So downloads are all the rage now. Big Finish, which makes those Doctor Who audio plays, has set up a downloads service (they still haven't got back to me about those missing extras, BTW, so I'm going to assume you don't get the CD extras with the downloads, making them even less attractive).
The BBC, after doing ever so nicely with its iPlayer, has leapt onto the Apple bandwagon as well by putting various shows onto iTunes, including Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, Torchwood and more. I've had little interest in the iTunes TV service until now - cos it's mostly been shows that are rubbish or aimed at kids. But with Stu_N suggesting I was wearing rose-tinted glasses in my recall of Life on Mars, I decided to give iTunes a try and download the first series.
Posted on February 28, 2008 at 12:33 | 2 comments |
Is it the eponymous Doctor from Doctor Who? Patrick Moore in Sky at Night?
What's your guess?
Turns out that at 70,000 hours – or nearly eight years – of onscreen time, it's Carole Hersee. Who's she? You'll recognise her after the jump. If you're of a certain age, anyway.
Posted on February 28, 2008 at 13:26 | 5 comments |
One of my favourite genres is the “killer virus” milieu. Let's face it, there's nothing quite as scary as a disease that kills lots and lots of people, even if it can be stopped by Dustin Hoffman (Outbreak), immunity among the upper middle classes (Survivors) or talking to it (The Burning Zone).
Just have a think about their close cousin, the zombie movie, even the funny ones (Shaun of the Dead, Zombi Holocaust), and it won't be long before the idea of some tiny little thing inside you that you can't do anything to stop from killing you really does start to get upsetting.
So, for this and because it's going to take me a while to scribble up lots and lots about Manhunter, I'm starting the long-promised “movies you should own” (aka “I've got it on DVD and you should to”) feature of this 'ere blog with a shortish chat about The Satan Bug, probably the first proper entry in the killer virus canon.
Posted on February 29, 2008 at 09:42 | 3 comments |
How'd that happen? I wasn't intending to do episode by episode reviews of Ashes to Ashes, but here I am, reviewing it. Probably won't happen next week, but who knows?
New theory, boys and girls. Forget Life on Mars. This isn't Life on Mars in the 80s. This isn't an attempt to look at changes in policing over the last couple of decades as I thought yesterday - or if it is, it's a bad one. This is an attempt to do an episode by episode pastiche of individual crime shows of the 80s.
Life on Mars only had The Sweeney (and maybe Special Branch) to have a go at, and was all about changes in procedure and attitude. Ashes to Ashes is all about a TV-addicted woman who wants to be in an 80s detective show, probably Moonlighting.
Help me with this theory since it's on slightly shaky ground. These are the shows I think Ashes to Ashes has been sending up so far
Episode 1: The A-Team, Miami Vice or at the outside Riptide Episode 2: Anyone? Episode 3: Prime Suspect I (which was 1991 admittedly) Episode 4: Edge of Darkness
I've come to this conclusion because last night's episode was the biggest homage to Edge of Darkness that the world has yet seen.
Posted on February 29, 2008 at 11:05 | 2 comments |
Just been looking through my BFI catalogue for April. There's the usual dearth of decent TV stuff, but on April 12th, they're showing four episodes of GF Newman's classic Law and Order from 1978.
Not to be confused with the long-running US show from Dick Wolf, Law and Order was the first British drama series to take a serious look at our legal system, police brutality and corruption. Newman, of course, was the guy who turned up at the Z-Cars writers' meeting, suggested that one of the detectives should take a bribe and was told that “maybe he was on the wrong showâ€.
The BFI is screening all four episodes of the show, each of which looked at a different aspect of the legal system (The Detective's Tale, The Villain's Tale, The Brief's Tale, The Prisoner's Tale), starting at 2pm, with an introduction by GF Newman himself.
But there's also good news: the show's about to be released on DVD, and there's a follow-up series on the way. I hasten you all to watch it if you can. Good luck finding the DVD on Amazon when it's released - it's going to be somewhat swamped by the US shows, by the looks of it....
There's a Fat Pig after-show Q&A with Neil LaBute on Tuesday 8th July, with Vanessa Feltz as co-host. You can also get the best available seats for this performance, Thursday matinees, Mondays and Tuesdays for £25 until the 10th July. You can order over the phone or online using the "FACEBOOK" promo code.
Sky One's Empire was a bit poor, wasn't it?
Warship got a lot better and more focused as the series went on, so I'd recommend catching it on re-runs if you can since it's worth sticking with to the end.
Read more on Today's Sitting Tennant: Trick or Treat