Clip Identified: Zastrozzi, A Romance

Thanks to the blog reader who identified the unknown drama set forth in the blog post Unknown Drama #2.

COMMENT: "Her name is Hilary Trott.  The actor is Mark McGann (Paul's brother) and the programme is the Channel 4 series Zastrozzi: A Romance."

Zastrozzi: A Romance was a 4-part drama made by Channel 4 and shown in 1986.  It was a contemporary adaptation of the 1810 gothic novel Zastrozzi written by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The main protagonist of the story is Verezzi (played by Mark McGann) who becomes the target of a insidious persecution by the story's villain Zastrozzi who makes Verezzi believe his beloved Julia had died sending him into a pit of despair and leaving him vulnerable to the seductive endeavours of a young woman called Matilda.

From reading details of the plot it is clear that the woman in the clip fits in with being the "Matilda" character who was indeed played by Hilary Trott as the blog reader states.

The clip also features a woman referred to as "Julia" who, it would appear, has been murdered and this again fits in with the plot.  Julia was played by Tilda Swinton and primed with that knowledge it can be now seen that the woman seen does look like her.

So every independent detail I'm able to check seems to marry up and corroborate this identification as being spot on.

Hilary Trott only has a small number of credits on IMDB.  Zastozzi was her first screen appearance and was a major role.  Her five other credits seem to be minor parts concluding with a 1995 episode of Casualty.

Hilary Trott in Zastrozzi: A Romance

Drama Channel Heads Up

Coming up next week on the Drama channel (in the UK) are episodes from two BBC series that may be of interest.  Drama is on Freeview (Channel 20).

Neither of these series normally had any nudity and so were quite a surprise at the time.


Saturday 17th May 2014
9:00pm - Waking The Dead
Episode: Double Bind
Originally shown: 2007

Abby Francis in Waking The Dead

Wednesday 21st May 2014
9:00pm - Dalziel and Pascoe
Episode: Demons on Our Shoulders
Originally shown: 2007

Robyn Addison in Dalziel and Pascoe

And one further thing on the Drama channel - tonight (Friday) at 10:00pm there is another showing of Jilly Cooper's Riders from 1993.  This was shown on the channel in January and was the short single-part half-length version rather than the original two-part version.  It still contained a lot of the nudity, but some scenes were missing.  Chances are this is the short version again.  It wasn't done to cut out the nudity because what was used was used in full.  The only major scene it missed was the one featuring Serena Gordon.  In fact Serena Gordon's involvement was excised completely removing the entire plotline in which she featured.  It would seem that the series was made at the time in two versions with the abridged version having re-done end credits which removed all the actors who were no longer featured.

List of Newly Updated Posts

Now that the blog uses the 'Adult Content' entry screen, I've gone back to some earlier posts and replaced or added pictures which I previously circumvented using.


The following posts have had updates:-
(origial posting dates in brackets)

Unidentified Sukie Smith Short (16 February 2014)

Post Round-Up - December 2013 (22 December 2013)
Added final collages for Paula Kitt in Studio and Julie La Rousse in Scene: Ties

Unknown Drama #5 (8 December 2013)

Unknown Drama #3 (26 October 2013)

Unknown Drama #2 (29 September 2013)

Unknown Actress in The Detective (21 September 2013)

Some Recent Discoveries (16 September 2013)
Collages now added (Miranda Raison, Amanda Hale, Amber Rose Revah) that I didn't have available to use at the time anyway.

Mystery Maryam d'Abo film (13 September 2013)
Also added info on some possibilties following further research

Unknown Drama #1 (11 September 2013)

A Marvel-ous Recent Discovery in The Thompsons (2012)

I recently saw the 2012 film The Thompsons in order to document the scenes (mentioned at the time on websites, blogs and forums that cover such things), involving the actresses Katarina Gellin and Zoe Grisedale. 

