ParisNair 23.03.2009 16:40 |
Running Blind was a spy novel written by the late English author Desmond Bagley sometime in the 1970s. I read it while I was in college sometime in the 90s and thoroughly enjoyed it. Indeed, Bagley was my favourite author at the time (still is on of my favs) and I had read all his books that I could lay my hands on. His books were hard to come by as I guess he was already forgotten by that time (he died in 1984)) and I had to keep a near constant vigil at the local second-hand book shop to make sure I did not miss any of his titles that happened to come that way. Well, I recently read somewhere on the net that Running Blind had been made into a television serial and was shown in multiple episodes in the UK on BBC in 1979. I have no idea how good the program was, or how popular it was. So does anybody here remember having watched that show? If you do, it would mean a lot to me if you could share your opinion on how the show was. By the way, some of Bagley's books have been adapted into hollywoood movies as well, the most well known one being The Mackintosh Man starring Paul Newman. The name of the book on which this movie is loosely based on was the Freedom Trap. |
ParisNair 27.03.2009 14:16 |
So no one's heard of him or the TV series? Looks like people have forgotten about Desmond in his country, as in the rest of the world : ( |
Ms. Rebel 27.03.2009 14:23 |
I am so sorry. *hugs you* |
Mitrich 04.12.2009 19:06 |
Well, Bagley is not exactly forgotten. I also have read all (I think) his books but have seen nothing yet on screen. I only watched a 10 min fragment of that BBC thing on youtube - it was really really good. Unfortunately, the clip was soon removed. According to amazon, you can get a VHS copy of this for as little as $999.00. Also there is a cheaper option to get it: link - something about $4 as far as I remember but I am not sure how kosher is this source. Macintosh Man is more available on same amazon - about £10 for DVD, zone 2, I think. If you found a better access to "visual Bagley" - please let me know. I |
ParisNair 04.12.2009 20:10 |
Mitrich wrote: Well, Bagley is not exactly forgotten. I also have read all (I think) his books but have seen nothing yet on screen. I only watched a 10 min fragment of that BBC thing on youtube - it was really really good. Unfortunately, the clip was soon removed. According to amazon, you can get a VHS copy of this for as little as $999.00. Also there is a cheaper option to get it: link - something about $4 as far as I remember but I am not sure how kosher is this source. Macintosh Man is more available on same amazon - about £10 for DVD, zone 2, I think. If you found a better access to "visual Bagley" - please let me know. IHi! Nice to meet you!! The link you have provided there is for a torrent download of the movie(way cheaper than $4 lol! ) It is a VHSrip and I had indeed found this a few months ago. It sure is kosher, but back then, it was on life support - practically no one seeding and it took me months to actually finish it. I'm thinking of uploading it to rapidshare or some such, as a lot of people seem to be interested in (going by request on a number of forums). I found the movie OK, the book was much much better IMO. It seems a bit dated and Alan was more sharp and Elin was a lot more attractive in my imagination than in the movie ;-) However, I found that many people liked the movie as much as the book (IMDB reviews). Mackintosh Man is available easily and though it starts well, the momentum is lost somewhere in between. |
Mitrich 05.12.2009 16:30 |
ParisNair wrote: Hi! Nice to meet you!! The link you have provided there is for a torrent download of the movie(way cheaper than $4 lol! ) It is a VHSrip and I had indeed found this a few months ago. It sure is kosher, but back then, it was on life support - practically no one seeding and it took me months to actually finish it. I'm thinking of uploading it to rapidshare or some such, as a lot of people seem to be interested in (going by request on a number of forums). I found the movie OK, the book was much much better IMO. It seems a bit dated and Alan was more sharp and Elin was a lot more attractive in my imagination than in the movie ;-) However, I found that many people liked the movie as much as the book (IMDB reviews). Mackintosh Man is available easily and though it starts well, the momentum is lost somewhere in between. Hi, thank you for the quick reply to my post. Indeed, the torrent was probably OK - I was not OK with the torrent: never