The TV Thread

EricTheWeary

goldtop said:

We just watched Gervais' After Life. It's terrible, and I don't really know why Ms GT chose it, as she normally hates him.

It was billed as a dark comedy, but it's just not funny. The writing was all over the place, so many dead ends (sic) and extended nothing-burgers. I did like Gervais in The Office and Extras, but this was both dull and annoying. He cannot act emotionally - his character's grief never felt authentic. The only good thing about his character was that he (as a writer) surrounded himself with worse characters.

I even started disliking the dog when it staged the 'intervention'.

Bah! 1/10

It got a lot of love on here but I think I managed two episodes before giving up. 

Worked my way through Nolly on ITVX. Interesting in places but it just seemed to struggle to find it's tone and too much reliance on Helena BC monologuing. Not sure who’d watch it unless they have a memory of Crossroads (I do vaguely and MrsTheWeary as a child slightly knew Roger Tonge who played Sandy). 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

Worked my way through Nolly on ITVX. Interesting in places but it just seemed to struggle to find it's tone and too much reliance on Helena BC monologuing. Not sure who’d watch it unless they have a memory of Crossroads (I do vaguely and MrsTheWeary as a child slightly knew Roger Tonge who played Sandy). 

I remember it very vaguely, but mostly the theme music - I think perhaps were used to turn over to watch the news, or something, just before Crossroads ended every evening.  And I can remember some of the characters, rather than any of the storylines.

Nitefly

All I remember of Crossroads is some berk shouting "Yow Stanlaaaaay!"

EricTheWeary

I was listening to HBC being interviewed and she was asked if she watched Crossroads and she said it was on in the background but she never really sat down and followed the story. Which seemed about right. 

According to Nolly when they made Crossroads it was filmed as if live because they didn’t have the time or money to reshoot scènes hence all the staring into the distance and scenery wobbles all left in. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

I was listening to HBC being interviewed and she was asked if she watched Crossroads and she said it was on in the background but she never really sat down and followed the story. Which seemed about right. 

According to Nolly when they made Crossroads it was filmed as if live because they didn’t have the time or money to reshoot scènes hence all the staring into the distance and scenery wobbles all left in. 

Which laid the complete foundations for Acorn Antiques, I guess.

goldtop

Ah, Crossroads; Shoey McFee and his kitchen disasters and that "miss Diane' bloke. 

It all went bad after that fit lass from Gregory's Girl was cast.

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

EricTheWeary said:

I was listening to HBC being interviewed and she was asked if she watched Crossroads and she said it was on in the background but she never really sat down and followed the story. Which seemed about right. 

According to Nolly when they made Crossroads it was filmed as if live because they didn’t have the time or money to reshoot scènes hence all the staring into the distance and scenery wobbles all left in. 

Which laid the complete foundations for Acorn Antiques, I guess.

Absolutely. I remember Acorn Antiques a lot better but it doesn’t seem to have been a vast exaggeration. Also sort of set in Birmingham (the exterior shot of Acorn Antiques was a shop in Harborne). 

thumpingrug

Benny.

JEM

Tutti Frutti (1987) on iPlayer.

A very young Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson in a tale of fun and games on the road with a washed-up rock and roll band. We're about half way through and quite enjoying it. Richard Wilson's great as the band's dodgy manager and Robbie gets to show off some of his keyboard chops.

Worth a nostalgic watch.

CaseOfAce

Boy George and Culture Club : Karma to Calamity (BBC iPlayer)

About their 2014 reunion.
Warts and all documentary that I'm amazed the band signed off on. It's pretty brutal in places - and the line about Boy George being many people and you never know which one you're going to get at any time rings very true...

Very Spinal Tap-esque in how they were literally the biggest band in the world back in 1983...and now .. facing massive indifference ... and that's just from their families...

They finally toured together recently so they obviously patched things up in the end - though without Jon Moss... 

VimFuego

just finished Gold on the beeb, about the Brinks Mat robbery, highly recommended. 

Nitefly

JEM said:

Tutti Frutti (1987) on iPlayer.

A very young Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson in a tale of fun and games on the road with a washed-up rock and roll band. We're about half way through and quite enjoying it. Richard Wilson's great as the band's dodgy manager and Robbie gets to show off some of his keyboard chops.

Worth a nostalgic watch.

