The Mamas & The Papas: California Dreamin' (1965)

I really do love this song, it has the knack of picking me up when I'm down. "California Dreamin'" the classic song by The Mamas & The Papas, first released in 1965. The song is No89 in Rolling Stones' list of The 500 Greatest Songs of all Time. The lyrics of the song are about a man in a cold winter landscape longing for the warmth of California. According to John Phillips in a Bravo documentary, and Michelle Phillips in an NPR piece, the song was written in 1963 while they were living in New York. He dreamed about the song and woke her up to help him write it. At the time, the Phillips' were members of the folk group The New Journeymen which evolved into The Mamas & The Papas.

They earned their first record contract after being introduced to Lou Adler, the head of Dunhill Records, by the singer Barry McGuire. In thanks to Adler, they sang the backing vocals to "California Dreamin'" on McGuire's album This Precious Time. The Mamas and the Papas then recorded their own version, using the same instrumental and backing vocal tracks to which they added new vocals and an alto flute solo by Bud Shan k. McGuire's original vocal can be briefly heard on the left channel at the beginning of the record, having not been completely wiped. The single was released in late 1965 but it was not an immediate breakthrough. After gaining little attention in Los Angeles upon its release, Michelle Phillips remembers that it took a radio station in Boston to break the song nationwide. By early 1966, the song peaked at No4 and stayed on the charts for 17 weeks. "California Dreaming" and "The Ballard of the Green Berets" sharply divided the popular music market in March 1966.

The song is used repeatedly in the 1994 Wong Kar-Wai film Chungking Express, in which a character played by singer Faye Wong obsessively listens to it. The original song by The Mamas & the Papas was also used in the soundtrack on the Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning film Forrest Gump. A version by the band The Bald Eagles was used for the remake of the movie The Hills Have Eyes. In the movie Congo the song is sung by members of an expedition as they prepare rafts for an ill-fated river trek.

"California Dreamin'", as covered by Bobby Womack (1968), features prominently in 2009 British film Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold, where the main character Mia dances to it and uses it as her audition piece. The collection CD on which the song appears also plays a role, and is "The Best of Bobby Womack" (2008), on which "California Dreamin'" appears on track 17, as Mia requests at her audition.

The song was also used in the South Park episode 201.

In the British time travelling sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, one of the main characters, Phoebe, sang this song, thinking it had been written by her husband, Gary Sparrow. (Gary Sparrow travels from the 1990s to the 1940s and claims to write songs, which are actually songs from popular bands or singers, such as "Yesterday" by The Beatles, "Imagine" by John Lennon and "Back To You" by Brett Anderson.)

A cover of the song by Shaw Blades was used in the final scene of the season 2 finale of Californication.

The song is used in promos for HBO Films' Cinema Verite.

It was also used in a "Butter Menthol" Cough Lolly TV advertisment in Australia

In 2004 the Mexican bank Banamex use the theme for a TV Commercial.

Billboard Hot 100 (1965)

1965  was a great year in music. The Beatles ruled the charts again but even with their five No1 hits there was plenty of room for some old favorites and newcomers alike. The Rolling Stones had one of the biggest hits of the year with "Satisfaction", this song has been voted as one of the top five rock songs of all times.
Possibly the last gasp for good old rock&roll was a song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs called "Wooly Bully". It never hit No1 but it managed to stay in the Top 40 for over 14 weeks. Music was becoming more complicated and "Wooly Bully" was a throwback to simpler rhythms and lyrics.

The British invasion continued with No1 hits from Herman's Hermits, "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" and "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter" as well as the Dave Clark Five's hit, "Over And Over".

