Sway with me.
The Weather I really don't know how windy it is out there, but the floor is moving more than I ever remember it doing before. The building often sways, but I can feel body move from left to right whilst my wrists are wresting on the table.
So cold.
Life Our hot water and heating broke down last night. We called the man out, and the man's friend in the call centre said he would be here this morning. We called this morning and it turned out the man hadn't been asked yet, but that he would be asked. He eventually arrived this evening. In a fit of doing it myself next time, I grabbed a note pad ready to write down what he did to get it working so that I could replicate it in the future. Once he'd left, here is what I wrote.
Notice I left lots of space after writing up the title for all of the really intricate instructions.
He played about with some knobs, twiddled with a switch then reached up and smacked it hard on the side. The hot water started working. He hit it again and the heating came back on. Something to do with a diaphram.
'So' I said, 'If it breaks down again I should just hit it?'
'Yes.' He replied. 'Although not too often otherwise the boiler will fall off the wall.'
He's ordered a new one.
Notice I left lots of space after writing up the title for all of the really intricate instructions.
He played about with some knobs, twiddled with a switch then reached up and smacked it hard on the side. The hot water started working. He hit it again and the heating came back on. Something to do with a diaphram.
'So' I said, 'If it breaks down again I should just hit it?'
'Yes.' He replied. 'Although not too often otherwise the boiler will fall off the wall.'
He's ordered a new one.
08 Paul Scofield
Hamlet played by Paul Scofield.
Directed by Howard Sackler.
What a chore. This is the first time I've begun writing about an audio production whilst I'm still listening to it simply because I don't want to spend more time even thinking about it than the duration. It's a shame, because it begins quite well with the atmospheric sound of waves as Horatio first hears of the ghostly reappearance of Hamlet Snr. The problem begins when Paul Scofield's Hamlet trots through. Scofield (who would later play the Ghost in Zeffirelli's film version) gives his performance in a declamatory style, reverential to the poetry. Almost every speech he gives happens almost as a broken whisper, in exactly the way I expected Shakespeare to be acted before I saw my first production, the BBC's 80s version of Measure for Measure (which I watched again the other day and continues to be the gold standard). I hope this show, recorded in 1963, isn't any school child's first exposure to the Bard because it could put them off for life.
Everyone else is speaking in a much more contemporary, fluid way and I might have imagined that two different productions had been edited together, Scofield dropped into something else where it not for the fact that whenever any of the big, famous speech arrives the rest of the cast have a habit of dropping into the same style; the directorial decision has no doubt been to emphasise these but it leads to moments, like the one that happens when Gertrude reveals Ophelia's suicide when there is an expectant pause as though the rest of the cast are waiting for the great moment. I understand that this was the rule in Shakespeare's day, and that often these things would be repeated for effect, but here it works against the drama. There's probably a really good production somewhere that makes a feature of expectant repetition but this isn't it.
The problem in this case with being reverential to the language is that it also reduces the pace of the story and draws it away from being the passionate discussion of the nature of humanity that I love. It is instead an exercise in presenting the words, and although those are great words, the drama is lost. The appearance of the Ghost, accompanied by the scratching of harp strings works quite well, but is quickly ruined because the actor playing Hamlet Snr, like Scofield, declares his way through it Churchill-like and the scene seems to continue forever sapping it of the shock and awe it really needs.
Perhaps I shouldn't be quite so harsh about the traditionalism -- this was recorded over forty years ago; it's just that I haven't yet heard a Polonius this daffy and old and lacking all the quite manipulation so evident in the text, particularly when he petitions Reynaldo. New King Claudius too doesn't come across as villainous enough; there is something to be said for his evil being obscured so that his crime is less likely to everyone, but he also needs to seem capable of his brother's murder and this Claudius really doesn't. This Horatio is very good, exhibiting some of the tragedy that this Hamlet lacks.
Neither of the women are particularly strong in this production. Ophelia is particularly naive and distant. Gertrude too, for once, sounds as though she was easily led by Claudius, and what for me is a key scene, whether Hamlet brings Gertude on the side of his cause after the death of Polonius is left entirely unclear. About the most affecting moments are when both allow the tragedy to wash over them and they simply descend into tears.
Inevitably, things are picking up towards the end. The Gravedigger's scene is lovely until Scofield puts on his big speech voice. One of the great features of the production is that this actually feels like a royal family, these are kings and queens and princes and princesses which is something many productions forget. The trumpets and orchestration between scenes help to emphasise this, although sometimes it isn't clear if they're supposed to be within the scene or just signaling the scene shift or both.
But in the best productions, there is a feeling as the duel descends of the end of an era, the break up the status quo. For me it's a but like thirteenth night, Christmas is over and the decorations are down and the feeling of comfort won't ever return. Hamlet's aware of this but soldiers on with all bravura, saying that he thinks he'll win, but secretly knowing that it can't go well. But that's missing here, with one of the most poignant speeches, 'The readiness is all...' whispered off musically. I've had enough. Fortinbras can't come quickly enough.
Links for 2007-01-07 [del.icio.us]
Beautifully photographed and scored, emotional courtroom drama about the discrimination of the Japanese in the US after Pearl Harbour hand strung by tricksy editing and flashback structure. Excellent performances though.
Graham was also asked to contribute to Off The Telly's Review 2006 and has posted the full text of his contributions here. Great stuff and I totally agree on Lead Balloon, The Real Hustle and obviously Dr Who. Careful of the '24' spoilers though.
In which I review tonight's excellent new Doctor Who episode 'Blood of the Daleks' part two.
I hope I'm not an introvert, but the definition sounds familiar...
Blood of the Daleks 2.
TV Unsurprisingly, this review contains a few spoilers so don't read it unless you've heard 'Blood of the Daleks' first. I'll just reassure you that once again, it's really, really good and you should go here and listen to it here if you haven't already or you're waiting for the cd.Who is the mysterious Mr. Halburt and what does he want with Lucie Miller?
Unlike the television versions, Doctor Who spin-offs have always been good at plot arcs. Whereas the Key To Time Season was handstrung by telling essentially the same story four or six times, in the first few seasons of the McGann audios, the problem of Charley Pollard become heart rendering and in the books the amnesiac Doctor, stuck on earth for nearly a century was a fertile ground for stories and mysteries and cultural investigation.
The arc in this new BBC7 series has begun. Lucie and The Doctor are very much stuck together by the timelords, he apparently hiding or protecting her after she's witnessed something unknown - that much was apparent from Part One. Now, a Mr. Halburt has engaged the services of someone called the Headhunter (played with a sinister professionalism by Big Finish stalwart Katarina Olsson), an apparent bounty hunter with the facility to travel all time and space, to find the reluctant companion.
It's all very mysterious, all very Lost, but unlike the Bad Wolf scenario were anything was possible and the reveal was inevitably going to be disappointing, this has very specific parameters, and turns this whole season into a chase and it's going to be really fun as the clues are revealed over the coming weeks as to what the Northerner saw, why the timelords want to hide her, and the connect with their antagonist.
But that's for the future. Tonight's concluding part of Blood of the Daleks was an eclectic mix of traditional and nu-Who, authentic enough to have the announcer give a recap beforehand (which if this had been television would have no doubt featured on-set photos of the cast looking at something far off) but with the contemporary spin on the Doctor's arch foes seen in the new series - they fly and say 'Elevate!' as they're doing so.
Hayleyatwell1 After the setting up of the world and the tragedy in the opening part, this was the Dalek heavy end of the story, with Nick Briggs doing over time on the ring modulator to create a cast of hundreds. Perhaps knowing that this story was to be heard by a much wider audience than something like the Dalek Empire stories, writer Steve Lyons concocted a straightforward meat and potatoes plot riffing on Genesis of the Daleks or Spare Parts, in which a proto-Davros, Martez (a chillingly clinical Hayley Atwell, pictured), living beyond his own execution in the body of one of his young female lab assistants was employing a crashed ship from Skaro to breed a new race using the inhabitants of his world, Red Rocket Rising, as fodder.
Unsurprisingly, the classic Daleks decided that these new boys weren't pure enough and set about trying to eradicate them, and in a twist I loved, the Doctor was helping them. Seems that he always regretted not using the right all of those centuries ago and wanted to nip this genesis in the bud, "I had chance like this before", he says, "and I chose not to take it. Big mistake." This was catharsis for him and it revealed a much darker streak in the Eighth Doctor than we've seen before (well since the whole Zagreus thing), deciding that it's a perfectly viable option to use one evil to destroy potentially an even greater one. Even after all these years, the Daleks still have the capacity to push buttons -- whenever they talked about racial purity, a chill went down my back.
If this had been made for television the result would have been Dalek porn, as the two factions went to war, with the tiny human colony jammed in the middle, their ravaged world becoming a shell. If last week the story resembled the BBC's Day of the Triffids, this had all the hallmarks of Spielberg's War of the Worlds with the Doctor and everyone else dodging in and out of buildings trying to escape the carnage. The atmospheric sound design here has a much greater depth than most Big Finish production, with one scene in which the Doctor and Lucie viewed the first meeting of the two factions from the top window of a building being particularly potent. The score too was far more apparent, with a lovely use of the strings to punctuate the catastrophe.
