TV Programmes

[Anita Bensoussane]

We've had one or two 'films' threads for quite some time but no 'TV' thread, so I thought I'd start one. I'm currently enjoying a couple of TV series/serials and I was wondering what other forumites are/have been watching.

At the moment I'm finding His Dark Materials (based on the Philip Pullman books) magical and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops, especially as the intention is to cover all three books eventually. I very much like Ruth Wilson as the elegant but ruthless Mrs. Coulter and I love the way the daemons seem so life-like. Mind you, I was also a fan of the 2007 film The Golden Compass despite the fact that it was panned (or Pantalaimoned!) by critics.

As for Seven Worlds, One Planet narrated by David Attenborough, it's compelling and gorgeously filmed and I'm learning a lot from it. I'm not fond of drones when they're used by the general public (there are issues regarding safety and privacy) but they're wonderful when it comes to filming things like this.

Looking back over the year, three outstanding TV dramas for me were Gentleman Jack, Killing Eve (series 2) and Game of Thrones (series 8 ). Gentleman Jack was something different, quirky and immense fun as well as dramatic (Suranne Jones was brilliant as Anne Lister), while Killing Eve was packed with unexpected twists and turns, melding humour with darkness. Jodie Comer's facial expressions were priceless! As for Game of Thrones, it was sweeping and sumptuous as always and remained gripping, with surprises right to the end. I've been a loyal follower of Poldark and The Durrells since they began too - neither of them groundbreaking stuff but high quality period dramas nevertheless, with beautiful settings and an interesting array of characters who touch the emotions.

I'll finish by mentioning a recent serial that must be one of the worst TV dramas I've ever seen - Dublin Murders. There was so much going on, including flashbacks, that the storyline jumped around all over the place and was confusing and bitty, I didn't feel involved with any of the characters (nearly all of them were glum and grim) and the ending was most unsatisfactory. A couple of plot threads that had intrigued me (they were the only reason I kept watching) were never resolved, while elements that were blindingly obvious were laboured. If there's ever another series, I certainly won't be watching it!

[pete9012S]

Great thread idea Anita.

We're looking forward to Sunday's BBC1 9pm War Of The Worlds which I'm sure you will have already heard about!

War of the Worlds, the latest adaptation of HG Wells’s book, stars Eleanor Tomlinson, Rafe Spall, Robert Carlyle and Rupert Graves and premieres on Sunday night. It has been described by the Radio Times as “compelling” and received five stars from the Daily Mail.

The three-part series is set in Woking in 1905 and is packed with special effects. It centres on four characters:the couple Amy and George, their good friend and outcast Ogilvy, and Frederick, the secretary to the minister for war, who has a strained relationship with his brother George. All four, and the rest of the population in Surrey, are soon fighting for their lives when a mysterious capsule that turns out to be transport for an alien from outer space comes to Earth.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... -the-crown" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Katharine]

I rarely watch any 'live' TV these days, partly because whenever I have the chance to sit down and watch something there isn't anything on that appeals to me, and the programmes I might have been interested in are either on at the wrong time (yes I know I could record them), or I didn't realise they were on until too late (such as documentaries/interviews about the Royal family).

I am however following 'Strictly although I'm watching that on i-player and so am 3 weeks behind at the moment.

Usually if I watch television it is one of the many DVDs I own. I'm slowly working my way through Friends (on Series 6), and have almost finished the final series of Open All Hours. I've also got the boxed set of the Joan Hickson Miss Marple series, having just watched my favourite of that series - 4.50 From Paddington - the scene where the two trains slowly chug alongside each other is one of the most atmospheric things I've ever seen and it always gives me goosebumps.

I recently noticed that I had Blitz Street on my shelves which was unopened. I had seen the original series, but it was made in 2010, so I hadn't seen it for a while. It is a very moving, interesting set of 4 episodes and I was left with such a range of emotions. From a purely technical view it was fascinating to see the way in which the different Nazi bombs caused destruction, ie the blast of air from the bombs caused much of the destruction. It was heartbreaking to hear first hand experiences of people who had been children and teenagers during the war years, and yet it was inspiring to see how they all appeared to have come through their ordeals as well balanced adults - one man described how he was called home from his office job to discover his family dead and all he had were the clothes he stood up in. It made me wonder how people coped, not just emotionally but physically as often entire streets were damaged beyond repair - where did they sleep at night, wash themselves etc?

I was also struck by the overwhelming scale of clearing up after a bombing raid - tons of rubble, overshadowed by damaged buildings likely to topple over at any moment. The film from the time showed men with shovels and wheel barrows, but I wondered where did it go after that? It made me appreciate that even once the war ended, the task of clearing up and rebuilding must have taken a very long time, not to mention having to deal with UXBs - the bravery of those who had to make those safe is beyond my comprehension.

Human cost aside, I found it very distressing to see how the London sky line has changed almost out of recognition - maybe it would have done any way, but I can't help feeling that the destruction of so much of the landscape encouraged modern buildings to be erected. Also, how many historical records/artefacts were lost in those dreadful few years?

To balance the impact of the above series, I've just started watching the early surviving programmes from Morecambe and Wise - they do seem to like Noddy as he's been mentioned once again, and I know a future sketch refers to Enid Blyton.

[Boatbuilder]

Not sure when exactly, but maybe following on from the three-part 'War of the Worlds' is a new BBC three-part adaptation of 'Dracula' which looks to be good.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p ... ok-trailer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9139220/ep ... t_eps_sn_1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Fiona1986]

I liked the Golden Compass film too, Anita! We watched the first episode of His Dark Materials and thought it was pretty good. I like James McAvoy in anything, though . I was interested to recognise his ex-wife and Shameless co-star Anne Marie Duff as Ma Costa - I hope their divorce was amicable!

