We recently discussed and (rightly) sang the praises of the final season of Happy Valley. Last year we raved about (again rightly) Slow Horses.
This week BBC4 started a repeat of one of my all time favourite TV dramas – the political thriller Edge Of Darkness. Late last year also showed a (rare) repeat of Dennis Potter’s Singing Detective, another all time favourite of mine (both of which starred a young Joanne Whalley which may have a bearing….).
It seems we have been spoiled recently for top TV.
I know we do our yearly lists of the best TV of the year, but which would you rank as amongst your all time favourites ? What else would you like to see BBC4 repeating ?
(And not just limited to British programmes….)
I recently posted a clip from the Big Picnic, Bill Bryden play filmed in Harland and Wolff shipyard Govan about the First World War.
Recently the full film has appeared on YouTube but the quality is not of the best. Would love BBC 4 to show it again.
I think the best-ever screen adaptation of a book I really love was Granada Television’s Brideshead Revisited (1981). Two important factors in this. Firstly, over 11 episodes there was time to cover the whole book. Secondly, the casting, from the main protagonists to the smaller roles, was perfect. In fact everything, from the gorgeous theme music to the sets (notably Castle Howard) to the costumes, was perfect.
I am, I believe, the only person in the world who saw the film version (2008) with Matthew Goode as Charles, Ben Whishaw as Sebastian, Emma Thompson as Lady Marchmain and Michael Gambon as Lord Marchmain. It’s absolutely awful. Condensed to just over two hours it not only cut a lot of the story, but also made some major changes, for the worse. It seemed to completely misunderstand some of the novel’s crucial themes and ideas.
Until last year, a new remake of the television series directed by Luca Guadagnino (‘Call Me By your Name’) was being touted. It would have starred Andrew Garfield as the older version of Charles with a younger actor as Charles the student at Oxford. (One of the most impressive things, for me, about Jeremy Irons’ portrayal of Charles in the 1981 series was his ability to convincingly age, from naive adolescent to world-weary soldier, through the course of the series.) Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett were also due to star. It now looks as if the whole project has been ditched as Guadagnino was unable to raise the money he wanted for it, though he’d still be keen to do it should that become possible. Not for the first time I’d ask, why bother remaking something that has already been made perfectly?
Another series I really liked that I wouldn’t mind seeing again (again adapted from an excellent novel) was Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.
Yes, very good
I saw the film version, and I agree with you: it was poor in comparison with the television series. A good analogy would be the BBC’s perfect version of Pride and Prejudice, which stands in cruel contrast with the dreary film version featuring Keira Knightly.
Most modern dramas tend to treat the audience as if they’re slightly moronic or have no attention span – The Jewel in the Crown would never be made now.
From more recent times, Life On Mars and Ashes To Ashes
All time favourites – The Sweeney, and Auf Wiedersehen Pet
Loved Life on Mars, thought Ashes to Ashes was nothing like as good
Agreed. Nearly, but not quite. Got a bit preposterous and knowing towards the end.
First series was ok, I confess I didn’t quite make it to the end
FWIW, we thought Ashes To Ashes was by far the most accomplished of the two, however great Life On Mars had been. The final episode had us both slack jawed and sad and astonished at how extraordinarily good it was.
Well I bailed before the final episode, I thought it was just being strung out with little new ideas and very repetitive
Life on Mars – 70s Bowie
Ashes to Ashes – 80s Bowie (Great at first, then merely good, then not good, then silly and finally embarrassing)
Best ever TV series, that’s got to be The Spranos, seasons of superb plots, acting, so many great roles and the ending? Pure genius although others will differ.
I recently splurged on Happy Valley, all three seasons and even though I’d seen the first two seasons I was fully immersed in all of it. For me a top 5 TV series.
I should have said ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘6’ seasons…
Not an old series but something that I’ve enjoyed binging and I think would go down here well is ‘The Offer’, on Paramount. A dramatisation of the making of the original Godfather film based on the story of the Producer Albert Ruddy. Excellent for those who love the film (and who doesn’t?) – funny, dramatic and great to see actors playing Brando, Pacino etc. Shout out to Matthew Goode for a great performance as head of the studios.
