Time for our regular look at the TV that the BFI is showing, this time in the month of February 2012. Pretty slim pickings overall, though. There’s a preview of BBC1’s White Heat, followed by a Q&A with the writer Paula Milne. There’s a recently recovered The Wednesday Play starring David Hemmings.
But top of the pile is a two-part retrospective of BBC flagship magazine programme Nationwide, which ran for 15 years on BBC1, complete with a discussion with long-time host Michael Barratt.
From 19 to 22 January, the Institut français will hold its first ever French and British TV Series Festival. TV fanatics, enthusiasts and newcomers will be able to discover the cream of French and British TV series with the most amazing actors, screenwriters and directors in attendance. It’s time to get totally serialized!
The UK premiere of eagely awaited hit TV Show Borgia, attended by actor Mark Ryder, will kick off the festival. Other highlights include a very special premiere of the first episode of Inside Men, the new BBC One TV Drama, followed by a Q&A with writer Tony Basgallop, a screening of Spiral with the screenwriters Anne Landois and Eric de Barahir, an exclusive screening of the first episode of Shane Meadows’s This is England ’88, in the presence of members of the cast and all-night marathon of Season 3 of Misfits with the cast also attending. Maverick French TV Shows such as Platane, with a Q&A with co-screenwriter Hafid F. Benamar, and Hard, a comedy about the porn world are also lined-up as well as comedies such as The Invincibles and the hit TV show Desperate Parents introduced by actress Valérie Bonneton.
Gangsters and cops will wrap up the festival on Sunday notably with Tony’s Revenge and the dark and gritty Braquo. A panel discussion on ‘How to Write a TV Show’ completes the programme, gathering majors screenwriters such as Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), Paula Milne (Small Island, The Politician’s Wife), Anne Landois and Eric de Barahir (Spiral).
You can find out more here, and there’s also a schedule of events. And for those who aren’t going, apparently Death in Paradise will be broadcast on BBC1 and Borgia will be shown on Netflix UK in 2012. Yes, there’s going to be a Netflix UK in 2012. Interesting. And I’ll be even more interested to see if Borgia is better than snore-fest The Borgias.
I’m probably going to be camped out in the Institute for most of this.
Time for our regular look at the TV that the BFI is showing, this time in the month of January 2012. As well as the start of its three-month long Dickens on Screen season and a preview of BBC2’s ‘definitely not Between The Lines, honest’ police drama about corruption investigations Line of Duty (coincidentally made by World Productions, too), there is the truly awesome news that Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz are going to be at the 10th anniversary screening of series one of Look Around You, for which they’ve made a short film especially.
It’s a marvellous smorgasbord of TV in December at the BFI. Hoorah! The preview of Sherlock that was supposed to be on last month is showing on the 6th. There are previous of BBC2’s adaptation of Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood as well as an Arena documentary about Dickens adaptations. There are two more archive recoveries from the Library of Congress, as well as the yearly ‘Missing Believed Wiped’ featuring a ‘treat for sci-fi fans’. There’s also a Peter Kosminsky season, including Britz and The Project (although unfortunately no Shoot To Kill), as well as two episodes of A Ghost Story for Christmas, including the marvellous The Signalman.
But best of all, there’s a reshowing of 80s children’s drama Moondial (tagline: ‘What happens when the moon shines on a sundial?’)
I should also point out that in December, the BFI Mediatheque will have (free to view) 10 episodes of A Ghost Story For Christmas: The Stalls of Barchester, A Warning to the Curious, Lost Hearts, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The Ash Tree, The Signalman, Stigma, The Ice House, A View From A Hill and Number 13. Go watch them – they’re blinking marvellous.
Not a lot of tele at the BFI in November this year, but what there is is top quality: a preview of the first episode of the new series of Sherlock, as well as a Q&A with Sharon Gless and Barney Rosenzweig to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Cagney and Lacey. And on top of that, there’s also a lost ITV play recovered from the Library of Congress and starring Charles Gray and Susannah York.
