It's Friday. You know what that means. Time for Tennant o'the chairs. This week's top picture is from Sister Chastity and shows a David Tennant clearly looking forward to whatever the two blondes have suggested. Keep 'em coming, ladies.
Rullsenberg: 33.5
Sister Chastity: 31.5
Jaradel: 25.5
Rosby: 2.5
Persephone: 1
Meanwhile, over in witty captions, the judge's verdict is in and the ten points for wittiest caption goes to Marie again, which puts her in the lead. Ooh!
Marie: 132.5
Toby: 131.5
Rullsenberg: 92
Jane Henry: 70.5
Persephone: 45.5
Jaradel: 38.5
Electric Dragon: 31
Rev/Views: 25
Scott 2: 14
Joe: 10
Scott: 3
Aaron: 2
almostwitty.com: 1
Stu_N: 1
Remember, you can submit as many captions as you like for today's picture, with the wittiest getting 10 points next Friday.
Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it's judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery.
Every photo displayed on Monday (one per person who sends one in) gets a point, with a bonus point if it's from the latest DT production; the best pic in the stash each week will appear on Friday and get three points.
You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Friday's Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points.
Not much here, I'm afraid. I'm currently working my way through episode two of The Philanthropist which is slightly more offensive but slightly more involving this week. That Mitchell and Webb Look was a little bit lacklustre. The Daily Show was a bit tatt, thanks to that women off Flight of the Conchords, who couldn't have worse comic timing or lines if she tried. Top Gear was fun. But that's about it really.
You?
As always, no spoilers unless you're going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please
Peter Serafinowicz seems to be all over the place, these days. He's on tele, he's on the Internet, he's in the movies. What a busy chap.
Here are some recent and forthcoming highlights for your enjoyment. In the first, he's out with Sarah Alexander when he bumps into Will Arnett and Amy Poehler.
He's also starring with Jon Favreau, Kristen Bell, Jason Bateman, Kristin Davis, Malin Akerman, Kali Hawk, Faizon Love and Jean Reno in Couples Retreat:
And to prove he's not gone all big time, he's still working with Look Around You partner Robert Popper on Radio Spiritworld, the only radio station to broadcast from the after-life. You can subscribe to it in iTunes.
The Forgotten, a Jerry Bruckheimer show set to appear on ABC in the Fall, was going to be Rupert Penry-Jones' stab at US stardom - sort of. He was to play the part of Alex, a former cop whose daughter was kidnapped and never found, and who now runs a network for identifying dead bodies. You can read all about it in my ABC fall preview.
However, Penry-Jones - and just about every foreign actor in every pilot - was dropped from the show, along with former 24-star Reiko Aylesworth. No reason's been given but the general assumption is that to save cash, the networks hired cheaper actors from outside the US for the pilots, with the intent of dropping them in favour of bigger, more expensive names once the pilots had gone to series.
Anyway, our Rupe has been talking to Simon Mayo about being dropped from an unnamed US pilot (ie The Forgotten) and what he thought of it.
I often wonder what happened to Kathryn Bigelow's career. She's arguably one of the best directors in Hollywood, directing movies like Point Break, Blue Steel and K-19. But she's not had the stratospheric adulation that ex-hubby James Cameron's had. In a world where McG and Brett Ratner get to make movies, this seems appalling, and I'm just going to accuse Hollywood of rampant sexism here.
Okay, Strange Days might have been to blame for her career decline, but she has been responsible for some really fantastically directed scenes:
Her latest movie, about a US bomb squad in Baghdad, is on limited release in the US. I'm not going to say anything about the writing, but take a look at how well The Hurt Locker is directed.
I may be running a competition to win a prize on this 'ere blog very soon.
Wow, that was vague, wasn't it?
See, I haven't decided on the prize. There's a range of options, all of them DVDs or Blu-Ray disks, most of them Film4/Channel 4 content, but I'm not sure what y'all would like best. So I'm going to give you the options, you say which one you'd like to win best, and I'll see if I can swing it with TPTB (no guarantees).
I feel violated. Violated and stupid. Don't I learn? Am I no better than invertebrates or small yappy dogs? Couldn't I tell that another Torchwood Radio 4 play was going to make the last one look like a work of art?
Apparently not, because I actually sat down and listened, live, to Torchwood - Asylum.
Slightly trickier meme this week. As you know, many shows last several seasons/series. Actors can get bored, get ill, have contract negotiation issues – or sadly they can die. In the case of pilots, they may not work at all well and might need to be gotten rid of.
