Every couple of weeks, TMINE flags up what new TV events BAFTA is holding around the UK
Only one screening/notable TV event at BAFTA this month (so far…)
Preview: Save Me + Q&A
Tuesday, 20 February 2018 – 6:45pm
Princess Anne Theatre, BAFTA, 195 Piccadilly, London
A preview of the new Sky Original Production followed by a Q&A with writer and actor Lennie James, actor Stephen Graham, director Nick Murphy and Anne Mensah, Head of Drama at Sky.
Save Me follows unlikely hero Nelson ‘Nelly’ Rowe (Lennie James) a man whose world is turned upside down when he is arrested and accused of kidnapping the 13-year-old daughter he barely knew existed.
With Jody’s mother Claire (Suranne Jones) convinced of his guilt, Nelly sets out to clear his name, find the real perpetrator and save his daughter. With the help of his community and his drinking pal Melon (Stephen Graham), Nelly will stop at nothing in his quest for the truth.
From the award-winning producers of Line of Duty, Save Me is a six-part Sky Original Production written by and starring Lennie James (The Walking Dead), directed by Nick Murphy (The Last Kingdom) with music by Dustin O’Halloran (Lion).
We will be screening the first two episodes in the series, with a total run time of 90 minutes.
Most science-fiction is an attempt to talk about the present. Stories that genuinely try to predict what the future will be like are far harder and inevitably of their time – we mock 50s sci-fi for imagining we’ll all have flying cars and rocket packs, but was 80s sci-fi any less fuelled by the nuclear concerns of its period?
So spare a thought for Altered Carbon, which does its level best to imagine a future in which bodies are completely replaceable, making death an optional rather than mandatory part of human existence. There’s some heavy thinking gone into it and it’s a show that really does make you philosophise.
Death becomes him
It’s the year 2384 and thanks to some fortuitous discoveries on an alien planet, human beings now have ‘stack technology’. Bodies are now ‘sleeves’ that you wear, while consciousness resides in a crystal disc or ‘stack’ that slots into the back of your neck. Take the disc out, put it in another sleeve and hey presto, you’re reincarnated. With cloning, cybernetics and other technologies, you can become fat or thin, black or white, man or woman, child, snake, robot or even someone completely different – it’s your choice, provided you have the cash for it, of course, otherwise you get nothing or maybe someone’s old hand-me-downs.
But if you do, you can become as old as Methuselah himself. When someone tries to kill one of these rich, all-powerful ‘Meths’ (James Purefoy), seemingly unaware he backs up his consciousness regularly, the reincarnated Purefoy decides he needs someone who can investigate his murder who is both exceptional and immune to all the norm societal pressures of the time.
So he ‘spins up’ Takeshi Kovacs (former Robocop Joel Kinnaman) in a new body, 250 years after he last died. Kovacs was an Envoy, a former space soldier capable of doing all manner of superhuman things, and now it’s up to him to solve Purefoy’s murder – assuming he wants to, given that he was once part of a rebellion that tried to stop the Meths getting the power that they now have.
Will Kovacs care enough to help in this new time and place? And if he does, what will he discover and who will try to stop him?
Sounds good, doesn’t it? And for a long time it is. Trouble is, there’s a moment where the whole show slams into a brick wall at 70mph, from which no one walks away alive. So much for stacks, hey?
Still, let’s talk about it after this shiny trailer and the jump. Spoilers ahoy, but hopefully nothing too serious.
Carly Gibson promoted to regular on TBS’s The Guest Book
New US TV shows
ABC green lights: pilots of adaptation of Antena 3 (Spain)’s Gran Hotel as Grand Hotel, Texan family business comedy Three Rivers
…and dysfunctional, mentally ill father family comedy
CBS green lights: pilots of TV adaptation of LA Confidential, racially charged cop show Red Line, legal thriller Main Justice and Marine Corps attorneys The Code
Every Friday, TMINE lets you know when the latest global TV shows will air in the UK
Quite a lot of acquisitions this week, with Universal Channel picking up The Resident (US: Fox), Sky1 grabbing hold of S.W.A.T.(US: CBS), 5USA acquiring Training Day (US: CBS) and Walter Presents shockingly acquiring a dark Scandi thriller Elven (The River) (Norway: TV3) – who saw that coming?
