When it was first broadcast in 1968,THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS was just regarded as another of accomplished TV playwright Nigel Kneale's imaginative sci-fi dramas,this time about television itself.'It couldn't possibly happen' was perhaps the main reaction at the time,but Kneale's somewhat grim prediction for the future direction of the medium (headed by the opening subtitle "Sooner Than You Think") has more or less come true,which has enhanced it's importance since it was produced over four decades ago,and though it's overall quality is uneven,the extraordinary prescience of Kneale's ideas eventually win the day.
Set in a future where the so-called high-drives (the TV producers,as represented by Leonard Rossiter and Brian Cox) subdue the low-drives (the TV viewers) into indifference and lethargy by broadcasting lowest common denominator programming involving pornography and crude slapstick, weaning them off sex and food.Managing to watch an uninterested public via CCTV,the low-drives greatest reaction is when a young technical crewman is killed in a fall,which provokes much laughter.One high-drive suggests the idea for another show where he,his ex-partner and young daughter attempt to live in primitive fashion on an isolated island.His colleagues agree with him,yet without his knowledge plant a violent,unstable criminal there as well to spice things up and increase viewing figures..........
If all of this sounds familiar,it certainly does now in what passes for television broadcasting in 21st Century Britain and indeed elsewhere.The predictions for mass dumbing down of TV and culture in general are uncannily and amazingly accurate, with BIG BROTHER,CASTAWAY 2000,SURVIVOR and I'M A CELEBRITY GET ME OUT OF HERE dismal examples that are very worthy of comparison.The overwrought style of presentation in such programmes is very well enacted by Vickery Turner,as is the contemptible attitudes towards TV and it's viewers by the decidedly sleazy and unlikable collection of high-drives who keep such vindictive opinions off screen.
That said,THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS is not without it's flaws.Kneale's ideas of the characters speaking in a kind of streamlined blank verse patois,reducing the importance of words while images take over,is interesting but becomes somewhat pretentious,and several scenes would've worked better with a degree of script editing.And as to the standards of the era,the visions of the future are outlandish and garish,with elaborately patterned shirts,the men seemingly wearing togas,and the women in over-emphatic make-up;the play was originally shot in colour but now only exists as a black and white tele-recording,which is a relief in some way as this and the predictable set designs may have been a distraction,although it isn't as much in monochrome.Some of the actors struggle with the stylised dialogue;Tony Vogel performs with permanently bulging eyes in over-the-top mode,where others seem baffled and just deliver the script in flat,monotoned style.However,despite the stately pace,Kneale successfully builds to a uncomfortable,gloomy and very effective finale,with the avarice and arrogance of the high-drives sadly coming out on top.
Still,THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS eerily dystopian vision of TV has regrettably all come true,and Nigel Kneale lived long enough to see such foreboding predictions,with trashy exaggeration and ugly sensationalism rather than intelligence and taste the main bywords.There's little scope for writers as peerless as Kneale to work in TV much today,as his predictions of Reality TV are all but there to see now,which makes THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS somewhat hard to watch,but if you care where the direction TV is now heading,absolutely essential.
RATING:7 and a half out of 10.
Set in a future where the so-called high-drives (the TV producers,as represented by Leonard Rossiter and Brian Cox) subdue the low-drives (the TV viewers) into indifference and lethargy by broadcasting lowest common denominator programming involving pornography and crude slapstick, weaning them off sex and food.Managing to watch an uninterested public via CCTV,the low-drives greatest reaction is when a young technical crewman is killed in a fall,which provokes much laughter.One high-drive suggests the idea for another show where he,his ex-partner and young daughter attempt to live in primitive fashion on an isolated island.His colleagues agree with him,yet without his knowledge plant a violent,unstable criminal there as well to spice things up and increase viewing figures..........
If all of this sounds familiar,it certainly does now in what passes for television broadcasting in 21st Century Britain and indeed elsewhere.The predictions for mass dumbing down of TV and culture in general are uncannily and amazingly accurate, with BIG BROTHER,CASTAWAY 2000,SURVIVOR and I'M A CELEBRITY GET ME OUT OF HERE dismal examples that are very worthy of comparison.The overwrought style of presentation in such programmes is very well enacted by Vickery Turner,as is the contemptible attitudes towards TV and it's viewers by the decidedly sleazy and unlikable collection of high-drives who keep such vindictive opinions off screen.
That said,THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS is not without it's flaws.Kneale's ideas of the characters speaking in a kind of streamlined blank verse patois,reducing the importance of words while images take over,is interesting but becomes somewhat pretentious,and several scenes would've worked better with a degree of script editing.And as to the standards of the era,the visions of the future are outlandish and garish,with elaborately patterned shirts,the men seemingly wearing togas,and the women in over-emphatic make-up;the play was originally shot in colour but now only exists as a black and white tele-recording,which is a relief in some way as this and the predictable set designs may have been a distraction,although it isn't as much in monochrome.Some of the actors struggle with the stylised dialogue;Tony Vogel performs with permanently bulging eyes in over-the-top mode,where others seem baffled and just deliver the script in flat,monotoned style.However,despite the stately pace,Kneale successfully builds to a uncomfortable,gloomy and very effective finale,with the avarice and arrogance of the high-drives sadly coming out on top.
Still,THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS eerily dystopian vision of TV has regrettably all come true,and Nigel Kneale lived long enough to see such foreboding predictions,with trashy exaggeration and ugly sensationalism rather than intelligence and taste the main bywords.There's little scope for writers as peerless as Kneale to work in TV much today,as his predictions of Reality TV are all but there to see now,which makes THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS somewhat hard to watch,but if you care where the direction TV is now heading,absolutely essential.
RATING:7 and a half out of 10.