European TV

Life on Mars in Spain

La chica de ayer

Since Ashes to Ashes is (thankfully) finishing tonight, it seems appropriate to show what Life on Mars is like in other countries. Now, we’ve already looked at Life on Mars in the US in some detail. So let’s go Spanish today, with Antena 3’s La chica de ayer (The Girl from Yesterday), in which the Spanish police detective Samuel Santos leaves 2009 and finds himself in 1977, where has to take the orders of the old school Joaquín “Quin” Gallardo and deal with his fellow officers, Raimundo García and José Cristóbal Mateo. But there is the upside of the lovely Ana Valverde.

Is he loco, in a coma, or back in time? No sabe.

I have a very small idea about what they’re saying in these vids, but six weeks of Teach Yourself Instant Spanish didn’t give me much insight into murder investigations, desgraciadamente. You can see more videos at the Antena 3 web site, and hopefully work out what’s different for yourselves.

(via @jonnelledge)

What have you been watching this week (w/e May 21)

Erk. Busy, busy, busy. But I have had time to watch the following:

  • Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations: An old ep of Anthony Bourdain’s globe-trotting cookery show that went to a couple of Greek Islands. He’s a lippy git – I wouldn’t want him there if I’d seen the programme beforehand. All the same, very educational and looked a whole slew of Greek dishes most people would never see because they’re not the standard tourist dishes. Actually beat Keith Floyd’s similar efforts, I thought.
  • Chris Ryan’s Strike Back: Haven’t seen this week’s yet, but episodes three and four from last week were a bit of a drop-off from the first two. Really very silly, but still action-packed and tense. And was that an Other Boleyn Girl homage I spotted?
  • Cougar Town: One real laugh-out-loud moment in last week’s episode (Courtney Cox’s high school photo), but generally a bit blah.
  • Doctor Who: I honestly didn’t have time to do a full review for this, so here’s a brief one. On the whole, I liked it, but I guessed both twists, so that left me feeling a little let down, but the general insights into the Doctor, the dialogue, etc, were very good. Amy/Rory almost started working for me, mainly thanks to Karen Gillan’s acting, but you can’t help but think Rusty would have given Amy Pond a bit more of an emotional scene when she sees her fiancé get killed in front of her eyes. Toby Jones was great, Matt Smith did well too (this was the last episode to be filmed, so clearly he just needed a little time). Still not liking Rory as a character though, and although I’ve seen arguments that Amy-Rory are a realistic couple, Amy is a damaged character, etc, it’s just feeling a little bit too slippery, like I can’t really get a handle on them. I wonder if I’m getting old, because the information deluge was such, this episode, that it was really hard to keep up and process everything.
  • House: Sigh. I was hoping for a really good ending to this, but got a rubbish one (which given that this was the season finale makes me wonder how much I’ll want to watch next season). The whole season’s been something of a letdown though, after the initial heights of the first few episodes.
  • Lost: Thank goodness. This episode was a decent return to form, the flashes sideways are looking very interesting now, and it even managed to make last week’s episode not look so rubbish.
  • Stargate Universe: Bit of a nothing episode, this one. One of the usual “people start to hallucinate important things” you get in genre shows from time to time. Still, of all the “people start to hallucinate important things” episodes, this has to be one of the best, since there were actual repercussions of sorts.
  • Touching Evil: I’ve already praised it once, but I rewatched in glorious HD this week and it seemed even better. Every time I watch it, I see new things. Next ep’s tonight everyone – watch on ITV1 HD if you can, because the Freeview version has BSL signing. Unless you’re a BSL signer, of course.
  • 24: Good to see this has essentially become “what if Jack Bauer became one of the bad guys – just how much trouble would we be in then?” Nothing can stop this one man army. Loved the bit with Jack in a mask, too.
  • 30 Rock: Last week’s, not this week’s. That was actually very funny. Not quite sure about the uproar in the US against Tina Fey, saying she’s putting down single women and saying women should ‘settle’. Does anything think Liz Lemon is actually supposed to be a role model and someone to look up to?

But what have you been watching?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).

Classic TV

Weird old title sequences: Pipkins (1973-1981)

Hartley Hare

Death. Always a good thing in kids’ stuff, hey? Bambi’s mum dying – that was great, wasn’t it? Ditto Simba’s dad in The Lion King.

Back in the day, there was a TV programme called Pipkins. Or at least, that’s what it eventually became known as. It started as Inigo Pipkin, the main character being an elderly puppet maker called Inigo Pipkin played by George Woodbridge. During the course of Inigo Pipkin, Pipkin brought to life a series of puppets including Topov the monkey and Octavia the ostrich.

However, Woodbridge died during the recording of the second series. In a first for children’s television, Inigo’s death was worked into the programme. From this episode onwards the show was renamed Pipkins, and Inigo’s assistant, Johnny (Wayne Laryea), took over. The direction of the programme also changed, the show no longer centering around a puppet workshop and the characters becoming “The Help People”, helping anyone in need.

Most iconic of all the puppets was Hartley Hare, a very arch hare who loved to be the centre of attention. As this weird old title sequence and series of clips shows you.

Sitting Tennant

Friday’s Sitting Tennant (week 20, 2010)

Erin C's Sitting Tennant

Rachel's Sitting Tennant

Rullsenberg's Sitting Tennant

Sister Chastity's Sitting Tennant

Toby's Sitting Tennant

Today’s Sitting Tennants are brought to you in association with the letter Mmmmm.      

  1. Rullsenberg: 140
  2. Erin C: 130
  3. Sister Chastity: 120
  4. Toby: 110
  5. Rachel: 80
  6. Sabine: 60
  7. Karen: 35
  8. Dawn: 10
  9. kellyann06: 5

BTW, after creating the eight perfect island paradises of Japan with their spear, Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto let it be known that you mustn’t forget Tuesday’s caption competition.

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. Don’t forget to include your name in the filename so I don’t get mixed up about who sent it to me.

The best pic in the stash each week will appear on Monday and get ten points; the runners up will appear on Friday (one per person who sends one in) and get five points.

You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Monday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points, everyone who contributes getting five points.

On the impossibility of knowing whether Chris Morris is joking or not

So I went to a showing of Four Lions followed by a Q&A with Chris Morris, Sam Bain and two of the film’s stars. Very funny film that’s also full of pathos – you should go see it if you haven’t already.

However, Chris Morris did discuss some of the research he’d done, which involved talking to some very odd people, as you’d expect from a film about suicide bombers. And there was one story he told that shows you just how hard it is to tell if he’s making things up or not.

The story was that he’d been to see a guy who, as a teenager, had put a fake bomb in WH Smith’s to protest about The Satanic Verses. Now he’s working as a security guard for the Crown Prosecution Service – to be precise, as a nightwatchman. Even though he’s afraid of the dark.

So one night a moth sets off an alarm on the eighth floor of the building he’s supposed to be guarding, and he calls the police, not just because he’s afraid of the dark, but because he thinks the moth is possessed by the spirit of his cousin who wants to get back at him for something.

What do you think? BS or not?

PS There was another story about how he persuaded some guy that it was possible to train crows to talk. Again…