TV
It’s amazing how some television stands the test of time and other shows seem remarkably dated when they pop up again on our screens.
I was pleased to see Rockcliffe’s Babies given another airing on UKTV Drama. It was a show I’d really enjoyed in the eighties and I’ve not seen it since. It really hasn’t stood the test of time. When it launched in 1987 it was touted as the BBC’s answer to The Bill and was blessed with Shakespearean actor Ian Hogg in the lead backed by a youthful supporting cast notably including Joe McGann.
Much as I enjoyed it first time round, I found it annoyingly plodding now, the pedestrian pace at which the plot was moving was making my remote trigger finger itch, something that wouldn’t have been an issue back in the days of just four channels. I suppose it’s an example of how old telly doesn’t always work with a modern audience.
Another example is The Avengers currently showing on BBC Four. Nothing wrong with the pacing here but the kookiness and theatrics that were cool years ago really jars now. It’s all a matter of personal taste,I hasten to add,before I get deluged with e-mails from cult TV fanatics.
Saturday morning saw me catch a Sylvester McCoy episode of Doctor Who that went a long way to explain why the show was absent from our screens for so many years. Delta and the Bannerman was almost embarrassing to watch and not as some might expect due to a strange cameo from Ken Dodd. The whole thing was total tosh, wasting the talents of comedy greats Hugh Lloyd and Richard Davies and featuring some dire wooden performances from the remainder of the cast. The incidental music was painfully annoying and even the presence of one of my personal favourites Don Henderson couldn’t save it.
Gerry Anderson’s Space: 1999 seemed to suffer from a cast who took the whole thing far too seriously. Martin Landau and Barbara Bain spend the whole time looking so miserable that what could have been an exciting sci-fi adventure ends up leading to one to look for The Samaritans phone number. I hope ITV4 get as far as screening the second series when attempts to inject humour into the show make us laugh for all the wrong reasons. I still think the Eagles are cool though.
Another delve into the past proved far more rewarding. Currently screening on Paramount 2, Man About The House still manages to raise the laughs despite all the seventies fashions making it look like a period piece. Modern day sitcom writers should look at the simplicity of this undemanding rib tickler and maybe realise that you don’t have to try to be clever to be funny. Simple situations peppered with predictable but funny gags work really well, especially if you have a cast as good as this show boasted. During the later episodes all the best lines went to George and Mildred whose spin off show is also far better than you may remember with some lovely use of pathos.
Soap on a rope?
Last week I asked whether our soaps were in crisis. I’d emphasise the word ask because from some of the responses I’ve had, you’d think I wanted the soaps off our screens. Of course I don’t, I just think we deserve better and it seems that a great many of you feel the same.
For those of you content with the status quo, I’m happy for you but please don’t see a call for better quality as an attack on your beloved shows. I don’t expect Chekov. All I ask is that the writers and producers credit us with some brains and don’t insult our intelligence the way I feel they have been recently.
I managed to catch Shane Richie in Scrooge – The Musical this week at the Alex in Birmingham. It’s certainly a good night out and worth going along to see if the show comes to your area.
I was unkind about EastEnders’Naomi recently. Perhaps I was a bit hasty. This week the character took centre stage and I was pleasantly surprised with Petra Letang who showed just how good she could be given some decent material to work with. For that reason I’ll bite my tongue about new arrival Honey until I’ve seen a few more episodes.
Horror Show
I’m sure that most neutral soccer fans really enjoyed lowly Doncaster Rovers' spirited demolition of Aston Villa in the Carling Cup on Sky Sports on Tuesday night. Sadly for me, I’m no neutral and it was painful to see my club humbled and humiliated on live television, not for the first time this season.
If anyone from Sky is reading this please stop showing the Villa. We’re not very good most of the time but we’re truly awful when your cameras turn up.
Best
I was thankful that Sky Sports News showed live coverage of the tribute to George Best at Old Trafford; it was a very moving event and the crowd, including the visiting West Bromwich Albion supporters, behaved impeccably. Many of them would never have got see the great man play in the flesh.
I was lucky enough to see him play live just the once and in an Aston Villa shirt too. Villa was playing West Brom in a quickly organised benefit game following the fire at Bradford City in 1985. George came on as a guest player, looking a little rotund and a little unfit but he still had the magic in his feet to make the players of the day look ordinary.
His talent brought joy to millions.
HD or not HD? That is the question
My telly is on its last legs and I really need to invest in a new one. A nice normal CRT model would suit me fine but they seem to disappearing from view down at the electrical superstore, replaced by these new fangled plasmas and LCDs.
Now I’m sure these expensive new machines will be fine and dandy when watching a progressive scan DVD or when the new high definition channels arrive but from what I’ve seen so far, they look worse than my existing set when screening, for example, the music channels from Sky Digital.
Though the slick HD pictures look nice, I’m not sure I’m willing to trade off having a super duper picture on a handful of channels with having what I may well deem an unacceptable one on the majority of the others. It’s a quandary.
In the past, takeup of new technology has tended to be driven by content rather than technical excellence. We'd have been quite happy to have bought a Betamax video if our local video rental shop had supplied films to rent in that format. We went for Sky rather than BSB knowing that the squarial provided better pictures but only five measly channels while the Sky offering heralded the delights of all those lovely German channels.