used such service before and my attempt to get the file using a torrent client failed: I had no clue this should take a month or so. I would be very grateful if you find a way to make it more available; if you will - please let me know, say, in this forum. I can see your point regarding what is better: book or movie. On one hand the original source (book), default is always better - it is an ideal project and a movie is a real life implementation. On the other hand, the main problem with all Bagley's books, to my opinion, is that all his main heroes were ... too ideal, they practically do not have any weaknesses. Thus slightly less perfect ... performance could only help to make the movie more interesting, more real. I wish the movie deviated a bit more from the book but according to that 10 minute clip on youtube, it is really close. I wonder if you tried to trace other films based on books of Bagley? According to the same IMDB, there are about 5 of them altogether. As for The Mackintosh Man (which I have not seen yet) - do you find Newman fits better his role than Stuart/Stewart? |
ParisNair 05.12.2009 19:41 |
Mitrich wrote: Hi, thank you for the quick reply to my post. Indeed, the torrent was probably OK - I was not OK with the torrent: never used such service before and my attempt to get the file using a torrent client failed: I had no clue this should take a month or so. I would be very grateful if you find a way to make it more available; if you will - please let me know, say, in this forum. I can see your point regarding what is better: book or movie. On one hand the original source (book), default is always better - it is an ideal project and a movie is a real life implementation. On the other hand, the main problem with all Bagley's books, to my opinion, is that all his main heroes were ... too ideal, they practically do not have any weaknesses. Thus slightly less perfect ... performance could only help to make the movie more interesting, more real. I wish the movie deviated a bit more from the book but according to that 10 minute clip on youtube, it is really close. I wonder if you tried to trace other films based on books of Bagley? According to the same IMDB, there are about 5 of them altogether. As for The Mackintosh Man (which I have not seen yet) - do you find Newman fits better his role than Stuart/Stewart? I did try to look for the other 3 movies but haven't found them yet. In the Mackintosh Man, Newman's character does not develop much and it is difficult to compare him with that in the book. Indeed, the movie deviates so much from the plot of the book, that in the end you wonder if it actually had anything to do with the book at all. However, considering the movie by itself, its not bad at all, and Newman has done quite OK. I will let you know as soon as I make Running Blind more "easily available". owever it may have to wait for sometime as I am going on a vacation starting today and will be back only after 10 days. |
ParisNair 19.12.2009 09:54 |
Hi Mitrich, I sent you a PM, can you confirm if you got it? |
Mitrich 28.12.2009 15:28 |
ParisNair wrote: Hi Mitrich, I sent you a PM, can you confirm if you got it? Hi, I am awfully sorry - I was a bit far from my computer and did not see your post in time. I checked my PM inbox - it looks pretty empty to me. Could you please re-send the information to the address acantuar at yahoo dot com ? Thank you and Happy New Year to you! |
bmohandes 11.08.2010 06:48 |
Hi, I have tried to contact the BBC and even they are not willing to state IF and WHEN a copy could be made available to the public. I heard somewhere that all of the UK archives were taxpayers propoerty and that they would make them all available online.....but this has not been the case.... Anyone else got an idea on where to get this?? Bijan |
ParisNair 12.08.2010 14:19 |
link link link link link link link link link link link link link link link Enjoy :-) |
tcc 17.08.2010 02:17 |
Thank you very much for this. The show is very enjoyable. The lead actress is beautiful and reminds me of Mary Austin. The dialogue is very funny at times. I will not bother to do any more crossword puzzles after watching this movie. :-) |
ParisNair 17.08.2010 13:12 |
tcc wrote: Thank you very much for this. The show is very enjoyable. The lead actress is beautiful and reminds me of Mary Austin. The dialogue is very funny at times. I will not bother to do any more crossword puzzles after watching this movie. :-) Read the book, man. If you enjoyed the move, you'll just love the book. |