British crime fiction has always been popular in Norway, and both Morse and Endevour has been shown on our public broadcaster. I can't speak for the rest of the world (Even though I often feel like it ...... 😅)
A 4-part series which revolves around a car accident, a looming divorce and blackmail. It starts well with Tuppence Middleton returning home after a few days away and finding strangers moving into her house which has been emptied of all her furniture and belongings. Through flashbacks we get to see how this has happened. Unfortunately, most of the twists are telegraphed way before they are revealed, and the ending, which should have had a huge twist, is limp.
It passes the time adequately enough, but don’t expect too much from this pot boiler.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
The excellent Taika Waititi mockumentary film is turned into an also excellent Jemaine Clement mockumentary series, and I couldn't be laughing any harder. Matt Berry (of IT Crowd fame) as the ludicrous Laszlo, the discovery that is Colin Robinson, the surprise guest stars and the overt exaggeration of all the cast are a blast for me. Special mention to Harvey Guillén and his rollercoaster of surprises character. In these times we could all use a good laugh, and I recommend this show to that end.
"Enjoy it while it lasts."
"The very words I live by."
As Joshua pointed out earlier, The Horror Channel in the UK is showing The Prisoner at 6pm most nights.
I wish they'd promoted it more.
Tonight's episode - typically offbeat - had Kenneth Griffiths as a mad Napoleon character attempting to blow up London. What struck me was the sheer number of Bond references, or rather things the Bond series took, you noticed something literally every few minutes. In particular as the Secret Agent has to use his own resources to get out of a trap while his adversary taunts him over the tannoy, checking his progress - used in For Your Eyes Only' pre-credits of course. But there are many others, and at times Patrick McGoohan seems a lot like Craig when he is doing his relaxed, laid back persona, seen in Spectre most of all perhaps.
Tonight I too finished watching Magpie Murders. I haven't enjoyed a murder mystery that much in ages! The way a mystery was woven into another mystery was very enjoyable.
I hardly watched any TV during my working life and it’s only since retirement that I have been catching up on what I missed. This series turned up on BritBox and I’ve been enjoying the first season. Boon is played by Michael Elphick and he is an ex-fireman forced to take early retirement due to an injury. A friend places an advertisement for him in the local press saying all work considered. So far it’s been good, Boon is a Western fan and several books are displayed in the opening credits, including a J T Edson paperback. Boon also wears a pair of cowboy boots, very similar, if not the same, to ones that I had at the time 😁
I remember selling a tv tie-in paperback of Boon.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I’m watching the latest season of INSIDE NO. 9 on BBC I-player, it is, as usual, brilliant. These half-hour stories with a twist ending are superbly written and acted by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. So good that I’m rewatching the whole series from episode one again!
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I've started watching the second series of 'The Terror' on BBC iPlayer. I really enjoyed the first series about John Franklin's expedition to the Arctic. This one is set in a Japanese internment camp.
Ray Winston leads a group of private detectives in a variety of different situations whilst dealing with his estranged wife and her new DI boyfriend played by the brilliant Philip Glenister. A great cast with exciting stories, very strange that ITV didn’t pick this up for a third series. Angel Coulby is incredible sexy as one of the team members. Well worth watching.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
This is a documentary which retraces the murder of 13 year old Carl Bridgewater who was shot in the head from close range whilst on his paper round. The documentary interviews chief suspect Bert Spencer who denies involvement. Spencer comes across as a nasty piece of work and he served time for another murder of a neighbour and friend close to the incident with Carl. Four other men were charged with Carl’s murder and the guilty verdict was overturned after police evidence was declared unsafe. The evidence that criminologist David Wilson provides in the documentary certainly points to Spencer being guilty but it’s mostly circumstantial which is why no case has been taken against Spencer. It’s an absorbing programme.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
On the one hand, an 80 year old who can perform a three-hour set, singing and playing, is phenomenal, no question.
