The Year of the Sex Olympics. (15.)
Directed by Michael Elliott. 1968
Starring Leonard Rossiter, Suzanne Neve, Tony Vogel, Brian Cox, and Martin Potter. Black and White. Out on Blu-ray/ DVD or to stream on BFI Player, iTunes and Amazon on April 20th. 103 mins.
Knigel Kneale Knew. This late sixties BBC drama from the creator of Quatermass is one of those futuristic dramas that are eerily predictive, while being nothing like the reality. The eerie predictive part is foreseeing the rise of reality TV, albeit reality TV in the form of nightly hardcore competitive pornography broadcast, which seems a damn sight more entertaining, and more dignified, than watching the tossers on Gogglebox blathering on.
Kneale is an almost sacred figure in British post-war sci-fi and fantasy writing and he was one of the great patrician dystopians, always alerting the general public to what was going to be bad for them. The opening credits mark it as being set Sooner Than You Think and Sex Olympics merges elements of Brave New World, 1984, Clockwork Orange and Logan's Run to create a vision of a society divided into two sections: the privileged Hi-drives and the passive Lo-drives. (See, he really was a visionary: he predicted the disappearance of the middle classes.) To avoid the perils of war and overpopulation a "vicarious society" has been created where sex has become a spectator sport for the passive masses to consume. In this youth-obsessed society, a pre-Rigsby Rossiter is the receptacle of knowledge from the old times.
Being a TV play from the late sixties quite a few allowances need to be made. Though it is mostly filmed on a studio set the sound recording is a bit haphazard and bits of dialogue are hard to make out, particularly as Kneale has invented a slang dialogue for his future society, a form of Newspeak where speech is so simplified characters don't have words to describe some experiences. The skimpy, gaudy costumes and glittery make-up worn by the Hi-drives means their utopia resembles a Roman orgy as filmed by Gerry Anderson.
(Heartbreakingly, the thing was filmed in colour but now only exists in black and white; unless someone finds a copy of the original hidden away in an attic.)
There are some illogicalities. Would the term Olympics have survived the degradation of the language? It references something that few members of the society would have any knowledge of. Also, thought the lo-drives are the weakest element of society, the way Kneale's screenplay is constructed it seems like all of the hi-drives' time is spent trying to sate their needs. They are seen in a sample box where they look like a Greek chorus, casting judgement over what they see. Visually, they seem to possess great power with the main characters desperately reacting to any sign of boredom or restlessness on their part. These plebs seem to have a Caesar-like power of thumbs up or down.
I've wanted to see this ever since I heard the title and continued to want to see it even after I realised that it wasn't going to be the orgy of filth the title suggested. Despite that, I didn't have much hope for it but it is pretty impressive and has much more to recommend it than just historical interest. There's a strong nostalgic appeal too. I'm not old enough to remember the era of Play For Today etc (this was broadcast originally on BBC2 as part of its Theatre 625 strand) but I am old enough to remember my parents complaining about what rubbish Play For Today was, back when everybody more or less watched the same things, like it or lump it, and the BBC could take a few risks. Ah, the good old days, when we had proper dystopian future dramas, and all our dystopias still seemed like distant things to come.
Directed by Michael Elliott. 1968
Starring Leonard Rossiter, Suzanne Neve, Tony Vogel, Brian Cox, and Martin Potter. Black and White. Out on Blu-ray/ DVD or to stream on BFI Player, iTunes and Amazon on April 20th. 103 mins.
Knigel Kneale Knew. This late sixties BBC drama from the creator of Quatermass is one of those futuristic dramas that are eerily predictive, while being nothing like the reality. The eerie predictive part is foreseeing the rise of reality TV, albeit reality TV in the form of nightly hardcore competitive pornography broadcast, which seems a damn sight more entertaining, and more dignified, than watching the tossers on Gogglebox blathering on.
Kneale is an almost sacred figure in British post-war sci-fi and fantasy writing and he was one of the great patrician dystopians, always alerting the general public to what was going to be bad for them. The opening credits mark it as being set Sooner Than You Think and Sex Olympics merges elements of Brave New World, 1984, Clockwork Orange and Logan's Run to create a vision of a society divided into two sections: the privileged Hi-drives and the passive Lo-drives. (See, he really was a visionary: he predicted the disappearance of the middle classes.) To avoid the perils of war and overpopulation a "vicarious society" has been created where sex has become a spectator sport for the passive masses to consume. In this youth-obsessed society, a pre-Rigsby Rossiter is the receptacle of knowledge from the old times.
Being a TV play from the late sixties quite a few allowances need to be made. Though it is mostly filmed on a studio set the sound recording is a bit haphazard and bits of dialogue are hard to make out, particularly as Kneale has invented a slang dialogue for his future society, a form of Newspeak where speech is so simplified characters don't have words to describe some experiences. The skimpy, gaudy costumes and glittery make-up worn by the Hi-drives means their utopia resembles a Roman orgy as filmed by Gerry Anderson.
(Heartbreakingly, the thing was filmed in colour but now only exists in black and white; unless someone finds a copy of the original hidden away in an attic.)
There are some illogicalities. Would the term Olympics have survived the degradation of the language? It references something that few members of the society would have any knowledge of. Also, thought the lo-drives are the weakest element of society, the way Kneale's screenplay is constructed it seems like all of the hi-drives' time is spent trying to sate their needs. They are seen in a sample box where they look like a Greek chorus, casting judgement over what they see. Visually, they seem to possess great power with the main characters desperately reacting to any sign of boredom or restlessness on their part. These plebs seem to have a Caesar-like power of thumbs up or down.
I've wanted to see this ever since I heard the title and continued to want to see it even after I realised that it wasn't going to be the orgy of filth the title suggested. Despite that, I didn't have much hope for it but it is pretty impressive and has much more to recommend it than just historical interest. There's a strong nostalgic appeal too. I'm not old enough to remember the era of Play For Today etc (this was broadcast originally on BBC2 as part of its Theatre 625 strand) but I am old enough to remember my parents complaining about what rubbish Play For Today was, back when everybody more or less watched the same things, like it or lump it, and the BBC could take a few risks. Ah, the good old days, when we had proper dystopian future dramas, and all our dystopias still seemed like distant things to come.