Daleks_3 Inevitably, comparisons can be made with the new television series, with the mass Dalek army flying through the air, despite apparently being the classic models according to the cd box of the first episode, probably looking exactly like similar scenes in Doomsday. The resolution too smacked of The Age of Steel, but the final end to the conflict, fittingly for audio, was more to do with the Doctor's persuasive powers rather than some massive explosion. The theme of parallel development was repeated here too. I remember wondering, watching that mid-second season two parter what it would be like if the Telos Cybermen actually ever fought the parallel Earth versions and I imagine the results would have been something like this - although given that the former frequently couldn't walk or shoot straight and took ages to build a bomb the contest might not have been as even handed as this.
In this month's Doctor Who Magazine, in reviewing the opening episode, Matt Michael noted that unlike Rose, there wasn't much time set aside for the listener to get a handle of Lucie, for us to love her. I'd dispute that this is actually too important, and that unlike Rose, we're seeing the adventure largely from the Doctor's point of view - she's actually part of whatever the problem he's dealing with. Lucie had less to do in this episode and yet she was still given that moment which all companions seem to have, when dealing with Tom Cardwell (whom I'd marked for death but turned into something of a heroic figure) and his explosive batteries, when they realise that whatever the Doctor is doing must be right and they should be doing everything they can to help him.
The reason I like her, apart from Sheridan Smith's delicious performance is that she's actually bringing out a new side to the Eighth Doctor. I'd love to know what the kids listening to this are making of this version a character, so huggable on screen, so aggravated on radio. I don't think he laughed for this entire fifty minutes except in mockery, and he's no doubt got a permanent scowl which says 'the timelords have bloody gone and done it to me again'. As I said last week, and I'll probably to continue to keep saying, the chemistry between the two actors and so characters is brilliant - it's like someone has taken Clarke Gable and Claudette Colbert's characters from Frank Capra's It Happened One Night and dropped them in a Tardis together. Sort of. The Doctor's less charming than Gable, but you get the idea. Screwball. As in comedy.
But what I really love about this is that it isn't afraid to drop in continuity references - it fits within the classic series more fluidly. In one exchange, the Doctor wonders if the Daleks were fighting the Movellans, the Mechanoids or each other and there's a lovely twist at the very end, in which Anita Dobson's vacant President Klint reveals that the woes of the Red Rock Rising aren't entirely over - some change from an arena in which just saying G-word is a major event. Only a fan though would also still be stressing about were in the Eighth Doctor's timeline this is set; according to the Gallifrey spin-off the Doctor was still in the divergent universe in the closing episode in which case the timelords are all but destroyed. In which case this might be happening before Storm Warning, but that doesn't seem right either. Any ideas?
Next Week: The Tardis lands for the first time properly in the year of my birth. Scary.
No more jingles.
Life Christmas is officially over for another year. The decorations are down and packed away, the Radio Times is in the paper bank and the Christmas tree is on the pile in Sefton Park waiting to be recycled. It's been a good year if mostly uneventful. So it's been a good year. Annually now I wonder if it will be last festive season when I'll be at home for the whole period or will be coming home at all. 2005 was particularly emotional for that reason -- I simply thought that I would be doing something else this year -- which is probably why this year I didn't apply too much significance to anything other than to be happy to see us all here and mostly healthy.
Links for 2007-01-06 [del.icio.us]
Political satire handstrung by languid pacing. That said, Chris Cooper is painful as the Bushalike and seeing people like Thora Birch and Tim Roth gives this a pleasing nineties indie vibe.
Creaky drawing room comedy from the dawn of the sound era directed by Cecil B. DeMille's brother William. It's disconcerting not to have music and for the location changes to flash up like a silent film instead of establishing shots.
"I broke my own rule. I started to give a fuck!" The political situation in Nigeria reduced to the level of a Die Hard style chase thriller. Works in those genre terms although fails entirely whenever it tries to add a deeper meaning.
The reveal on page five is a keeper. That sorts that one out then. So clever. So Joss.
Excellent review of a year in the life of the Sunday supplement. Basically says that style is great but there could be more substance to set it apart from the other glossies.
"I can openly admit that I did not see all 79 episodes of the original series, or 80 if you include the various versions of the pilot, but it was something we respected and did our best to lead up to." That explains a lot.
Mostly suggests that Hilary Clinton won't be president and that the Republicans are stronger than you think. Ends with a very bizarre turn of phrase.
And says lot's of nice things about it. Thank goodness for that.
As an antidote to the Economist article, a well reasons argument for why all of the popular candidates will lose in 2008.
'Each episode, he gets uglier. It's amazing.'
TV It isn't just some of us. The view from a livejournaler: "Okay, so much anger. This is why most of the time, I really rather hate Torchwood. I don't ... actively hate anything. I don't hate Torchwood, really, because I'm watching. It isn't really hate, & I can't be arsed to gather evidence so that it can morph into h8. I just get upset that it doesn't live up to its full potential."
Links for 2007-01-05 [del.icio.us] - Rmail
Many great things to look forward to -- can't wait to the new Sudley and the Josh Kirby exhibition!
Abby Lee tells the story of being outed by The Sunday Times. The email they sent her is awfully squalid -- particularly the bit about the photo shoot ...
In which I report on the return of a much loved brand.
"Oh, and Owen beats the Doctor out on looking like a rodent. I love him, but he's the ugliest thing I've seen in a long while. Each episode, he gets uglier. It's amazing."
(enough. enough now.)
Meme 1. What did you do in 2006 that you?d never done before?
Graduated.
2. Did you keep your new years? resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I did, and I did not that anything came of it as usual (falling in love if you must know). Being offline more. As you can see I'm really keeping to it.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
My Dad's brother-in-law on New Year's Eve.
5. What countries did you visit?
England.
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
A job.
7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Graduation day. Obvious reason.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Graduated. Also managed to save up enough money to buy this. I have odd priorities.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Really there isn't enough memory in Blogger's own hard disks.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I banged my thumb with a hammer the other day putting up a picture.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My coffee maker.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Film Four for going free to view.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Katie Holmes.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Dvds, predictably.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The final mark for my dissertation.
16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
'Feels like Heaven To Me' -- Madeleine Peyroux
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? Happier.
thinner or fatter? The same.
richer or poorer? Poorer.
18. What do you wish you?d done more of?
Reading.
19. What do you wish you?d done less of?
Doing nothing.
20. What was your favorite TV program?
Reruns of The West Wing.
21. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn?t dislike this time last year?
Tom Cruise.
22. What was the best book you read?
The Scarlett Empress by Paul Magrs.
23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Madeleine Peyroux, Diana Krall, that crowd.
24. What did you want and get?
New experiences.
26. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Russian Dolls to be honest.
27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 32. Went to Manchester (I think).
28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less travelling.
29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
White t-shirt and jeans. It's easy.
30. What kept you sane?
This blog.
31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Rosario Dawson. Although Sophia Myles did make me catch my breath.
32. What political issue stirred you the most?
Most of anything really. Can no one get this stuff right?
33. Who did you miss?
You. You know who you are.
34. Who was the best new person you met?
You too. You know who you are.
35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006?
Be yoself, no matter where you go.
36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"I say to myself
Self, why are you awake again? It's one a.m.
Standing with the fridge wide open, staring
Such a sight, florescent light
The stars are bright
Might make a wish, if I believed in that shit but
As it is, I might watch TV
Cause it's nice to see people more messed up than me
I say to myself, as I smile at the wall, just let myself fall
It's gonna be all right, no matter what they say
It's gonna be a good day, just wait and see
It's gonna be alright, cause I'm alright with me
It's gonna be, it's gonna be, it's gotta be"
-- 'Good Day' by Jewel Kilcher
[via]
Graduated.
2. Did you keep your new years? resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I did, and I did not that anything came of it as usual (falling in love if you must know). Being offline more. As you can see I'm really keeping to it.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
My Dad's brother-in-law on New Year's Eve.
5. What countries did you visit?
England.
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
A job.
7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Graduation day. Obvious reason.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Graduated. Also managed to save up enough money to buy this. I have odd priorities.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Really there isn't enough memory in Blogger's own hard disks.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I banged my thumb with a hammer the other day putting up a picture.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My coffee maker.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Film Four for going free to view.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Katie Holmes.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Dvds, predictably.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The final mark for my dissertation.
16. What song will always remind you of 2006?
'Feels like Heaven To Me' -- Madeleine Peyroux
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? Happier.
thinner or fatter? The same.
richer or poorer? Poorer.
18. What do you wish you?d done more of?
Reading.
19. What do you wish you?d done less of?
Doing nothing.
20. What was your favorite TV program?
Reruns of The West Wing.
21. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn?t dislike this time last year?
Tom Cruise.
22. What was the best book you read?
The Scarlett Empress by Paul Magrs.
23. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Madeleine Peyroux, Diana Krall, that crowd.
24. What did you want and get?
New experiences.
26. What was your favorite film of this year?
The Russian Dolls to be honest.
27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 32. Went to Manchester (I think).
28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less travelling.
29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
White t-shirt and jeans. It's easy.
30. What kept you sane?
This blog.