[Wolfgang]

His Dark Materials is shown on a commercial staion in Germany to which I have no acces.
Seven Worlds, One Planet will be aired on the public station ZDF in their documentary series "Terra X" from 24.11. on.
I do record quite a lot from the TV stations (for the time being Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Dr Who, Lucifer, Großstadtrevier and some other stuff), but I don't take my time to watch them, there are too many other things to attend.

[timv]

I liked the adaptation of His Dark Materials too; it seems closer to the tone of the book than the earlier film and has a semi-'steampunk' visual element reminiscent of fantasy films like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen . The 1930s-style setting and costumes are well-chosen; the block of flats where Mrs Coulter lives in episode 2 has a look of the real-life huge 1930s 'brutalist' concrete tower of the University of London 's Senate House building in Bloomsbury, London (and may have been adapted from film of this) where I used to work. This is the original of George Orwell's 'Ministry of Truth' in '1984', as Orwell was based there for the BBC in the Second World War. Oxford is very well shown too and I recognise various shots, with a few CGI alterations made for this 'alternative' Oxford.

I am a fan of 'Poldark' and 'The Durrells' too, though I thought the 2019 series of Poldark - not taken from a Winston Graham book like the other years' series, but written as new by the main scriptwriter - was a bit full of cliches and repeated storylines from earlier years! I hope they go on to do the final WG books in a few years once the actors are the right age; I understand the main reason for not doing all the books now was the 'time-jump' in the series from the seventh book (filmed in 2018) set in 1799 to the eighth book (set in 1810). There was an adaptation on ITV of the eighth book , 'Stranger from the Sea', as a one-off film around 1996 for those fans who can track it down, but I was stuck on a train that evening and never saw it!

As occasionally mentioned in the Durrells series, the family's English base was Bournemouth, not far from the 1978 Famous Five series site at Mudeford; in real life Margot ran a boarding-house there (in the 1950-60s, I think) and Gerald tried out an experiment of showing his animals in public at a local department store before he set up his zoo in the Channel islands.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks for the link to the War of the Worlds article, Pete. I'm looking forward to it too. Dracula looks promising as well, John (Boatbuilder). I've never seen Blitz Street but it was interesting to read your thoughts on it, Katharine.

It's good to hear that you're also a fan of The Golden Compass, Fiona!

We watched the first episode of His Dark Materials and thought it was pretty good. I like James McAvoy in anything, though . I was interested to recognise his ex-wife and Shameless co-star Anne Marie Duff as Ma Costa - I hope their divorce was amicable!

I expect it was!

Sorry you can't see His Dark Materials, Wolfgang. I don't have a TV so I've been watching it on iPlayer.

I liked the adaptation of His Dark Materials too... Oxford is very well shown too and I recognise various shots, with a few CGI alterations made for this 'alternative' Oxford.

I was in Oxford last Sunday with my son and daughter. It was a bright, crisp autumn day and Oxford looked at its best - golden buildings, golden leaves and golden sunshine. We went for a walk through Jericho and Port Meadow, admiring a canal and the River Thames, and recalled that Lyra plays with her friends in "Jericho and Port Meadow" in the first book of the original trilogy, Northern Lights (all three of us read the trilogy years ago, and I intend to read La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth in the near future). On a previous visit to Oxford we went to Christ Church College, which featured quite prominently in The Golden Compass.

[Katharine]

I've never seen Blitz Street but it was interesting to read your thoughts on it, Katharine.

It was made in 2010 to mark 70 since the blitz, and shown on Channel 4 I think. I did watch it at the time and so got the DVD as a present a year or two ago. It was presented by Tony Robinson - I used to enjoy watching him presenting Time Team.

Maybe to say I 'enjoyed' watching it isn't quite the right word as it was quite sad in places, but I can't think of another word to use.

[number 6]

Just finished watching the first episode of the BBC's adaptation of the 'War of the Worlds'. Hmmm... to be honest, I wasn't too impressed. The love triangle between the lead Male character, his Wife and his Mistress was, I think, a bit of an unnecessary distraction. It seemed to take up a lot of time and made the build up to the Martian invasion a bit flat. They should've kep't it as a simple love interest and got on with it! Good acting and a good cast, which also included Rupert Graves (Yan in the 1978 Five go down to the Sea episode). I'll give it a 6/10.

[Bannerman65]

I have a copy of the 1950's War Of The Worlds. And I also say Jeff Wayne's musical version, as well. Justin Haywood was in it.

Right now, I'm wishing that Supernatural would come back on.

[burlingtonbertram]

War Of The Worlds is okay; though I might not have bothered but for the Victorian, British setting.

I lost interest in the Dublin Murders after two episodes (and in Vienna Blood after thirty minutes).

Just finished rewatching 'The Killing' AKA 'Forbrydelsen' (1) and 'Borgen' (1-3) on DVD. Fifty episodes of top Danish drama. Now that I've finished I'm bereft. All I'm left with are the memories, a love of candles and sensible knitwear..

[Boatbuilder]

War Of The Worlds is okay; though I might not have bothered but for the Victorian, British setting.

It's actually set in 1905 - the Edwardian era, bb.

[burlingtonbertram]

Ah well; I'll stop watching it

[Daisy]

I bet most of the houses in the picture were built in Victoria's time though!