This way up

Blakewatch - Week 8: Duel

2012-02-22T19:58:00.000Z

The Challenge: 52 Weeks in The Year- 52 Episodes of Blake’s 7. Can we watch them all?

Episode 8- Duel

(1978) Writer: Terry Nation / Director: Douglas Camfield

In the middle of a space battle, Blake and Travis are transported to a planet by its mysterious two guardians who force them to duel without their usual arsenal and with one helper each while their crews watch from above.

The most infamous telefantasy duel involved Captain Kirk taking on a lizardy alien in combat whilst their respective crews watched from above. Terry Nation must have been watching too as he’s taken the same idea, sadly minus the lizardy alien. Instead we have a growling Travis and a surprisingly nonchalant Blake- whose reaction to the whole thing suggests he’s been at the Liberator’s medicine cabinet- trying to best each other with only one companion each.

"Can you see anything?" "You're kidding, right? We're standing in front of a blue screen."

The idea behind this sort of episode is that we learn something fresh about the characters as the ordeal brings out other sides to them. In this case, we barely know Travis at all and the time we spend with him and his mutoid assistant only underlines that he appears to be something of a one dimensional villain, obsessed with nothing more than catching Blake. In that respect little difference is drawn between him and the mutoid. She, on the other hand, thanks to a subtle performance from Carol Royle is the more interesting of the two.

In the other camp, Blake and Jenna spend the night up a tree which if the show were being made today would offer a hint of quirky love in the air or at least a philosophical debate about their situation but instead Jenna nods off and Blake is bitten by a silver bat. It’s that sort of programme.

The whole scenario is forced on both parties by Sinofar and Giroc two enigmatic figures that appear to represent Angel and Devil. The latter, an old woman played with grisly fervour by Patsy Smart favours Travis and in a very surreal sequence involving lightning speed editing nearly causes Blake to be killed. You do seriously wonder what the jiggins is going on at this point! Isla Blair is ice cool and collected as Sinofar whose billowy dress leaves little to the imagination. The duo appear to be ethereal beings but you wonder whether they have simply gone mad after decades of cackling and making portentous announcements to each other.

Quite why they initiate the duel is not too clearly put over. It seems to be some sort of moral lesson so that other races do not succumb to the catastrophic wars that destroyed their people. Instead, could a conflict be resolved by two champions? And what end is the deadly duo expecting? Had Blake actually killed Travis, what would they have done then? Whatever Nation intends, the ending fudges the issue altogether as they let both sides go so you think- what was all that in aid of?

"Can I get you any sandwiches while you're waiting?"

It doesn’t really matter so much though because ace director Douglas Camfield is at the helm and you can see- and hear- the difference. The duel itself is an anticlimax – all wooden traps, spears and people wandering about what looks like a tiny area of forest- as the episode has peaked early with a terrifically staged attack on the Liberator. For the first time in the series to date a sense of movement and energy comes across as the bolts being fired at the ship are realised by approaching light bursts on screen. It looks as if they really are being hit with the cast putting the effort into being buffeted.

The sound effects work is equally tremendous (as it is on the planet too) with a constant thrumming in the background giving a heft to the things we are being told about while the editing ensures we zip from one person to another. It shows what can be done despite budgetary limitations and more than that how good a director Douglas Camfield is. He seems to invigorate the LIberator set which has seemed very static up till now. Camfield takes every opportunity to add his style to the production for example when the mutoid is about to use Jenna as a blood bank or just the simple wind machine helps the studio bound part of the planet set.

It is ultimately Camfield’s direction that makes this an above average episode and demonstrates how even an ordinary script can be lifted by a touch of class.

Notes

Sinofar states how barren and desolate the planet became after the wars yet the duel takes place in seemingly untouched woodland that, judging from the nocturnal noises, is teaming with wild life. So, how did that area manage to remain so fertile if the rest of the planet is dust and rock?

When Sinofar and Giroc are exercising their powers the screen is covered in colourful effects, which during the 1970s were Top of the Pops’ special effect of choice. Because making people’s faces look as if they are glowing green and melting is always fun.

Travis gets the mutoid to make a cage thing with twigs that looks like the most rubbish trap ever.

Patsy Smart was a regular character called Miss Roberts in the original Upstairs Downstairs.

Carol Royle who plays the mutoid was in, amongst others, The Outsider (1983), Ladies in Charge (1986), Life without George (1987-89), Blackeyes (1989), 4 episodes of Heartbeat spread over several years and recently in multiple episodes of daytime soap Doctors.

Waltzing through the episode with his usual sarcasm, Paul Darrow’s Avon nabs the best line when he’s asked how he can sleep through the process “Blake is sitting up in a tree; Travis is sitting up in another tree. Unless they're planning to throw nuts at one another, I don't see much of a fight developing before it gets light.” And you think- wouldn’t it be funny if when it became light they were actually in adjacent trees.

