VERY POOR QUALITY RECORDING MADE BY JOE DRIVER DURING THE LOCATION FILMING OF TENKO. THERE WERE PROBLEMS WITH THE RECORDING EQUIPMENT BUT IT IS STILL VERY INTERESTING!
I absolutely loved this show as a teenager. I regularly visit Singapore now and have remained fascinated by the Japanese occupation during the war, no doubt due to this show. I would never had thought this was filmed in Dorset! Thank you!
I was one of the regular "prisoners" in the line-up scenes etc. The set was at Warmwell Sand and Gravel (quarry). Some of the "Japanese" guards were actually Chinese and worked at a local restaurant! We had a great deal of fun on set with many stories to tell, this video brings back special memories. I have a few photos taken on the set. Everyone was on a strict diet to look thin and undernourished as the real prisoners would have been in WW2.
Hi Lynn, I was startled to see your comment - startled because a) I didn't think anyone was still looking at it and b) I haven't been in contact with anyone except the crew who worked on it, except my wife of course whom I married 37 years ago! If you did want to exchange a few notes I'd love to hear from you. We've just watched the whole series for the second time and it really was quite an achievement at the time I think, for the BBC. Anyway - get in touch if you would like to and I won't be offended if you don't! Best regards Joe Driver (ex-BBC sound man) 01840 213148
watching this in 2023 ,really good footage very strange seeing the prisoners laughing and joking with the guards ,with some fun holiday music and then 2 dramatic scenes in between RIP to all the crew and great actresses and actors who are no longer with us
Hi Mark, So glad you found it interesting... we've just watched the whole series again on DVD and it was a pretty remarkable achievement for the Beeb I think. The reason I used the holiday music was it was the only LP (in those days!) that I had handy and I was trying to get it edited for the end-of-shoot party so I could play it to the cast and crew. I did the edits on the few days I got home in between the filming. It went down quite well. What was extraordinary for me and the rest of the crew was the appearance of all these glamourous ladies at the party - hitherto they were just a bunch of scruffy dirty and scabby prisoners!!! Incidentally I married one of the make up ladies - that was 37 years ago! Best Joe Driver
@@audiovideosouthwest I HAVE SEARCHED the internet countless times to watch the Tenko ladies on the Paul o grady show ,,have you seen it if so where can i find it
Gosh, I remember Tenko. I was a teenager with not much going on and this was the first thing I had ever seen with strong women. Such an influence on me. thanks
Quite good and like nothing else anyone is going to see regarding the making of this series. Behind the scenes of a classic like Tenko is always worth watching so thank you for uploading it.
Most of the Tenko episodes shown on TV has been edited. It's crucial most dialogue is included. Most scenes when the editing has taken place looks odd. It's quite sad really. Tenko is one of if not the best TV drama ever shown.
Literally just finished watching the last episode of Tenko this evening (the 1985 reunion). A phenomenal piece of television and one that I didn't appreciate at the time (I was only 10 years old when it first aired) but watching the complete series now I truly appreciate the quality of writing, the perfectly cast characters and the exceptional quality of their acting and all the attention to detail from all involved.
Always loved this series, it was one of the best i gad seen on a little known part of the war, casting was phenomenal, directing, makeup, in fact all of it was just great.....what has happened to the bbc?
I have just finished watching the box set of this absolutely fantastic drama series, it brought back such fond memories of watching it with my family when it was first broadcast in the 1980s
Hi, Joe here. Thank you for your kind comment. I'm currently producing a sort of amplified version of this recording, in which I will try and give more details of the filming and the people, with some stills that I and my colleagues took at the time. It's a long time ago but I still remember it vividly.
Been re-watching the series since the eighties. Always thought most of the outdoor scenes were filmed elsewhere (not England ). Of course indoor scenes are easy to film there.
Some scenes were done in Singapore but not many. Who knew Dorset was so rough 😁. The 70s and 80s were a great time for UK made tv shows such as tenko, upstairs downstairs, Sam, there was a spin off from upstairs downstairs following the character Sarah but frankly it's poor. The tenko dvds are not edited and includes the reunion set in 1950. Sam is well worth finding set in a very poor Yorkshire town spanning 1934 to the late 70s. Series 2 and 3 sam was played by Mark McMannus yup taggart 😁. It was shown once by itv and has never been repeated. WITHIN THESE WALLS. prison drama and was adapted in oz..... Yup it's the basis on which Prisoner cell black h was made. It ran from 1973 to 1978.
Hi, Joe D here... I've decided to make a "TENKO EXTRA" version of this recording, with lots of things and names I can remember and a few photos we took at the time. I hope you will enjoy watching it.. probably take me at least a month to do. If anyone who worked on it wants to get in touch (and maybe a share memories and photos) I'd be delighted to hear from you. My contact number is below, in my reply to Lynn's comment.
@@tiocfaidh28 Hi again! It's taking me much longer to make "Tenko Extra" than I thought because I have a channel called "Cornwall Stress Free Television" that I work on quite a lot and everything takes time to do as I'm sure you know! But I will get there - I've unearthed lots of photos and will get it done eventually. Thank you so much for being interested. Joe. And yes, it'll be on RU-vid, probably on Cornwall Stress Free Television.
@@CornwallStressFreeTelevision Thank you Joe. Brilliant, can't wait. Please send a message as a comment reply and I will get the update via email. I will let many people know. If you need any assistance with "Tenko Extra" (voluntary of course), please let me know as will be happy to help in any way I can. Paul
@@tiocfaidh28 Thank you Paul! Your comments have really encouraged me to get on with it and I'm now actively getting the material ready to make the "Extra" version! Amazing that people are still interested all these years later. Were or are you connected with the production in some way, that's caused your particular interest? Very best, Joe
Having seen this series a few times it was fascinating looking behind the scenes...could have done without the background music though!...The series end theme would have been better I think! ...
Hello Keith. You've go no idea of the conditions under which I edited this! I didn't have any equipment except two one inch video recorders, no mixer, no computer editing in those days. I had a gramophone turntable with which to play the one suitable record I had available and I had to plug that directly into the recording machine and crash edit all the bits together. I only had what bits of dialogue appeared on the video recording as I was actually working at the time. I left the recorder in the cab of the outside broadcast scanner and connected it to the "B" video output of the production vision mixer, so I got what happened to be cut up on the B bank at any one time. Not easy! And I had no access to any other music like the series music - it hadn't been shown at that time anyway, it was still in production. Joe Driver
Hi Steve, Yes, the exteriors in the prison camps were done in the Warmwell location and of course the interiors were done at Television Centre. What was different, rather groundbreaking technically in those days, was the fact that we were able to record the OB using electronic cameras rather than film cameras - which made for far better integration with the studio cameras, as they were all recorded on one inch videotape, studio and OB. Later outside locations were done in Singapore on film as that was easier at the time and considerably more portable - didn't need huge lorries with their mobile production facilities with a complete separate van to carry the video recorders! But of course the pictures did look different.
Yeah I can remember 1984 being an absolute scorcher. One of the three years in the 1900's where the flooded village of Mardale revealed itself from under the reservoir. The other two years were 1976 and 1995.
Hi Philip, you must be a Hancock fan like I am... one of the reasons it's such poor quality was the equipment I recorded it on - in those days we didn't have the facilities we have now - a large reel- to-reel black and white video recorder tweaked up to record (almost) colour and it had a servo problem too. So it's a miracle anything got recorded really! Cheers Joe
