1990 (TV series)
| 1990 | |
|---|---|
Book cover for paperback novelization of first series, showing Edward Woodward as Jim Kyle
|
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| Genre | Drama |
| Created by | Wilfred Greatorex |
| Written by |
Wilfred Greatorex Edmund Ward Jim Hawkins Arden Winch, |
| Directed by |
Alan Gibson David Sullivan Proudfoot Kenneth Ives Rob Bird Peter Sasdy Roger Tucker |
| Starring |
Edward Woodward Robert Lang Barbara Kellerman (series 1) Lisa Harrow (series 2) Tony Doyle Clifton Jones (Series 1) Clive Swift (series 2) |
| Theme music composer | John Cameron |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 16 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Prudence Fitzgerald |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC2 |
| Original release | 18 September 1977 – 10 April 1978 |
1990 is a British then-futuristic political drama television series produced by the BBC and shown in 1977 and 1978.
The series is set in a dystopian future in which Britain is under the grip of the Home Office's Public Control Department (PCD), a tyrannically oppressive bureaucracy riding roughshod over the population's civil liberties.
Dubbed "Nineteen Eighty-Four plus six" by its creator, Wilfred Greatorex, 1990 stars Edward Woodward as journalist Jim Kyle, Robert Lang as the powerful PCD Controller Herbert Skardon, Barbara Kellerman as Deputy PCD Controller Delly Lomas, John Savident, Yvonne Mitchell (in her last role), Lisa Harrow, Tony Doyle, Michael Napier Brown and Clive Swift.
Two series, of eight episodes each, were produced and broadcast on BBC2 in 1977 and 1978. The series has never been repeated nor received any official DVD or video release. Two novelizations based on the scripts were released in paperback by the publisher Sphere; Wilfred Greatorex's 1990, and Wilfred Greatorex's 1990 Book Two.
Jim Kyle (Edward Woodward) is a journalist on the last independent newspaper called The Star, who turns renegade and fights the PCD covertly. The officials of the PCD (headed by Controller Herbert Skardon (Robert Lang), in turn, try to find proof of Kyle's subversive activities. Skardon's two Deputy Controllers were Delly Lomas (Barbara Kellerman), who had an ambiguous personal relationship with Kyle, and Henry Tasker (Clifton Jones); however, in the second series, these two Deputies were replaced by Lynn Blake (Lisa Harrow), a former love interest of Kyle's (in the novelization of episodes from Series Two, the explanation given for the replacement of Delly Lomas was that she had been "relegated to obscurity in the Dundee Branch of the PCD"; no explanation was given for Henry Tasker's departure). Kyle was aided and abetted by Import/Export Agent Dave Brett (Tony Doyle) and provided from time to time with Top Secret government information by the mysterious "Faceless" (Paul Hardwick), who was a top-level government official tapped into the PCD. The whole government machine was headed by Home Secretary Dan Mellor (John Savident), replaced in office in Series Two (supposedly through Kyle's efforts) by Kate Smith (Yvonne Mitchell).
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Wikipedia