getting the future wrong, #2

#1 was this post on Anthony Burgess's 1985, a clumsy satire of a trade union dominated Britain of the near future

in similar vein, the 1977 series 1990, set in a bureaucratic dystopia (creator Wilfred Greatorex called it "Nineteen Eighty-Four plus six")

 

The blurb at YouTube: A nightmare vision of the (then) future UK set in 1990. The permanent civil service in Britain has taken political control and the population finds itself living under a totalitarian regime. The Public Control Department (PCD) of the Home Office monitors all activity, and ruthlessly suppresses any act of opposition. The story focuses on two key players -- the supercilious Permanent Secretary at the PCD, Herbert Skardon (Robert Lang) and a journalist on Britain's last independent newspaper, Jim Kyle (Edward Woodward).

(More on it here)

Laughably off-base, did they really not see Thatcher coming?

Still, great synth-twizzled library-music-esque theme tune, and Edward Woodward is always good value

Episode one

Episode two

Episode three

Episode four

Episode five

Episode six (titled 'whatever happened to Cardinal Wolsey?' !!!!)

Episode seven

Episode eight

Blimey, there appears to have been a second series.

Wilfred Greatorex - what an awesome name!