The Beiderbecke Affair

The Beiderbecke Affair is a television series produced in the United Kingdom by ITV during 1985, written by the prolific Alan Plater..... It is the first part of The Beiderbecke Trilogy, with the two sequel series being The Beiderbecke Tapes (1987) and The Beiderbecke Connection (1988).
Rather than following a usual linear story structure, The Beiderbecke Affair — set in Leeds in 1985 — is a character-led drama with a plot that initially appears rather unclear, moving as it does from one seemingly unrelated event to another. These events—and the characters involved with them—are eventually shown to be interconnected.
Geordie Trevor Chaplin (James Bolam) teaches woodwork, enjoys football and is passionate about jazz. Jill Swinburne (Barbara Flynn) is interested in neither football nor jazz but teaches English and wants to help save the planet, standing in a local election as "your Conservation candidate". After Jill left her husband, her colleague Trevor began giving her lifts to school and from there a relationship blossomed. They have an easy-going relationship where half the words seem to be left unspoken but the viewer is never in any doubt as to the subtext.
It all unravels to a soundtrack of jazz music in the style of Bix Beiderbecke, performed by Frank Ricotti with Kenny Baker as featured cornet soloist. Extensive use is made of leitmotifs for the various characters. (Read more at Wikipedia)
== Links to Peel ==
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Peel chose The Beiderbecke Affair as his favourite TV show in the NME Celebrity Best Of feature in the issue of 23 February 1985. He doesn't seem to have referred to the series on air, but it may have appealed to him because of the "provincial" setting (Leeds), the characters (the "hero" is a football fan and record collector, although a jazz fan), or its socially critical themes (political corruption and public spending cutbacks) - all of this lightened with romantic and comic elements.
As a listener to jazz who preferred older styles of the music, the DJ would have been aware of the original 1920s records by Bix Beiderbecke, and featured occasional tracks by "Bix"  during the later decades of the Peel show. JP might also have been familiar with Frank Ricotti, whose many credits included an appearance on a 1971 Radio 1 In Concert show as a member of Ricotti Albuquerque - although this show wasn't introduced by Peel.
== External Links ==
* Wikipedia
* IMDb
* Screenonline
Category:TV