31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Rosario Dawson. Although Sophia Myles did make me catch my breath.
32. What political issue stirred you the most?
Most of anything really. Can no one get this stuff right?
33. Who did you miss?
You. You know who you are.
34. Who was the best new person you met?
You too. You know who you are.
35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006?
Be yoself, no matter where you go.
36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"I say to myself
Self, why are you awake again? It's one a.m.
Standing with the fridge wide open, staring
Such a sight, florescent light
The stars are bright
Might make a wish, if I believed in that shit but
As it is, I might watch TV
Cause it's nice to see people more messed up than me
I say to myself, as I smile at the wall, just let myself fall
It's gonna be all right, no matter what they say
It's gonna be a good day, just wait and see
It's gonna be alright, cause I'm alright with me
It's gonna be, it's gonna be, it's gotta be"
-- 'Good Day' by Jewel Kilcher
[via]
As Columbo would say ...
Review 2006 Just one more thing. Every year I post my predictions for the upcoming twelve months and look back to see how wrong I was the previous year.
Something shockingly surprising happens in Doctor Who which no one saw coming.
I think the arrival of Catherine Tate at the end of the series certainly qualifies. No one saw that coming. Torchwood not being very good runs a close second.
The US goes to war with another country without any international support, particularly the UK.
Not yet. They've been looking over Iran's shoulder a lot, but the Iraq situation just keeps getting worse and with the promise of even more US troops, I suspect they they don't want to stretch themselves, thank goodness.
A cheap usable text equivalent of the ipod will be released and will be wifi compatible giving access to the internet and texts, wherever whenever.
Not yet. Although wifi is certainly increasing in popularity. They're proposing a cloud over Liverpool.
The ban on smoking in public places will tip the habit into terminal, steady decline.
The ban is coming in July with beer gardens being converted throughout the land.
My life is going to change in a big way.
Well I graduated from my course. Still looking for a job though. But I'd sat that was a biggish change.
I'd say that was two out of five which is worse than last year, but then I did make the predictions fairly broad. For next year then, future version of me...
Bush forced to resign.
Blockbusters become less solvent. An increase in the popularity of art house type products. It'll be like the 1970s!
People will watch even less television in a pronounced way.
There will be a very unlikely celebrity marriage.
My life is going to change in a big way. Again.
Something shockingly surprising happens in Doctor Who which no one saw coming.
I think the arrival of Catherine Tate at the end of the series certainly qualifies. No one saw that coming. Torchwood not being very good runs a close second.
The US goes to war with another country without any international support, particularly the UK.
Not yet. They've been looking over Iran's shoulder a lot, but the Iraq situation just keeps getting worse and with the promise of even more US troops, I suspect they they don't want to stretch themselves, thank goodness.
A cheap usable text equivalent of the ipod will be released and will be wifi compatible giving access to the internet and texts, wherever whenever.
Not yet. Although wifi is certainly increasing in popularity. They're proposing a cloud over Liverpool.
The ban on smoking in public places will tip the habit into terminal, steady decline.
The ban is coming in July with beer gardens being converted throughout the land.
My life is going to change in a big way.
Well I graduated from my course. Still looking for a job though. But I'd sat that was a biggish change.
I'd say that was two out of five which is worse than last year, but then I did make the predictions fairly broad. For next year then, future version of me...
Bush forced to resign.
Blockbusters become less solvent. An increase in the popularity of art house type products. It'll be like the 1970s!
People will watch even less television in a pronounced way.
There will be a very unlikely celebrity marriage.
My life is going to change in a big way. Again.
“I can assure you this worked perfectly in rehearsal”
TV It’s somewhat exciting to see Tomorrow’s World being used to highlight BBC’s technology reporting at the top of a BBC press release. Despite the parodying of Look Around You and the messing about with the format in later years, I still think of it fondly as it was the cornerstone of my viewing when I was growing up and really did seem like a weekly window into the future. As this wikipedia entry shows, they were often really, really accurate. TV Cream has a history of the show, with pictures.
It’s a shame then that it isn’t to return as a weekly programme, but as a cross-platform brand on radio, online and of course television, predominantly in BBC News. Presumably whenever a new technology story is being presented, up will pop the familiar logo – whatever one that was – and perhaps that video of the baby swimming under water (which can be downloaded as a screensaver, complete with old rainbow BBC logo, here). To this day I’m convinced that was the inspiration for the Nirvana Nevermind album cover.
The pleasant surprise is that Maggie Philbin is being brought back into service as the face of the new version of the franchise, presenting the stories and “on hand to offer analysis and extra detail”. The presumed candidate would have been someone like Kate Humble or Adam Hart-Davies who presented the original show up to its cancellation in 2002. This does give the enterprise a bit of authority through seniority and after seeing Maggie on the Swap Shop nostalgia trip last week it’ll be nice to see her on television a bit more regularly again. Perhaps if this takes off, Judith Hann, Howard Stapleford and Phillipa Forrester will also be recalled into active duty.
Philbin’s first appearance will be on BBC Breakfast on Monday 8 January.
It’s a shame then that it isn’t to return as a weekly programme, but as a cross-platform brand on radio, online and of course television, predominantly in BBC News. Presumably whenever a new technology story is being presented, up will pop the familiar logo – whatever one that was – and perhaps that video of the baby swimming under water (which can be downloaded as a screensaver, complete with old rainbow BBC logo, here). To this day I’m convinced that was the inspiration for the Nirvana Nevermind album cover.
The pleasant surprise is that Maggie Philbin is being brought back into service as the face of the new version of the franchise, presenting the stories and “on hand to offer analysis and extra detail”. The presumed candidate would have been someone like Kate Humble or Adam Hart-Davies who presented the original show up to its cancellation in 2002. This does give the enterprise a bit of authority through seniority and after seeing Maggie on the Swap Shop nostalgia trip last week it’ll be nice to see her on television a bit more regularly again. Perhaps if this takes off, Judith Hann, Howard Stapleford and Phillipa Forrester will also be recalled into active duty.
Philbin’s first appearance will be on BBC Breakfast on Monday 8 January.
What more?
Review 2006 Gratefully, just before Christmas I was asked to contribute to Off The Telly's television review of 2006. Ian Jones has collected together the material and it's a peach of an article, filled with programmes I'd missed or forgotten about. I happened to go mad and write far more than could be used, so I've decided, to present the deleted scenes here. Sorry for any repeats. Let's just call them 'another chance to see' shall we?
One of the highlight's of the year was certainly BBC Four's Silent Cinema season and its keystone Paul Merton's Silent Clowns in which the comedian passionately reinvigorated the reputations of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy. Taking a deceptively analytical approach, Merton described the mechanics of jokes, the use of music, editing and timing, illuminating some forgotten masterpieces, interviewing such luminaries as Bond stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong and Python Terry Jones who were given space to share Merton's enthusiasm. Perhaps the biggest joy was that having explained why he loves each comedian, an example of their work was included within the body of the programme usually restored and always with a new sympathetic soundtrack from his collaborator, composer Neil Brand.
Another success from the BBC's documentary department was the excellent and educational Balderdash and Piffle. Ace poker player, columnist and daughter of Alan, Victoria Coren flounced with purpose about Oxford trying to convince the curmudgeonly keepers of the dictionary that the earlier appearance of Ska sent in by a viewer was better than the one they had. The clever inclusion of celebrities and others in mini-documentaries about each word doing things which we wouldn't ordinarily see them do meant that none of the shows were actually dull, the high point being the oddly poignant New Orleans visit by Jerry Hall recorded before the floods.
Simon Amstall has reinvigorated Never Mind The Buzzcocks with the kind of clever wit he brought to Popworld but with a much edgier tone in keeping with the later timeslot, demolishing television stalwarts such as Penny Smith and Bill Oddie left right and centre. The genius of sitting Lily Allen and Jamelia opposite one another, two of the bitchiest popstrells currently in the charts was magic.
Whilst some would suggest (including me) that this year's series of Doctor Who was less potent without the reliance on mythology it did bring the magnificent Steven Moffat penned episode The Girl In The Fireplace which, with its postmodern mix of outer space and historical settings was as good as the show has ever been. Sophia Myles as Madam de Pomadour pulled off the miracle of convincing us that The Doctor would fall in love with her so quickly, and Neil Gorton's production design on the creatures, particular in their bald clockwork state was breathtaking. David Tennant was another excellent choice to play the Doctor, bringing all of the brilliant madness the part requires and Billie Piper's Rose will really be missed.
Life of Mars came from nowhere and threw everyone of their step, most of all me as I realised that whole scenes were being filmed in and around Manchester University in places I was actually going for lectures.
Danny Wallace's humorous How To Start Your Own Country was in the end a particularly sobering account of the decisions a government has to take about its citizens. The premise was hardly stock - man decides to turn his flat into a private country - and cleverly, rather than presenting a chronological journey, Wallace tackled each theme in turn, often with surprising methodology, such as actually going to the UN and unsuccessfully seeking diplomatic status. The real innovation was the live show, Citizen TV, that appeared only to interactive viewers in which some of the themes of the preceding programme were discussed and Wallace's endeavor became a public phenomena culminating in a naming ceremony in Leicester Square giving Ian Lee, late of RI:SE his first presenting gig in ages.
