I usually have a dozen series on the go at once, I can’t binge watch one series at a time as I get too bored of the same thing, so this allows me to watch a few episodes of each series each week. These are the ones I am currently watching…
Last Tango In Halifax - Season 4 - A soap opera style story of two families interlinked when Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid meet up again 40 odd years after being childhood sweethearts and get married. It’s all gone very silly now and there another season to go!
Bad Girls - Season 2 - Life in a women’s prison as the prisoners battle against the guards and each other. Entertaining stuff so far with evil guard Jim Fenner being the standout character.
Minder - Season 9 - This follows crooked entrepreneur Arthur Daley and is minder (bodyguard). George Cole created one of Britain’s finest characters as Daley who does everyone down, including himself. Since Dennis Waterman left at the end of season 7 it’s gone downhill a bit, the scripts are still ok but replacement minder Gary Webster isn’t as good.
The Saint - Season 5 - I enjoy spotting the guest stars more than anything, but it’s consistently enjoyable.
New Tricks - Season 5 - Three retired detectives and a current superintendent solve unsolved murders. The cast is excellent and we get involved in their private lives as well. Consistently good.
Steptoe And Son - Season 3 - It’s still in black and white at the moment as we follow the father and son rag and bone merchants duo as Harold yearns for a better life and Albert scotches his attempts so he isn’t left alone. Galton and Simpson’s scripts are simply brilliant.
Blackadder - Season 4 - Another brilliant British comedy series as we follow the adventures of Edmund Blackadder through the ages.
Hotel Babylon - Season 4 - It’s onto the final season and the hotel has been sold to an entrepreneur. At least half of the original cast have gone now and you can see why as this series drags towards its conclusion - it should ave ended after the second season.
Moving On - Season 9 - A series of one off dramas which are consistently good.
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads - Season 2 - Once again, a classic British comedy as we follow the lives of recently married Bob and returning best friend Terry after 5 years away in the army. Absolutely hilarious, one of the best comedies ever made.
The Wrong Man’s - Season 1 - Two men get caught up in a kidnapping plot. I’m not very keen on co-star James Corden - he always looks so very pleased with himself - but the story is holding up well so far.
The Gentle Touch - Season 1 - This police drama suffers from cheap production values and some of the acting is decidedly amateurish.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Steptoe & Son is right up there. That said, I'd argue it reached its peak when it went into colour in the early 70s. The Partition, where Harold opts to divide their pad up with a tall wall - a piece of hardboard - so they can live apart is superb. One thing I have noticed, however, is that in common with many sitcoms of that ilk, much of the humour is what I call 'take down humour' - it is one bloke essentially bullying another and getting away with it because a) The victim deserves it and b) The perpetrator is so very witty. Only Fools... did this a lot but I think the writer after a while saw through his creation Del Boy and opted to make him the butt of the joke as often as not, with 'victim' Rodney giving as good as he got, to balance things out.
Steptoe spawned two movies. However, the first, dealing with Harold's ill-fated marriage to a stripper, I found a bit depressing. In common with many British sitcoms that made it to the big screen, what works as a half-hour dip into a depressing situation becomes a bit much for well over an hour especially without a laugh track.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,749Chief of Staff
I get your point about ‘take down humour’…but that’s not quite true of Steptoe & Son…it does happen but it’s definitely not what underpins the whole relationship between father and son…whilst I don’t find either of the films ‘depressing’, I agree that they struggle to fill the longer runtimes…although there is still plenty in both to enjoy…
Bottom was basically an updated version of Steptoe & Son - and that’s hilarious too 😁
Most of the comedy series that spawned movie spin-offs were somewhat weaker than the originals, The Likely Lads bucking that trend. I think a laughter track on TV comedy is very important, there was a couple of Only Fools And Horses specials that were without laughter tracks and they both suffered as a cause of that. One of the reasons for the Steptoe films not being as good was the fact that a lot of the material was rehashed from the series and was too familiar to fans.