I really enjoyed that too. Interesting to get an idea of exactly what a film producer does. And I agree, Matthew Goode was surprisingly good – I say surprisingly, cos I’ve seen him in a few things before and found him either completely forgettable (The Imitation Game, The Crown) or noticeably crap (Matchpoint, Brideshead Revisited).
I watched an old black and white film recently, Seconds (a 1966 sci-fi that had a lot in common with Open Your Eyes/Vanilla Sky) starring Rock Hudson. And all the way through I kept thinking how Hudson looked so much like Miles Teller, star of The Offer.
@Gary
“Good evening, Mr. Wilson”, the opening line of Seconds (John Frankenheimer’s follow up to the magnificent Manchurian Candidate) is often credited for inadvertently pushing Brian W of the Beach Boys over the edge
I know Americans are a bit insular and ignorant, but he seriously wasn’t aware that there are people in the world outside of his own family also called Wilson?
“Good evening, Mister Bumpostern” would have justifiably sent genius songwriter Cecil J. Bumpostern over the edge, but he was made of sterner stuff.
Had to be with that name. 😏
Can you tell them apart? Which one is Miles Teller and which is Rock Hudson?
Best ever TV series for me was Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alec Guinness as Smiley. Smiley’s People was an excellent follow-up, but swapped the “cryptic crossword” vibe for a limited amount of action – TTSS was uncompromising in that aspect and was occasionally reviewed as dull or confusing. I disagree, of course.
If you missed just one episode of TTSS you were stuffed. So many twists and turns.
I agree, except that Bernard Hepton is magnificent as Toby in the sequel: the reunion conversation between him and Smiley / Guinness is one of my favourite dramatic pieces.
You’re right, of course: best to think of them as two complementary halves of a magnificent whole.
Did you ever hear Bernard Hepton as Smiley, in a BBC radio version predating the Simon Russell Beale collection? 1989 I think it was: it was available as a cassette for a while. Hepton makes a really good Smiley, in fact!
Well, oh dear me! Bless my soul! Here’s the very production!!
When the Boat Comes In
Our Friends in the North
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul
These are dramas, I have another list for sitcoms
Mad Men is, as I said to friends at the time, a true work of art.
@Black-Type
Yes and The Bridge absolutely should be on my list too
Aside from Mad Men, which I enthuse about above, I’d add:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
The West Wing
NYPD Blue (so wish someone would broadcast it again)
Cracker
The Killing (original)
The Bridge (Saga Noren is one of the best creations ever)
Beck (an unheralded Swedish cop show, but again with brilliant characters and deals with the uglier aspects of the Nordic socio-political idyll).
I haven’t seen any of them (though I did watch the American remake of The Killing and really liked it.)
I’ve never really watched, but I always got confused between NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues. Were they related / follow on’s / etc etc. I recall my mum being a huge fan (I think of Hill Street, but it could have been the other one).
They were linked, by their creator Steven Bochco and the incorporating of characters’ personal lives into the police procedurals. Also they shared a recurring character, a black guy called Buck Naked, who generally was.
I personally never watched HSB, not a conscious decision but probably due to my lifestyle at the time, but NYPDB hit me hard from the start. It seemed to be a huge blow when David Caruso quit early on to become ‘a big movie star’ (that went well), but the show just moved onwards and upwards with the introduction of Jimmy Smits as the great Sipowicz’s (Dennis Franz) new partner, Bobby Simone. His narrative arc, particularly the end of it, was astounding drama. I could go on and on…all the regular characters , however minor, evolved and became people you cared about. It regularly triggered a viscerally emotional response in me, which on one occasion enabled me to acknowledge and seek help for some kind of mid-life crisis. But don’t let that put you off…😏
They also had an actor in common with Denis Franz, who had two roles in HSB taking the lead as Andy in NYPDB
I’m doing a rewatch of the former atm, nearly finished and then I’ll watch NYPDB from season 9 , which will be for the first time
What are you watching NYPDB on? Don’t say a telly 😏
I have them on good old-fashioned DVD, BT.
