Ace Of Wands [Tarot] The Whole Theme Song
As my Going for Gold Singalong has been so sucessful here is one for Ace of Wands.
Ace of Wands was a fantasy-based British children’s television show on ITV between 1970 and 1972, created by Trevor Preston and Pamela Lonsdale and produced by Thames Television. The title, taken from the name of a Tarot card describes the principal character, called “Tarot” (played by Michael Mackenzie) who combined stage magic with supernatural powers. Tarot had a pet Owl named Ozymandias who was played by Fred The Owl.
Ace of Wands ran for two seasons of thirteen episodes and a third season of twenty. Many, if not all, of the first 26 episodes are believed to have been wiped, although the final season is intact. In the first two series Tarot was assisted by Sam Maxstead (Tony Selby), a reformed convict and Lillian Palmer known by her nickname, Lulli (Judy Loe) who was an orphan. Lulli shared a telepathic link with Tarot which enabled them to communicate over great distances. After they had to leave because of prior commitments, in the final series this pair were replaced by brother and sister Chas (Roy Holder) a photographer and Mikki (Petra Markham) a female journalist who played very similar roles, she also sharing a telepathic link with tarot. A character named Mr Sweet (Donald Layne-Smith) who ran an antiquarian book shop often had the answer to Tarot’s questions. Sweet was based in a University for the last series.
The most fascinating aspect about this programme is that it was quite daring for its time, an occult detective who used various magical powers to fight evil forces. Magical adviser for the series was Ali Bongo. The series was filmed at Thames Teddington Studios.
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24 comments
2206411411 on February 19, 2009 at 8:01 am
If you’re willing to watch DVDs on the computer, you can watch PAL recordings. Regional encoding can sometimes be a problem, but it’s possible to set a player to any region. This can cause problems with some DVD protection, though, and many DVD players only let you change region four or five times in total. But it is sometimes the only way to see the rare stuff that is only available in the one format.
2206411411 on February 20, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Sometimes lost copies are found in trash bins in Hong Kong (”Tomb of the Cybermen” - Doctor Who), people’s garages (Beatles interviews, Dad’s Army) and collector’s fairs (”Girl on the Trapeze” - The Avengers). There used to be a major campaign to find such recordings, run in part by the BBC, called “Missing, Presumed Wiped”. This found many, many missing reels of film and videotape that had been long thought lost forever (including moon landing footage), but is no longer apparently being run.
2206411411 on February 21, 2009 at 6:17 pm
There were many paranormal programs that really should have been either repeated, continued or otherwise made use, especially at the height of the X-Files popularity. This would be one of them. The only response I ever got to such queries from TV studios was that they were aware of the material. Yeah. Aware enough to ignore the many huge spikes in interest over the years. This was a great show with a sophistication well beyond programs aimed at the same age range today.
CanadianCockney on February 22, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Aww, man!!! Thanks, sooo much for posting this….I always thought the lyrics were ‘Tarot come tarot phenomena, tarot calls whenever he can….” What a great song, amazing titles and great hairstyles
Poltroon on February 22, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Michael McKenzie (Tarot) said that he’d have loved to have done a sequel with Tarot as an enigmatic vagrant. I’d've loved to have seen that!
gordonl on February 24, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Can I just add that I think Petra is/was an absolute doll…
1524091313 on February 26, 2009 at 3:46 am
Just seen Tarot in a BBC Scotland comedy called Dear Green Place….am saddened that the scriptwriters think his character is deserving of him being bullied by workers he is responsible for training.. not only depicting Glasgow council workers as having a poor work ethic…
prictishluvsboys on February 26, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Pictishbeast is clearly a kiddie fiddler. No one could possibly make so many statements on the subject without having a profound interest in it. I would put him at a Gary Glitter (Paul Gadd) risk level and to make it worse he claims to work with children. Watch his posts. A sick twisted sad old loser. If he was a dog he would have been shot10 years ago.
tanukidee on March 1, 2009 at 12:48 am
Sometimes lost copies of movies and TV shows are found in the Eastman House archives in Rochester, N.Y. U.S.A..
