Look and Read: Dark Towers (1 of 10)
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 14 янв 2009
- "Dark Towers in danger!"
This is part 1 of "Dark Towers", a British show made in 1981 but used for many years after to teach children basic reading skills.
In this episode: Tracy hates people, but loves her dog Towser. Edward Dark hates people, but enjoys books. Can these two barely-literate misanthropes overcome their smoldering sexual chemistry and save Dark Towers from fiery oblivion? Maybe, with help from supernatural forces beyond all understanding. Also: Edward is crackers.
For the rest of the series, I have helpfully removed all the boring educational parts that teach you about reading, and skipped straight to the good stuff. In this first installment, I've included the introduction of Wordy the Horrible Typewriter Part and his somewhat batty librarian friend, just to give you a taste.
I cant tell you how happy I am to have found this after all these years!! Dark Towers was an essential part of our schooling. All of us crammed into one room just to have it on the big tv lol. Oh I was so sad when it all ended. Good times
MsCharlieBrown78 (Charlie Rae) I ended up on this page by complete accident, I haven't seen this for 35 years! Got a day off tomorrow so I will watch them all then- I remember this was the only thing that would keep our class quiet, where has the time gone?.
This brings back memories from here when I was at school but you're about one thing how we used to sit in one class with a big TV watching it on a video cassette
We used to cram into the cloakroom lol
Ditto 😃
Same here what school did you go to
I have fondly remembered this programme, I was 8 and recall sitting on the library floor in school watching this. We used to countdown with the clock before it started. Oh what i'd give to go back and watch those days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This scared the crap out of me when i was a little kid. Watching it now, thirty years later, I can only say WTF?
I can remember the teachers making us watch this in primary school aged about 5. Absolutely shitting ourselves, but even at that age remembering not wanting to say didn't want to watch it. Can believe we were allowed to watch it looking back now. Many a sleepless night due to this programme.
Blooooody hell.... I'd forgotten about this. Equal parts nostalgia and nightmare-fuel.
look, i know you didn't write shoot or produce this, but thank you, boy from space has always stuck with me, this was a forgotten memory,always remember tuesdays,we all went to a different room,teacher wheeled in a big tv/vhs player,drew the curtains,and we all sat cross legged,GOLDEN MEMORIES
This used to scare the hell out of me. I couldn't go downstairs alone for a drink of water for years. The things our teachers used to put us through lol.
Wow this is a blast from the past. Those days in primary school were the best, i love this nostalhic stuff thanks for uploading
Is that really Derek Griffiths singing the theme song 🎶?
Yarp.
What a fantastic programme! I remember watching this 40 odd years ago in Junior School.
I'm sure this wouldn't be allowed in school now, parents complaining it's too scary etc... I watched this in Y3 1987, kids were screaming at it! Pure class!
They made us watch this at school. Fucked me right up. I still see Wordy, hovering bodiless.
Oh how I loved watching this at school in the tv room once a week. I would get scared too!
Remember bricking it too but in my defence I was only 5
For those asking, It is Dick from the Famous Five, played by Gary Russell.
Gary is still involved in television working on Doctor Who & Torchwood in the last few years as script editor.
Big thanks for posting this! Havent seen this since infant school way way back in the early 80's! Truth be told it scared me then, hearing the theme tune now in my thirties still spooks me Damm!!!
This scared me to death when I was at school.... Not as bad as "The Boy From Outer Space" though - that was just plain freaky (and not in the way you want your wife to be).
I remember that too. Just sat here now telling the Mrs about it (she never saw either). Take it u were born in the 70's too?
edzblueable Yeah, 1977. I must of been 4 or 5 when we used to watch this.
I was born in 1977 too@@winner3057
I remember watching this in school. Pretty scary for an 8 year old kid back then.
omg, this takes me back to the early 80's whilst at infant school, i have always remembered the tune throughout the years and this is the first time i have seen it since then, wicked upload, thanks :)
This scared the bejesus out of me at school. Great performance by Benedict Cumberbatch.
Wow. This takes me back to about 1982/3. I remember sitting in class watching it. We where all mesmerized. Ah the good old days. I remember Wordy and the magic pen lol. Think I may have to show my daughter this when she's old enough........and born :)
Look And Read was a highlight of 80's primary school. Dark Towers was great as was The Boy From Space and Badger Girl. The little bits in between where great too like magic E and builder brickie.
Still remember this! One of the clues was beware of the 2 bees buzzing together, beware of the bird with the brown feather. Absolutely loved this!
When I was in primary school, around 1993, my parents requested that I be pulled out of the lessons that showed this program... how depressing. I had to do extra work in a higher class when everyone else watched this!!