Not sure I'd have included Letting Go and Junior's Farm, two lesser known Wings songs, the first I'm not familiar with though it has doggerel lyrics. With some of his stuff you do wonder if there's sly one-upmanship going on. Words like 'a picture of a beauty queen' or suchlike recall the lyric Lennon correctly nixed for I Saw Her Standing There, replacing it with 'You know what I mean'. Was this Macca's way of signalling to his ex-Beatle mate that he could knock out a song even keeping a naff lyric? Likewise, doing I Want to be Your Man with Dave Grohl, I mean was that a dig at Jagger as if to say, hey, we started you off, after their petty spats via the press?
But the main point, and I hate saying this, is that he just can't sing any more.
I touched on this on the album review, though that said on three tracks he knocks it out the ballpark on Side 1 and it's odd he didn't do Slidin' off McCartney III as that's spot on for Glastonbury. That said, on vinyl he sings it great, not sure he could sing anything much here. Some recent songs are strong and got a good airing: Fuh You, Come On To Me, Valentine and even New but again, the vocals.
What I personally find depressing is on Twitter there are so many people saying he played a blinder and his vocals were great, defending him to the hilt, it's all a bit Emperor's New Clothes or Voyage Around My Fathers (John Mortimer book about a blind member of the family that nobody admits to themselves is blind until an outsider comes along.) I find it a bit sinister.
I think the people who reckon he played a blinder probably didn't see him on the Tripping the Light Fantastic Tour in 1990 [?] when he could still sing. I heard some "highlights" of the gig on the news and thought he sounded dreadful too. I think he needed Springsteen and Grohl to perk his sorry efforts up a bit. Yeh, it's great he's still kicking about at 80, but it isn't the same anymore, not for most of these acts. I last saw the Rolling Stones in 2006. They were so poor I vowed never to bother again and I'm a fan. I saw ten minutes of Diana Ross caterwauling today and thought, jeez, it's not only McCartney who's lost it then. I'm stunned about Glastonbury this year. More and more it looks less like a music festival for genuine music fans and more like a holiday for the wealthy with a few pop shows thrown in - someone's even hired out a £24k "tent" with showers, toilets and a four poster bed - the whole thing's a joke.
Yet more evidence that @chrisno1 is a sort of Pelham from The Man Who Haunted Himself as I too saw Macca on the Tripping tour - Wembley Arena. (I know, 'small world') I know an album came out of it but not sure if it was visually recorded, and pre Internet and recording things on phones. The 'highlights' of this Glastonbury gig were artfully selected, too! Most of it was worse than that.
I just find it weird. It couldn't have happened in the days of punk, for better or worse. Ironically among the music musos Macca could do nothing write back then when some of his stuff was pretty cool - To You off Back to the Egg sounds like The Stranglers for instance, and I was the nerdy teenager fighting his corner in the 1980s. Now, to be fair, his music is cooler but a) He's beyond criticism and b) He can't ruddy sing!
A Radio 1 tribute show on his turning 80 was good and I noticed one Stones-style song on Run Devil Run - Try Not To Cry, I think - had great vocals but this first post-Linda album was the last of its kind. I read online he went to India and picked up a virus, after that his voice was never the same again and it's been diminishing returns since.
Gave up on Ross quickly, she was trying to cajole the audience into singing I'm Still Waiting after it had finished, it was like a session in an old people's home. I heard she was miming at the Platinum Jubilee and probably was here too, that said even 'our' Billie Eilish was said to be miming this year at Glastonbury.
Now ironically the Stones... Jagger's voice doesn't seem to have aged at all, I'd say he's still got it, and his band. I saw them in 88 on the Steal Wheels tour, guess if fits that they were doing the Wembley Stadium was Macca was doing the Arena. I was right up front and saw them again for the Voodoo Lounge tour I think, not bad. But to see a bad gig at those prices, it's demeaning and I'm not sure I'd bother again, it feels like once is enough anyway with a band like that.
I wish these stars knew when to give up and go out with dignity. Paul McCartney, Diana Ross and Rod Stewart just can't do it anymore. When you can't sing your own songs, it's time to retire.
The only one's who's voices are still really strong is Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey. Must be a welsh thing.
Agree on Inside No. 9. It's good stuff. Very well acted. Reminds me of a modern day Tales of the Unexpected.
