Triangle (TV series)
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| Triangle | |
|---|---|
 Main title caption for the series |
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| Genre | Drama |
| Creator(s) | Bill Sellars |
| Starring | Kate O'Mara Larry Lamb Michael Craig |
| Country of origin | UK |
| No. of episodes | 78 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | 1981 – 1983 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
Triangle is a BBC television soap opera of the early 1980s, set aboard a North Sea ferry which sailed between Felixstowe, Rotterdam and Gothenburg, a route which forms a triangle.
Using a ferry as the setting for a television series originally looked like a promising idea. The regular cast, playing the crew, could be joined by a constantly-changing guest cast playing the passengers as the ship sailed to interesting European locations. What was more, thanks to portable cameras and recording equipment the show could actually be videotaped on board a real ferry boat for a fraction of the cost of using a studio for interiors.
Unfortunately the plan was revealed to be flawed almost as soon as shooting began. The weather refused to co-operate, making the exterior scenes look gloomy and dull and far from glamorous. In making the first episode Kate O'Mara had to endure a scene in which she sunbathes topless on a clearly freezing deck.
Another problem involved lighting. The cameras were perfectly comfortable with both natural and artificial lighting conditions, but a mixture of the two always produced unnatural-looking colour. This meant that interior scenes always had to be shot with the windows or portholes curtained - so that as far as the audience was concerned they might as well have been shot in a studio anyway.
The relatively new "electronic field production" (i.e. portable video) technology used for location footage in place of the traditional 16mm film also exhibited serious problems due (amongst other things) to the movement of the ship.
Unusually for an early evening soap opera on British television at that time the show was screened three times a week.
The final nail in the show's coffin was its scripts, which involved clichéd relationships and stilted dialogue.
The series ran for three seasons before being cancelled, but is still fondly remembered for its sheer awfulness. The cancellation led to a wide-reaching review of the BBC's early evening schedule that resulted in the commissioning of EastEnders.
In 1992, the BBC screened TV Hell, an evening of programming devoted to the worst television had to offer, and the first episode of Triangle was broadcast as part of the line-up.
