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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NBC’s comedic Remington Steele remake, CBS cancels We Are Men and Russia to remake Braquo

10 October 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film casting

Trailers

  • Trailer for David O Russell’s American Hustle, with Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper et al

International TV

  • Russian TV to remake Canal+’s Braquo [subscription required]
  • Trailer for ABC1’s Ja’mie: Private School Girl

UK TV

  • BBC and Discovery end partnership

US TV

US TV casting

New US TV show news

New US TV show casting

NBC’s comedic Remington Steele remake, CBS cancels We Are Men and Russia to remake Braquo

10 October 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film casting

Trailers

  • Trailer for David O Russell’s American Hustle, with Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper et al

International TV

  • Russian TV to remake Canal+’s Braquo [subscription required]
  • Trailer for ABC1’s Ja’mie: Private School Girl

UK TV

  • BBC and Discovery end partnership

US TV

US TV casting

New US TV show news

New US TV show casting

NBC buys Swedish show, to adapt Cuckoo, more Moriarty, BBC1 to launch +1 and a BBC Store

9 October 2013 Rob Buckley Post a comment

UK TV

US TV

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting

Australian and New Zealand TV

Review: Serangoon Road 1×1-1×3 (ABC Australia/HBO Asia)

8 October 2013 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

Serangoon Road

In Australia: Sundays, 8.30pm, ABC1
In Asia: Sundays, 9pm, HBO Asia

Australia’s been having something of a renaissance when it comes to quality TV of late, particularly in the realm of the period crime drama. We’ve already seen one rather fine effort this year: ABC1’s The Doctor Blake Mysteries, in which Craig McClachlan investigates crime in a small Victoria town in the 1950s. That’s been bought by the BBC and has already been renewed for a second season.

Now, in a co-production with HBO Asia (that network’s first ever original drama series), ABC1 are giving us Serangoon Road, a surprisingly enjoyable and intelligent private detective show. Set in Singapore in 1964, it stars Don Hany (East West 101) as Sam Callaghan, a former Australian soldier who helped the British during the Malay uprising of the 1950s and now helps Joan Chen (Twin Peaks), who has inherited her late husband’s detective business. Callaghan has to deal not only with the local criminals, including the Red Tiger gang, he has to cope with the sometimes helpful Americans (largely Michael Dorman of The Secret Life of Us), the usually unhelpful British and the occasional Australian ex-pat – in particular, Claire Simpson (Maeve Dermody), whose businessman husband is always absent…

Filmed in Malaysia and with an obviously large budget and a cast of huge Australian and Singaporean stars, it would be tempting to think Serangoon Road would be nothing but a beautiful-looking, historical bore. Instead, it’s a vibrant, exciting, multi-lingual show that brings to mind the likes of Bring Em Back Alive and Tales of the Gold Monkey, except thankfully with more intelligence.

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