I am a walking television show.
Anthony Newley stars as an actor who walks off the set of a banal sit-com and into a fantasy world of his own imagination in this surreal odyssey through one man's personal alternative reality.
DirectorAlan Tarrant
WritersSid Green, Dick Hills, Anthony Newley
Episode 1
Oct 22, 1960
Gurney Slade breaks the fourth wall and leaves the set during a live broadcast - much to the consternation of the cast and floor manager. He sets off on a wistful odyssey into leafy West London.
Episode 2
Oct 29, 1960
Gurney gets tongue tied on an airfield, conducts a lineup of prospective amoureuses, breaks up a family, tells a baby there is no such thing as Santa Claus, is granted a wish by a fairy and builds a woman from mannequin parts.
Episode 3
Nov 5, 1960
In the countryside, Gurney commentates an ant boxing match, spots an interesting signpost, tries to hoodwink a well, has a bone to pick with Bonaparte, sings Greensleeves with a scarecrow, chats to an alluring cow and (almost) witnesses a crime de coeur.
Episode 4
Nov 12, 1960
Gurney finds himself on trial for having no sense of humour. After releasing his ex-music-hall performer brief, the jury is shown a filmed sequence of Gurney Slade's alleged comedy by the prosecution. Various witnesses are cross-examined before the jury reaches its verdict. Will our hero prevail or lose his head?
Episode 5
Nov 19, 1960
A group of children are told about a land where people can be their best, a wedding guest is left puzzled when a lady friend has a change of heart, and rubbing a tinker's pot forces Gurney to take a trip into his own mind.
Episode 6
Nov 26, 1960
Gurney finds that he's seen as nothing more than a performing machine, the characters he's created wonder what's going to become of them, and the cast decide to have a bit of a rave in their last ten minutes together.
BrownSTHLM
@brwnSTHLM
Anthony Newley was so far ahead of his time in 1960 when he made this show, that it is still boggles the mind 66 years later. The premise of the show at its start was already pretty wacky. An actor in a run of the mill comedy/soap opera style show leaves the show in the middle of shooting and we follow him out of the studio and into his aimless wandering around as he interacts with various characters. The show was first given a primetime slot - Newley was a star after all - but was gradually shifted further down the schedule as each episode lost viewers and became more and more obtuse. It was filmed week by week so that after episode one was broadcast, episode two was filmed and edited etc. and then broadcast and so on week by week. As the viewing figures dropped, Newley began to address the popularity of the the show within the show itself - eventually being tried in the final episode for producing a terrible tv show that no one liked. The witnesses in the trial being characters that had appeared in earlier episodes and who were quizzed by the prosecution and Newley himself on the plot, characters etc., value of the show and so on. The chameleonic young David Bowie, already a Newley fan at this time, watched this and perhaps thought to himself - _I'll 'ave some o that_ - his debut album _David Bowie,_ certainly owes something to Newley. Beyond his _avant garde, post-modern_ version of televison, Anthony Newley was a successful songwriter, penning _Feeling Good_ for _Nina Simone_ with his longtime collaborator _Leslie Bricusse_ with whom he wrote the score for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, as well as many other hits - the lyrics to _John Barry's Goldfinger_ among them. The Strange World of Gurney Slade is a very unusual television series that is wonderful to watch and think about the fare that was on offer at the time. If you ever get the chance to see it, grab that chance with both hands, wrestle it to the floor, pin its arms and watch the heck out of it!