In these cases, the producers can write them out or recast the character. Sometimes, this can actually be for the best, with the replacement actor turning out to be better than the original.
So meme of the week this week is
What's been your favourite piece of recasting?
There's a lot to choose from. Dynasty and Dallas did a whole lot of recasting – was Emma Samms a better Fallon than Pamela Sue Martin, who was also recast on The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew? Doctor Who recasts all the time. Bewitched recast the original Darren, and then reused all his scripts. Roseanne replaced Alicia Goranson with Sarah Chalke. The A-Team recast Face in between pilot and series. Ruby keeps dying in Supernatural and being replaced.
I'll open it up as well to US/UK remakes of shows, just in case you preferred Harvey Keitel (or even Colm Meaney) to Philip Glenister in Life on Mars. And I'll let you have movie series as well, just in case you think Robin Curtis was better than Kirstie Alley in Star Trek, for some reason.
As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.
Apologies for the delay in reviewing this one: I simply couldn't face listening to the first of two Sylvester McCoy stories after having to sit through the Key 2 Time season.
In fact, the thought of listening to the new Eighth Doctor and Lucie season was so horrific I've decided to give those a complete miss, so sorry if you've been hoping for reviews of those – I doubt you have.
But, just for yous guys, I forced myself to get back on track. I steeled myself last week, gave The Magic Mousetrap a whirl – as well as the first episode of The Three Companions – and now I'm ready to report.
It's not that bad actually, although it would have been so much better with practically any other Doctor/companion combination.
Ah, men. It's all falling apart, isn't it? No longer king of the castle, the divorce rates through the roof, the wife always getting custody of the kids. Let's face it, women are succeeding where none-too-bright, male former sports stars are failing - you know, by working harder and being smarter. Damn them.
Is there nowhere, no realm where men have a unique selling point, "a special tool" if you like: an area where they're the best and no woman can succeed?
Ian Pegler, CEO of Little Chef is working on a spin-off programme
from the Channel 4 hit documentary starring Heston Blumenthal Big
Chef, Little Chef. Working titles include ’Big Boss’, and ’Pegler’s
About’.
A spokesperson says:
“Ian Pegler doing his own thing is a bit like Kramer becoming a massive standalone
success after Cheers. It will be less emphasis on the food, and more
about how to make your business a success.“
Pegler spoke about ’Serving up a Better Deal’ recently at the
Institute for Turnaround Conference speaking with Channel 4 Chairman
Luke Johnson.
Not technically that weird a title sequence, although you could argue the typeface is a bit odd, but I forgot what actual title sequence I was going to be doing today (I know it was something American for a change, but that's as much as I can recall), so here's Paperplay instead. I used to love them little spiders.
It's Monday, so Sitting Tennant reverts to "Ooh!" mode. Enjoy three pictures, one each from Ms Rullsenberg, Sister Chastity and Ms Jaradel.
Rullsenberg: 33.5
Sister Chastity: 28.5
Jaradel: 25.5
Rosby: 2.5
Persephone: 1
Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it's judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery.
Every photo displayed on Monday (one per person who sends one in) gets a point, with a bonus point if it's from the latest DT production; the best pic in the stash each week will appear on Friday and get three points.
You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Friday's Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points.
In the US: Friday June 26, 8pm, Fox. Available on Fox On Demand In the UK: Sky will probably nab it
Unless minor miracles happen, this won't become a TV series. Yes, it's from the brain of Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald D Moore (well, "written by Michael Taylor; story by Michael Taylor & Ronald D. Moore"). Yes, Fox picked it up as a pilot.
But then they had second thoughts and left it to air as a TV movie.
It'll also be a minor miracle because frankly, if you thought Battlestar Galactica was depressing, you're not going to have a fun time with Virtuality. Here's a 12 minute preview to give you the basic idea.
So I was watching Taken again yesterday. It's a cracking movie – you can always tell when an action film isn't as dumb as the others when it gets described as a 'thriller' or an 'action-thriller'.
In it, Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA agent whose teenage daughter gets abducted while in Paris. He has 96 hours to track her down before she disappears forever. Now, it owes an awful lot to the Bourne movies, from its gritty fights and its European locations to its camerawork and stunt scenes. But it definitely stands by itself as a film intended for grown-ups, and Neeson's fantastic and the director lets him have some great moments to himself.
It also deserves a lot of credit for portraying the world of prostitution and trafficking in women as the horrific, miserable, squalid thing it is, rather than the usual glamourous Pretty Woman-esque view.