And my surprise of the year ?
Not Going Out, the BBC One sitcom scripted by Lee Mack and Andrew Collins received some bizarrely mixed (pre)reviews from a couple of raves to notices which seem to have been written by people who don't like television period. I went in with an open mind and fingers crossed. And you know, given all that, I loved it. The premise is refreshingly simple. Lee and Kate share a flat, he's a bit of a bloke, she's a bit of an American and they both know this other bloke Tim, because he's Lee's friend and Kate's ex-boyfriend (he dumped her). And err... that's it. In an industry that increasingly relies on high-concepts, it's lovely to see a British sitcom that strips everything away to the important essentials -- the characters.
The performances were very fine too. Lee Mack and Tim Vine previously worked together in ITV's late night sketch comedy experiment The Sketch Show and presented real chemistry in the scenes in which their characters propped up the bar and reflected on their differing relationship with Kate. In the middle, majestic Megan Dodds in her first television sitcom role proves that her scene stealing turn in Spooks wasn't a blip. Her timing was excellent particularly in the aftermath of a water spillage. Sometimes sitcom acting can detour too far away from anything like realism, but here the work was perfectly measured and in places touchingly dramatic.
Across the six episodes it has to be said that some well worn storylines were trotted out, from the flatmates having to pretend to be a couple to the successful blind date but as with the best sitcoms this was sidestepped with some blisteringly good if traditional execution. I'm pleased to say that for the first time in some time, there waa British sitcom worth watching on a main channel that isn't by Ricky Gervais. Not Going Out somehow managed to straddle the mainstream and not so mainstream and I'm sure that the harsher reviews were too quick to dismiss it because of the supposedly unfashionable elements of a studio and multi-camera setup instead of taking pleasure in the script and performances. The best measure of any sitcom is whether it makes you laugh and I did, all the way through.
Hates
The Lost Gospels Now and then BBC Four has wobbles and late in the year, The Lost Gospels an exploration of the books that didn't make the bible was one of them. Presenter/Anglican priest Pete Owen Jones, a sub-Michael Wood figure aimlessly drifted across Europe using the kind of voice over filled with words but little actual content teasing the audience and all but winking his way through the salacious details. Despite being a BBC Religion commission it looked like something from a US cable station, forever repeating information for the benefit of non-existent advert breaks, endless montages featuring the same shot of the Pope every couple of minutes and all too dramatic music whenever some sliver of information was finally revealed after minutes of rhetorical questions such as 'So what was it about the Gospel of St. Thomas that the early church found so controversial?' Just tell us will you !?!
Never Mind The Full Stops was an exercise in how not to do a panel game with boring questions, guests who often looked bored and pissed off and a host in Julian Fellowes who must have looked great on paper but was completely unlikeable on screen. The trailer which contrived to make him look like a bullfrog through the magic of slow motion didn't really help either.
Disappointment of the year ?
Torchwood I was talking to an old college friend recently and we inevitably got onto the subject of Torchwood, a show she'd been eagerly anticipating but had unfortunately ended up missing because of work commitments. She had managed to catch the last half of the episode Small Worlds and had but this to say. 'John Barrowman can't act can he? He was quite good in Doctor Who but (sigh) he should stick to musical theatre'.
I was about to take John's corner but then thought - well, hold on, if the only thing she could think about is the probable leading man's acting ability, then there must really be something going horribly wrong. Torchwood is a show in trouble and its difficult to really understand quite what the production team are trying to achieve. If this wasn't a Doctor Who spin-off I would probably have stopped watching by now. It says a hell of a lot that I'm now looking forward to a new episode of Robin Hood more than this.
After the promise of the still brilliant opening episode the programme quickly descended into a disappointing mix of random characterization, clichéd storylines and annoying visuals. For every cool moment, such as a cyberwoman battling a pterodactyl there's some distractingly poor bit of dialogue or storytelling - including an astonishingly mawkish moment at the end of one episode when Barrowman had to deliver the line: 'A million shadows of human emotion - we've just got to live with them...' whilst standing on a roof looking out across Cardiff (again). Perhaps its biggest crime was to introduce an apparent group of ongoing guest characters -
Fundamentally the show lacks romance. With the word 'adult' fixed in their heads, Russell T Davies and his production team try and inject as much sex, violence and swearing as they can even when the story doesn't necessarily call for it. The premise appears to have been to tell the kinds of stories that Doctor Who can't when really they should develop from apparatus of the show. It was promised that Cardiff would be seen as one of the characters in the show, but apartment from endless shots of the ring-roads and Cardiff Bay and accents these stories could be happening anywhere, unlike Joss Whedon's Angel (which Davies himself has suggested for comparison) which was very much of its place and could not have been set anywhere else - New York for example.
One of the highlight's of the year was certainly BBC Four's Silent Cinema season and its keystone Paul Merton's Silent Clowns in which the comedian passionately reinvigorated the reputations of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy. Taking a deceptively analytical approach, Merton described the mechanics of jokes, the use of music, editing and timing, illuminating some forgotten masterpieces, interviewing such luminaries as Bond stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong and Python Terry Jones who were given space to share Merton's enthusiasm. Perhaps the biggest joy was that having explained why he loves each comedian, an example of their work was included within the body of the programme usually restored and always with a new sympathetic soundtrack from his collaborator, composer Neil Brand.
Another success from the BBC's documentary department was the excellent and educational Balderdash and Piffle. Ace poker player, columnist and daughter of Alan, Victoria Coren flounced with purpose about Oxford trying to convince the curmudgeonly keepers of the dictionary that the earlier appearance of Ska sent in by a viewer was better than the one they had. The clever inclusion of celebrities and others in mini-documentaries about each word doing things which we wouldn't ordinarily see them do meant that none of the shows were actually dull, the high point being the oddly poignant New Orleans visit by Jerry Hall recorded before the floods.
Simon Amstall has reinvigorated Never Mind The Buzzcocks with the kind of clever wit he brought to Popworld but with a much edgier tone in keeping with the later timeslot, demolishing television stalwarts such as Penny Smith and Bill Oddie left right and centre. The genius of sitting Lily Allen and Jamelia opposite one another, two of the bitchiest popstrells currently in the charts was magic.
Whilst some would suggest (including me) that this year's series of Doctor Who was less potent without the reliance on mythology it did bring the magnificent Steven Moffat penned episode The Girl In The Fireplace which, with its postmodern mix of outer space and historical settings was as good as the show has ever been. Sophia Myles as Madam de Pomadour pulled off the miracle of convincing us that The Doctor would fall in love with her so quickly, and Neil Gorton's production design on the creatures, particular in their bald clockwork state was breathtaking. David Tennant was another excellent choice to play the Doctor, bringing all of the brilliant madness the part requires and Billie Piper's Rose will really be missed.
Life of Mars came from nowhere and threw everyone of their step, most of all me as I realised that whole scenes were being filmed in and around Manchester University in places I was actually going for lectures.
Danny Wallace's humorous How To Start Your Own Country was in the end a particularly sobering account of the decisions a government has to take about its citizens. The premise was hardly stock - man decides to turn his flat into a private country - and cleverly, rather than presenting a chronological journey, Wallace tackled each theme in turn, often with surprising methodology, such as actually going to the UN and unsuccessfully seeking diplomatic status. The real innovation was the live show, Citizen TV, that appeared only to interactive viewers in which some of the themes of the preceding programme were discussed and Wallace's endeavor became a public phenomena culminating in a naming ceremony in Leicester Square giving Ian Lee, late of RI:SE his first presenting gig in ages.
And my surprise of the year ?
Not Going Out, the BBC One sitcom scripted by Lee Mack and Andrew Collins received some bizarrely mixed (pre)reviews from a couple of raves to notices which seem to have been written by people who don't like television period. I went in with an open mind and fingers crossed. And you know, given all that, I loved it. The premise is refreshingly simple. Lee and Kate share a flat, he's a bit of a bloke, she's a bit of an American and they both know this other bloke Tim, because he's Lee's friend and Kate's ex-boyfriend (he dumped her). And err... that's it. In an industry that increasingly relies on high-concepts, it's lovely to see a British sitcom that strips everything away to the important essentials -- the characters.
The performances were very fine too. Lee Mack and Tim Vine previously worked together in ITV's late night sketch comedy experiment The Sketch Show and presented real chemistry in the scenes in which their characters propped up the bar and reflected on their differing relationship with Kate. In the middle, majestic Megan Dodds in her first television sitcom role proves that her scene stealing turn in Spooks wasn't a blip. Her timing was excellent particularly in the aftermath of a water spillage. Sometimes sitcom acting can detour too far away from anything like realism, but here the work was perfectly measured and in places touchingly dramatic.
Across the six episodes it has to be said that some well worn storylines were trotted out, from the flatmates having to pretend to be a couple to the successful blind date but as with the best sitcoms this was sidestepped with some blisteringly good if traditional execution. I'm pleased to say that for the first time in some time, there waa British sitcom worth watching on a main channel that isn't by Ricky Gervais. Not Going Out somehow managed to straddle the mainstream and not so mainstream and I'm sure that the harsher reviews were too quick to dismiss it because of the supposedly unfashionable elements of a studio and multi-camera setup instead of taking pleasure in the script and performances. The best measure of any sitcom is whether it makes you laugh and I did, all the way through.