@Sir Miles I haven’t seen Bottom, I will add it to my viewing list, thanks for the heads up.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I enjoyed the second one, Steptoe and Son Ride Again@Sir Miles but that was really a few episodes strung together so a similar format. It didn't do so well at the box office as the first one. The first, as you know, is about Steptoe Snr deliberately wrecking his son's marriage to a good-looking, decent woman (a stripper, but her heart wasn't it it) and chance of a better life with her - it's different to him messing up his son's chance to cop off with Joanna Lumley on a date imo. An episode of Only Fools where Del Boy did the same to Rodney's hopes with a posher woman by embarrassing him deliberately also got a lot of flak. For it to be funny, the intended must be shown to be a bit of a cow of have some downside so we don't mind the split. Alternatively, the very fact that the intended is a cow can make for comedy gold - Velma or is it Thelma in What Ever Happened to the Likely Lads? is comedy gold, the perfect foil to layabout Terry who continues to hang out with her husband Bob, it gave the series a whole new lease of life.
A sometime snag of the big screen versions is that the excellent theme tunes would be jettisoned, often for something inferior! Or rehashed in some way, so viewers wouldn't immediatley think, 'But I can get all that at home!'
On the Buses - a massive box office success in 1971 that in the UK even eclipsed the big budget Diamonds are Forever, set in motion the 1970s big screen spin-offs. The nadir was surely Rising Damp, made after Richard Beckinsale died, set in a different looking flat to the one in the sitcom and faffing about with the key Rigsby character, giving him a flash sports car even. It also was a kind of reboot, like the big screen Dad's Army, it aimed to start from scratch effectively, introducing old characters as if they were new. RD also was criticised - well, on imdb - for rehashing plots from the series.
Recently there have been forays into similar big screen adaptations with The InBetweeners and Alan Partridge films.
I have a feeling that Steptoe and Son and Fletch from Porridge made returns many years later by way of TV adverts but I've never tried to hunt them down. or ever seen them again.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,749Chief of Staff
Spot on about some parts being rehashed from the tv series…same stuff just with a slightly better budget…and part of the reason why film versions are somewhat weaker is down to the extra running time being given over to character development and falling short of the ‘x amount of laughs per episode’ quota.
Bottom is puerile and silly but it is laugh-out-loud funny and ridiculous all at the same time…if you like Rik Mayall & Ade Edmondson, then you are in for a treat…if you don’t - then stay clear 🍸
YNWA 97
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,749Chief of Staff
I’ve no idea if either did decent box office…think I enjoy the first slightly more though 🤔
There were 3 On The Buses…movies, you wouldn’t be able to make them now…they are mildly amusing in parts, but having Stan & Jack going after the young girls is creepy.
I’d totally forgot about the Rising Damp movie 😱 and then you go and remind me - thanks 😳🤣
I’m trying to do the same with the two Dad’s Army films….an absolutely brilliant sitcom, but those films 😠
So how have Amazon fared with bringing Lee Child’s hero to the small screen? I’m halfway through the 8 episode adaption of the first novel and it’s excellent. The story is faithfully taken from the book with little or no alterations. Alan Ritchson looks exactly as Jack Reacher is portrayed in the books and the rest of the casting is exemplary. Bruce McGill as the villain, and Willa Fitzgerald and Malcolm Goodwin as Reacher’s allies, are well cast and small town America is captured successfully in a purpose built set. The fighting is brutal. This is so much better than the two Tom Cruise movies.
If this is how good Amazon can adapt a book series, then I would have no worries in them taking on the production of James Bond.
Superb, pulpy fun.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
One UK TV critic said the new Reacher series made a fella feel like he was 7 years old again - he meant it as a compliment!
I've just finished Series 3 of Breaking Bad, like I said I'm late to the party on this so no spoilers please! I'll compare it to James Bond though it has little or nothing to do with the Bond series, though it might make one think more fondly of License to Kill, as it deals with the production of drugs and eventually a sort of drug kingpin. That said, in this we are encouraged to sympathise with the hapless drug dealers who find themselves out of their depth.
To recap - it's about a downtrodden, middle aged high school chemistry teacher with a family who has a sort of midlife crisis and takes to using his expertise to concoct MGMA drugs or crystal meths, actually not sure which it is. In his endeavour he coerces one of his hapless former students into helping him and they become a sort of Batman & Robin outfit.
