Take Three Girls UK BBC 1969

[U859TT]

I was 14 when this came out and my hormones were in overdrive, just loved the girls and Pentangle's song. Must be getting old I find myself surfing all these old songs and TV shows! Thanks for posting

[daisies53]

This never fails to make me feel fab! I so wished this would re appear! I would love to see it again!

[nickthelick]

Turksmikey, you cracker-ass racist fuckwit...

[turksmikey]

hardly any dogshit niggers

[daisies53]

I used to adore to watch this series every week and just loved every moment! I always imagined playing Victoria Agecome! he he

[sewitt60]

Bert Jansch played guitar in this fantastic group, great song, hear it fully, RIP Bert.

[lawrence1099]

I remember this even though I was only 9 or 10. I can remember obsessing about Angela down. I can even remember that it was on on a Monday night after the 9 o'clock news that song gives me this feeling I get when i think of my childhood. That nice warm safe feeling.

[MStanleyRoss]

I was a fifteen year old, just left school in 69. This was my top show, the theme music was incredible, but the girls!

I think in many ways they were my 'Charlie's Angels' My decade, thanks for posting this, wish the BeeB would rerun the series.

[destructivedandy]

Liza Goddard back then...wow

[borgduck]

Lovely song. And Susan Jameson was a dish back in the 70's! Just watch the episodes of U.F.O. & Space 1999 with her in them!

[jwx57]

great

[heather13fml]

I have visited London a few times over the past 40 years and I would say it is much safer and better now than my first visit in 1970.

[Snaaaaaaaap]

Holy crap Angela Down circa Take Three Girls is my dream girl.

[TheOwenstube]

Wow! Never heard this TV soundtrack version before. Thanks for posting! How big was this series in '69-'70? It never aired in US. Glad the band revised the lyric for the LP.

[heliotropezzz333]

@TheOwenstube It was big in the u.k as we only had 2 TV channels then as I remember (or maybe 3) but the programmes were great quality and everyone of my age I know remembers watching this.

[melodiantime]

Light Flight by the Pentangle on the Basket Of Light album (available on cd and mp3), Golden Brown The Stranglers is another great melodic piece of real good feeling music. melodiantime highly rates both.

[MEDSEC20]

ONE OF THE BEST THEME TUNES EVER.

[kimleslie1950]

I so loved this series - we only got it n Bl & wh in NZ but with every episode I fell in love with each of those girls in turn. As for Pentangle well .....this theme song was nothing short of f&*#ing wonderful. It was lovely to find this clip but OMG I'm so old now. DAMN!

[MrDayday58]

UK far better place then, London was super, spent a lot of time there as a child and teenager 1960's and 1970's.

[daisies53]

@MrDayday58 I so agree with you! Best wishes

[Cogniscent1]

@doubletwethyone, I saw Angela Down in Portobello Road, Notting Hill, a couple of months ago, just doing a bit of shopping. It was nice to see her. I got the impression she is not spotlight-obsessed, not least because everyone who first came to notice a few decades back is a few decades older. One or two papers in the UK treat people getting older as if that is news, but have you ever met anyone getting younger?

[antoniod]

Wasn't Sandra Shipley in this?

[hauntboy]

@antoniod Yes she was. She played a typist in 2 episodes.

[ianjayne05]

avrils little skip at the very begining i love it, cute.

[viking1au]

This is super rare and priceless. --- Fabulous. I had heard of this forerunner to Light Flight, commissioned by the BBC for the TV show, but never seen it before. -- Well done.

[martinjp1958]

Interesting. I never knew that the theme used by the beeb was different from the original Pentangle recording, tho' I seem to have a hazy memory of seeing the opening credits - at the time.

[richardpeej]

I used to love watching this programme-bring back the old days....lol

[AnElephantsChild]

"Avril Pond"

"Splosh"

:-D

.

Thank you for this xx

[dermot51]

the theme tune is "light flight" by Pentangle

[soljd19]

yes, where please? I'd love to watch this

[YfflonRhacs]

Thank you very much for uploading this. I'm amazed that someone still had this footage. In the course of searing nostalgia, I was keen to relive the intro to this programme.