But I noticed that our Disney + subscription gives me access to all 12 seasons…
😮 I didn’t know that, and I have D+!
Woohoo! Thanks for the heads-up!
Great! As an aside, I read that the young man who played Andy’s infant / toddler son, Theo was sadly found dead last week at the age of 27. A sad ending judging by the reports.
“Look after the baby Andy.”
Sorry Sylvia.
I was hooked on Buffy for a while.
Just noticed: this is a mighty long way down from Black Type’s original comment…
Boys from the black stuff I Claudius the wire the missing.deadwood. plus a few of the above already mentioned.
Yeah Blackstuff brilliant
Let’s have your sitcom list
Bilko
Hancock’s Half Hour
Dad’s Army
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads
Porridge
M*A*S*H
Taxi
Cheers
Frasier
Seinfeld
Larry Sanders Show
Peep Show
Father Ted
The IT Crowd
The Office
Twenty Twelve (and W1A)
Ever Decreasing Circles
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
Schitt’s Creek
Probably missing loads though!
I would add steptoe and son plus the Rick mayall trio young ones filthy rich and catflap and bottom.plus black adder
Steptoe yes, some of Black Adder too. Not a massive fan of the Mayall/Edmonson ouvre, but I enjoyed The Young Ones at the time
Fawlty Towers – missing from your list, shirley.
And whlist it has been played to death on UK Gold, Only Fools And Horses is still great.
And from the pen of the same writer – Dear John
Ever Decreasing Circle is under-rated and oft forgotten.
May I also add The Good Life
oh, and Rising Damp too
Thought about Fawlty Towers but I never watch it anymore. Fools and Horses is ok, but personally not the absolute top drawer for me
Much prefer Ripping Yarns to Fawlty Towers myself.
Wee laddie for a Palfrey…..HIT!
Thank you, Gundy…
(Good luck, Graybridge)
Bilko?
Surely you mean the Phil Silvers Show
Hey thanks for clarifying that, we wouldn’t have known which show he meant otherwise 😜
There are standards here, M, a right and a wrong way of doing things!
Today’s failure to draw attention to an incorrect name is tomorrow’s letting slip links not posted in the appropriate box!
Is this the sort of board we should be leaving behind for our children and grandchildren, etc, etc.
I think we both know the answer to that particular conundrum, M
Tell me about it, I just had to use the word Biederbeck so many times I had to have a lie down.
Lots of other great TV listed above, I’m glad I have most of them on disc.
The BBC have just repeated the comedy Early Doors. Such great characters like Ken the landlord and his mum, Winnie the domestic lady, the two dodgy policemen, Tommy the elderly miserable guy and Eddie and Joan. Only two series were made but they are perfection and on iplayer at the moment. I also remember Operation Good Guys from the nineties which would be worth repeating.
Just been introduced to this one. You are correct in all respects.
Yes! Early Doors is genius. “I bet he helps them out when they’re busy.”
To the Regiment!
I wish I was there!
Agreed Early Doors is brilliant comedy…seeing a we’re at Mealy and Cash, lets not forget “Sunshine”
Jam And Jerusalem
Darling Buds Of May
One of the new crop – I see season five of Unforgotten will begin on Tuesday. I loved Nicola Walker in the first four and she will be a hard act to follow but looking forward to it. I don’t think I’ve seen Sinead Keenan in anything prior to this..
I arrived in the UK in the early 1980s, having previously lived in a far-flung former colony. I remember watching in wide-eyed wonder ‘The Singing Detective’ (I still have the soundtrack, now updated to a double CD) and ‘Edge of Darkness’ (which I will rewatch tonight).
I also remember two other programmes which I have never seen repeated on TV. The first was ‘Big Deal’, with Robbie Box (Ray Brooks) and his gambling addiction. The other was ‘Ever Decreasing Circles’, with Richard Briers, Penelope Wilton and Peter Egan. The Egan character, I recall, had the hots for the Wilton character and both of them looked down on the Briers character with varying degrees of condescension. Very strange, especially as the Wilton and Briers characters were married.