Now, the thing about this is, it's a comedy. There's just no getting away from it, so it's like those early Bond films, say from Dr No to Thunderball. Now, as a kid, if you'd told your mum you'd seen a Bond film at the cinema, and it was a comedy, well, no way would you say that. But the humour is always there, and it's subtle, to enhance the drama and believability. For me, when the humour doesn't work, the Bond films don't really work. Breaking Bad strictly speaking isn't that believable, that a chemistry teacher could lead this kind of double life and hide it from his family - and it does come to address this - but you don't care, you want to believe it. What impresses me about this series is hearing various people rave about it - my sister, the bloke at the lending library - because it just tickles that bone. It's not overtly funny, it's not really a comedy, but there's no question some characters in it are just a hoot. But others are supremely menacing, basically in Bond villain territory, but at a local level. Also, the series seems to be well plotted ahead, unlike recent Bond films.
It's hard to cultivate that kind of tone - most Bond films don't quite manage it because the audience tends to be ahead of them. With a TV series you can be a bit more adventurous in plotting, I think. That sense of being in on a secret joke can't really hold out when something becomes a mega phenomena.
Last night I caught first two episodes of The Killing, I mean The Promise, on BBC4. It's the sort of scandal-noir they like doing, only this is set in France so it's Franco-Noir I guess. On the face of it it's the same kind of thing we've seen in other stuff, inter-generational , nasty crime gong back decades. Investigated by a persistent borderline obsessive woman cop with brunette hair, going against her bosses' will and not being on her own turf, it's a lot like The Killing really but I feel mean saying it because I did enjoy it, it's good stuff, kind of therapeutic in an odd way.
The drawback here is that we are looking at the abuction of young girls and we get to see it from the kid's point of view so it is distressing really, often these kind of crimes are investigated after the fact. I can't envisage a UK thriller being done like that, it's too close to the bone with recent abductions of the last 20 years. Not suggesting the French wouldn't get upset either, I think the media there might play it differently, I don't know.
Anyway, it's only 6 episodes or so unlike The Killing which I enjoyed but it really did mean a long haul investment and it turned out to be a shaggy dog story.
I finished Reacher last night and thought it was excellent - as @Gymkata says above, if you like Banshee you will love Reacher, but in my opinion (and this is where no one is right or wrong, as it is just personal opinion) it is far superior to Justified, which quickly became average.
I also saw an episode of The Saint, Island Of Chance, (S5 E22), which was very Bondian - it had a scene which mimicked DN, where Templar was threatened by a creature in bed - a snake not a spider - even feeling nauseous after killing it, and it also reminded me of the snake in the bathroom scene in LALD, David Bauer (Morton Slumber) was in it, there is a character called Vargas, and Goldfinger is mentioned! I’m enjoying this series, there is hardly an episode that goes by without some sort of Bond connection and although I would have seen most of them as a kid, I barely remember any of them.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Anthony Horowitz has adapted his own novel into a wonderful whodunnit series of 6 episodes. A writer of a detective series of books is found dead at his mansion, and the last chapter of his latest book that he sent to his publisher is missing. The answer to his death is lies in the unfinished manuscript. Lesley Manville is marvellous as the editor who solves the crime. Lots of flashbacks as we learn of those who have a grudge against the author. The whole thing is played out with the help of the fictional detective, you have to see it to understand how, but it is an ingenious ploy and although it can sometimes be a little confusing this is top notch stuff and highly recommended.
It’s a BritBox original - only viewable with a subscription to the streaming site, but I’m hoping it will get played by one of the terrestrial channels at some point because it’s too good to be confined to a minority audience.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Yes. The Ipcress File might be worth a look. Unfortunately, I forgot I was going to reread the novel in preparation for this one, so I'll have to do everything the wrong way around.
I don't know about 'good' but the final season of Killing Eve started in the UK this weekend. It was more of the same. The constant interjection of indie songs on the soundtrack, the lyrics supposedly corresponding to the text or subtext of the action on screen - nominally the tortured expressions on the faces of the three female leads - just got more and more annoying as the 45-minutes progressed. Nowhere near as interesting as the first series.
Interesting to see how closely they follow the book or whether they go after the film version. The book didn't have the name 'Harry Palmer' or any name, he didn't have glasses either. The book takes the lead character to Greece at one point, I think America another time, it's an odd read imo and it took my years to really complete it. It turns out like a particular episode of The Avengers I once saw, it's not quite like the film at all.