[antoniod]

Wasn't Sandra Shipley in this?

[croydoncr0]

Hi guys, i've never seen this programme as im too young but would love to watch an episode, its for my project, where could i obtain a copy?

[Daveynewport]

There is no commercial version of this out there either on VHS tape (maybe you are too young to know what that is !!) or on DVD. The BBC have some remaining episodes and the BFI Library the rest so if you have some contacts or they allow academic access - but only about 50% of the episodes still exist. I would think your best bet would be if BBC Four showed an episode sometime.

[croydoncr0]

lol no im 25. Its cool i've got a hold of an episode now :-)

[Daveynewport]

Well you were lucky to get a copy good on you  !

[jacksonninetyfive]

Where did you find an episode?!

[UKSazzy67]

Thanks for uploading this! I've only seen the opening titles in Black and white before this.

[Greenthigh]

Doesn't anyone remember the sequel to this, "Take three Women" circa 1982?

[Daveynewport]

Yes I sure do early 1980's maybe 82 - It wasn't a great success

[mig189189189]

All of you can watch the video above in "High Quality" just by adding to the end of the link of the video line the following code:" &fmt=18 ". It works !

[doubleotwentyone]

Great song, wonderful series and best of all, Angela Down.......

[hauntboy]

@doubleotwentyoneYes, agreed! If you look for the original Promo trailer for the 1st episode shown here on youtube, the BBC announcer calls her Angela Durham, and calls Liza Goddard, Eliza. There's very little about Angela Down on the net, though I think she's still acting as there are some older pics of her. Liza Goddard was born in Smethwick, West Midlands where I live, but has no Black Country accent.

[doubleotwentyone]

@hauntboy Yes I've tried to track AD down largely unsuccessfully...she went on from TTG to do a Play For Today I think, a rape victim in a loveless marriage and of course Princess Bolkonskaya in War And Peace. She's cropped up in The Bill a few years back...I always thought what a good actress she was. I think she chose to shun the spotlight tho...

[hauntboy]

@doubleotwentyone I've just been looking myself. She is one of the people offering her services as a voiceover artist for Archangel Voices - just google her name with that and she comes up. It used to come up as quiz question quite often - Name the other girl in TTG apart from Liza Goddard and Susan Jameson? And of course I always knew the answer.

[RadioNorthSea]

Do I remember another girl called "Lulli" or something like that?

[sjbrez]

Yes, in the second series the cast was slightly different and Lulie was a new member. Sadly only about half a dozen episodes of the whole series still exist...

[Conniptions886]

I've got a pre-debut promo, and the closing credits of episode 1 - will post them if anyone's interested...

[Daveynewport]

Oh yes please if you have it and it doesn't take too long that would be great

[hauntboy]

@Conniptions886 I've just watched it. I'm amazed that the BBC announcer not only got Liza Goddard's name wrong, as you point out, but Angela Down's also. He called her Angela Durham! 2 out of 3 IS bad! Great to see this again!

[areyoureceivingme]

Sorry - just read the comment below. Huge shame if most of it is lost.

[areyoureceivingme]

Always loved this Pentangle tune, my 7" vinyl is well played! Is this available on DVD?

[jessyjoojoo]

Just out of interest what actually happened in the series? i wasnt even born when this was aired....

[heliotropezzz333]

i don't remember much but it was just about their lives as independent young girls in the 60s. Sometimes the episodes were about all three and sometimes they'd focus just on one of them.

[spelqueka]

London when it was white

[tootstanner]

It was a better place then! It brings a tear to my eye!

[spelqueka]

To mine too!!

[ohisashiburi]

I always had a soft spot for Susan Jameson..not that there is ANY significance in my remark..*^^*

[dergrossen]

@tootstanner Well actually it was not a better place..on the opening scene the guy walking in font of Avril is a plain clothes cop carrying his ID..a warrant card..in case some nugget gets in the way or tries to abduct this cute girl. A better place? NO.

[borgduck]

@dergrossen And I, yes, I am that would-be abductor!

[fudzy62]

if it was white then,what would you say it is now?....multicoloured???

