October at the BFI

21 August 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Time for our regular round-up of tele events at the BFI. Despite the presence of part two of the "Time Machine" season in October, there’s still nothing timey-wimey. But there is this:

1st: Michael Parkinson in conversation. He’s going to be interviewed by Melvyn Bragg and sign his autobiography, too.

13th: Roger Moore in conversation. No celebrity interviewer as far as I can see, but he’s going to be chatting about just about everything exciting in his TV career. There’ll be screenings beforehand of The Saint episode The Miracle Tea Party, which Moore also directed, and The Persuaders!‘s The Time and The Place.

Members’ priority postal booking opens 26 August
Members’ online and phone booking opens 1 September
Public booking opens 5 September

There’ll also be free drop-in screenings in the Studio on 4, 5, 11 and 12 of the 1963 documentary West Indians, which looks at a working-class Caribbean migrant’s search for accommodation in London.

Thursday’s unpleasant news

21 August 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • Photos from Torchwood filming

Film

  • Ben Affleck to star in Mike Judge’s Extract?
  • Alex Proyas to adapt Heinlein’s The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag

French TV

  • Babies banned from watching TV

British TV

US TV

Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Jools Holland in The Laughing Prisoner

20 August 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Yesterday, we had a little look at the location of the remake of The Prisoner. We also had a look at an old sci-fi pilot of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie’s. If only there were some way to combine Fry, Laurie and The Prisoner…

Oh wait, there is! The Laughing Prisoner was the final (sort of) episode of popular Channel 4 music show The Tube, which was hosted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates. In it, Holland resigns from The Tube and is promptly taken away to the Village, where he finds the new Number 2 is Stephen Fry. Siouxsie and the Banshees are there, too, as is Hugh Laurie.

Given that Holland is a lifelong The Prisoner fan and somehow managed to get references to the show into just about everything he’s ever done, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to discover it’s desperately authentic and true to the original series, right down to being filmed in Portmeirion – it also includes plenty of clips from the series proper, so presents a good intro (sort of) to The Prisoner, if you’ve never seen it. And if you have seen, you’ll probably be able to name every episode that gets referenced, as it’s referenced.

Over to you, Mr YouTube. It doesn’t properly kick off until a few minutes in, though.

Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Jools Holland in The Laughing Prisoner

20 August 2008 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Yesterday, we had a little look at the location of the remake of The Prisoner. We also had a look at an old sci-fi pilot of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie’s. If only there were some way to combine Fry, Laurie and The Prisoner…

Oh wait, there is! The Laughing Prisoner was the final (sort of) episode of popular Channel 4 music show The Tube, which was hosted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates. In it, Holland resigns from The Tube and is promptly taken away to the Village, where he finds the new Number 2 is Stephen Fry. Siouxsie and the Banshees are there, too, as is Hugh Laurie.

Given that Holland is a lifelong The Prisoner fan and somehow managed to get references to the show into just about everything he’s ever done, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to discover it’s desperately authentic and true to the original series, right down to being filmed in Portmeirion – it also includes plenty of clips from the series proper, so presents a good intro (sort of) to The Prisoner, if you’ve never seen it. And if you have seen, you’ll probably be able to name every episode that gets referenced, as it’s referenced.

Over to you, Mr YouTube. It doesn’t properly kick off until a few minutes in, though.

Wednesday’s Gaelic soap opera news

20 August 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Film

  • Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell discussing Veronica Mars movie

Theatre

  • Tamsin Greig to debut at National in David Hare’s Gethsemane

British TV

US TV