You may have seen "A very English scandal" starring Hugh Grant and Ben Wishaw. This new mini-series isn't a sequel, but more of a follow-up. It's about the very scandalous marriage and divorse of the duke (Paul Bettany) and dutchess of (Claire Foy) Argyll back in the 60's. Both were very unfaithful and morally questionable people. The duke even used an early version of so-called "slut-shaming" during the dirty and very public divorce, As one would expect the production is high-quality, especially the acting. It's nice to see Bettany in a series like this one after his time in Marvel movies. It's hard to find anything negative in a series like this, but it has to be all the negative people in it. While we at times feel sympathy for the two leads it's hard to invest much positiv eemotion in them. I guess we can be grateful the producers didn't fall for the temptation of simply making one of them the victim, but he series doesn't make one optimistic about the human condition. Don't get me wrong: "A very British scandal" is a high-quality and very watchable mini-series. What's next? "A very Welsh scandal" and then "A very Irish scandal"?
Re-runs of the first series of The Saint, in black and white, began on Talking Pictures TV yesterday.
Great quality print and a young Roger Moore. Shirley Eaton of GF in this one, but the episode was a bit humdrum and the Saint wasn't in it much, not even sure what his pretext for being involved was. Maybe it will be better next week. hopefully it won't be like The Avengers which really took a while to get going.
the first Saint episode The Talented Husband is untypical, a murder plot in a quaint English village, and Templar only seems to be in half of it. Hard to figure why they started with this story, though there is one quick scene at the Inn where Templar answers a question about himself and basically explains the whole premise of his character.
Second episode The Latin Touch is almost the prototypical Saint episode, with Templar travelling in Rome, a kidnapped heiress and the local police chief out to get him, so be sure to watch that one. I think the first season was good right from the start, the show immediately finding its identity, except for that odd first episode. Not like the Avengers at all, which is really like two different shows linked by the character of John Steed.
I’ve just finished all 10 seasons of Minder (and posted some covers on the Book Covers thead) and it was the right time to end it. After Dennis Waterman left in Season 7 it wasn’t ever as good, the stories did become a bit more gritty as in the first two seasons, but it was the playfulness of seasons 3-7 which worked best, who can forget such fabulous characters as Maltese Tony (played by our own Michael Kitchen) or The Syrup with his Roger Moore wig 😂
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Quality viewing @CoolHandBond Those were the days. Although, If I remember rightly, Minder lost heavily in the ratings to OFAH - 'To Hull and Back'. No shame there, though. It doesn't get much better than 'To Hull and Back'!
"Any of the opposition around..?"
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,749Chief of Staff
Currently enjoying The Witchfinder on BBC2 - from the same people behind Alan Partridge…starring Tim Key and Daisy May Cooper 👍🏻
Recently got into Endeavour (2012-present), which is relatively unknown outside the UK, as were the Morse character and series themselves. Amazing acting by most of the cast, and great recreation of what one imagines the British 60's to have been.
Currently finishing Series 6, which deals with the main cast's opposition and corruption plot lines that have been recurring over time. Will miss it once it's done.
Tried watching the first "Inspector Morse" episode, but lost most interest due to it only being available dubbed. Nice series, though.
"Enjoy it while it lasts."
"The very words I live by."
I dont know if Inspector Morse and Endeavour are really "relatively unknown", theyre broadcast on the PBS Masterpiece Mystery series in the States which we get on cable up in Canada. My mum is always watching these British police shows, both the ones you mention and several more I cant remember. That one on the Caribbean island. another where Luisa from Doc Martin is a detective, and a whole a bunch of others.
Theres so many of them and they seem so popular over here, I suspect theyre like the ITV adventure shows from the 60s: created specifically for export to North America, there may even be more North Americans watching than Brits! I know the Avengers for example was cancelled when American ratings went down.
the few stores round here that still sell dvd's usually have a British TV section, with all these shows. and theyre hella expensive imports, yet somebody must be buying them or they wouldnt be kept in stock
I should have probably said "outside the Anglosphere" rather than the UK, as you're right and these things do get around. That being said, I had seldom read about it until I got into it, as opposed to, say, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Luther or other more popular British series which are more generally discussed. But of course that's just my experience.
"Enjoy it while it lasts."
"The very words I live by."
Comments
I usually have a dozen series on the go at once, I can’t binge watch one series at a time as I get too bored of the same thing, so this allows me to watch a few episodes of each series each week. These are the ones I am currently watching…
Last Tango In Halifax - Season 4 - A soap opera style story of two families interlinked when Derek Jacobi and Anne Reid meet up again 40 odd years after being childhood sweethearts and get married. It’s all gone very silly now and there another season to go!
