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On telly this week

Started by Emperor, 24 December, 2011, 04:01:53 PM

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Frank


Ha-ha, sauchie, that was hilarious. BBC Four's your man tonight; What Do Artists Do All Day has just started, and I, Claudius gets a repeat at 10PM. It doesn't look like it'll be available on iplayer, so if you want to see definitive proof that zero budget, cardboard sets, and wigs that make Shatner's look convincing are no barrier to making completely absorbing drama, you'd better set your recorder.


Link Prime

Quote from: sauchie on 19 March, 2013, 08:05:56 PM

Ha-ha, sauchie, that was hilarious.

Don't know why that made me spit out a mouthful of coffee, it just did.  :lol:

Spikes

Quote from: sauchie on 19 March, 2013, 08:05:56 PM

I, Claudius gets a repeat at 10PM. It doesn't look like it'll be available on iplayer, so if you want to see definitive proof that zero budget, cardboard sets, and wigs that make Shatner's look convincing are no barrier to making completely absorbing drama, you'd better set your recorder.

Good call. Watching, but not recording though. Been meaning to track down the DVD for a while. (Dont think this has ever seen a Blu-ray release, has it?)

TordelBack

#258
Quote from: sauchie on 19 March, 2013, 08:05:56 PM,,,so if you want to see definitive proof that zero budget, cardboard sets, and wigs that make Shatner's look convincing are no barrier to making completely absorbing drama, you'd better set your recorder.

It really is astonishingly great stuff, just as good as the books.  I have the DVD and watch it every year and sometimes wish they could slot a few CGI sequences in.

Joking and awful wigs aside, I think the sequence, where [spoiler]Caligula/Hurt/Pat Mills eats his unborn child[/spoiler], must be one of the most powerful scenes ever filmed. 

Dandontdare

Quote from: TordelBack on 19 March, 2013, 11:02:06 PM
Joking and awful wigs aside, I think the sequence, where [spoiler]Caligula/Hurt/Pat Mills eats his unborn child[/spoiler], must be one of the most powerful scenes ever filmed.

Oh yes - I was 9 when this was on and I think I got to stay up later than usual because it was somehow 'educational' - that scene freaked me out and to this day is the only actual image ([spoiler]of him coming out of the room with blood around his mouth[/spoiler]) that sticks fast in my mind like it was yesterday

Frank


Nothing entirely new here, but it's interesting to see the folk directly involved talking so frankly about how no-one in the intelligence community considered the evidence and testimony which took the US and UK into Iraq in 2003 to be in any way reliable. Worth bearing in mind the next time you hear Blair trotting out his line about how he could only base his decision on the evidence presented to him and the advice given to him at the time:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01rh8hd/Panorama_The_Spies_Who_Fooled_the_World/


Goaty


Scream on BBC1 tonight if anyone having silly enjoyable night in!

Frank


BBC2 deserves your full attention tonight, boasting the heartbreaking documentary Project Nim (Rise of the Planet of the Apes for real) and David Fincher's masterpiece, Zodiac (21.30-01.20). The latter features a typically gonzo performance from Robert Downey Jr and at least one moment so unnervingly creepy you'll be afraid to go to bed in the dark afterwards.

SPOILER
this must be what it would be like if either John Wagner or Alex Garland inadvertently found themselves in Scojo's house
SPOILER

Hawkmumbler

Not much on for me at the moment, just awaiting....Doctor Who...'passes out from excitiment'.

Mardroid

In the Flesh tonight on BBC3 at 10.

I saw the first episode last week and I thought it pretty good.

It's interesting in that it takes the concept of zombies and does something rather different with it.

I.e. (this isn't much of a spoiler as this is established near the start) [spoiler]after a zombie outbreak (and these are the pretty nasty man-eaters you'd usually associate with the genre) the zombies were rounded up and a treatment of a kind was found. An daily injection into the spinal collumn at the back of the neck which restores most of their brain function, essentially restoring their personalities and stopping their primal flesh eating urges.

Oh, and they have to take that injection daily or they'll revert to a 'feral' state...

One of the main characters is a young man who happens to be one of these zombies, being brought back by his parents to the northern town in which he lived, and the results, etc.[/spoiler] 

There's more to it than that, with various characters and their viewpoints. Very compelling I thought. Like many zombie stories, it's more about the human characters and how they react and what it says about society than the actual zombies themselves but explored in a rather different way to your usual zombie story.

I was sad that Being Human is now finished for good, but this is a good replacement. It's very different as it plays everything straight with little in the way of comedy but good in a completely different way. So far, anyway.

Harry 20

I agree in the flesh was a great twist on the zombie story, well worth a look

smilersaltash

lol  just had a private message on facebook from the moderator of the Official History Channel page. Apparently I have to stop making unfavourable comments or I will be blocked.

Why does asking if the History Channel plans on showing some programmes with some historical content constitute unfavourable.

Perhaps my comment suggesting they renamed the channel 'the No History Channel' or 'the Crappy, Cheap, Reality Show Channel' was a little too close to home for comfort.

Link Prime

Easter Monday BBC1 8.30pm:

Jonathan Creek- The Clue of the Savants Thumb.

I literally cannot wait to veg out stuffing my face with chocolate watching this.
Probably the most anticipated return of 'JC' at Easter in about 2000 years...

Professor Bear

Anyone else watching It's Kevin?  Speaking as a fan of The Actor Kevin Eldon it is exactly what you would expect, just maybe not as funny as you'd hope - some solid laughs (Spunky Spunk Hand Jobs Restaurant and the drunk-in-hospital sketches) are spread too thinly across the episodes, and the pacing and tone are deliberately slow and deconstructionist to the point I am pretty sure Eldon just wants to alienate the kind of audience who liked Little Britain or that thing with the Doctor Who woman, but it's still affably compelling, possibly because you never get the impression it's just shit thrown on a wall as much as it is you aren't entirely in synch with the humor of the main player.
If I had to describe it, I'd say it was basically a grown-up version of Gilbert's Fridge.

Frank

Quote from: Professor James T Bear on 28 March, 2013, 01:27:39 PM
Anyone else watching It's Kevin?  Speaking as a fan of The Actor Kevin Eldon it is exactly what you would expect, just maybe not as funny as you'd hope - some solid laughs (Spunky Spunk Hand Jobs Restaurant and the drunk-in-hospital sketches) are spread too thinly across the episodes, and the pacing and tone are deliberately slow and deconstructionist to the point I am pretty sure Eldon just wants to alienate the kind of audience who liked Little Britain or that thing with the Doctor Who woman, but it's still affably compelling, possibly because you never get the impression it's just shit thrown on a wall as much as it is you aren't entirely in synch with the humor of the main player.
If I had to describe it, I'd say it was basically a grown-up version of Gilbert's Fridge.

Sold. The single episode of Phil Cornwell's Gilbert's Fridge I had the foresight to record at the end of the same blank tape which houses The Terminator is the jewel in the crown of my VHS collection, and that series is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Pro.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00wwryv/Its_Kevin_Episode_1/