In the Looking Glass (1978)

Genre

comedy television series

Country

United Kingdom

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This 1970s British comedy series uses live action mixed with drawn and animated backgrounds to create bizarre situations. Characters appear inside a hole to the center of the earth or on a Monopoly board where dice could crush someone.

surrealwhimsicalplayfulwhimsicalinventiveoffbeatlightheartedartistic

What happens

In the Looking Glass is a surreal television series, broadcast on BBC2 in 1978. It starred John Wells, John Fortune, and Madeline Smith, was directed by Andrew Gosling and produced by Ian Keill. The music for the songs was composed by Carl Davis. The animations and illustrations were by Graham McCallum and Bob Gale. The same team had previously created 1974's The End of the Pier Show. Wells, Fortune and Davis appear to have been the main writers for both series. In the Looking Glass was notable for its design, overlaying live action and drawn or animated backgrounds, for instance, a hole drilled to the centre of the earth, or the Monopoly board on which a character risks being crushed by rolling dice. The production team (Keill, Gosling and designer Graham McCallum) went on to develop this approach further in the "live action comic strip" series Jane (1982), for which McCallum won two BAFTA Best Graphics awards. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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