The Beiderbecke Affair
|
|
The Beiderbecke Affair was the first in a series of three short television series produced in the UK by ITV in the mid 1980s, written by Alan Plater.
Plotwise very little happens, the wrong records are delivered and a meeting is cancelled but the interplay between the characters is the main interest here.
Trevor Chaplin (played by James Bolam) teaches woodwork and likes to listen to jazz. Jill Swinburne (played by Barbara Flynn) teaches English and wants to help save the planet, standing in a local election as the "Conservation candidate". After Jill left her husband, colleague Trevor began giving her lifts to school and from there a relationship blossomed. They have an easy-going relationship where half the words seem to be left unspoken but the viewer is never in any doubt as to the subtext.
Trevor tries to buy some jazz records from a "dazzlingly beautiful platinum blonde" who calls at the door raising funds for the local cubs' football team. When the wrong records are delivered a hunt begins that draws the pair into unforeseen intrigue. Thrown in to the mix are Sgt Hobson – a suspicious yet incompetent police detective – and a pair of local tradesmen, 'Big Al' and 'Little Norm', who agree to help average-sized Trevor and Jill with their school supplies problems.
It all unravels to a soundtrack of jazz music by Bix Beiderbecke.
A further two series were made, both slightly shorter than the original: The Beiderbecke Tapes and The Beiderbecke Connection. All three are available on DVD as boxed sets.
We are at the brink of a new era...if only...