Johnny Jarvis
Encyclopedia
Johnny Jarvis is a 1983 British
television drama series created and written by Nigel Williams
, adapted from his novel of the same title. The series was directed by Alan Dossor and produced by Guy Slater for the BBC
. The principal actors were Mark Farmer
, Johanna Hargreaves
, Ian Sears, Alrick Riley and Jamie Foreman
.
Today it is credited as capturing the zeitgeist
of early 1980s UK life. The adaptation was broadcast between 10 November and 12 December 1983. The signature tune for the series was provided by Gary Shail
and the music for the series was by John Altman
. It had been rumoured that the original series has been erased from the BBC's tape archive, preventing any further release but extant copies on sale prove the rumour to be incorrect.
. Energetic, anxious and occasionally naïve, the pair are on the brink of entering the adult world.
Jarvis has always been the class clown, and his unlikely friendship with ‘bookish’ Lipton - a boy with his head ‘stuck in the clouds’ as he considers what the future has in store for him, and considers the image of the father he has never known - is one of the more unusual unions in the story. The pair successfully leave school brimming with hope, but soon find that the harsh reality of Britain in the late 1970s has little to offer them - they are soon both unemployed school-leavers struggling to make progress in the world and the part they play in it.
Life in the confines of school and life on the outside are two entirely different things, as Jarvis and Lipton discover the strongest elements of their school lives are reversed over the course of the series; Jarvis, once a popular ‘jack-the-lad’ character with the world as his oyster, is ultimately left poverty-stricken and relatively isolated, whilst Lipton, who starts the serial emerging from school and finding himself in a grotty squat existence, blossoms from a studious character into a popular New Wave
performer in a band, the lyrics of songs for which were based on Johnny's downward spiral and terrible existence.
This linear storyline has a thriller-esque sub-plot concerning a mysterious drug dealer, known as "The Colonel", holding Lipton to ransom in his mother's tower-block flat at the same time that Jarvis' fortunes are no better, minding his child in a bed-sit whilst his girlfriend the complicated Stella (Johanna Hargreaves) brings in the sole wage in order to support them all.
School associates of Jarvis and Lipton, Skinhead Manning (Jamie Foreman) and Black carpenter Paul Turner (Alrick Riley) provide an inter-twinned story of inner city racial conflict which highlights that period of street disturbances in British History (1981-1985)
The theme music and original songs were written by Gary Shail (Quadrophenia, Metal Mickey) and arranged by John Altman.
The principal message of the series is a thinly veiled attack on (then) Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's
Britain and the wasted resource of schoolchildren emerging from education to find no jobs and precious few prospects awaiting them.
"The unlikely friendship between Johnny Jarvis and Alan Lipton begins in their last year at a comprehensive in Hackney. Jarvis, the loveable clown with a surprising talent for welding…Lipton, the apparently talentless reject, fantasising about the future and the father he has never met. At the end of the year they have to confront the adult world"
2. "1978-1979" (first broadcast 17 November 1983)
"Lipton and Jarvis encounter the amazing Stella for the first time. Turner finds work - of a fairly eccentric kind. Jake remains mysterious and evasive. For both Lipton and Jarvis their relationships with their fathers take a dramatic turn."
3. "1979-1980" (first broadcast 24 November 1983)
"Life at the squat for Stella and Lipton isn't easy. Jake has disappeared again. Both Lipton and the mysterious "Colonel" want to find him - and the Colonel isn't too fussy about his methods. However, Turner is in work - if not earning money; and Jarvis is busy at Technical College, where he acquires a girlfriend."
4. "1980-1981" (first broadcast 1 December 1983)
"Lipton and Guy become the self-appointed leaders of a band at the hostel, singing Alan's songs. Stella moves in to live with Johnny - and his mother. Then a surprising newcomer turns up at the hostel"
5. "1981-1982" (first broadcast 8 December 1983)
"A shadowy drug dealer called The Colonel holds the rock writer Lipton as a prisoner in his mother's council flat. Jarvis is also flat-bound, compelled to baby-sit while Stella goes out to work"
6. "1982-1983"(first broadcast 12 December 1983)
"Johnny and Stella move in to live with Alan in his new flat. But it's not easy to revive old friendships, and the tensions run high."
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television drama series created and written by Nigel Williams
Nigel Williams (author)
Nigel Williams is an English novelist, screenwriter and playwright.-Biography:He was educated at Highgate School and Oriel College, Oxford, is married with three sons and lives in Putney, south-west London...
