DVD Rock Follies - Series One (RC 2)

Six hours of musical theatre that paved the way for The Singing Detective, but otherwise had little influence on the way television uses music. Rock Follies' songs were story material and story commentary, delivered in the narrative reality or as fantasy asides. The theme -- the fortunes of a three-girl rock group -- was particularly suited to such an imaginative role for music in drama, but it's surprising that no other musical serials have taken the form further. Rock Follies blazed a dead-end trail ... but what a trail!
At the heart: the lyrics and script of Howard Shuman, a witty American playwright. The story arcs of the two Rock Follies series have predictable doses of cynicism about the music business, but Shuman sweetened these with humour and sympathetic characters. Shuman was later sued, along with Thames Television and the series producer Andrew Brown for developing Rock Follies without the participation of the girl group "Rock Bottom" and their manager, who'd originated the idea intending that they would star in the show. Of course, if they had, we'd have missed out on Charlotte Cornwell, Rula Lenska and Julie Covington as the Little Ladies. Since the two series of Rock Follies are really the only permanent reminders that Covington's uniquely nuanced vocal talent was coupled with fine acting and a rare stage charisma, it's a blessing the series was made as it was (and Rock Bottom, eventually, compensated). Covington's Dee dominates her scenes and the show. Lenska and Cornwell are required by the plot to be poorer singers - and they are. Lenska's character, Q, is facile and uninteresting in this series (but much better in the second), whereas Cornwell's Anna could (should) be the dramatic focus, but somehow doesn't gain our sympathies as a complex, developing, character, in the way that the relatively uncomplicated Dee does. The supporting characters -- noteably a Michael Palin lookalike journalist and a few funny commune-ists -- are stereotypes. Most speak awfully posh.

Andy MacKay of Roxy Music wrote the tunes, having fun with pastiches of Broadway Musicals, The Andrews Sisters and other genres. The best songs are those that combine Shuman's wry observations on the business with slow rock settings -- Rock Follies, On The Road.