[0LolaLola]

It was that already in the 40's/50's...

I dunno where those people commenting lived but surely not London

[0LolaLola]

Not in the 60's... lol

[DRGasMoney]

i bet these girls got into all kinds of wacky shit!

[craigraven]

Great series, great introduction, great actresses. As at least one programme for each girl survives, surely it would be possible to release a DVD of 3 programmes - say Progs 1 (Kate), 2 (Avril) and 9 (Victoria), plus the one-off follow-up "Take Three Women" - which presumably will survive, as by this time the BBC had seen the error of its ways by junking so many gems from the 60s.

[Daveynewport]

all comes down to money ! there may well be some restoration needed to the masters - they are about 40 years old now and the patchiness of surviving copies. The BBC managed to find some missing Dr Who's and Dads Army from copies sold to foreign TV companies but I guess there is no great belief in the sales os such a creature ! I'm surprised there has not been an episode or two shown on BBC Four I would have thought it was right up their street which makes me think that there are rights issues.

[Hardwyck]

Further justification for the "use it or lose it principle".

[gazzah54]

these girls are amazing

[mickigoe]

Girls were far prettier in the 60's , weren't they ? Mind you Jacqui herself outshone even these three - what a voice but what a face !!

[mickigoe]

I'm not sure how young women behave today beanut but I feel you're being a bit cruel in your comment. However I really appreciate that you responded . Hope life is good to you , mate.

[korkiethecat]

Yes and I bet they still won't touch you with a fifty foot barge pole will they? Sluts, but not desperate.

[fudzy62]

you're right about jacqui, she is better looking than the three girls in the tv series.i saw a photograph of her probably taken about two or three years ago, and she's still as pretty as ever.

[JAYROX1969]

Have you got the whole episode? The BBC wiped quite a few of them.

[Ariamaluum]

Sounds kind of like Jethro Tull.

[leonio10]

its 'light flight' by Pentangle.

[ftumschk]

...can't help feeling that this song inspired The Stranglers' "Golden Brown".

[Efrasnel]

@ftumschk : Now you mention it...

[JuanBNO]

@ftumschk I always thought this too because of the time measures. I posted the same suggestion on the light flight performance. Cheers.

[nighthawk006]

Great upload! *****

[borgduck]

Take three girls? OK then.

[samothraki1]

...have the BBC apologised for wiping away most of these episodes? No, I didn't think so!!

[AidanLunn]

don't blame them.

Blame Ampex for putting the price of videotape so high and blame Equity for telling he BBC to wipe them!

Why should the BBC apologise when its not their fault?

[richpat]

Wonderful love this..

[spurtfather]

yet again youtube makes my day, always wanted to see what the look of the show was after reading about it in my castle communication double cd comp of pentangles greatest hits. now i have. another box ticked on the way to the grave! cheers

[doubleotwentyone]

Great to see this again. I really liked the series, especially Angela Down. I think I was in love with her..........great song from Pentangle too. I always preferred these lyrics to the later "Light Flight".

[kh23797]

Right, doubletwentyone, on both counts. It was a great tune, in a period of many wonderfully memorable TV themes. To me, usually locked away in a strict all-boy's grammar school, my weekly glimpses of Angela Down were keenly awaited - she was cute, androgynous, feisty and fit. Radio Times did a wonderful close-up portrait of the three girls, and she was all big intense dark eyes, dimples and glossy chestnut hair. Unforgettable.

[johnjarvo]

Great theme song by Pentangle, brings back memories of being 15 in 1969. A very difficult period; if you know what I mean...

[yensheebaby]

Superb! Many thanks for posting this. Any ideas as to where I can get hold of some of the episodes (1990's re-run would be good, assuming the surviving originals are deep in the BBC vaults). I'm in the UK. Thanks...

[LSewell]

If you do find out where any and all episodes can be found, please let us know. I was 13 when this came on and remember it very well. Would love to see it again. In the meantime, I've downloaded the Pentangle theme song from iTunes!

[gennx30]

60's version of Sex in the City?

