New British TV Show Reviews

A Is For Acid (1/04)
In this ITV TV movie Martin Clunes plays real-life 1940s serial killer John Haigh who came up with the unique notion that if he dissolved his victims in acid there would be no "corpus delecti" and he could get away with murdering people for profit.  Clunes plays him as a real smoothie who ingratiates himself with his victims before killing them, although the movie's attempt to "humanize" him by making him nice to dogs seems unnecessary.

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet (1/04)
One of the defining dramas of the 1980s is updated with the original cast and writers reuniting (except for Gary Holton who died in 1985).  This time, the gang is recruited by Oz (Jimmy Nail) of all people who has formed a partnership with a crooked former politician (Bill Nighy) to disassemble a landmark ferry bridge and sell it for a huge profit.  But as usual there are labor troubles, money troubles, and personal troubles, not to mention Nighy stabbing them in the back whenever he can.  Eventually the action (and the bridge) are relocated to the American Southwest (shot on location) as they attempt to help an Indian tribe cross a river to their casino.  Originally an ITV series, the new season was made by the BBC.

Believe Nothing (1/04)
The New Statesman team of writers Marks and Gran collaborate again with Rik Mayall in this ITV sitcom.  Mayall plays "quadruple professor" Adonis Cnut (can't wait to see what my spell check does with that one!), apparently the smartest man in Britain, but still can't get in the trousers of neurotic colleague Hannah Awkward.  Cnut is also part of the secret cabal that actually runs the world, and this allows the series to tie together such diverse elements such as global warming, Watergate, and digital watches with hilarious precision.  Cnut is also advisor to Tony Blair and George W. Bush (though he merely tries to trick the later into invading Cuba), and rival to a Richard Branson-like billionaire.  Unlike most other British sitcom heroes, Cnut isn't a loser, and with the exception of conquering Prof. Awkward, pretty much succeeds with every plan he puts into action.

Bodily Harm (1/04)
Tony Grounds (Gone To Seed) wrote this Channel 4 mini-series about a dislocated son (Timothy Spall, a role he has perfected) who interferes with his parents plans for dual suicide and has to live with the consequences.  Relentless without relief drama.

Bo' Selecta! (1/04)
Very odd channel 4 comedy starring Avid Merrion as a series of famous characters mostly achieved through very over-the-top makeup appliances.  Sort of the flip side of Dead Ringers with Avid merely satirizing celebrities without really trying to look or even sound like them.

Celeb (1/04)
Harry Enfield stars in this BBC comedy as an Ozzie Osbourne-like former big-name rock star, now living in his country manor, but still oh so nouveau riche.  Based on a comic appearing in "Private Eye" but frankly a one-joke idea.

Cruise of the Gods (1/04)
Rob Brydon (Marion & Geoff) and Steve Coogan (I'm Alan Partridge) co-star as the former actors of an early 1980s youth sci-fi series called "Children of Castor" who are reunited 20 years later on a celebrity cruise in this BBC TV movie.  Brydon's character, the original star, is now a hotel porter and only goes on the cruise to mingle with the rapid fans of his old series because he needs the money and attention.  He accidentally runs into Coogan who is now the rich and successful star of an American action series ("Sherlock Holmes In Miami," if you can believe it) and though he doesn't have to, eagerly drops in on the convention to relieve old memories.  Needless to say, much fun is made at the expense of sad fans (particularly Little Britain's Mark Walliams as the organizer with the nickname "Lurky") but the actors don't come off much better, feeding as they do off the dreams and desires of their admirers.  Life on a cruise ship is also expertly observed, particularly the staff's obsession with folding items in your room into odd shapes.

Fame, Set & Match (1/04)
Documentary look at the ups and downs of various celebrities (including a bar graph visually depicting their progress).  One episode focused on breakfast television (which only came to Britain in the 1980s) and the stars that were created and went on (in some cases) to long careers... and others who didn't.

Fields of Gold (1/04)
Genetically-modified foods, barely a ripple on the cultural radar of most Americans, is a huge concern in Britain, and this three part BBC drama preys on those fears when a large multi-national corporation tests GM crops on a farm.  Two reporters are on a story they think is about a doctor killing patients in a rural hospital, but in fact people are dying from an unstoppable staph infection that was introduced as a gene into the crops.  Now, Big Business and the government conspire to keep it all quiet, while the crusading reporters try to get to the bottom of it.

Ginger Nation (1/04)
A part of Channel 4's ALT TV series, where ordinary folks make documentaries on topics that interest them.  In this one, the case for ginger hair is made.  In Britain, having red (ginger) hair is apparently a big deal and often makes one a target for discrimination and jokes.  Having a red headed wife myself (whose entire family are also red heads), I don't quite understand what the Briton's hang-up about this is, but it exists nevertheless.

Harry Enfield's Brand Spanking New Show (1/04)
Harry made the big bucks leap to Sky TV and tried to invent new characters but nothing really catches on and the absence of former collaborators Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke is sorely missed.  Enfield is currently doing voice overs as a gnome in the Travelocity ads in the U.S.

The House That Jack Built (1/04)
The late Adam Faith plays an overbearing rich father in this comedy.  Jack has three kids, two spoiled rotten, and the oldest who is married and followed in the family business but can't avoid Jack meddling in every little aspect of his life.  Jack means well but he is the father-in-law from hell trying to be in control of everything around him.

