The Sarah Jane Adventures

TMINE

Schedule for the week

2 January 2007 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

John BarrowmanHappy New Year everyone. Did you all have nice holidays? Feeling rested and geared up for another 365 days? Thought so.

Christmas is a funny time. It’s a time for eating and watching loads of television, apparently. I know this because Radio 1 told me so – while simultaneously berating the quality of Christmas TV – as I was driving over the Severn bridge. The funny thing is, despite being MediumRob, I hardly watched any tele.

In part, that’s because of Bastard. ‘Bastard’ is the new name for my PVR. Why am I anthropomorphising my PVR? Because just like the rest of us, it took a break for Christmas. Everything fine until December 23rd but then it took a little rest until I got back on the 28th. Ah diddums.

I managed to catch up a bit thanks to the beauties of digital TV and its constant repeats, but I still have a bit of a backlog of viewing because of my Christmas presents. As a little glimpse into my life (and what people think I’d like for Christmas), here’s a list of all the presents I got that didn’t include ‘voucher’ or ‘chocolate’ in their name.

Not quite as much sci-fi as you might have suspected, huh? I do in fact have more than one layer. Two maybe. I wouldn’t say more than three, though. Anyway, given a choice between watching Stanley Tucci and Daniel Benzali at the height of their acting powers or watching insipid Christmas TV, I plumped for Murder One. And everyone assembled agreed it was the right choice and could they have copies, too? (I said no, because that would be completely illegal).

So I’ve still to make my way through a few shows, and will be bunging up reviews later in the week than might have been expected. It’ll give you all some time to settle in. After the jump are some blipvert-style reviews of a few of the shows I’ve already managed to watch, since they probably don’t merit their own entries.

There was one extra present, though: Doctor Who Top Trumps (“Doctor Who Top Trumps…?!” “Oh you love it really.” Sigh). Anyway, there I was, Christmas Day, playing Doctor Who Top Trumps in the Celtic Manor. I mention this not to show off, but because at roughly the same time, John Barrowman and his family were in Wales’ other five-star hotel. I’m hoping that through some form of symmetry, they were playing “Snooty TV Reviewers Top Trumps”:

John: Rob Buckley? Never heard of him. Oh well, cheap sarcasm – nine.

John’s Dad: Damn. There you go.

John: Next card… Worth to society – one.

John’s Dad: You got the Clive James high card?!

Wouldn’t that have been fun?

TTFN

Continue reading “Schedule for the week”

BFI events

New Year news

2 January 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

DT looking somber



The last week’s news in review.

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • There’s a Green Wing special event at the NFT on the 17th January. There will be an on-stage interview with creator Victoria Pile and “(we hope) cast members Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and Julian Rhind-Tutt”.

US TV

News

Thursday’s foggy news

21 December 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

The Doctor and Sarah Jane

David Ten-inch?

Doctor Who

Film

US TV

  • CBS has commissioned some new pilots. Demons is about an ex-priest who travels around performing exorcisms. Swingtown is about wife-swapping in the 70s. A third pilot stars Janeane Garofalo as the head of a public defender’s office.
  • Some of the writers of 24 have ghost-written an article on Jack Bauer’s behalf at Esquire, explaining some of his life lessons. They should stick to drama.
News

News that happened while I was away and over the weekend

11 December 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Some of it you might know, some of it could well be news:

Runway Bride Torchwood

Doctor Who

  • Jessica Stevenson, who is 5’6″ and has grey/green eyes, is filming a two-part Doctor Who episode.
  • There’s going to be a hint of Torchwood in this Christmas’s episode (see pic. Click on it to make it bigger and look for the logo at the back).
  • Newsround has a load of publicity shots from that episode, too.
  • The Daily Mail (and other ‘newspapers’) are claiming that new companion Martha Jones and the Doctor are going to wind up in bed together – fully clothed, mind. Adds The Sun, ”TV Biz can reveal feisty Martha (Freema Agyeman) has a huge crush on the doc (David Tennant). The pair are forced to bunk up together in one scene and Martha moves in for the kill. But her love intentions are ruined — by a monster.“
  • There’s an interview with Dan Zeff, director of Love and Monsters, over on Ain’t It Cool News.
  • There’s a clip from The Sarah Jane Adventures available from the Beeb’s Doctor Who web site.

Film

  • There’s a preview of Mitchell and Webb’s Magicians over on Ain’t It Cool News, based on a test screening.

British TV

  • Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse are re-uniting for a new sketch show.
  • The Beeb is planning a show about Merlin. It’s going to be a ”3g“ show, which now means ”three generations“ apparently. Because that’s what family television needs more of – shows about slightly dodgy wizards that live their lives backwards and have a demon for a dad.
  • Instead of doing something sensible like getting State of Play 2 together, Paul Abbott has created another bollocktile drama for ITV1 (cf the UK version of Touching Evil). Called Butler Did It, this ”three x 120-minute returnable franchise“ (urgh) tells the story of a top MI5 officer who is ”imprisoned for murder but, after the government realises his potential as a powerful weapon, he is reprogrammed as a ruthless, state-controlled assassin“.
  • Lucy Davis, star of The Office and rising star of Studio 60, got married on Saturday at St Paul’s Cathedral – handily, her dad Jasper Carrott is an OBE.
  • Matt Lucas is reportedly being lined up to play Friar Tuck in the next series of Robin Hood. He’s already set to appear as Toad in The Wind in the Willows this Christmas.

US TV

News

News from yesterday

5 December 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Sarah Jane AdventuresReading countless RSS feeds and news alerts so you don’t have to…

  • The first Sarah Jane Adventures publicity still is available. Graham at OTT has a run-down of the first episode, which is being broadcast this Christmas. [via Outpost Gallifrey]
  • The Independent has an interview with Sophia Myles, covering her life, Dracula and going out with David Tennant. Apparently, she keeps a Doctor Who action figure next to her bed to remind herself of him. [via LiveJournal]
  • The world has gone Masi Oka-mad. And why not? You have to admire an actor who can talk about 5-tuples, don’t you? The star of Scrubs and Heroes is interviewed in the New York Times (free registration required). Classic quote: ‘“My agent read the script and said, ‘My God, I’ve found the role,’ ” Mr. Oka said. “I mean, how many actors are fluent in Japanese, well-trained in comedy and have abundant American TV experience? I felt pretty good going in. I felt like, wow, my niche market. It was like, if this isn’t it, what is?”’ Meanwhile, he’s going to be ‘guest-hosting’ Studio 60.
  • Still with Heroes, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a chat with Zachary Quinto, who plays Sylar.
  • Again, still with Heroes, we experience the somewhat worrying news that it’s the number 10 primetime network series among kids 2-11. Woah. There’s a viewing demographic that includes two and three year olds? And Heroes, with Internet porn queens, people’s brains being scooped out and heroin addicts is something parents want their kids to watch? Fair enough, but the creators are turning down the graphic stuff as a result. Curse you, children!
  • Back with Studio 60, The West Wing‘s Kristin Chenoweth, who isn’t actually in Studio 60 but was the basis for the Harriet Hayes character, explains (free registration required) what it’s like to have an ex-boyfriend base a TV character on you.