Aphrodite Inheritance [DVD]

Product Information

David Collier is called urgently to Cyprus. He is soon involved with the mysterious and beautiful Helene who gives him disturbing news. The show does make a brave stab at showing a Cyprus that isn’t an England in the Mediterranean. Many of the characters speak Greek, there are problems with communication thanks to the language barrier, people eat Greek food, and everyone indulges in ‘Greek activities’. Although the main cast is non-Greek, most of the extras are Greek. It is arguable, however, that the show’s Greek to a level the Greeks would find stereotypical, unrepresentative and more like tourist Greece, but it usually treads just the right side of the line. For the first five minutes, the BBC miniseries The Aphrodite Inheritance looked as though it might please someone else besides the Cyprus Tourist Board. Why 4 stars when it is an 3 star book, that is easy it is one of those early supernatural stories that is that but never in your face, far more subtle but it will leave you without a doubt at the end. It is one of those stories that is a love affair from my youth together with the earlier Crete based dram by the same writer. Both are fun reads even if the TV shows are better. In the midst of it all, our hero – the dead man’s brother David (Peter McEnery) – conducted himself with a somnolent naivety that only a charitable suggestion of jet lag could explain.

It might be illuminating to see who was doing the criticizing, sometimes people seem to guess wrongly in imagining what others think.... Wilde (pictured right) was a familiar face in British TV drama throughout the '60s and '70s appearing in Collier’s attempt to take Helene’s evidence to Inspector Dimas is violently interrupted and he is unable to persuade the Inspector of the truth of what has happened. Later a meeting with his brother’s friend, Eric Morrison, is broken up in a frightening way.Written by Michael J. Bird, who had a thing for dramas set in the Mediterranean and had already given us The Lotus Eaters in ’72 and Who Pays the Ferryman? in ’77, The Aphrodite Inheritance ran for eight episodes and tells a story of greed, betrayal and murder. And Greek mythology. In 8 part fantasy thriller The Aphrodite Inheritance, broadcast on BBC One in 1979 and written by Michael J. Bird, David Collier (Peter McEnery) learns that his engineer brother has been badly injured in an accident whilst in Cyprus (where he is working) he flies over to visit him only to find that he has died from his injuries. The arrival of a beautiful lady called Helene (Alexandra Bastedo) and a brief case containing over 50,000 pounds causes David to believe his brother may have been murdered.

There are also times where the whole thing teeters on a precipice of silliness, such as the aforementioned “double burglary” incident in the first episode and a very odd, ill-advised dream sequence in the fifth that’s just about excusable as an example of Dionysian ecstatic incoherence. And Peter McEnery should never be allowed to dance. Ever. This is the story of David Collier who came to Cyprus after the unfortunate demise of his brother Barry. Where he gets involved in the mystery of his brothers death which may be connected to more mysterious deaths connected to the construction company his brother works for. He meets the bartender Charalambos, the mountain man Basileos and the incredible beautiful Helene who play a big part in the adventures he is about to find himself in. Gradually David finds himself in trouble and in situations he has no real knowledge about. It all seems to be about a treasure that has been found and will be sold to the highest bidder. But it seems that there are forces at work from mythology that have different ideas about the treasure. Michael Bird's "philosophical policemen", Dimas was level-headed, sensible and given to learned pronouncements, After his violent clash with Collier, Morrison soon finds himself in a desperate situation. Hellman begins to show his hand – and Collier again meets Helene. How much further?” enquired the hapless David after an apparently endless drive in Helene’s car through the comparatively featureless Cyprus countryside “We’ve been driving for an hour already”. It seemed longer.PS I have no idea who the guy in swimming trunks is in the main picture. He doesn’t appear in the TV show. I suspect he may be a member of the production team, probably even the director of the final four episodes, Terence Williams. But I thought you might enjoy a guy in trunks anyway. namkoin Gonna throw in possibly the very last gasp for more intelligent children's drama not mentioned here: 'Life Force', made by Peter Tabern's Childsplay Television (who also produced the Cooper-penned... They’re also characterised well. Rather than the Americanised versions of the gods in Cupid, Valentine or Hercules, these are Greek gods in every way: there are even some okay to good stabs at Greek accents by everyone from Bastedo to Blessed, with Gryff doing very well thanks to his long stint in The Lotus Eaters as police captain Michael Krasakis. They indulge in most of the common activities of the Greek myths, such as disguising themselves, impersonating others, sending mortals dreams to tell them what they need to do or what’s going on and scaring them witless.

We subsequently got to feast our eyes on Peter McEnery wandering around Paphos in his vest, Alexandra Bastedo scrambling over a lot of ancient Cretan ruins in four-inch heels and a great deal of blue eye shadow, and Brian Blessed, who appeared to have modelled his performance on The Jolly Green Giant (ho ho ho). After Christianity became the dominant religion in the West, the Greek gods could have taken it easy and had a rest. Some suggest they did; others, however, tell a different story. Mr McEnery’s performance was not distinguished but one must take into account the material with which he had to work. As Helene, Alexandra Bastedo (stunningly but impractically dressed for a trip to the mountains) was certainly alluring. There was no excuse for this prolonged and tedious passage. If it was designed to attract visitors then, it was counterproductive and dramatically quite without justification.Soon, he’s meeting up with his brother’s partner in crime, Morrison, and getting shot at. He’s rescued by one of Helene’s helpers, Basileos (‘our god’ in Macedonian, and it’s Dionysus). Basileos, who appears at first to be silent, but who speaks Greek, Latin, English, Hebrew and numerous other languages, is able to fix Collier’s near-broken ankle with a simple poultice. waiter, one is of Bacchus, again bearing a strange resemblance to the restaurateur chap and the final one is of Aphrodite, looking like…work it out. Your Dad thought this was twaddle.” After that, Bird rounded up most of the usual suspects from The Lotus Eaters and Who Pays The Ferryman? and work began. but even allowing for that by all accounts the filming of The Aphrodite Inheritance seems to have been ONE OF THE BEEB’S many 1970s Mediterranean thrillers bundled out during winter to cheer people up and which made no sense whatsoever but which you wanted to stay up and watch all the same. Here dark-haired chap (PETER MCENERY) goes to Cyprus to encounter much strangeness, including ALEXANDRA BASTEDO, a spooky Dracula-like waiter and a jolly restaurateur/wine merchant.”