TV
Small town boy
I’ve never really taken to Smallville up until now, it’s always seemed to me to be trying too hard for the teen audience at the expense of everyone else. However I have to say that I’ve been impressed with the opening episodes of season four.
One reason for this has been the arrival of one Lois Lane as the series continues to play around joyously with revisionist Superman mythology, although the appearance of Margot Kidder in the same episode was probably a knowing wink too far.
Another reason for sticking with the show has been the quality of the special effects - though even the best CGI can’t cover up the ham pantomime villainy of nominal baddies the Luthors.
Let’s hope the show grows beyond the teenage angst tendencies that have been so marked in earlier seasons. For one thing the cast are getting too old now to carry that off.
In any case it seems that the red cape could be some way off for Clark. What self respecting teenager would be seen dead in in blue tights and red knickers?
The flame still burns
There are a lot of people who are sniffy about US drama and won’t countenance it, saying the homegrown stuff is much better. They really are missing out if such snobbery puts them off the likes of the challenging Rescue Me.
Denis Leary’s irreverent and in your face look at New York fire-fighters is uncompromising and sometimes borders on misogynistic but the characters are well rounded and full of human frailty which means that the drama in their personal lives is more compelling than the action scenes.
The makers of British drama should take a look at this and learn a few lessons before inflicting inferior rubbish like Steel River Blues on the nation.
Taking the trash out
Channel 4 managed to fill two hours on Friday morning with a show asking why there was so much rubbish on the telly. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Golden Years
As EastEnders gradually gets back on track, UKTV Gold gave us a glorious reminder that, when on form, this soap has provided some of the best TV moments of the last twenty years.
Be it Den and Angie, the Grant, Sharon and Phil triangle, Zoë finding out Kat was her mum or Bianca finding out David was her dad (hey, in two decades you’ve got to expect some recycling of storylines), these were all excellent episodes and well worth viewing again.
50 Years of ITV
Continuing my look back at the golden years of ITV, a glance at 1956.
By the end of the year only viewers in London and parts of the Midlands and the North could actually see the new stations. While Associated-Rediffusion held sway in London on weekdays, ATV took over at the weekend while providing the Midlands service on school nights. The weekends there and up north were the province of ABC while Granada provided Monday to Friday coverage on both sides of the pennines.
With the Goons popular on radio, Son of Fred, featuring the talents of Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan was an early ITV hit. The earlier A Show called Fred had not been fully networked.
The show, Spike’s third effort for ITV that year, pushed back the boundaries of the sketch show, with revolutionary tactics such as sketches with no end or with no set and linked occasionally with surreal animation. Unfortunately, the show was too innovative for the feint hearts at the fledgling network and was axed after only eight episodes.
Is nostalgia making a comeback?
Being a Brummie who grew up in the seventies, I’ve been watching the BBC’s adaption of Jonathan Coe’s The Rotter’s Club with some interest.
The show is hampered by the fact that half the cast seem to be struggling with appalling hair pieces and unconvincing Brummie accents.
It’s the younger cast that are emerging with most credit as their characters go through their rites of passage in the decade that taste forgot. It certainly struck more than chord with me.
Less convincing are the parents, with the “romance??? between mother Barbara Chase (Sarah Lancashire) and arty farty teacher Nigel Plumb (Julian Rhind-Tutt) particularly stilted.
Quite why the crew felt the need to decamp to the Isle of Man to shoot a drama set in Birmingham is a bit of mystery.
I’ve never really taken to Smallville up until now, it’s always seemed to me to be trying too hard for the teen audience at the expense of everyone else. However I have to say that I’ve been impressed with the opening episodes of season four.
One reason for this has been the arrival of one Lois Lane as the series continues to play around joyously with revisionist Superman mythology, although the appearance of Margot Kidder in the same episode was probably a knowing wink too far.
Another reason for sticking with the show has been the quality of the special effects - though even the best CGI can’t cover up the ham pantomime villainy of nominal baddies the Luthors.
Let’s hope the show grows beyond the teenage angst tendencies that have been so marked in earlier seasons. For one thing the cast are getting too old now to carry that off.
In any case it seems that the red cape could be some way off for Clark. What self respecting teenager would be seen dead in in blue tights and red knickers?
The flame still burns
There are a lot of people who are sniffy about US drama and won’t countenance it, saying the homegrown stuff is much better. They really are missing out if such snobbery puts them off the likes of the challenging Rescue Me.
Denis Leary’s irreverent and in your face look at New York fire-fighters is uncompromising and sometimes borders on misogynistic but the characters are well rounded and full of human frailty which means that the drama in their personal lives is more compelling than the action scenes.
The makers of British drama should take a look at this and learn a few lessons before inflicting inferior rubbish like Steel River Blues on the nation.
Taking the trash out
Channel 4 managed to fill two hours on Friday morning with a show asking why there was so much rubbish on the telly. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Golden Years
As EastEnders gradually gets back on track, UKTV Gold gave us a glorious reminder that, when on form, this soap has provided some of the best TV moments of the last twenty years.
Be it Den and Angie, the Grant, Sharon and Phil triangle, Zoë finding out Kat was her mum or Bianca finding out David was her dad (hey, in two decades you’ve got to expect some recycling of storylines), these were all excellent episodes and well worth viewing again.
50 Years of ITV
Continuing my look back at the golden years of ITV, a glance at 1956.
By the end of the year only viewers in London and parts of the Midlands and the North could actually see the new stations. While Associated-Rediffusion held sway in London on weekdays, ATV took over at the weekend while providing the Midlands service on school nights. The weekends there and up north were the province of ABC while Granada provided Monday to Friday coverage on both sides of the pennines.
With the Goons popular on radio, Son of Fred, featuring the talents of Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan was an early ITV hit. The earlier A Show called Fred had not been fully networked.
The show, Spike’s third effort for ITV that year, pushed back the boundaries of the sketch show, with revolutionary tactics such as sketches with no end or with no set and linked occasionally with surreal animation. Unfortunately, the show was too innovative for the feint hearts at the fledgling network and was axed after only eight episodes.
Is nostalgia making a comeback?
Being a Brummie who grew up in the seventies, I’ve been watching the BBC’s adaption of Jonathan Coe’s The Rotter’s Club with some interest.
The show is hampered by the fact that half the cast seem to be struggling with appalling hair pieces and unconvincing Brummie accents.
It’s the younger cast that are emerging with most credit as their characters go through their rites of passage in the decade that taste forgot. It certainly struck more than chord with me.
Less convincing are the parents, with the “romance??? between mother Barbara Chase (Sarah Lancashire) and arty farty teacher Nigel Plumb (Julian Rhind-Tutt) particularly stilted.
Quite why the crew felt the need to decamp to the Isle of Man to shoot a drama set in Birmingham is a bit of mystery.
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