Events

Previews of forthcoming events and reviews of past events.

Monday’s “Duff move” news

28 April 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

Events

British TV

US TV

June at the BFI

21 April 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

It’s monthly round-up time for tele at the BFI. Here are the highlights of June’s schedule. Members’ postal booking starts 28 April; members’ online and phone booking opens 5 May; public booking opens 9 May.

Tony Hancock season: The Rebel (1st/4th), The Punch and Judy Man (23rd/30th), The Tony Hancock Show (2nd/28th), three episodes of Hancock’s Half Hour (13th), The Government Inspector + Face to Face (14th/26th), three episodes of Hancock, including The Blood Donor and The Radio Ham (18th)

13th: David Simon in conversation. Includes the first episode of The Wire, season five. 

17th: Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais in conversation. Preceded by episodes of Porridge, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

25th: Michael Palin and Terry Jones introduce three recently recovered episodes of The Complete and Utter History of Britain 

BFI weirdness – Robin Redbreast and Murrain

4 April 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

As usual, it’s time for our monthly (assuming there’s anything on) look at what’s coming up at the BFI that’s TV-related – you might as well join if you want to know all the film stuff, too.

The principal season this month is devoted to the weird world of NF Simpson. Never heard of him, but there’s three plays on the 14th, A Resounding Tinkle on the 9th and 20th and an episode of Crown Court on 28 May, so you can get fully acquainted with him if you want.

However, on the 2nd May, there’s something a tad more promising as far as I’m concerned: Robin Redbreast, which was a Play for Today in which a divorcee retreats to a remote house in the country and finds herself in The Wicker Man territory; but better still is Murrain, by Nigel Kneale of Quatermass fame (how have I never heard of this?):

When a mysterious virus plagues local pigs and a family goes sick, panicking farmers blame a frail old woman – the ‘witch’ who lives up the lane. An idealistic young doctor tries to dispel the rumours.

That’s me convinced. As always, you can can start booking online and at the box office if you’re a member from 7 April, while everyone else can book in person, by telephone and online from 11 April.

Mr and Mrs: The Next Generation

16 March 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Remember Mr and Mrs? Tatty old game show in which husbands and wives used to have to answer questions about each other to win prizes – well, a carriage clock anyway? Came back briefly with Julian Clary back in ’99?

Well, it’s back again, this time hosted by Philip Schofield and Fern Britton (who everyone thinks are a married couple. Except they aren’t. Now, of course, since ordinary people are to be confined to reality TV shows and game shows are now the province of the celebrity, it’s celebrity partners who have to answer the questions, this time to win money for charity.

And, yes, you lucky people, you can get tickets (from SRO audiences) to see them being filmed at the London Studios. Some interesting names in the mix and nice to see there are non-marrieds and at least one gay couple in there:

  • Neil and Christine Hamilton (18th March)
  • Steve Bakley and his wife (18th March)
  • Anthony Head and partner Sarah (29th March 7.30pm)
  • King Of The Jungle Christopher Biggins & partner Neil (29th March 7.30pm)
  • Kerry Katona and husband Mark Croft (25th March)
  • Vic Reeves and Nancy Sorrell (26th March)
  • Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn Bowen (30th March 4.30pm)
  • Vicky Entwistle and her husband Andy (29th March 4.30pm)
  • Lembit Opik and Cheeky Girl Gabriela Irimia

God, that Lembit Opik’s everywhere now. What’s he trying to be? The new Charles Kennedy? As for Kerry Katona and Mark Croft, anyone who’s seen them on Kerry Katona: Crazy in Love will know how appetising that sounds. We had to take out the Sky Music Mix to get MTV especially…

Arcadia: from the makers of The IT Crowd

2 March 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Sounds a bit sh*t, but you never can tell with SRO’s marketing evil. Plus it has a good pedigree (‘from the makers of The IT Crowd,’ they say. Who’s that? The writers? The cameramen? The people who press the DVDs?)

ARCADIA

Arcadia is a youthful sitcom set in the real world around Clacton’s finest computer games shop Games 4 U with a cast of characters whose minds are somewhere else entirely…

The shop is in financial trouble and ever-so-slightly neurotic manager Tony (Edinburgh Fringe Award winner Nick Mohammed) is doing his best to keep things afloat, ably assisted by Mr Sci-Fi convention himself, Jeremy Stokes (Matt Green), and the attractive, though unobtainable, Bella.

Tony believes he can design games better than the ones he sells; the problem is all his ideas are rubbish. Jeremy has played and completed every computer game ever released while still managing to have a surprising amount of luck with the ladies. This is all the more remarkable considering Jeremy regularly arrives for work dressed as gaming characters no one else has heard of. Bella is the gorgeous level-headed young assistant and the apple of Tony’s eye but unfortunately she is more interested in the mysterious hacker Clint who masquerades as an asexual-cyber-terrorist but is in fact a nice middle-class boy who still lives at home with his mum.

If you would like to join us for a night of comedy for ONE NIGHT ONLY on Saturday 8th March at 7.00pm then apply now! The minimum age for audience members is 16 years.

You can apply online at www.sroaudiences.com. Filming’s at the BBC TV studios in White City.