Jeffrey Archer -- The Truth (1/04)
Best-selling novelist Lord Archer almost became mayor of London but ended up instead in prison for perjury, and his rise and fall is archly satirized in this TV movie.  Set in the future, Archer (Damien Lewis) tells his life story to a biographer where he manages to insert himself into key moments of recent British history and of course always ends up the hero.  One might think the "kick `em while they're down" mentality on display here is a bit harsh, even for the British, but Archer was such a smug bastard that his downfall pleased nearly everyone.  And who knows, maybe he will make a comeback!

Paradise Heights (1/04)
Neil Morrissey (Men Behaving Badly) is one of three brothers who run a slightly-dodgy retail warehouse in this BBC comedy/drama set in Nottingham.  The show is a bit schizophrenic, part hijinks with lost snakes and romance, but another part is right out "The "Sopranos" with Michael Troughton as a gangster who often gets tough (and bloody) when displeased.  Though many popular British shows have successfully mixed the light and dark elements, in Paradise Heights, the mood shifts were too jarring.

Shipman (1/04)
James Bolam, whose light entertainment career stretches back to the 1960s and The Likely Lads through the various Beiderbecke series, for some reason has shifted his emphasis lately to serial killers.  First The Stalker's Apprentice, and now as a small town doctor who euthanizes elderly patients.  Nobody wants to believe he could be capable of such things, but a nosy young mortician and a persistent detective squad are eventually able to bust him, mostly on evidence of altered computer medical records that covered up his crimes.   Bolam is perfectly cast, his "nice guy" persona presenting a credible front that no one suspects.  Based on a true story, the real Dr. Shipman committed suicide in January 2004 while serving a life sentence in prison.

The Showbiz Set (1/04)
Jack Davenport (Coupling) narrates this documentary series about the origins of British TV and the stars it created along the way.  Each episode takes on a different decade and it pursues biographies and careers of many TV pioneers.

Solid Geometry (1/04)
A short movie written and directed by Denis Lawson (The Ambassador) with Ewan McGregor and Peter Capaldi.  Ewan inherits diaries containing a scientific theory that alters reality and becomes obsessed with trying to make it work.

Sparkhouse (1/04)
At Home With the Braithwaites writer Sally Wainwright uses cast member Sarah Smart to good effect in this BBC mini-series set in rural Yorkshire about a boy and a girl from different backgrounds who are madly in love and yet events conspire to keep them apart.  The lengths people will go to in order to survive, or reclaim a lost love are tragically revealed as Smart defiantly holds her own.

Stan The Man (1/04)
John Thomson (Cold Feet) stars in this ITV vehicle as another dodgy guy who gets in trouble.

Tales From Pleasure Beach (1/04)
Typically, every summer, the BBC lets some of the regional stations do some programming, hence this anthology drama set on the Welsh seaside.  In one story, two women's friendship is torn apart when one falls for a bloke who has a history with the other.

Tipping The Velvet (1/04)
Andrew Davies adapted this super-sexy tale set in Victorian Times about Nan Astley (Rachael Sterling), a young woman from Dunstable who works in her father's oyster house and comes to realize she Isn't Like Other Girls.  Attracted to beautiful music hall performer Kitty Butler (Keeley Hawes), they declare their love for each other and run off to London where they conquer the West End.  A few graphic lesbian sex scenes later, Nan finds her whole world crashing down around her and after working the streets (disguised as a boy), eventually ends up the "kept woman" of an eccentric old woman and her friends.   Will Nan find true love again or is life just a series of brutal betrayals?  As long as there are plenty of sex scenes, the audience probably doesn't care. French and Saunders did a hilarious parody of the series afterwards on one of their specials.

tlc (1/04)
Hospital comedy starring Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen) as a young intern trying to learn from Dr Noble (Alexander Armstrong).  Half the time it's trying to be "Airplane" with oddball sightgags, the other half it's "M*A*S*H."  Running jokes include a mad priest (Tim Brooke-Taylor) who thinks he's a doctor, Richard Griffiths as an out-of-touch chief surgeon, and a man in a wheelchair who almost nearly gets cured each week.  Only the lack of a laughtrack makes it bearable.

Tomorrow La Scala! (1/04)
Jessica Stevenson (Spaced) stars in this BBC TV movie as a slightly pretentious artistic director who takes her opera troupe to a prison to put on a production of "Sweeney Todd" with selected inmates.  Needless to say, the relationships of everyone add complications and drama to the entire endeavor (we never get to even see the final production, in fact the final scene as they are about to go on is shown first out of context when we still don't know who anybody is).  A very nice small scale story with great character moments.

War Game (1/04)
The annual Christmas cartoon takes a dark turn with this tale about a soccer team that volunteer for duty in World War I and discover the horror of the trenches.  But it also includes the famous event on Christmas Day when the Germans and allies came out of their trenches for a friendly game of soccer together and discovered they weren't so different after all.  But, as we sadly know, the Powers That Be on both sides kept the pressure on to attack attack attack regardless of the loss of manpower in an awful war of attrition.

White Teeth (1/04)
In a story spanning four decades and illustrating the melting pot that is modern Britain, two friends from the war find their lives and families intertwined, as ultimately the sins of their past come to haunt their children.  Things take a decidedly odd detour in the final part revolving around a genetically-engineered mouse that many forces, all personified by the various characters, converge on.  Excellent, ambitious Channel 4 drama based on Zadie Smith's novel, it was shown on "Masterpiece Theater" in May 2003.

Wild West (1/04)
Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly) writes this oddball "Twin Peaks"-like BBC comedy with Dawn French as shopkeeper Mary Trewednack in a small Cornish fishing village.  Everyone in town is a bit eccentric and so are the plots but it's all good fun.  Mary and her best mate Angela live, work and sleep in the same bed together, yet both seem to be straight (displaying a healthy interest in men). What's up with THAT?