Miss Toner!

boogieman

EricTheWeary said:

I was listening to HBC being interviewed and she was asked if she watched Crossroads and she said it was on in the background but she never really sat down and followed the story. Which seemed about right. 

According to Nolly when they made Crossroads it was filmed as if live because they didn’t have the time or money to reshoot scènes hence all the staring into the distance and scenery wobbles all left in. 

I heard someone talking about Crossroads on the radio the other day, it might well have been HBC? She was saying if the show was running too quickly to fill the time slot the producer would make the phone at reception ring and they’d pad it out with the actor giving directions to the motel. It was a truly awful show, god knows how it survived so long. 

HerbieTheRadDorklift

EricTheWeary said:

goldtop said:

We just watched Gervais' After Life. It's terrible, and I don't really know why Ms GT chose it, as she normally hates him.

It was billed as a dark comedy, but it's just not funny. The writing was all over the place, so many dead ends (sic) and extended nothing-burgers. I did like Gervais in The Office and Extras, but this was both dull and annoying. He cannot act emotionally - his character's grief never felt authentic. The only good thing about his character was that he (as a writer) surrounded himself with worse characters.

I even started disliking the dog when it staged the 'intervention'.

Bah! 1/10

It got a lot of love on here but I think I managed two episodes before giving up. 

Thank goodness I'm not the only one who thought Afterlife was shite

EricTheWeary

VimFuego said:

just finished Gold on the beeb, about the Brinks Mat robbery, highly recommended. 

I worked my way through it over the week. Absolutely gripping television. I gather that it plays a bit fast and loose with the facts but as drama just great. Some tasty bits of period music as well. 

skullfunkerry

Bit late coming to this but we've just finished bingeing Happy Valley. Grim as fuck; one bit in the first season in particular had me almost sobbing, but fuck me, it was *so* good. On iPlayer it's described as "Northern noir" and that's about right. The pacing, acting, everything is absolutely superb. Not an easy watch by any means, but highly recommended if you like crime dramas, or police shows, or super-tense horror films tbh (it's not horror, but there are bits which are almost unbearably tense). 10/10.

One that I watched and not my wife: Brassic. Just finished the latest season, and once again spent the entire time jumping between laughing, swallowing the big lump in my throat, and on the edge of my seat. Another 10/10, it's absolutely brilliant

mikeyrob73

skullfunkerry said:

Bit late coming to this but we've just finished bingeing Happy Valley. Grim as fuck; one bit in the first season in particular had me almost sobbing, but fuck me, it was *so* good. On iPlayer it's described as "Northern noir" and that's about right. The pacing, acting, everything is absolutely superb. Not an easy watch by any means, but highly recommended if you like crime dramas, or police shows, or super-tense horror films tbh (it's not horror, but there are bits which are almost unbearably tense). 10/10.

One that I watched and not my wife: Brassic. Just finished the latest season, and once again spent the entire time jumping between laughing, swallowing the big lump in my throat, and on the edge of my seat. Another 10/10, it's absolutely brilliant

I had never watched Happy Valley until a few weeks ago, its based just over the hill from me in Halifax , thought it was excellent 


Brassic is bloody superb 

Kilgore

mikeyrob73 said:

skullfunkerry said:

Bit late coming to this but we've just finished bingeing Happy Valley. Grim as fuck; one bit in the first season in particular had me almost sobbing, but fuck me, it was *so* good. On iPlayer it's described as "Northern noir" and that's about right. The pacing, acting, everything is absolutely superb. Not an easy watch by any means, but highly recommended if you like crime dramas, or police shows, or super-tense horror films tbh (it's not horror, but there are bits which are almost unbearably tense). 10/10.

One that I watched and not my wife: Brassic. Just finished the latest season, and once again spent the entire time jumping between laughing, swallowing the big lump in my throat, and on the edge of my seat. Another 10/10, it's absolutely brilliant

I had never watched Happy Valley until a few weeks ago, its based just over the hill from me in Halifax , thought it was excellent 


Brassic is bloody superb 

Me and the Mrs binge watched Happy Valley over the last couple of weeks. Superb!

boogieman

We’re on series three of Happy Valley at the moment, it’s been consistently superb throughout all the series. I don’t know quite how we missed it originally. 

Offset

The Art Of Drumming (Sky Arts)

Great programme presented by the well-informed and extremely personable Steve White.  Well worth a look (and apologies if others have posted previously - I don't watch much TV!)