, adapted from his novel of the same title. The series was directed by Alan Dossor and produced by Guy Slater for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. The principal actors were Mark Farmer
Mark Farmer (actor)
Mark Farmer is a British actor, born 22 May 1962, in London, and probably best remembered for his childhood role of Gary Hargreaves in the first three series of the popular children's television programme Grange Hill, in which he starred from 1979 to 1981....
, Johanna Hargreaves
Johanna Hargreaves
Johanna Hargreaves is a British television actress who has been active since 1980, best known for playing "Stella" in the 1983 teenage drama Johnny Jarvis and "Linda Jordan" in the 1992 police drama Between the Lines....
, Ian Sears, Alrick Riley and Jamie Foreman
Jamie Foreman
Jamie Foreman is an English actor best known for his roles as Duke in Layer Cake and Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist . He played opposite Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth and also featured in Elizabeth , Gangster No. 1 and Sleepy Hollow...
.
Today it is credited as capturing the zeitgeist
Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist is "the spirit of the times" or "the spirit of the age."Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambiance, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.The...
of early 1980s UK life. The adaptation was broadcast between 10 November and 12 December 1983. The signature tune for the series was provided by Gary Shail
Gary Shail
-Career:Gary Shail began work in TV and film in 1977 and is best known for his roles as Spider in the 1979 cult classic film Quadrophenia and as Steve, the punky teenager in The Metal Mickey TV Show directed by former Monkee Mickey Dolenz....
and the music for the series was by John Altman
John Altman (composer)
John Altman is a British film composer, music arranger, orchestrator and conductor.-Biography:Altman was introduced to the music of the 1930s and 1940s at an early age by an uncle who arranged and composed music for big bands and conducted for Judy Garland, the Marx Brothers, and Laurel and Hardy,...
. It had been rumoured that the original series has been erased from the BBC's tape archive, preventing any further release but extant copies on sale prove the rumour to be incorrect.
Plot summary
The story centres on Johnny Jarvis (Mark Farmer) and Alan Lipton (Ian Sears) who are two teenagers in their final year of secondary school at a comprehensive in HackneyLondon Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....
. Energetic, anxious and occasionally naïve, the pair are on the brink of entering the adult world.
Jarvis has always been the class clown, and his unlikely friendship with ‘bookish’ Lipton - a boy with his head ‘stuck in the clouds’ as he considers what the future has in store for him, and considers the image of the father he has never known - is one of the more unusual unions in the story. The pair successfully leave school brimming with hope, but soon find that the harsh reality of Britain in the late 1970s has little to offer them - they are soon both unemployed school-leavers struggling to make progress in the world and the part they play in it.
Life in the confines of school and life on the outside are two entirely different things, as Jarvis and Lipton discover the strongest elements of their school lives are reversed over the course of the series; Jarvis, once a popular ‘jack-the-lad’ character with the world as his oyster, is ultimately left poverty-stricken and relatively isolated, whilst Lipton, who starts the serial emerging from school and finding himself in a grotty squat existence, blossoms from a studious character into a popular New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
performer in a band, the lyrics of songs for which were based on Johnny's downward spiral and terrible existence.
This linear storyline has a thriller-esque sub-plot concerning a mysterious drug dealer, known as "The Colonel", holding Lipton to ransom in his mother's tower-block flat at the same time that Jarvis' fortunes are no better, minding his child in a bed-sit whilst his girlfriend the complicated Stella (Johanna Hargreaves) brings in the sole wage in order to support them all.
School associates of Jarvis and Lipton, Skinhead Manning (Jamie Foreman) and Black carpenter Paul Turner (Alrick Riley) provide an inter-twinned story of inner city racial conflict which highlights that period of street disturbances in British History (1981-1985)
1981 England riots
In 1981, the United Kingdom suffered serious riots across many major cities in England. They were perceived as race riots between communities, in all cases the main motives for the riots were related to racial tension and inner-city deprivation. The riots were caused by a distrust of the police...
The theme music and original songs were written by Gary Shail (Quadrophenia, Metal Mickey) and arranged by John Altman.
The principal message of the series is a thinly veiled attack on (then) Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
Britain and the wasted resource of schoolchildren emerging from education to find no jobs and precious few prospects awaiting them.