I would love to see these two series again as, 40 years or so after first viewing them and with 40 years of life’s experiences behind me, it would be fascinating to find out now what I made of them and the issues they raised.
EDC has been repeated by Beeb Four recently. It stands up, I think. Briers said his character is basically having a long, slow nervous breakdown. I suppose these days he’d be regarded as spectrummy. I’d walk over hot coals to see Peter Egan in anything, but he’s great in this – wicked but twinkly. Much like me.
Have you seen PE Big Breadwinner Hog. M?
Up there with Get Carter as the best British gangster epic of the 60s/70s im(ns)ho
I’ll have to look out for that. He did a few tough guy things in his youth. Didn’t we all, eh?
All eight episodes are up on YT
If you’re in reach of central London there are still plenty of tickets for this tomorrow afternoon. I believe Egan and Wilton will both be there.
https://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/robert-ross-presents-a-celebration-of-richard-briers/
Briers himself observed that he made a career out of playing what he called ‘insufferables’. It’s a mark of his likability as an actor that it wasn’t immediately obvious how awful his main running characters would have been to know.
Was in my list above. Caught a few episodes lately and then bought the DVDs. It’s fairly subversive, on the surface it’s a fairly typical English middle class suburban sitcom, but the main character is insufferable, his wife seems to be tempted to have an affair with a younger smarmish neighbour and his best friends are very weird and hardly seem to have much contact with reality.
Most great UK sitcoms are quite dark and this is no exception. Harold and Hilda are utterly surreal and seem to come from a different show, which makes them funnier.
I think Harold is a brilliant creation, superbly acted
Egan is a couple of months younger than Wilton (though both are more than a decade younger than Briers was).
Yeah I meant younger compared to Briers
Serendipitously, PE was in the aforementioned Unforgotten.
I loved Callan but I bet it hasn’t aged well.
Anyone mentioned The Prisoner yet?
Since I’m on a nostalgia trip, how about Moonlighting?
Callan is quite often on;Talking Pictures and has held up surprisingly well. Same applies to Alfred Burke as Frank Marker in Public Eye
Anything with the bloke with three planks on his head. On a completely different tip (SWIDT) that Jack Rosenthal thing about binmen. Late 90s.
Oh yeah and anything else involving Jack Rosenthal, bless ‘im.
Apart from Maureen Lipman 🤔
God save us from professional Hullensians
(ahem)
The Knowledge.
I was thinking of Common as Muck and conflating it with, er, The Dustbinmen. The former was not Jack R. CAM is the last stand of dustbins before the ubiquity of the wheelie.
Budgie.
Happiness. (Paul Whitehouse)
Inside Out. (Ex cons)
Capital City. (Bankers)
Twizzle. (Boy with elongating limbs.)
Capitol City was hilarious but didn’t mean to be. All those big coats, corporate speak and minor problems causing them no end of angst. I think The Apprentice was based on it.
Was entertaining though
Budgie! Superb! Iain Cuthbertson in fine form…and Laughing Spam!
Crick! Crick!
Twin Peaks – stylishly bonkers.
Twin Peaks: The Return – off the scale bonkers.
Both superb.
Excellent, in fact
How about The Beiderbecke Tapes…? We loved it, and I think I have the DVD box somewhere…!
Yes! Great programme. Was there a second series, The Beiderbecke Affair? Can’t remember, might have been a second book anyway.
Three series all together. All excellent.
True Detective series 1
Fargo series 1
Chernobyl ..er.. series 1
Soap
Northern Exposure
Mork & Mindy
Here’s my random list of televisual memories as that seems to have become the basic drift of this thread.
Tarot Ace of Wands.
The Banana Splits.
Children of the Stones.
The Crezz.
77 Sunset Strip.
Hammer House of Horror.
My Favourite Martian.
Four Feather Falls.
Kojak.
Marcus Welby M.D.
Peyton Place.
The Lotus Eaters.