[katherine500]

i think its time this got a rerun on bbc

[kresblain]

I agree, especially since this was among the first BBC One series to make its debut in living colour nearly 40 years ago. Indeed an instant classic.

[goldenstar9]

Fantastic, brings back memories, after having seen Pentangle perform this on Jools Holand on Friday evening, I found this clip.

Susan Jameson is/was married to Likely Lad James Bolam. Lisa Goddard was married to Alvin Stardust.

[unclemort1960]

didnt jilly cooper write this

[mill01747]

No.

Written By Charlotte Bingham with her husband Terence Brady

[pogle65]

was'nt this the first colour programme transmitted on tv?

[Voxac100b]

think it was a cricket or rugby match on bbc2 1967 or 68 ish

[zrieqi58]

Oh this was my first soap opera - I had just come to England and I loved watching this!!! I was just 19 - I remember Susan Jameson in it, and Victoria is played by the wife of Alvin Stardust (?) can't remember her name, and who was the other girl??? I would love the BBC to repeat this - and Family At War - that was another of my favourites!!!Thank you revoxy for uploading this!!!

[WDH59510]

You are thinking of Liza Goddard (of 'Skippy' and 'Yes Honestly' fame) and Angela Down. See the piece I've written for Wikipedia.

It's maybe worth mentioning that these are the opening credits for the first series (there were two). Kate and Avril disappeared after the first series and Victoria got two new flatmates.

[dergrossen]

Look carefully at the opening frames and you see the character "Avril" walking toward the camera on a busy London pavement. The guy walking ahead of her, I guess, is a plain clothes policeman. He is holding his warrant card in his right hand.

But what is Avril carrying? Any ideas? Lump of minced beef from the butchers..?

[hauntboy]

@dergrossen Looks like she's carrying a bouquet of flowers to me.

[dergrossen]

The wonderful thing about life is memory, this one has been with me since I was 16.

[chuckler1]

Me too

[MikeJS57]

I remember this. I was twelve and in my second year at grammar school. Thanks for posting this lovely song, haven't heard it for many years.

[borgduck]

Before my time but wow is Susan Jameson still beautiful today.

(saw her on my U.F.O. & Space 1999 vids & then reconised her on New Tricks!!)

[borgduck]

That is recognised sorry.

[nam1956]

The BBC have no idea with regards to what there licence paying captives want to see..

prefering to bombard our screens with endless repeats of mindless rubbish when with a little effort such wonderful nostalgic progamnes could surely be transmitted. There are countless other series/individual progamnes hidden away in the bowls of the BBC vaults no doubt. But of course they would have been made when 'PC' was unheard of!

We would'nt want to offend anyone, now would we?

[coolitababy]

I so agree with you...they have so many wonderful archives that we never get to see.

Really bugs me too.

[ukmusician]

Well said, nam1956. I agree.

[DavidMJordan]

The Beeb had a habit of ditching old progs in the early days but I think 1969 was late enough for this to have been saved. Being 19 at the time, this prog encapsulated all the excitement of life ahead: head for London, find Lisa Goddard and dig up he golden paving stones.

[keenmustard]

The BBC only reversed its policy of mass junking of TV shows in 1978. And even so, in the early 1990s a large number of children's programmes were destroyed.

[sambda]

Two series, each of 12 eps. Series 1, eps 1,2,4,9,10,11 survive (some at the BFI rather than the BBC). Series 2, eps 2,6,11,12 survive (at BBC). So there's no chance of a DVD release with this patchiness.

There was a 1982 follow-up too "Take 3 Women".

[DavidMJordan]

Ta. there's nothing like cold concise facts on YouTube! here's hoping, though.

[Daveynewport]

Were the BBC insane wiping this stuff ?

I agree there is no meat here for a re run or a DVD release.

[AidanLunn]

The price of videotape was extremely high (Ampex's fault) and the unions limited how many times a TV programme could be broadcast (Equity's fault)

So Ampex and Equity are insane.

I'd have gone one step futrther than Thatcher and actually *got rid* of the unions. That way, I could make striking illegal!

[red1964]

I've told everyone before, it is illegal to feed the trolls.

And you, get back under your bridge.

