GOOD TV

[Stanley]

You may have heard me talk wistfully about a TV play by Alan Rudkin called 'Penda's Fen' first broadcast in 1977. I found it on Youtube and watched it last night. Just as good as it was in my memory, well worth seeking it out if you enjoy good TV.

[Stanley]

I watched the last episode of 'The Game' and it confirmed what I had suspected before when I dipped my toe in it. It has been a ludicrous rip-off of the Smiley novels by John le Carre. So bad at times that it seemed like a tongue in cheek parody of splendid series like 'Smiley's People' or 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier , Spy'. Nul point I'm afraid......

[Stanley]

Dan Snow's 'Armada' last night contained enough new information to keep me engaged. An interesting new take on Gloriana......

[Stanley]

I watched the programme on the Metropolitan police last night. Definitely PR for them but it did illustrate some of the problems they face I was reminded of how much of this ill-feeling towards them stems from attitudes in the past. Of course it still hangs on, almost all the officers were white and male, perhaps that's where they should be starting.......

[PanBiker]

Fastest - Shown on Channel 4 tonight at 9.00pm. A two and a half hour tale of Moto GP seen through the eyes of Valentino Rossi and his career first with Honda and then with Yamaha where he won 46 races as top rider. The story follows his journey through 17 years of racing up to 2010 when he then moved from Yamaha to Ducati.

Moto GP bikes are the highest performing road machines in the world developing 240 bhp with a top speed of 220 mph, the power to weight performance is phenomenal and would outperforming the fastest Formula 1 machines.

[Stanley]

Bargain Hunt yesterday..... A visit to Masson and the Jubilee Engine.

[Tripps]

You may have heard me talk wistfully about a TV play by Alan Rudkin called 'Penda's Fen' first broadcast in 1977. I found it on Youtube and watched it last night. Just as good as it was in my memory, well worth seeking it out if you enjoy good TV.

I've had several goes at watching this - I've got through most of it - but I eventually gave up. It's all a bit deep for me. I see that even the director admits he doesn't understand it.

Any way - I'll see your Penda's Fen and raise you a Mondo Cane, which I first saw almost exactly fifty years ago, sat on the front row in the $1 seats of an RAF cinema, in Singapore.

I will warn you - it's strong stuff. You'll cope Stanley, but it's not for everyone. There will be things in it that stay in your mind for a very long time. I'm proof of that.

[Stanley]

I've bookmarked it David. You're right about Penda's Fen, it is very deep. It took me a long time to get some inkling of what is going on because it's so complicated. There are at least four separate plot lines for a start off! And no, I'm not going to give an analysis! I shall just give some clues, Puberty, Family Relations. Elgar's problemes with the watershed of the Great War and the history of Penda himself.....

[Tripps]

Thanks for that - I've downloaded it so I'll try again.

I noticed that in the introduction they showed a shot from 'Nuts in May' which is a Mike Leigh film with a very young Alison Steadman in it. That's on Youtube as well. Amazing. Why did I go to so much trouble to get a VHS tape of it.

We still say - she's a bit 'Candice Marie' occasionally.

Nuts in May

[Stanley]

You know your films better than I do David.....

[Stanley]

I found that the original series 'Smiley's People' with Alec Guinness is available on Youtube... I'm having to ration myself to one episode a day!

[Stanley]

Not a lot on TV last night so I watched the last episode of the Alec Guinness 'Smiley's People' on the TV via Freetime and Youtube. Brilliant quality and what a good series that was, kept exactly to Carre's original text. Due to the good quality I noticed something that I hadn't seen before... Karla appears once, in the last scene. He was played by Patrick Stewart in 1982.....
I shall go on to Tinker Tailor......

[Stanley]

I had a Tinker Tailor marathon last night. I watched all six hour long episodes of the original BBC production of le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, spy. Brilliant TV and thanks to Youtube..... Not everyone's cup of tea I know but I found it riveting. I note that Youtube also has House of cards and A Perfect Spy. I wonder if they have A Very British Coup.....

[PanBiker]

Les Misérables is on TV tonight, this is the latest version that I saw at the cinema acouple of years ago and reviewed in the movie thread. Channel 4 at 9.00pm, give it a watch, it's a spectacular film.

My earlier review - Les Misérables

[Tizer]

If you didn't listen to this the first time then listen to the repeat at 17.00 on Radio 4, it's a `must listen'!
`The Debt Business'...Adair Turner argues household debt could lead the UK towards another melt down.

[Stanley]

That sounds feasible Tiz!

[Stanley]

Not much on TV around 21:00 last night and since my bedtime is 22:00 I trawled the channels and found that BBC Alba was screening Whisky Galore!. This meant I was twenty minutes late going to bed but lovely to revisit a classic! Made in 1949 in B&W it has weathered 66 years very well!

[Stanley]

J B Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls' last night on BBC2 was brilliant! A very good translation of a literary classic to TV. Can we have more like this please? If you missed it, get it on Iplayer, well worth the effort.

[Tripps]

I watched most of it - tuned in late, and was captivated.

Leaving aside the fact that the plot (to us mild OCD's) was total nonsense - a policeman who wasn't a policeman, speaking in detail of events which hadn't happened yet, and then they did.
I really enjoyed it. Superb production. The Guardian has already compared it to the Syrian child drowned in the Med. We are all guilty.

[Stanley]

It had the same effect when Priestley wrote it and it was performed in the theatre. A brilliant commentary on society. Love on the Dole hit the same buttons....
I watched the Mosley programme on the effect of the mother's environment during the first weeks after conception on BBC2 last night. Totally fascinating! Talk about life being a lottery!

[Tripps]

Seems like everyone thinks this was good. I think there will be awards. I suppose the lack of logic in the play is just a writer's artifice to get the facts across. I can live with that. The music was perfect, and at one point I found myself quickly being reminded of Saltaire. There is a reason for that, as I have just discovered. Parts of it were recorded there.
Here are the thoughts of Bradford's Jim Greenhalf who is obviously an expert in the play. Jim Greenhalf

[Stanley]

I recognised Saltaire and in some shots Queen Street at Burnley as well. Good entertainment, I shall be looking out for the next Classic which I think is on Sunday....

[Stanley]

Michael Moseley's programme on our development in the womb was again fascinating last night on BBC2.

[Stanley]

Two good programmes on BBC2 last night from 20:00 to 22:00. First there was Professor Hans Rosling giving a lecture on why we shouldn't panic about poverty. A wonderful intelligent use of statistics, our politicians would do well to watch and learn. Then there was the last of the programmes on women's position in society. Very thought provoking and this morning's report on women graduates and their comparative income with men did nothing to damage the thesis. Good TV, more please!

[Stanley]

Michael Mosley's third and final programme on human development in the womb last night on BBC 2 was another triumph of good communication of very complicated concepts. Full of things I didn't know..... he is on the same level as Brian Cox when it comes to science programmes....