I'm a fan of Vienna Blood too. Very atmospheric and is a must watch for anyone who's a fan of Sherlock Holmes. I'm surprised with every man and his mate being mentioned as a possible Bond, that Matthew Beard hasn't been mentioned. Not saying he's right, but he's more appropriate than other names being banded around. He's British, 33 Years old and 6'1".
It's funny you mention Matthew Beard as a potential Bond as I watched the whole of Vienna Blood wondering if he'd be a good Bond or not and I'm still undecided. 😁
Kind of left field choice that the Bond producers may go for. He's more of the Dalton/Brosnan shape than muscle bound Craig.
I'm with you on that. I think he still looks very young despite being almost mid-thirties, so they would easily get three, four, five films out of him. I'm sure he could bulk up a bit as he does look quite lightweight, presently.
I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve never seen a soap opera…until now. My parents didn’t watch them when I was a kid and when I left home I didn’t watch much TV anyway. I read about them in the newspapers, that’s all. Anyway, BritBox has put the greatest episodes of soapland onto the platform so I thought I would take a look…
CORONATION STREET: The black and white episodes have a gritty “kitchen sink” feel. Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner have an argument in the street (pretty good) and an old lady dies in the pub. Onto a colour episode and Hilda Ogden is having a farewell party in the pub on Christmas Day. The landlord is devising ways of making some more money and his wife is disparaging at his meanness. The acting is basic. Not knowing the characters doesn’t help, of course, so maybe it’s unfair for me to not have much interest in what’s happening.
CROSSROADS: Meg (I think that’s her name) is getting married. Why there are hundreds of watchers and a police presence is not in the script, presumably word got out and the public attended, but it makes no sense to leave those scenes in. In another episode, some young woman dies and Benny is upset. The acting is simply terrible. If these are the best episodes, then I’d hate to see the worst.
EMMERDALE FARM: In the first episode there is a funeral and a long lost son returns home. In another episode there is a plane crash in the village, which is quite well done. The acting is basic and it’s not a lot of fun.
EASTENDERS: In the first episode someone is found dead, probably murdered. There’s a scuffle in the pub. In another episode a 16 year old schoolgirl finds herself pregnant by the landlord of the pub. It’s all very depressing, lots of shouting, miserable characters, basic acting.
There is no way I could invest my time in watching a soap opera, it’s an endless cycle of plots, regurgitated with different characters. The acting is usually just about adequate, those who are any good go onto better things, those who are not stay for as long as they can. I won’t be watching any more.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I’ve just finished rewatching this and my son watched with me for his first viewing. We watched an episode per night over 4 months. It’s a great series and I enjoyed it more this time around, I think seeing it nightly instead of weekly makes the story flow better and less chance of forgetting things.
A plane crashes onto an island and the survivors stories are told during flashbacks and then flash-forwards and ultimately flash-sideways. It’s a multi-layered series where everything begins to tie itself together as the show goes on. There is a large ensemble cast and the performances are good. It throws out lots of questions, some of which are never satisfactorily answered, but it remains a riveting experience to watch. Many don’t like the ending but I think it’s fine.
If you haven’t seen it I can highly recommend it, it’s one of the best series ever made.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Comments
British crime fiction has always been popular in Norway, and both Morse and Endevour has been shown on our public broadcaster. I can't speak for the rest of the world (Even though I often feel like it ...... 😅)
OUR HOUSE (2022)
A 4-part series which revolves around a car accident, a looming divorce and blackmail. It starts well with Tuppence Middleton returning home after a few days away and finding strangers moving into her house which has been emptied of all her furniture and belongings. Through flashbacks we get to see how this has happened. Unfortunately, most of the twists are telegraphed way before they are revealed, and the ending, which should have had a huge twist, is limp.
It passes the time adequately enough, but don’t expect too much from this pot boiler.
What We Do In the Shadows (2019-present).
