UK TV

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

Doctor Who reviews this year?

3 May 2011 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

So for the last few years – ooh, four now I think about it – I’ve been doing episode-by-episode reviews of Doctor Who. Now that was fun. It was enjoyable, because no matter what happened, David Tennant and whichever his companion he was with + Rusty and one of his nonsensical scripts almost always added up to fun.

However, Steven Moffat’s in charge and as much as his intricate plotting and general cleverness make Rusty’s best efforts look like the doodlings of a High School child, they lack Rusty’s exuberance, depth of emotion and general fun. In short, I’m finding them a bit more like hard work than anything I actually enjoying. I’m not even sure I really care about DW enough any more to want to review them.

I know – I’m such a neophile.

So the question is, what with

  • me already committed to two hours of Spiral every week for at least another week
  • a workload that’s seen me working three out of four days for the last two bank holiday weekends and with no proper time to blog until Friday
  • high quality reviews available elsewhere from the likes of Frank, Jane and Stuart

do you actually want my usual full-on reviews or should I reduce Who to the Friday “What Have You Been Watching?” slot unless I feel particularly inspired?

Your opinion matters, so leave a comment if you do want the reviews (or if you don’t because you think they’re rubbish).

BFI events

June 2011 at the BFI

3 May 2011 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Leonard Rossiter in Dr Knock

Sean Connery in the recently recovered Colombe

Time for our regular look at what TV’s on at the South Bank in London in June. As well as a preview of David Hare’s first film as writer and director for 20 years and a showing of the Helen Baxendale drama The Investigator, there’s a season of British TV recovered from the Library of Congress, including Nigel Kneale’s updating of his original BBC adaptation of 1984, and two dramas featuring the music of Kinks frontman Ray Davies.

Continue reading “June 2011 at the BFI”

Tuesday’s “fairly mediocre” news

3 May 2011 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • Royal wedding watched by 24m
  • 5USA gets third season of Sons of Anarchy [subscription required]
  • Sky profits up 24% [subscription required]

US TV

UK TV

Review: Engrenages (Spiral) 3×9-3×10

1 May 2011 Natalia Romanova 9 Comments

Bremont in BBC4's Spiral

In France: Some time last Summer
In the UK: Saturday 30th April, 9pm, BBC4. iPlayer: Episode 9, Episode 10

And so it is that as we enter the penultimate week of season 3 of Spiral, the show enters into something of a – how you say? – a high gear?

So let’s talk about alleged rape, unsuspecting rape, planned rape, prostitution rings and mistranslations from the French after the jump – and two gratuitous pictures of Josephine Karlsson (the BBC4 web site knows what it likes) and a teaser trailer that Canal+ put out where the most popular characters describe themselves, which I thought was quite interesting so decided to share.

Karlsson in Engrenages

Karlsson in Engrenages

Continue reading “Review: Engrenages (Spiral) 3×9-3×10”

What have you been watching this week (w/e April 29)?

29 April 2011 Rob Buckley 17 Comments

My usual recommendations for maximum viewing pleasure this week: Archer, Community, Cougar Town, The Daily Show, Endgame, Modern Family, Stargate Universe and 30 Rock. Watch them (and keep an eye on The Stage‘s TV Today Square Eyes feature as well) or you’ll be missing out on the good stuff. I’ve also decided to add Happy Endings to the recommended viewing, since although it can be a bit silly, it is consistently funny.

Just a few thoughts on a couple of the regulars:

  • Loved last week’s episode of Community – a clips show with clips from episodes that don’t actually exist. How awesome is that?
  • Stargate Universe almost made me cry this week, which is kind of pathetic I know, but TJ getting motor neurone disease was just upsetting.
  • Smallville – Booster Gold turns up. So a bit rubbish basically. Still not long to the final ever episode.

Since the last “What have you been watching?”, I’ve tried

  • Game of Thrones, but gave up after 15 minutes since it seemed very dull. I might be wrong on that, but then fantasy books have never really been my thing.
  • I also dipped back into Hellcats, just to see what they did with Aly Michalka’s sister, who they’ve got to play… her long-lost sister. They didn’t do much though and since most of the rest of the episode was actually quite dreadful Kids From Fame stuff, I decided not to bother watching any more of it and was glad I gave up a while back.

I did record The Crimson Petal and the White, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and United, but didn’t watch them. Were they any good?

But what have you been watching?

“What have you been watching this week?” is your chance to recommend to friends and fellow blog readers the TV that they might be missing or should avoid – and for me to do mini-reviews of everything I’ve watched this week. Since we live in the fabulous world of Internet catch-up services like the iPlayer and Hulu, why not tell your fellow readers what you’ve seen so they can see the good stuff they might have missed?