Sandy Gall Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 Anyone else watch that tonight? Very poor. I expected another 30 minutes of "unpredictable" twists, but that was more like a reconstruction from Crimewatch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arnus68 Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 Anyone else watch that tonight? Very poor. I expected another 30 minutes of "unpredictable" twists, but that was more like a reconstruction from Crimewatch. Apparently a new production team have now taken over so maybe improvement will come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northernsoul Posted July 12, 2010 Report Share Posted July 12, 2010 I'm a big fan of Taggart, especially the older ones before Mark passed away. Got a good collection of the older episodes on dvd. The difference in the writing and twists in the older episodes to the ones these days is night and day. Back when it was at it's height in popularity they were two hour episodes with great build up and at times great humour. They had the best writers in the country writing episodes then. Am I right in that back in the day they showed them in 3 parts? There was some great funny scenes with Taggart and Jardine and even once with Reid when she lost a suspect and ended up on a train to the Carstairs Junction "wummin polis!!" When they killed off Jardine that was it for me. Watched it now and then for a couple of years but there was none of the original characters left, Taggart, Jack "the biscuit" McVitie, Dr Andrews then Jardine. The decision to cut the episodes to one hour was awful, like it would be for any detective drama. How on earth are you meant to create a good build up and lets the story develop when you've only got (due to ITV adverts) probably 50 minutes? It's a sad sight now, because even if it was still a 90 minute episode they could still be ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaggernaut Posted July 13, 2010 Report Share Posted July 13, 2010 Remember the episode called "Nest of Vipers"? Think it was only 1 hour, but absolutely brilliant, with many twists and turns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northernsoul Posted July 13, 2010 Report Share Posted July 13, 2010 Remember the episode called "Nest of Vipers"? Think it was only 1 hour, but absolutely brilliant, with many twists and turns. 2 hour episode, that one. Dougray Scott as the baddie, a right psycho. It is one of the best episodes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas Posted July 13, 2010 Report Share Posted July 13, 2010 The decision to cut the episodes to one hour was awful, like it would be for any detective drama. How on earth are you meant to create a good build up and lets the story develop when you've only got (due to ITV adverts) probably 50 minutes? It's a sad sight now, because even if it was still a 90 minute episode they could still be ok. Youre licky if its 50mins, when i watched lost on my pc, it had the ads taken out and usually ran for 42mins, i think that itv isnt much better than the US networks for hour long shows Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graemei Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 Recently started watching Taggart again, rekindled my love of it. May have to acquire every episode and start a Taggart marathon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northernsoul Posted July 20, 2010 Report Share Posted July 20, 2010 Recently started watching Taggart again, rekindled my love of it. May have to acquire every episode and start a Taggart marathon. Old ones or the new ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graemei Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 Old ones or the new ones? Both really, just whatever comes on. I used to watch it a lot and then lots of other stuff got my attention. Quite like the level of abuse Burke gives everyone and his general tone/accent. Would like the newer ones to go on for longer as well though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazy davie Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 My brother was in an epsiode of Taggart. He was on for about 10 seconds playing the harpsichord in a scene. I love that it's called "Taggart" even though there's no Taggart. Also loved it that "Blake's 7" had only 5 people in it and none of them was called Blake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinny Posted July 21, 2010 Report Share Posted July 21, 2010 I think one of my mates was in an episode of Taggart when he was young, he had a line too, saying something about a scary shark, which was a tiny toy fish they'd placed close to the camera to make it look massive, or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graemei Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 You're not a real Scotsman until you've been in Taggart some way or another I guess. They were filming a lot of recently near me and I was always driving passed cursing the amount of room they took up with the trucks. I also wandered around the area as well as I wanted to see if it was maybe Still Game that was beign filmed. So who knows maybe i'll get in an episode yet. Did anyone see the episode recently with Boaby the Barman playing a tough Glasgow gangster? just couldn't take him seriously. Kept on hearing Jack and Victor taking the piss out of him in my head... The putting on the beef comment "Aye that's cos everytime I shag your wife she makes me a sandwich!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rid Skwerr Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 Years ago (when they were still at 3 x 1-hour episodes per story) I saw them filming in Waterloo Street one mid-week lunchtime. The location was the old Postal Sorting Office building which had recently been refurbished (Atrium Court?) and it was doubling as a New York office block. Waterloo St. was shut along the whole block and they had parked an American van across the road, set up a "walk/Don't walk" crossing and an actor in NYPD uniform writing a parking ticket. They had a dozen or so American cars which circled the block to represent passing traffic and dozens and dozens of extras whose job it was simply to walk up and down the pavements. I watched for maybe an hour and they must have re-done the scene 5 or 6 times. The finished scene was simply a guy arriving by car and entering the building, and lasted maybe 30 seconds in the show I couldn't believe the trouble (and expense) they went to to make a tiny scene like that, but it maybe explains why they've cut it down to the bare minimum nowadays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Third Lanark Posted July 22, 2010 Report Share Posted July 22, 2010 You're not a real Scotsman until you've been in Taggart some way or another I guess. They were filming a lot of recently near me and I was always driving passed cursing the amount of room they took up with the trucks. I also wandered around the area as well as I wanted to see if it was maybe Still Game that was beign filmed. So who knows maybe i'll get in an episode yet. Did anyone see the episode recently with Boaby the Barman playing a tough Glasgow gangster? just couldn't take him seriously. Kept on hearing Jack and Victor taking the piss out of him in my head... The putting on the beef comment "Aye that's cos everytime I shag your wife she makes me a sandwich!" Even funnier were some of the English actors/actresses putting on Glasgow accents when you jsut knew they were English. Remeber about 20 years ago one o fthe Janitors from Grange Hill appeared on it as a character. I was in stiches in Grange Hill he was this London Janitor as Cockney as they come and then on Taggart putting on thsi fake Glasgow accent. I still love the series though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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