But it suddenly got me thinking. When exactly did Liam Neeson become the West's greatest martial arts action star? Okay, he started off in Hollywood doing Dark Man, so it's not like he was a stranger to action films. But over the last decade or so, he's become a real martial arts star who is also a great actor at the same time. That's pretty rare: in fact, he may be the movies' greatest martial arts actor. What do you think?
After the jump, some of Liam's recent fight scenes to prove my point – at least as far as the fighting's concerned.
Network DVD, which seems to have a monopoly on releasing cult classics of TV, has quite a few series out this month that I thought I'd mention – it's like someone picked up an old issue of Time Screen and said "Yeah, let's just release all of those":
The Jensen Code: Sixteen-year-old Terry Connor is sent, along with a few of his friends, to an Outward Bound centre. On his first day at the centre Terry is taken pot-holing by the senior instructor, Alex. All goes well until, at 100 feet underground, Alex goes to search for the torch that Terry has dropped.
Hours pass, and, to Terry’s astonishment, when Alex finally returns he has no recollection whatever of having been absent. Terry suspects something sinister is taking place – it is surely no coincidence that there is a secret Ministry of Defence establishment nearby. But just how deeply his curiosity will involve him in dangerous matters becomes clear when he learns the truth about the ‘Jensen Code’...
The Jensen Code was a highly unusual children’s thriller series, written by Carey Harrison (author son of actor Rex Harrison), and starring David (Dai) Bradley, the BAFTA-winning young star of Kes, as the teenager who unwittingly uncovers a terrifying space-age espionage project. This complete 13-part series, rarely seen since its original transmission in 1973, is released here for the first time in any format. Originally made in colour, The Jensen Code now exists only as black and white telerecordings made for overseas sales, the full colour episodes having been junked many years ago.
King of the Castle: Macabre, fantastical and a benchmark production for children’s television in the 1970s, King of the Castle was created by Doctor Who stalwarts Bob Baker and Dave Martin as one of the run of outstanding children’s dramas HTV produced in that decade. Featuring strong direction and a script which expertly melds fantasy and reality, the series boasts solid performances from genre stalwarts Fulton Mackay, Milton Johns and Talfryn Thomas as well as Philip Da Costa as the series’ hero, Roland.
Recently moved to a crumbling tower block of flats, Roland’s cleverness marks him out for rough treatment from the gang who haunt the stairwells. Fleeing from Ripper, the gangleader, he plummets to earth in a lift that should be broken... waking up he finds himself in the grotesque and eerie fantasy world of ‘The Castle’ – a twisted version of the tower block, filled with gruesome versions of the people he knows. Can Roland find the missing keys he needs to become ‘King of the Castle’?
One of the most memorable television series of the ‘70s is available here, for the very first time in any video format. Episode three no longer exists in the archive in any format and the version included on this set is taken from an off-air VHS.
The Mind of Mr J.G. Reeder : This classic Thames drama series, based on the short stories by Edgar Wallace, features one of the unlikeliest fictional sleuths: Mr. J.G. Reeder, a mild-mannered, bespectacled civil servant at the Department of Public Prosecutions. But Mr. Reeder (Hugh Burden) has an unusual ‘gift’ – he can think in exactly the way a criminal does. In 1920s London, his talent for cracking even the most impenetrable of crimes is known throughout the underworld, and much valued by his department head, Sir Jason Toovey; bank heists, jewel thefts and murder are among the many and varied cases that are passed on to Mr. Reeder to solve in his own singular way...
The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder is released here for the first time in any format and this complete set brings together both series, originally screened between 1969 and 1971.
Escape Into Night : Compelled to find her own amusement whilst confined to bed after a riding accident, Marianne fills her sketchpad with drawings of an imaginary place. When she sleeps she dreams of her imaginary world and realises that the more she draws in her waking hours, the more she can explore when she sleeps. She draws a house to investigate in her dreams and is shocked to find a boy looking at her through one of its windows...
A milestone in children’s television drama, Escape Into Night was adapted from Catherine Storr’s novel Marianne Dreams by Ruth Boswell (Timeslip, The Tomorrow People). The combination of Boswell’s taught scripts, Richard Bramall’s clever direction and Alan Coleman’s production enabled the juvenile cast to give memorable and, sometimes, terrifying performances. More experimental than most children’s drama series, Escape Into Night’s surreal, dark tone and eerie sense of unearthliness made an indelible impression on its viewing public and is still remembered, perhaps with a sense of unease, after nearly 40 years.
Originally made in colour, Escape Into Night now exists only as black and white telerecordings made for overseas sales, the original colour videotapes having been junked many years ago.
