Today’s media-related post requires a little bit of introduction.
Jane‘s Journal, Or the Diary of a Bright Young Thing was a pretty risque British comic strip in the thirties, designed by Norman Pett.
Basically, stories about an ingenue that would be shown as often as possible in her underwear.
The author used his wife as a model for the character.
But, with the Second World War, Jane took a more active role in the conflict, and was now based on Crystabel Leighton-Porter (who would later reprise the role, live, for a quite popular… strip show).
While she continued to shed her clothes at the minimum provocation, Jane also became a weapon in the British fight against the Nazis – in her strips, as she became an agent for the British secret services, and in real life, being considered quite good for the morale of the troops.
The series folded in 1959.
Fast forward 1982 when BBC, no less, produced two seasons of a Jane series based on the comic strip character – mantaining the whole risque/off-with-her-clothes thing, and playing the espionage/adventure angle to the hilt.
The second season was called Jane in the Desert.
The titular character was portrayed by former Blakes’s 7 star Glynis Barber – a beautiful lady indeed.
In what was at the time an experimental twist, the series was shot using early digital trickery – so that the scenes appeared to be pages from a comic book.
There was also a movie, shot in the mid-80s, and called Jane and the Lost City – but we’ll talk about that another time.
In the meantime…
I chanced upon Jane while searching for something completely different on YouTube.
But here’s an episode from that weird BBC series – it sure is… intriguing.