feeling listless

TV Ten reasons why the first episode of Tipping the Velvet is one of the weirdest pieces of television this year

1: It looks and feels like a Sunday night ITV1 Catherine Cookson adaptation. With lesbians.
2: It's the same old rags to riches tale of a girl plucked from obscurity and put on stage. We've seen this a hundred times ('Showgirls' etc)
3: It was directed by Geoffrey Sax, who also directed Doctor Who: The TV Movie or 'the one with Paul McGann' - that featured a controversial kiss as well. He seems to have watched 'Moulin Rouge' a few times.
4: The oyster girl is a deadringer for Martine Mccutcheon. And she doesn't seem to know her special friend any better after a suppose six months working together than she did in the scene when they first met.
5: It was written by Andrew Davis. Who also wrote the sitcom 'Game On' as well as every other costume drama in the last decade. Including David Copperfield at Christmas.
6: Johnny Vegas? Alexi Sayle?
7: The rehearsal scenes looked like a montage from Pop Idol.
8: There isn't anything controversial about the sex scenes at all. Well not really. Well OK, a bit. But it depends whether you've see 'Bound' and stuff.
9: The characters all talk the way that characters always talk in things like this. As in not like we do. In real life.
10: You could see the cliffhanger coming a mile off. Another Doctor Who connection then.

Actually I sort of enjoyed the thing. But it did feel quite lazy, and I wonder what the budget was. Did the trip around London in the car have to look so much like the 'capital city' sequence from 'The Simpsons'? And couldn't they have re-dressed the theatre set a bit more -- but then I suppose most theatres end up looking the same inside... we'll see what happens in the next episode a week on Friday ... don't take time to show things on the same day and time or anything will you ...