Unexpectedly, I found the film also contained a hitherto unmentioned topless scene featuring British actress Elizabeth Henstridge who has since secured a high profile role playing Jemma Simmons in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Undoubtedly her scene was disregarded at the time by those early birds as unworthy of mention due to a combination of her not being seen fully topless (i.e. with her nipples not visible), and her not then being particularly well known for anything that would have merited especial attention.  And because of this pretermission it wasn't generally picked up on when she got the part in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. the following year.

The Thompsons is a USA/UK production filmed mostly in the UK about a young man called Francis from an American vampire family called the Thompsons who are wanted by US authorities and so he and his kin flee to England to seek the help of a British vampire family called the Stuarts.  Elizabeth Henstridge plays Riley the daughter of the Stuart family and is the only one of them who has no vampire powers.

 In this scene Riley comes to Francis' guest room at night to seduce him only to unexpectedly become vampiric and bite into his neck - although it turns out he is having a nightmare.

It must be pointed out that her face is not seen in the same shot as her right breast and so there is the possibility that it was done this way because a body double was used. 

The screenshot images do reveal that there are a number of moles on her back and this image of Elizabeth Henstridge wearing a backless dress in a red carpet pose shows she does have a profusion of moles on her back.  Whether they are in the same position or the same quantity is difficult to assess with the resolution of screenshots available.

Not The Nine O'Clock News - Baby on the Bus - The Verdict

Thanks to the collector who came up trumps with the full Not The Nine O'Clock News episode that featured the Baby on The Bus sketch.  This was from an Australian broadcast which EEfan mentioned in the comments of the original Baby on the Bus posting.

Despite the episode originally having been broadcast on 13th November 1979, it is presented as if it is a Christmas special with a decorated title screen and some festive sketches.

 

The credited cast from the end credits are as follows:-

Featured:-

• Rowan Atkinson
• Chris Langham
• Mel Smith
• Pamela Stephenson

With:-

• David Rappaport
• Robina Gauge
• Griff Rhys Jones
• Christopher Goodwin
• Neil Cunningham
• Willoughby Goddard
• Danny The Donkey (joke credit)

Credits

Robina Gauge is the only female name listed and there is only one woman seen in the episode other than Pamela Stephenson. 

Robina Gauge also appears in another sketch in the same episode in which she is fully topless.  This occurs right at the very end after the credits and copyright screen.  It involves her holding up a banana while posing for artist Rowan Atkinson who we discover is only painting the fruit which a caption then states is degrading to bananas.  She doesn't speak in this sketch.

 

With all the evidence now in it is at last possible to say with confidence that the woman in the Baby on the Bus sketch must indeed be called Robina Gauge.



Baby on the Bus sketch



Banana Painting sketch

   

Here is a rundown of sketches in the episode.

Retrieved from an archived website (mentioned on the show's Wikipedia page) which lists the sketches in every episode.

 

SERIES 1, SHOW 5
13 November 1979

1. SF: Giraffe
2. Live from Carrickmore
3. Titles
4. Baby on the bus
5. Nativity (Restricted Inn)
6. New jeans/David Rappaport
7. Religious fanatic (Disappearing policeman)
8. Nativity audition (Rappaport with dead donkey)
9. Hot Gossip/James Goldsmith
10. SF: Thatcher slurp
11. N: Iranian government statement
12. N: Flat racing/Interview tins of cat food
13. N: Reggie Bosanquet lookalike competition
14. White House quickie (Jimmy Carter/Dirty phone call)
15. Punks advertising church ('I thought I preferred the boiling oil...')
16. Christmas 1643/Head under arm
17. Ranting Frenchman
18. Miss World
19. SF: Soldiers applauding
20. Amputation/Weight loss
21. Trial by egg
22. Probe (Prison overcrowding/Aristocrats)
23. Bar quickie (Rappaport)
24. Bingo caller
25. Rowan's rant (Party hats/Janet Street Porter/Plastic baths/Are You Being Served)
26. Nanny service
27. Carol/Credits
28. Nude painting (Banana)

N=Newsreader jokes
SF=Stock Footage jokes