Fly Into Danger: At Chilford Green Aerodrome, a small, privately owned airfield in the heart of England, the transportation of cargo takes place daily. But this is no ordinary cargo – as 18-year-old Chris Lomax is to discover. A keen motor mechanic whose enthusiasm for aircraft has prompted him to get a job at Chilford, Chris’s self-reliance and questioning mind are soon causing consternation for his employers; as he gets alarmingly close to the true nature of the airfield’s operations, it becomes clear that Chris – and his young colleague, Sarah – could be in serious danger.
Fly Into Danger was a seven-part action series aimed at a younger audience; however, its spectacular and rapidly paced airborne sequences and a subject matter as relevant today as when it first aired in 1972 ensure that Fly Into Danger will appeal to viewers of all ages. Written by Roy Russell (The Saint, The Queen Street Gang) and boasting a strong cast, Fly Into Danger is released here for the very first time in any format.
Originally made in colour, only two episodes still exist in this format, the remaining five coming from black and white telerecordings.
Time for our regular look at what's on at the South Bank in London in August. Everyone's probably going to be on holiday, but c'est la vie.
Most of the TV-related material is part of the "From Stage to TV Screen" season, which is probably self-explanatory, but there's also an afternoon run: Missing Believed Wiped Special: The Lost Cartiers, looking at the work of legendary 1950s/60s director Rudolph Cartier.
2nd/4th: Play of the Month: Look Back In Anger
John Osborne's play, shot for the BBC1 on the 20th anniversary of its first Royal Court performance. Stars James Hazeldine
10th/14th: Theatre 625: Chicken Soup With Barley
The first play of Arnold Wesker's trilogy concerns the history of a communist working class family
12th: Rat in the Skull + Panel discussion
Brian Cox and Gary Oldman star in an examination of Irsih sectarian psychology. The panel interview with Max Stafford-Clark and Simon Curtis discuss the influence of Royal Court productions on TV drama.
19th/25th: Performance: Top Girls
Caryl Churchill's fantasy dinner party, starring Lesley Sharp among others
20th/29th: Performance: Suddenly, Last Summer
A production of Tennessee William's play starring Maggie Smith, Natasha Richardson, Rob Lowe and Richard E Grant
22nd: It is Midnight, Dr Schweitzer
Part of the Missing Believed Wiped Special: The Lost Cartiers season, this in the earliest surviving complete UK TV drama, and stars André Morrell
22nd: The Wednesday Play: The July Plot + Out of the Unknown: Level Seven
Part of the Missing Believed Wiped Special: The Lost Cartiers season, The July Plot is based on the 'Valkyrie' plot to assassinate Hitler, and was directed by Rudolph Cartier. Level Seven is a 'chilling instalment about nuclear war'
27th/30th: Performance: Six Characters in Search of An Author
Starring John Hurt, Brian Cox and Tara Fitzgerald
Members' priority booking opens: 11.30am July 7
Public booking opens: 11.30am July 14
All shows are £5 on Tuesdays. Conc prices are available to senior citizens, students, unwaged and disability visitors. Proof of eligibility may be required.
As always, visit the BFI web site for more details
PS Cy Young's standing for the board of governors. Vote for Cy Young everyone!
Twitter's an amazing thing, but on Friday, Rev/Views, Aaron and I together managed to create the storylines for a fourth series of Torchwood in just under an hour. Now that's amazing.
Our Joanna's off in Barry filming Gavin & Stacey right now, but Rob Brydon has been posting pics of the filming to his Twitter account. Here they are. Thanks Rob!
Look what happens with a little competition: you get semi-naked pictures of David Tennant, that's what. You have Ms Jaradel to thank this week. Off you go (no I don't know what he has in his left hand).
Rullsenberg: 32.5
Sister Chastity: 27.5
Jaradel: 24.5
Rosby: 2.5
Persephone: 1
Meanwhile, over in witty captions, the judge's verdict is in and the ten points for wittiest caption goes to Marie, who surprisingly enough was joint wittiest with Marie. No, she doesn't get 20 points.
That gives us the following leaderboard:
Toby: 131.5
Marie: 122.5
Rullsenberg: 92
Jane Henry: 70.5
Persephone: 45.5
Jaradel: 38.5
Electric Dragon: 31
Rev/Views: 25
Scott 2: 14
Joe: 10
Scott: 3
Aaron: 2
almostwitty.com: 1
Stu_N: 1
Remember, you can submit as many captions as you like for today's picture, with the wittiest getting 10 points next Friday.
Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it's judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery.
