Sorry, expats, down-underers and furriners. This one’s probably just an annoyance to you.
So many box sets. Some good, some so-so and some rather tragic.
Dr. Who. 156 episodes available. Eccleston to Whittaker.
Silent Witness S17-S21.
Outnumbered S1-S5.
McMafia.
Collateral.
Informer.
Miranda S1-S3.
Blackadder Goes Forth.
Bodyguard.
Killing Eve.
A Very English Scandal.
The ABC Murders.
Gavin & Stacey S1-3.
The Long Song.
Our Girl S1-4.
Fleabag.
Death And Nightingales.
Wanderlust.
Mrs. Wilson.
Clique S2.
Bleak House.
Still Game S7-8.
Dynasties.
Watched any? Thumbs up or down?
Savvy Downunderers of course know the virtues of your VPN, so they can fill their Blundies along with everybody else.
Lots of good stuff there, but I would single out Bodyguard, Killing Eve and the unspeakably funny Fleabag. Going to give ABC Murders a go tonight, as it happens.
Just started on ABC Murders.
Dark.
Didn’t like how Bodyguard turned out. It started well and turned stoopid, IMO.
Killing Eve is superb and I’m really looking forward to the second series. Very different from the 2 books (which really should have been one longer book), which I found not nearly as bad as others on this blog did. The TV series seems to have swerved off in another direction entirely.
Saw the last few minutes of Killing Eve again on Gogglebox last night (I know, I know…) and was reminded how incredibly powerful that ending was (while setting up Series 2, obvs). The Gogglebox regulars were all gobsmacked too.
Did I mention how much I enjoy Gogglebox?
I really don’t like Agatha Christie adaptations- so naturally I loved the ABC murders and Agatha fans hated it.
Shot in Yorkshire you know. I recognised Saltaire masquerading as Andover.
Fleabag is interesting as it becomes progressively less funny and more poignant (maybe not the right word, but more drama less comedy). As shown by Killing Eve and Solo she is a real talent.
Bodyguard – fades badly but as good as line of duty at first.
Doctor who we all know (and I love)
Yes, @paulwright, never seen a place looking less like Andover in my life! It was excellent though, and the Poirot backstory added an extra layer of dark.
I’ve watched a few old Dr Who recently and they aren’t as good as I remember. There was much excitement when it was relaunched and my son was the right age, about 5 IIRC. I suppose it’s a family/kid’s show so I shouldn’t have expected too much but the acting is all a bit shouty and OTT. Honourable exception for Blink however. That was properly scary. Similarly, Outnumbered, which was required viewing at the time (my daughter WAS Karen. Several people said so.) doesn’t bear repeated viewing IMO.
Best of the others:
McMafia
Bodyguard
Killing Eve
Mrs Wilson
Blackadder
Is Luther a box set? We’re all looking forward to the new series tonight.
Outnumbered is excellent if you like family based sitcoms with funny kids.
It’s good but I find it stressful!
Very funny in its prime.
I miss the granddad…
*left to own devices in lounge, watching rolling news channel*
“This is terrible. There’ve been three train crashes in the last hour! All of them in Kent!”
There is some decent stuff there for sure. Am I the only one annoyed by the term “box set” for digital collections of episodes, sometimes as little as 2 or 3? In my world a box set actually has a box.
No – really gets on my nerves too!
You will both get over it as it becomes ubiquitous.
I used to rage on here about pre-ordering things.
I moved on.
It’s not used in North America. What is called in the UK as a “series” is a “season”, a full collection of seasons is a “series”.
It’s a boxed set anyway – a set of things that have been put together in a box.
It boils my piss that the term “box set” has somehow mustered approval simply because the snowflake generation can’t be bothered to type two extra letters, and can’t think properly in English anyway.
The whole of Upstart Crow is on there which is brilliant. McMafia is really good. Bodyguard starts well and ends with a phut.
Shout from here for the Upstart Crow too – wonderfully mischievous stuff.
Mrs Japanese and I have started watching Bleak House. She watched it when it first aired in 2005, but it passed me by at the time. It’s very good so far, as are most things written by Andrew Davies.
These are worth watching
McMafia.
Blackadder Goes Forth.
Bodyguard.
Killing Eve.
Gavin & Stacey S1-3.
Fleabag.
Mrs. Wilson.
I concur with Bodyguard, Killing Eve, Mrs Wilson, ABC Murders (I’d love Malkovich to do more Poirot). Was disappointed with McMafia (dull) and The Little Drummer Girl. No-one has mentioned liking A Very English Scandal, which I thought was a drama highlight of the year. Everyone seemed surprised at how good Hugh Grant was, but I’ve always rated him very highly as both a romantic comedy lead and in serious roles; and Ben Whishaw, of course, gave his usual outstanding performance.
Was great, but slightly weird after same two actors featured in Paddington 2.
This skit end of year show on iPlayer now cuts Paddington and Thorpe trial scenes together just as you you describe, to great comic effect though with more Vaseline than marmalade!
A Year in the Life of a Year, 2018
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bwdnnh
That was worth it for Derek Jacobi reading the CBeebies Bedtime Story (around the 5:30 mark). NSFW!
I’d love Malkovich to do more Poirot too.
I hope he will
I bet he wont
Yes I’m a downunderer and a VPN unlocks the bbc iplayer quite nicely. I watched the recent Vic& Bobs and although I laughed heartily a few times, I think overall they should have let it lie.
ISWYDT
I know it looked like a set up for a weak gag – but I do feel that they missed the mark with these shows. Sorry if this is an over-analysis :
The comedy behind the BNO was that Vic Reeves is a deluded impresario character, thinking he is also a much-loved talented light entertainer himself, putting together what he considers to be, on paper, an excellent variety show from behind a big desk.
As the show goes on, he realises that things aren’t so great but he mostly soldiers on – at times letting his guard down with frustration onstage over the low quality of the items offered (mostly) by the well-meaning but similarly deluded Bob. Bob is the funnier of the two but he is Vic’s employee. He will sometimes argue with Vic – but Vic is the boss. Vic is impeccably dressed and groomed and considers himself the show’s star.
In this version, Vic and Bob are are together at the big desk and doing things as equals, like in the Reeves and Mortimer BBC shows. I think the BNO format needs the fully formed Vic character to be the boss. I think a leathery, middle-aged Vic Reeves in a satin shirt and a fake tan still trotting out roughly the same old bollocks (as if he’d never stopped) would have been very funny. And a visibly older Bob still trying and failing to provide items worthy of the show would have had potential too, I think. We could have been given the impression that these characters have been doing the same thing for nearly 30 years, night after night.
Mrs. Wilson is great, and only 3 episodes (when is a ‘box set’ not a ‘box set’..?). Ruth Wilson plays her own grandmother in a true story, which is the real hook as you try to work out what is going on as she discovers more and more about her husband. Brilliant.
On a general note, it’s great that the BBC now makes this stuff available on demand. This must be the future – being able to access everything. Hopefully this will extend to more archive stuff.
The BBC will have to negotiate with OFCOM for that. Personally, I find it ludicrous that ITV and C4 can basically put whatever they like of their output on demand with no restriction, yet the BBC is hamstrung with ridiculous restrictions courtesy of OFCOM. It took them years to get the standard on demand period increased from 7 to 28 days.
There She Goes.
“Comedy drama that shines a light on the day-to-day life of a family looking after their severely learning disabled nine-year-old girl, Rosie.”
Brilliant acting by Jessica Hynes, David Tennant & especially Millie Locke who plays Rosie.
Not laugh out loud comedy but extremely moving. It’s based on the writer’s real life, I believe.
5 episodes.