Hates
The Lost Gospels Now and then BBC Four has wobbles and late in the year, The Lost Gospels an exploration of the books that didn't make the bible was one of them. Presenter/Anglican priest Pete Owen Jones, a sub-Michael Wood figure aimlessly drifted across Europe using the kind of voice over filled with words but little actual content teasing the audience and all but winking his way through the salacious details. Despite being a BBC Religion commission it looked like something from a US cable station, forever repeating information for the benefit of non-existent advert breaks, endless montages featuring the same shot of the Pope every couple of minutes and all too dramatic music whenever some sliver of information was finally revealed after minutes of rhetorical questions such as 'So what was it about the Gospel of St. Thomas that the early church found so controversial?' Just tell us will you !?!
Never Mind The Full Stops was an exercise in how not to do a panel game with boring questions, guests who often looked bored and pissed off and a host in Julian Fellowes who must have looked great on paper but was completely unlikeable on screen. The trailer which contrived to make him look like a bullfrog through the magic of slow motion didn't really help either.
Disappointment of the year ?
Torchwood I was talking to an old college friend recently and we inevitably got onto the subject of Torchwood, a show she'd been eagerly anticipating but had unfortunately ended up missing because of work commitments. She had managed to catch the last half of the episode Small Worlds and had but this to say. 'John Barrowman can't act can he? He was quite good in Doctor Who but (sigh) he should stick to musical theatre'.
I was about to take John's corner but then thought - well, hold on, if the only thing she could think about is the probable leading man's acting ability, then there must really be something going horribly wrong. Torchwood is a show in trouble and its difficult to really understand quite what the production team are trying to achieve. If this wasn't a Doctor Who spin-off I would probably have stopped watching by now. It says a hell of a lot that I'm now looking forward to a new episode of Robin Hood more than this.
After the promise of the still brilliant opening episode the programme quickly descended into a disappointing mix of random characterization, clichéd storylines and annoying visuals. For every cool moment, such as a cyberwoman battling a pterodactyl there's some distractingly poor bit of dialogue or storytelling - including an astonishingly mawkish moment at the end of one episode when Barrowman had to deliver the line: 'A million shadows of human emotion - we've just got to live with them...' whilst standing on a roof looking out across Cardiff (again). Perhaps its biggest crime was to introduce an apparent group of ongoing guest characters -
Fundamentally the show lacks romance. With the word 'adult' fixed in their heads, Russell T Davies and his production team try and inject as much sex, violence and swearing as they can even when the story doesn't necessarily call for it. The premise appears to have been to tell the kinds of stories that Doctor Who can't when really they should develop from apparatus of the show. It was promised that Cardiff would be seen as one of the characters in the show, but apartment from endless shots of the ring-roads and Cardiff Bay and accents these stories could be happening anywhere, unlike Joss Whedon's Angel (which Davies himself has suggested for comparison) which was very much of its place and could not have been set anywhere else - New York for example.
Another one of these ...
Links Until I can get something sorted out, if you want to see the delicious links mixed in with everything else, you can tune your feedreader to the feed from FeedBurner.
Review 2006: Epilogue
Review of Review 2006
When I decided what I would be doing for Review 2006 this year I inevitably had no idea of the range and scope it would take or that in the end it would only sporadically actually be a review of the year 2006. Most days I would spend hours writing these pieces and the rest of the time would be spent thinking of answers. Some predictably came much more easily than others and required more research. I hadn't planned to write so many mini-essays and on reflection I perhaps should have set myself a word limit to save on the wildest excesses. But then, I think some of the best pieces are the longest.
I should also have expected that some of the questions would be quite personal, especially since for most of the time I'm not that open on the blog, certainly less prone to personal gossip than others. I know some of you were disappointed that I didn't go into even more detail sometimes, but since the algorithm at Google is getting really good at fishing out information, I wanted to save a few blushes (although one of these days I promise to tell you the story of my first kiss since I don't even know her name so can't even mention it).
I think it best to simply represent the questions with updated information and comments, a kind of annotation, including some catch up on what else might have been happening in life when I was posting these answers. One of the things I was very conscious of is that there's only so much text that people will read, and I'm surprised, pleased and blessed that there are people who have read everything and I hope enjoyed at least some of it.
Why can't Liverpool FC win away from home?
Google 'liverpool away form' and this post is right at the top. Meanwhile, their performance has improved.
Given that Casino Royale is in the cinema's at the moment - just how many girls has Bond been with? How many can you name (characters)?
I was given The Best of Bond compilation for Christmas which oddly doesn't put the songs in chronological order. It features Lulu's Man With A Golden Gun and Shirley Bassey's Moonraker which are catastrophic. I do have a soft spot though for Rita Coolidge's All Time High, although it's disappointing they couldn't have worked the film's title Octopussy in somewhere.
If you could have your own total fantasy life, what would it be like?
My coffee machine broke down and I had to go out and buy a new one. For the science that's attributed to the production of a cup of black coffee, outside of Starbucks I haven't tasted anything better than what's produced from this coffee filter machine that cost six pounds. Another christmas present was a set of coffee mugs in various sizes that when stacked together with their saucers show a complete picture of the Eiffel Tower. Amazing.
Whenever I think of doing something like a blog, I always worry that anything I write would either sound really pretentious or be very boring. How do you handle those fears and just write?
Writing Review 2007 has helped me enormously in terms of simple having to sit down and writie something. I'm not proud of every answer -- some could be tighter, others better structured but overall I'm glad that I did this. I'm still not sure what my voice is, although I really need to stop using the words 'although' and 'really' quite so much.
Throughout most of The Empire Strikes Back, the Millenium Falcon's hyperdrive is not working (should have gone to Kwik Fit!) so it can't travel faster than light! However, there is a point where they travel from the Anoat System to the Bespin system. Separate Star systems would never be less than a couple of light years apart (I presume!), i.e. at least two years travel even if they could attain just a tiny bit less than light speed! It clearly doesn't take them this long, so is it some sort of 'worm-hole' or curved universe phenomena that they utilise to accomplish their trip? I simply must know! :) Thank you!
I thought of another possibility. Temporal anomaly. See a hundred episodes of Star Trek.
You might have covered this before, but, why Stuart *Ian* Burns - and not just Stuart Burns? And, if I can squeeze in another related to that, how do you feel about people who spell it "Stewart"?
Sure enough, my MA degree certificate says 'Stuart Ian Burns'. Still seems right somehow.
I only thought of this last night, but I'd be interested to read your musings on the adverts shown on the programmes you watch a lot. There is a point. They must be aimed at a certain type of audience, the people they expect to be watching, but they're often wildly off. What's sort of person do they think you are, and what can be the logic behind those decisions?
I was watching a video recording of Queen Christina, the Greta Garbo film, recorded from Channel 4 in the late nineties. One of the adverts I remembered seeing before was for Super Noodles -- you might know the one -- were a Dad is eating noodles and uses a shirt to wipe his mouth and then discovers its the one his wife was going out in so he blames it on the young child who is sitting on the couch. Camera changes angle and it's Martin Freeman, looking oh so young.
Have you ever found the one true love in your life, but not been in a position to do anything about it, for whatever reason?
An anonymous commenter said something rather beautiful about this: "It's all about timing. even if you do find the right person, it has to be the right time or else, it just isn't going to happen, or you try to make it happen and it ends up messing everything up. Good thing you're in the film making business because there are billions of falling in and out of love stories and we all think our own is something special and unique because it was. to us."
Why do people say "cheap at half the price" when they mean the full price is also, well, cheap? Makes no sense to me!"
It's funny how I was able later to come up with a more logical argument for science over religion than this.
Of all the trivia that you've blogged or read over the years, which bit sticks in your mind the most, and why?
Despite what I said above, I'm going to start drinking more water again. Too much coffee is making me quint and my hands are shaking.
What's the major problem with Torchwood and can Russell T Davies fix it or is it a lost cause? Can a showrunner really run two shows at once?
This was probably the most popular post of the Review and is still being linked on blogs and discussion boards, including this Danish usenet board were they roundly criticised it (I think - I was translating using Babel Fish). Torchwood didn't improve, and now with The Sarah Jane Adventures there are three shows on the slate. Good luck Russell.
What one question, if asked, would you be most inclined to answer with a lie - and why?
Resolved not to simply say ok and ask genuine questions. I did bump into someone out shopping on Christmas Eve had a whole conversation with them and have absolutely no idea who they were even though they seemed to know a hell of a lot about me. It wasn't one of you was it? I felt awful.
I've kindly been given a subscription to LoveFilm and while I have a few things I'd like to see I want to make the most of the opportunity and see films I wouldn't otherwise. I have a largely uneducated interest in foreign film, particularly French and Italian - any recommendations? No horror please, just interesting and beautiful films you think are worth watching.
Horrifying lack of foreign cinema on tv over Christmas, even on BBC Four. There was a horrifying lack of any art house films at all in Freeview land. Sky Cinema and TCM seem to have the rights sewn up.
