The Beiderbecke Trilogy

Infobox Television
show_name = The Beiderbecke Trilogy


caption = Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne, played by James Bolam and Barbara Flynn
genre = Comedy drama
developer = Alan Plater
starring = James Bolam
Barbara Flynn
Dudley Sutton
Keith Smith
theme_music_composer = Frankie Trumbauer and Chauncey Morehouse
opentheme = “Cryin' All Day”
endtheme = “Cryin' All Day”
country = UK
language = English
num_series = 3
num_episodes = 12
executive_producer = David Cunliffe (Affair, Tapes)
Keith Richardson (Connection)
network = ITV (Yorkshire Television)
picture_format = PAL 576i
audio_format = Monaural
first_aired = 6 January 1985
last_aired = 18 December 1988
related = Get Lost!

"The Beiderbecke Trilogy" refers to three television serials written by Alan Plater and made by Yorkshire Television for the ITV network in the United Kingdom between 1984 and 1987. Each serial centres around schoolteachers Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam) and Jill Swinburne (Barbara Flynn) who work at a rundown comprehensive school in Leeds. Woodwork teacher Trevor enjoys football and jazz music while English teacher Jill is a political activist concerned with saving the environment.

In each of the three serials – "The Beiderbecke Affair", "The Beiderbecke Tapes" and "The Beiderbecke Connection" – Jill and Trevor inadvertently become embroiled in a series of unlikely adventures involving such things as political corruption, nuclear espionage and serious fraud. In each serial, the plot rambles, moving from one seemingly unrelated event to another, all of which are eventually shown to be interconnected. However, it is the clever interplay between the characters that is the core of each these stories.

Each episode unravels to a soundtrack of jazz music in the style of Bix Beiderbecke performed by Frank Ricotti with Kenny Baker as featured cornet soloist. Extensive use is made of leitmotifs for the various characters. Ricotti won a BAFTA award for his work on "The Beiderbecke Connection".

Concept

"The Beiderbecke Trilogy" centres around two schoolteachers – Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam) and Jill Swinburne (Barbara Flynn) – who teach at a comprehensive school in Leeds, in Yorkshire.

Cast

*James Bolam as Trevor Chaplin
*Barbara Flynn as Jill Swinburne
*Terence Rigby as Big Al
*Danny Schiller as Little Norm
*Dudley Sutton as Mr Carter
*Dominic Jephcott as Hobson
*Keith Smith' as Mr Wheeler

Origins – Get Lost!

Alan Plater had begun writing for television in the early nineteen-sixties and had been a regular writer on the police series "Z-Cars" (1962-78) and its spin-off series "Softly, Softly" (1966-69) and "" (1969-76). He had also written several plays for the BBC and ITV and created and wrote the sitcom "Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt!" (1974). Plater's scripts were noted for their strong depiction of the lives of the inhabitants of Northern England. [Cooke, "Alan Plater (1935- )".] In 1978, Plater was commissioned by David Cunliffe, an executive producer at Yorkshire Television (YTV), for four episodes of what Plater called a “non-violent thriller”.Pixley, "Viewing Notes", p.4.] Using characters inspired by Nick and Nora Charles, the detectives in the film "The Thin Man" (1934) and its sequels, Plater sought to juxtapose the conventions of the hardboiled thriller, as expounded by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett, with the mundanity of life in Yorkshire.Pixley, "Viewing Notes", p.5.] The result was "Get Lost!", a four part serial starring Alun Armstrong and Bridget Turner that was broadcast in June and July 1981.

The plot of "Get Lost!" concerns the disappearance of Jim Threadgold (Brian Southwood), husband of English teacher Judy Threadgold (Turner). Aided by her colleague, woodwork teacher Neville Keaton (Armstrong), Judy sets out to find out what has happened to her husband. Judy and Neville soon discover the existence of a secret organisation dedicated to assisting people who want to escape the mundanity of their lives and families and just disappear. Plater apportioned elements of his own interests to his two heroes, making Judy an environmental campaigner and Neville a football and jazz fan. Neville's love of jazz is reflected in the serial's soundtrack which features re-recordings, by Frank Ricotti and featuring Kenny Baker, of tracks by the likes of Duke Ellington. The same team would also provide the music for each of the "Beiderbecke" serials.

"Get Lost!" aired to respectable ratings – averaging 10.9 million viewers across its run [Pixley, "Viewing Notes", p. 46.] – and Plater soon began work on a sequel. When it transpired than Alun Armstrong would not be available to reprise the role of Neville Keaton, Plater decided that, rather than recasting the role, he would create two new characters and rewrite the scripts. [Pixley, "Viewing Notes", p. 20.] The sequel to "Get Lost!" was reworked by Plater into what was to become "The Beiderbecke Affair".

