Have You Been Watching...? King Of The Castle (1977)

 

I love 1970s telefantasy. I love that TV producers took risks, that they aimed so high with their aspirations and that only budgets stood in their way. It’s something we don’t see enough of in the 21^st century, I think. These days it’s all about ratings and playing it safe.

So, what can I tell you about King of the Castle? It was a children’s telefantasy series broadcast between 8^th May 1977 and 19^th June 1977, running for 7 episodes. It’s a stand-alone series, in that there was no series 2, or sequel, or spin-off. It was broadcast in colour by Harlech Television (I have no idea what their commissioning team were on, but HTV produced some amazing programmes for children in its day).  As seems to be the norm for this era, the series doesn’t fully exist in the archives in its entirety and the lost episode 3 is recovered from a VHS recording. I viewed this on the official Network DVD release and the quality isn’t bad at all.

King of the Castle was created and written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who also wrote the other telefantasy series “Sky” (more of that in a future instalment of this blog) but are probably better known for writing several Doctor Who serials and introducing the world to K-9, the Doctor’s robot dog. The series tells the story of Roland, played by Philip DaCosta, a young chorister who has recently moved into a block of flats, with his dad and stepmother. He finds himself the victim of the bullies who roam the building. On one occasion, he tries to get away from them by entering an elevator, but it breaks, and plummets down the shaft.

While the police and maintenance staff try to rescue him, Roland enters a bizarre and twisted version of the world above, resulting in a surreal series of escapades as he tries to find his way out of the strange world he finds himself in, and back to the block of flats as he knows it.

The strange world is populated by twisted versions of people he knows in the real world, meaning the cast play dual roles. The cast includes numerous well-known names like Milton Johns (sci-fi fans will recognise him from The Empire Strikes Back and a variety of Doctor Who tales), Fulton Mackay (Officer Mackay in Porridge alongside Ronnie Barker) and Talfryn Thomas (whom I recognised as Tom Price in the BBC 1970s apocalyptic series Survivors).

Each episode runs for an easily manageable 25 mins (apx), and Roland’s escapades include meeting a Frankenstein’s Monster-esque creature, a woman in red who creepily tries to seduce him (the alternative character to his step-mum played by Angela Richards!) and a samurai-type warrior played by Jamie Foreman, the alternative character to the main bully called “Ripper”. Talfryn Thomas plays a creepy guide through this strange world, and whose motives are unclear resulting in Roland’s uncertainty whether he should trust him or not.

Now I will be honest, 7 episodes may be too many and I found the series flagging around episode 4. Stick with it, however, as episode 6 turns things around with something I certainly did NOT see coming, leading nicely into its finale. Applying modern sensitivities to a series made 45 years ago is always a problem, but very hard to avoid. Certainly, an element of the finale does not sit comfortably today.

The series seems to be a spiritual predecessor to those 80s T Bag adventures, studio bound surreal adventures with limited special effects, but King of the Castle is certainly much darker than T Bags and T shirts would ever be. It also spends a long time leaving the viewer wondering if Roland is dead in real life and this is all in his head. The “real world” characters spend an inordinately long time trying to get to the lift and rescue him, but he doesn’t reply to their calls.  There is a reason for this, but you will be guessing for a while.

 

One of the things I quite disliked about the series is the opening theme tune. It’s a choral version of the old King of the Castle rhyme. I suppose it does add to the atmosphere of the show, but I find it unsettling! Therefore, I suppose, its objective is achieved!

Overall, of course it’s a low budget kids show from the seventies, and it’s very much a product of it’s time.  Could it have done with an episode or two cut? Maybe. Is it enjoyable? Very much so. Fulton Mackay and Talfryn Thomas are great in it, as is Philip DaCosta. Milton Johns is very much underused. My favourite character in it is the father, played by Sean Lynch. He’s just great to watch and it with great sadness I read he passed away in 1979, only two years after this programme.

Year: 1977

Series count: 1

Episode count: 7

Availability: DVD