Well, with last night's Whistle and I'll Come to You seen, I fear that's all of decent Christmas telly done with.
You'd think an old anorak would be looking forward to the Dr Who special.
I was, until I saw one of those dreadful composite pictures advertising it - which showed the ugly new Daleks.
Fingers crossed they won't be in it - it'd be a Christmas miracle!
P.S. They weren't - and nor were those stupid Santas which had become a 'Christmas tradition' - good effort all round.
Accused Again no comments
Posted at 11:10 PM in
Missed last week's. Missed this weeks - then discovered the repeat on BBC4. Marvelous!
Il'accuse* no comments
Posted at 11:48 PM in Christopher Eccleston, Cracker, Jimmy McGovern, Mackenzie Crook, The Accused
The Accused is proving to be an interesting journey, whether I decide I like it or not. Last weeks opener started rather slowly, but I swallowed my doubts and persevered - and was glad I did.
Christopher Eccleston starred as Billy (not to be confused with Roger Pack-Lloyd in Survivors): a man who, with the best of intentions, committed himself to spending a lot of money, only to have the rug pulled out from under him. Circumstances offered him a way out, with luck seemimgly on his side and so, understandably, he went for it. Then it all went pear-shaped, and he ended up in court with no support.
In a sense he was only guilty of human weakness in an awkward situation, but Eccleston played the character so deftly that I found that I didn't like him and couldn't sympathise. Fine impartial juror I'd be! (To be fair to the judicial system, the jurors don't get to know the defendant - probably just as well.)
This week's was trumpeted as starring Mackenzie Crook, so I was a bit surprised when the story centered around a pair of raw-recruit friends instead. The stories don't reveal what the accused is accused of, (which gave a surprise ending to last week) but it was increasingly obvious what the crime would be, but with a nice twist anyway.
McGovern (who previously worked with Eccleston on Cracker) has himself been accused of "selling out the British Army" with this story. I'm not convinced - the ideas that soldiers have a terrible job and people who kill for a living aren't always nice will only be a surprise to the totally näive.
And McKenzie Crook's seasoned soldier character, a pragmatist par excellence, whilst being more wholly horrible than Eccleston's, I find myself liking. Don't call me as a character witness, either . . .
* or whatever "J'accuse" is when someone else does it. Pardon my French.
Christopher Eccleston starred as Billy (not to be confused with Roger Pack-Lloyd in Survivors): a man who, with the best of intentions, committed himself to spending a lot of money, only to have the rug pulled out from under him. Circumstances offered him a way out, with luck seemimgly on his side and so, understandably, he went for it. Then it all went pear-shaped, and he ended up in court with no support.
In a sense he was only guilty of human weakness in an awkward situation, but Eccleston played the character so deftly that I found that I didn't like him and couldn't sympathise. Fine impartial juror I'd be! (To be fair to the judicial system, the jurors don't get to know the defendant - probably just as well.)
This week's was trumpeted as starring Mackenzie Crook, so I was a bit surprised when the story centered around a pair of raw-recruit friends instead. The stories don't reveal what the accused is accused of, (which gave a surprise ending to last week) but it was increasingly obvious what the crime would be, but with a nice twist anyway.
McGovern (who previously worked with Eccleston on Cracker) has himself been accused of "selling out the British Army" with this story. I'm not convinced - the ideas that soldiers have a terrible job and people who kill for a living aren't always nice will only be a surprise to the totally näive.
And McKenzie Crook's seasoned soldier character, a pragmatist par excellence, whilst being more wholly horrible than Eccleston's, I find myself liking. Don't call me as a character witness, either . . .
* or whatever "J'accuse" is when someone else does it. Pardon my French.
Ashes to Ashes Wednesday on Good Friday? no comments
Posted at 1:36 PM in Ashes to Ashes, Good Friday, Lost
Hmp, the new series of Ashes to Ashes starts on Good Friday, and presumably continues on Fridays.
Bad enough that I always have to watch Lost after the event, now a two-hour backlog every week!
