The Adventures of Sir Prancelot was a cartoon series – each episode lasting only five minutes – first broadcast in 1972, about a bumbling knight who sets out on a crusade and of course gets into scrapes. As I recall it the one who always pulled his irons out of the fire was his minstrel whose voice narrated the episodes.

The minstrel of course played a stringed instrument – from the pictures it may be supposed to be a lute – and Sir Prancelot’s (but also the minstrel’s) theme tune was a belter.

The programme was broadcast at 5.55 pm, just before the early evening news. I can remember rushing home from University in order to catch it. (No iPlayer or DVD box sets in those days. No videos even.)

They don’t make them like that any more, sadly.

Sir Prancelot

The Signature Edition. HBO, 1998.

This box set was one of the presents I received in December. I think it was for my birthday, though, rather than Christmas. I missed it when it was transmitted in Britain.

The series is Tom Hanks’s eulogy to and elegy for the Apollo programme. Said actor appears only in the last episode in a frankly ridiculous and unnecessary role as assistant to Georges Méliès whose early film Le Voyage Dans La Lune, disgracefully stolen by Thomas Alva Edison for US distribution, was the first to depict such a trip. Hanks does, however, introduce the other eleven in a walking shot at the start of each. He has a writing credit for episode twelve and part wrote some of the others.

All aspects of the US end of the space race from Kennedy’s decision to initiate the endeavour to the last Moon mission are covered.

Cleverly, or annoyingly depending on your point of view, the episodes do not all focus on the hardware and the voyages in space; though they necessarily have their place. In broader takes on the times one episode reflects on the upheavals of 1968, one on the changing attitudes of journalists, and another focuses on the astronauts’ wives. NASA expected them to shield their husbands from any domestic worries while at the same time acting as clothes horses in public and generally being uncontroversial. (Few of the marriages managed to survive in the long term. But that could be true of most US marriages, of which I believe 50% end in divorce.)

In passing we have the casual smoking of the 1960s, the unconscious sexism, and the sheer scale of the programme’s achievement which was so very shortly after unappreciated.

That’s actually not quite right; it was so quickly unappreciated that it was regarded as a commonplace by the time the last three Apollo missions flew.

The most interesting to a scientist was the episode in which the astronaut’s training in geology was outlined, a training which bore fruit during Apollo’s 17’s landing when they found a piece of anorthosite, in which an unmanned probe would likely have failed.

Each episode is prefaced with Kennedy’s still inspiring, “We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things; not because they are easy but because they are hard,” speech, making the series an homage to the men and women who took part in, supported, or built the equipment for the enterprise. In this it is perhaps a reflection of the belief that no such challenge faced Hanks’s generation, unlike those of their fathers (Apollo) and grandfathers (WW2.)

In all, it’s a worthy memorial to the participants in the Apollo programme and a sad reminder that in 40 years we haven’t gone back to the Moon.

I could have done without the syrupy music, though.

Edited to add:- There is a fifth disc containing trailers, behind the scenes and special effects “featurettes,” histories of famous astronomers and a history of the Moon; but I haven’t bothered to look at any of that one.

2003

In a double episode at the beginning of this series the writers use the shooting at the end of series 1 as an opportunity to lever in the various characters’ back-story (though to be fair one of the incidents is referred to again later on.) Quite why President Bartlet’s aides were nearly all portrayed as failures before joining his campaign is a touch strange. The device, however, also enables the prolongation of tension (one of our heroes is in critical condition) during these two episodes where not much actually happens.

One of the principal characters from season 1, the youngish woman with the middle aged woman’s hairdo – played by Martha Kelly? – has disappeared without mention. A new one, a rabid Republican, has been introduced to show how nice and inclusive we all are. The President’s chief lawyer seems to be replaced during this series but we’re only told this after it’s happened and the new one has been advising him for half an episode.

The story arc of season 2 is mostly concerned with the ramifications of Pres Bartlet’s multiple sclerosis being hidden from the public who elected him; a long build up to the cliff hanger at the end of episode 22 where we have to wait for next season to find out if he’s decided to run again. Not really any suspense when you’re watching the box set as there are obviously more series to come.

I suppose this storyline is by analogy with Bill Clinton’s troubles; both with Ms Lewinski and Whitewater – a Grand Jury apparently awaits Bartlet.

There is still a lot of info dumping going on – too often with characters telling others things they should already know – but I’m certainly entertained by the minor arcana of the US constitution. (At least theirs is written down.)

One final thought. There are Gilbert and Sullivan buffs in the US? Who’d have thought it?

2002-2003.

This wasn’t a Christmas present but a loan from our not-quite-daughter-in-law. (It seems a bit ridiculous to call her our son’s girlfriend as they’ve been together for years and she’s now a grown woman rather than a teenager. Plus she feels like part of the family.)

The West Wing is slick and fast moving entertainment, well acted and engaging. However, watching the episodes in close succession probably shows up the flaws more than its designed weekly exposure would.

From a story telling perspective I noted the ever more inventive stratagems for dumping information on the viewer, most of which in written fiction would be regarded as clumsy.

[The British equivalent, Yes, Minister, got round this problem by assuming the Minister was ignorant – which is not unwarranted; Her Majesty’s Secretaries of States’ average time in post is measured in months rather than years; leaving them just enough time to muck things up before moving on to a new Department, where again they have to learn the ropes from scratch. US presidents – we shall ignore here Reagan, the second Bush and Calvin Coolidge – and their staffs are generally thought to be more rounded, however.]

In The West Wing, though, characters claim lack of knowledge so that they (and we) can be lectured. Strange enthusiasms are adumbrated. At a Town Hall meeting events inside the West Wing are related. (Don’t they have an Official Secrets Act?) We also have people acting in ways they surely would not, or having relationships that are unlikely solely for the purposes of story (arc.)

The series is, of course, revealing of the political system in the US – which undoubtedly has its strangenesses. At one point a husband seemed to have inherited his deceased wife’s place in Congress – at least until an impending election. In a close situation his was the crucial vote! If that’s what does happen when a Congressperson dies it’s a bizarre arrangement.

The programme is above all, though, an exercise in allowing Americans to feel good about themselves, which can be a bit off-putting. (There may be better angels in their nature but they quite often keep them hidden.)

The cliff hanger ending to the first series was a blow.

It means I’ll have to watch series 2, now.

Though I would have anyway.