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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UK TV

Review: Out – The Complete Series – Special Edition

29 April 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Many people will only know of the late Tom Bell as the sexist DS Otley in Prime Suspect. But his acting career was wide and varied. Perhaps Bell’s finest hour was in Out in his BAFTA-winning lead role of Frank Ross, a former bank robber who tears up his old manor after eight years inside, trying to find out who put him behind bars.

Written by Trevor Preston, a contributor to Callan and previous Euston Films productions such as Special Branch, Out is firmly rooted in the revenge thriller genre, as well as the general Euston Films milieu. Like Walker in Point Blank (1967) and Carter in Get Carter (1971), Ross is an iconic figure, a sharply dressed gangster who’s prepared to go to almost any lengths to find out who informed on him.

While the grittiness of those films lives on in these six episodes, it would be wrong to think of Out as simply a standard crime thriller. Taking the Krays and other real-life criminals as guidance, it explores the relationships that a career criminal might make with others, including his family, his friends, other criminals and the police, as well as the rules that bound societies like that together during the 60s and 70s.

Continue reading “Review: Out – The Complete Series – Special Edition”
US TV

Third-episode verdict: Painkiller Jane

28 April 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

The Carusometer for Painkiller Jane5-Full-Caruso

Oh the pain. If only there were some way to end it! Fortunately, there is. It’s called the off switch.

After three not terribly good episodes of Painkiller Jane, I’m throwing in the towel. It’s not without its charms: at its heart are some intriguing ideas; it feels at times like a 21st Century version of the rather good 80s show Max Headroom (the US sci-fi version, not the UK chat show); Kristanna Loken is?��Ǩ�� pretty; and it does look good.

But style can overcome only so much lack of substance. It’s appalling in execution. The writing is leaden and cliché d, with dialogue that makes you feel like you’ve got Ebola; there’s no real sense of place or time, so allusions to “Brad and Angelina” make absolutely no sense whatsoever in context; there’s no characterisation and even Jane only gets to be something more than a cipher because she does the ridiculous voiceovers; the plots are bizarre mishmashs of effortlessly poor detective investigations, action thrillers and homely moralising (the bad guys turn out to be lonely teenagers or well meaning little old men); and the actors are blessed with less talent than a computer-generated console game interstitial.

So The Medium Is Not Enough has great pleasure in declaring Painkiller Jane has scored a five or ‘Full Caruso’ on The Carusometer quality scale. A Full Caruso corresponds to “a show in which David Caruso might be responsible for every aspect of production. In an attempt to make the show futuristic, he will force the cast to wear sunglasses, even when it means they’ll fall over in the poorly lit sets he will insist on. He will also insist they end every sentence with the word ‘hip!’ because ‘People will talk different in the future’. All their shirts will be made from PVC.”

TV things at the NFT next month

28 April 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

As usual, the NFT has a few nice TV treasures on display next month, as well as some excellent events. Here are the highlights, IMHO.

Friday 11th May: Preview: The War on Democracy + John Pilger intro

Pilger’s first feature-length film for the cinema, looking at Latin America. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez gives Pilger a rare face-to-face interview.

Saturday 19th May: Bar Mitzvah Boy

Jack Rosenthal’s bittersweet comedy about a teenage Jewish boy’s coming of age. Plus 15 minutes of clips from the strand.

Saturday 19th May: Play for Today discussion

A panel of writers, directors, producers and academics debate Play for Today and its impact. How did it work and what were its achievements? No idea who the panel are though.

Wednesday 23rd May: A Night With the Bonzos

TV appearances by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and Son of the Exploding Sausage. May feature appearances by actual Bonzos.

Wednesday 23rd May: Coming to England

Floella Benjamin leads a discussion on the experiences of first-generation immigrants to the UK in the 50s and 60s. Includes a screening of Coming to England, the autobiographical account of her journey to the UK.

Friday 25th May: Eccentric England

One Man’s Week: Vivian Stanshall BBC 1975 30min

The Bonzos’ Viv Stanshall cycles around Muswell Hill, hunting records and attending to his terrapins.

Dave Allen in Search of the Great English Eccentric ATV 1974 52 mins

Meet a man who resides in a small iron box, plus Bonzos cohort Bruce Lacey, who has a home-made robot-lady in his shed. Meanwhile, Ivor Cutler plays the harmonium and sings at the zoo.

The Moon and the Sledgehammer UK 1971 65 mins

Words like ‘weird’ and ‘odd’ do not do justice to this remarkable, eerily beautiful folk documentary recording the exploits of a strange, mysterious family living deep in the woods – according to their own rules – along with their giant steam engines, pump organs, broken-up buses, and all manner of outlandish regalia. Once seen, never forgotten!

The Mediatheque will be crammed with Play for Today stuff that you can view for free as well. Plus there’s film stuff at the NFT as well, apparently.

News

Friday’s last news of the week

27 April 2007 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

David Tennant in Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • Martin Freeman from The Office gets his own Channel 4 show, written by Toby Whithouse, about a washed-up magician
  • Mark Gatiss’s The Vesuvius Club will be adapted by the Beeb, with potential adaptations of The Devil in Amber and its forthcoming sequel as well [free registration required]
  • The A-Team reunite to contact George Peppard on Most Haunted?

US TV