Bad enough that I always have to watch Lost after the event, now a two-hour backlog every week!
Reggie Perrin Returns (again) no comments
Posted at 12:57 AM in
New series of Regginald Perrin has begun filming.
Well, the New Year got off to a faltering start, with a little help from the weather.
Survivors returnred with a bang, and a few dodgy plot points.
Bit of a weird co-incidence that the hospital exploded just as they visited, but them's the breaks. (OK so it was torched deliberately but the torchers didn't check too carefully for inhabitants, like the knife-wielder in the closet.)
So with Greg furiuosly flashing back in his gunshot induced delerium Anya and Al get trapped under the rubble, causing Sarah to sell herself for a trolly jack. I must admit I thought he said they'd need a dolly jack to shift concrete, which I assumed to be some special building-site device for lifting and moving large weights. Surely it would have been quicker and easier to find a trolly jack in a garage or the back of a van? Ah well, it did the job.
With barely a pause for R&R it's off to find Abby, who had just about escaped with help from her abductor's wife anyway. I'm sure she appreciated the lift home though.
Pulling it all together Greg recovered enough to chuck Tom out, more from his own iffy past than Tom's. Tom didn't go far but did manage to provoke the neighbours enough to spark retaliation. And then his first mistake: getting out of the truck without the gun long enough to get shanghaied. This compelled Anya to pick it up, demonstrating that you have to slacken your principles in order to survive.
Good to see Roger Lloyd Pack on the screen again as Billy - I last saw him on stage at the Theatre Royal in Windsor - even in this less-pleasant incarnation. Billy seemed nice enough, as a trucker would be in a world with almost no traffic, but having the right Land Rover spares to hand was a bit of a stretch.
Then Tom's second mistke: letting himself get caught so easily. The show trial was obviously going to have one outcome, but with a fistful of surprises. Greg did what could be seen as a betrayal, but for the right reasons, after Tom had given up his past ostensibly for the 'court', but really for Anya. And Samantha really had to blow her 'justice' story to get the verdict she wanted.
And it all turned out to be for a hidden reason: Dexter, who had shown the first public signs of moving to take over during the trial, was the real target. Previously he'd been a bit of a one-dimensional villain, in the process giving Tom enough reason to want to kill him anyway. But now he reveals some depth, although the Tai-Chi seemed a bit effete for him. Tidy-ish ending with Samantha selling Tom & Greg on to the next episode.
Trapped in a coal mine Tom didn't find Greg's coming back for him quite made up for judging him guilty in the first place. So Greg ending up with him achieved poetic justice at least!
As Al said to Najid, nothing screws up a plan like changing it. Good thought, but since Greg was in the middle of one plan, and Tom had started another, having Anya and Abby turn up left everything in turmoil. Three plans lucky as it happened. Tom's plan of 'turning up in a truck' kind of came off in that they all got away with new recruit Sally.
I can see that the freed miners were a bit ticked off, but in a world so low in resources would they really have smashed the place up in preference to hunting down their captors? Now the 'Family' (as the BBC dub them) have both the band of disgruntled miners and the disenfranchised 'stakeholders' to trip over in the wilds.
But it looks like Billy is going to trip over them first!
Despite the odd plot stretch I feel that this is an improvement on the first series, which seemed like a low-budget zombie movie with empty streets everywhere. Now some time has passed the people encountered have got past the initial shock and are establishing new patterns for their lives. Being drama it tends to focus more on the régimes like Smithson's coal mine than the ordinary people who lived near the hospital, and on Samantha's power-plays rather than the water purification plant (I'd like to have seen more!), but it is getting more interesting.
Survivors returnred with a bang, and a few dodgy plot points.
Bit of a weird co-incidence that the hospital exploded just as they visited, but them's the breaks. (OK so it was torched deliberately but the torchers didn't check too carefully for inhabitants, like the knife-wielder in the closet.)
