"Budgie" Out (TV Episode 1971) Poster

(TV Series)

(1971)

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7/10
Out
Prismark1021 June 2020
I first watched Budgie when the series was repeated in the early days of Channel 4.

It was basically a precursor to Minder as the audience follows the adventures of perennial thief Budgie Bird who has just been released from prison and his run ins with sleazy low life villain Charlie Endell.

Former pop idol and later to be a rubbish financial adviser, Adam Faith is the cheeky chappie lovable rogue Budgie.

Out of prison, Budgie returns to his long suffering girlfriend Hazel even though he also has a wife.

In the first episode Budgie spots an opportunity to steal a van carrying loads of perfume and the driver even leaves the van unlocked.

First he needs some money and he goes to see Charlie Endell. He gets a loan but Budgie also needs to be a minder to underage stripper Charity who is fond of a bag of crisps.

When Budgie returns the following week to steal the van, he gets involved in a mix up. The loot he steals spells trouble for Charlie from the vice squad.

There is an unsavoury earthy sordid feel to the show. Sex clubs, strip joints, hard men and low life.

Charity a chunky teen stripper who looks older than 15. Grogan the only Irishman without the gift of the blarney.

Adam Faith is very appealing as Budgie, although he is morally dubious. You sense from the first episode that despite his schemes, he is destined to be a loser.
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7/10
A solid start.
Sleepin_Dragon21 April 2024
Ronald Bird, aka Budgie is released from prison, keen to earn a score, he accepts a job from Charlie Endell, to look after Charity, an underage stripper, who's father is searching for her.

Talking Pictures does it once again, now that Network has gone, they really do fulfill such an important role. This is a series I would definitely have considered getting on dvd.

It's an enjoyable first episode, if they were aiming to make a series that had a distinctly seedy and grubby feel, then they nailed it, it feels like a world of vice, sex and sleaze.

The kind of show I assume that would have occupied a late night slot, I imagine many viewers today would think this show belongs in The Jurassic period, I'd say watch it, just mindful of when it was made.

Of course it's of its time, we have the fifteen year old entertainer, some racist dialogue, and some over the top individuals, the gay characters for example are all of the Larry Grayson variety, you just know they'll call everyone 'dear.'

7/10.
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10/10
Budgie takes off
ShadeGrenade5 December 2010
Warning: Spoilers
It is great that 'Charles Endell Esquire' has become a hit on 'You Tube' thirty one years after its I.T.V. debut. We can but hope that a D.V.D. release is on the cards for next year. But what of the show that started it all - 'Budgie'? The first episode - 'Out' - begins with Ronald 'Budgie' Bird ( the late Adam Faith ), small-time crook, newly released from an open prison. Given a lift by a van driver ( Budgie pretends to be a prison officer ), he notices the man has a habit of leaving the keys to his van in the ignition while he goes for dinner. He is carrying expensive perfumes, worth a lot on the open market. After reacquainting himself with his old girlfriend, model Hazel Fletcher ( Lynn Dalby ), Budgie borrows money from Soho strip club king Charlie Endell ( Iain Cuthbertson ). The ebullient Glaswegian has a job for his friend - to act as minder to Charity ( Adrienne Posta ), a 15 year stripper from Salford with a fondness for crisps ( excepting cheese and onion flavour ). With the girl in tow, Budgie plots to steal the van the next time it is outside the roadside café. Unfortunately, he has as an accomplice an Irishman named Grogan ( Rio Fanning ), who makes 'Father Dougal McGuire' of 'Father Ted' look like Professor Stephen Hawking. Thanks to Grogan's incompetence, Budgie steals the wrong van...

A terrific episode, boasting a script that crackles like a new five pound note and a cast perfectly equipped to do justice to it. It sets up a pattern that would become a familiar one in the weeks to come - Budgie plots a big scam only for it to go badly wrong. The van Budgie makes off with contains not perfumes, but pornographic books withdrawn from sale by the Vice Squad. Budgie cannot even sell them to Charlie as they have been banned, so he and Grogan make a bonfire on a cricket pitch. As the books burn, a strong wind blows the burning pages across a wide area. To make matters worse, the cricketers show up a day early.

Get this - steak and chips was 32 and a half new pence in 1971! That sum would not pay for a solitary chip now.

Posta makes a convincing 15 year old. The bubbly actress seemed to be everywhere around this time - from the film version of 'Up Pompeii' to the 'Lulu' show.

Funniest moment - Budgie has told Grogan to distract the driver while he makes off with the van. The man's favourite subject is capital punishment so Grogan introduces himself with the words: "Its a long time since they hanged anyone in this country, isn't it?" prompting a baffled look from the man.
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10/10
Budgie spreads his wings
Rabical-9111 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Recently for the first time in years I have decided to revisit this splendid Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall scripted LWT drama starring the late great Adam Faith as hapless petty criminal Ronald 'Budgie' Bird. After all these years, it was a pleasure watching it again. It had lost not one iota of it's appeal.

'Out' begins with recidivist Budgie being released from prison after serving a sentence for theft. No sooner than is he out that he is up to his old tricks. Whilst leaving a transport cafe, he notices a regular customer who works as a delivery driver has a habit of leaving his keys in the ignition whilst he has his meal. He puts his brain into action and plots a scam.

Needing somewhere to stay, he dosses at his downtrodden girlfriend Hazel's house. Needing money, he borrows £40 from Glaswegian villain Charles Endell, who owns a shady strip club as well as a dirty book shop. Endell lends him the money on the condition that Budgie looks after Charlie's underage stripper Charity, who has a voracious appetite. He uses Charity and friend and fellow crook Grogan ( who is about as bright as a blackout ) to help him steal the van from the transport cafe. However, because Grogan is too busy flirting with Charity ( which technically makes him a paedophile ), Budgie ends up stealing the wrong van, an unmarked police van no less...

Worse to come, Grogan runs off with Charlie's stripper. Charlie is fuming...

From day one, you know Budgie is destined to be nothing more than a pathetic loser. Budgie truly is an unredeemable character. He is greedy, selfish, two-faced and only looks after number one. He treats the women in his life like dirt. However thanks to his own incompetence things never go right. This wonderful opener got the series off to a cracking start. Though the relationship between Grogan and Charity would likely cause controversy now. Adrienne Posta plays the gluttonous Charity.
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