According To Bex (4/07)
Jessica
Stevenson (Spaced) plays the title character, a twentysomething
singleton with a disruptive father (Clive Russell) and crazy boss in
this BBC comedy. Stevenson addresses the camera directly in Big
Brother-like confessionals, the rest is conventional sitcom material
with the highly charming Stevenson (who for some reason has just
changed her last name to Hynes).
The Armstrongs (4/07)
It's
one of the fly-on-the-wall documentaries about a couple who run a
double-glazing firm but are the most clueless owners alive. Bill Nighy
narrates the goings-on accompanied by an over-the-top musical score.
You think, these can't possibly be real people, it has to be a set-up,
yet the credits offer no clues whether it's an elaborate fake or people
so stupid they would let the BBC film how they operate.
Beyond Narnia (4/07)
Anton
Rodgers (May to December) stars as C.S. Lewis in this dramatic movie
about how his despair in later life was eventually broken when he fell
in love with American writer Joy Gresham and agreed to raise her two
boys.
Censored at the Seaside: The Saucy Postcards of Donald McGill (4/07)
Documentary
about McGill's "naughty" artwork that was popular mid-century with
holiday-goers. Maybe it was a more innocent time, or political
correctness hadn't caught up to them, but despite his prolific output
(thousands over his lifetime), he hardly ever made any money from them.
Comic Strip Presents (4/07)
"Sex,
Actually." It's good to get a new installment of the Comic Strip now
and again, and in this outing a middle-class couple from the city move
to a small village and take over a house whose residents recently died
under suspicious circumstances. The neighbors are all uniformly weird
and there are plot twists aplenty. With Rebecca Front, Rik Mayall,
Doon MacKichan, Phil Cornwall, and Nigel Planer.
Dead Man Weds (4/07)
Johnny Vegas stars in this ITV sitcom as a lazy journalist at a small
town rag who suddenly has to shape up when a new no-nonsense editor
takes over. Conveniently a legitimate scandal appears in the
making with a large American conglomerate up to no-good in town and our
heroes hot on the story. The title of the series comes from
Vegas' best-ever headline.
Distant Shores (4/07)
Peter Davison as a former surgeon (wasn't this the plot of Doc Martin as well?), with yet another family moving to a remote island (see Two Thousand Acres of Sky)
this time Hildesay Island. His kids hate it, but his wife starts
to see the charm of a local fisherman she works with. Davison as
usual gets to do his slow burn as the ultimate fish-out-of-water in
this ITV drama series.
8 Out of 10 Cats (4/07)
Jimmy Carr (Distraction) hosts this celebrity quiz show based on public surveys. A good jokey time is had by all.
Eleventh Hour (4/07)
Patrick
Stewart stars in this ludicrous ITV series as a one-man "X-Files" who
manages each week to save the world single-handedly from a deadly
menace (viruses and the like) all the while making speech after speech
about the foolishness and shortsidedness of most of humanity.
Apparently he's so valuable to the government that he's given a sexy
bodyguard (but only one-- there has to be some element of suspense)
but absolutely no staff or resources despite the fact he (and he alone)
manages to know how to combat whatever the problem is. Geez, even
Doctor Who had UNIT!
Friends and Crocodiles (4/07)
Stephen
Poliakoff (The Lost Prince) wrote and directed this drama with Jodhi
May as a young woman and her voyage through the decades, first as a
secretary to a trust-fund millionaire with plenty of ideas but a bit
too wild for her tastes, and then at an Enron-like corporation that
eventually collapses, her with it. Robert Lindsay also co-stars in
this clever look at the how the 80s and 90s shaped many people.
Gideon's Daughter (4/07)
Bill
Nighy plays a political "fixer" in the mid 1990s who gets involved with
a couple whose child was lost in a street accident which parallels his
own concern when his college-age daughter wants to spend a year in
Africa. Written by Stephen Poliakoff (Friends & Crocodiles), the
effect of Diane's death is one of the subplots, and Poliakoff seems to
have a lot of disdain for New Labour's Millennium Dome, openly mocking
its shallowness of purpose. Emily Blunt, Miranda Richardson, and
Robert Lindsay co-star.
Help Your Self (4/07)
Angus
Deayton mocks American self-help videos with generous clips (mainly
from the 80s and 90s), which out of context do appear to be incredibly
stupid or highly obvious with their advice.
