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Here's a little vid of the BBC's showing the highlights of their current and forthcoming drama output. Full details after the jump, but there's Idris Elba in Luther, Billie Piper in A Passionate Woman, Christopher Eccleston in Lennon Naked, Douglas Henshall in The Silence, Alan Bleasdale's The Sinking of the Laconia, as well as bits from Ashes to Ashes, Doctor Who (nothing new), Being Human, Survivors and The Deep.
Maybe there's a reason other than the obvious ones for why I don't like Ashes to Ashes: it reminds me too much of Gentle Touch spin-off C.A.T.S. Eyes. Yes, much like Fox Force 5, it featured an all-woman group of government spies (Covert Action – Thames Section) working undercover as private detectives at an agency called Eyes.
Oh dear God.
The Gentle Touch was something of a ground-breaker. A long-running series about a female police detective, Maggie Forbes (played by Jill Gascoine) and the pressures of the very male environment in which she worked, it was something of a pre-cursor to Prime Suspect.
So sending the character and the actress who played her to do grunt work in C.A.T.S. Eyes was akin to sending Helen Mirren and DCI Tennison off at the end of Prime Suspect to mop up the garbage on Captain Planet.
The rest of the team (for series one at least) consisted of posh bird Rosalyn Landor, playing the head of Eyes, Pru Standfast; and Leslie Ash, playing Fred Smith, casual racist and computer expert.
Yes, Leslie Ash. She was quite hot then – at least 13-year-old MediumRob used to think so at the time.
Running the whole operation from Whitehall was Don Warrington of Rising Damp fame. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Pru left at the end of series one (allegedly because none of the actresses got on, but who knows). Maggie Forbes took over, and more obvious totty Tracy Louise Ward joined as Brunette A CipherTessa Robinson.
The titles for the first series changed each time, with the agent who was the focus of the story getting the main titles time. In a second, the titles from the first series' 'good episode', Frightmare, in which Fred takes her date to the office and gets doused in hallucinogens so he can steal all the office secrets, IIRC. Apparently, girls don't like to see centipedes on their keyboards or something.
Here they are, beamed to us directly from 1985 by a benevolent engineer who used to work for old ITV franchise TVS. Prepare to laugh and wonder if in fact Keeley Hawes is playing a snottier version of Pru Standfast in Ashes to Ashes.
For those who want to see how desperate things got, live from a VHS recording from The Family Channel, comes this six minute chunk from an episode of the second series, complete with funky new titles and new theme.
Time, once again, to let the rest of the world know what you'd (un)recommend from the tele this week.
I didn't bother with Ashes to Ashes series two, which started this week, and at some point I'm going to have to play catch-up on The Unusuals, Southland, Sit Down Shut Up and Parks and Recreation – should I bother, guys?
I did love CSI and its fake Star Trek/BSG last week (which I only got round to watching yesterday) – nice cameo from Ronald D Moore, too, and the episode was quite poignant in its own geeky way.
BTW lovely wife, after giving up on Heroes during volume three on grounds of its general painfulness to watch, is playing catch-up and finding volume four to be "okay to good", although the dullness of Building 26 sapped the joy out of things a little for her – I blame Mohinder and Matt. So it's not just me who thinks everyone should be watching it, just in case you were wondering.
As always, no spoilers unless you're going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please? Ta!
About the blog
This is a UK media blog with daily news, views, exclusive reviews and good conversation. There's a bit of a bias towards the latest and greatest US TV, but we also cover British TV ranging from new Doctor Who to old Z Cars, Property Ladder to Big Brother, and BBC4 to S4C – yes, this blog is firmly part of the conspiracy to promote all things Welsh where possible, particularly Caerdydd.
Add in film, theatre, art, books, events and media journalism and you've (hopefully) got one of the best places on the web for media lovers. Oh yes, and there's The Carusometer, the ultimate guide to quality TV.
About me
I'm Rob Buckley, a freelance journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of. I've edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for trade magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and contributed sarcastic articles about television to the blink-and-you-missed-it "web site for urban hedonists" The Tribe. I'm freelance now and have contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly and TV Scoop. Have pity on me.
Read more on Friday's Sitting Tennant (week 11, 2010)