What do you feel provides the human race with answers, closest to the truth, Science or Religion?
When I went to Birmingham for the job interview, I visited St. Martin's Church near The Bullring. It's a lovely building and despite everything I said in this post, I still felt a tremor and not a little bit humbled. If that happens I know that I can't simply call myself an aethist. That too seems simplistic. When I told my mum, she said that I was a Questioner, which sounds like a nice substitute for the now appropriated by someone else Non-denominational Spiritualist. I was happy to see that Gia agreed with me, and someone else left some useful supporting material in this comment. I have some very smart readers.
What are you most afraid of and why? What have you done to overcome your fears?
I began applying for a job earlier and on the pull down menu at the site I was able to select Merit. Outstanding. When my graduation photo arrived, it didn't half look bad. I should have worn a different tie.
Can you explain the appeal of Keira Knightley?
Coming up next after the next (hopefully last) Pirates of the Caribbean film, Knightley is back in a frock for Silk, "A dark love story about a French silkworm merchant who travels to Japan and begins having an affair with a Nobleman's concubine, leaving his faithful wife alone in war-torn France." [imdb] which raised the spectre of an outrageous French accent, Atonement the next film from Joe Wright who directed Pride and Prejudice, based on the Ian McKewan novel and The Best Time of Our Lives from John Maybury, director of The Jacket -- "Two feisty, free-spirited women are connected by the brilliant, charismatic poet who loves them both." Rumour has it the other feisty, free-spirited woman is Lindsay Lohan which seems like type-casting to me ...
What's the next new thing that's being talked as something that's going to 'revolutionize' our lives in say 6 - 10 years time? It can be in any sphere you like.
Didn't snow on Christmas Day and it was the wind what led to the postponing of the fireworks at New Year.
Now that it's all done and dusted, what sequence would you recommend watching the six Stars Wars films? Although I've tried, I still can't watch them in I,II,III,IV etc order ...
Apparently just days before The Phantom Menace was due to be lensed, George Lucas rang Steven Spielberg and begged for him to take over the directing of the film. He declined. Shame. He ended up doing the animatic for the lightsaber battle in the lava at the end of Sith which is probably one of the best things in any of the films.
Next Saturday, I'll be back in Liverpool for the day, with my girlfriend. One of the reasons for the visit is so that she can get a better feel for the city because we're thinking of moving there. So, can you tell me where the hidden cool and interesting bits of Liverpool are?
Brilliantly, Adrian has written about what happened that day: "Leaving Paddy's Wigwam led us naturally along Hope Street, past the Everyman and the Phil(harmonic Hall). We'd timed it so that we could stop around here for lunch, and The Quarter restaurant proved an excellent recommendation. Thanks Stuart. The food was lovely; service was superb; and we even bought one of the artworks on display on the walls." My pleasure. In an email, Adrian says that coincidentally he got the Pevsner guide for Christmas too.
Who's your favourite and least favourite Doctor, and companion?
The new BBC7 series with Paul McGann certainly vindicated my choice -- he was better than ever. Doctor Who Magazine's review section described it as 'Essential' which from their reviewer Matt Michael who never seem to be impressed with anything is high praise indeed. The dramas can be heard every Sunday at 6pm and midnight and is on listen again here. If you hurry, you'll be able to hear the first episode. New companion Lucie was good, but I've still got a soft spot for Charlie...
Have you ever had any kind of casual/one of experience with a member of the same sex? Even if just a suppressed crush on an actor or musician etc?
Jess wondered: "Do you think perhaps he might have been a bit tipsy, rather than trying to chat you up?" Yes! Watching Queen Christana, and the scene were Garbo feels her way around the inn room so that she can remember it, I resolved to see every other film she ever made.
People say money can't buy you happiness. I find this an over simplification of a complicated argument. What is your point of view?
I found a ten pound note in my wallet I didn't know I had. That made me happy.
What is the significance of the Wolf in American Indian teachings?
Questioner Alan left his own succinct answer in the comments: "Wolves symbolize family, teaching, co-operation, insight, stealth, strength, leadership, loyalty, freedom, individuality, psychic energy connected to the moon (hidden wisdom), sharing knowledge and wisdom, cunning, hunting, seeking, introspection, listening, magick, dreams, They are connection to the moon and to Wepwawet, Zeus Lycaeus, Apollo, Ares, Mars, Silvanus, Cernunnos and Odhinn." Thanks Alan.
What are your views on the pedestrianisation of Norwich city centre?
When I passing up Church Street in Liverpool just before Christmas I heard a busker outside HMV singing the theme tune to 'Cheers' -- 'Sometimes you wanna go - were everybody knows your name ...' I had to give him some pennies. If there'd been a road and traffic, I might not have heard him.
What is your favorite film and why?
My main present this year, the back issues of Movie magazine are proving to be amazing. Today I was reading all kinds of insights into the transition from silent to sound. For example, the really smart actors and actresses left Hollywood for a few months during the transition and returned to the stage, sometimes to tiny roles, so that they could retrain and discipline their accents so that it would be legible or deamable as acceptible on screen. They were brought back into the fold with open arms. Many of those who decided to stick it out or decided they were too famous and untouchable found themselves getting less and less work because the sound of their voice wasn't what people were looking for.
Which bit of trivia about you would you like to be remembered by?
Number thirteen.
BBC4 have just given you carte blanche to create your own TV evening from 7pm-2am. What do you show and why?
Oddly enough Measure for Measure was featured in the documentary Lenny and Will over Christmas. You can hear it here (link opens BBC Radio Player).
Do you think any of the cultural stereotypes about English people are true?
In the comments, Probitionate suggests a few more: "1) Fabulous, endemic sense of humour. (This is creeping into my 'insights' list, but really; you guys know how to laugh. Any nation that has panto is on the right-track Life-outlookwise, in my book.) 2) Despite being 'prudish' (a distinctly 'class-oriented' stereotype), a ribald sense of the sexual. (Benny Hill and Page 3 birds) 3) Especially when there's beer involved...gregariously, heart-warmingly friendly. (Ask me -insights-wise? about two of the most endearing qualities connected to this, wrapped-up in language.)"
Why is Doctor Who so disappointing all of a sudden? Is it down to age?
Inevitably in Doctor Who Magzine, Russell T Davies mentions some of the destinations in the next series and they include the far-flung planet, Malcassairo and a world set thousands of light years away. Along, at least, with visits to 1930s New York and Elizabethen London, this looks like the most ambitious season yet.
Would you stop writing your blog if your stats told you there were 0 readers?
Still here. Still writing. Still looking at the stats.
Which famous 5 people, dead or alive, would you invite to a dinner party. What would you eat/drink? What entertainment would you lay on for the 6 of you afterwards?
Madeleine Peyroux did a turn on Jool's Holland's Hootenanny 2006, prerecorded for New Year's Eve. She looked ... uncomfortable and didn't sound right. She pitched womanfully on, and then gave a look at the end which showed she wasn't happy with her performance either. I think it was something to do with sound feedback because she had her finger in her ear through most of it. Still, at least we could hear her. Look what happened to Sophie Ellis Bextor on the other side...
This has once again been a wonderful experience and certainly the biggest challenge yet. Don't forget it's your turn next year and I already have a couple of ideas, one of which will begin extra specially early. I'll let you know ...
Dead monitor
Life My old computer monitor died. It was eight years old. I bought it with my first computer system and it's worked perfectly well since. Last night as I was tapping away on the Review 2006 epilogue, the vertical hold finally gave up the ghost. Luckily, an Uncle had a spare one I could borrow and here I am again. It's a bit larger which is very disconcerting. Speak to anyone whose expecting to be spoken to later ...
Delicious
Links For some reason my Delicious links aren't being fed into Blogger lately. You can see what you've been missing here, and the rss feed is here.
Outstanding.
Television Unlike the rest of the population apparently, I actually watched the first series of This Life when it was originally broadcast (I'd loved the ad campaign featuring clips from the show) but didn't enjoy the second series quite as much. As Miles metafictionally noted during an interview in the +10 episode broadcast tonight, I just didn't think it was the same after Warren left so abruptly. So I was able to watch the reunion half with a nostalgia for the time of that broadcast and just some affection for the characters. And despite the reservations I voiced here, it was, as Warren might say, outstanding.
Perhaps deliberately using a model borrowed from The Return of the Sacarcus Seven, The Big Chill and Peter's Friends, Amy Jenkins fluid and florid script brought the characters together for a reunion in a very big house in the country after they reunited at the funeral of Ferdy, Warren's boyfriend who was a regular later on in the original series. This was an extremely good idea because it largely allowed the rekindling of what were always the most memorable of scene in the original series as the characters pottered about the house they shared.
Incredibly director Joe Aherne recreated the magic of the original although the camera work seemed a little less chaotic, perhaps because as Jack Davenport (Miles) noted in the 'making of' that followed the show, they were more aware of were the camera was going to be and could make sure their performance would show. Some of the lighting design was precise too, a barbeque in the grounds of the house looking like something from a Stephen Polikoff drama. The performances too were uniformally excellent and it's a credit to all the actors that despite having some really prominent other roles in the meantime that it took mere minutes for me to think of them as Egg, Milly, Miles, Warren and Anna again. I wasn't sure about Miles' wig though, that seemed wrong.
