New British TV Show Reviews

Adam & Joe Go Tokyo (3/04)
The popular Channel 4 duo make the move to the BBC (albeit BBC Three) and spend six weeks in Japan's capital trying to make sense of Japanese culture.  Sure, they are two goofballs and can't help making fun of just about everything (some of the popular foodstuffs available do defy belief) and attempt to make themselves famous over the course of the series to the celebrity-mad Japanese.  It's all in good fun and Japan seems to have survived the experience.

After They Were Famous (3/04)
Well-researched documentaries about various popular shows (including "Star Trek," The Brothers and the movie "Grease"), their rise to fame and of course what happened to the stars afterwards.  And in the case of The Brothers (the series that launched future Doctor Who Colin Baker to fame), the producers even arrange a reunion dinner for the cast.  Plenty of clips both from the source series and other appearances, as well as interviews tell the complete story for fans.

The All New Harry Hill Show (3/04)
Harry, now with ITV, basically does a big budget version of his old Channel 4 comedy complete with various celebrities now showing off arcane hobbies, disgraced political couple the Hamiltons in silly challenges, a serial about Robbie Williams performed by ventriloquist dummies, and a proper studio orchestra of Harry look-a-likes.  Otherwise, if you liked Harry before, you'll like him now.  And if you didn't before...

Anglian Lives (3/04)
Frequent Armando Iannucci collaborator Peter Baynham hosts this mock interview show that kicks off with Norwich's biggest "star," self-important DJ Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan).  Alan is pretty much as you would expect, shamelessly trying to plug his autobiography, and Peter's use of a unintelligible voice-synthesized computer to ask some of the questions just adds to the surrealism.

Cambridge Spies (3/04)
Four-part dramatization of the most successful spy ring in British history which got its start in the 1930s when a group of four idealistic anti-fascists students at Cambridge are recruited by the Soviet Union with the hopes they will eventually infiltrate the highest levels of British society.  It's a shrewd bet, as most of the British establishment at the time did indeed come from either Oxford or Cambridge University, and so begins the careers of Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Kim Philby.  They remained ever-loyal to their Soviet masters through the 1950s, although ironically the Russians were so paranoid they suspected the Brits of being double agents and never really trusted much of their intelligence.  Burgess and Maclean escaped to Moscow one step ahead of slow-to-realize MI5 (which never imagined one of their own could be so seriously compromised, much to the frustration of American CIA officers who long had smelled a rat).  Philby was able to keep his high-ranking job in the diplomatic corps until 1963 when he finally had to finally defect to Russia to escape capture.   Blunt, a respected art historian, became confident to the Royal Family and eventually was knighted (he had effectively given up the spy game by this time) but he was outed by Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and stripped of his knighthood before he passed away.

Comedy Connections (3/04)
This compilation series narrated by Julia Sawalha (Jonathan Creek) graphically illustrates how various famous British comedies (including Only Fools and Horses, Men Behaving Badly and Are You Being Served?) each draw on the background of their writers and performers in prior shows and what happened afterwards.  We are treated to clips of many short-lived pre-1970s comedies that have never been rerun showcasing early appearances by actors, and the visual design of the series make for a very informative documentary look at many comedy mainstays.

Comic Relief 2003 (3/04)
The biennial fundraiser on Red Nose Day fills an entire night on BBC-1 with the usual celebrity hijinx including: Jack Dee spending the evening atop a pole outside Television Centre, an elaborate "Harry Potter" parody starring Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders (with Jeremy Irons as Snape!), the cast of EastEnders in a decidedly more upbeat version, a celebrity edition of Fame Academy with non-singers training to survive daily audience elimination, Rowan Atkinson and Lenny Henry parody the Martin Bashir/Michael Jackson interviews, the cast of Auf Wiedersehen Pet in a short adventure set in Miami, Ricky Gervais (The Office) makes a video diary and manages to offend just about everyone, Rob Brydon doing a live version of Marion & Geoff, Ali G at the UN interviewing Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Tom Conti's daughter Nina doing an R-rated ventriloquist with a monkey, and Richard E. Grant helping out the cast of Smack The Pony.