Laceykat66 on March 1, 2009 at 7:50 pm
And now it is gone!
What happened???
This was so popular.
Please repost it.
Master1Icy on March 1, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I really want to see this show! But as an American living in California it makes it kind of hard for me to use a PAL dvd set when all the dvds around are NTSC. Can someone upload some episodes from this show onto youtube?
leeshormones on March 2, 2009 at 8:13 am
The dvd is now out…………
panzerkw on March 3, 2009 at 9:55 am
Wow,I never thought I would hear that song again.I had forgotten how sophisticated the lyrics were for a kids progrmme.
shaunyMP72 on March 5, 2009 at 1:10 pm
sniggering.What al jazeera
kirochka on March 6, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I never imagined I’d hear this song again… I think I last heard it in 1972! (And I never, but never, knew what the words were!) Thanks!
wellohmeeeeeee on March 7, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Does anyone remember a single scene… from a 1968 - 1973 ish period, childrens series, which may be this one. A scene with a victorian bedroom, an elderly lady on a couch in foreground, and an inquisitive young girl looking into a tall glass case with a wedding dress, inside. She ignores the old ladys warning , ” not to open it ” and when the air gets inside , the dress falls into dust. The old lady collapses. Its NOT Dickens, possibly from, A Little Princess 1973….if anyone knows that ??
prictishluvsboys on March 8, 2009 at 1:18 am
Pictishbeast is clearly a kiddie fiddler. No one could possibly make so many statements on the subject without having a profound interest in it. I would put him at a Gary Glitter (Paul Gadd) risk level and to make it worse he claims to work with children. Watch his posts. A sick twisted sad old loser. If he was a dog he would have been shot10 years ago.
fibbafox on March 9, 2009 at 8:53 am
This theme, and HR Pufnstuff, are tunes that have bubbled up in my head for 37 years, though I’ve never heard them or seen the programmes since I watched them as a kid! Memory is an amazing, weird thing! AoW was such a cool programme, but can you imagine the ‘Religious Right’ allowing it to be made today? I recall an episode where Tarot was trapped, in his mind, in a deadly situation, and had to move his physical body just enough to indicate to his companions how to save him. Deep, or what?!
101111010010011 on March 10, 2009 at 3:40 pm
This and the Magpie theme tune were brilliant. I remember them well.Also liked the theme to H.R.Puffnstuff! Sad or what!!
soundzok on March 12, 2009 at 11:26 am
I’m with the last poster. How brilliant it was to see that again. And the theme is just wonderful. Time for an Ace of Wands 2!
Vinnymonster2 on March 13, 2009 at 10:32 am
Wow, take a nostalgia hit! This one really brings me back to my childhood.
One of my favourite programmes! Thank you SO much for posting it!
2206411411 on March 13, 2009 at 5:34 pm
It’s entirely possible. Overseas sales aren’t necessarily the only avenue, either. A first season episode of the 60’s The Avengers “Girl on the Trapeze” was recovered a couple of years back - despite official records claiming it had never been recorded. Some Beatles recordings that turned up in the past few weeks were kept by an engineer who worked for the company that broadcast them. Sapphire and Steel master tapes were found propping open a cupboard at Central TV. Anything could happen.
syoung33 on March 16, 2009 at 11:04 pm
I remember this program well, I was about 6 years old…. the Nightmare Gas episodes really freaked me out. Great theme tune… I always thought the lyrics were ‘Tarot come tarot phenomena, tarot come spositicat’ or some such thing.
Just ordered the dvd on Amazon. Cant believe they managed to wipe the first to series
LQUID8R on March 17, 2009 at 6:44 am
Ha Ha - me too - I always loved this theme song, and I thought it was banana man as well - didn’t actually make sense, but didn’t seem to matter. After 30 years of asking people if they remember this I can finally pouint them somehwere to find out what I’m talking about - and it still sounds groovy !!!