Bad Girls - Season 2 - Life in a women’s prison as the prisoners battle against the guards and each other. Entertaining stuff so far with evil guard Jim Fenner being the standout character.
Minder - Season 9 - This follows crooked entrepreneur Arthur Daley and is minder (bodyguard). George Cole created one of Britain’s finest characters as Daley who does everyone down, including himself. Since Dennis Waterman left at the end of season 7 it’s gone downhill a bit, the scripts are still ok but replacement minder Gary Webster isn’t as good.
The Saint - Season 5 - I enjoy spotting the guest stars more than anything, but it’s consistently enjoyable.
New Tricks - Season 5 - Three retired detectives and a current superintendent solve unsolved murders. The cast is excellent and we get involved in their private lives as well. Consistently good.
Steptoe And Son - Season 3 - It’s still in black and white at the moment as we follow the father and son rag and bone merchants duo as Harold yearns for a better life and Albert scotches his attempts so he isn’t left alone. Galton and Simpson’s scripts are simply brilliant.
Blackadder - Season 4 - Another brilliant British comedy series as we follow the adventures of Edmund Blackadder through the ages.
Hotel Babylon - Season 4 - It’s onto the final season and the hotel has been sold to an entrepreneur. At least half of the original cast have gone now and you can see why as this series drags towards its conclusion - it should ave ended after the second season.
Moving On - Season 9 - A series of one off dramas which are consistently good.
Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads - Season 2 - Once again, a classic British comedy as we follow the lives of recently married Bob and returning best friend Terry after 5 years away in the army. Absolutely hilarious, one of the best comedies ever made.
The Wrong Man’s - Season 1 - Two men get caught up in a kidnapping plot. I’m not very keen on co-star James Corden - he always looks so very pleased with himself - but the story is holding up well so far.
The Gentle Touch - Season 1 - This police drama suffers from cheap production values and some of the acting is decidedly amateurish.
Goodness. Is your chair comfy ?
For me, there hasn’t been a better comedy series than Steptoe & Son - pure genius 🙌🏻
I’ve only seen about half the programs you mention…and despite Corden, The Wrong Man’s was a good watch 🍸
Steptoe & Son is right up there. That said, I'd argue it reached its peak when it went into colour in the early 70s. The Partition, where Harold opts to divide their pad up with a tall wall - a piece of hardboard - so they can live apart is superb. One thing I have noticed, however, is that in common with many sitcoms of that ilk, much of the humour is what I call 'take down humour' - it is one bloke essentially bullying another and getting away with it because a) The victim deserves it and b) The perpetrator is so very witty. Only Fools... did this a lot but I think the writer after a while saw through his creation Del Boy and opted to make him the butt of the joke as often as not, with 'victim' Rodney giving as good as he got, to balance things out.
Steptoe spawned two movies. However, the first, dealing with Harold's ill-fated marriage to a stripper, I found a bit depressing. In common with many British sitcoms that made it to the big screen, what works as a half-hour dip into a depressing situation becomes a bit much for well over an hour especially without a laugh track.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I get your point about ‘take down humour’…but that’s not quite true of Steptoe & Son…it does happen but it’s definitely not what underpins the whole relationship between father and son…whilst I don’t find either of the films ‘depressing’, I agree that they struggle to fill the longer runtimes…although there is still plenty in both to enjoy…
Bottom was basically an updated version of Steptoe & Son - and that’s hilarious too 😁
Most of the comedy series that spawned movie spin-offs were somewhat weaker than the originals, The Likely Lads bucking that trend. I think a laughter track on TV comedy is very important, there was a couple of Only Fools And Horses specials that were without laughter tracks and they both suffered as a cause of that. One of the reasons for the Steptoe films not being as good was the fact that a lot of the material was rehashed from the series and was too familiar to fans.
@Sir Miles I haven’t seen Bottom, I will add it to my viewing list, thanks for the heads up.
I enjoyed the second one, Steptoe and Son Ride Again @Sir Miles but that was really a few episodes strung together so a similar format. It didn't do so well at the box office as the first one. The first, as you know, is about Steptoe Snr deliberately wrecking his son's marriage to a good-looking, decent woman (a stripper, but her heart wasn't it it) and chance of a better life with her - it's different to him messing up his son's chance to cop off with Joanna Lumley on a date imo. An episode of Only Fools where Del Boy did the same to Rodney's hopes with a posher woman by embarrassing him deliberately also got a lot of flak. For it to be funny, the intended must be shown to be a bit of a cow of have some downside so we don't mind the split. Alternatively, the very fact that the intended is a cow can make for comedy gold - Velma or is it Thelma in What Ever Happened to the Likely Lads? is comedy gold, the perfect foil to layabout Terry who continues to hang out with her husband Bob, it gave the series a whole new lease of life.
