UK TV

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

Love Spaced? Hate Spaced!

4 March 2010 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

If you cast your mind back a long way, you’ll recall that film director and TV producer McG (in the negative column: Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels 2, Fast Lane et al; in the plus column: Supernatural, erm) wanted to remake Channel 4’s Spaced for Fox TV in the US. He didn’t ask any of the original cast – Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes, Mark Heap – or director Edgar Wright; in fact, the first they heard about it was on the Internet. Needless to say, they weren’t best pleased.

The US remake of Spaced didn’t get anywhere. Now a four-minute chunk of the pilot has emerged and you can see why.

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Thursday’s “how I met your smurfs” news

4 March 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

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What Spartacus reminds me of: Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata

3 March 2010 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

So, I’ve been catching up with Spartacus: Blood and Sand again after temporarily abandoning it after episode three. It’s not changed a huge amount, although surprisingly, not only have they finally introduced a couple of gay characters who get up to things in as much explicit detail as the m-f and f-f pairings, they’ve actually started moving away from female nudity in favour of mostly male nudity. Would you Adam and Eve it? It’s also got a little bit more interesting, and a little bit more intelligent, even if the swearing is still as pervasive as ever.

But while watching it, I finally realised what the shooting style reminded me of: Peter Brook’s adaptation of ‘The Mahabharata’. Shown on Channel 4 in 1989, this was a six-hour mini-series version of his nine-hour stage play and focused on the epic battle between the Pandavas (representing the good side) and the Kauravas (representing the bad side) depicted in the Hindu epic poem.

See if you agree: here’s a trailer for Spartacus: Blood and Sand – ignore the fight scenes, since they belong to a completely different aesthetic

…and here’s a few clips from The Mahabharata. You can get it on DVD from Amazon, by the way.

UK TV

On the impossibility of taking Michael Gove seriously: A Stab in the Dark

3 March 2010 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Michael Gove. You must know him, right?

No? Okay, well he’s a Tory MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. Look, here he is on Sunday’s The Politics Show:

Now, I have a problem with Michael Gove. No matter what he does, no matter where he goes, I will always remember him as being one of the three hosts, including David Baddiel and Tracey MacLeod, of Channel 4’s early 90s comedy/polemic show A Stab In The Dark.

No one who had anything to do with A Stab in the Dark should be an MP.

Continue reading “On the impossibility of taking Michael Gove seriously: A Stab in the Dark”

Wednesday’s “Hello again to Jason Isaacs” news

3 March 2010 Rob Buckley Post a comment

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