Articles by Rob Buckley

About Rob Buckley
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
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Thursday’s super T-Bag news

4 June 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Awards

  • Results of the Glamour Awards, including Joanna Page as theatre actress of the year

Film

British TV

US TV

Meme of the week: Who’s your TV heroine?

3 June 2009 Rob Buckley 13 Comments

Quite a simple one this week:

Who’s your TV heroine and why?

Heroine obviously has a lot of mileage, so it can be someone you admire (since your TV heroine need not be fictional), a favourite character, or even someone you think is a good role model.

I’m going to go for a combo of Verity Lambert, Kate Adie and someone else I’ll probably think of later once everyone’s started suggesting people (otherwise, I’ll end up picking Liz Shaw again). How about you?

As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.

UK TV

Soolin on Blake’s 7: the best bits

3 June 2009 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

There’s a general opinion that all the women on classic 70s/80s BBC sci-fi show Blake’s 7 – with the exception of the evil Servalan – were a bit rubbish. To a certain extent, that’s true: Cally, Jenna and even Dayna had a certain “not very good” quality to them. 

However, in the fourth series, along came Glynis Barber (later to become Makepeace in Dempsey and Makepeace) as gunslinger Soolin and changed all of that by basically kicking arse a lot and not once getting kidnapped, tied up, etc.

She also had a very dry wit to match Avon’s:

Vila: Why do I get all the dirty jobs?
Soolin: Typecasting?

Soolin: All sweet things have one thing in common: a tendency to make you sick.

Soolin: I really could be quite annoyed if I thought we’d been the bait in a trap you’d laid, Avon.

Orac: Join us, Soolin. We can fulfil your every desire.
Soolin: You wouldn’t know where to start.

[after Soolin slaps Piri’s face]
Tarrant: You enjoyed that, didn’t you?
Soolin: There are two classic ways of dealing with an hysterical woman. You didn’t really expect me to kiss her, did you?
Tarrant: Of course, you know what this is about, don’t you? It’s simple female jealousy.
Soolin: Oh, terrific. If two men don’t like each other that’s a rational judgement. If it’s two women what else could it be but jealousy?

Anyway, someone took all her best action/looking slinky in a jumpsuit bits, stuck them to a soundtrack of Suede’s ‘Killer’ in an artistic kind of way and turned them into a music video. God bless him, that’s all I say, although it’s a shame you don’t get to hear any dialogue.

I think I might have to have a lie down now.