A sometime snag of the big screen versions is that the excellent theme tunes would be jettisoned, often for something inferior! Or rehashed in some way, so viewers wouldn't immediatley think, 'But I can get all that at home!'
On the Buses - a massive box office success in 1971 that in the UK even eclipsed the big budget Diamonds are Forever, set in motion the 1970s big screen spin-offs. The nadir was surely Rising Damp, made after Richard Beckinsale died, set in a different looking flat to the one in the sitcom and faffing about with the key Rigsby character, giving him a flash sports car even. It also was a kind of reboot, like the big screen Dad's Army, it aimed to start from scratch effectively, introducing old characters as if they were new. RD also was criticised - well, on imdb - for rehashing plots from the series.
Recently there have been forays into similar big screen adaptations with The InBetweeners and Alan Partridge films.
I have a feeling that Steptoe and Son and Fletch from Porridge made returns many years later by way of TV adverts but I've never tried to hunt them down. or ever seen them again.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Spot on about some parts being rehashed from the tv series…same stuff just with a slightly better budget…and part of the reason why film versions are somewhat weaker is down to the extra running time being given over to character development and falling short of the ‘x amount of laughs per episode’ quota.
Bottom is puerile and silly but it is laugh-out-loud funny and ridiculous all at the same time…if you like Rik Mayall & Ade Edmondson, then you are in for a treat…if you don’t - then stay clear 🍸
I’ve no idea if either did decent box office…think I enjoy the first slightly more though 🤔
There were 3 On The Buses…movies, you wouldn’t be able to make them now…they are mildly amusing in parts, but having Stan & Jack going after the young girls is creepy.
I’d totally forgot about the Rising Damp movie 😱 and then you go and remind me - thanks 😳🤣
I’m trying to do the same with the two Dad’s Army films….an absolutely brilliant sitcom, but those films 😠
Here's a Steptoe and Son advert for Ajax cleaner from 1977.
There's a later, early 80s one for Kenco coffee on YouTube but that's not as funny.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Sounds like a ripoff…err…homage of Murder In Successville 👀
REACHER (2022)
So how have Amazon fared with bringing Lee Child’s hero to the small screen? I’m halfway through the 8 episode adaption of the first novel and it’s excellent. The story is faithfully taken from the book with little or no alterations. Alan Ritchson looks exactly as Jack Reacher is portrayed in the books and the rest of the casting is exemplary. Bruce McGill as the villain, and Willa Fitzgerald and Malcolm Goodwin as Reacher’s allies, are well cast and small town America is captured successfully in a purpose built set. The fighting is brutal. This is so much better than the two Tom Cruise movies.
If this is how good Amazon can adapt a book series, then I would have no worries in them taking on the production of James Bond.
Superb, pulpy fun.
One UK TV critic said the new Reacher series made a fella feel like he was 7 years old again - he meant it as a compliment!
I've just finished Series 3 of Breaking Bad, like I said I'm late to the party on this so no spoilers please! I'll compare it to James Bond though it has little or nothing to do with the Bond series, though it might make one think more fondly of License to Kill, as it deals with the production of drugs and eventually a sort of drug kingpin. That said, in this we are encouraged to sympathise with the hapless drug dealers who find themselves out of their depth.
To recap - it's about a downtrodden, middle aged high school chemistry teacher with a family who has a sort of midlife crisis and takes to using his expertise to concoct MGMA drugs or crystal meths, actually not sure which it is. In his endeavour he coerces one of his hapless former students into helping him and they become a sort of Batman & Robin outfit.