Hotel Babylon (4/07)
Glossy
BBC drama series set a posh London hotel which allows for different
guest stars each week (Joan Collins!) as well as the misadventures and
mini-dramas between the staff. It's interesting, I suppose, if you've
ever been curious how a large, modern hotel operates behind the scenes
(assuming it's been researched at all), but the glamorous settings and
good-looking cast make it all go down easy.
Hyperdrive (4/07)
Nick
Frost ("Hot Fuzz") stars this science fiction comedy as the incompetent
captain of a third-rate British starship that has misadventures. Kevin Eldon,
whom I normally like a lot, is miscast as the over-the-top paranoid
First Officer (he just seems to be someone impersonating such a
character, not actually playing a real person). Though there are a few
chuckles throughout, you can't help be reminded at every corner how
much better and funnier Red Dwarf was at this same genre. Hey, why
don't they bring that back?
The IT Crowd (4/07)
Channel
4 workplace comedy by Graham Lineham (Father Ted) about the two sad
losers in the information technology department deep in the basement of
a large corporation whose sanctum is invaded when a non-technophile
woman is placed in charge of them. The company's loony CEO is played
by Christopher Morris who used to be quite scandalous on his own (The
Day Today) but I guess even he needs a regular job. Richard
Ayoade (Garth Marenghi's Dark Place) is particularly hilarious as the
clueless technology nerd who even uses e-mail to alert emergency
services when a fire breaks out.
Johnny and the Bomb (4/07)
Children's
drama series based on the Terry Pratchett novel about contemporary
council estate kids going back in time to WWII London in order to
correct history when an unexploded bomb is scheduled to destroy their
street (and Johnny's grandmother).
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.
Life On Mars (4/07)
If
you've only seen Life on Mars on BBC America, then you've only seen
75% of it: they cut 14 minutes out each hour-long episode! And the
running time is the best thing about this BBC drama about Sam Tyler (John Simm), a
21st Century copper who wakes up in the 1970s in what appears to be a
remake of The Sweeney. As the credits ask us is Sam back in time, in
a coma, or just mad? This Philip K. Dick-like questioning of reality
keeps it interesting, but the real star is not Sam but his
boss, Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) as the incredibly violent, un-PC
detective superintendent, and one of the funniest (if foul) characters
ever seen in a police drama. Having a full 60 minutes (unless you're
BBC America--shame on you!) to tell your stories results in great
character moments and complicated plots that you think will be over
quickly, but go off in interesting directions. With its run of 16
episodes over two seasons over (and the mystery solved), Hunt's
character is being spun off into his own series set in the 1980s.
Man Stroke Woman (4/07)
BBC Sketch comedy series with Nick Frost ("Hot Fuzz") as one of the cast that looks at male/female relationships.
Mayo (4/07)
Alistair
McGowan in this BBC light-hearted dysfunctional detective drama. Part
Sherlock Holmes on the job, but hopeless at home with his daughter, a
wife who has gone missing, and an old flame as his partner. He and his
team travel around to crime scenes in a large trailer which I swear is
bigger on the inside than the outside. As a cop show however, "Monk"
does this better and funnier.
Mine All Mine (4/07)
Russell
T. Davies (Doctor Who) wrote this Welsh-set series about an eccentric
cab company operator (Griff Rhys-Jones) and his wacky family whom he
claims are the rightful owners of Swansea due to an old deed. His luck
changes when the deed is suddenly proven legitimate and Rhys-Jones is
indeed put in charge of the entire city--that is if his senile father
doesn't give it all away first. Farcical but amusing.
My Life In Films (4/07)
Kris
Marshall (My Family) stars in this BBC comedy as an aspiring but
untalented screenwriter whose misadventures with his flatmates each
week resemble a famous movie, be it "Shallow Grave" or "Top Gun." It's
a clever conceit, particularly if you have to work out which movie they
are parodying that episode.
Not Only But Always (4/07)
TV movie biopic of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and how they rose from
obscurity with "Beyond The Fringe" to their highly successful BBC
sketch comedy series and Moore's (here played by Rhys Ifans) departure
for the sunnier skies of Hollywood. Rather than a
straight-forward narrative approach, their working class characters of
"Pete" and "Dud" comment on the action throughout, much as they did
during their landmark series.