So with Greg furiuosly flashing back in his gunshot induced delerium Anya and Al get trapped under the rubble, causing Sarah to sell herself for a trolly jack. I must admit I thought he said they'd need a dolly jack to shift concrete, which I assumed to be some special building-site device for lifting and moving large weights. Surely it would have been quicker and easier to find a trolly jack in a garage or the back of a van? Ah well, it did the job.
With barely a pause for R&R it's off to find Abby, who had just about escaped with help from her abductor's wife anyway. I'm sure she appreciated the lift home though.
Pulling it all together Greg recovered enough to chuck Tom out, more from his own iffy past than Tom's. Tom didn't go far but did manage to provoke the neighbours enough to spark retaliation. And then his first mistake: getting out of the truck without the gun long enough to get shanghaied. This compelled Anya to pick it up, demonstrating that you have to slacken your principles in order to survive.
Good to see Roger Lloyd Pack on the screen again as Billy - I last saw him on stage at the Theatre Royal in Windsor - even in this less-pleasant incarnation. Billy seemed nice enough, as a trucker would be in a world with almost no traffic, but having the right Land Rover spares to hand was a bit of a stretch.
Then Tom's second mistke: letting himself get caught so easily. The show trial was obviously going to have one outcome, but with a fistful of surprises. Greg did what could be seen as a betrayal, but for the right reasons, after Tom had given up his past ostensibly for the 'court', but really for Anya. And Samantha really had to blow her 'justice' story to get the verdict she wanted.
And it all turned out to be for a hidden reason: Dexter, who had shown the first public signs of moving to take over during the trial, was the real target. Previously he'd been a bit of a one-dimensional villain, in the process giving Tom enough reason to want to kill him anyway. But now he reveals some depth, although the Tai-Chi seemed a bit effete for him. Tidy-ish ending with Samantha selling Tom & Greg on to the next episode.
Trapped in a coal mine Tom didn't find Greg's coming back for him quite made up for judging him guilty in the first place. So Greg ending up with him achieved poetic justice at least!
As Al said to Najid, nothing screws up a plan like changing it. Good thought, but since Greg was in the middle of one plan, and Tom had started another, having Anya and Abby turn up left everything in turmoil. Three plans lucky as it happened. Tom's plan of 'turning up in a truck' kind of came off in that they all got away with new recruit Sally.
I can see that the freed miners were a bit ticked off, but in a world so low in resources would they really have smashed the place up in preference to hunting down their captors? Now the 'Family' (as the BBC dub them) have both the band of disgruntled miners and the disenfranchised 'stakeholders' to trip over in the wilds.
But it looks like Billy is going to trip over them first!
Despite the odd plot stretch I feel that this is an improvement on the first series, which seemed like a low-budget zombie movie with empty streets everywhere. Now some time has passed the people encountered have got past the initial shock and are establishing new patterns for their lives. Being drama it tends to focus more on the régimes like Smithson's coal mine than the ordinary people who lived near the hospital, and on Samantha's power-plays rather than the water purification plant (I'd like to have seen more!), but it is getting more interesting.
Happy New Year? no comments
Posted at 11:18 PM in Ashes to Ashes, Being Human, Demons, Life on Mars, Lost, Paradox, Survivors, Wallander
Well, it's all go from the start of 2010.
Being Human returns, clashing with the new Wallander on Sunday.
I like Wallander: a grumpy, middle-aged alcoholic Volvo driver. Don't know why.
Then Tuesday sees Survivors back, slightly to my surprise. Obviously it's too late to leave the original series to rest in peace, but why prolong the agony? Better to have spent the money making Day of the Triffids into a six part mini-series. John Duttine could have played Mason's dad. (I'm kidding, Brian Cox was excellent, as usual.) Perhaps they didn't want to look like they were just re-hashing an old program . . .
Seems, much like Paradox, that Survivors was made to be a two-series product, so we were going to get it come what may. Whatever happened to the creativity being left to writers and actors instead of marketers? John Simm said he didn't want to do more Life on Mars, so it ended brilliantly.
A triumph not repeated by Ashes to Ashes, which is being hauled out of the morgue for another airing. I can see the logic: keep making the retro 80's themed program as-is because sending yet another are-they-aren't-they-dying victim back a decade is really throwing remaining credibility out of the window.