Rather than taking the easy option of simply building the story around explaining what has happened to the characters in the intervening years, that was largely dealt with in the first few minutes - Miles is in the stockmarket, the house is his and he's married to a Vietnamese wife; Anna's the only character whose still a lawyer but feels her biological clock ticking wanting children without having to deal with a man; Egg is a successful novelist but Milly has given up her career to look after the children and Warren is a life coach who still doesn't feel part of the group and can't understand why Miles hates him.
This was about the how and why rather than the what and like aforementioned films that inspired this, there wasn't anything too dramatic, not a lot of plot to speak of. Just lots of talking, lots of really great dialogue and a real warmth, a chemistry which shows that the actors themselves had much the same reunion experience making the show as the characters themselves. This led to a Before Sunset vibe in which you wondered just how much of the acting was actually acting (helped somewhat by the fact that like Ethan Hawkes' character Jesse in that film, Egg had written a book about his past experiences that mirrored just the thing that was being sequelled). The real success though was that it worked as its own internal drama -- seeing the original series would probably embellish the experience but this worked perfectly well as a stand alone piece.
This wasn't a continuity fest - quite rightly after ten years, the stories of the past weren't really referred to directly, no stirring up of the Dililah incident or Milly's dalliance with O'Donnell. Most of the unanswered questions from the cliffhanger ending of the series were apparently ignored, the viewer being left to fill in the blanks or able to retain the ideas they'd already been having all these years. It was a shame though that we didn't find out more about the significant secondary characters like Warren's sister Kira, Anna's work mate Jo and Miles's once fiance Rachel. But the creative decision here was to stick with the original five and it was probably the right one.
Which isn't to say that the old enmities and dalliances weren't repeated; these were certainly the characters we once knew. They had changed fairly logically to continue what the classic series did best - using this small group of characters to talk about what was happening to the rest of their generation. Poetically for example, Miles had realised that to get Anna he had to emasculate himself, financially and emotionally but still that wasn't enough - she chose Warren to help her with her baby. Similarly, Milly was experiencing a loss of identity in the face of motherhood.
Like Before Sunset this didn't really end on too much of a resolution. Milly and Egg were apparently back together, Warren had agreed to help Anna with her baby and Miles was disappearing off around the world. But it still didn't feel like the lives of the characters had somehow resolved. I for one would welcome a Will & Grace style spin-off featuring Warren and Anna or seeing what Miles found on his travels. But in that 'making of', all of the actors seemed to feel like this was a full stop rather than another comma, the end of the end. But I really think some of them had a glint in their eye. Give it ten years and perhaps +20 will be on our screens.
Perhaps deliberately using a model borrowed from The Return of the Sacarcus Seven, The Big Chill and Peter's Friends, Amy Jenkins fluid and florid script brought the characters together for a reunion in a very big house in the country after they reunited at the funeral of Ferdy, Warren's boyfriend who was a regular later on in the original series. This was an extremely good idea because it largely allowed the rekindling of what were always the most memorable of scene in the original series as the characters pottered about the house they shared.
Incredibly director Joe Aherne recreated the magic of the original although the camera work seemed a little less chaotic, perhaps because as Jack Davenport (Miles) noted in the 'making of' that followed the show, they were more aware of were the camera was going to be and could make sure their performance would show. Some of the lighting design was precise too, a barbeque in the grounds of the house looking like something from a Stephen Polikoff drama. The performances too were uniformally excellent and it's a credit to all the actors that despite having some really prominent other roles in the meantime that it took mere minutes for me to think of them as Egg, Milly, Miles, Warren and Anna again. I wasn't sure about Miles' wig though, that seemed wrong.
Rather than taking the easy option of simply building the story around explaining what has happened to the characters in the intervening years, that was largely dealt with in the first few minutes - Miles is in the stockmarket, the house is his and he's married to a Vietnamese wife; Anna's the only character whose still a lawyer but feels her biological clock ticking wanting children without having to deal with a man; Egg is a successful novelist but Milly has given up her career to look after the children and Warren is a life coach who still doesn't feel part of the group and can't understand why Miles hates him.
This was about the how and why rather than the what and like aforementioned films that inspired this, there wasn't anything too dramatic, not a lot of plot to speak of. Just lots of talking, lots of really great dialogue and a real warmth, a chemistry which shows that the actors themselves had much the same reunion experience making the show as the characters themselves. This led to a Before Sunset vibe in which you wondered just how much of the acting was actually acting (helped somewhat by the fact that like Ethan Hawkes' character Jesse in that film, Egg had written a book about his past experiences that mirrored just the thing that was being sequelled). The real success though was that it worked as its own internal drama -- seeing the original series would probably embellish the experience but this worked perfectly well as a stand alone piece.
This wasn't a continuity fest - quite rightly after ten years, the stories of the past weren't really referred to directly, no stirring up of the Dililah incident or Milly's dalliance with O'Donnell. Most of the unanswered questions from the cliffhanger ending of the series were apparently ignored, the viewer being left to fill in the blanks or able to retain the ideas they'd already been having all these years. It was a shame though that we didn't find out more about the significant secondary characters like Warren's sister Kira, Anna's work mate Jo and Miles's once fiance Rachel. But the creative decision here was to stick with the original five and it was probably the right one.
Which isn't to say that the old enmities and dalliances weren't repeated; these were certainly the characters we once knew. They had changed fairly logically to continue what the classic series did best - using this small group of characters to talk about what was happening to the rest of their generation. Poetically for example, Miles had realised that to get Anna he had to emasculate himself, financially and emotionally but still that wasn't enough - she chose Warren to help her with her baby. Similarly, Milly was experiencing a loss of identity in the face of motherhood.
Like Before Sunset this didn't really end on too much of a resolution. Milly and Egg were apparently back together, Warren had agreed to help Anna with her baby and Miles was disappearing off around the world. But it still didn't feel like the lives of the characters had somehow resolved. I for one would welcome a Will & Grace style spin-off featuring Warren and Anna or seeing what Miles found on his travels. But in that 'making of', all of the actors seemed to feel like this was a full stop rather than another comma, the end of the end. But I really think some of them had a glint in their eye. Give it ten years and perhaps +20 will be on our screens.
Captain Jack Harkness & End of Days.
TV If you're waiting for the BBC Two repeat don't read this review. I wouldn't want to spoil it for you because it's a treat really. Everyone on Outpost Gallifrey is giving it five stars. Now for the rest of us ...
What - the fuck - was that?
It's perhaps fitting that the final episode of Torchwood, after what has, at best, been a variable season should be utter bollocks. But when the announcer beforehand suggested that there may be strong language, I really hadn't expected it to be from my own lips as I resorted to a mixture of swearing at the sheer awfulness masquerading as quality drama and laughing so hard I nearly pissed myself. After blast of comedy that was The Runaway Bride, the intricate beauty of radio Who yesterday and the joy of The Sarah Jane Adventures earlier, I might have known Torchwood would ruin this Whovian marathon like a pissed streaker knocking over Paula Radcliffe just inches away from the finishing line and a world record.
But actually, no, I should really save my enmity for the End of Days until I've dealt with Captain Jack Harkness, the first episode tonight, not the man. Because, and I'm sure this'll be a total surprise considering the opening paragraph to this review. I really quite liked it. And not just because Ianto finally got around to shooting Owen. In keeping with most of the season, of course some elements were entirely derivative, this time of anything from Back To The Future to the underrated Frequency, with a character lost in the past leaving clues to some future friend to help them escape and the well worn conceit of not being able to tell someone about their fateful future.
Where it really scored was as a character piece which developed some of the mystery of Captain Jack which has been brewing since the first series of Doctor Who. For the first time in ages he seemed to be somewhat close to his old self, compassionate without being deadly really wanting, with a Sam Beckett Quantum Leap vibe to give the man whose identity he would 'borrow' the best final night he could, and with, for once, lots of romance. Well alright it was a bit of a coincidence that he should meet his name sake in Cardiff on that night of all nights, but sometimes this kind of serendipity can work well in drama and it did here. The sudden reappearance of what looked like the basement from New Earth jarred, but the recreation of the rest of the period setting was lovely and the introduction of wartime animosity towards Tosh was surprisingly realistic.
Pleasingly, however, the contemporary scenes ran in parallel and the whole benefited from having a definable goal to work towards, the find of the equation, the opening of the rift. Considering that this was a Doctor Who spin-off tackling time travel at least it was doing something else with it, really showing the consequences of potentially being lost in time. Pity Owen though, that, even when he's doing something for best of intentions he still came across as a twat and when the bullet pierced his shoulder it really was a shame that it wasn't his head (for reasons that'll become clear below). I genuinely thought they were going to kill him off, so the only real disappointment of the episode was that he lived to snarl another day. My only real question is -- what was the missing dongle from the Rift Machine doing in a grandfather clock in some random dance hall?
