Night and Day - anyoen else watch?

[EricMontreal22]

Did anyone else watch this bizarre, shortlived (2001-2003) UK soap? They aired it in Canada at 1:30am and I became an addict--I only tuned in at first cuz Kylie Minogue did the theme song, lol. It kinda started off as a Twin peaks style dark soap involving a disappearing girl, but they seemdd to quickly realize (much liek the infamous Ozzie outrageous soap Chances) that they should go for broke and just went for one over the top story after another. great actors, a weird filming style, and fast moving, it was really good and a shame it never caught on.

here's the original opening titles which make it look like a very basic British soap with maybe prettier actors than usual for them.

And there are tons more clips at http://www.youtube.com/user/nightandday

*edit* someone fix the typo in my subject please

[JamesF]

I watched it. As you point out, the most glaring thing about the show was how it evolved.

In the beginning, there was a definite sense of "weirdness" about it that was completely at odds with the kind of show ITV was obviously expecting. It was as if ITV had signed off on a show about young people with a bit of mystery without actually watching it first. When it got pulled early into its run and shoved on a Thursday night, they really began to amp up the bizarre story twists and fantasies. Self-castration, Jane Harper becoming a geisha, Ryan the comedy transexual.

I liked the fact that it was completely off the wall but I could tell that the way the series progressed was categorically not how it was intended to when it began. All the tight plotting of the mystery and various secrets was thrown out of the window for the sake of doing anything and everything.

[EricMontreal22]

That's very true--I should change my original comment about it being really good to it being really enjoyable--I loved it but I admit I was frustrated with how the mystery was dropped (I can't even remember all now though I remember the lookalike character). Its use too of very short scenes could be a good and bad thing. How long did it last in its late night timeslot?

[JamesF]

Ha. Yeah that's probably true. It was particularly fun watching some well known actors doing so much camp.

The mystery resolved itself by having something to do with a baby swap (orchestrated by Shane Richie of all people) which meant that Jane Harper had been sleeping with her own father. Now I know ITV have been known to fall asleep at the wheel but if anyone believes that was the original plan for a show going out at 5pm after kids tv, they'd be sorely mistaken.

My guess is that Jane was supposed to have been murdered but they just decided to mess about with other story strands and then the ending was an opportunity to wrap it up.

I liked the short scenes. And the fantasy stuff. It was very new for British soaps and Hollyoaks took on a lot of those flourishes.

I also had a big crush on the guy that played...I think his name was Josh. Admittedly he couldn't act but he was pretty. It's a shame he was the character who ended up castrating himself. Sort of put a dampener on it really.

Re: the late night timeslot. I think it started out at 5pm with the Thursday night omnibus (complete with the odd swear word or sex scene added) and lasted about two months if that lol. Then the 'omnibus' continued for maybe 18 months. I remember being constantly surprised that the show was still going as it was clearly only being made for that slot. It used to get pushed around and could be aired anytime between 22:30 and 1am.

[EricMontreal22]

I read a British article about it finding some success with young adults who would watch it after a night at the pubs, drunk while eating their chips and curry It\'s interesting that it aired at a similar time here in canada from the start.

I liked Josh too! Actually I had crushes on a couple of the guys which is prob what started me watching--Kylie aside. Right he thought he killed Jane during one of his blackouts initially. Actuallya s the show got weirder and weirder I was sorry to see some of the more serious elements I was enjoying completely dropped. Remember there was Jane\'s brother Ryan who Iw as sure was meant to be gay and would do weird things like have bit scenes on a flying carpet and dress upin bizarre outfits.

The actors who played Ryan and Sam are both now on Hollyoaks I think--Night and Day loved to have scene swith them almost nude--I remember the steam room was a popular place (something the show mocked itself) and other excuses for almost complete nudity--I appreciated that unlike American soaps the actors didn\'t have to shave their chests Anyway, I also liked Sam\'s overbearing aunt too who for some reason kinda reminded me of Robin Strasser...