Bewitched.
Supermarket Sweep.
Public Eye.
Rin Tin Tin.
The Power Game.
All Our Yesterdays.
From the same writer as The Lotus Eaters came The Aphrodite Inheritance, which has always been a favourite of mine. Supernatural goings-on in Cyprus with Alexandra Bastedo. What’s not to like?
I will hold my hand up to having my tongue firmly planted in my cheek with some of them. It really was just a random set of memories rather than a serious bash at it.
I will add that a fair amount of the television that’s been mentioned by others is available across the various streaming platforms.
The Beiderbecke affair, Cracker and Brideshead are all along with others available on ITVX and Buffy is on Disney+ if that’s of any assistance to anyone who fancies a nostalgic wallow.
Putting on my serious head momentarily I’d nominate A Most Peculiar Practice. I think that’s on ITVX too.
The Bix Beiderbecke Affair would have a great soundtrack.
The Biederbeck in The Biederbeck Affair was Bix Biederbeck. The main character was a jazz tragic. It would be like a series about you called The Half Speed Masters Affair. Actually that’s a pretty good name.
*fires up Microsoft Word*
When did “tragic” become a synonym for “enthusiast”? I blame The Smiths fans…
It’s Australian, ya boofhead!
Jings, the day’s not wasted if you learn something, is it? Or are you gaslighting me?
Anyway, it remains in the “Modern Usage That I Hate” list, near the top…
Sounds good. I should watch (listen to) it.
Pencil, do you remember The Expert, starring Marius Goring? Possibly the first of the “forensic pathology” police procedurals…and partly responsible for one of my education choices.
I hadn’t until your mentioning it but your doing so has pinged a ding on a very distant bell.
Watched Children Of The Stones on YouTube recently. Very good with an Alan Garner vibe.
Would Hoppity be allowed now, I wonder? Or would it be seen as a differently abled woke masterpiece?
Altogether now: “Sarah Brown had a toy as happy could be”!
Dear old Hoppity…….
Should we discuss Hoppity’s pronouns? Is the time ripe for such a potentially explosive discussion? Probably best not.
And what about Torchy’s sub-dom relationship with Bossy Boots? Let his little lovely light shine on that, I say.
“Torchy’s dead, baby. Torchy’s dead”.
I rather liked Noggin the Nog too.
And Follyfoot.
Another vote for Noggin the Nog – I still find the opening music very evocative – but I’m a fan of all the Oliver Postgate programmes.
The Day Today is one of the most brilliant TV things ever.
Intended as a satire on the direction television news coverage was going in the 1990s but treated by them as an instruction manual ever since.
The graphics were done by the graphics team from Newsnight. CM just told them to do what they would do if it was up to them.
It’s still pretty mild compared to the daft shit Jeremy Vine gets up to on election nights.
Dramas we’ve watched many times.
The original Poldark.
Tutti Frutti.
Love on a Branch Line.
The Beiderbecke Trilogy.
The original Mapp and Lucia.
The Barchester Chronicles.
Historical dramas is it?
Middlemarch (Juliet Aubrey ohhhhh)
Nicolas Nickleby (80s, David Threlfall as Smike)
Elizabeth R
Dogtanian and the Muskehounds
Dartagnan was a Scrappy Doo-type figure in the original novel and then Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon version makes him the star!
Not H-B, I believe it was Italian and later dubbed somewhat imperfectly into English.
Oh, yes. Middlemarch. Watched that several times.
She was in Professor T recently, which is a bit rubbish but she’s still got them cheekbones. Mmm-hmm.
Rufus Sewell’s cheekbones were amazing, too.
But he’s got that wonky eye that makes him look like a Bond villain. Still, to each his own.
What happened to Zen?
The detective, or one of the irritating computers in Blakes 7?
Ah, Zen or ‘Mummy’s little treat’ as it was known in my sister’s household. I believe the location shooting was prohibitively expensive and it was canned after one short series.
What is the world coming to if the BBC can’t stop the traffic in Rome for a month in the name of Sunday night crime drama? Bally Johnny Foreigner!