Barrowman probably gave his best performance of the season and he was aided by a feisty turn from Naoko Mori revealing once more what a wasted opportunity the persistent focus on Gwen all season has been. It's just a shame that the apparent loyalty between whatever his name is and Tosh wasn't carried over to the next episode - but this is the upbeat part of review so I'm really not going there yet. Matt Rippey as the real Jack was excellent too, very touching as a man divided and for once a guest cast member who worked within the ensemble rather than overshadowing them (which is actually a good thing). Murray Melvin as the time hopping Bilis, who I'm sure will eventually be revealed to be Gary from Goodnight Sweetheart at pension age, was particularly creepy in his scenes and if I'd had a week between episodes I really think I would have been looking forward to seeing what they did with him. Thank god for that.
It's a pity then that it was all for naught as, after a quick flash of the logo, the series once again plunged headlong into a vat of manure. The trailer for End of Days was quite promising with all the visitations from the past and Sarah Hughes in The Observer built my hopes up further by suggesting that 'this excellent finale shows' that the programme 'has potential'. Sarah, given that you also say that the scripts needed tightening up how can you justify this episodic mess as being 'excellent'. Were we watching the same programme?
Y'know the one were they didn't seem to have a clue how to finish the season so decided to pull a hitherto unheralded fifty-foot demon out of the ground and have it stomp all over Cardiff, which looked half amazing but made NO FUCKING SENSE WHATSOEVER? At least when Buffy revealed the First Evil it ran with it for a whole season and didn't just trot it out in the closing twenty minutes. We've seen surprise aliens before, but this appeared without any logical foreshadowing.
It's a shame because the episode began quite well with the cameo from Carrie Gracie from News 24 and the indications of all the timeslips across the world (the sudden appearance of The Beatles on the roof of Abby Road studio is a good thing). This created the potential for an epic battle with time, a season long story of attempting to send everyone back where it came from Invasion of the Dinosaurs style. But then Torchwood, the series and the organization, did what it always does, sits around in the hub having an argument and then interacted with the big epic happening by meeting a Roman Centurion in a police cell and a couple of extras in a hospital. Not even the sudden appearance of PC Andy, the man who is a regular in the good version of the series in my head, with his lovely acting could save the tedium. While the idea was probably to make the big, small, how boring is that?
The episode was, well episodic, so once all the stuff that was happening across the globe had been established and they'd made the ooh two visits to see what was happening in Cardiff (hardly the montage sequence in Ghostbusters is it? And we know they've seen Ghostbusters) everything finally came home to roost after yet another argument in the hub and Owen finally being kicked out (well until he sneaked back in later). This was spoilt by taking about half an hour as Owen knocked on for no readily apparent reason about retcon again. Get out of there. No one cares and this has zero to do with what is to come. This was another example of Torchwood dropping in useless exposition that would not be paid off later when it should have been consolidating the overall story of the coming apocalypse.
Meanwhile, the sudden appearance of Lisa to Ianto in the trailer was revealed to be - nothing more than a vision cooked up Buffy First Evil style by whatever lies beneath to try and get them to open the rift. Again. And for the lucky people who might have skipped every other episode there was the usual nano-flashback to explain who she is, although I wonder how many people would actually recognize her without the metal bondage gear and high heals. Same thing happened for Owen and although it was, nice, seeing these old faces again I don't think their presence was really explained or how whatever it was had read their mind.
The not unexpected visit to the caretaker's shop was marred by being apparently minutes after Owen had been kicked out of the hub and a repeat of the characterization incongruity that occurred in Countrycide after Owen and tried to dry hump Gwen up against a tree. After telling Jack what to go do with himself after kicking out her fuckbuddy, who let's be clear on this, has potentially brought about the end of the world, Gwen's in the shop cracking jokes again and joshing with whatever his real name is. What is it with this characterization? Shouldn't she still be a little bit pissed off?
As usual, there was no urgency to the scene and at no point have we being reminded of the stakes. Bilis is back, still creepy, still possibly a really interesting character. Is he a timelord? Probably not, but his sudden CGless disappearance into time was fairly interesting even if the scene lacked momentum. It's at this point then that the episode went totally off the rails as though all sense had left the writing and directing process and the story was being put together by a group of chimps playing a Torchwood Roleplaying Game.
Well alright I can see now what they were doing. Bilis gives Gwen vision of the future and the death of Reece. Gwen takes Reece to Torchwood. Bilis breaks into Torchwood and kills Reece. Cue tragic music and much emoting from poor Eve Myles, who was acting her heart out for nothing. Inevitably, this being Torchwood I assumed that they really had killed her boyfriend, it being entirely likely that he'd been pottering about in seven odd episodes, shouting now and then, so I was pretty incensed. That fact that now I'm only realising that he was murdered by Bilis to turn Gwen to the point of wanting to open the rift either means I'm very slow or it simply wasn't made very clear in the episode. Probably the former.
You see you really have to wonder what goes on in the tone meetings when Owen just wonders back into the hub, the gang standing over the corpse of Reece and Tosh grins like she's just won the lottery, whilst and let's make this again quite clear, the world is ending and it's his fault. At least this led into the best part of the episode when John Doe launched into a list of everything the team has done wrong all series and pays off everything I've been saying. It wasn't quite the meta-joke I was expecting but at least it showed that he was aware of the mistakes the other characters had made, bravely underlining the fact that this is the series that has no likeable characters whatsoever. It's a misfortune then that, well alright let's call him Jack for now, received the gun shot to the head as this bunch of jerks showed the loyalty we've loved to see from them all these episodes.
Now I have to admit to the next section of the episode being something of a blur. I remember cheering when the hub was blown up Liberator style, seeing them run for their lives, suddenly deciding that Jack is still their leader when they need him, dragging his body outside. And Bilis talking in tongues and bringing out the re-rendering of the beast from The Satan Pit, something else buried in the Earth that is being unearthed this festive season. He was the Son of the Beast apparently. Of all the mother series monsters to make an appearance I hadn't expected that.
Disappointingly no attempt was made to suggest that all of the characters wierd behaviour in the previous twelve episodes was a result of his influence, just this one, and after that I was laughing at it too much to remember much else apart from seeing John Barrowman, so great on Loose Women and Never Mind The Buzzcocks, the man who could have been Will with Grace, having to sit in some gravel being oppressed by a giant shadow. Is Jack dead? Is this going to be the cliffhanger?
Err no. Two reasons. Firstly we know Jack's back in Doctor Who Season Three in, Utopia, an episode written by Steven Moffat*. Secondly, because there are ten minutes of the episode remaining. Of Gwen sitting around at his bedside waiting for him to rejuvenate. You mean there wasn't another ten minutes of cool time tripping goodness at the opening of the story because of this? This scene might have worked if we still thought about any of these characters sympathetically but, and this is the reason I've been so detailed in my description of their actions, they've been so random in their behviour for the whole episode, let alone series that we just don't care.
I spent half of it wondering how killing the beast meant that time became a do-over, fixing the hib and everything else. It was like watching the final episode of that season of Dallas in which Pam woke up and Bobby stepped out of the shower, the bomb explosion in an office that took out both JR and Sue Ellen simply part of a wacky dream reseting everything that had gone before much like the re imagining of the timeline that went on here s0 that everybody lives. The other half was taken up with a wait for the inevitable, a final blast of lethargy in a series that has been filled with it. Seeing Jack stand and forgive his teammates was nice, but you just know that they're not going to be any different next series ...
Then in the final moments, Jack's whisked away by the sound of the Tardis. It says a lot that this sound can still be quite stirring and that you can imagine that the Doctor and Martha are already on board, enjoying their adventures. Perhaps we'll eventually find out why they decided to select that moment to pick up Jack and not when Cardiff was being menaced by a giant beastie and the Earth was being destroyed by giant cracks in time. Perhaps there will be an episode of that series that will explain all of the plotholes in this episode but I doubt it. But it says a lot about Torchwood that it didn't end with its own internal cliffhanger and one that will instead be explained in a mother series entirely. If only I'd watched the film End of Days. At least that has the unlikely sight of Miriam Margolese in a fist fight with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I appreciate this has all been very harsh and sarcastic and fueled by too much caffeine and I'll probably regret some of it in the morning, particularly the bit about the chimps but Torchwood has largely been a massive disappointment and it simply makes no sense to me that the same production team behind Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures can turn out something this crude and apparently be very pleased with it. As this review/rant has demonstrated I have a tendency to over analyze everything which could be why I tend to focus on narrative flaws at the expense of what is often quite fluid direction, remarkable lighting design, editing and music. If anything Captain Jack Harkness pointed to there still being potential in the series, but End of Days was no way to do anything. And I do wish I could be one of the people on Outpost Gallifrey giving it five stars, but I'm not, I'm the grinch and that's that. Perhaps on the level of a television comic book it works. I just expect a bit more from something calling itself adult drama.
I'm going to bed.
Cheesy
Life So here we are at start of a new year. I'm having a slightly wierd day because not having a job to go to work or college it still feels like a Christmas holiday and it really shouldn't because I need get my head around sorting my life out. New Year was quiet, punctuated with the viewing of Doctor Who spin-offs and writing about them. Well, three out of four isn't bad. Expect an epilogue to Review 2006 soon. Hope you enjoyed it. I'm off to have lunch. Cheese sandwiches probably.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)