Up-words - Big Secrets

2012-02-20T19:07:00.000Z

Up-words- The Best of the Paper Issues of This way up 2002-10

Big Secrets

November 2002

by John Connors

One of the most remarkable things about Harry Potter is how rarely his glasses fall off. Whether dangling perilously out of a flying car or being knocked giddy by a great big snake, his spectacles remain firmly strapped to his face in defiance of gravity. Yet he doesn’t really have to worry too much whether they do or not; a quick “occulus repairus” and they’d be right as rain again. Yesterday a tiny screw fell out of my glasses causing one lens to promptly plop onto the magazine I was reading and no amount of colourful words on my behalf could cause them to repair. I had to resort to a screwdriver and much fiddling about. So that’s why we like Harry and his ilk; they can defeat evil and save the day but they can also deal with smaller problems without getting into a panic.

Second chapters are tricky things and Chamber of Secrets is really a bridge between the opening of this new magical world and the darker stories that start to unfurl from the third book. In some ways it is basically a broader version of its predecessor so it isn’t too surprising how soon the wider public have hit that `oh, it’s Voldemort again` barrier` but once you get over that, only then does the wonder of the Potter story start to spring to life. Simply waiting for the climax of each book (or film) with baited breath is not the point; it’s the journey by which you get there that counts.

Harry is spending another summer at the Dursleys, wondering why his friends haven’t written to him (no computers to spoil this story) though at least he has a room this time instead of a cupboard. Then, a house elf called Dobby warns him not to go back to Hogwarts lest danger befall him and when the boy shows no signs of heading the warning; Dobby makes mischief with a cake before vanishing. Uncle Vernon promptly seals him in his room until the Weasleys rescue him in a flying Ford Anglia car. This portion of the film is nicely done; the Dursleys are cartoonish and grotesque characters who is on screen time needs to be limited and this is effectively achieved, not for the last time a little extra comic mileage is added to the book; Vernon’s fall from the window seals the scene perfectly. Dobby is CGI but thanks to an expressively rendered face and amusing rather than grating vocals is certainly a welcome addition to the proceedings.

We then catch glimpses of the Weasley family cottage; here Daniel Radcliffe starts to show just how much he’s improved from the first film as he eyes the house and it’s gimmicks and then it’s off to Diagon Alley courtesy of Floo powder and a quip I found funnier than anyone else in the cinema. Unfortunately little is made of Harry’s Knockturn Alley detour; like the first film, the writers seem anxious to avoid too many confrontations with the Malfoys and this also means that the giant ruckus that breaks out in Flourish and Blotts in the book is reduced to some stares. A shame cos the whole bit about Malfoy putting the diary in Ginny’s basket gets lost here and there just isn’t enough dialogue amidst the staring. I’m not sure about Jason Isaacs either; he lacks the steely malevolence I was expecting from Lucius Malfoy and his hair is ridiculous (I know that’s saying something in this film but Rowling’s original description is not really met here).

The film’s first set piece is the car flight to Hogwarts. Unable to get through the barrier to platform nine and three quarters Harry and Ron resort to using the Ford Anglia and in an exhilarating sequence Chris Colombus and co add to a scene that passes almost as a means to an end in the book. Here, it is quite rightly expanded to include a moment when they can’t see the train and it lurches up behind them whereupon when pulling the car upwards, Harry falls out and is hanging out of the open door in mid air! The effects are certainly much better all round this time and the impressive thing about his sequence – and the later Quidditch match – is the broad daylight doesn’t show up any blurring. The whomping willow sequence is very effective too, largely due to the sound effects utilised that make the attacking tree sound thunderous and very dangerous indeed.

"I don't think this review has enough about ME!!"

As they settle back into Hogwarts life, a series of attacks leaves pupils literally Petrified (done well too; did they really freeze the actors!?) while Harry starts to hear voices coming from the walls. We also get another Quidditch match; again the book is outdone by the addition of a thrilling chase underneath the bleachers as the rogue bludger pursues Harry while he races Malfoy for the Snitch. This is driving, edge of seat stuff and it’s a pity the scene doesn’t occur later on as it is probably the bit most non Potterfiles will enjoy the most.

By now the cast are starting to make an impression and it’s Kenneth Branagh who snags the prime part this time round. He’s perfect casting as the narcissistic Gilderoy Lockhart preening about the place showing his pearly white teeth at every opportunity and quite funny he is too, especially when Lockhart’s true nature is revealed. With the kids more centre stage there is less chance for the starry adults to shine; at times you do feel they are being wheeled on for a turn each, an impression not helped by one of the kids saying their names each time they meet. Nevertheless Richard Harris does twinkle enigmatically as Dumbledore and will be harder to adequately replace than people think.

Inevitably parts of the book are truncated to fit the running time and Nearly Headless Nick’s Deathday party is cut altogether but rather more disappointing is that the script writers decided not to go into any of Rowling’s musings on fame and celebrity. In the book there are a few incidents where Harry appears to others to be intent on pushing his celebrity and this ties in well with Lockhart’s abuse of it. Even more importantly, when Harry appears to control a snake to attack another pupil, the students’ reaction, which simmers for a while in the book, is forgotten five minutes later. Considering it was established at the very start that Harry is already famous, why back away from discussing this now?