“The original Mapp and Lucia” – for avoidance of doubt: this is the Geraldine McEwan / Prunella Scales / Nigel Hawthorne version?
Yes, that one. The BBC one was very good, mind.
A series I loved that seems to have been forgotten was Private Schultz, starring Michael Elphick.
Another vote for Beck, the Stockholm based crime series.
Not forgetting the wonderfully oleaginous Ian Richardson as Major Neuheim
Recent iterations of Beck have been patchy but always worth watching. I love the scandi noirs – so terse and economical. I know we’re all supposed to worship at the altar of US drama these days but it does seem to be incredibly up itself. Twenty four episodes? Fuck off.
I loved the character of Gunwald Larsson; it was a real loss when Mikael Persbrandt left. But his replacement Steinar, played by the brilliant Kristofer Hivju (of GoT legend), was almost as good. Then the more recent addition to the team Alex , played by Jennie Silfverhjelm, is (apologies, ladies) extremely easy on the eye. And a damned good cop, of course 😏
Hivju has been in some good things, interested to see that he’s been in Game of Thrones as well 😉
Anyone mentioned
Twilight Zone (the original Rod Serling BW series)
The Avengers
Our Friends in the North
Yes I mentioned Our Friends in the North above, please read all posts in future before replying 😉
I loved The Avengers when Channel 4 showed it early/mid 80s. Tried it again recently and it’s pretty terrible! Looks good though (especially in colour), Emma Peel helping in that regard
That’s me told, D.
Was obviously so pleased to catch you out on your misnaming of the Phil Silvers Show that I failed to give the rest of your list the forensic level of attention it deserved!
Regards
Your Friend in the West (of Ireland)
If you’re having the original Twilight Zone, you should also have the original Outer Limits. I watched the repeats in the early 80s and they scared the snot outta me.
The Outer Limits was on Taking Pictures TV last year. They recycle a lot so I’m sure it will be on again soon.
Nowhere near as god as TZ
Comedy.
Ripping Yarns.
The Day Today.
Dinnerladies.
Alexei Sayles Stuff (Series 1).
The Fast Show.
Big Train.
And Catterick.
Vic Reeves Big Night Out. Pitifully I can probably recite the whole thing.
“The tomato harness has chafed my stomach”
“Hair-restoring pills? Hair-restoring pills? Yes. Yes.”
“Sand….blighted sand. Gnarled lady with twisted scent…”
“Spandau Ballet laughing at an orphan who’s fallen off his bike”
“I tell you what Nick, the situation in South africa is getting right on my tit end”
….etc. This is what I have done with my life
L A R D
The Smell Of…and Shooting Stars were also superb, Slade In Residence, Masterchef, Roxy Music, Larry Hagman totally bemused. The 90s had a lot to offer TV comedy-wise.
I remember reading the Andrew Collins article in the NME that was printed just before Vic Reeves Big Night Out was broadcast. As “Savage Garden!” might have said, I knew I loved it before I saw it.
Stuart Tanner, the Crying Biscuit- indeed!
Cabbages..
..
..and BELLS??
Standard medical practitioners, I know you despise us,
With your drugs and pills and your tranquillizers
Colombo!
Seems to be on all the time but utterly brilliant. I love the fact it’s not a whodunnit. The viewer knows exactly who committed the crime from the start. It’s all about character and relationships. As a consequence, it stands up to multiple rewatches.
Well, if we’re going to include the-viewer-knows-the-culprit-at-the-start-of-every-episode, my nomination goes to:
Scooby Doo, Where Are You!* and, from 2010-13, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
(*) Yes, that really is an explanation, not a question mark. Two nations divided, etc.
UK TV follows this pattern by always having the culprit played by someone who’s always a baddie in dramas that go out at 9.00pm on a weekday…
I thought Midsomer Murders did an interesting variant on this by having the murderer played by the most famous actor not a member of the regular cast.
