Downton Abbey – The Christmas Cracker. Sensibly, this developed earlier storylines, albeit tedious ones, and brought them to at least some sort of resolution. The breathing space of a two-hour slot, minus many ad breaks, meant fewer of the twenty-second scenes and would have added a little credence to plotlines from series two such as the disfigured claimant. It almost managed to avoid being tongue-in-cheek except for a few innuendos which must have got them sniggering at the read-throughs. The biggest TWNH was the Crawleys turning out en masse for Bates’s murder trial, and at Christmas! Dear dear me....
But, with 1920 already begun, i.e. eight years having passed since the first episode (onscreen, of-course, it hasn’t been that long in reality, however wearisome), how long can life stay essentially the same for everyone at the Abbey? And with Jonathan Ross featuring a spoof Carson Christmas Album, surely series three should be the last?
This is England 88 - This definitely took us back to '88 - it was very similar to 'Brookside'. Lots of laughs from peripheral characters, and lots of bleak stuff in the main storylines, and like in Brookside she killed her dad (not a spoiler because that happened in '86).
Lol is 'This Is England's version of 'Mad Men's Betty, in that she can be guaranteed to remove any fun from any scene, and also as Lol she's the most inappropriately named character in the history of TV drama.
Nonetheless, Vicky McClure deserves every award going for her portrayal of a woman on the verge, and her scenes with Joseph Gilgun (Woody) at the end were very emotional in the best possible way. It wasn't as good as '86 - Mick (Johnny Harris) was the scariest TV villain of recent years - but it wasn't as bad as '86 either: no daft weddings, shaggings or group sing-songs this time. If they do '90 we'll watch, but please can it be a bit less bleak?
Great Expectations – What better way to spend Christmas than among the mouldering remains of Satis House with mad Miss Havisham, cold Estella and social-climbing Pip? As a story, it’s unfair to judge it on its merits, which are firmly of their time, but as an adaptation, and an umpteenth one, it started badly. The first episode crept along slower than the dry rot in the house and the casting jarred. Gillian Anderson obviously enjoys playing against her glamorous image these days, judging by this and her turn as Mrs Castaway in ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’, but here she looks like a twenty-year-old with a skin condition and an off-the-vintage-peg frock. She probably is about the right age for Miss H, as opposed to the old grand dames who have played her in the past, but Miss H would look older than her years, not younger. The casting seemed to operate in reverse for the Gargerys, who were cast older, but look about right in terms of the premature ageing that comes with a hard life. Douglas Booth as Pip was also odd, since he seemed always to belong to a later era and to Eton rather than a rural Victorian forge. Only Ray Winstone as Magwitch seemed recognisably Dickensian.
Fast Freddie, the Widow & Me – We’ll be honest, this looked sentimental, clichéd and better suited to children’s tv, so out of respect for Lawrence Fox and Sarah Smart, we gave it a miss.
This is England 88 - This definitely took us back to '88 - it was very similar to 'Brookside'. Lots of laughs from peripheral characters, and lots of bleak stuff in the main storylines, and like in Brookside she killed her dad (not a spoiler because that happened in '86).
Lol is 'This Is England's version of 'Mad Men's Betty, in that she can be guaranteed to remove any fun from any scene, and also as Lol she's the most inappropriately named character in the history of TV drama.
Nonetheless, Vicky McClure deserves every award going for her portrayal of a woman on the verge, and her scenes with Joseph Gilgun (Woody) at the end were very emotional in the best possible way. It wasn't as good as '86 - Mick (Johnny Harris) was the scariest TV villain of recent years - but it wasn't as bad as '86 either: no daft weddings, shaggings or group sing-songs this time. If they do '90 we'll watch, but please can it be a bit less bleak?
Great Expectations – What better way to spend Christmas than among the mouldering remains of Satis House with mad Miss Havisham, cold Estella and social-climbing Pip? As a story, it’s unfair to judge it on its merits, which are firmly of their time, but as an adaptation, and an umpteenth one, it started badly. The first episode crept along slower than the dry rot in the house and the casting jarred. Gillian Anderson obviously enjoys playing against her glamorous image these days, judging by this and her turn as Mrs Castaway in ‘The Crimson Petal and the White’, but here she looks like a twenty-year-old with a skin condition and an off-the-vintage-peg frock. She probably is about the right age for Miss H, as opposed to the old grand dames who have played her in the past, but Miss H would look older than her years, not younger. The casting seemed to operate in reverse for the Gargerys, who were cast older, but look about right in terms of the premature ageing that comes with a hard life. Douglas Booth as Pip was also odd, since he seemed always to belong to a later era and to Eton rather than a rural Victorian forge. Only Ray Winstone as Magwitch seemed recognisably Dickensian.
The second and third episodes picked up the pace and were subsequently a more enjoyable watch, but we can’t help but wonder whether money was well spent in yet another remake, rather than showing a previous version and spending the money on a less-adapted work or even, horreur, original drama?
