Joanna Page

Today's Joanna Page

Today’s Joanna Page: Bleak Expectations (the pilot)

14 July 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Well, I mentioned it last week, but thanks to Mark at The British Comedy Guide we have word from Mark Evans himself about who was in the Bleak Expectations pilot and why Joanna Page wasn’t in the series itself:

"Yes, she played Pippa in the pilot. And was excellent. The reason she was not in the series itself was entirely down to availability… It would have been excellent to have had her in the series, but luckily we got the wonderful Susie Kane to play Pippa as she has done fabulously ever since.

The non-broadcast pilot was actually March 2006… then it was a whole year before the first series. Anthony Head wasn’t actually in that pilot – Tom Hollander played Mr Sourquill and Mr Gently Benevolent. Again, it was entirely an availability thing for him not doing the series; again we luckily got the fantastic Mr Head. I think both he and Mr Hollander are superb actors.

James Bachman was still Harry Biscuit, even in the pilot (doubling also with Servewell, Sir Philip’s butler). Thomas was played by Kim Wall; in the first series he became Mark Perry. Again, all availability. I’m a huge Kim Wall fan.

We also had Sophie Thompson as Agnes, Pip’s mother. (In the series played by Celia Imrie.) Once again it’s the whole availability thing. I think Sophie was in Eastenders at that point… but may be wrong. We were very lucky – every time we lost someone from the pilot cast, we found someone just as great to replace them in the series. Oh, and Poppy was played by Kellie Bright, who turned up recently in small parts in Horne and Corden and who is/was Kate Aldridge in The Archers. She, too, was unavailable for the series. Everyone got very, very successful and busy after the pilot. Coincidence? Or just great excuse making so they didn’t have to be in it?"

So there you have it. However, since it’s Today’s Joanna Page, have another picture of Joanna Page filming the third series of Gavin & Stacey:

BBC1 autumn drama showreel, including Waters of Mars

9 July 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment

The Beeb’s just unveiled its Autumn drama showreels, which includes snippets of Criminal Justic,Emma, Framed, Garrow’s Law, Material Girl, Paradox and Small Island, which I’ve embedded above (UK only – take that Hulu users!).

Oh yes, it also includes clips from Spooks with Richard Armitage and Doctor Who with David Tennant, who some of you quite like, I hear.

The Beeb’s also come up with a carousel of more clips that I can’t embed over here.

Full summaries of all the new shows – as well as Gavin & Stacey – after the jump.

Continue reading “BBC1 autumn drama showreel, including Waters of Mars”

Today's Joanna Page

Today’s Joanna Page: Bleak Expectations

7 July 2009 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Bleak Expectations

Today’s Joanna Page was going to be Radio 4’s Dickens piss-take, Bleak Expectations:

The plot revolves around Philip “Pip” Bin and his two sisters, Poppy and Pippa, whose seemingly ideal life is disrupted by the death of their father and the madness of their mother. They are then locked away by their guardian, Mr. Gently Benevolent, in St. Bastard’s, the most vicious boarding school in England, and St. Bitch’s, a nearby convent. Pip and his sisters attempt to free themselves of their guardian with the help of Harry Biscuit, whose father invented the biscuit.

I knew she was in it: her IMDB page says she is* and IMDB would never lie, would it?

I listened to the whole first series, trying to work out which character she might be. It’s actually pretty good if you know Dickens even vaguely, although it does remind me of all those skits you used to write in sixth form where you’d play on words, looking for a silly alternative meaning to every line and then running with the sillier meaning. But it’s very funny all the same, and Anthony Head’s great as the evil Mr Benevolent. I’ll probably scout out the second series when I can, and a third series has just been recorded.

Anyway, for a second, I thought she might be Flora Dies-Early, a pastiche of David Copperfield‘s Dora Spenlow, whom she played in the most recent BBC1 adaptation. But she wasn’t.

Was IMDB mistaken? Surely not. So I investigated further…

Continue reading “Today’s Joanna Page: Bleak Expectations”

Happy fourth birthday to The Medium Is Not Enough

22 June 2009 Rob Buckley 23 Comments


A birthday cake

Happy Birthday, The Medium is Not Enough. Yes, four years ago (sort of – it was yesterday actually – subject to blog migration, blog splitting, blog reunions, etc), this blog emerged into the light of the Internet with its first two posts: previews of the just-deceased Prison Break, the not-unpopular Supernatural and the still-unseen Global Frequency; and tedious cruft about The Omega Factor (which I’m really not going to write a review of after all, except when I get stuck for a Lost Gem).

What we’ve learned this year
In our fourth year, we discovered the following ten exciting things:

  1. David Tennant is as popular sitting down as he is standing up.
  2. That while captioned pictures of David Tennant sitting down will get you lots of comments and even interest from the weirdest locations, ultimately, articles about Joanna Page or Ali Larter, preferably including the words ‘naked’ or ‘sex’, will attract vastly more interest from Google – albeit not many comments.
  3. Ali Larter’s and Joanna Page’s popularity are considerably dwarfed by Sarah Beeny’s, even without the use of the word ‘naked’ or ‘sex’. Either that or there’s something going on with the housing market at the moment.
  4. David Tennant fans are more loyal and dynamic than Richard Armitage’s, although Richard Armitage’s head turns out to be the Muse of haikus.
  5. Six episodes may – or may not – be the natural length for any TV series.
  6. No amount of begging will make anyone watch programmes on S4C.
  7. Heroes is finally getting better.
  8. You all still loves Doctor Who. Well, almost all of you.
  9. The best invention in the world is Rob’s Great Blonde Elevator.
  10. Twitter allows me to make passing comments on TV shows that I can’t quite be bothered – or have time – to blog about.

Changes
Over the last year, there have also been a few changes.

  • We finally got a proper URL, rather than the cack old one I used to use.
  • We’ve seen the launch of Random Acts of Ali Larter, which approximately three people understand the true point of, including me. But even if you don’t, you can still enjoy it.
  • Dick Heads came, went, then came back again.
  • Sitting Tennant’s logistics became somewhat trickier and now involves flowcharts on a wall.
  • The new ‘Meme of the week’ seems to be doing quite well for itself.
  • People really do want to help their fellow TV viewers in ‘What have you been watching this week?’
  • There were some quite weird title sequences back in the 70s.
  • Canadian TV has come on by leaps and bounds of late, although appears to have run out of money as well.

    I’d like to say a great big thank you again to Anna, Lisa, Marie, Matt, Rosby, Scott, Stu_N, Stu, other Scott, Stuart, Iko, Poly, espedair, kaballa, Electric Dragon, Linda, cindylover1969, Fraser, Kev, Craig, Lesley, Jonathan, Cackle Jr, Murray, Mark, Toby, Phoenix, Persephone, Jane, TemplarJ, Vin, Chris and Andrea for continuing to hang around and contribute with always entertaining comments.

    I’d also like to thank Dan, Rev/Views, Aaron, Jaradel, Nik, Joe, Bob and Sister Chastity for joining in with the fun this year.

    Apologies to infrequent commenters and anyone I left out but my brain hurts – you know what I’m like with names. But you’ve all been absolutely wonderful to be here, join in and interact with my baffling ramblings.

    Fingers crossed, the fun’s just going to keep on rolling on for another year. Hope you continue to enjoy your stay! And if you have any suggestions for what else you might like to see on the blog, please let me know below.

    Have a nice week,

    Rob