From: "Ken Toops" <spootnek@...>

THE HUMAN JUNGLE

Hi!

I'm interested in this!
Let me know!

Thanks,
Ken

===============================

From: "Robert Dahl" <rjd0309@...>

Hi Ken,

The British Film Institute's filmography for Rita has this strange
entry that says, "Man Who Fell Apart". After much searching with
Google, I found that this was the title of an episode of the 1963-64
British series, "The Human Jungle", starring Herbert Lom as a
psychiatrist who helps a different client each week.

Rita herself tells the story about how, just before getting the film
role for "The Knack", her family was so short of cash that she had to
do a TV episode. This is that episode.

My computer is set up to periodically look for rare titles of Rita's,
in my obsessive-compulsive search to obtain all of her movies, and
whaddya know, it found "The Man Who Fell Apart"!

It turns out that a gentleman in Massachusetts gets these 16mm films
of old BBC shows from a former BBC employee, and transfers them to
DVD and VHS using a couple of telecine machines to convert 24 frames
per second of film to 60 interlaced half-frames of TV signal. He has
his own eBay store called "oldtimetvshows".

I got the VHS tape from him of "The Man Who Fell Apart", and lo and
behold, there was Rita! Contrary to her own dismal opinion, it's
actually quite a good performance. She gets lots of screen time, and
has lots of close-ups of that great face of hers. And it's a
sympathetic role, too. She plays a lonely young woman who runs a
shabby dog kennel out in the country, and becomes the mistress of an
overworked married man. She's even going to have his baby!

Perhaps Rita's negative assessment has more to do with the hurry-up
nature of television work than it does with her performance.

Anyway, I followed up with "oldtimetvshows", and asked if they first
made a transfer from film to a DVD master, and then used the DVD
master to make the VHS tapes. Yes, he said that's just how they do
it. I asked him for a DVD of this episode, and he charged me $25 for
a DVD containing two episodes, so I just picked a random episode for
my second choice.

So now I have her performance on a DVD and on a VHS tape. I don't yet
own equipment to enable me to copy DVD's, so the best that I can do
is to copy to a VHS tape. You could always contact the guy (I can
give you his email address) if you'd like to pay for a DVD as I did.

Thanks for asking about this show, Ken. It gives me a chance to
elaborate a bit more -- I don't think that I did a very good job of
explaining it when I first mentioned it to the group.

Cheers,
Robert

===============================

From: "Ken Toops" <spootnek@...>

Hi Robert!

$25 for a DVD with two episodes sounds like a great deal! Did he give
you a list of the other episodes? On the IMdB a reviewer mentioned an
episode with Susan George! Put me in contact with him.

More Rita on DVD is coming out - "Life Beyond the Box: Margo" is an
extra feature on the upcoming "Good Neighbors 1-3" Box Set!

Thanks,
Ken

===============================

From: "Robert Dahl" <rjd0309@...>

Hi Ken,

The IMDb lists some of "The Human Jungle" episodes and guest stars
(click on the 'guest appearances' link). I submitted the info for
Rita's episode, and one other, to the IMDb myself.

The TV Tome page for "The Human Jungle" has an Episode_List and an
Episode_Guide.
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-
3664/The_Human_Jungle/
All of the episode names are listed, but only a handful include plot
synopses and listings of guest stars. I contributed the info for "The
Man Who Fell Apart", because it is linked to the Rita Tushingham TV
Tome page. Modesty prevents me from mentioning the name of the person
who edits Rita's page...

I have not been able to pin down which "Human Jungle" episode, if any,
has Susan George as a guest star. Sorry, I wish I could be of more
help. I have searched the Internet thoroughly, and have never found a
complete list of episodes that includes all guest stars. Personally,
I wanted to get the episode "Struggle For A Mind", because that's the
episode where Joan Collins strips off her clothes. But, dang it, that
episode is unavailable from our "oldtimetvshows" guy, at least so far!

I'm afraid that you'll have to ask him for his list of available
"Human Jungle" episodes. I'm pretty certain that I recollect his name
as Ray, and that his email address is
oldtimetv@...

He's got an eBay store, at
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZoldtimetvshows
If you need another way to contact him, just go to his eBay store,
click on a listed auction item, and then click on the link "Ask
seller a question". You can type in your question, and remember to
include your email address if you haven't got an eBay account.

Yes, just like you, I'm also looking forward to the release of
the "Good Neighbors" DVD box set. I mentioned the set in the group's
FILES section, under "DVD Availability". The DVD extra, "Life Beyond
The Box: Margo" gives Rita a lot of screen time, in a comedic role.

The Good Neighbors set has been pushed back to a June 14 release from
its original April 19 release date. See the news item at
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=3058

My own VHS tape of "Life Beyond The Box: Margo", recorded off BBC2 on
31 December 2003, came from a guy who trades tapes of British TV
shows, at
http://home.comcast.net/~stanf11/index.html
The image quality of my tape leaves room for improvement, so I'm
looking forward to the DVD (I've pre-ordered it already)!

Cheers,
Robert