The excellent Taika Waititi mockumentary film is turned into an also excellent Jemaine Clement mockumentary series, and I couldn't be laughing any harder. Matt Berry (of IT Crowd fame) as the ludicrous Laszlo, the discovery that is Colin Robinson, the surprise guest stars and the overt exaggeration of all the cast are a blast for me. Special mention to Harvey Guillén and his rollercoaster of surprises character. In these times we could all use a good laugh, and I recommend this show to that end.
"The very words I live by."
I've read nothing but praise about it, I will certainly check it out soonish. Ahoy, mateys!
"The very words I live by."
As Joshua pointed out earlier, The Horror Channel in the UK is showing The Prisoner at 6pm most nights.
I wish they'd promoted it more.
Tonight's episode - typically offbeat - had Kenneth Griffiths as a mad Napoleon character attempting to blow up London. What struck me was the sheer number of Bond references, or rather things the Bond series took, you noticed something literally every few minutes. In particular as the Secret Agent has to use his own resources to get out of a trap while his adversary taunts him over the tannoy, checking his progress - used in For Your Eyes Only' pre-credits of course. But there are many others, and at times Patrick McGoohan seems a lot like Craig when he is doing his relaxed, laid back persona, seen in Spectre most of all perhaps.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Tonight I too finished watching Magpie Murders. I haven't enjoyed a murder mystery that much in ages! The way a mystery was woven into another mystery was very enjoyable.
BOON (1986-1995)
I hardly watched any TV during my working life and it’s only since retirement that I have been catching up on what I missed. This series turned up on BritBox and I’ve been enjoying the first season. Boon is played by Michael Elphick and he is an ex-fireman forced to take early retirement due to an injury. A friend places an advertisement for him in the local press saying all work considered. So far it’s been good, Boon is a Western fan and several books are displayed in the opening credits, including a J T Edson paperback. Boon also wears a pair of cowboy boots, very similar, if not the same, to ones that I had at the time 😁
I remember selling a tv tie-in paperback of Boon.
I’m watching the latest season of INSIDE NO. 9 on BBC I-player, it is, as usual, brilliant. These half-hour stories with a twist ending are superbly written and acted by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith. So good that I’m rewatching the whole series from episode one again!
I recently discovered Vienna Blood on BBC iPlayer.
Loved it. Watched all 3 series in a few days. Set in Austria around 1907, weathered policeman teams up with young Freudian doctor to solve murders.
So now you're back
From outer space
You just walked in with
That look upon your face!
First Thundeprussy, now Lady Rose! Perhaps they've been away together on a sojourn!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
You know me. I'm like a bad penny. 😉
(Actually I've been sulking because I was so annoyed with ending of NTTD)
That is an excellent reason for staying away.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Luckily you're completely over it now. 😅
I've started watching the second series of 'The Terror' on BBC iPlayer. I really enjoyed the first series about John Franklin's expedition to the Arctic. This one is set in a Japanese internment camp.
VINCENT (2005-2006) on BritBox.
Ray Winston leads a group of private detectives in a variety of different situations whilst dealing with his estranged wife and her new DI boyfriend played by the brilliant Philip Glenister. A great cast with exciting stories, very strange that ITV didn’t pick this up for a third series. Angel Coulby is incredible sexy as one of the team members. Well worth watching.
INTERVIEW WITH A MURDERER (2016)
This is a documentary which retraces the murder of 13 year old Carl Bridgewater who was shot in the head from close range whilst on his paper round. The documentary interviews chief suspect Bert Spencer who denies involvement. Spencer comes across as a nasty piece of work and he served time for another murder of a neighbour and friend close to the incident with Carl. Four other men were charged with Carl’s murder and the guilty verdict was overturned after police evidence was declared unsafe. The evidence that criminologist David Wilson provides in the documentary certainly points to Spencer being guilty but it’s mostly circumstantial which is why no case has been taken against Spencer. It’s an absorbing programme.
I can highly recommend " What we do in the shadows " a brilliant comedy about a group of vampires
Living in Modern America. It has so many classic episodes and is available on BBC I-player
https://youtu.be/mfBbSwX6kEk
Watched Macca at Glastonbury.
On the one hand, an 80 year old who can perform a three-hour set, singing and playing, is phenomenal, no question.
