TV Cream

TV: G is for...

Guardians, The

RARE SERIOUS sci-fi drama from LWT, in which a near-future Britain comes increasingly under the rule of riot-helmeted military police known as The Guardians, and their mysterious “general”. The PM’s hands are tied. The Queen is told to piss off. A ramshackle alliance of terrorists under the name “Quarmby” put up resistance. The death penalty makes a comeback as public entertainment. The PM’s son is arrested for smoking pot. One of the first of the 70s police state dystopias, with mass unemployment, food shortages, strikes and galloping inflation all present and correct. Famously not shown in Northern Ireland, as the terrorist sub-plot was deemed “not appropriate at this time”, so they bunged THE COMEDIANS on instead. This rather sedate and talky low-budget, ideas-driven series admirably tried to look at the situation from all sides, rather than just go for a scaremongering bit of polemic. Very much a portent of sci-fi series to come.

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