Outlaws (4/07)
BBC-3 black comedy about an idealistic public defender who faces reality in the form of Phil Daniels (Sunnyside Farm)
as his cynical mentor. Nobody comes off particularly well here:
the lawyers, their clients, the legal system, but Daniels is the sage
here, delivering the moral each week, usually a variation on "People
are scum."
Riot at the Rite (4/07)
Dramatization
of the creation of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" in 1913 Paris and how
it shocked the world of music and dance at the time. He was a nut to
be sure, but a genius at the same time and stuck to his creative guns
to produce what everyone now recognizes as a classic.
Root of All Evil? (4/07)
Fascinating
documentary with Oxford professor Richard Dawkings on the effect of
religion on children. And let's just say, he doesn't think it's
positive.
Sea of Souls (4/07)
Bill
Paterson plays a Scottish university professor who (with his graduate
students) investigates paranormal phenomenon in this BBC series. There
are creepy things afoot although much like the ongoing tease of most of
"The X-Files" they never actually get any concrete proof of anything.
Paul McGann guest stars in one episode as a possibly immortal
magician. Coincidentally, Paterson starred in a 1995 series called The Ghostbusters of East Finchley that had absolutely nothing to do with the occult (they were tax collectors).
Secret Smile (4/07)
David
Tennant (Doctor Who) gets to show off his creepy side as the most
disturbing ex-boyfriend in history. At first he smothers his
girlfriends with attention but he is a control freak and woe befall you
if you decide to break up with him first. Tennant has been a
successful villain before (Barty Crouch Jr in "Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire") and I wish he would use some of his tools when it
comes to his portrayal of the Doctor, where he seems to rely more on
raising his voice when he gets angry rather than the genuinely scary
look he can give you (perhaps they don't want the kids to get too
frightened-- he is the hero, after all).
Sensitive Skin (4/07) Marion
and Geoff co-creator Hugo Blick also wrote and directed this series
with Joanna Lumley, Denis Lawson and James Lance as a dysfunctional
family, and like Marion the jokes aren't always announced in advance.
The Singing Cactus (4/07)
A BBC "Afternoon Play" (i.e. a TV movie) about a fatherless boy who has
a cactus for a pet. And that's about his only friend as he tries
to navigate a tough social situation at school and at home.
The Smoking Room (4/07)
Oddball
low-key BBC-3 comedy about the break room at a large company and the
goings-on between the employees during lunch. There is a lot happening
between the lines and it's a bit claustrophobic, but interesting
observational humor.
Surviving Disaster (4/07)
Recreation
documentary series about survivors of disasters such as the Munich Air
Crash and the sinking of the Estonia ferry. Interviews with the actual
participants is interwoven with elaborate dramatizations with actors.
Sweeney Todd (4/07)
A non-musical version of the fictional
barber with Ray Winstone in the title role and David Warner as a
detective (ironically, Warner played serial killer Jack The Ripper in
1979's "Time After Time"). Todd, as the legend goes, profited
from killing the clients to his barber shop and eventually teamed up
with the local pie shop to recycle the corpses. Those wacky
Londoners, eh?
The Thick of It (4/07)
Armando Iannucci directs this extremely dry BBC comedy fly-on-the-wall look at a government ministry. Sort of Yes, Minister for the 21st Century without the laughtrack.
Thin Ice (4/07)
BBC midlands comedy about a second-rate ice arena and the quest by
various skaters (and their mothers) to get into the British Skating
Champions. The arena has fallen into hard times and the owner is
tempted to take an offer by a sleazy real-estate developer to sell out.
But fate in the form of a Champions competition is booked into the
venue and hopes are raised.
Time Shift (4/07)
Documentary look at various aspects of TV history, including how
writers from the Far Left rose in prominence in the 1960s and 70s with
provocative dramas only to crash and burn in Margaret Thatcher's
Britain.
Waterloo Road (4/07)
BBC drama set at a grim inner-city school where a new headmaster (Jason Merrells, Cutting It)
tries to modernize despite the efforts of most of the lazy staff to
sabotage him. Subplots revolve around the relationships of the
staff and students, some of whom were involved in a fatal car
accident.
Who Do You Think You Are? (4/07)
Celebrity
genealogy program with Sheila Hancock and Stephen Fry among others,
getting a peak at their ancestors via the resources of the BBC.
Superfascinating, particularly when (as is usual) the star must tell
the rest of the family about whatever skeletons they've managed to
unearth.