Heimat
Quite hard to see nowadays, not an streaming and the DVDs are expensive. Just finished my third rewatch and the ambition and sustained brilliance of it are quite breathtaking. The premise is very simple – we follow the lives of a small group of German villagers from 1920 through to the mid 1980s. Apart from the odd scene in Berlin or Hamburg we stay in and around the village itself. The film-making, subtle accumulation of stories, details and fates are just mesmerising by the final couple of episodes. I recall there was a feeble attempt to do an English version, The Village, in the 00s with John Simm that died a fairly quick death. Lots of acting in Heimat is by non-professionals from the Hunsruck, the part of Germany the village is in, and the whole thing is completely convincing.Now can I afford the ridiculous prices for series 2 and 3…
I first saw Edgar Reitz’s Heimat in 1987 and considered it the greatest television drama ever made. I bought the DVD set when it came out, but deliberately didn’t watch the series again for 34 years, as I was worried that I might like it less second time around. But when we watched it again in 2021, it blew me away once more. What an extraordinary achievement in acting, writing and direction it is.
Moseley, have you seen the film that Reitz made in 2013 as a prequel: “Die andere Heimat – Home from Home”. It’s about the villagers of Schabbach who leave Europe to emigrate to Brazil in 1844. It’s beautifully observed in the great Heimat tradition, and highly recommended.
Heimat is stunning. Am waiting to rewatch before watching the two follow up series
Yes did see the prequel @duco01 and it is great, if not quite packing the cumulative punch of the original series. Clearly Heimat became Reitz’s life work.
Not sure if mentioned above but
Borgen
Spiral – quality primer for profanity in French
Original Wallander
Dr Who in the Tom Baker years when produced by Philip Hinchcliffe and it went all gothic horror
The Omega Factor – was reshown recently on Forces TV just before it closed
The Terror series 1
Our Friends in the North
I Claudius
A Very Peculiar Practice
The Camomile Lawn
Comedy wise
Arrested Development
This Country
Recorded a repeat of The CL not long ago – unfortunately it was broadcast during the day and therefore certain , er, stucturally important elements were edited out. Completely ruined the flow.
You know what, I really miss The Bill…
It’s been said several times on this thread “it’s all there on YouTube”.
As a frequent fréquenter of the Eel Markets, and one who just found a Mexican film I’ve been looking for ages on YT, I’m not one to tut-tut at such behaviour but just out of interest how “””legal””” is YT ? Have the authorities just given up?
Given up what? There has been shedloads of copyrighted TV and film material on YouTube since day 1. That’s always been the point of it for me, first thing I did on it was watch a load of old toot TV from the 70s/80s and I’ve never stopped in the 15-odd years since. I don’t give a fuck about some berk in his kitchen making “killer” burritos or hahaha here’s some kid who tries to do something tricky on his skateboard and ends up breaking his neck. Unboxings? Get in this six foot box, knobhead.
The “Make room for the mushrooms” advert from 1983, that my friends is entertainment!
Surprising. I’d have had you down as a devotee of the busty women play bass riffs in their undies genre..
Eh?
This sort of thing…
That is not Pink Floyd.
Which one’s Pink? 🤔
Oh, my!
Don’t think my question has been answered. Since Day 1 YT has shown copyrighted stuff. In the olden days I’d have had to scour charity shops to get my Mexican film or the first episode of The Clangers. Now it’s there, copyright schmoppyright. Have the authorities given up?
Stuff gets taken down all the time when the licence holders complain e.g. when someone here linked to a load of old episodes of The Tube it came with the exhortation to get in quick as it was obvious they’d be gone again soon enough..
Some copyright holders seem not to mind as long as they’re getting the pittance-per-view that YouTube pay. Others guard their stuff like dragons guard a hoard.
A certain proportion of the YouTube takedowns are initiated by chancers who don’t even own the rights they’re asserting. YT’s policy seems to be take it down first, investigate later. But only if the actual owner complains.
The way others get round the copyright issue is to shrink or only a portion of the show’s/film’s original frame ratio
You mean they didn’t make Bullseye in Panavision©?
There’s a puerile gag about Humbuckers to be made, but *I’m* not going there…
Booooodowwww!
