Description
FOX The Complete Series
4-DVD Box Set
ALL 13 EPISODES PLUS SPECIAL FEATURES
4-DVD Box Set. Colour. Year of production:1980. Running time: 650 mins approx. All 13 episodes.
Cast: Peter Vaughan; Elizabeth Spriggs; Ray Winstone; Larry Lamb; Bernard Hill; Derrick O’Connor; Eamon Boland; Rosemary Martin; Richard Weinbaum; Gail Shaw; Cindy O’Callaghan and Sidney Livingstone.
Writer Trevor Preston won a 1981 Bafta Television Writers’ Award for his series about a family who have lived in the Clapham area for generations. The gritty, edge-of-the-law stories plant the characters and their lives firmly in the slightly run down South London of the 80s. A microcosm of London and the way it was changing, the series follows the conflicts and triumphs within a family whose creed is based on loyalty. A patriarch who rules his family with a mixture of benevolence and despotism, “King” Billy, is a retired Covent Garden Porter. His family comprises his wife, Connie and five sons: Vin, Ray, Joey, Kenny and Phil.
Written and directed on a scale which is seldom attempted on television nowadays, each of the thirteen episodes bring a depth and richness to both the characters and their situations. Billy’s 70th birthday with a nasty gift from local villains; Kenny’s horror at accidentally killing his boxing opponent; Vin trying to cope with a deaf son and Ray’s brushes with the law. The script, direction and acting are pitch-perfect and this is arguably the best, most involving series that Euston Films produced throughout its twenty years.
EPISODES: King Billy / Arched Fingers for Bach, Flat Fingers for Love / Pugilism Not Vandalism / It’s All Them Psychia-Whatever-You-Call-It Books He Reads / Shim-Me-Sha-Wabble / Stick or Twist / The Perfect Scapegoat Syndrome / If It’s Good Enough for New Orleans It’s Good Enough for Clapham / Fox – Big ‘F’ Family / Just An Iron Monkey / Just Another Villain in a Cheap Suit / Oh Dear – Oh Dear – Oh Dear! / The Family… and the Future
Special Features: Audio commentaries with writer Trevor Preston and director Jim Goddard on the first and last episodes. All original scripts in PDF format.