There was quite a lineup of newcomers in 1965. Sonny & Cher took a No 1 spot with their "I Got You Babe" even if it did sound suspiciously like "It Ain't Me Babe" from Bob Dylan. The Byrds with an all star lineup would have a hit with a Bob Dylan tune, "Mr. Tambourine Man". Their popularity would only last a couple of years, changes in members due to successful solo careers would eventually end the group. While they were together they are credited with creating the genre 'folk rock' along with Pete Seeger and Dylan, they also pioneered 'country rock' sounds as well as the beginnings of 'psychedelic rock'. Their musical interpretations would influence music throughout the remainder of the 1960's.

Another newcomer was The Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick, they didn't have a chart success until 1967 though. Out of the San Francisco Bay area and not causing much of a stir until later years was a group that was eventually known as the Grateful Dead. Their pioneering in long musical improvisation gave rise to the musical term jamming.

Number of Charted Songs Top 100: Beatles - 5 Supremes - 3 Herman's Hermits - 3 Byrds - 2 Four Tops - 2 Yarbirds - 2

And The Grammy Goes To: Record of the Year - "A Taste of Honey" - Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Album of the Year - "September of My Years" - Frank Sinatra Song of the Year - "The Shadow of Your Smile?" - Paul Francis Webster Best Rock and Roll Recording - "King of the Road"- Roger Miller

Roger Miller had the biggest Country & Western hit of the year with "King of the Road" proving again that there can be a cross over market for C&W. While folk music was turning electric Simon and Garfunkel had a more acoustic hit with "The Sound of Silence" which would hit No1 on New Years day 1966.
In the grown-up world movie soundtracks were ruling with some all time greats like "The Sound of Music", "Doctor Zhivago", My Fair Lady", and "Fiddler on the Roof" leading the way.

SONG	ARTIST (click to purchase)	# OF WEEKS	DATE
Downtown	Petula Clark	2	1/23
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'	The Righteous Brothers	2	2/06
This Diamond Ring	Gary Lewis and the Playboys	2	2/20
My Girl	Temptations	1	3/06
Eight Days A Week	Beatles	2	3/13
Stop! In The Name Of Love	The Supremes	2	3/27
I'm Telling You Now	Freddie and the Dreamers	2	4/10
Game Of Love	Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders	1	4/24
Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter	Herman's Hermits	3	5/01
Ticket To Ride	Beatles	1	5/22
Help Me, Rhonda	Beach Boys	2	5/29
Back In My Arms Again	Supremes	1	6/12
I Can't Help Myself	The Four Tops	2	6/19
Mr. Tambourine Man	The Byrds	1	6/26
Satisfaction	Rolling Stones	4	7/10
I'm Henry VIII, I Am	Herman's Hermits	1	8/07
I Got You Babe	Sonny & Cher	3	8/14
Help!	Beatles	3	9/04
Eve Of Destruction	Barry McGuire	1	9/25
Hang On Sloopy	The McCoys	1	10/02
Yesterday	Beatles	4	10/09
Get Off Of My Cloud	Rolling Stones	2	11/06
I Hear A Symphony	Supremes	2	11/20
Turn! Turn! Turn!	The Byrds	3	12/04
Over And Over	The Dave Clark Five	1	12/24

Cloppa Castle - Episode Seven - Off Duty

The castle guards are protesting again at the fact they have been on duty for months without a break. The Queen decides that they should all have a day off and go to the seaside. Before they can go Cue-ee-dee has to build a new wagon to carry everyone. Alas for poor Cue-ee-dee he has built inside his lab and the doorway is not big enough for it to get out. Whilst this problem is being dealt with, the castle comes under attack from the Hasbeenes.
 
 
Elbow is most annoyed as this may mean he cannot have a holiday. Suddenly the Byegones realise that they could use Beosweyne battering ram to smash a hole in the laboratory and thus get the wagon out. It all goes to plan and Beosweyne comes rushing into the castle and crashes through the lab wall. He is about to claim victory when the Queen invites both him and his men for a day out. A twenty four hour truce is thus called. Everyone is very happy and has a nice time relaxing, although the sea is at very low tide. At the end of the day they are all hungry and it is up to Mudlin to bring out the food.
 
