Carrie Fairchild
Telly Talk Star
Now that I've finished my run of Crossroads episodes, I'm going to have a crack at the early 00's oddity Night and Day. I loved the show when it first aired but due to increasingly erratic scheduling, I never saw it through to the end. If I'm not mistaken, the last batch of episodes aired at 1am in my region. Of what's available, there's 54 episodes missing (episodes 16 - 70) but I should be OK to muddle through the time jump as the latter part of the series is intact.
For those unfamiliar with the show, it was described as a "British Twin Peaks" and was set on the middle class Thornton Street in Greenwich and followed the lives of the families and friends that lived there. The series opened with best friends Jane Harper and Della Wells celebrating their 16th birthdays together, only for Jane to myseriously disappear on the night of their party. The fallout from Jane's disappearance opened a Pandora's box of secrets as the series often veered into fantasy with dream sequences, time travel and geishas all featuring. It was originally launched as a teatime soap around the same time as the Crossroads revival, as part of ITV's attempt to keep the youth audience after Home and Away's defection to rival Channel 5. The younger cast was made up of good looking unknowns, most of whom would later pop up on Hollyoaks and Family Affairs while a raft of TV veterans including Gareth Hunt, Glynis Barber, Lesley Joseph, Joe McGann, Cathy Tyson and Lysette Anthony played various parents, aunts and granddads. It originally aired three evenings a week, with a late night omnibus on Thursday called Night and Day: Remixed, which featured more explicit scenes that couldn't be aired at teatime (mainly featuring Stuart Manning's arse IIRC). ITV weren't happy with the ratings for the evening episodes and they were eventually dropped. The show continued to air as an omnibus each week but the episode migrated further and further into the depths of ITV's late night schedules, to the point that you weren't quite sure when it was on. It's last episode aired in mid 2003, after just 18 months on the air.
I've rewatched the first three episodes so far. It's well written and very well shot compared to other soaps of the time. The action zips along quite quickly to the sounds of the heavily soundtracked scenes featuring everyone from Goldfrapp to Fun Boy Three. It's unconfirmed but the heavy use of pop music has been cited as one of the reasons why it's never been rerun or released because of licensing fees. The first week of episodes mostly focuses on Jane and her various entanglements, setting the scene for her disappearance but there's plenty of subplots being hinted at or slowly introduced. Lesley Joseph's wicked aunt Rachel is one character that I'm particularly looking forward to seeing again while Roxanne and Alex's relationship looks set to feature plenty of twists and turns (I recall the omnipresent Bradley Walsh showing up as an ex at one point). I'll post updates as I go but give it a try if you're curious as it's an interesting twist on British soap.
For those unfamiliar with the show, it was described as a "British Twin Peaks" and was set on the middle class Thornton Street in Greenwich and followed the lives of the families and friends that lived there. The series opened with best friends Jane Harper and Della Wells celebrating their 16th birthdays together, only for Jane to myseriously disappear on the night of their party. The fallout from Jane's disappearance opened a Pandora's box of secrets as the series often veered into fantasy with dream sequences, time travel and geishas all featuring. It was originally launched as a teatime soap around the same time as the Crossroads revival, as part of ITV's attempt to keep the youth audience after Home and Away's defection to rival Channel 5. The younger cast was made up of good looking unknowns, most of whom would later pop up on Hollyoaks and Family Affairs while a raft of TV veterans including Gareth Hunt, Glynis Barber, Lesley Joseph, Joe McGann, Cathy Tyson and Lysette Anthony played various parents, aunts and granddads. It originally aired three evenings a week, with a late night omnibus on Thursday called Night and Day: Remixed, which featured more explicit scenes that couldn't be aired at teatime (mainly featuring Stuart Manning's arse IIRC). ITV weren't happy with the ratings for the evening episodes and they were eventually dropped. The show continued to air as an omnibus each week but the episode migrated further and further into the depths of ITV's late night schedules, to the point that you weren't quite sure when it was on. It's last episode aired in mid 2003, after just 18 months on the air.
I've rewatched the first three episodes so far. It's well written and very well shot compared to other soaps of the time. The action zips along quite quickly to the sounds of the heavily soundtracked scenes featuring everyone from Goldfrapp to Fun Boy Three. It's unconfirmed but the heavy use of pop music has been cited as one of the reasons why it's never been rerun or released because of licensing fees. The first week of episodes mostly focuses on Jane and her various entanglements, setting the scene for her disappearance but there's plenty of subplots being hinted at or slowly introduced. Lesley Joseph's wicked aunt Rachel is one character that I'm particularly looking forward to seeing again while Roxanne and Alex's relationship looks set to feature plenty of twists and turns (I recall the omnipresent Bradley Walsh showing up as an ex at one point). I'll post updates as I go but give it a try if you're curious as it's an interesting twist on British soap.