Every photo displayed on Monday (one per person who sends one in) gets a point, with a bonus point if it's from the latest DT production; the best pic in the stash each week will appear on Friday and get three points.
You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Friday's Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points.
Gosh. So many new programmes on, all of a sudden. Have you been watching them?
Tried to give ABC Family's Make It Or Break It a whirl, drawn in by the fact that Frasier's Peri Gilpin (Roz) was in it, but once I realised it was mostly about athletic teenage girls in leotards, I figured I shouldn't watch it any more, not being either a teenage girl or a teenage boy.
Also over in the States, Burn Notice had a good episode that managed to play with the formula cleverly, while Samantha Who? returned for its last few episodes.
In the UK, l tried Psychoville, but it seemed a bit predictable and didn't add much new (that Dawn French character, for example, just felt like a certain job centre woman off League of Gentlemen/Marjorie Dawes off Little Britain). Mitchell and Webb was very good this week, and even Sir Chicken Digby Caesar (or whatever his name is) had a dose of pathos added to him to make his return welcome. But not a huge amount else on, as far as I could see.
I also managed to polish off via my new iPhone (review next week, probably) the whole of Children of the Stones and the last bits of Moonbase 3 (probably both coming to a Lost Gem near you soon).
But now, I'm off to watch the still-enjoyable Royal Pains and last night's episode of Burn Notice as well. Ain't lunchtimes great? See you later for Sitting Tennant…
As always, no spoilers unless you're going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please? Ta!
In the US: Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC In Canada: Wednesdays, 10/9c, Global TV
Ooh, Africa. It's a bit tricky, isn't it? What with all the shit happening, and stuff and ooh, it just makes you want to throw your hands in the air and do nothing.
If only there were like some really cool, really rich, billionaire Western guy who could go in and like sort things out, by you know, "hands-on philanthropy", which would be like riding motorbikes without shoes on to get medicine to villagers before he gets on his Lear Jet. Because that would, like, really sort it all out.
Okay, it's quite easy to sneer at The Philanthropist. Look, I just did it.
But:
It is actually based on a real person - Bobby Sager - although only very loosely on him
It stars British actor James Purefoy and that Neve Campbell woman
Despite its silliness, its artificiality and its shallow attempts to depict an incredibly complicated situation in a 40-minute action-adventure format, The Philanthropist has its heart in the right place and isn't so stupid that you can hear the pebbles rattling around inside its skull.
It's got Omar from The Wire in it.
Here on some YouTube promos; more about the show after the jump:
Do not stare too long into his eyes, lest you hand over your credit card details to him. Haikus, if you can... Got a picture of Richard Armitage's head, preferably wearing a hat? Then leave a link to it below and if it's judged suitable, it will appear in… Continue reading
Today, Ali Larter is smoking - and quite possibly drinking as well. Naughty girl.
Have you seen Ali Larter acting randomly? If so, let us know and we'll tell everyone about it in "Random Acts of Ali Larter" Continue reading
Doctor Who Nigel Havers to guest on The Sarah Jane Adventures; British TV Law and Order gets a second series; FX picks up Eastbound & Down; Hallmark UK to become Universal Channel?; ITV turned down low-cost Primeval; Freeview HD to launch in December; BET HD added to Freesat; BBC Worldwide… Continue reading
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: Sixteen-year-old Terry Connor is sent, along with a few of his friends, to an Outward Bound centre. On his first day at the centre Terry is taken pot-holing by the senior instructor, Alex. All goes well until, at 100 feet underground, Alex goes to search for the torch that Terry has dropped.
Macabre, fantastical and a benchmark production for children’s television in the 1970s, King of the Castle was created by Doctor Who stalwarts Bob Baker and Dave Martin as one of the run of outstanding children’s dramas HTV produced in that decade. Featuring strong direction and a script which expertly melds fantasy and reality, the series boasts solid performances from genre stalwarts Fulton Mackay, Milton Johns and Talfryn Thomas as well as Philip Da Costa as the series’ hero, Roland.
At Chilford Green Aerodrome, a small, privately owned airfield in the heart of England, the transportation of cargo takes place daily. But this is no ordinary cargo – as 18-year-old Chris Lomax is to discover. A keen motor mechanic whose enthusiasm for aircraft has prompted him to get a job at Chilford, Chris’s self-reliance and questioning mind are soon causing consternation for his employers; as he gets alarmingly close to the true nature of the airfield’s operations, it becomes clear that Chris – and his young colleague, Sarah – could be in serious danger.
Read more on Rupert Penry-Jones on (not being in) The Forgotten