And Sally Dexter's character--I know her from her theatre work.

[EricMontreal22]

Found a few classic shots

[EricMontreal22]

Found this bizarre, slightly bitchy but interesting piece on the show--I sorta assumed it never got ANY soap nominations

The Strangest Soap Ever?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Written by Gary Ryan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the surreal late night soap Night and Day is nominated for an astonishing 12 gongs at the British Soap Awards, Gary Ryan talks to its stars Nick Schofield, Seb Castang. Georgina Walker and the inimitable Lesley Joseph.

"Ooh, Lesley Joseph. She's a maniac" insists Nick Schofield, her co-star from Night and Day. The majority of you may recall Lesley from Birds of a Feather, where she played Dorean Greene, an endearingly promiscuous old shrew of a next door neighbour. You remember her: Tracey was the dowdy one, Sharon the fat one, and Dorean was the old one. The very old one. She was the one notably absent from the opening credits, peppered with childhood photos of Sharon and Tracey, which is perhaps because hieroglyphics don't work well on TV (Oh look! It's a young Lesley! And she's carrying a spear!).

Following Dorean's stiletto marks was never going to be easy, but she seems to have managed it playing the manipulative Rachel Culgarin in Night and Day - the critically-acclaimed, innovative soap nominated for 12 Soap Awards. It's tricky to imagine Lesley divested from Dorean; that's why, when I'm informed that, due to Night and Day's gruelling production schedule, she enjoys a sly nap during the day, the first word that pops into my head is 'alcoholic'. Perhaps Night and Day isn't so much a job as a hangover.

Fortunately, Nick is sober enough to step over Mad, Drunken Old Lesleyä and explain that: "She's absolutely hilarious. She's one of the nicest people you'll meet. She's up for best actress" It's easy to see why Night and Day has been lavished with praise: deliriously surreal, it rethinks the stale concept of the soap. Set in the fictional Thornton Street in upmarket Greenwich, the show revolves around the disappearance of the Lolita-esque Jane Harper and makes extensive use of flashbacks and fantasy sequences to further the plot. "If I wasn't in Night and Day, then I'd definitely watch it," beams Nick, "Definitely. It's my sort show and I'm really glad to be part of it."

As Ryan Harper, the vain brother of Jane, Essex-born Nick has received the lion's share of bizarre fantasy sequences. "It's fantastic" he says, "I've been dressed up as an Arab sitting on a magic carpet against a wind machine, I've been a doctor in a mad hospital with these carry-on nurses, with a chainsaw, trying to cut off a character's doo-dah. You just get to dress up all the time in fancy dress. Two of the characters just dressed up as Pinocchio with the nose growing longer. Bet you can't get guess what that symbolises. God knows what's going to happen next."

Lesley - evidently not drunken - elaborates: "Most soaps that are on have been there a while and I wouldn't say they're getting stale, but they're getting familiar. And the reason why they keep bringing out a plane crash or a rape or you know a serious assault is to keep people watching. Instead of actually adapting the way it's shot or the way it's put together or the sort of characters, they make the story lines go more and more extreme'

"What Night and Day did was say, well look this is going to be shot in a really extraordinary way that will make people go, Oh my God is that a soap?'

"We're doing fun television. The thing you get when you have the fantasy sequence and all of the costume stuff, you really do have a laugh. We've had an awful lot of fun. You wouldn't get to do that in anything else. I mean, you really wouldn't. I can't think of anything that's so much fun. And sometimes frustrating and sometimes incomprehensible. But when it works, it takes off in a way that no other programme does because it's stretched the boundaries completely.'

Launched in a blaze of publicity earlier this year, Night and Day replaced Home and Away, before being axed from its teatime slot due to lacklustre ratings. Now, it is restricted to its late-night, 'adult' omnibus slot on Thursdays - something Nick regards as "a blessing in disguise". Seb Castang, who plays Josh in the show, adds: "It is a lot easier to follow if it's just one episode a week. And all the adult content they put in does make the show more interesting. It makes the show more risque as well, because there's a lot of sex, drugs and religious references that you can't put in the daytime version. Most of the interesting things in Night and Day weren't allowed to be shown during the day: so you were getting half of the story lines cut out, actually."

