Looks familiar, yet something’s different. Yes, it’s Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt in ABC’s forthcoming version of Life on Mars, although the scripts’ pretty much the same. And no, Jason O’Mara still can’t act much. Apologies in advance for the slightly weedy quality. Watch it while you can – fingers crossed, it won’t get ripped down.
In the UK: Sundays, 9pm, BBC1
Good old BBC. Always going off and finding some classic to lavishly adapt for a Sunday evening’s viewing. Here we have Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy’s slightly weird but eternally relevant look at the double standards relating to sexuality that British society has had almost since the dawn of time.
Now the Beeb normally goes in one of two ways with its period stuff. Either it goes all silly, gets an all-star cast and turns everything into an unrelenting series of cameos and over-the-top performances. Or it puts on its serious hat and decides to go full tilt for ‘quality mode’, hoping that it’ll get a backpack full of BAFTAs to take home from the next awards ceremony.
Fortunately, the Beeb has gone for option two with Tess, producing something that’s not 100% true to the book and that’s got more than a few idiosyncrasies of its own, but which is ultimately worth watching – so far, anyway.
¡Madre Mia! I’ve finally got round to writing it. The reasons you should own Manhunter! Will wonders never cease?
As far as most people are concerned, The Silence of the Lambs was the film that introduced serial killer Hannibal Lecter to the world. Starring (Sir) Anthony Hopkins as the ex-psychiatrist and people-eater, it was one of the first horror movies to do respectably at the Oscars and catapulted both Hopkins and Jodie Foster, who played the FBI agent trying to mine him for information, into the league of A-list stars.
Since then, we’ve had Hannibal and Red Dragon, both starring Hopkins as Lecter, and young Lecter movie, Hannibal Rising – all to diminishing effect.
What not many people realise is that back in the 80s, Michael Mann, director of Heat, Collateral, The Insider and Last of the Mohicans as well as creator of Miami Vice, had already adapted the original Lecter novel, Red Dragon, as Manhunter.
Way before Millennium, Profiler and CSI made popular forensic science, psychological profiling and the idea of thinking inside a killer’s mind to catch him, it featured CSI‘s William Petersen as Will Graham, the man who caught Lecter by risking his own sanity and daring to think the same thoughts. Equally notably, it also featured Brian Cox as Hannibal – and he’s a damn sight better than Anthony Hopkins.
Which is why Manhunter is a movie you should own. Here’s the original trailer for Manhunter – forgive it for being made in the 80s.
JACK: Okay, listen up fucktards. It’s Torchwood here. We’re below the law, beside the government and over the top and we’re here to educate you about the Higgs Boson.
MURMURS OF PROTEST FROM AUDIENCE
JACK: Yes, you idiots. You know nothing about CERN or the large hadron collider or really difficult science things. So Radio 4 have asked us to come and educate your asses for Big Bang Day.
MORE MURMURS OF PROTEST FROM AUDIENCE
JACK: Shut it or I’ll make you smell my coat. I haven’t washed it since I first got it and I was buried in peat for 2,000 years.
GWEN: Ych y fi, Jack!
JACK: Right, the Higgs Boson. It’s… Hmm. Anyone know? Gwen?
GWEN (ON PHONE): Can I phone a friend? Rhys? Oh, Rhys man! What are you doing? I loves you. You knows I loves you!… But Rhys… Why her?…
JACK: Maybe not then. Tosh? Oh sh… she’s dead. Owen. Oh sh… he’s dead too. Christ, they were the only ones who knew anything. Martha?
MARTHA GIGGLES AND IMPERSONATES A PIECE OF WOOD
JACK: Ianto?
IANTO TRIES TO AVOID JACK’S EYE BY READING THE CRACK-A-JOKE BOOK AND LAUGHING UNCONVINCINGLY
JACK: Guess it’ll be me then. Erm, it’s a thing that you, like, see. Erm, inside rain drops. Protons? Are we clear yet?
MORE MURMURS, THIS TIME OF RIDICULE FROM THE MIDDLE CLASS WELL EDUCATED RADIO 4 AUDIENCE
JACK: What do you mean Torchwood know sweet FA about science, so much so it’s embarrassing? Oh…Look over there. It’s an eagle. No really. Look! Look!
AUDIENCE LOOKS STAGE RIGHT
JACK: Quick, Ianto – the rear entrance!
Excerpt from Torchwood: Lost Souls
A Tennant a week: it’s looking good. This week’s Sitting Tennant (feel free to step up the pace, if you want, guys and gals) is from a playground and was provided by Rosby, who is clearly going to have her own empire one day with this degree of determination. I have no idea if she took it herself or whether DT was there specifically or if he was passing by at the time.
The current Sitting Tennant league tables stand (ho ho) as follows. For pictures, Ms Rosby has extended her lead and is now on six entries, while Persephone is on four. Poly on three and a half, Toby on three and Scott on two. Anna has one and a half and Marie and Rullsenberg are at the back with one each.
The Witty And Amusing Captions league table hasn’t changed but Toby has extended his lead as well. He’s now on eight captions, while Marie and Persephone have six, Rullsenberg and Electric Dragon both have three captions and Poly and Stu_N are on one each. Feel free to leave captions below for this entry, too. Will the rebel forces fight back against the new empire?
Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery. You can also enter the witting and amusing captions league table by commenting on existing photos in the gallery.
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