British TV Show Reviews "K"

Kangaroo Palace (3/98)
Two part Australian drama set in the 1960s as a group of young Australians emigrate to "swinging" London but end up squatting with a bunch of hippies in a building they call "Kangaroo Palace." Jacqueline McKenzie (Stark) stars as a wannabe photographer searching for her father, and her relationship with another emigrant who wants to be a journalist is one of the primary focuses. Made for an Australian audience, the moral at the end seems to cynically suggest "There's no place like home."

Karaoke (11/96)
Before he died of cancer, writer Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective) managed to persuade the BBC and Channel 4 into making his last two works as co-productions to be run one right after the other and broadcast on both networks. The first, Karaoke, is a four-part drama about a dying, alcoholic screenwriter, Daniel Feeld (Albert Finney), who begins to think people in real life are starting to imitate characters in a movie he wrote. The film (also called "Karaoke") is being edited by an egotistical director (Richard E. Grant) who is having an affair with his leading lady. Feeld in turn gets involved with a woman who seems very much like the one in the movie. The film-within-a-film scenes are nicely handled (and very in-jokey, the "actor" playing the Daniel Feeld role in the movie looks like Dennis Potter!), and Feeld (and Potter) manages to write his own happy ending - or does he? Knowing this would be produced posthumously, one wonders how autobiographical Potter's drama is concerning his own mortality. But wait until what comes next in the sequel Cold Lazarus...

Keeping Mum (9/97)
BBC sitcom starring Stephanie Cole (Waiting For God) as the world's most annoying mother. Her poor suffering son must put up with her shenanigans as he attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife - whom mom despises. Clearly, he's outclassed.

Keeping Up Appearances (7/96)
In this Christmas special, Mrs. Bucket (pronounced like "bouquet"), the harridan with an etiquette fetish, gets a mobile phone (which she uses incessantly to annoy her neighbors), and takes part in a disastrous Christmas pageant.

The Keith Barret Show (3/05)
Rob Brydon takes his sad sack character from Marion & Geoff and becomes a BBC chat show presenter!  I guess the Kumars have proven that anyone can host a talk show, as long as you keep the guests laughing.  Still, it's nice to think Keith finally accomplished something...

Ken Russell's Treasure Island (7/96)
Oddball filmmaker Ken Russell (Lisztomania) wrote and directed this made-for-TV movie of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic like it was a Carry On film. Not to mention that villain Long John Silver is transformed into Long Jane Silver, a Madonna-like blonde with a pegleg. She and her pirate crew break into song at any cue on their quest for the buried treasure marked on a map belonging to a young boy. Faithful it's not, entertaining, that's hard to say. It's certainly different.

The Key (5/04)
The history of unionization is told through one family of women in Glasgow starting in 1915 and continuing through the present day.  Love, success, and most of all, having quality workplaces are all explored in this BBC mini-series where people's lives don't always turn out as expected.

Killer Net (9/98)
Four-part ITV thriller written by Lynda La Plante (Prime Suspect) and directed by Geoffrey Sax (Doctor Who). The Internet, the ever-trendy bogeyman these days, is the focus as a psychology student meets a wild girl online which eventually leads him to "Killer Net," a CD-ROM game where you pretend to be a serial killer. When the girl is found murdered, the police suspect the student, particularly as he "planned" her murder as part of the game. But is he guilty? Who is really behind "Killer Net"? How does it recreate Brighton so accurately in the game? And will the computer-illiterate police be able to separate what is real and what is fiction? Technologically-savvy viewers will amuse themselves saying, "Computers can't do that!", while the whodunit aspect wouldn't confuse a Murder, She Wrote fan, but the integration of computers and reality is nicely done and keeps things off-balance for most of the time.

King Leek (3/98)
Tim Healy stars as a father whose only concern are his prize leeks which he impetuously bets his house on in a contest with his bitter rival. His family are some piece of work too, with one son growing cannabis in a barn, and another boy with a knife obsession. My friend Allen loved this BBC TV movie but a friend of his couldn't agree, saying grimly, "My dad is King Leek."

Kings of Glam (4/07)
Documentary look at the 1970s glam rock music scene with profiles of Mark Bolan, David Bowie, Noddy Holder, Bryan Ferry, Suzi Quatro, and Elton John.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (3/99)
Charlie Higson (The Fast Show) presents this look at movies, including behind-the-scenes of the making and marketing, as well as reviews of recent movies on this Channel 4 series. Filled with interesting interviews as well as a transatlantic scope, it’s a pretty good look at the film industry.

Kiss Me Kate (9/98)
Unfunny BBC sitcom which is especially disappointing as it stars Caroline Quentin (Jonathan Creek) as an psychoanalyst who can't manage her personal life. I never laughed once and couldn't wait for each episode to end. A real failure.

Klinik! (5/97)
Someone has taken a Dutch soap opera set in a hospital and dubbed in new dialog ala "Mad Movies." A little bit goes a long way, but luckily each segment is only 15 minutes long and heavily edited.

Knights of God (3/91)
Glossily-filmed 1987 children's adventure series set in a future British dictatorship where a boy must try to find the heir to the throne and restore democracy. With Gareth Thomas (Blake's 7), Patrick Troughton, and John Woodvine.

Knowing Me, Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge (7/96)
Steve Coogan's continuingly excellent portrayal of a shallow TV presenter (originally seen in Knowing Me, Knowing You) highlights this parody of BBC Christmas specials. You'll never watch another Andy Williams Christmas the same way again after seeing this. It would take two years for "Partridge" to recover from this disaster and return to television in I'm Alan Partridge.

Kombat Opera (4/08)
Stewart Lee (Jerry Springer: The Opera) presents quick, digestible half hour operas, including "The Applicants," a parody of "The Apprentice" with John Thomson.

The Kumars At No. 42 (11/02)
Half the cast of the Asian sketch comedy series Goodness Gracious Me put on this BBC half sitcom, half chat show, that features a "typical" middle-class British Asian family whose sad live-at-home son also hosts his own chatshow, apparently live from their backyard.  Each week, famous B-list celebrities arrive at their house, there are some behind-the-scenes material (which remind me in a way of similar shenanigans on "The Muppet Show") and then the guest comes out on the "show" for some of the oddest interviews ever seen (the poor host continually is shown up by his family which appear on a nearby sofa to heckle).  It doesn't always work, and a little goes a long way, but an interesting experiment nevertheless.

KYTV (11/90)
Angus Deayton (Have I Got News For You), Helen Atkinson-Wood, and Philip Pope star in this great satire of Rupert Murdock's Sky News. Each episode has a separate theme. Originally a pilot on Comic Asides.