British Telly

[Sundae]

I haven't seen it yet.
I need to make an appointment with the good Dr Cumberbatch.

[Dagney]

Just finished the British run of Being Human - MUCH better than the US version!

[Sundae]

Gosh the next episode of Inside Number Nine was good.
Called "A Quiet Night In".

I've gobbled up everything the League have done, and been to the live shows and then bought the DVDs of the same, but somehow somehow, because comedy is 95% verbal for me (a made up statistic) I forgot Steve and Reece's propensity for physical comedy.

With no spoilers whatsoever, Steve mouthing "Eastenders" with a satisfied little look on his face surprised me into a guffaw. This is the mostly silent episode, but it's not mime, or even what I would really term as slapstick. It required a little suspension of disbelief from me, but only because it's set in a more realistic world than The League where I accept men as female characters after all.

Try to watch if you can.
I'll do something nice for a random person if you watch any of these episodes on my recommendation. Proof will be required. That or your first-born child.

[Beest]

On the recommendation of a Canadian I have been watching 'Luther'.
British detective series, Luther is the detective, who works serial killer cases. His character and others and developement is great, the some of the actual serial killer stories are a bit week, especially since they all take place in London in a few months timeframe.

Pretty good, still watching.

[Sundae]

I just made Mum really laugh by re-enacting a scene from Inside Number Nine. For no reason other than Dad was asleep in the living room, and she'd mimed to me that she wanted her glasses.

It was a part which she found funny when we watched it together.
I don't know whether I was doing a good job or it was just the fact she couldn't laugh which made her want to, but it went down very well. She threw a balled up wrapper at me to get me to stop because she was finding it hard to get her breath.

[Sundae]

This week was the last episode of the wonderful Inside Number Nine.
I thought they saved the best til last.

Mum has really enjoyed it week by week and didn't agree (that it was the best), but I accept that we have different tastes, and I'm so happy she gave each episode a fair viewing.
I know she loved the parade of classic British actors who co-star. It makes it more properer in her eyes.
And she can spot good writing to be fair to her.

Dads is more about the visuals, but he zoned in and out while we watched them together.
Shame, he'd have had something to say about the lighting and the camera angles ten years, even five years ago.

Me, I'm all about the language.
And Steve and Reece can never disappoint me.

Mum is used to seeing Steve Pemberton on screen, but not Reece Shearsmith, so she said, "He can act, can't he?" in surprise, having only seen him briefly in The League of Gentlemen. Briefly because she thought it was disgusting.
Although I can't see how playing that amount of characters isn't acting - it's not Benny Hill.

Anyway, the last ep -The Harrowing - was just that. Harrowing I mean, not disgusting.
I was genuinely scared when I watched it, from very early on in the 30 minutes.
It's not horror as we know it now. It's not even real suspense.
But the seeding, and the music, and the foreshadowing.
For a comedy short I found it surprisingly disturbing. I felt actual fear.
Which isn't to say other people will, especially if they read a review or precis (I've been so careful not to give anything away to y'all who will never watch a single episode!)
But coming across it with no expectations it would be... a find.

Some of lines filled me with joy.
Not laugh out loud funny, although rewatching it with Mum she laughed in different places.

- Do you like Poe?
- The Teletubbie?

And now it's gone.
Please watch it on any kind of media you can.
To me it was worth the license fee alone.

PS - Mum is now a little worried about going to see Ghost Stories, which is exactly where she should be.

[busterb]

I've been i/2 arshed watching, Foyles war. With Honeysuckle Weeks, I have not a clue what she says.Half deaf and blind, so I'm guessing I miss most of plot. But the old cars and equipment is great. The one, I think was #21 about the black G.I's and the way things were at that time. I saw the same shit when in Army, back in 60s

[Clodfobble]

Why not turn on the subtitles, Buster? We use them for pretty much everything we watch in the evenings--not because we're half deaf (yet,) but because we don't want to turn the volume any louder while the kids are asleep.

[busterb]

One episode last me a few nights anyway. Don't watch much TV. Reading is my thing.

[DanaC]

My Dad used to love Foyle's War. Left me with a real soft spot for it.

