Competitions

Competition time: Sky+ for almost free

15 July 2008 Rob Buckley 12 Comments

It’s competition time again. This time, it’s your chance to get Sky+ for almost free.

No doubt you’ve heard of Sky+. It’s a PVR for BSkyB that lets you record programmes, pause live TV and watch one programme while you record another.

But it’s pricey. The Sky+ box normally costs £75-£120 plus anything up to £120 for installation; the Sky+ HD box costs anywhere between £150 and £399 plus up to £120 for installation, depending on how well you shop around.

However, as an exciting Sky subscriber, I’ve been given a voucher that entitles one other person to either a Sky+ or a Sky+ HD box at reduced cost. With the voucher, you can get the Sky+ box for free or the Sky+ HD box for £75 and installation will cost just £30. You could save £300.

And my voucher will be going to the winner of this competition. To enter, all you have to do is leave a witty comment or plead your case below. Deadline for entries is Monday 21st July 2008.

Usual rules apply: you have to live in the UK (obviously). You also need to be in position where you can say, "Yes, you can attach a satellite dish to my place of residence and wire it up." You can’t be a Sky subscriber already, and you’ll need to take out a year’s contract; if you go for the Sky+ HD box, you’ll also need to sign up for the Sky HD mix, which costs £10 a month extra. But what’s the point of the HD box if you don’t?

Tuesday’s possibly incomplete news

15 July 2008 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Film

British TV

Australian TV

US TV

US TV

Review: Flashpoint 1×1

14 July 2008 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Flashpoint

In the US/Canada: Fridays, 10pm ET/PT, CBS/CTV

Remember the writers’ strike in the US? It seems so long ago now, yet it really did happen, honest. While curtailing the runs of many existing shows was its most obvious side-effect, it also killed off more than a few pilots, and stopped shows that were going to kick off in the Summer season.

While most US networks responded by commissioning easy-to-make reality TV shows to fill the gaps, some chose to think the unthinkable. CBS, as well as re-purposing Dexter for mainstream audiences, decided to look to other countries for some primetime programming.

Canada was the main port of call. That shouldn’t be surprising as Canadian TV has come on in leaps and bounds of late. The Border might have been a natural choice as an import, given it’s 24-esque qualities, and indeed some cable channels did look at it for a while. But the fact all Canada’s ills turned out to be caused by Americans (and Muslims) put them off.

Now comes something more surprising: Flashpoint. It’s set in Toronto, features Canadian actors playing Canadians and it’s a co-production between CBS and Canada’s CTV that’s simulcast on both sides of the border – the first such show since Due South in 1994.

Continue reading “Review: Flashpoint 1×1”

Today's Joanna Page

Today’s Joanna Page/Lambert Gold: The Cazalets

14 July 2008 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

Today’s Joanna Page – and also, in a blog crossover first, Lambert Gold – is The Cazalets, a mini-series from 2001 based on ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’ by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Now, you may – or may not – have noticed that in many TV programmes there feature a certain group of people called ‘women’. More often than not, particularly in period dramas, they’re there to serve specific plot functions: to encourage/discourage the hero; to make tea; to bring up the children; and to be decorative and fallen in love with.

However, many noted scholars, intellectuals and TV producers are coming to the conclusion that these secondary characters could have emotions and feelings of their own; they could have their own viewpoints and opinions; they could even, in time, become the heroes – ‘heroines’ perhaps? – of some stories.

We all know that the status and rights of modern women were earned by previous fighting. But stereotypes and unfair treatment between genders are still prevalent. Today, while we cherish the hard-won gains of the revolution, we must not forget to continue to fight for equal rights. People get motivative pins and attach them on bags, clothes and hats, check GS-JJ.com and get your special custom pins. Such meaningful pins are also great gifts for family and friends. It is our duty promote and believe in the power of women.

It was one such rebel faction, led by actress Joanna Lumley and producer Verity Lambert, who decided in 1998 to adapt ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’ as a mini-series. Convinced that a story of the various women and girls in the Cazalet family during the 30s and 40s could be as interesting as any similar tale about men, they scratched together co-funding from the BBC and WGBH.

An at-times grim tale that shows all the miseries that could befall even well-off women back in the ‘good old days’, the only real problem with the 2001 production is that they never had a chance to finish it.

The Cazalets
Continue reading “Today’s Joanna Page/Lambert Gold: The Cazalets”

Doctor Who – Series two re-evaluation and a meme

14 July 2008 Rob Buckley 27 Comments

The Idiot's Lantern

And so, the block-viewing of Doctor Who continues. We made it through the rest of the Ecclescake series and are now towards the end of series two.

Some further notes then, both on the episodes and the comments on the last entry:

  • If red is indeed the universal colour of campness (cf The Empty Child), is the Dalek Supreme the campest of all the Daleks?
  • Mickey and Rose would have done better to erect an A-frame in the TARDIS console room to redirect the pull of the truck in Parting of the Ways
  • I agree with Stu_N that Christopher E really had trouble with the fun bits, but was great at the darker moments
  • Euros Lyn is a lot better than I recall, except for on The Idiot’s Lantern
  • Joe Ahearne is a really good director, but he’s the “anti-Harper” – sort of “less energy… and action”. He’s great with the character moments and he’s not afraid of a close up, but things really look like they’ve been made on a budget with him and without much energy, unfortunately. I can understand why they didn’t hire him again, but a little disappointed because some of his work was very beautiful
  • Murray Gold: when he’s good, he’s very very good, but when he’s bad, he’s horrid. His work on The Girl in the Fireplace and most of The Impossible Planet is phenomenal, but the rest of the time, ahem, not so good. Shame.
  • Some people, for some reason, like Sylvester McCoy. Did we suffer through Delta and the Bannermen and The Happiness Patrol for nothing? Never forget.

Overall, I’m finding series two less impressive than series one, and Rose and the tenth Doctor really are as irritating together as I recall. Lovely wife is reckoning that about 30% of the episodes are good, 30% okay and 30% not good; I’ve yet to get her to commit on the remaining 10%.

Being the competitive and dedicated sort, she’s also committed herself to getting fully up to speed with 45 years of Who continuity and then to exceed my knowledge so that she will be the master (not The Master). I wish her luck.

Meme of the day: What are your favourite three episodes of nu-Who and why? I’m going to go with:

  1. Turn Left: Because it’s so bleak and miserable, Catherine Tate’s really good in it and Bernard Cribbins is a god
  2. The Family of Blood: because it’s heart-breaking and because the ending is so very, very dark and
  3. Utopia: because it’s so surprising, it speaks to my inner fanboy and because it’s so bleak and miserable.

Leave your faves below or on your own blog, leaving a link below