Oh my days I loved our Weekly school showings of this. I remember crying (yes, I know - what a silly bitch!) when it was the last episode lol! They were the good days! Vintage!
Sounds like the BBC educated you fantastically,
Wow you too?! lol good days
Fabulous Times 😉
Same
Yep, they don't make kids' TV this good any more.
The theme tune STILL pops into my head from time to time :)
I remember watching this when I was sick off school! :)
I remember this! I still have the book from 1981 - which I got from book club. We ordered it, through the school, then it would take about 2 months to arrive (It was the 80's) Ah, Sitting in the school hall on plastic chairs, waiting for Miss Halett to wheel in the TV, that was the size of a small building, with doors on it. We even named our dog after Towser.
Wow. This is one of my earliest TV memories. 'Dark Knight' scared the crap out of me:).
Come with me... to Dark Towerrrrrrrs!
Still remembered this after 30 years O_o
As I recall, these Look & Read shows did have picture books associated with them. They had drawings that vaguely resembled the actors.
Loved this in my primary school days :)
I remember being terrified by that wavy picture at the end of this, very scary for a 5 year old to be watching.
I remember watching this - shit me right up it did, I couldn't sleep for days. It was last week.
"this boy...." Jesus!! He dresses like he's 50 and she looks like somebody's mum when she's supposed to be 17?
Lol exactly
Classic this, say what you like about the BBC but back in the 80s they knew how to do good educational TV, nowadays the most educational program that's on in the week is Homes under the Hammer, lol.
The guy singing the theme tune has just got a job in kevin Websters garage in corrie.
Hahahaha I don't believe it, I thought this had been lost to history I never expected to see this again. This really freaked me out as kid, I remember looking in MY BED at night to see if that ghost was there haha, and that painting used to freak me out too. And the knight I always remembered that, but everything else I forgot, including the music although that's kind of come back to me now
Brilliant thanks a lot for uploading this. I remember it well from watching it a school. Best bit ever was when the Dark Knight first appeared in the Dark Knights folly, that was pretty scary to a 6 year old :-)
they forced us to watch this at school 1988,scared the crap out of me!
Thanks so much for posting this up. I remember being spooked by this program when we watched it every week at primary school, probably '81 or '82. Looking at it now, I don't think it was the story so much as the theme tune that I found so disturbing... or possibly the quality of the acting... :)
We were not allowed to watch it one of the mums complained that her son was scared so it was stopped I was gutted
Amazing! I've been trying to remember the name of this for years! "Tall Knight's Folly" just popped into my head this afternoon.
Thank you very much!
OMG, I can't believe that you have this. This song runs through my head from time to time. I have lived in New Zealand for most of my life, but did a few years at primary school in the UK, and this is one of the memories from my first year there. I don't remember Wordy.....guess I blocked the trauma from my memory ;-)
And found it again....new RUclips account though😀
Tracey thought humanity was daft. And life it’s very self was daft. Tracey was an inhuman monster and we will all be dead by her hand. Ah, I miss the 70s. Oh, dear God Wordy... Noooo... loved this as a kid
Some kids in my class were excused from watching this because it gave them nightmares.
Towser anagram.
35+ years later.
Mind blown.
scariest thing i saw in my life
I was petrified of the ghosts but I was 6 when I originally saw this. Damn I love RUclips
Christ I've not seen this in 30 years.... best part of my school day was watching this then looking through the book ..... such great memories
The BBC must have got more than their moneys worth out of this show over the years. I can remember watching this at school around 1984ish and it has been shown to every generation of primary school kids since!
Never realised this was filmed in Sutton Court near Stanton Drew/Pensford just south of Bristol.
This is ace been looking for this for ages, sometimes wondered if I'd imagined this programme .
I've been looking for this for years, thank you so much. =)
Reminds me of paying NO attention to anything in school except for really good themes used in these programs. All those lush Synthesizers and analogue instruments in harmony. I was away with the fairies all the time.
I miss good educational TV like this, bring back the 80s!
This used to scare me a little as a kid. Does anyone remember another show from the 80s. A guy sat in front of a cut down tree trunk I think. He had shapes stuck to it and he moved them around. Then I think a story would start.
ruclips.net/video/JHty4GZYa1Y/видео.html
How weird - I found this today....I'd totally forgotten about it.....then I read your post hours later
This followed boy from space. It was no match.
never forgot the title song, thanx for finding this.
Brilliant, this brings back so many great memories! Used 2 love watching this at school, and tbh, I was a little scared from the knight! Thanx!
I can't thank you enough for these wonderful memories..........FANTASTIC!!!