[DanaC]

There's a sitcom which has been running for a few years now, called Outnumbered. I've never been 'into' it, but every so often I get drawn into an episode. I think they actually did the last series earlier this year and the ones currently running are repeats. There are five series altogether so you get to see the kids growing up. The middle kid, a boy of about 12 I think, is hyperactive and has a tendency to lie and go on flights of fancy. The eldest is a cynical teen, and he's basically the straight man of the kids. The youngest is a little girl and she is hilarious (I think)

There's quite a lot of improv, particularly from the kids. That way the kids give a more naturalistic performance and then the adult actors react to them. The basic premise is that the two parents are essentially outnumbered by the three kids.

[DanaC]

'Sherlock: The Network MGEITF Joint Session Masterclass' from the annual MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival 2012

One of the producers, the guy who plays Moriarty, Moffat and Gatiss -

[unfortunately we don't get to see the clips they show at the start - you just get audio only for that bit - bear with it, the panel comes in a few mins in ]

[DanaC]

Been meaning to post this one for a while and kept forgetting about it. I didn;t follow the whole show, just caught bits of it and was really impressed.

My Mad Fat Diary: A coming of age/growing up comedy drama. The main character is a 16 year old girl who is overweight and has just come home after four months in a psychiatric unit. It's based on the writer's own experiences and diary when she was growing up - a really honest and touching insight into the insecurities of growing up made that bit more difficult by having to also deal with a mental illness and body image problems.

The young lass playing the lead is brilliant.

Promo for the first series.



Introducing the gang:



This scene made me cry:

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Dagney

Just finished the British run of Being Human - MUCH better than the US version!

Missed this post!

The original Being Human was brilliant. Especially the first three series. The story arc of the original four. But, the new characters were also good, and I wish they'd been given another series to explore that new story.

I also liked the SyFy reimagining of it. It had a lot going for it; though it lacked the narrative oomph of the original - having so few episodes meant there wasn't much time/need to go off in lots of directions, it was much tighter. Each series had a clear narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end, and the first three series in particular had an overall arc that held together.

The remake was a little rangier - had time to go off and explore lots of different aspects of the world and expand the mythology, but didn't have the same sense of focus and direction. I also thought that. whilst it did the comedy side of things well, it didn't quite manage to shift between comedy and drama half as well - the original was able to turn on a dime between comedy and drama and the second series in particular went very, very dark.

That said, there were some standout moments in that series that have stayed with me: Sally's dream sequence, fantasising about Aidan taking vengeance on her former fiance (and murderer), and Aidan in the grave when he was buried by the head vampire.

I loved the musical direction in the original - and though they did it with almost no budget and it shows, their use of camera angles, lighting and the way scenes are placed was really original and worked well - the scene when Nina finds the Box Tunnel Massacre scrapbook and informs on Mitchell was beautifully done.

I also liked a lot of the musical direction on the original (sally's dream sequence was a real highlight of that) - but I hated the way they undercut the scenes with a dropping comedy tone. It got really annoying and I wanted a little more subtlety in some places.

Loved Herrick and Bishop, but despite the original not being able to do more than black the eyes and give them fangs, and generally painting them a lot smaller than the vamps in the remake, I found Herrick much scarier. Maybe that's because, for me, Bishop is foreign and Herrick really could just be a respected police officer in my town. Maybe it's the other way around for American viewers.

I thought the writing was cleverer on the original - more naturalistic, less formulaic. And there was a rawness to it. Again, probably because it was done for so little money.

The remake did well in taking that original idea and making it into something different. More time to explore some stuff that was really interesting. And, I liked the main characters. On its own terms it was good. I really enjoyed watching it.

[DanaC]

I think this one may have passed some people by. It's a bit of an oldie, began around 2000 : Marion and Geoff

Initially it was just a series of 9 minute shorts, but then they combined them into half hour episodes, and the second series was half hour eps from the start.

A mockumentary, entirely conducted as a to camera monologue by the character Keith, a taxi driver, going through a messy divorce and determined to remain cheerful. He's naive and sweet and funny, but there's a dark undertone - the story is all about the subtext, with viewers reading between the lines of his monologue.

Funny, bittersweet and occasionally full on heartbreaking. Rob Brydon's performance is flawless.








And to continue on a bit of a Brydon run , along with the awesome Julia Davis (of Nighty Night), and again from 2000 - Human Remains - a very dark comedy. Each episode they play a different couple being interviewed as part of a documentary.

Here's the first part of episode 1 as a taster:

"An English Squeak"





and episode 3: