Reviews

This Farming Life has probably achieved more in the first few series to promote the work, triumphs and struggles of farmers than the BBC's Countryfile has achieved in 30 years. Each episode is told sympathetically and highlights the struggles that farmers face in 21st century Scotland. The show does not shy away from unpopular topics such as the choice farms must make over the life and death of their animals and having to sacrifice unproductive stock. Each episode is skillfully put together showing the work that these people do and the choices and decisions they have to make. The output is enjoyable (if hard at times) to watch and makes me much more appreciative of the hard work these people do.

The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency was the first novel in the series by Alexander McCall Smith and as such the first to be turned into a television adaptation. It was aired on BBC1 on Sunday 23rd March 2008, Easter Sunday. This time-slot has traditionally been a chance for the BBC to show a production which will appeal to all the family and N1LDA fitted the category very well.

After a slow start to help introduce the characters, the work of Precious starts in earnest. Over the remaining hour and a quarter we see how she solve cases relating to unfaithful husbands, idle fathers, insurance fraud and missing children. There are some comic moments and some heart breaking moments.

Overall the adaptation stayed very loyal to the book and remained a light hearted look at life in Botswana. The production quality was very good with the Botswanian Tourist Board probably very happy at the positive light their country is portrayed under. For those people wanting something grittier, you'll be disappointed, but for everyone else looking for 1¾ of escapism, this is what you're looking for.

This was probably one of the finest series to come out of the BBC in the mid 1990's and stands head and shoulders above anything else today. It took a gritty look at life inside an asylum, an institution now rarely seen in the UK. It aimed to show that those suffering from mental illness were just like you and me once but a trigger in their life had caused the illness to manifest itself. It took a few people and protaryed their lives in a caring way showing some making it through and others not.

Well done to the writers of this series for giving us a frank yet compassionate view of mental illness and its perception in society today.

Aside from the staid acting and directing, this is one of the more memorable episodes of Tales of the Unexpected. The story revolves around Dench who we initially understand is linked to three elderly ladies. As the story progresses we learn that the three ladies have returned to living in England after life abroad and in reduced circumstances. We also learn that Dench was a nanny to their children and despite the fondness they express, was treated as a staff member.

As the story unfolds the viewer is intrigued to find out what lays in store for the three women and the ending is suitably fitting. The only gripe is that the a lack of concentraion about two thirds of the way through would leave the viewer to completely miss the point of this tale.

Nowadays most younger television viewers would think of DCI Barnaby solving murders in the fictional yet dangerous Midsommer whenever the name John Nettles is mentioned. However his rise to fame came in the 1980's series Bergerac. Nettles played Detective Seargeant Jim Bergerac, a detective with Jersey's Bureau Des Etrangers. The background to this character was that he was a recovering alcoholic who had returned to his native Jersey following a serious accident whilst on duty and the breakdown of his marriage.

The background to Jim Bergerac was complex but was skillfully played by Nettles. His appearance was as a charismatic generally amiable character. His hardness usually came out when dealing with criminals or attempting to get information. His approach to solving crime is often unorthodox and usually against the wishes and orders of his superiors.

The most notable supporting character of the series is the cigar toting Charlie Hungerford played by Terence Alexander. The initial sniping between the two characters and the later friendship that develops between them is a nice diversion. Alexander also provided a slight comedic element to the show due to his money making schemes and other slightly shady dealings.

Bergerac was a good series for the 1980's and is still of a high quality today. It portrayed a seedy world under the glamour of tax exiles living in Jersey. It was filmed in a 50 minute format popular until 2000 which allowed it to be easily sold to commercial channels and as such it lacks a bit of substance compared to modern dramas. This does make it easy to watch as the crimes are easy to solve for the armchair detective. One thing that is grating though is the lack of conclusion to each episode or recrimination afterwards.

In general the series is still well worth watching even after nearly 30 years of debuting on television.

The Whistle Blower tells a story which is likely to be obsolete nowadays. The end of the cold war rendered stories of this nature difficult to perceive but was written at a time when relations between the US and USSR were strained and scandals were rife in British Intelligence and at GCHQ.

The film tells the story of a jittery secret service heavily reliant on American information to help keep the soviets at bay. It demonstrates how the service would have reacted to the allegation that there were soviet agents within organisations such as GCHQ and how they may have been dealt with. The eventual reasoning is cruel and cold and leaves the watcher wondering if events like this really did take place at the time.

The Whistle Blower tells a good story which is easy to follow and comprehend. It is bolstered by a good cast but let down by poor direction making it staid in places.

Get Carter sees Michael Caine returning to the North East to avenge the apparent accidental death of his brother. Whilst not receiving the acclaim it deserved following it's release in 1971, the film is now a classic, a dark look at life inside the criminal underworld of the North East. The film is dark and gritty. The scenes of Tyneside are unpolished and the cinematography allows us to feel the coldness of each location. Caine is at his best playing brutal racketeer Carter and he delivers his rough justice without soul or emotion.

