Doomwatch (1970s series) on the TV this January

[Ursa major]

From a comment in one of the open threads on Charles Stross's blog:

Talking Pictures on Freeview channel 82 is repeating the series starting next Friday, January 17th, at 21:00. First episode up is "The Plastic Eaters". Not all episodes have survived but there should be a couple of dozen still.

 

[farntfar]

@Ursa major Do you know on which channel or streaming service it will be available?

 

[Steve Harrison]

I shuddered when I read that. The rats episode (Tomorrow, the Rat) still haunts me after all these years!

 

[Ursa major]

The Channel is called Talking Pictures and depending on the transmitter you are fed from (and on how you allow** channels to be numbered when there's been an update for that transmitter), it is, or isn't, on channel 82. I have no idea whether or not Talking Pictures (or whatever its owner is called) has a streaming service (or what channel number it has on my set-top box, for that matter).


** - While both my TVs are natively digital, I tend to watch one of them via my set-top box (and recorder), and as I don't want to muck up what programmes it's set up to record, I update the channels in a way (one the Set-top box provides) that keeps the existing numbers of existing channels... which is why I have a lot of channels with numbers in the 800+ range, including BBC1 HD (865), BBC3 HD (866) and BBC4 HD (867).

 

[Ursa major]

And here is its website: Talking Pictures TV – An Evening at the Pictures, Anytime of Day

According to its Wikipedia entry:

TPTV is a family business, founded by producer/editor Noel Cronin, and run by his daughter Sarah Cronin-Stanley with her husband Neill Stanley. Films in many genres (horror, comedy, drama and thriller) are included in the schedule. In-house productions are also shown, as are items from the Cronins' own back catalogue, including Noel's Dandelion Distribution, as well as series from the archive of Southern Television, a former ITV contractor, and early American television shows. Movies are usually copied directly from film reels; damaged reels from the catalogue are often replaced by donations, either from online, viewers or available libraries.​

​

One of the aims of the founders was to maintain the history of British cinema; it was said to have been in the making since 2007. Older movies, including those made in black and white, were once regularly shown on terrestrial channels, such as BBC and Channel 4, but such programming had declined by the 2000s, with only the best known classic films occasionally being aired.​

​

Cronin-Stanley explained to the Watford Observer in 2016 that "People were interested in the big titles but he [her father Noel] wanted to save the smaller, more obscure titles, from getting lost". However, television networks rejected their pitches, unconvinced that it would be of high demand, so they decided to set up the channel independently. Cronin-Stanley later explained that the channel specialises in "the things people have forgotten".​

 

[Ursa major]

I see that the channel's Wikipedia entry says:

Streaming media: Freely: Channel 36