The Sarah Jane Adventures

Thursday’s marmalade sandwich news

13 September 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Paddington Bear



Doctor Who

  • Which BBC Wales employee just got a £10,000 bonus?
  • The Sarah Jane Adventures starts on the 24th and there’s a preview at Off The Telly [minor spoilers]

Film

Commercials

  • Paddington’s back and he’s giving Marmite a try

Music

British TV

US TV

Friday’s monstrous news

7 September 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • A certain new Who monster will appear in The Sarah Jane Adventures, as will Jane Asher, Phyllida Law and Floella Benjamin [minor spoilers]

Film

Commercials/Music

British TV

US TV

Wednesday’s “three more days until I’m on holiday” news

1 August 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

US TV

UK TV

People Elevated to God-like Status: two new members

25 May 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

People elevated to God-like status logo

Time to induct two new members to the group of people elevated to God-like status: Douglas Camfield and Graeme Harper. They’re not especially well known names, except within a certain group of (charitably) TV aficionados or (less charitably) geeks. But they are two of the best directors Doctor Who and possibly British TV has ever seen.

Now it would be unfair to say that early Doctor Who didn’t have very good direction. Directed by Waris Hussein, the opening episode, An Unearthly Child, was a particularly splendid piece of work: whenever Anna and I talk about how flat some episodes have looked, I at least am thinking of An Unearthly Child as an example of how well lit and directed Doctor Who can be (Anna can tell you what she’s thinking about!).

Here below is the opening to the world’s longest running sci-fi series. Imagine it’s 1963. Kid’s TV has been Muffin the Mule and Bill and Ben. There are no synthesisers, special effects or anything else on television. Then this hits the scene at Saturday tea time. Just how severely blown away would you have been?

But post-Unearthly Child, it all went a bit flat. After all, we’re talking about a show that initially had to put out a new episode every week, all year round, with no budget, no time, no real ability to do re-takes if scenes messed up and technical issues aplenty. It’s a miracle the sets stayed up.

Douglas Camfield was one of the first to change that.

Continue reading “People Elevated to God-like Status: two new members”

Thursday’s slightly greyer news

3 May 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Doctor Who

Audio plays

  • Lots of Big Finish stuff is happening, including a third season of Sapphire and Steel

Film

  • Commit mental suicide: watch the trailer for Rush Hour 3
  • A picture of the final Iron Man suit
  • Michael Mann’s going to direct a film noir starring Leonardo DiCaprio

(Media) journalism

  • The Daily Mail wants to change its brand association from ‘Middle England’ to ‘Modern Mid Britain’. Good luck on that one, you frothing at the mouth loons [free registration required]
  • John Pilger is giving a talk about Freedom Next Time on 31st May. Includes a screening of Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror

Theatre

  • The cast of The Importance of Being Earnest are going walkabout tomorrow, starting in Trafalgar Square at 4.30pm

British TV

  • Sky has 340,000 new subscribers and 25% of its subscribers use Sky+ [free registration required]
  • Timewatch is 25
  • A new Abigail’s Party is being planned by the Beeb [subscription required]

US TV

  • Ruin the ending of this season of CSI for yourself (at least I didn’t put it in the headline, unlike a certain site and newspaper. Grrr…) [spoilers!]
  • HBO does Sex and the City again, except in Africa this time
  • Killing off all your cast limits you, apparently, says 24 co-exec producer David Fury
  • Thomas Dekker didn’t have a problem being gay on Heroes, he says
  • Masters of Science Fiction finally emerges into the schedules
  • Because television really is weird, how about a pirate reality TV show. No, really. Sixteen people are going to compete on CBS to become the Pirate Master