Tag: tv

January 11, 2011
I just caught the first episode of “Episodes”, the new BBC comedy. Produced by Hat Trick, and starring Green Wing’s Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan, it looked like the kind of thing I liked, about a British couple who, having created a hit British TV show, now in its fourth series, are lured to Los Angeles to remake their show for the US market.

[Spoilers follow]

July 25, 2010
I was very pleasantly surprised by Sherlock, the new contemporary retelling of Sherlock Holmes by Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Moffat seems to be fond of this kind of thing, having done much the same with Jekyll three years ago.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who memorably played a young Stephen Hawking a few years back, is brilliant in the lead part, while Martin Freeman managed to bring John Watson to life. Tremendous fun from the outset, and strangely true to the spirit of the original, I am looking forward to future episodes.

July 16, 2010
Perhaps because it is on BBC Three, I haven’t heard much chatter about Mongrels – sometimes it seems as if I am the only one watching it.

If you haven’t seen it, it is a puppet show for adults (adult topics and swearing) about the animals that live “behind the bins”. It is also very funny. We are currently half way through the first series of 8 episodes, but all episodes shown so far are available on iPlayer.

June 19, 2010
In 1987, BBC Scotland commissioned a 6 part series from artist and playwright, John Byrne. Originally he was asked if he would write for the series – his reply was that he would do so only if he could write all 6 episodes himself, he would turn in the scripts two at a time, as he wrote them, and he wanted and expected no feedback or comments on his script. Amazingly, BBC Scotland agreed, and so this masterpiece was born.

I remember seeing it when it was first broadcast on BBC1 – it was so popular that it was rebroadcast a few months later on BBC2. Then it disappeared fo 22 years. Apparently, due to an oversight, the BBC had properly obtained the rights to all the songs used in the drama, but not to a version of the title song used in one episode with slightly changed lyrics. As a result, the series was only released on DVD last year – I recently picked up a copy, and have watched it over the last week with great delight.

June 14, 2010
Thoroughly enjoyed this – won’t go into the plot, in case folk haven’t seen it yet, but once again there were half a dozen nicely crafted numbers.

I particularly liked the version of “To Sir With Love” – I haven’t heard that since Lulu sang it in the 60’s, and I thought it was rather apt.

May 22, 2010
I was a great fan of “Life on Mars”, but gave up on “Ashes to Ashes” very quickly. To my mind, whereas Philip Glenister’s Gene Hunt was an excellent supporting character and foil in LoM, promoting him to co-star altered the balance between drama and comedy for the worse (this is not a comment on Glenister or his acting, but the comic and caricaturic nature of his character).

However, now the final episode of AtA has aired – “which explains it all” – I was a little curious – not enought to watch the show, but sufficient to Google it.

Having done so, I have decided that I was right to pretend that the story ended with Series 2 of LoM, because if what I read is accurate, they just went and spoilt it.

Spoilers follow.

May 19, 2010
April 29, 2010
I loved Monday’s episode of Glee, especially Sue Syvester’s wonderful version of “Vogue” (showing that actress Jane Lynch has a pretty good voice).

However, I didn’t realise how accurately they had nailed it until I saw this comparison video on YouTube, which, if anything, makes the scene even funnier.

April 3, 2010
I’ve been poorly again, since my return from Manchester, a tickle that turned into a cough, that turned into a full chest infection, and I have been given another lot of antibiotics to take.

As I normally work from home, I carried on working until Thursday, when it became too much for me. I spent most of Thursday and much of Friday either asleep in bed or snoozing on the sofa, which is why, when it got to Friday evening, I wasn’t a bit tired. I mean, I went to bed, but I wasn’t sleeping, so I got up again.

March 16, 2010