Twenty-one-year-old Seb is tipped to win Sexiest Soap Actor. As a former male model, he's used to people looking at his body. "The first catwalk show that I ever did, the designer came up and put my outfit on the clothes rail and I thought, 'Oh God, you must be joking'. And all it was, was a really long blue furry coat with a huge collar and under it, I had to wear a little red pair of leather hot pants." Not planning on wearing that to the soap awards then? "No" he laughs, "I didn't keep the actual costume. I tried to but he wouldn't let me." Georgina Walker - vampish Jane Harper in the series - is up for Sexiest Female as well as Best Newcomer. At just 17, she laughs, "It's just very good make-up, very good lighting, very good angles.'

"Men tend to chat me up more now. They'll come up to me in clubs, and have seen me somewhere but aren't sure where. They'll say, 'Where do I know you from.' Are you ever tempted to say, 'Don't you recognise me? I'm Your Niece! She chuckles: "No". What happened to my birthday card! "I couldn't be that cruel."

A former model, Georgina had no aspirations to be an actress. "When I was younger, I wanted to be an archaeologist, but I didn't get my A-Levels so I couldn't carry on with that." Luckily, an interest in dried-up old bones prepared her for her role of having an affair with Joe McGann. Says Georgina: I didn't get teased by my friends but I remember watching him when I was growing up on The Upper Hand, and when they told me that was the person and they showed me the photo, I just went 'Oh My God' He's twice my age."

For a soap where anything can and does happen, it's not surprising to discover that both Lesley Joseph and Nick Schofield acquired their parts in less than normal circumstances. "I went to a psychic in Blackpool," says Lesley, ", Gypsy Petrilengo - when I was doing Annie on tour there. And she said: Oh you'll do soap next. And I said, a-ha-ha, sure I will ha ha ha. And then literally, at ten o' clock the next morning, my agent phoned me and said let me just run this by you, are you interested in doing a new soap? Now that was what was so strange."

Nick had a similar experience. "I got the agent and the part all within the same fortnight. It's a miracle." After leaving home at 16, he took on a series of low-paid jobs. "And then, I thought 'Oh sod, this. . So I just opened up Contacts, the book with all the agents and in it. Shut my eyes - this is absolutely true - opened up a page, put my finger on the middle of a page and thought 'Right, that's gonna be the one who's gonna do it for me.' It was in Bognor. This lady in Bogna'. I thought, 'Ooh Gawd'. Never mind, I gotta go with it. You know, 'cause I'm a bit superstitious. And I wrote to her, and she took me on without even meeting me. Just by looking at the photo."

With a theme tune sung by Kylie, the Vera Lynn of Generation Pecs, Night and Day couldn't fail to be gloriously camp. Lesley explains: "I'm cast as those slightly larger than life characters just because that's how people probably see me. That if you're thinking somebody who can push the boundaries a little bit, oh we'll get Lesley. So I think that's probably just how people see me."

Similarly, Seb was spotted at Liza Minelli's wedding. "When she was over here, we got chatting to her in a club and we had dinner with her as well. And we got invited over to the wedding." Why would she invite a complete stranger to her wedding? Was she drunk? "No, no, she's off that. She chain smokes loads though. She's ever-so-nice. Her and her husband."

Night and Day aside, Lesley Joseph will forever be preserved in our minds as ricocheting around a stage in a skimpy skirt, belting out Like a Virgin. When you're out, do people go 'Come on Lesley, do Madonna?' "Quite often, yes" she giggles, "Terrible thing is if I've had a drink, very often I do. I think I've done it in clubs throughout the country so far."