Ben Hur – Tucked away on Channel 5, this required herculean effort on the part of the audience as well as the titular hero, at a running time of over three hours. While Dan couldn’t get over the lack of Charlton Heston, whose appearance is required in anything sword and sandals, Ali quite liked it. Like ‘Great Expectations’ it is, after all, an adaptation of a Victorian novel, and as such is bound to contain the same absurd coincidences and wholesome moral endings that characterised most similar fiction. Get over that, and you had an entertaining tale of friendship, love, betrayal, revenge and forgiveness – the usual, in other words – with what seemed a reasonable production budget and a decent cast. There was something about Hollywood epics that suited these overblown tales, that doesn’t quite translate to the earthier, bloodier and more sexually explicit approach of modern takes on the era such as ‘Rome’. Combining an old story with a new adaptation is a risk that seemed to pay off here though, maybe because most of us know too little of the ancient world to spot the anachronisms, but with the likes of Marc Warren, Art Malik, Alex Kingston and Ben Cross appearing, not to mention Magwitch and the Earl of Grantham turning up as a decent Roman and Pontius Pilate, respectively, you know you’re in good hands.
Sherlock - pacy, witty, fun and, were we adolescent, probably one of the best things on TV. As it is, well ok, it's still one of the best things on TV, providing perfect Sunday evening viewing, with a nod to Conan Doyle and a wink to the audience. Bring on the Hounds!
And bringing up the rear...
And bringing up the rear...
Endeavour – The words 'barrel', 'bottom' and 'scraped' came to mind on hearing about this. What next? Young Marple? Even older Poirot? Not a new idea either, given the juvenile Bonds, Sherlocks, Indiana Joneses and James Herriots ('Young James Herriot'? We just couldn't.) that have populated the shelves and/or screen for a while. It wasn't as bad as it sounded. Shaun Evans had clearly studied the late John Thaw's mannerisms and cadences of speech, and Roger Allam added some nicely underplayed support as his boss, Inspector Thursday. Otherwise, it has to be said, this felt like overkill. It added nothing to the genre in either style or substance, the story being one that could have featured in 'Gently' or even any modern procedural, like... 'Lewis'.
What distinguished early 'Morse' was subtlety and class: a superior script, quiet performances and a mood of death and secrets conjured by Barrington Pheloung's haunting score and slow-panning camerawork that was almost languid. What bound the spell was the central performances of Kevin Whately and John Thaw as Lewis and Morse, characters well enough developed from their literary origins, but blessedly free of the cliched quirks and ticks and private-life complications that so easily distract. The quality had declined somewhat, a while before Morse's fatal collapse in a quad in his beloved Oxford.
Then came 'Lewis', a pale shadow of its predecessor with so-so scripts and unlikely plots. And now, 'Endeavour'. Pointless discussing it as a stand-alone drama, since every five minutes there's a huge hurrah for Morse and even Thaw fans. His daughter Abigail Thaw's cameo had her asking the young DC Morse whether they'd ever met and responding to his negative reply with, "Maybe in another life". A wholly inconsequential moment, plotwise, and a crossover from internal logic to fan followings. Not content with merely showing young-pup Morse, we are also offered the origins of his love of opera, beer and jaguar cars. Are we missing anything? Oh yes, the opera heroine and potential love interest turns out to be whodunnit.
The hum-drum is not the worst of it either, there's at least one juicy TWNH. A shady, sinister government type produces a very large gun at the end and threatens a politician with a bullet if he doesn't resign. Somehow we think if this were an approved tactic, that given the number of resignations by arrogant politicians, there would doubtless be a decent handful of assassinated ministers over the last forty years. Step forward any pro-Morse conspiracy theorists?
What distinguished early 'Morse' was subtlety and class: a superior script, quiet performances and a mood of death and secrets conjured by Barrington Pheloung's haunting score and slow-panning camerawork that was almost languid. What bound the spell was the central performances of Kevin Whately and John Thaw as Lewis and Morse, characters well enough developed from their literary origins, but blessedly free of the cliched quirks and ticks and private-life complications that so easily distract. The quality had declined somewhat, a while before Morse's fatal collapse in a quad in his beloved Oxford.
Then came 'Lewis', a pale shadow of its predecessor with so-so scripts and unlikely plots. And now, 'Endeavour'. Pointless discussing it as a stand-alone drama, since every five minutes there's a huge hurrah for Morse and even Thaw fans. His daughter Abigail Thaw's cameo had her asking the young DC Morse whether they'd ever met and responding to his negative reply with, "Maybe in another life". A wholly inconsequential moment, plotwise, and a crossover from internal logic to fan followings. Not content with merely showing young-pup Morse, we are also offered the origins of his love of opera, beer and jaguar cars. Are we missing anything? Oh yes, the opera heroine and potential love interest turns out to be whodunnit.
The hum-drum is not the worst of it either, there's at least one juicy TWNH. A shady, sinister government type produces a very large gun at the end and threatens a politician with a bullet if he doesn't resign. Somehow we think if this were an approved tactic, that given the number of resignations by arrogant politicians, there would doubtless be a decent handful of assassinated ministers over the last forty years. Step forward any pro-Morse conspiracy theorists?
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