 
He makes a complete mess of it and Beosweyne is not happy about it. He starts to complain and the Queen leaps into her chariot and with the wagon in tow, she heads for the castle leaving everyone stranded at the beach. Beosweyne decides to show all the others how to organise a feast and party back at his camp. Everyone has a great time part from the Queen who is in bed at Cloppa Castle.

Saluting the Greatest - Happy 70th, Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; January 17, 1942) the American former professional Boxer, Philanthropist and Social Activist Considered a cultural icon, Ali was both idolized and vilified.

Originally known as Cassius Clay, Ali changed his name after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964, subsequently converting to Sunni Islam in 1975, and more recently practicing Sufism. In 1967, three years after Ali had won the World Heavyweight Championship, he was publicly vilified for his refusal to be conscripted into the U.S. Military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. Ali stated, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong... No Viet Cong ever called me nigger" – one of the more telling remarks of the era.

Widespread protests against the Vietnam War w had not yet begun, but with that one phrase, Ali articulated the reason to oppose the war for a generation of young Americans, and his words served as a touchstone for the racial and antiwar upheavals that would rock the 1960s. Ali's example inspired Martin Luther King Jr. – who had been reluctant to alienate the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda – to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.

Ali would eventually be arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges; he was stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license was suspended. He was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S.Supreme Court, where it was eventually successful.

Ali would go on to become the first and only three-time Lineal World Heavyweight Champion.

Nicknamed "The Greatest," Ali was involved in several historic boxing matches. Notable among these were three with rival Joe Frazier, which are considered among the greatest in boxing history, and one with George Foreman, where he finally regained his stripped titles seven years later. Ali was well known for his unorthodox fighting style, which he described as "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee", and employing techniques such as the Ali Shuffle and the rope-a-dope. Ali had brought beauty and grace to the most uncompromising of sports and through the wonderful excesses of skill and character, he had become the most famous athlete in the world. He was also known for his pre-match hype, where he would "trash talk" opponents, often with rhymes. In 1999, Ali was crowned "Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and Sports Personality of the Year by the BBC..

Clay won six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amatuer Athletic National Title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses.

Ali states (in his 1975 autobiography) that he threw his Olympic Gold Medal into the Ohio River after being refused service at a 'whites-only' restaurant, and fighting with a white gang. Whether this is true is still debated, although he was given a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.

Ali is generally considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time by boxing commentators and historians. Ring Magazine, a prominent boxing magazine, named him number 1 in a 1998 ranking of greatest heavyweights from all eras.

Ali was named the second greatest fighter in boxing history by ESPN.com behind only welterweight and middleweight great Sugar Ray Robinson In December 2007, ESPN listed Ali second in its choice of the greatest heavyweights of all time, behind Joe Louis.

Muhammad Ali has been married four times and has seven daughters and two sons. Ali met his first wife,Cocktail Waitress Sonji Roi, approximately one month before they married on August 14, 964. Roi's objections to certain Muslim customs in regard to dress for women contributed to the breakup of their marriage. They divorced on January 10, 1966.

On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. After the wedding, she, like Ali, converted to Islam and more recently to Sufism, changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: Maryum (b. 1968), Jamillah and Rasheda (b. 1970), and Muhammad Ali Jr. (b. 1972).

In 1975, Ali began an affair with Veronica Porsche, an actress and model. By the summer of 1977, Ali's second marriage was over and he had married Veronica. At the time of their marriage, they had a baby girl, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Veronica were divorced.

On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda Ali. They had been friends since 1964 in Louisville. They have one son, Asaad Amin, who they adopted when Amin was five.

Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. Ali has two other daughters, Miya and Khaliah, from extramarital relationships.