The Crouches (3/04)
A multi-generational working class black family living in a semi-detached home is the focus of this BBC comedy that has its share of laughs.  Some big names do supporting parts for the workplace scenes including Danny John-Jules (Red Dwarf) and Don Warrington (Manchild).

The Day Britain Stopped (3/04)
Chilling (and fortunately entirely fictional) documentary about a transportation disaster that begins as a chain reaction on the M25 motorway and ends with a mid-air collision between two jetliners over Heathrow. Done in riveting BBC style with interviews, reenactments, and actual "footage" that recreates the incident after the fact and looks for answers.  The gist of the writer's message is Britain's transportation system is an interlocking mess and the conditions still exist for what he showed dramatically could still occur in real life.

Double Take (3/04)
BBC comedy series that presents mock surveillance footage using celebrity doubles and voice overs with lots of shaky camera work through windows and bushes.  More a triumph of style over content, and a segment with "Michael Jackson" visiting a plastic surgeon with his kids just plain creeped me out.

Early Doors (3/04)
Yet another of the post-modern comedies pioneered by Steve Coogan and encouraged by the success of The Royle Family where traditional jokes, much less any plot, are virtually non-existent.  This BBC series, set in a pub, stars Royle's Craig Cash as one of the regulars, and each episode is just a cross section of the different conversations going on both in front of and behind the bar.  These "slice of real life" shows, albeit scripted with actors, seem popular but to me a little goes a long way.

Eyes Down (3/04)
Paul O'Grady, best known in Britain as sassy drag queen Lily Savage, has moved over to the BBC and decided to give Lily a rest by playing characters more like himself.  That self would seem to be a self-centered sharp-tongued smart aleck, so it's  Lily but in a tailored suit this time.  This BBC sitcom has O'Grady as the number caller at a midlands Bingo parlor which portrays the sad lives of his co-workers.  A good example of the kind of programming the BBC puts out in the middle of summer.

15 Storeys High (3/04)
Two flatmates in a high rise tenement have various misadventures including Vince (Sean Lock) who begins drinking dodgy import Blue Rat and begins to think a neighbor is keeping a horse in his flat, and naive Errol who gets a job at a fish market and set up with every practical joke known to man.

40 (3/04)
Eddie Izzard stars in this Channel 4 mini-series about a class reunion as the principles all turn 40 and hit middle age with differing degrees of success.  Lots of sex, nudity, and bad language, and that's just Izzard's womanizing character, a London high-flier who returns to the old neighborhood (and girlfriends) but brings a lot of his old problems with him as well.

Fortysomething (3/04)
Hugh Laurie stars in (and directed two episodes) of this ITV comedy/drama about Paul, a family man who is desperate to have some sex with his wife.  Meanwhile he has to cope with three randy sons (who are dating sisters) and his unctuous medical partner (Peter Capaldi) who also has designs on Paul's wife.  A bit cartoony at times, but utterly harmless with an amusing Stephen Fry cameo in the first episode as an indignant fish monger.  Based on the novel by Nigel Williams.

Gash (3/04)
Armando Iannucci (The Friday Night Armistice) hosts this late night current events show that (not surprisingly) is a satirical look at the news.  Airing at the height of the war in Iraq, there was no shortage of high value targets, as well as the usual domestic escapades to talk about.

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (3/04)
Very much in the flavor of Room 101 with celebrities chatting with a host (in this case, Anne Robinson) about who they would like to invite to a dinner party, if it could be anyone in history.  This sets up various clips which may or may not have anything to do with the choices, and then shabby animation showing each of the guests around a table at the end.  The kind of show that probably plays better on radio where two people sitting around talking isn't TV death.