Critics of this film may try to compare it against Quentin Tarantino's modern works, but this is far better. There is violence and the killings are cold and premeditated, but it is acted and directed with skill leading the viewer to believe that retribution was justified.

By 2007, the film version of the History of Mr Polly was dated. The black and white film had not aged well and the occasional television performances were not of a high visual quality.

Therefore praise goes to ITV for remaking this classic HG Wells story for the small screen. Often remakes for the big screen fail to impress. By producing this version which remained faithful to the book and the original film and by screening it on a Sunday evening, ITV scored a huge success.

The cast is of a very high quality with Lee Evans adding to his repertoire of vexed characters. All the performances were strong and the pace of acting and story telling was more appealing to a 21st century audience.

In 1979, Granada Television embarked on an epic adventure of their own. They decided to produce lavish dramas with no expense spared to sway the IBA to extend their franchise for a further 10 years. Brideshead Revisited was one drama to be produced at the time. Granada commissioned John Mortimer to adapt Evelyn Waugh's novel of the 1920's for the small screen. The resulting screenplay was a six hour series and filming commenced in 1979.

During filming, a technicians strike at ITV suspended all activity. At this stage, Granada felt that too much had been missed out of the book and asked Mortimer to rewrite his screenplay with filming starting from scratch after the strike had ended. The result is a laboured, overly long adaptation of a great piece of fiction. Mortimer adapted the book literally creating an episode per chapter. This amounted to over 13 hours of television in eleven episodes. It is said that it is quicker to read the book than watch the resulting series.

The series starts well. The early episodes showing the development of the friendship between Charles and Sebastian as they meet at Oxford and develop a close bond are well acted and portrayed. The issue of the level of love between the two characters is skilfully handled as like in the book, we never quite know how far their love extends. It is later that the drama becomes a lot more laboured. In later episodes Sebastian is exiled leaving Charles to develop his friendship with the rest of the Flyte family. At this stage, it would have been far better to condense a number of chapters into each episode. Instead we are subjected to laboured acting as the actors introduce large pauses into their lines probably in an attempt to spin out the length of each episode.

Tales of the Unexpected took the short stories created by Roald Dahl from the book of the same name and others and put them on the small screen. Later on, other writers would be used and Dahl would provide an introduction to each story. This introduction was eventually dropped in favour of a voice over.

The key to each story was in the ending which originally was usually totally unexpected. The content and the background to each storyline often involved murder, often without holding back some visualisation and this lead to it being broadcast late on Sunday evenings.

The series suffered from poor production quality. It is likely that the series was shot on video tape which is evident nowadays. The appearance of studio sets is apparent as there is a definite transition between the quality of lighting indoors and for shooting on location. Some of the stories were quite laboured as the introduction of the characters and initial plot creation were quick. This left a large gap of time until the unexpected outcome. The acting was sometimes slow with long pauses in an attempt to spin out time.

Despite it's faults, Tales of the Unexpected managed to attract well known names in asting for episodes and sustained an audience following for 8 years. The stories were varied in their creation and the eventual outcome but eventually the ending could be predicted. In 1988 the series was quitely axed and reruns can now be seen on digital channels in the UK.

If you can ignore the poor production, it is well worth seeing, even after all these years.

Christmas at the Riviera was one of ITV's offerings over the Christmas season for 2007. In recent years, ITV has failed to offer little enjoyment from this type of programming. It is rare for a two hour comedy to sustain your interest and you quickly realise why episodes of other comedy is limited to one hour.

The programme centred about the Riviera, a seaside hotel with faults designed to create some comedy moments. The dis-functionality of the guests was also designed to add more comedy.

In summary, the whole thing was rather weak. The laugh out loud moments were non-existent and the farce which a comedy of this nature should portray was simply lacking.

An Audience with Victoria Wood was one of the irregular offerings created and originally produced by London Weekend Television for the Saturday evening prime time slot on ITV. The format started in 1978 with Jasper Carrot and has continued to the present day with a number of major and minor celebrities having 1 hour of television devoted to them entertaining us. The format of the show is usually the same, it begins with a few questions and amusing answers, there's usually some musical numbers and a few memories or funny gags. The subject is also aided by a celebrity studio audience comprising a few friends and a lot of B list celebrities who are occasionally invited onto stage or form part of the evening's gags.

Victoria Wood's evening is probably one of the best. She began with the usual questions taking offerings from the likes of Julie Walters, Michael Grade, Dennis Nordern and Joan Bakewell! Then came a few gags, one aimed at the then controller of London Weekend, Greg Dyke, followed by a brief camera shot of a younger bearded Dyke sitting outside the celebrity audience section, so brief you could almost miss it. After the break came a few of Wood's infamous one woman sketches and a couple of songs with the evening climaxing on the huge crescendo of "Barry and Freda", probably one of Wood's finest songs.