As a world champion boxer and social activist, Ali has been the subject of numerous books, films and other creative works. In 1963, he released an album of spoken word on Columbia Records titled I am the Greatest! He has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 37 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan. He appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull. His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee. When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won an Academy Award and the 2001 biopic Ali garnered an Oscar nomination for Will Smith's portrayal of the lead role.

For contributions to the entertainment industry, Muhammed Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.

Radio Times - Graham Stark (1964)

My first Radio Times posting of the new year and gracing this 1964 cover is the late Graham Stark advertising the fact that his new show, The Graham Stark Show is back on air every Tuesday. All the editions of the show were scripted by Johnny Speight and each one featured a different group of supporting actors, including Deryck Guyler, Arthur Mullard, Derek Nimmo, Patricia Hayes and Warren Mitchell. Stark worked and socialised quite a bit with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, and is mentioned throughout biographies of them, such as Pauline Scudamore's (1985) biography of Milligan, and especially in Roger Lewis's comprehensive (1995) biography of Sellers.

Alias Smith & Jones (1971-1973)

Another great classic from the good old 1970s. Alias Smith and Jones was an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It starred Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, a pair of Western cousin outlaws trying to reform. The deal: a promise of conditional amnesty, by a governor who wants to keep the pact under wraps. The dilemma: for now, they'll still be "wanted".

Alias Smith and Jones began with a made-for-TV movie of the previous year called The Young Country, about con artists in the old West. It was produced, written and directed by Roy Huggins, who served as executive producer of Alias Smith & Jones and, under the pseudonym of John Thomas James, at least shared the writing credit on most episodes.

Roger Davis starred as Stephen Foster Moody, and Pete Duel had the secondary but significant role of Honest John Smith, while Joan Hackett played a character called Clementine Hale, the same name as a part played on two Alias Smith & Jones episodes by Sally Field. This pilot was rejected, but Huggins was given a second chance and, joined by Glen A. Larson, developed Alias Smith and Jones. Both The Young Country and the series pilot movie originally aired as ABC Movie of the week entries.

Alias Smith and Jones was made in the same spirit as many other American TV series, from Huggins' own The Fugitive to Renegade, about men on the run crisscrossing America and getting involved in the personal lives of the people they meet. One major difference was that Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry were guilty of the crimes that they were accused of committing, but were trying to turn over a new leaf.

The series was inspired by the success of the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman & Robert Redford (Universal contract player Ben Murphy was handed to the producers because he was considered a Paul Newman lookalike.) There were a number of connecting themes: one of the heroes was named Kid Curry which was also the nickname of Harvey Logan, an associate of the real Butch Cassidy, played in that film by Ted Cassidy. (However, unlike the TV version, the real Kid Curry was a cold-blooded killer.) The names "Smith and Jones" originated from a comment in Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid when the characters are outside a bank in Bolivia and Sundance says: "I'm Smith and you're Jones."

The series also featured a group of robbers called the Devil's Hole Gang which was based on the Hole in the Wall Gang from where Cassidy recruited most of his outlaws.

However, in order to give them an element of sympathy, Heyes and Curry were presented as men who avoided bloodshed (though Curry did once kill in self-defense) and trying to reform.

Heyes was deemed "cunning", and Curry was "gunning". Heyes/Smith was considered the brains of the duo, and a card sharp. Curry/Jones was the master gun hand, and the brawn. Usually, Heyes figured out ways to make money and save the twosome from precarious situations. After Davis was hired as Heyes, his distictive voice could no longer be used in the theme intro. Ralph Story was brought in to provide narration for the series (he rather than Davis had done so in the pilot). Story's slightly revamped intro partially explained why the renowned duo didn't split to evade capture - they were cousins.