My God! What a fantastic cast! The older Lord is David Collings from Monkey!, Sappire and Steel and Dr Who and the younger Lord is Gary Russell, who has script edited Torchwood and Sarah Jane and runs Big Finish Productions. Then later on we have Christopher Biggins and Denise Coffey and Peter 'Chewbacca' Mayhew as the Dark Knight. It's like a panel game Christmas special.
...beware of the bird with the brown feather. LOL this program used to scare me silly - especially the Tall Knight
THank you so much for posting I loved this I was probably about 7 or 8 when I saw it I remember watching at school and then my Nan recording it for me lol - thanks so much can't wait to show her to see if she remebers. Your a legend
I remember watching it in junior school around 1986 -87, as part of a school project
Takes me back to corinthian av school in stoneycroft,liverpool.We would watch this in the hall with the curtains closed.What happy days with miss donnelly mr johnson and the lovely mrs dawber.
the look that the young lad and his dad exchange when the painting starts talking to them is epic*totally not arsed, me neither*
lol good times I remember this and the boy from space watching it in class. I vaguely remember asking the school santa for a "tall knight suit" he didn't have a clue what I was on about :)
Bloody hell it was very old when you all watched it, I watch it in school at the time it was made and first broadcast around 1981.
Unusual to see OB Videotape used in 1981, 16mm film was more common. Can't say I remember this serial but I do remember finding "The boy from space" more than a little disturbing. There was also the one with Geoffrey Bayldon and the peregrine falcons that I do remember. Also I think there was another of the series with some bloke hunting for treasure on the Isle of Wight.
My first school managed to get the lady who starred in this to come and visit us . She was really nice and we got to ask her questions.
Wow, this takes me back to primary school. We watched this as part of our English classes along with The Boy From Space.
Great childhood memories
Great to see Silver from Sapphire and Steel
I loved this when I was at school. It was really scary. Thanks for posting!
@EnglandsEternal I'm glad I did. It's not my most viewed upload, but it's easily the one that people respond to most strongly. (And after my own multi-year search for it, I was sure there were others out there who would appreciate it.)
Roger Limb is a GENIUS! Even his screetch's, Violins & Drones slice straight through you today! It was the music & sounds that scared you! Ha ha!
Blimey. I remember being forced to watch this in my infant school years. THAT MUSIC =O It still sends a shiver down my spine! The acting is truly award winning though. Why are these people not International celebs by now i wonder :/
I remember watching this in '86. I liked the book & loved the theme tune.
..After 30 years I still have no idea where this was filmed.
this scared shit out of me as a kid
Did this around 1984 I'd guess? Still remember the lyrics now! Thanks for the upload!
The lad who played Edward Dark is now a script editor for Doctor Who ( and ex editor of the Doctor Who magazine )!
I remember doing this in Primary school !
Would've been around '85/'86. Then we done "Geordie Racer" the following year.
Time flies !
Christ this brings back memories..Ace!
It took me years of off-and-on searching to find "Dark Towers" in any form at all...I doubt you'll ever see a VHS or DVD unless someone makes one from digital files and sells it on Ebay, but this series is so obscure I wouldn't count on it.
these kids shows, especially The Boy from Space were pretty creepy, considering they were recommended viewing material at school in the late 70s-80s
You legend! Having just found all 3 series of Chocky I got to thinking about this which we watched at school!
I watched this in primary school, noughties. Used to love it, glad I remembered it.
Holy shit I commented on this 3 years ago. Did not think it was that long.
OMG, for years and years I thought this was a dream I had. I've searched for years to find it. Can't believe after all this time it was real!
Ha.This is great.I was hunting for it for ages and managed to get a copy from ebay.Was well happy.Takes me right back to primary when i saw it.Brilliant.What a great theme tune..creepy.
this brings back memories
I'm having the flashbacks of sitting crosslegged on the floor with the rest of the class in front of the giant telly... I think this was my first look n read!
this really takes me back lol, used to have nightmares after watching this in school as an 8 year old
The owners of the castle used in filming didn't want people trespassing so No one knows where it is even today
Oml, I can't believe how many years ago I watched this. Ravensworth Junior School FTW.
MOOR OF THIS
Amusingly, Gary Russell who played Edward had previously played Dick in "The Famous Five". He went on to become editor of Doctor Who Magazine, as well as a writer of Doctor Who novels and audio plays. He currently works on the new series of Doctor Who being filmed in Cardiff!
xx
I remember we used to watch this every Monday morning in year 2 and the whole class was singing the theme tune xD I used to love it ;) Some of it freaked me out ahaha :P Thanks for uploading!
I was surprised to learn it had been made in 1981. They were still using it when I was in primary school, circa '88 -- it must have been pretty popular.
Also I don't know if they ever got past episode 5 when I was in school, and this was a constant source of frustration for me.
i remember this at school teacher would bring the tv set on wheels and was amazing