"I get letters from young men saying can I take you out to dinner all of the time" she reveals, Do you think they might be . . . well, gay men? I ask perhaps a little too pointedly. You have been revered as a gay icon? "Oh, have I?" she asks, bewildered. "No, I think it's because age is a state of mind. Sometimes I look at people who are dressed like my age, I think 'Oh God, that is so boring' So I'd rather wear tight jeans and tight sweaters and things. I used to go out in the Like a Virgin dress, I'm afraid. It's skimpy and it has sparkles all over it." Taxi, for Miss Mutton! "Oh, I know. I'm doing a make-over show tomorrow and I know the words mutton dressed as lamb are going to be thrown at me.'

But that's Mad, Drunken Old (But Lovely) Lesley for you. "I want to grow old completely disgracefully," she says. With the continued zaniness of Night of Day, you can't help but feel she'll get her chance.

[EricMontreal22]

Haha I think I'm becoming a bit obsessed with this show I hadn't though of in ages, all over again. Oh dear.

Here's the final ep's ending montage of clips from the show (I remember Jane, after the geisha episode was arrested for murder and she returned in the final ep 4 years later only to find out it was her ghost--I still have no clue waht that meant but.,..)

[EricMontreal22]

This soap popped back into my mind lately, because a friend overseas has started to digitize her episodes (she has nearly all 200+) and we hope to host them as torrents. I admit, I can't wait to revisit this bizarre, but oddly appealing (to me anyway) soap.

[DRW50]

Will they be on The Box?

I saw an episode of this. I think it was not long after the teenage girl disappeared and her friend's father was acting suspicious. I think this involved him going into another home to get something which might be a clue and then he had to hide in the closet and listen to the girl's parents having sex. I think that episode also had Lysette Anthony's character going out to a singles bar or something.

[EricMontreal22]

Ha that all sounds familiar. I'm not sure--I'm waiting for an invite to The Box, lol. It was a very odd show, I definitely see why it didn't catch on, but... (and I swear One Life to Live stole their ubiquitous male steam room scenes from Night and Day's far more camp scenes there)

LOVED Lesley Joseph as evil Aunt Rachel who oddly reminded me of a more malicious Dorian. You can see her here in the end, in Black, in the bizarre alternate reality wedding scene

[DRW50]

That's a great clip. Stuart Manning and Kevin Sacre were so young! Stuart looked better as he aged but Kevin was his cutest here. Hollyoaks snapped them up after this show went off the air. Lysette Anthony has also been on Hollyoaks.

I think the episode I saw also had one of those interminable "I need to lose my virginity" types of stories for one the teenage girls. And I think a black girl on the show was pining for some guy who was supposed to be out of her league? I can't remember. That also reminds me of OLTL.

[EricMontreal22]

Except Night and Day did such stories with a very odd sensibility (calling it camp is too easy) which made it less offensive than OLTL lol. There was a girl who had a thing for the mixed race guy (God I'm forgetting all the names) who always blacked out and coulda been the killer and was staying in the nunnery. LOL.

Right, I thougth both of them went immediately to Hollyoaks--would make sense, they defintely were the younger eye candy of the show.

[Ben]

You're talking about Josh (Seb Castang, who went on to Family Affairs), who Kate fancied; Frankie (the black girl) liked that white guy, who ended up becoming a porn star. Rachel revealed that she was a virgin, and persuaded Frankie and Kate to form a virgin army with her at the helm - they had all these bizarre fantasy sequences involving virgin fairies, and Frankie ended up being the most committed to the cause, while Rachel tried to seduce Danny (Bradley Walsh) after he allowed her move in with him. Something totally random and weird happened at the end, when Kate and Frankie ended up turning Frankie's dad into a robot, after he had an accident or something (I forget the details).

This show had some good actors, and I do wonder what happened to the ones who played Della and Natalie?

[EricMontreal22]

YES! too funny, as soon as I read your post, it all came back to me. I even remember the robot. It's odd, Night and Day is the type of soap that I shoulda detested, but maybe it was cuz of the tone of the piece, I found it utterly captivating.

And yeah, considering how low budget and rushed it apparently was (even compared to similar soaps), they had a pretty solid cast.