Recurring characters include:

• Kyle Murtry (Dennis Fimple) and Wheat Carlson (Earl Holliman), members of the Devil's Hole Gang, formerly led by Heyes and Curry;

• Harry Briscoe (J.D. Cannon), a Bannerman detective who occasionally finds himself on the wrong side of the law;

• Patrick "Big Mac" McCreedy (Burl Ives) and Señor Armendariz (Cesar Romero), two ranchers on opposite sides of the US-Mexico border/Rio Grande waging a feud over a valuable bust which represents land that had been owned by Armendariz until the river temporarily switched course, moving the border with it, allowing MacCreedy to sell the land. Heyes and Curry get stuck in the middle;

• Clementine "Clem" Hale (Sally Field), an old friend who has no problem with blackmailing the reformed outlaws when necessary. Field had appeared in only one episode before Duel's death, and she declined to return to the program. Several scripts intended for her were rewritten to feature Georgette "George" Sinclair, who was played by Michelle Lee. In the third season, Field did appear as Clem one last time;

Soapy Saunders (Sam Jaffe) and Silky O'Sullivan (Walter Brennan), both retired confidence men that the boys call on when in need of a large sum of cash and a good con to get them out of trouble.

In the early morning hours of Friday, December 31, 1971, series star Pete Duel died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 31. He was reportedly suffering from depression and had been drinking heavily. Upon learning of Duel's death, executive producer Jo Swerling, Jr. initially wanted to end the series but ABC refused. Swerling later stated:

ABC said, "No way!" They said, "You have a contract to deliver this show to us, and you will continue to deliver the show as best you can on schedule or we will sue you." Hearing those words, Universal didn't hesitate for a second to instruct us to stay in production. We were already a little bit behind the eight ball on airdates. So we contacted everybody, including Ben [Murphy], and told them to come back in. The entire company was reassembled and back in production by one o'clock that day shooting scenes that did not involve Peter - only twelve hours after his death.

Series writer, director and producer Roy Huggins contacted actor Roger Davis (who had appeared in episode 19 "Smiler With a Gun" and provided narration for the series) the day of Duel's death to fill the role of Hannibal Heyes. Davis was fitted for costumes the following day, and began re-shooting scenes Duel had previously completed for an unfinished episode the following Monday. According to Swerling, the decision to continue production so soon after Duel's death was heavily criticized in the press at the time.

Roger Davis' original theme voiceover referred to the characters as "latter day heroes". The Ralph Story intro substituted that disciption with the phrase, "Kansas cousins". In the first episode with Davis (season 2, episode 19), "The Biggest Game In the West", Heyes shouts to Curry: "Yes sir! Cousin, you're alright!". In the episode "Don't Get Mad Get Even", Curry and Heyes both make reference to their Irish grandfather Curry.

The series continued for another seventeen episodes, but never regained its popularity after the loss of Duel. This, as well as the fact that the long prominent Western genre was giving way to police dramas, brought the show to an end on January 13, 1973. On January 16, 1973,Bonanza aired its final episode, leaving the eighteen-year-old Gunsmoke, and the syndicated comedy-western, Dusty's Trail as the only Westerns scheduled for 1973.

The Persuaders - Episode Three - Five Miles to Midnight (1971)

Five Miles to Midnight was the third episode of the classic ATV series, The Persuaders and guest starred Joan Collins. Smuggling an American Gangster out of Italy proves to be no joy ride for Brett & Danny, despite the assistance of a glamorous girl photographer.

The killing of an Italian Underworld boss named Gino Franco detonates a havoc - ahead explosion for Brett Sinclair (Roger Moore) & Danny Wilde ( Tony Curtis). The assassin is Frank Rocco (Robert Hutton) a New York Gangster who is sitting comfortably in Rome to evade a tax evasion charge awaiting him back in the States. Now, he is on the run again. There is no way out for him. He promises U.S. authorities that if they save him and reduce his sentence, he will lift the lid on an East Coast crime syndicate.

The U.S Authorities agree and Danny & Brett find themselves with another assignment from Judge Fulton (Laurence Naismith) who wins their reluctant co-operation when he tells them that if they get Rocco back to America it will be the biggest breakthrough ever made against organised crime!