The programme was hilarious when it was first aired in 1988, but time has not been kind to it. Nowadays some of the gags are a little dated relying on fads current at the time like the long gone fast food franchise Spud-U-Like, old ITV shows like Fresh Fields and the Levi's ad where Nick Kamen stripped down to his underpants in a launderette to wash his jeans to fit. The fashion worn at the time is laughable, whether it be Maureen Lipman's huge round glasses, Julie Walter's dodgy perm or Michael Le Vell's gay icon/long gone moustache. The A-list celebrities of the time have fallen off the tips of our tongues as many would struggle to remember the likes of Kid Jenson, Tony Adams or Wincey Willis. However this episode still sits head and shoulders above a lot of shows of the series where second rate celebrities would try to reach Wood's high standard but have failed. Also ITV, in its pursuit to offer the same programmes which initially set a high standard for their refreshing style and content have exhausted this golden goose to death by featuring stars who fail to entertain.

London's Burning was a mainstay of ITV's Sunday night scheduling during the late 80's and 90's. The series emerged from the TV film written by the late and great Jack Rosenthal and followed a group of fire fighters belonging to Blue Watch at London's Blackwall fire station.

Initially the series kept a lot of Rosenthal's influence. The humour was lively with station pranks and the loves and lives of the watch being the backbone of the series. In between all this were the fires and other shouts which helped to highlight the diverse work of the fire brigade as their role has changed over the shows lifespan. A few dark moments relating to death or injury of the fire fighters or victims put a dark edge on the show which helped to prevent it from becoming a farce and the whole package made for extremely addictive viewing.

Sadly the last few series beginning in 2000 started the downward spiral. By 2000, most of the original cast had left as they had become disillusioned with the writing or wanted to pursue other opportunities before they became typecast. Their replacements were usually dour characters that had plenty of personal baggage and the humorous aspects were replaced by deep thoughts and crisis in relationships. ITV also tried to increase the number of episodes per year whilst reducing the budget which diminished the number of spectacular fires that the brigade would attend in a series and it became more of a soap rather than the refreshing series that it had been when it first started.

Eventually around 2001 the series was axed and it has now been replaced by Steel River Blues which has all the promise to be like London's Burning was in the early days.

The Living Daylights and License to Kill were the only two Bond films to star Timothy Dalton in the lead role. Dalton was an unusual choice for the role as he lacks the warmth and charisma associated with other actors who have filled the role. Instead he portrays a harder exterior which was probably appropriate for both films.

The plot and story for the film is very good. Although it follows the cold war theme used in Bond Films of the era, it gives it an unusual twist and introduces a personal aspect as Bond seeks revenge for being double crossed early in the film.

The film is watchable, but is a little on the long side and lacks the panache found in the likes of Octopussy, The Spy who Loved Me and Goldfinger.

After the sixth and final series of Howard's Way in 1990, the BBC felt that it needed a similar drama to draw the audiences in on a Sunday evening. Howard's Way, the BBC's answer to Dallas and Dynasty, had been trashed by the critics but was loved by an audience of millions for its Thatcherite plots and the lavish lifestyles it portrayed. To replace it the BBC commissioned Trainer, a drama following the life of trainer Mike Hardy (Mark Greenstreet) in his constant battle against his employer and stable owner James Brant (Edward Davenport) and other members of the racing fraternity residing somewhere in the Lambourn Downs.

The BBC decided to change as little as possible from the format of Howard's Way and cast Nigel Davenport as the gruff stable owner after he had been in Howard's Way playing Edward Frere. Also some of the sets and locations used in Howard's Way had been hastily repainted for use in Trainer. They did change the usual toe tapping Simon May theme tune to Cliff Richard singing 'More to Life'. Also the boardrooms commonly seen in Howard's Way where 'Big Business' was often discussed were replaced by old timers hatching their scheming plans in the local pub over a pint of Old Speckled Hen or two.

The series concentrated very little on the horsey aspects. Instead it was something of a fashion show as Greenstreet would often appear immaculately groomed in each shot and would often climb into his brand spanking new Land Rover Discovery (which was always spotlessly clean) in one set of clothes that any normal jockey/trainer wouldn't be seen dead in, only to jump out of it in the next shot wearing something completely different. Also there were a few forbidden love interests that Greenstreet dallied with along the way that were commonplace in Howard's Way and have become mandatory in series of this type.

Trainer failed to wow the audiences in its first outing on Sunday nights and was moved to the Wednesday night drama slot for the second series before disappearing without trace along with the television career of Mark Greenstreet.

"That Peter Kay Thing" was written and produced following the success of "Services" a pilot which was shown as part of The Comedy Lab on Channel 4.

Both "Services" and "That Peter Kay Thing" were parodies on the popular docu-soap format which by 2000 had been done to death by BBC and ITV. Each episode used a different backdrop which included a motorway service station, working mans club, bingo hall and Manchester Arena. Peter Kay usually played about four of the characters involved which formed the main backbone of each episodes interviews.

The show was very well written, Peter Kay used a lot of his own real life experiences to create larger than life characters which are synonymous with the locations. To cap it all, Andrew Sachs narrated "That Peter Kay Thing" which made me wonder if it was a comedy at first.

If you get a chance it is well worth watching as the characters, acting and jokes form one of the most refreshing comedies on television in recent years.