Not sure I'd have included Letting Go and Junior's Farm, two lesser known Wings songs, the first I'm not familiar with though it has doggerel lyrics. With some of his stuff you do wonder if there's sly one-upmanship going on. Words like 'a picture of a beauty queen' or suchlike recall the lyric Lennon correctly nixed for I Saw Her Standing There, replacing it with 'You know what I mean'. Was this Macca's way of signalling to his ex-Beatle mate that he could knock out a song even keeping a naff lyric? Likewise, doing I Want to be Your Man with Dave Grohl, I mean was that a dig at Jagger as if to say, hey, we started you off, after their petty spats via the press?
But the main point, and I hate saying this, is that he just can't sing any more.
I touched on this on the album review, though that said on three tracks he knocks it out the ballpark on Side 1 and it's odd he didn't do Slidin' off McCartney III as that's spot on for Glastonbury. That said, on vinyl he sings it great, not sure he could sing anything much here. Some recent songs are strong and got a good airing: Fuh You, Come On To Me, Valentine and even New but again, the vocals.
What I personally find depressing is on Twitter there are so many people saying he played a blinder and his vocals were great, defending him to the hilt, it's all a bit Emperor's New Clothes or Voyage Around My Fathers (John Mortimer book about a blind member of the family that nobody admits to themselves is blind until an outsider comes along.) I find it a bit sinister.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I think the people who reckon he played a blinder probably didn't see him on the Tripping the Light Fantastic Tour in 1990 [?] when he could still sing. I heard some "highlights" of the gig on the news and thought he sounded dreadful too. I think he needed Springsteen and Grohl to perk his sorry efforts up a bit. Yeh, it's great he's still kicking about at 80, but it isn't the same anymore, not for most of these acts. I last saw the Rolling Stones in 2006. They were so poor I vowed never to bother again and I'm a fan. I saw ten minutes of Diana Ross caterwauling today and thought, jeez, it's not only McCartney who's lost it then. I'm stunned about Glastonbury this year. More and more it looks less like a music festival for genuine music fans and more like a holiday for the wealthy with a few pop shows thrown in - someone's even hired out a £24k "tent" with showers, toilets and a four poster bed - the whole thing's a joke.
Yet more evidence that @chrisno1 is a sort of Pelham from The Man Who Haunted Himself as I too saw Macca on the Tripping tour - Wembley Arena. (I know, 'small world') I know an album came out of it but not sure if it was visually recorded, and pre Internet and recording things on phones. The 'highlights' of this Glastonbury gig were artfully selected, too! Most of it was worse than that.
I just find it weird. It couldn't have happened in the days of punk, for better or worse. Ironically among the music musos Macca could do nothing write back then when some of his stuff was pretty cool - To You off Back to the Egg sounds like The Stranglers for instance, and I was the nerdy teenager fighting his corner in the 1980s. Now, to be fair, his music is cooler but a) He's beyond criticism and b) He can't ruddy sing!
A Radio 1 tribute show on his turning 80 was good and I noticed one Stones-style song on Run Devil Run - Try Not To Cry, I think - had great vocals but this first post-Linda album was the last of its kind. I read online he went to India and picked up a virus, after that his voice was never the same again and it's been diminishing returns since.
Gave up on Ross quickly, she was trying to cajole the audience into singing I'm Still Waiting after it had finished, it was like a session in an old people's home. I heard she was miming at the Platinum Jubilee and probably was here too, that said even 'our' Billie Eilish was said to be miming this year at Glastonbury.
Now ironically the Stones... Jagger's voice doesn't seem to have aged at all, I'd say he's still got it, and his band. I saw them in 88 on the Steal Wheels tour, guess if fits that they were doing the Wembley Stadium was Macca was doing the Arena. I was right up front and saw them again for the Voodoo Lounge tour I think, not bad. But to see a bad gig at those prices, it's demeaning and I'm not sure I'd bother again, it feels like once is enough anyway with a band like that.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
@Napoleon Plural Urban Jungle (Wembley) Voodoo Lounge (Wembley) No Security (Edinburgh & Wembley), 40 Licks (Prague) & Bigger Bang (O2) I hope you don't follow me around...
