Flickers

Flickers

1980 - United Kingdom

Fresh from a third-rate career in the music halls, forty-year-old Arnie Cole (Bob Hoskins) has turned movie pioneer, showing single-reel films in makeshift cinemas during the first quarter of the twentieth century. 

Arnie's true ambition is to produce films of his own; but he is barely able to keep his creditors at bay as the head of a travelling company that screens movies in any available hall or store. The troupe includes Llewellyn (Fraser Cains), his girlfriend Letty (Sherrie Hewson) and his piano player Violet (Sheri Shepstone). Arnie's only chance at survival is to explore every possible source of financing, no matter whom he has to con. Clive (Andrew de-la-Tour), son of a department store owner, is a prime candidate. That is, until Arnie is introduced to Maud (Frances de-la-Tour), Clive's plain and snobbish sister, who takes one look at the hapless showman and declares, "He'll have the fillings from your teeth!" 

Bob Hoskins in Flickers
Bob Hoskins inspects the film in 'Flickers'

However, fate is about to deal Arnie an unexpected hand: The unmarried Maud has had the misfortune to get herself pregnant, and the would-be father has taken flight. So, in return for a promise of marriage and a father for her baby, Maud bankrolls Arnie's movie projects. This light-hearted, captivating series was created and written by sitcom veteran Roy Clarke (Keeping Up Appearances, Last of the Summer Wine) and won great critical acclaim in 1980 as well as a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Limited Series in 1982.

Published on December 12th, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Rising Damp

Rigsby, as portrayed by the incomparable Leonard Rossiter, was a marvel of contradiction — sleazy, prejudiced, miserly and hopelessly deluded, particularly when it came to his amorous ambitions toward the ever-disinterested Miss Jones

Also starring Frances De La Tour

Pennies from Heaven

Dennis Potter's remarkably innovative series about a sheet music salesman whose imagination often bursts into full song, building musical numbers around the greatest frustrations in his life.

Also starring Bob Hoskins

The Flipside of Dominick Hide

Dominic Hide, a time-travelling observer from the year 2130 has an agenda. Going back back 150 years in search of his great-great-grandfather is illegal. And things become further complicated when he falls in love.

Also released in 1980

The Borgias

Television Heaven or Television Hell? The Borgias was un-relentlessly derided and almost single-handedly spelt the end of costume drama (at least for a while) on BBC television.

Also tagged Historical Drama

The Shillingbury Tales

A delightfully amusing story about rural village life and the local residents, a number of whom are members of the village brass band.

Also released in 1980

The Shakespeare Collection

In 1978, Cedric Messina persuaded the British Broadcasting Corporation to take on the task of filming the whole canon of William Shakespeare's plays for television, under the title The Complete Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare.

Also starring Bob Hoskins

"...Glenda Jackson totally submersed herself in the role by reading everything she could find about Elizabeth in order to get a deep understanding of the Queen. And this shines out from her performance as she delivers each line with an authority of a true monarch."

Also tagged Historical Drama

Having returned from a colonial life in Malaya to an England he longer recognised Basil Allenby-Johnson, "the Alf Garnett of the middle classes", takes a verbal swing at feminism; permissive and undisciplined youth; age prejudice by employers; student demos; the press; and the health service.

Also tagged Roy Clarke