I interrupt my brief hiatus (I have a deadline for another project) to pay a small tribute to Troy Kennedy Martin, one of the great geniuses and innovators of television drama. He died the other day, aged 77.
The show of his getting most of the attention — rightly so — is Edge of Darkness, and The Guardian offers a pretty of good assessment of it in their piece on Martin.
To me, Edge of Darkness is probably the first of the sort of quality, grown-up, extended drama series that we now tend to associate with the programming that comes out of HBO in the United States (peace be upon them). If you haven’t seen it, it is so worth getting a hold of the DVDs.
And of course, one of the things that made it a success and that gave it a distinctive edge was the soundtrack it used, written in part, and played by Eric Clapton. They also deployed — brilliantly — Willie Nelson’s song, ‘The Time of the Preacher’. Is there a better television drama soundtrack anywhere?
Vale Troy Kennedy Martin.
Here’s a few clips: first, Clapton doing concert version of the soundtrack. Then, a scene from the show where “‘he Time of the Preacher’ is used.
(And now I go back to my hiding place for a bit longer. Unless someone else “seminal” dies.)
13 Comments
Thanks for this. I, too, thought this one of the great drama series – sets, writing, direction, acting, the lot. And I particularly loved and remembered the ‘Cried like a preacher’ scene you featured, in which Bob Peck searched his murdered daughter Emma’s room – and in a bedside drawer found first her vibrator (which he gave a brief, respectful, regretful, utterly non-lascivious kiss) and then a gun.
And Eric Clapton’s soundtrack WAS amazing. I recommend this series to anyone. The story got a tiny bit OTT towards the end but I doubt much of it would seem all that dated now though it was more than 20 years ago.
Vale indeed.
Emma, by the way, was played by the same actress (Joanne Whalley) who was the nurse in the original TV version of Dennis Potter’s ‘Singing Detective’ (”I’m sorry, I’ll have to grease your p*nis now”, she says to the reluctant and horribly embarrassed hero – the psoriasis-ridden writer Marlow – played by Michael Gambon).
(Two sexual references in two TV drama references. I wonder if this is a reflection on me or on the honest/down-to-earth nature of late 20th century British TV drama?)
Great comment. And Moira, wasn’t Darius Jedburgh a standout character? I don’t recall anyone like him in TV drama to that point.
Yes Tim, Darius was a ’standout’ in many ways! Since writing that comment I’ve been remembering little (or is it big?) bits of his role in that series …. I’ll have to get the DVD out and play it again.
I guess Darius was a bit of a stereotype – quintessential American, know-it-all fear-nothing Texan, CIA redneck – and he played the role with both the humour and the sinister seriousness it deserved. I don’t recall seeing this actor in anything since then?
Moira, Joe Don Baker was the actor who played Darius Jedburgh.
If you’d like to see him in a role that “almost” comes up to his performance in HoD, try getting a copy of “Charley Varrick” (1973) with Walter Mathau.
He plays a truly memorable villain in that movie.
(It was probably the role that got him the gig in HoD.)
Test
Dear Tim
Just a note to celebrate the September release of the box set of argueably(?) the best band you’ve never heard of(tm registered) Big Star’s Keep your eye on the sky. Heaven.
Also I got the “Twisted Willie” Willie Nelson tribute album a few years ago which had an excellent “Time of the preacher” done by Johnny Cash in typical magnificent doom laden fashion.
Good luck meeting your deadline
Pity we did not get to comment on the recent astounding sales figures of the Beatles mono and remastered album catalogue. Oh well!
Edge of Darkness was great. One of the starkest devices was the presence of the dead daughter. Unlike traditional spooks she simply appeared in broad daylight beside her policeman father and they dialogued – as the grieving often do with the ones they’ve lost. It was very fresh and startling at the time of its rendering though film and TV is full of such naturalistic portrayals of spirits today. Troy Kennedy Martin was known to this fan long before EoD as the screenwriter of two very inventive movies ‘The Italian Job” and “Kelly’s Heroes”. He did a good job of mixing drama and comedy into his stories with lots of memorable characters.
Regarding the theme of EoD, Kennedy Martin said the idea came straight from “Paris Texas”. Since the BBC had a very small budget for the music, the job fell to Eric Clapton who wrote and performed it for minimum pay. The rest is history as they say.
There was a time when good,or in this case,great,TV was first on free to air mainstream then went to pay. Now it seems roles are reversed.
Edge of Darkness along with Singing Detective and that other spy type series (with the big high BMI public service guy who later played a cook – whatsitsname?) were a high point – made me get a TV. I won’t go on about how I miss Callan.
The only bad thing about EoD was the fact that people would come up to me and ask me had I heard that great songs and who was singing it.
bah bah and bah – I had to rant about how I’d been trying to push Willie and particularly the Redheaded Stranger album onto them for years. But prejudice against country (and western) music blocked their ears. More fool them.
Redheaded Stranger is still a great album. And Willie is still the King – after Bob Wills of
course.
And Tim – whats this piking out. jeez – you were supposed to inspire me and floppy and others to get back in the saddle.
@fxholden … interesting comment : ‘I won’t go on about how I miss Callan’. Callan was just a tad before my appreciation-time, but do you remember ‘The Equalizer’? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Equalizer] Edward Woodward who played Callan also played the hero in The Equalizer and it was my English Uni lecturer at the time who pointed out to me that the hero’s name ‘McCall’ could be interpreted as ’son of Callan’. Is that interesting, or what? And it was a good series as I recall.
I do remember ‘that other spy type series (with the big high BMI public service guy who later played a cook – whatsitsname?)’ and I remember him doing a lot of (rather unlikely) running through government offices but I wish I could remember the name of the show.
Johnny might be in the basement, but where the hell is Tim????
moira – if you liked The Equalizer – don’t get a series of Callan – you may well think you are in the Rapture and sproing off into heaven.
The Equalizer is to Callan like Nescafe is to a good coffee or Corio Whiskey (do they still sell it?) is to a Single malt.
The Equalizer=Dan Brown whereas Callan=John Le Carre.