Premiere dates have been a bit harder to come by, mind, but here’s three to tickle your fancy.
Striking Out Left to Right: Rory Keenan as Eric, Fiona Shaughnessy as Meg, Emmet Byrne as Ray, Neil Morrissey as Ray and Amy Huberman as Tara
Striking Out (Ireland: RTÉ One; UK: 5Select)
Premiere date: Tuesday, February 13
Channel 5’s new 5Select channel is launching with Irish legal thriller Striking Out, which has been renewed for a second season in its home country. Here’s the Wiki plot rundown, since I ain’t seen it.
Striking Out follows the suddenly tumultuous professional and personal life of Dublin-based solicitor, Tara Rafferty (Amy Huberman), and her fledgling legal firm. With the help of Ray Lamont (Emmet Byrne), her street smart and opinionated client-turned-assistant, Meg Riley (Fiona O’Shaughnessy), a tech guru and private detective, Pete (Brahm Gallagher), the easy-going owner of the café where she makes her new office, and Senior Counsel Vincent Pike (Neil Morrissey – yes, that one), Tara’s mentor and friend, Striking Out follows Tara in her often surprising, sometimes poignant cases – their findings, fallouts, and resolutions.
Spanning from grandeur of the Four Courts to the beehive of Grand Canal, Striking Out is a snapshot of contemporary life in Ireland. Over time Tara’s cases pit her in direct conflict with influential families and the legal and political establishment, and also challenge her own ethics as she navigates her new life, fighting the urging of Eric and his and her family to return to the way things were. She isn’t alone in the battle, though. With support from her new team, Tara finds that this unexpected road is actually more rewarding
Gone Left to right: Leven Rambin, Chris Noth, Andy Mientus, and Danny Pino
A TV show that has even less of a fixed abode than Absentia, Gone has only just started airing in the likes of France and Germany, which is why I haven’t seen it. That and it sounding rubbish, despite both Leven Rambin and Chris Noth being in the cast. So here’s the spiel:
Based on the Chelsea Cain novel One Kick, Gone tells the story of Kit “Kick” Lanigan (Leven Rambin), the survivor of a famous child-abduction case, and Frank Novak (Chris Noth), the FBI agent who rescued her. Determined never to fall victim again, as an adult Kick has trained herself in martial arts and the use of firearms.
She finds her calling when Novak persuades her to join a special task force dedicated to solving abductions and missing persons’ cases. Paired with former army intelligence officer John Bishop (Danny Pino), along with other team members, Maya Kennedy (Tracie Thoms) and James Finley (Andy Mientus), the team work to solve cases and bring victims home.
No English-language trailers that I could find, but if you don’t mind some Spanish, there’s this one:
And if you can cope with a little French, there’s these for the first two episodes:
Alexa & Katie (Netflix)
Premiere date: Friday, March 23
Sigh. Not seen this one, either, but it’s Netflix. Probably won’t see this since it’s for kids:
Alexa & Katie follows two best friends eagerly anticipating the start of their freshman year of high school. Despite the fact that Alexa is undergoing cancer treatment, her outgoing personality and enthusiasm for life never falter, especially with her loyal, quirky, and awkwardly adorable best friend Katie by her side. At times they’re left feeling like outsiders, during a period when what seems to matter most is fitting in.
The comedy series stars Paris Berelc, Isabel May, Tiffani Thiessen, Emery Kelly, Eddie Shin, Jolie Jenkins and Finn Carr.
Trailer for ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy spin-off Station 19
ABC green lights: pilots of group of dysfunctional single parents comedy Single Parents and four adults/three houses/three kids/two divorces comedy Steps, based on SVT (Sweden)’s Bonusfamiljen (Bonus Family)
