Year: 2012

News

The BBC’s Ghost Stories for Christmas are all coming to DVD

11 July 2012 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Lost Hearts

Genuine joy at this one – I may have mentioned them once or twice:

The BFI will make all 12 of the classic BBC films from A Ghost Story for Christmas series available on DVD this year, with the first two volumes – each containing a double bill of chilling tales – released on 20 August.

The first release features Jonathan Miller’s Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968), with Sir Michael Hordern, paired with the 2010 adaptation of the same chilling tale, starring John Hurt and directed by Andy de Emmony. Released alongside it is a pairing of The Stalls of Barchester (1971), starring Robert Hardy and receiving its DVD premiere, and A Warning to the Curious (1972), with Peter Vaughan, both directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. Each set comes with numerous special features and illustrated booklets.

As a Christmas treat during the 1970s, the BBC screened adaptations of the classic ghost stories of MR James, the Cambridge academic and author of some of the most spine-tingling tales in the English language. Most of the installments, which were broadcast to terrified viewers in the dead of winter, were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, who has been interviewed for new introductions on these BFI releases. With only three of the 12 tales previously released on DVD (by the BFI in 2002, and long since deleted), the films in this brilliant series have been high on many film and TV fans’ ‘most wanted’ DVD lists. With a subtlety and style all of their own, they have been a major influence on recent British horror films, such as The Woman in Black, and have inspired screenwriters and filmmakers such as Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Sherlock).

The release of the first two Ghost Stories volumes is timed to mark the 150th anniversary of MR James’ birth on 1 August 1862.

Two more volumes, the first containing Lost Hearts, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas and The Ash Tree, and the second containing The Signalman (Andrew Davies’ adaptation of the Charles Dickens story), Stigma (written by Clive Exton) and The Ice House (written by John Bowen), will follow in September, while the fifth and final volume, containing the more recent installments View from a Hill and Number 13, as well as a complete Ghost Stories for Christmas box set, will be released in October.

Buy them (Amazon has volumes 1, 2, 3 and 4) ! More details after the jump.

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Wednesday’s “A&E to remake Den Som Dræber, BBC to show Red Bones and CBS orders Ex-Men” news

11 July 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Films

Trailers

  • Trailer for Hello I Must Be Going with Melanie Lynskey

Canadian TV

UK TV

  • BBC to show Nordic thriller Red Bones
  • Yesterday unveils new logo, programming strategy and series [subscription required]

US TV

  • Sunday ratings: Newsroom jumps 32% to 2.2m viewers
  • Monday ratings: Perception is the year’s second biggest cable drama launch
  • Two new Dexter promos
  • Hollyoaks‘ Barry Sloane to recur on Revenge
  • A&E acquires format rights for Denmarks’s Those Who Kill/Den Som Dræber

New US TV shows

  • CBS orders pilot of Ex-Men

US TV

Review: Perception (TNT) 1×1

10 July 2012 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Perception

In the US: Mondays, 10/9c, TNT
In the UK: Not yet acquired, but you can bet Alibi will pick it up

There’s a great big swinging pendulum off in the TV universe somewhere that mysteriously dictates who solves crimes on tele. First it was talented amateurs, then it was private detectives, then it was the police and now, it seems, the pendulum has swung back to talented amateurs again.

See, the police have to follow rules and if they don’t, there are all kinds of political problems – either that or your show is escapist enough that people are prepared to suspend their disbelief. But if you have an amateur consultant, they can do whatever they like, more or less.

They can also have all kinds of personality quirks that probably would count against them in an institution like the police. Of course, in a crowded televisual landscape, or even on a crowded network like TNT, which already has the likes of Southland and Rizzoli & Isles, there’s something of an arms race in personality quirks as shows try to grab the viewers’ attention and distinguish themselves from the competition.

Now Perception takes us to Defcon 2 in the quirks arm race with neuroscientist, university professor and FBI consultant Dr Daniel Pierce (Will and Grace‘s Eric McCormack), who trumps The Mentalist, Psych, Lie To Me and practically every other amateur detective yet to grace our screens. Because Pierce goes into territory even Raines feared to tread: he’s a schizophrenic who refuses to take his meds so a lot of the time, when he’s talking to suspects, the suspects aren’t always there – although they have a lot to say for themselves.

Here’s a trailer:

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