Don’t know if they’re still there, but I was pleased to find many of the Yellow Pages adverts – ‘I was right about that saddle, though’ and ‘Who are you … and who’s she?’. Also, the AA? ‘It’s in the sand’.
YouTube also recommends lots of videos of people making things to me. I watch many of them. What seems to link them is that the people concerned have seemingly inexhaustable supplies of plywood and old pallets, plus suspiciously over-equipped workshops.
Unless it is all part of the scheme and they go fully pay as you go, like the streamers.
No mention so far of The Monocled Mutineer? I’d like to see that again. Unfortunately it’s not on my computer’s YouTube.
Roots was another series I enjoyed a lot. I have it on DVD. I also saw the 2016 remake, but strangely I can’t remember anything about it, whereas I remember the 1977 original very well. Odd that.
Lord Peter Wimsey, the BBC adaptation with Ian Carmichael and Glyn Houston. Terrific fun, great plots, especially The Nine Tailors.
Jeremy Brett – Sherlock Holmes. Be gone with your cucumber.
The Jeremy Brett version of Sherlock Holmes is my favourite thing ever to have been on television. No other actor has captured the manic/indolent duality of Holmes as well as JB. It’s sad, in later episodes, when his physical illness begins to affect his performance – you can see he’s struggling.
Yeah, still great though.
ITV4 show them literally in the middle of the night, which is as it should be.
Freaks and Geeks is on YT and as brilliant as it was back then, I’m happy to report.
I have lots of my favourite shows on DVD, but I’m too scared to rewatch them…what if I think they’re awful now? Don’t want to ruin my fond memories…
The one series I wish I had on DVD and would watch once a year if I did, is the Russian TV adaptation of The Master and Margarita, which was the most stunning and word/scene perfect adaptation of a novel I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, being Russian, it’ll probably never be shown again…
I saw that a few years back on Sky.
Absolutely terrific version.
Another fan of it here
Insufficient love for Deadwood, by David Milch. It’s an astounding piece of television.
M*A*S*H should get a shout out. The last episode is in the conversation for best last episode of any tv show.
And from the kiddies pile, Blue Peter.
We’ve been watching (re-watching for the missus) Boston Legal. Absolutely loving it. William Shatner is impeccably cast. James Spader terrific.
My (possibly) guilty pleasure is First Among Equals. I have always been fascinated with the workings of Parliament and have probably watched this a dozen times. It never seems to be on anywhere so it must be just me. Clive Swift does a terrific turn in this.
Mr Inbetween is brilliant….
Never mind Mr Inbetween, what about Mr Pastry?
Colin’s Sandwich
I dug out my Biederbecke Affair (etc) box set and we have been laughing out loud at it once again. I was worried it wouldn’t age well, but the Alan Plater dialogue and the playing by Barbara Flynn and James Bolam, not to mention the supporting cast, is still fantastic. Highly recommended!
I have started watching the Edge of Darkness again, and it still works as a very good political thriller. But as far as I remember, the whole plot turns on a cover up about nuclear power, and nuclear being a bad thing in general. Joanna’s Whalley’s character is a member of an anti-nuclear group called Gaia, presumably named after James Lovelock’s hypothesis. It shows how times change, as Lovelock was one of the leading environmentalists who changed his mind and became a strong advocate of nuclear power as a source of green energy and a way of saving the planet. I haven’t watched The Simpsons for ages, but in a way its origins in the nineties show in the portrayal of Burns’ power station as haphazard and dangerous, driven by greed. Now he could be seen as a foresighted public benefactor.
But isn’t the main point in Edge of Darkness is that the Nuclear reprocessing company is illegally storing / making plutonium, which is used in weapons not for Nuclear Power…. ?
I can’t remember, so that’s one of the reasons I’ll keep watching. But I think the choice of subject for a conspiracy thriller reflects a mood at the time. Odd to see Michael Meacher, now forgotten Labour politician in the opening scenes pretty much playing himself, or probably as he liked to see himself – radical and in touch with the young.