Now, the thing about this is, it's a comedy. There's just no getting away from it, so it's like those early Bond films, say from Dr No to Thunderball. Now, as a kid, if you'd told your mum you'd seen a Bond film at the cinema, and it was a comedy, well, no way would you say that. But the humour is always there, and it's subtle, to enhance the drama and believability. For me, when the humour doesn't work, the Bond films don't really work. Breaking Bad strictly speaking isn't that believable, that a chemistry teacher could lead this kind of double life and hide it from his family - and it does come to address this - but you don't care, you want to believe it. What impresses me about this series is hearing various people rave about it - my sister, the bloke at the lending library - because it just tickles that bone. It's not overtly funny, it's not really a comedy, but there's no question some characters in it are just a hoot. But others are supremely menacing, basically in Bond villain territory, but at a local level. Also, the series seems to be well plotted ahead, unlike recent Bond films.
It's hard to cultivate that kind of tone - most Bond films don't quite manage it because the audience tends to be ahead of them. With a TV series you can be a bit more adventurous in plotting, I think. That sense of being in on a secret joke can't really hold out when something becomes a mega phenomena.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Thanks Gymkata, I'll plow on with it.
Last night I caught first two episodes of The Killing, I mean The Promise, on BBC4. It's the sort of scandal-noir they like doing, only this is set in France so it's Franco-Noir I guess. On the face of it it's the same kind of thing we've seen in other stuff, inter-generational , nasty crime gong back decades. Investigated by a persistent borderline obsessive woman cop with brunette hair, going against her bosses' will and not being on her own turf, it's a lot like The Killing really but I feel mean saying it because I did enjoy it, it's good stuff, kind of therapeutic in an odd way.
The drawback here is that we are looking at the abuction of young girls and we get to see it from the kid's point of view so it is distressing really, often these kind of crimes are investigated after the fact. I can't envisage a UK thriller being done like that, it's too close to the bone with recent abductions of the last 20 years. Not suggesting the French wouldn't get upset either, I think the media there might play it differently, I don't know.
Anyway, it's only 6 episodes or so unlike The Killing which I enjoyed but it really did mean a long haul investment and it turned out to be a shaggy dog story.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I finished Reacher last night and thought it was excellent - as @Gymkata says above, if you like Banshee you will love Reacher, but in my opinion (and this is where no one is right or wrong, as it is just personal opinion) it is far superior to Justified, which quickly became average.
I also saw an episode of The Saint, Island Of Chance, (S5 E22), which was very Bondian - it had a scene which mimicked DN, where Templar was threatened by a creature in bed - a snake not a spider - even feeling nauseous after killing it, and it also reminded me of the snake in the bathroom scene in LALD, David Bauer (Morton Slumber) was in it, there is a character called Vargas, and Goldfinger is mentioned! I’m enjoying this series, there is hardly an episode that goes by without some sort of Bond connection and although I would have seen most of them as a kid, I barely remember any of them.
MAGPIE MURDERS (2022)
Anthony Horowitz has adapted his own novel into a wonderful whodunnit series of 6 episodes. A writer of a detective series of books is found dead at his mansion, and the last chapter of his latest book that he sent to his publisher is missing. The answer to his death is lies in the unfinished manuscript. Lesley Manville is marvellous as the editor who solves the crime. Lots of flashbacks as we learn of those who have a grudge against the author. The whole thing is played out with the help of the fictional detective, you have to see it to understand how, but it is an ingenious ploy and although it can sometimes be a little confusing this is top notch stuff and highly recommended.
It’s a BritBox original - only viewable with a subscription to the streaming site, but I’m hoping it will get played by one of the terrestrial channels at some point because it’s too good to be confined to a minority audience.
I'm sure it's discussed elsewhere on the board, but I'm looking forward to The Ipcress File remake starting Sunday. Looks very good.
Yes. The Ipcress File might be worth a look. Unfortunately, I forgot I was going to reread the novel in preparation for this one, so I'll have to do everything the wrong way around.
I don't know about 'good' but the final season of Killing Eve started in the UK this weekend. It was more of the same. The constant interjection of indie songs on the soundtrack, the lyrics supposedly corresponding to the text or subtext of the action on screen - nominally the tortured expressions on the faces of the three female leads - just got more and more annoying as the 45-minutes progressed. Nowhere near as interesting as the first series.