Hardware (3/04)
Writer Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly) tried to hit gold again with this ITV workplace comedy starring Martin Freeman (The Office).   It's a bit like the macho bonding that Tim Allen captured in "Home Improvement" particularly the "secret code" that seems to exist between contractors and hardware staff that the general public just can't grasp.  I much preferred Nye's last comedy, the wacky Wild West, rather than this routine sitcom.

Hollywood Science (3/04)
Robert Llewellyn (Scrapheap Challenge) co-hosts this BBC Open University series that explores whether improbably things seen in movies are actually scientifically plausible.  Backyard experiments are performed to reproduce some of the dodgy onscreen science, with a competition to see which movie does the worst.

The Last Detective (3/04)
Peter Davison stars in this series based on the books by Leslie Thomas about an unpopular divorced police detective who falls into offbeat cases.  Davison as usual is typecast as the schlubby loser whether it's this, A Very Peculiar Practice, At Home With The Braithwaites or Doctor Who (the only exception I can think of in his career was the brief Campion).  What's incredible is the man has barely aged in 20 years (though he's a bit thinner on top).  Although in interviews he realizes he'll always be identified as The Doctor, he certainly has had a variety of parts since then, and  holds the record for starring in the most TV series for a former Doctor.

Lock Up Your Daughters (3/04)
Subtitled, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll," this documentary looks at 40 years of scandals involving the popular music scene.  Of course what was shocking in the early 1960s is now completely taken for granted, and even the 1970s revelation that David Bowie was bisexual seems quaint nowadays.  But it's interesting how every generation found a way to unnerve the establishment and raise the bar higher and higher.

Love Again (3/04)
BBC biography of poet Philip Larkin, perhaps one of the most cynical men of the 20th Century.  Expertly portrayed by Hugh Bonneville, it opens with his arrival at lowly Hull University.  His long-term inability to commit drives his girlfriend (Tara Fitzgerald) nuts, and it doesn't help that Larkin begins courting a co-working in the university library (Amanda Root).  But he was the right poet at the right time and eventually he had to turn down the laureate, preferring to write something rude about the Queen.  Incredibly, Larkin managed to avoid matrimony his entire life, as did the women in his life who all died single.

Lucky Jim (3/04)
ITV TV movie adaptation of the Kingsley Amis novel set in the 1950s about a shy college professor (Stephen Tomkinson at his stammering best) stuck in a dead-end relationship who sees a more likely paramour (Keeley Hawes) currently with a pretentious beat poet.  A nice cast which also includes Robert Hardy, Denis Lawson, and Stephen Mangan.

Meades Eats (3/04)
Cultural observer Jonathan Meades returns with a food-based look at British mores, ironically after a tremendous weight loss on his part.  But his wit and use of visual sight gags is just as sharp, and you'll definitely look at your dinner plate differently after hearing what he has to say.

Murphy's Law (3/04)
James Nesbitt (Cold Feet) stars as an undercover Met detective who brings his peculiar Irish sensibility to what are ostensibly serious assignments.  One week he might be put in jail to get a suspected serial killer to confess, the next week he'll be bodyguarding a famous snooker player, the next infiltrating a gang.  The trouble is he ends up in the papers nearly every week which you would think would limit his effectiveness as a deep-cover officer.  Claudia Harrison (Attachments) stars as his boss, so there's plenty of sexual tension between her and Murphy.

My Dad's The Prime Minister (3/04)
Ian Hislop (Have I Got News For You) co-wrote this BBC children's series about... well, the title pretty much sums it up.  A shy boy must suffer his clueless PM father (Cold Feet's Robert Bathurst) as well as cruel schoolmates but despite all the adults being morons, things usually work out well by the end.

Naked (3/04)
A new director's showcase features a short about a young man whose girlfriend's family are naturists (i.e. nudists) and she wants him to meet the folks.  At first he thinks he can handle taking his clothes off in front of strangers but on the night he freaks.  Basically a tale about tolerance, presumably with the participation of some real-life nudists.