Danny sets off with Rocco hidden under a tarpaulin in an old truck owned by Sidonie (Joan Collins) a beautiful girl photographer who smells a great scoop here and insists on accompanying them. Brett follows in his car creating a dramatic diversion at a police checkpoint which enables Danny to drive Rocco off in a different direction.

Unnoticed in the melee, a car starts silently after Brett. It carries Torrino (Robert Rietty) a big time Italian Mobster bent on vendetta. When Brett catches up with Danny and his passengers they abandon the truck because the police now know the number and begin to make their way on foot. Reaching an imposing villa they tell the owner, Sangallo (Ferdy Maine) that their car has broken down and he invites them to dinner.

Brett & Danny have chosen their host unwisely, he later locks them in and calls Torrino and they find themselves surrounded. Their escape has a melodramatic note, but is successful and they wind up a mountain road with Torrino and his henchmen in hot pursuit. Ahead is police block. But they get through on foot, bicycles and an old farm truck and have only five miles to go to the border when Sidone spots the sinister convoy of gangster cars.

Brett sends Sidone and Rocco into the bushes and drives on as a decoy with Danny, but Torrino catches up with them. It's not quite the end of the trail though. There's a big surprise for Torrino and an even bigger surprise for Brett & Danny!

Edward Woodward is Callan (1967)

Callan is the classic British television series set in the murky world of espionage. Originally produced by ABC Weekend Television and later Thames Television, it was aired on the ITV network over four seasons spread out between 1967 and 1972. The series starred the late, lamented Edward Woodward as David Callan, a reluctant professional killer for a shadowy branch of the British Government's intelligence services known as 'the Section'.

The series pilot episode aired in February 1967, in a play entitled A Magnum for Schneider by James Mitchell. Mitchell also created the equally popular When the Boat Comes In (1976–81). The haunted character of Callan caught the public's imagination to such an extent that a six-episode series was commissioned, later in the same year.

The series ran from 1967 to 1972, proving popular with audiences. A cinema film followed in 1974, directed by Don Sharp and simply entitled Callan. Callan was last seen in the 1981 feature-length television story made by ATV, entitled Wet Job.

Callan has been fired from an anonymous government agency known as "The Section" which is run by Colonel Hunter. ("Hunter" is a pseudonym for the current Section Chief, like the C of CIS.) The Section removes those who pose a danger to the "innocent" by persuasion, blackmail, extortion or death.

David Callan had been the Section's top operator but he had become too curious about his targets and the rationale for their removal. The Section considered him vulnerable, volatile and dangerous and had laid him off to a dead-end book-keeping job for an ungrateful employer. Callan is where Hunter can keep an eye on him and also in daily, casual and unknowing contact with his next victim. If he can kill Schneider after making his acquaintance as a fellow war games enthusiast then he can kill anyone: this is the question to which Hunter urgently requires an answer.

Hunter describes Callan as "a dead shot, with the cold nerve to kill" and considers him far too useful to be allowed to retire. In this screenplay, Hunter invites Callan back to the Section to remove Schneider as a favour. Schneider's nefarious activities are known to the authorities but he is too clever to be caught by normal methods. Hunter wants Scheider eliminated but offers Callan no help from the Section—ostensibly to allow Callan to prove his loyalty and dedication. Hunter secretly sends Toby Meres to set Callan up to take the fall for the assassination, should this become necessary.

Callan's curiosity about his victims overwhelms him again and he investigates Schneider, discovering a massive gun-running operation. Satisfied, Callan formulates his plan. He calls on his petty criminal contact Lonely, played by Russell Hunter. Lonely is unsure of Callan's identity and motives but fearfully provides a "Noguchi .38 Magnum" plus 20 rounds (Callan returning the .38 revolver he had previously purchased from Lonely). Callan has a chance meeting with Schneider and finds common ground in their interest in model soldiers and war games.