Implication is that Gene Hunt won't survive, because they've "done all they can with the character" - which is no positive reason to kill him off. I could stomach a couple of Gene Hunt specials. Programs that is, not bent coppers. Phil Glennister could probably live with it more easily than being haunted by Demons. (Thumbs up to ITV for their hit-or-miss comissioning policy killing that turkey.)
All this and the vague threat of Last. Sorry, I meant the last series of Lost, by my reckoning series six. This sits uneasily with my memory of the producers (not The Producers) saying that they had "enough material for seven seasons". Perhaps it seemed like it at the time, but now they haven't got enough cast left for a five aside football match. Maybe we'll get a "Lost season of Lost" series to follow. Or "The Others" as a spin off - it's likely to be more popular than Joey.
Being Human returns, clashing with the new Wallander on Sunday.
I like Wallander: a grumpy, middle-aged alcoholic Volvo driver. Don't know why.
Then Tuesday sees Survivors back, slightly to my surprise. Obviously it's too late to leave the original series to rest in peace, but why prolong the agony? Better to have spent the money making Day of the Triffids into a six part mini-series. John Duttine could have played Mason's dad. (I'm kidding, Brian Cox was excellent, as usual.) Perhaps they didn't want to look like they were just re-hashing an old program . . .
Seems, much like Paradox, that Survivors was made to be a two-series product, so we were going to get it come what may. Whatever happened to the creativity being left to writers and actors instead of marketers? John Simm said he didn't want to do more Life on Mars, so it ended brilliantly.
A triumph not repeated by Ashes to Ashes, which is being hauled out of the morgue for another airing. I can see the logic: keep making the retro 80's themed program as-is because sending yet another are-they-aren't-they-dying victim back a decade is really throwing remaining credibility out of the window.
Implication is that Gene Hunt won't survive, because they've "done all they can with the character" - which is no positive reason to kill him off. I could stomach a couple of Gene Hunt specials. Programs that is, not bent coppers. Phil Glennister could probably live with it more easily than being haunted by Demons. (Thumbs up to ITV for their hit-or-miss comissioning policy killing that turkey.)
All this and the vague threat of Last. Sorry, I meant the last series of Lost, by my reckoning series six. This sits uneasily with my memory of the producers (not The Producers) saying that they had "enough material for seven seasons". Perhaps it seemed like it at the time, but now they haven't got enough cast left for a five aside football match. Maybe we'll get a "Lost season of Lost" series to follow. Or "The Others" as a spin off - it's likely to be more popular than Joey.
Paradox Lost. Really, this time. no comments
Posted at 11:09 PM in Paradox
The smell in my nostrils proved right; not so much a final episode as a herald for the next series.
Callum turned out willing to be bad in order to do good, with a frisson of doubt about whether the man he killed really was the killer he supposed. (No-one else seems to think so. The implication was there, but was it misleading? I've been very careful about this sort of thing since The Sixth Sense!)
Misleading was the name of the game, with the troublesome kid that Ben was too concerned about turning out to be a wannabe scientist. His misguided brother wasn't the conflagration we were expecting either; only Flint actually managed to shoot anybody.
Unfortunately it was Christian, giving us a nice little cliffhanger that will take a second series to justify or evade. Plus that little teaser in the lab, just to say that it wasn't all over yet . . .
Callum turned out willing to be bad in order to do good, with a frisson of doubt about whether the man he killed really was the killer he supposed. (No-one else seems to think so. The implication was there, but was it misleading? I've been very careful about this sort of thing since The Sixth Sense!)
Misleading was the name of the game, with the troublesome kid that Ben was too concerned about turning out to be a wannabe scientist. His misguided brother wasn't the conflagration we were expecting either; only Flint actually managed to shoot anybody.
Unfortunately it was Christian, giving us a nice little cliffhanger that will take a second series to justify or evade. Plus that little teaser in the lab, just to say that it wasn't all over yet . . .
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