Interesting to see how closely they follow the book or whether they go after the film version. The book didn't have the name 'Harry Palmer' or any name, he didn't have glasses either. The book takes the lead character to Greece at one point, I think America another time, it's an odd read imo and it took my years to really complete it. It turns out like a particular episode of The Avengers I once saw, it's not quite like the film at all.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
so did anybody watch this new version of The Ipcress File?
don't forget we have a dedicated Harry Palmer thread
Christmas Day 1985 - Moonraker and Minder On The Orient Express - now that’s what I call decent scheduling 😁
A very British scandal (2021)
You may have seen "A very English scandal" starring Hugh Grant and Ben Wishaw. This new mini-series isn't a sequel, but more of a follow-up. It's about the very scandalous marriage and divorse of the duke (Paul Bettany) and dutchess of (Claire Foy) Argyll back in the 60's. Both were very unfaithful and morally questionable people. The duke even used an early version of so-called "slut-shaming" during the dirty and very public divorce, As one would expect the production is high-quality, especially the acting. It's nice to see Bettany in a series like this one after his time in Marvel movies. It's hard to find anything negative in a series like this, but it has to be all the negative people in it. While we at times feel sympathy for the two leads it's hard to invest much positiv eemotion in them. I guess we can be grateful the producers didn't fall for the temptation of simply making one of them the victim, but he series doesn't make one optimistic about the human condition. Don't get me wrong: "A very British scandal" is a high-quality and very watchable mini-series. What's next? "A very Welsh scandal" and then "A very Irish scandal"?
Re-runs of the first series of The Saint, in black and white, began on Talking Pictures TV yesterday.
Great quality print and a young Roger Moore. Shirley Eaton of GF in this one, but the episode was a bit humdrum and the Saint wasn't in it much, not even sure what his pretext for being involved was. Maybe it will be better next week. hopefully it won't be like The Avengers which really took a while to get going.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
the first Saint episode The Talented Husband is untypical, a murder plot in a quaint English village, and Templar only seems to be in half of it. Hard to figure why they started with this story, though there is one quick scene at the Inn where Templar answers a question about himself and basically explains the whole premise of his character.
Second episode The Latin Touch is almost the prototypical Saint episode, with Templar travelling in Rome, a kidnapped heiress and the local police chief out to get him, so be sure to watch that one. I think the first season was good right from the start, the show immediately finding its identity, except for that odd first episode. Not like the Avengers at all, which is really like two different shows linked by the character of John Steed.
we have a healthy Saint thread over here, full of good info and discussion
I’ve just finished all 10 seasons of Minder (and posted some covers on the Book Covers thead) and it was the right time to end it. After Dennis Waterman left in Season 7 it wasn’t ever as good, the stories did become a bit more gritty as in the first two seasons, but it was the playfulness of seasons 3-7 which worked best, who can forget such fabulous characters as Maltese Tony (played by our own Michael Kitchen) or The Syrup with his Roger Moore wig 😂
Quality viewing @CoolHandBond Those were the days. Although, If I remember rightly, Minder lost heavily in the ratings to OFAH - 'To Hull and Back'. No shame there, though. It doesn't get much better than 'To Hull and Back'!
Currently enjoying The Witchfinder on BBC2 - from the same people behind Alan Partridge…starring Tim Key and Daisy May Cooper 👍🏻
Recently got into Endeavour (2012-present), which is relatively unknown outside the UK, as were the Morse character and series themselves. Amazing acting by most of the cast, and great recreation of what one imagines the British 60's to have been.
Currently finishing Series 6, which deals with the main cast's opposition and corruption plot lines that have been recurring over time. Will miss it once it's done.
Tried watching the first "Inspector Morse" episode, but lost most interest due to it only being available dubbed. Nice series, though.
"The very words I live by."
I dont know if Inspector Morse and Endeavour are really "relatively unknown", theyre broadcast on the PBS Masterpiece Mystery series in the States which we get on cable up in Canada. My mum is always watching these British police shows, both the ones you mention and several more I cant remember. That one on the Caribbean island. another where Luisa from Doc Martin is a detective, and a whole a bunch of others.
Theres so many of them and they seem so popular over here, I suspect theyre like the ITV adventure shows from the 60s: created specifically for export to North America, there may even be more North Americans watching than Brits! I know the Avengers for example was cancelled when American ratings went down.
the few stores round here that still sell dvd's usually have a British TV section, with all these shows. and theyre hella expensive imports, yet somebody must be buying them or they wouldnt be kept in stock
I should have probably said "outside the Anglosphere" rather than the UK, as you're right and these things do get around. That being said, I had seldom read about it until I got into it, as opposed to, say, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Luther or other more popular British series which are more generally discussed. But of course that's just my experience.
"The very words I live by."