I wish these stars knew when to give up and go out with dignity. Paul McCartney, Diana Ross and Rod Stewart just can't do it anymore. When you can't sing your own songs, it's time to retire.
The only one's who's voices are still really strong is Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey. Must be a welsh thing.
Agree on Inside No. 9. It's good stuff. Very well acted. Reminds me of a modern day Tales of the Unexpected.
I'm a fan of Vienna Blood too. Very atmospheric and is a must watch for anyone who's a fan of Sherlock Holmes. I'm surprised with every man and his mate being mentioned as a possible Bond, that Matthew Beard hasn't been mentioned. Not saying he's right, but he's more appropriate than other names being banded around. He's British, 33 Years old and 6'1".
It's funny you mention Matthew Beard as a potential Bond as I watched the whole of Vienna Blood wondering if he'd be a good Bond or not and I'm still undecided. 😁
Kind of left field choice that the Bond producers may go for. He's more of the Dalton/Brosnan shape than muscle bound Craig.
I'm with you on that. I think he still looks very young despite being almost mid-thirties, so they would easily get three, four, five films out of him. I'm sure he could bulk up a bit as he does look quite lightweight, presently.
He would make a great Holmes, though.
Agreed about Holmes.
At least we have a series 3 to look forward too.
I know it’s hard to believe, but I’ve never seen a soap opera…until now. My parents didn’t watch them when I was a kid and when I left home I didn’t watch much TV anyway. I read about them in the newspapers, that’s all. Anyway, BritBox has put the greatest episodes of soapland onto the platform so I thought I would take a look…
CORONATION STREET: The black and white episodes have a gritty “kitchen sink” feel. Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner have an argument in the street (pretty good) and an old lady dies in the pub. Onto a colour episode and Hilda Ogden is having a farewell party in the pub on Christmas Day. The landlord is devising ways of making some more money and his wife is disparaging at his meanness. The acting is basic. Not knowing the characters doesn’t help, of course, so maybe it’s unfair for me to not have much interest in what’s happening.
CROSSROADS: Meg (I think that’s her name) is getting married. Why there are hundreds of watchers and a police presence is not in the script, presumably word got out and the public attended, but it makes no sense to leave those scenes in. In another episode, some young woman dies and Benny is upset. The acting is simply terrible. If these are the best episodes, then I’d hate to see the worst.
EMMERDALE FARM: In the first episode there is a funeral and a long lost son returns home. In another episode there is a plane crash in the village, which is quite well done. The acting is basic and it’s not a lot of fun.
EASTENDERS: In the first episode someone is found dead, probably murdered. There’s a scuffle in the pub. In another episode a 16 year old schoolgirl finds herself pregnant by the landlord of the pub. It’s all very depressing, lots of shouting, miserable characters, basic acting.
There is no way I could invest my time in watching a soap opera, it’s an endless cycle of plots, regurgitated with different characters. The acting is usually just about adequate, those who are any good go onto better things, those who are not stay for as long as they can. I won’t be watching any more.
Sorry, but Matthew Beats has a babyface. Jakob Elordi is ten years younger, but looks older than him.
Didn't say he was right, just surprised he's not been mentioned, as ticks more boxes than many of the other names being thrown around.
LOST (2004-2010) 6 Seasons
I’ve just finished rewatching this and my son watched with me for his first viewing. We watched an episode per night over 4 months. It’s a great series and I enjoyed it more this time around, I think seeing it nightly instead of weekly makes the story flow better and less chance of forgetting things.
A plane crashes onto an island and the survivors stories are told during flashbacks and then flash-forwards and ultimately flash-sideways. It’s a multi-layered series where everything begins to tie itself together as the show goes on. There is a large ensemble cast and the performances are good. It throws out lots of questions, some of which are never satisfactorily answered, but it remains a riveting experience to watch. Many don’t like the ending but I think it’s fine.
If you haven’t seen it I can highly recommend it, it’s one of the best series ever made.