[AidanLunn]

Why on earth am I a troll when I know for a fact I am 100% right?

[red1964]

Just answered your own question, fella. No one is '100% right'. You show some remarkably fascistic opinions about Trade Unions as well.

[AidanLunn]

I was saying that I am right no matter what you say.

So, enlightened user (sarcasm) who is responsible for the cost of videotape and the limit of how many times an episode of a programme can be screened?

[qpr60]

This would have been a precursor to The Liver Birds, only set in London.

[cbak12sg]

Not exactly. This was a drama series, and although you see the three girls together in the title sequence, each episode told a story relating to one of them, and the other two hardly appeared at all.

[sw1pe]

I was born the wrong year and on the wrong side of the pond to see this, but this is exactly the sort of pop cultural time capsule treasure that ought to be released on DVD.

Considering the BBC's admirable position on protecting copyright while simultaneously denying a show the privilege of ever again seeing the light of day, it would be a shame if those 10 episodes wound up on e-pony (or whatever that thing some friend of mine once told me about was called). Yes, a damn shame.

[cosast54]

I used to run like mad to catch the bus from tech in Derby to see the programm,

Thanks

[Agrotope99]

Wow, what a gem! I've been trying to find a recording of these alternative lyrics for Pentangle's "Light Flight" for ages and was beginning to think I'd imagined them. Does anyone know if they are on CD? Thank you for posting.

[Daveynewport]

I wish they would/could but it's pretty rare - there is no sign of a DVD and I can't remember it being shown again except when they made the sequel Take three Women in the early 1980's. I am surprised BBC Worldwide Limited who own the rights haven't put it out on DVD - but I suspect it is a matter of getting rights clear with the actors - long story but it's all to do with the agreements that actors equity had with the BBC and other TV companies in the 1960's and 1970's

[keenmustard]

There are ten episodes still in existence out of the twenty-four made. Maybe the BBC could put together a DVD using those. It's such a shame that so many interesting programmes were junked -- and particularly sad in the case of Take Three Girls as it was one of the very first shows to be broadcast by BBC1 in colour (17th November 1969).

[keenmustard]

Colour transmissions started on the 15th.

[blackmore4]

The BBC's mentality when it comes to their old shows borders on derangement. Peter Cook offered to buy the tapes of "Not Only But Also" when he found out they were to be DESTROYED(!) He was refused due to "Copyright issues", so he then suggested he buy the BBC some new tapes so they wouldn't have to 're-use' (tape over) the originals. The maniacs also turned him down!!??

[Daveynewport]

Tell me it was insane ! Video tape cost a fortune at that time but that was only part of the reason Equity have a lot to answer for - payment was for transmission and I think 2 repeats. After that the BBC had to renegotiate the copyright with the actor for a new fee so after the initial expiry the Tape was worthless to the BBC - SO many brilliant things have been lost.

[doubledeckers]

Programmes are stil being destroyed. Just recently the tapes of entertainment shows made for BSB in the 1990's by Noel Gay Televisions and John Gau Productions.

[revoxy]

I'd love to see an episode too. Unfortunately all I have are these titles which were shown on 'TV Heaven' April 4th 1992. Hopefully someone out there will come up with an episode.

[martinjp1958]

@revoxy That [TV Heaven] series with Frank Muir was very enlightening. It was where I first saw and appreciated Bouquet of Barbed Wire - and several other gems.

[Daveynewport]

Yes please an episode would be great - it's not on DVD and probably never will be - Equity agreements being what they were in the 1970's !

[hollyroberts19]

Can someone please post an episode ????

Please

[Daveynewport]

This was a milestone production - I think it was the first thing shown to open BBC 2 in 1969. It has rarely been shown again more is the pitty !

[AidanLunn]

Daveynewport - BBC-2 opened in 1964, but was only available in the London area and if you bought an (expensive) new set capable of recieving the 625-line UHF broadcasts.

BBC-1 and ITV were only available on the inferior 405-line VHF format/standard.

[Holgerstefanhart]

I love Pentangle forever

[RobinCarmody]

Lovely stuff. There's a history with me and this song / series ...

The album version had different lyrics, though.