Episodes
1. "1977-1978" (first broadcast 10 November 1983)"The unlikely friendship between Johnny Jarvis and Alan Lipton begins in their last year at a comprehensive in Hackney. Jarvis, the loveable clown with a surprising talent for welding…Lipton, the apparently talentless reject, fantasising about the future and the father he has never met. At the end of the year they have to confront the adult world"
2. "1978-1979" (first broadcast 17 November 1983)
"Lipton and Jarvis encounter the amazing Stella for the first time. Turner finds work - of a fairly eccentric kind. Jake remains mysterious and evasive. For both Lipton and Jarvis their relationships with their fathers take a dramatic turn."
3. "1979-1980" (first broadcast 24 November 1983)
"Life at the squat for Stella and Lipton isn't easy. Jake has disappeared again. Both Lipton and the mysterious "Colonel" want to find him - and the Colonel isn't too fussy about his methods. However, Turner is in work - if not earning money; and Jarvis is busy at Technical College, where he acquires a girlfriend."
4. "1980-1981" (first broadcast 1 December 1983)
"Lipton and Guy become the self-appointed leaders of a band at the hostel, singing Alan's songs. Stella moves in to live with Johnny - and his mother. Then a surprising newcomer turns up at the hostel"
5. "1981-1982" (first broadcast 8 December 1983)
"A shadowy drug dealer called The Colonel holds the rock writer Lipton as a prisoner in his mother's council flat. Jarvis is also flat-bound, compelled to baby-sit while Stella goes out to work"
6. "1982-1983"(first broadcast 12 December 1983)
"Johnny and Stella move in to live with Alan in his new flat. But it's not easy to revive old friendships, and the tensions run high."
Cast
- Johnny Jarvis - (Mark FarmerMark Farmer (actor)Mark Farmer is a British actor, born 22 May 1962, in London, and probably best remembered for his childhood role of Gary Hargreaves in the first three series of the popular children's television programme Grange Hill, in which he starred from 1979 to 1981....
) - Alan Lipton - (Ian Sears)
- Paul Turner - (Alrick Riley)
- Manning - (Jamie ForemanJamie ForemanJamie Foreman is an English actor best known for his roles as Duke in Layer Cake and Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist . He played opposite Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth and also featured in Elizabeth , Gangster No. 1 and Sleepy Hollow...
) - Stella - (Johanna HargreavesJohanna HargreavesJohanna Hargreaves is a British television actress who has been active since 1980, best known for playing "Stella" in the 1983 teenage drama Johnny Jarvis and "Linda Jordan" in the 1992 police drama Between the Lines....
) - Mr Jarvis - (John BardonJohn BardonJohn Bardon, is an English stage and screen actor. He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award in 1988 as 'Best Actor in a Musical' for Kiss Me, Kate, sharing the award with co-star Emil Wolk.-Acting career:Bardon is best known for playing Jim Branning in the popular British soap opera EastEnders...
) - Mrs Jarvis - (Catherine Harding)
- Mrs Lipton - (Diana Davies)
- Bennerman - (Mark Penfold)
- Sidney - (Ian Brimble)
- Mr Casson - (Lionel Ngakane)
- Clare - (Diana Kyle)
- Mason - (Jim Dunk)
- David Sales - (Neil Cunningham)
- Guy Raines - (Gary ShailGary Shail-Career:Gary Shail began work in TV and film in 1977 and is best known for his roles as Spider in the 1979 cult classic film Quadrophenia and as Steve, the punky teenager in The Metal Mickey TV Show directed by former Monkee Mickey Dolenz....
) - Careers Officer - (Caroline Lancaster)
- Mrs Stapleton - (Peggy Phango)
- Barber - (Robert Putt)
- PE Teacher - (Martin Anthony)
- Benson - (Paul Vincent)
- Knight - (Mike Smart)
- The Colonel - (Nick StringerNick StringerNick Stringer is an English actor.In a thirty year career, Stringer has appeared in numerous well-known British television shows, including The Bill, Open All Hours, Only Fools and Horses, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Coronation Street, Family Affairs, Minder, Johnny Jarvis, Butterflies and My Family...
) - Arthur - (Anthony Powell)
- Jake - (Maurice ColbourneMaurice ColbourneMaurice Colbourne was a British stage and television actor.He was born Roger Middleton in Sheffield at the outbreak of World War II, and studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama...
)
- Mrs Turner - (Nadia Cathouse)
- Mr Turner - (Tommy EytleTommy EytleTommy Daniel Hicks Eytle was a Guyanese musician and actor. Although born in Guyana, Eylte's career was based in the United Kingdom, where he lived after emigrating in 1951....
) - Stephen Turner - (Ancel McFarlane)
- Sharon Turner - (Sonya Saul)
- New Wastrel - (Nik Corfield)