersea_Kingdom#/media/File:Undersea_Kingdom_Robotsandtank.jpg

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woofity · 29/01/2025 10:37

Even more exciting - I'd discovered you can rent the whole 12 episodes on Amazon Prime for £3.49.

This has been a great day. @PithyMentor thank you for your Pithy Mentoring.

Funny how something small can give such a huge mad and illogical sense of joy and excitement. I bet it probably will be disappointing but I don't care. Right now that sense of relief at finding something I'd been looking for for a long time plus the anticipation of being able to watch it = priceless.

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woofity · 29/01/2025 10:38
GIF by I Love Kellie Pickler

Me:

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woofity · 29/01/2025 10:42

I'm trying to resist the urge to abandon my day and just tune in to binge watch the lot on Amazon Prime....
better to travel hopefully than to arrive as the saying goes..

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woofity · 29/01/2025 10:45

at the very bottom of the wikipedia page are episode links to the internet archive where apparently you can watch it for free.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undersea_Kingdom

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