At the moment I’m actually thinking of doing a Grandad from Only Fools and Horses and having two sets. There’s got to be better answer though hasn’t there?
I was pleased to see Rockcliffe’s Babies given another airing on UKTV Drama. It was a show I’d really enjoyed in the eighties and I’ve not seen it since. It really hasn’t stood the test of time. When it launched in 1987 it was touted as the BBC’s answer to The Bill and was blessed with Shakespearean actor Ian Hogg in the lead backed by a youthful supporting cast notably including Joe McGann.
Much as I enjoyed it first time round, I found it annoyingly plodding now, the pedestrian pace at which the plot was moving was making my remote trigger finger itch, something that wouldn’t have been an issue back in the days of just four channels. I suppose it’s an example of how old telly doesn’t always work with a modern audience.
Another example is The Avengers currently showing on BBC Four. Nothing wrong with the pacing here but the kookiness and theatrics that were cool years ago really jars now. It’s all a matter of personal taste,I hasten to add,before I get deluged with e-mails from cult TV fanatics.
Saturday morning saw me catch a Sylvester McCoy episode of Doctor Who that went a long way to explain why the show was absent from our screens for so many years. Delta and the Bannerman was almost embarrassing to watch and not as some might expect due to a strange cameo from Ken Dodd. The whole thing was total tosh, wasting the talents of comedy greats Hugh Lloyd and Richard Davies and featuring some dire wooden performances from the remainder of the cast. The incidental music was painfully annoying and even the presence of one of my personal favourites Don Henderson couldn’t save it.
Gerry Anderson’s Space: 1999 seemed to suffer from a cast who took the whole thing far too seriously. Martin Landau and Barbara Bain spend the whole time looking so miserable that what could have been an exciting sci-fi adventure ends up leading to one to look for The Samaritans phone number. I hope ITV4 get as far as screening the second series when attempts to inject humour into the show make us laugh for all the wrong reasons. I still think the Eagles are cool though.
Another delve into the past proved far more rewarding. Currently screening on Paramount 2, Man About The House still manages to raise the laughs despite all the seventies fashions making it look like a period piece. Modern day sitcom writers should look at the simplicity of this undemanding rib tickler and maybe realise that you don’t have to try to be clever to be funny. Simple situations peppered with predictable but funny gags work really well, especially if you have a cast as good as this show boasted. During the later episodes all the best lines went to George and Mildred whose spin off show is also far better than you may remember with some lovely use of pathos.
Soap on a rope?
Last week I asked whether our soaps were in crisis. I’d emphasise the word ask because from some of the responses I’ve had, you’d think I wanted the soaps off our screens. Of course I don’t, I just think we deserve better and it seems that a great many of you feel the same.
For those of you content with the status quo, I’m happy for you but please don’t see a call for better quality as an attack on your beloved shows. I don’t expect Chekov. All I ask is that the writers and producers credit us with some brains and don’t insult our intelligence the way I feel they have been recently.
I managed to catch Shane Richie in Scrooge – The Musical this week at the Alex in Birmingham. It’s certainly a good night out and worth going along to see if the show comes to your area.
I was unkind about EastEnders’Naomi recently. Perhaps I was a bit hasty. This week the character took centre stage and I was pleasantly surprised with Petra Letang who showed just how good she could be given some decent material to work with. For that reason I’ll bite my tongue about new arrival Honey until I’ve seen a few more episodes.
Horror Show
I’m sure that most neutral soccer fans really enjoyed lowly Doncaster Rovers' spirited demolition of Aston Villa in the Carling Cup on Sky Sports on Tuesday night. Sadly for me, I’m no neutral and it was painful to see my club humbled and humiliated on live television, not for the first time this season.
If anyone from Sky is reading this please stop showing the Villa. We’re not very good most of the time but we’re truly awful when your cameras turn up.
Best
 |
| Magic feet |
I was lucky enough to see him play live just the once and in an Aston Villa shirt too. Villa was playing West Brom in a quickly organised benefit game following the fire at Bradford City in 1985. George came on as a guest player, looking a little rotund and a little unfit but he still had the magic in his feet to make the players of the day look ordinary.
His talent brought joy to millions.
HD or not HD? That is the question
My telly is on its last legs and I really need to invest in a new one. A nice normal CRT model would suit me fine but they seem to disappearing from view down at the electrical superstore, replaced by these new fangled plasmas and LCDs.
Now I’m sure these expensive new machines will be fine and dandy when watching a progressive scan DVD or when the new high definition channels arrive but from what I’ve seen so far, they look worse than my existing set when screening, for example, the music channels from Sky Digital.
Though the slick HD pictures look nice, I’m not sure I’m willing to trade off having a super duper picture on a handful of channels with having what I may well deem an unacceptable one on the majority of the others. It’s a quandary.
In the past, takeup of new technology has tended to be driven by content rather than technical excellence. We'd have been quite happy to have bought a Betamax video if our local video rental shop had supplied films to rent in that format. We went for Sky rather than BSB knowing that the squarial provided better pictures but only five measly channels while the Sky offering heralded the delights of all those lovely German channels.
At the moment I’m actually thinking of doing a Grandad from Only Fools and Horses and having two sets. There’s got to be better answer though hasn’t there?
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