At Schneider's house, where Callan and his host re-play a scenario from the Peninsular War and go on to recreate the the Battle of Gettysburg , Meres breaks in, distracting Callan. Hunter sends the police in order to ensure Callan is caught red-handed. Schneider, suspicious, uncovers Meres and holds the two men at gunpoint. Schneider searches Callan but misses the Magnum and Callan kills Schneider.

Meres attempts to finish the set-up but Callan knocks Meres unconscious. Callan phones Hunter about Schneider and says he will leave Meres to the police, quitting the Section. Hunter orders Callan's file to be changed to a red folder—targeting him for removal.

By 1969, ABC Weekend Television had, via enforced merger, become Thames Television. A second season of fifteen episodes that had already been completed by ABC was therefore transmitted by its successor. This run ended with "Death Of A Hunter" in which the Section chief meets his demise, and Callan is shot - perhaps fatally. It had not been decided whether the show would return for a third series, so this device was used to leave open either the possibility of more stories in the future, or a way of winding-up the show. Two endings were taped, in which Callan either lived or died. In the end, Thames decided to bring the programme back for the 1970 series, this time in full colour.

A final set of thirteen episodes was broadcast in 1972. This saw Callan develop further than before. An unsuccessful mission meant Callan was exchanged with the Russians for one of their agents and now he was known, he was a liability. What to do with the Section's top agent was solved by promoting him into the role of Hunter - a post he disliked as much or even more than actually serving under a Hunter but which he was eventually relieved of by his predecessor when the danger had all but passed. The final three episodes were a trilogy based around the defector Richmond, played by T.P. McKenna, (and sub-titled "The Richmond Files"), at the end of which he pleads for Callan to kill him instead of capturing him - you know what they do to people like us. Having disobeyed orders to help A Man Like Me (Final episode title), Callan finally walks out of the Section.

Successive Hunters were played by Ronald Radd, Derek Bond, Michael Goodliffe and William Squire. The latter's steely exterior and ice-cold decisive nature was often the match for Callan and he is probably the best remembered of all the supporting actors. Toby Meres was brought to life by Anthony Valentine (Peter Bowles in the pilot) and when he departed for a posting in the US (in truth, to appear in the series Codename on the rival BBC network) in came the young, brash, and unpredictable Cross (played by Patrick Mower) who was just as arrogant and who needed teaching a lesson more than once in a while by his experienced teacher.

Bonnie's Total Eclipse of the Heart (1983)

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is the title of the smash hit song written and produced by Jim Steinman and recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for her fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed Of Light. Released as a single in 1983, it was the first release from the album and became Tyler's biggest hit reaching number one in several countries including the United States, making her the first and, to date, only Welsh singer to reach the top of the Billboard Charts.

The power ballard remains Tyler's most successful song, peaking at No. 1 in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. At its peak, it sold 60,000 copies per day, and approximately 6 million copies in total. It won the Variety Club award in the UK for best single of 1983. The song also made number 82 of VH1's top 100 love songs.

According to Meat Loaf, Steinman had given the song, along with "Making Love (Out Of Nothing At All"), to Meat Loaf for his album Midnight at the Lost & Found; however, Meat Loaf's record company refused to pay for Steinman and he wrote separate songs himself. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was then given to Bonnie Tyler and "Making Love (Out of Nothing At All)" to Air Supply

The song's melody originally appeared as part of the soundtrack for the 1980 film A Small Circle of Friends.

The music video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was directed by Russell Mulcahy. It was story-boarded by Jim Steinman and drew inspiration from the 1976 film Future world. The Gothic-themed video features Bonnie Tyler clad in white, apparently having a dream or fantasy about her students in a boys' boarding school. Young men are seen dancing and participating in various school activities such as swim team, karate, gymnastics, football, fencing, soccer, and singing in a choir. The video was shot at Holloway Sanitorium, notable for its Gothic architecture and distinguished for the multi-arched grand entrance as seen at the end of the video.