UK TV

An archive of blog entries about UK TV programmes and production.

Monday’s “Borgen 2, Lilyhammer 1, musical Back to the Future, How To Live With Your Parents and the Columbine massacre” news

6 February 2012 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Film

Theater

Film

British TV

US TV

Friday’s “Jamie Bamber pilot, Michael Sheen masters sex, and Munsters are not Munsters” news

3 February 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

British TV

  • BBC1 commissions series based on PG Wodehouse’s Blandings, starring Timothy Spall and Jennifer Saunders
  • S4C lobbies for investment in online-only content [subscription required]
  • Midsomer Murders gets more than 6m viewers

US TV

  • Munsters remake to be called Mockingbird Lane
  • Lost‘s Ken Leung joins Sarah Silverman comedy
  • ABC Family renews The Secret Life of the American Teenager, picks up new Baby Daddy
  • Jamie Bamber to star in Chelsea General
  • TV Land renews The Exes
  • FX developing comedy starring Dana Gould
  • NBC orders JJ Abrams/Eric Kripke’s Revolution
  • Michael Sheen, Lizzy Caplan to star in Masters of Sex
Classic TV

Lost Gems: The Ascent of Man (1973)

2 February 2012 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Well, as ‘Lost Gems’ go, you can’t get much more ‘Lost Gem’-ier than The Ascent of Man, the 65th official most important programme in the history of British television. Made in 1973, it was the follow-up and some might say companion series to Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation, which looked at evolution of Western culture and art. In it, Brains Trust member Jacob Bronowski discussed the history of science, starting with the evolution of man (and, of course, woman) and working its way through early human society to modern times.

And it was, quite simply, breathtaking.

Here’s a clip of the show and the then-controller of BBC2 and the man who commissioned the series, Sir David Attenborough, to tell you all about it. Then after the jump, you lucky people, all 13 episodes of the series.

Continue reading “Lost Gems: The Ascent of Man (1973)”

BFI events

What TV’s on at the BFI in March 2012

2 February 2012 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Beyond the Fringe

Time for our regular look at the TV that the BFI is showing, this time in the month of March 2012. Highlight of the month is a Peter Cook season that includes episodes of Not Only But Also and Peter Cook and Co, as well as an extended version of the 60m version of Beyond the Fringe that the BBC showed. But there’s also a preview of ITV’s forthcoming Titanic and the next series of Horrible Histories, as well as some more Dickens, including the BBC’s Bleak House and some US TV adaptations of his work, and an ITV Chekhov play.

Continue reading “What TV’s on at the BFI in March 2012”