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Aphrodite Inheritance, The

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, equally raven-haired waiter and a poacher. “There’s a lot of things I don’t understand,” one of them mutters. “Your part in this, for instance.” “All we have to find out is who took the money and where it is now.” “But who? And why?” “It doesn’t make sense.” “Unless…” “Someone is using you.” And so on. Oddness included the poacher luring teetotal McEnery into – gasp! – dabbling with vino. Ending was top: Alexandra goes missing, presumed drowned, and McEnery heads back to London. One scene included three allegorical statues, demonstrating the waiter, Bastedo  and poacher were, in order, Greek gods Pan, Dionysus and and Aphrodite. Your Dad thought this was twaddle.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Rob Buckley

    June 2, 2009 at 6:20 pm

    ” 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.”

    Waiter wasn’t Dracula-like beyond having black hair and “a jolly restaurateur/wine merchant” was a poacher.

    “There’s a lot of things I don’t understand,” one of them mutters. “Your part in this, for instance.” “All we have to find out is who took the money and where it is now.” “But who? And why?” “It doesn’t make sense.” “Unless…” “Someone is using you.” And so on. Oddness included the waiter slipping our teetotal hero some alcohol and a crime scene with bodies and”

    He doesn’t. He only makes drinks. It’s the poacher who gets McEnery to try wine.

    “money strewn everywhere magically cleaning itself up once dark-hair takes a doubting, fat policeman to see.”

    It’s the waiter who tidies it up and the crime scene didn’t have any bodies – it was a fight between the hero and another character who runs off when the police arrive. And it wasn’t the fat policeman (Dimas) who went to see it first.

    “Ending was top: Alexandra goes missing, presumed drowned, and McEnery heads back to London. Cut to a beach, and three godly statues toasting his plane”

    They’re not statues – it’s the actors in the final scene. The statues were in a previous scene and were there to demonstrate that the Bastedo/waiter/poacher were Greek gods.

    “as it roars overhead. One is of Morpheus, looking uncannily like the ”

    Pan, not Morpheus.

    “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.”

    Bacchus was the Roman god. It’s Dionysus who was the Greek god of wine.

    My write-up, complete with vids and pics so you can see for yourself.

  2. TV Cream

    June 4, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    In your honour, Rob, this has now been redrafted. Thanks for the notes!

  3. Clio

    April 9, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    …and Dionysios/Bacchus was played by Brian Blessed.

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