London Conspiracy is one of four feature-length programmes made up of two episodes each.

As a collectable, this tape is a must as there are enough nuances to make it differ from the episodic versions of the stories that make-up the feature. The Precision Video version is the rarest of the two on account of a couple of things:

  1. It was priced at about 70 pounds when released in the early 80's, putting it out of the reach of most fans
  2. UK VCR penetration (oo-er, missus) was only a single-figure at that point so most fans didn't have a vcr or simply didn't know the tape was available.
Many copies surfaced later on the ex-rental market but as time goes on the less likely the chances of finding a copy.

The Channel 5 issue is much more common and wasn't deleted as quickly as the Polygram editions were.

What follows is a listing of several of the peculiarities to be found in London Conspiracy

scans of video covers on this page courtesy Jaz Wiseman


London Conspiracy Nuances :
  1. The opening titles were 'adapted' to reflect the umbrella title of the programme (see frame-captures below)
  2. A clip from,'To the Death,Baby' appeared at the head to establish the characters of Brett & Danny. Judge Fulton co-ercing the pair was used to establish the flimsiest premise for what was to follow.
  3. The closing titles used one of the normal background cards as the base but the credits of the two episodes were combined and rolled up the screen.
  4. The original opening shot from,'A Home of Ones Own',which showed the character of Walden being 'topped' was inexplicably and illogically shifted further into the episode.
  5. The opening shots of both episode elements were 'clean' i.e.they were without burned-in titles and credits that appear over the generally available versions. This means that London Conspiracy was likely struck from the master negative.
  6. The fades through black that characterised ad-breaks were, to an extent, removed. The climactic music of the outgoing shot builds to a climax as usual but the last frames of the shot are overlayed with the first frames of the shot incoming 'after the break'. The last chords of climactic music are allowed to naturally fade under the new reel, resulting in a smooth, unbroken transition from segment to segment.
London Conspiracy Opening Titles (for a look at the standard opening titles, follow this link)



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