11 / 12 years old me practically shat myself at the man with no face on the staircase which you cite. I bought bootleg VHS tapes of this show in the early 90s and then proper official VHS releases. I rewatched it again fairly recently and brought a more critical, better educated eye to it.
Assignments 2, 4 (the photos one, which I think is 4 and 6 the final one are easily the best and hold up remarkably well. Unlike a lot of tv from back in the day which today seems dated.
It works because it assumes intelligence on the part of the audience and it leaves a lot to the imagination. Its an exemplary example of Freud's notion of the uncanny. Things out of joint...ever so slightly off. Childrens nursery rhymes somehow conveying a palpable sense of dread and unease.
I wish I had the reference. One academic TV studies book I came across had a chapter arguing Sapphire and Steel could be read as proto - Thatcherite figures. The essay by Mark Fisher titled 'The Slow cancellation of the future' offers up a great reading of the show, you can find the essay online but might need to dig around. I think its in his book 'Capitalist Realism'
It's definitely worth a read. He argues the final Assignment reflects the strange moment we're living in which 'there's no time here...not anymore' he argues that culture is at a dead end of endless pastiche and repetition, that it's increasingly hard to tell something from say 20 years ago to today. One era blurs into another.
Assignment 1 isn't bad, but you're right about the even numbered ones being undoubtedly the best. I'll have to look out that Mark Fisher essay. There's definitely something to the proto-Thatcherite ruthlessness that Steel possesses and the disdain he has for '70s nostalgia - the way he harps on about the dangers of keeping old things around and his insistence on only contemporary belongings, an eternal present.
Also, that has now reminded me that I was going to include an aside about Assignment 3 which features practical archaeologists from the future living in a '70s apartment and how their interior design, which features only '70s products, which is not what most '70s houses actually looked like (see Assignment 1 with all its antiques and clutter), matches with our contemporary film design, best typified by the film of 'Tinker, Tailor' - more '70s than the '70s.
Yes, interesting point. More 70s than the 70s. I remember lots of left over things from the 50s and 60s, growing up. In my experience TV dramas usually get the hair completely wrong along with clothing details.
I've been ploughing through the 7 hour film Satantango (1994) (1 DVD an evening) over easter. Extremely slow with very long takes, the experience watching it is akin to a moving photograph. Theres a similar, more extreme vibe to S&S on occasions. Metaphysics, existence and time we experience through the characters. It takes place in a Hungarian village in an indeterminate time period - very few visual clues indicate exactly when. It also makes demands on the viewer, little in the way of explanation and sheer weirdness. I've heard its an allegory of communism and its collapse.
Recommend it, if you have the time, energy and dedication. Bela Tarr is the Hungarian director.
There was always a sense of unease about the show. The deliberate pace seems so strange now and quite refreshing. There are a couple of episodes on You Tube at the moment and worth a gander.
My instinct whenever I read the name is to think “Ooh, I loved Sapphire and Steel,” but actually it’s a nostalgia bound up in being present while my dad was watching something that was really unsuitable for a six year old. (Blake’s Seven also falls into this category.) The only episode I recall at all is one where children came out of photographs. It doesn’t sound very scary now, but at the time it terrified me. It’s something I would love to rewatch.
Here's where I have to make two admissions. One is that I didn't actually watch them as a kid because we weren't allowed to watch commercial TV, so I didn't see them until I was an adult. And secondly that this edition of 'On the box' was going to be about Blakes 7 and I couldn't quite bear to watch enough of it to write a properly informed opinion. I'll get to it thought: that definitely was a show that I watched obsessively at the time.
Never heard of this in my entire American life but that intro sequence is very Twilight Zone-y! Which incidentally is a show that I didn't see when it first came out (being born in the 80s) but that my brother and I used to rent from the library and spend all weekend watching. "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," anyone?
11 / 12 years old me practically shat myself at the man with no face on the staircase which you cite. I bought bootleg VHS tapes of this show in the early 90s and then proper official VHS releases. I rewatched it again fairly recently and brought a more critical, better educated eye to it.