New Tricks (3/04)
Amanda Redman (At Home With The Braithwaites) stars in this light-hearted BBC detective series as an up-and-coming Met officer whose career hits a bump when a kidnapping case goes awry.  Her superiors reassign her to form a new unit of former detectives and re-examine open cases.  What they really want is for her to whitewash cases so they'll go away.  Teaming up with James Bolam they recruit a group of dodgy ex-coppers that, although unorthodox, get the job done, despite the displeasure of the higher-ups at the Metropolitan Police.

Nobody Likes A Smartass (3/04)
BBC quiz show hosted by sarcastic comedienne Jo Brand where members of the audience get to take on so-called experts.

Osama & US (3/04)
Two comics "search" for Osama Bin Laden in this irreverent Channel 4 documentary as they do joke interviews with officials both in Britain and the United States. Eventually they end up in Crawford Texas and nearly get themselves arrested at George Bush's ranch.  But they don't find Osama.

Posh Nosh (3/04)
A parody of cooking shows with Arabella Weir (The Fast Show) and Richard E. Grant as an upper class couple showing off their kitchen and recipes and making absurd versions of food in 10 minute segments.

Servants (3/04)
Lucy Gannon (Peak Practice) wrote this saucy BBC drama series set in a manor house circa 1850 that chronicles the loves and misadventures of the downstairs staff.  Ambitious young George Cosmo scams his way into a job of footman under the tough but fair butler Jarvis (not his real name but the Earl's favorite dog) and quickly catches the eye of one of the young maids.  The nobility are practically extras, barely glimpsed and only when interacting with the staff.  Fans of "Gosford Park" will like this soap opera-like series that definitely aims for younger viewers with a sexy, good looking cast.

The Sitcom Story (3/04)
Dawn French sits on an oversized red sofa and introduces clips from comedy series focusing on different themes in this rather typical compilation series.  Give her points though for slagging off Jennifer Saunders and pointing out the less-than-classic status of their unfortunate series Let Them Eat Cake.

Stalin -- Inside The Terror (3/04)
BBC documentary about the life of Russian dictator Joseph Stalin including recreations with Russian actors (subtitled), newsreel footage, and interviews with survivors of both his family and purges (sometimes both).  Anyone was fair game for the years he was in power, with most political allies eventually falling foul of his paranoia.

Swiss Toni (3/04)
Charlie Higson spins off his Fast Show character (catchphrase: everything "is like making love to a beautiful woman...") into his own sitcom (relegated to BBC Three) about a classically clueless auto dealer who is emotionally arrested and doesn't know how to drive.  In one episode, he hires a 70s exploitation director (Tom Baker) to shoot a TV commercial with predictably disastrous results.

Trevor's World of Sport (3/04)
BBC comedy starring Neil Pearson as a sports agent with a conscience, which constantly causes friction at the workplace, particularly with his more amoral partner.  Pearson's character is also separated from his wife, tries to impress his son, and maintain the moral high ground at work even though it's a cut-throat business.

Trust (3/04)
ITV star Robson Green (Touching Evil) moves over to the BBC with this legal drama that also features Neil Stuke (Game On) and Ian McShane (Lovejoy).  Various subplots permeate each episode as well as plenty of angst from the yuppie staff but at the end of the day, does the world need yet another series about lawyers, no matter how well done?

20 Things To Do Before You're 30 (3/04)
A channel 4 ensemble comedy not dissimilar to the BBC's Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps although in this twentysomething series the friends are all workmates and one is gay.

William & Mary (3/04)
Two single parents try a dating service and sparks fly as soon as they meet in this ITV drama series.  William (Martin Clunes) is a serious undertaker, while Scottish Mary (Julie Graham from At Home With the Braithwaites) is a midwife.  Complications ensue, needless to say, including the death of William's mum, and the return of Mary's estranged black husband.  But the cycle of birth and death is nicely highlighted and it seems like the universe owes these two a break.

Without You (3/04)
Short movie about middle class man whose car is stolen by a young punk.  He is desperate to get his car back and teams up with the punk's working class girlfriend, a single mother.  A clash of cultures and values with a final plot twist that reveals the man's mission.