Joseph Oldham
@paranoidstylist.bsky.social
Historian of television, intelligence, conspiracy narratives. Currently working on a book about John le Carré adaptations on TV (1966 to 2018 and beyond...). Written things for Doctor Who Magazine. I am not a number, my views are my own!
The shift from studio to location filming alone gives their depictions of London a completely different visual quality
October 19, 2025 at 9:35 AM
The shift from studio to location filming alone gives their depictions of London a completely different visual quality
I think there's also an underexplored influence from Graham Greene on Danger Man, particularly the way it keeps engaging with the politics of decolonisation (way more than the Bond stories ever did).
October 18, 2025 at 8:48 AM
I think there's also an underexplored influence from Graham Greene on Danger Man, particularly the way it keeps engaging with the politics of decolonisation (way more than the Bond stories ever did).
...What that means is you get this very upstanding, noble hero with lots of leeway to exercise his independent moral judgement. That's basically what gets abolished in the post-1963 shift, when secret organisations become a bigger feature, and protagonists struggle more with their individual agency.
October 18, 2025 at 8:47 AM
...What that means is you get this very upstanding, noble hero with lots of leeway to exercise his independent moral judgement. That's basically what gets abolished in the post-1963 shift, when secret organisations become a bigger feature, and protagonists struggle more with their individual agency.
Danger Man is interesting because, if you describe the premise in simple terms, it sounds like a fairly straightforward Bond imitation, which I'm sure was ITC's original idea. What makes it distinctive in practice is the strong moral sensibility, which seems to have been McGoohan's influence...
October 18, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Danger Man is interesting because, if you describe the premise in simple terms, it sounds like a fairly straightforward Bond imitation, which I'm sure was ITC's original idea. What makes it distinctive in practice is the strong moral sensibility, which seems to have been McGoohan's influence...
Absolutely - it really is one of those ultimate zeitgesit novels. Even le Carré himself ends up spending about a decade struggling to escape from its shadow.
October 18, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Absolutely - it really is one of those ultimate zeitgesit novels. Even le Carré himself ends up spending about a decade struggling to escape from its shadow.
By the way, I've just been listening to your Bergcast appearance on The Stone Tape which was an absolutely fascinating listen - thanks! Really gave me lots to think about on a play which I've always struggled with a bit.
October 18, 2025 at 7:33 AM
By the way, I've just been listening to your Bergcast appearance on The Stone Tape which was an absolutely fascinating listen - thanks! Really gave me lots to think about on a play which I've always struggled with a bit.
...But the influence starts to be felt on TV from 1967, a year when you get the launch of *three* different series which are all, in different ways, about the impossibility of ever resigning from the secret world - The Prisoner, Callan and Man in a Suitcase.
October 18, 2025 at 7:30 AM
...But the influence starts to be felt on TV from 1967, a year when you get the launch of *three* different series which are all, in different ways, about the impossibility of ever resigning from the secret world - The Prisoner, Callan and Man in a Suitcase.
I always feel boring dragging everything back to John le Carré, but I think the real turning point is the mega-success of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) and its 1965 film adaptation. It's too late to really influence the later episodes of Danger Man because the format is already set...
October 18, 2025 at 7:29 AM
I always feel boring dragging everything back to John le Carré, but I think the real turning point is the mega-success of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) and its 1965 film adaptation. It's too late to really influence the later episodes of Danger Man because the format is already set...
I just appear whenever anyone says "Callan"! :-P
October 18, 2025 at 7:10 AM
I just appear whenever anyone says "Callan"! :-P
Danger Man is somewhat cynical, but Callan pushes the cynicism much, much further
October 18, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Danger Man is somewhat cynical, but Callan pushes the cynicism much, much further
Have you considered a career in which you think about serial narrative fiction as part of your work?
September 16, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Have you considered a career in which you think about serial narrative fiction as part of your work?
To use the technical term, it has "emerged"
September 15, 2025 at 4:34 PM
To use the technical term, it has "emerged"
The word "emerge" does so much work in UK politics headlines
September 15, 2025 at 2:48 PM
The word "emerge" does so much work in UK politics headlines
After a wobbly start with Season 15, this is the season where the Graham Williams approach really clicks into place, primarily because it's the only one where the three big writers are all in place - Robert Holmes, Douglas Adams and the underappreciated David Fisher.
September 12, 2025 at 9:37 AM
After a wobbly start with Season 15, this is the season where the Graham Williams approach really clicks into place, primarily because it's the only one where the three big writers are all in place - Robert Holmes, Douglas Adams and the underappreciated David Fisher.
The Thirty-Eight Steps
September 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM
The Thirty-Eight Steps
Kneale's ending is all the more powerful for the way it promises an ending like the film and then discards it. Quatermass is all set to burn the Thing, and what he actually does is a *really* desperate shot in the dark after Plan A fails. It makes it so much more thrilling and powerful.
September 6, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Kneale's ending is all the more powerful for the way it promises an ending like the film and then discards it. Quatermass is all set to burn the Thing, and what he actually does is a *really* desperate shot in the dark after Plan A fails. It makes it so much more thrilling and powerful.
It's incredible when you watch it in order - starts off strong, and then just keeps escalating to an unprecedented extent
September 4, 2025 at 8:20 PM
It's incredible when you watch it in order - starts off strong, and then just keeps escalating to an unprecedented extent
...Obviously within a year they were informed that Rediffusion would be losing its franchise, so the time period in which they might have made any other television films would be limited.
August 31, 2025 at 11:43 AM
...Obviously within a year they were informed that Rediffusion would be losing its franchise, so the time period in which they might have made any other television films would be limited.