The Beiderbecke Affair

The new characters Plater created for "The Beiderbecke Affair" – Trevor Chaplin and Jill Swinburne – were virtually identical to that of Neville Keaton and Judy Threadgold from "Get Lost!". Both were teachers of woodwork and English respectively and Trevor was a fan of football and jazz music (especially Bix Beiderbecke) and Jill was an environmental activist just like Neville and Judy. Since Neville's surname had been Keaton, Plater named his new male character Chaplin (after Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin respectively).Pixley, "Viewing Notes", p.20-21.] Similarly, since Judy Threadgold had been named in homage to Sunderland A.F.C. goalkeeper Harry Threadgold so Jill Swinburne was named after Newcastle United F.C. goalkeeper Tom Swinburne. In coming up with a name for the serial, Plater decided that, since it would be Trevor's pursuit of a rare set of Bix Beiderbecke records that would kickstart the plot, he would use the title "The Beiderbecke Affair". The individual episodes got their titles from the first line of the script of each episode e.g. “What I don't understand is this...” (episode 1), “We are on the brink of a new era, if only...” (episode 6).

"The Beiderbecke Affair" was broadcast in six parts in January and February 1985 and averaged 12 million viewers over its run.Pixley, "Viewing Notes", p.47.]

The Beiderbecke Tapes

Shortly after the completion of "The Beiderbecke Affair", David Cunliffe asked Plater to write a new serial with the same characters. At this point Plater decided to create a jazz-themed trilogy; "The Beiderbecke Affair" would be followed by "The Gillespie Tapes" and "The Yardbird Suite", referencing Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker respectively. However, YTV felt that they wanted to stick with the Beiderbecke “brand” and so the first sequel was re-named "The Beiderbecke Tapes". Plater intended "The Beiderbecke Tapes" to be another six part serial set in Yorkshire, Holland and Athens. As well as Trevor and Jill, returning characters would include Big Al, Little Norm, Hobson (now an officer in British Intelligence), Mr Carter and the Headmaster. When financial problems at YTV delayed production, Plater reworked his scripts as a novel, also titled "The Beiderbecke Tapes". YTV later decided that they would film the novel as a two-part serial, each episode of ninety minutes duration. To fit the shorter length, Big Al, Little Norm and Hobson were dropped from the script. Financial constraints meant that the action originally intended for Athens had to be relocated to Edinburgh, an event which became an in-joke when it was worked into the script as a planned trip to Greece being changed at the last minute for the trip to Scotland.

"The Beiderbecke Tapes" was broadcast in December 1987 and averaged 9.9 million viewers over its run. Frank Ricotti was nominated for a 1987 BAFTA Award for Original Television Music for "The Beiderbecke Tapes", losing out to "Porterhouse Blue". [cite web | url = http://www.bafta.org/awards/television/nominations/?year=1987 | title = Television Nominations 1987 | accessdate = 2008-03-06 | work = British Academy of Film and Television Arts ]

The Beiderbecke Connection

Plater began work on "The Beiderbecke Connection", the third part of the trilogy, in late 1987. At the conclusion of "The Beiderbecke Tapes" Jill had discovered that she was pregnant with Trevor's child. The new serial would pick up six to nine months after the birth of their child. The presence of the baby was a restricting factor on the plot; hence the introduction of the character of Yvonne, who would mind the child while Trevor and Jill went about their adventures. The plot this time called for Trevor and Jill to look after “Ivan”, apparently a refugee, for Big Al and Little Norm. Plater originally intended that Trevor and Jill would have to keep Ivan hidden from his pursuers by means of different disguises and cover stories – for example, one scene called for him to pose as a school inspector – but this was dropped. A subplot concerned the challenges of teaching in the face of budget cuts that meant the necessary books and materials were not available. In this respect, Plater sought to ask the question, “If education is a universal right, if you are deprived of that by people in authority, how do you think you will resolve that?”.Pixley, "Viewing Notes", p.38.]

One major change to the production team was that David Cunliffe had by this stage moved on from YTV. He was replaced by Keith Richardson, best known as the producer of the thriller serial "Harry's Game" (1982). "The Beiderbecke Connection" was broadcast in four parts in November and December 1988 and averaged 8.8 million viewers over its run.

Frank Ricotti was again nominated and this time won the 1988 BAFTA Award for Original Television Music for "The Beiderbecke Connection". [cite web | url = http://www.bafta.org/awards/television/nominations/?year=1988 | title = Television Nominations 1988 | accessdate = 2008-03-06 | work = British Academy of Film and Television Arts ]

Other media

All three series are available as individual DVD releases, as a boxed set, "The Beiderbecke Trilogy", and as a boxed set "Beiderbecke Trilogy 21st Anniversary Edition" (containing "The Beiderbecke Trilogy" plus "Get Lost!", cast interviews, CD soundtrack and collectors booklet), released on Region 2.

Notes

References

* cite web
url = http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/473028/index.html
title = Alan Plater (1935 - )
accessdate = 2008-03-04
last = Cooke
first = Lez
year = 2003-07
work = Screenonline
*cite book
last = Pixley
first = Andrew
title = The Beiderbecke Trilogy – Viewing Notes
year = 2006
publisher = Network DVD
location = London
id = 7952566

External links

* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/975477/index.html "The Beiderbecke Tapes"] at the British Film Institute's screenonline
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1980s British television series