Sitting Tennant

Friday’s Sitting Tennant (week 37, 2012)

5 October 2012 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Hebbie's Sitting Tennant

Sister Chastity's Sitting Tennant

Toby's Sitting Tennant

Someone’s looking forward to the weekend, by the looks of it. See you on Tuesday!

  1. Sister Chastity: 15
  2. Hebbie, Toby: 5

Sitting Board of Winners 2012
January
Hebbie, Sister Chastity

February
Sister Chastity

March
Sister Chastity

April
Sister Chastity, Shilohforever

May
Hebbie, Sister Chastity

June
Hebbie, Sister Chastity

July
Hebbie

August/September
Toby, Sister Chastity

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable and doesn’t obviously infringe copyright, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery. Don’t forget to include your name in the filename so I don’t get mixed up about who sent it to me.

The best pic in the stash each week will appear on Tuesday and get ten points; the runners up will appear on Friday (one per person who sends one in) and get five points.

Each month, I’ll name the best picture provider and then at the end of the year, the overall champion will be announced for 2012!

It's Hammer Time!

It’s Hammer Time!: X The Unknown (1956)

5 October 2012 Natalia Romanova Post a comment

Time to be frightened. As we saw a couple of weeks ago, Hammer Films had great success in 1955 with its adaptation of the BBC’s The Quatermass Experiment. Desperate for more X-rated Quatermass gold – and to tap into the success of US monster movies – Hammer turned to Quatermass’s creator Nigel Kneale and asked him nicely if they could use the character of Quatermass in another movie, albeit one he wouldn’t be writing. Whether he said it politely or not, Kneale gave a definite ‘No’ to that idea.

So Hammer instead went ahead with a movie that can only be described as “Quatermass with the serial numbers filed off”: X The Unknown. Incorporating elements of The Quatermass Experiment with (ironically) the still-just-a-glimmer-in-Nigel-Kneale’s-eye Quatermass and the Pit, this sees nuclear scientist Bernard Quatermass Dr Adam Royston (American actor Dean Jagger) and Inspector ‘Mac’ McGill (Leo McKern) investigating a mysterious source of radiation in the Lochmouth area of Scotland that killed a soldier. What is it that killed him and is currently killing others? Well, that’s ‘The Unknown’.

Featuring a cast of future stars, including Anthony Newley, Kenneth Cope, Edward Chapman, William Lucas and Frazer Hines, and television directors/producers (Peter Hammond and Ian MacNaughton), the movie was never never as popular as The Quatermass Xperiment but has proved influential enough that horror writer Shaun Hutson this year published a novel that updates it to the present day. Notably, the film was supposed to be directed by Joseph Losey, one of many Americans who had came to the UK to work after having been placed on the Hollywood blacklist of supposed Communist sympathisers. However, when Jagger arrived on set, he refused to work with Losey and Leslie Norman replaced the director.

Enjoy the film, which is preceded by an introduction from Hammer historian Marcus Hearn

Continue reading “It’s Hammer Time!: X The Unknown (1956)”

The BarrometerA Barrometer rating of 5

Third-episode verdict: Animal Practice (NBC/ITV2)

5 October 2012 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In the US: Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC
In the UK: Acquired by ITV2

So I made it through to three episodes. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to, since the first episode was pretty abysmal: "Worse than eating ground up glass" as someone recently suggested to me.

But I’ve made it all the same, which is more than you can say of some other new comedies: Partners, The New Normal and Guys With Kids all managed to destroy any sense of tolerance for them I might have had before the end of the second episode.

I think that’s less a reflection on the quality of Animal Practice than it is on the other shows, though, since Animal Practice is largely dreadful. Beyond a couple of decent central performances by Justin Kirk and JoAnna Garcia, there is nothing worth watching in the show at all. No jokes. No decent characters. No interesting plots. Nothing.

Normally, one of my complaints about shows is lack of characterisation for supporting characters. I will not make this complaint here, because the writers have tried to give the supporting cast some characterisation. It just sucks. Very badly. I don’t want to get to know any of these people any better. I don’t want to watch a show dedicated to one stereotype’s fear of puppets.

I will admit that the second episode was marginally better than the others, having one of two jokes and a couple of decent scenes. But that’s it and life’s too short to keep watching comedies that are this seriously unfunny.

So don’t watch Animal Practice – watch The Mindy Project, since that’s funny.

Barrometer rating: 5
Rob’s prediction: Cancelled before the end of the season>