Assignments 2, 4 (the photos one, which I think is 4 and 6 the final one are easily the best and hold up remarkably well. Unlike a lot of tv from back in the day which today seems dated.
It works because it assumes intelligence on the part of the audience and it leaves a lot to the imagination. Its an exemplary example of Freud's notion of the uncanny. Things out of joint...ever so slightly off. Childrens nursery rhymes somehow conveying a palpable sense of dread and unease.
I wish I had the reference. One academic TV studies book I came across had a chapter arguing Sapphire and Steel could be read as proto - Thatcherite figures. The essay by Mark Fisher titled 'The Slow cancellation of the future' offers up a great reading of the show, you can find the essay online but might need to dig around. I think its in his book 'Capitalist Realism'
It's definitely worth a read. He argues the final Assignment reflects the strange moment we're living in which 'there's no time here...not anymore' he argues that culture is at a dead end of endless pastiche and repetition, that it's increasingly hard to tell something from say 20 years ago to today. One era blurs into another.
Thankyou for writing, I appreciated your effort.
Assignment 1 isn't bad, but you're right about the even numbered ones being undoubtedly the best. I'll have to look out that Mark Fisher essay. There's definitely something to the proto-Thatcherite ruthlessness that Steel possesses and the disdain he has for '70s nostalgia - the way he harps on about the dangers of keeping old things around and his insistence on only contemporary belongings, an eternal present.
Also, that has now reminded me that I was going to include an aside about Assignment 3 which features practical archaeologists from the future living in a '70s apartment and how their interior design, which features only '70s products, which is not what most '70s houses actually looked like (see Assignment 1 with all its antiques and clutter), matches with our contemporary film design, best typified by the film of 'Tinker, Tailor' - more '70s than the '70s.
Yes, interesting point. More 70s than the 70s. I remember lots of left over things from the 50s and 60s, growing up. In my experience TV dramas usually get the hair completely wrong along with clothing details.
I've been ploughing through the 7 hour film Satantango (1994) (1 DVD an evening) over easter. Extremely slow with very long takes, the experience watching it is akin to a moving photograph. Theres a similar, more extreme vibe to S&S on occasions. Metaphysics, existence and time we experience through the characters. It takes place in a Hungarian village in an indeterminate time period - very few visual clues indicate exactly when. It also makes demands on the viewer, little in the way of explanation and sheer weirdness. I've heard its an allegory of communism and its collapse.
Recommend it, if you have the time, energy and dedication. Bela Tarr is the Hungarian director.
“Gingham curtains” at the end 👌
It's such a perfect ending too. More shows should end by stranding their characters in a cafe in space.
There was always a sense of unease about the show. The deliberate pace seems so strange now and quite refreshing. There are a couple of episodes on You Tube at the moment and worth a gander.
Yes, and that's a good point - the more studio bound, theatrical styles of the time only serve to make it feel more alien now.
My instinct whenever I read the name is to think “Ooh, I loved Sapphire and Steel,” but actually it’s a nostalgia bound up in being present while my dad was watching something that was really unsuitable for a six year old. (Blake’s Seven also falls into this category.) The only episode I recall at all is one where children came out of photographs. It doesn’t sound very scary now, but at the time it terrified me. It’s something I would love to rewatch.
Here's where I have to make two admissions. One is that I didn't actually watch them as a kid because we weren't allowed to watch commercial TV, so I didn't see them until I was an adult. And secondly that this edition of 'On the box' was going to be about Blakes 7 and I couldn't quite bear to watch enough of it to write a properly informed opinion. I'll get to it thought: that definitely was a show that I watched obsessively at the time.
Luckily for you they've all been uploaded on to youtube...
This is excellent news. Thanks!
Never heard of this in my entire American life but that intro sequence is very Twilight Zone-y! Which incidentally is a show that I didn't see when it first came out (being born in the 80s) but that my brother and I used to rent from the library and spend all weekend watching. "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," anyone?