UK TV

Review: Doctor Who – 7×7 – The Bells of Saint John

In the UK: Saturday, 6.15pm, 30th March 2013, BBC1/BBC1 HD. Available on the iPlayer
In the US: Saturday, 8pm/7C, 30th March 2013, BBC America

It’s back! Look at that, would you. A new episode of Doctor Who. Ooh, I haven’t seen one of those since Christmas. That’s because we are now entering part two of series seven, which started last autumn, and is set to finish this November, right around when a new series should have been starting (but isn’t, because Steven Moffat’s been slowing down a bit). 

Despite the slight paucity of new Who in this, the show’s 50th year (my how time flies), we do have multiple treats to look forward to. As well as new companion Clara, who’s been introduced and died twice already in different guises, we’ve Neil Gaiman writing a Cyberman story, a returning enemy, a returning Doctor, and a whole lot more that if I wrote them down now, a lot of people would end up killing me over. So I won’t. Just watch the series and enjoy it.

But for this opening episode, The Bells of Saint John, which our Stevie has had simply ages to work on, we had a sort of hybrid story – half-Rusty, half-Blink – that riffed not only on the history of Doctor Who itself, but both Russell T Davies’s greatest hits as well as Stevie’s own, including Silence in The Library. And it was really rather good.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – 7×7 – The Bells of Saint John”

News

Tuesday’s “David Tennant & Billie Piper return to Doctor Who, Joanna Page to guest, and a trailer for The Saint” news

Joanna Page, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman

Doctor Who

Film

Trailers

  • Trailer for This Is The End with Seth Rogen et al [NSFW]
  • Trailer for Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

Canadian TV

UK TV

US TV

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

New US TV show casting

  • Matthew Broderick joins CBS’s Tad Quill comedy
  • Bess Rous joins TNT’s Murder In The First, Christopher Thornton joins CBS’s The Surgeon General, Matt Long replaces Luke Hemsworth on Lucky 7
BFI events

What TV’s on at the BFI in May 2013 + The Wednesday Play (on Thursday): The Spongers (1978)

Tony Garnett

It’s time for our regular look at the TV that the BFI is showing, this time in the month of May 2013. This month, as well as the continuing celebration of Doctor Who, which reaches the Peter Davison years with The Caves of Androzani

…there’s a Missing Believed Wiped special and the first half of a season of Tony Garnett’s work, that’s partly a Ken Loach season and which also includes Roland Joffé’s directorial debut, The Spongers, which I will arbitrarily declare this week’s Wednesday Play (on Thursday). Set during the 1977 Jubilee celebrations, Jim Allen’s script focuses on the plight of Pauline as she struggles to make ends meet. With a searing contemporary relevance, the film shows the human cost of decisions made by bureaucratic committees as council budgets are put under increasing pressure. Christine Hargreaves’ performance is devastating as we see the full impact of these decision on her children. One of the most important plays of the 70s, it still speaks loudly to our conscience today. Don’t forget to watch it at the BFI if you like it!

Continue reading “What TV’s on at the BFI in May 2013 + The Wednesday Play (on Thursday): The Spongers (1978)”

Thursday’s “HBO’s Borgen, CBS renews 9 shows, and Pixie Lott joins George Gently” news

The Daily News will be back on Tuesday – have a nice Easter weekend!

Doctor Who

Film

Film casting

Trailers

UK TV

US TV

  • CBS renews (deep breath): Elementary, The Good Wife, 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly, NCIS: LA, Person of Interest, The Mentalist, Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods
  • ReelzChannel acquires Cracked
  • Tuesday ratings: NCIS: LA hits low, Go On and New Normal surge

US TV show casting

New US TV shows

  • Bravo red lights The Joneses, puts Witch Hunt into development
  • NBC working on Chicago Fire spin-off
  • Netflix orders 10 episodes of Sense8
  • HBO developing adaptation of Borgen [subscription required]
  • Trailer for How To Live With Your Parents (for the Rest of Your Life)

New US TV show casting

  • Paul Adelstein to star in CBS’s show formerly known as (SFKA – new jargon, guys) Mother’s Day
  • Regina King to co-star in ABC’s Divorce: A Love Story
  • Rob Huebel joins CBS’s Jacked Up, Griffin Newman to star in untitled NBC comedy pilot