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Omega Factor, The

"And Omega, don't forget Omega!"CHIEFLY REMEMBERED for having starred LOUISE “DICKIE DAVIES HAIR” JAMESON fresh from DR WHO as leather-clad inarticulate Leela, this BBC psychic drama revolved around JAMES HAZELDINE, who played a journalist sent to cover a story about a clairvoyant. Unwittingly he begins to display signs of his own psychic power and comes to the attention of an obscure govt department called Department 7, set up to study the paranormal, in the shape of Jameson, JOHN CARLISLE and the intriguingly named BROWN DERBY. Lots of “Can I trust the government? Are they doing experiments on me or being my friends?” paranoia ensues, with rather silly stories all shot on video with loads of over-the-top synth music and sound effects.

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Glenn Aylett

    July 26, 2020 at 10:30 am

    Sounded a bit like some of the Doctor Who stories Louise Jameson appeared in and a shame the Omega Factor is almost forgotten now. Also the start of BBC Scotland’s reputation for making disturbing and unusual drama like The Mad Death and The Nightmare Man. While STV would win huge ratings and critical acclaim for Taggart in the eighties, BBC Scotland’s drama department was churning out moderately successful dramas that were just as good.

    • George White

      January 10, 2023 at 7:35 pm

      They were also doing all-film serials at a time when that was rare.
      Their Desmond Bagley adap Running Blind with Stuart Wilson and Vladek Sheybal aired in January 1979, 9 months before Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, supposedly the first of the new wave of shot-on-film BBC drama serials began.
      Made under the watch of Robert McIntosh, who churned out several shot-on-film serials, the spiritual sequels the Assassination Run and the Treachery Game (sub-ITC with Euston films production values Euro-spy adventure – the latter brilliantly begins with the assassination of a character played by a bald, moustachioed Neil Connery, looking a great deal fatter and older than his big brother Sean), the Mad Death, Badger by Owl-Light, the Secret Servant, the Odd Job Man, true crime anthologies Square Mile of Murder and Murder Not Proven (both hosted by Andrew Keir)

  2. richardpd

    July 26, 2020 at 11:29 pm

    Taking Over The Asylum was another good drama from BBC Scotland, with Ken Stott & a young David Tennant.

  3. George White

    July 27, 2020 at 7:57 am

    See also The Bogie Man, that bizarre adaptation of 2000AD rival Toxic’s strip.
    Instead of casting Bogie-alike Robert Sacchi and getting him to do Glaswegian, they got Robbie Coltrane even though the character is supposed to have had surgery to look like Bogie IIRC.
    Also Badger by Owl-Light – a cult/serial killer drama with Bernard Horsfall, Jute City (a kind of Edge of Darkness variant starring John Sessions with David O’Hara, Peter Mullan, Phyllis Calvert, Dougie Henshall ,Alan Howard), Tutti Frutti/Your Cheatin’ Heart (with Tilda Swinton when she still did telly), David Hayman’s Govan Ghost Story…

    Though STV did make the bizarre Brond….

    • THX 1139

      July 27, 2020 at 1:25 pm

      A bit disappointing Brond isn’t on TVC, I watched it twice (the second time on the repeat) to see if it made more sense. It didn’t. Cool theme tune, though. How did they do the bit where Stratford Johns pushes the kid off the bridge?

  4. Glenn Aylett

    July 27, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    I remember Badger By Owl Light, probably one of the most unsettling series I’ve ever seen and never shown again. It had something to do with a murderous cult called The Church of Christ Psychopath and the actor who played Mr Sutcliffe in Grange Hill as a deranged killer. No wonder the BBC were keen to throw it in a vault.

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