It also makes Colin Creevey’s continual photo taking look pointless when in the book his hero worship of Harry was an interesting sidebar to the issue. Anyway I was pleased to see they did leave in the polyjuice potion which adds a bit more humour as Harry and Ron `become` Draco Malfoy’s mates Crabbe and Goyle for an hour. Even more than in the book, the film does show up one weakness in the tale; exactly what Draco is for. Yes, he provides a bully type character in the first book/film but as evidenced by their sneering exchange before the duel, Harry is no longer intimidated by him and I think Draco needs to be brought closer to the centre of things. You can’t have a nasty character if he drops away in the second half of each story; it renders him less effective each time.

The movie's latter half is pivoted around two brilliant sequences. Firstly, Harry and Ron in the den of spiders is scarier than in some of some spider films I’ve seen; the eight legs themselves are rattlingly dangerous looking and the pace of their pursuit of the kids is gripping. Later, in the chamber of secrets itself there is the Basilisk, which looks powerful, and a far better climax ensues than the first films rather short one. As Tom Riddle, Christian Coulson just about manages to get across the contempt of the character but he lacks the sheer nastiness of poor Tom Felton who gets to sit out the climax again. The last 20 minutes also miss Emma Watson, whose sparky Hermione is always a highlight.

Daniel Radcliffe has matured considerably as an actor and he really grabs this film properly coming over as more traditionally heroic and less humble than the book version while Rupert Grint’s comedic skills are once again used to lighten moments of tension and add a recognisably normal character into the mix though he is starting to overdo that expression of disgust a bit!

Undoubtedly this is a better film than the first, but in some ways it is not quite as good an adaptation. While the bits added are all successful expansions of Rowling’s own vividly imagined action sequences, it’s what’s missing that shows something of a misunderstanding of what drives this story along. The school timetables have perhaps understandably been abandoned, but there is nary a mention of how Harry, Ron and Hermione have to sneak about under prefects and teachers’ watchful eyes, instead it looks like they have the run of the place. Qudditch is used to frame a terrific action piece but no more while the rivalry between Messrs Weasley and Malfoy senior is understated too. More important even than this, Ginny is left as such a sideline that we have actually forgotten about her by the time she’s kidnapped and this underlines the way Harry is treated as a central hero character but nothing more.

In the books, we see the story from his perspective and Rowling wrote Creevey, Ginny and Lockhart to offer different views of how Harry treats his fame and his past but the subtlety of this is lost in the film. Where it not an important part of Harry’s development as a character it wouldn’t matter but this is no James Bond franchise where the re-set button is pressed at the end of each film. I also missed the ritual of the school, brought to life so beautifully in the first film; I’m not advocating repetition but in the books Rowling manages to weave it all in nonetheless.

That said, it does all work well as film and contains much more excitement, dynamism and humour than its predecessor. Plus it leaves you gasping for more and that can only be a good thing.

When is a Play not a Play?

2012-02-17T18:55:00.001Z

Words: Oliver Wake

The BBC’s announcement late last month that it was dropping the word ‘play’ from the title of its main radio drama slots Afternoon Play and Saturday Play (plus the now sadly rare Friday Play), in favour of using ‘drama’ in it its place, completes a process begun thirty years ago.

The use of ‘play’ in relation to broadcast drama dates back to the earliest days of radio and was once equally commonplace on television, where drama strands from the 1950s onwards wore their theatrical credentials on their sleeves with titles like Sunday-Night Theatre, First Night, Playhouse and Play of the Month, to name but a few. These titles did not mean they relied on stage adaptations or production styles; some certainly did, particularly in the earlier years of television, but others, like The Wednesday Play, were specifically designed to showcase new dramatic writing for television.

With production processes moving away from studio-based multi-camera drama in the 1980s and ‘90s, drama anthologies instead emphasised their cinematic aspirations with titles like Screen One and Film on Four. ITV had started the ball rolling many years earlier, launching Armchair Cinema as it was bringing the long-running Armchair Theatre to a close in 1974. Although the ‘play’ label didn’t die out overnight – and even had a brief, low budget resurgence with BBC1’s Afternoon Play last decade – it fell largely out of visible use on television with the demise of Play for Today, its last high-profile flag-bearer. Now we have occasional ‘single dramas’ on television, not ‘plays’. Radio is just catching up.

I don’t mean to suggest that the retirement of the term ‘play’ was a reason for the near-retirement of the format itself on television. Balance sheets, ratings graphs, and risk-aversion did for the television play as a mainstay of the schedule. The unpredictable and expensive (particularly once the make-them-as-films impulse set in) TV play was out, the series was in. That Play for Today ended in 1984 and EastEnders began in 1985 is a neat illustration. However, the loss of the term ‘play’ – or more accurately, its use to denote regular strands of plays – helped eroded the expectation that television should set aside regular time for the single drama and label it so the audience could find it and return to it.

In his blog entry about the change, Jeremy Howe, Radio 4’s commissioning editor for drama, explains that the renaming brings radio into line with the rest of the BBC. It also ties up with Corporation’s drama publicity drive, built around the tagline of ‘Original British Drama’. In these terms, the move is eminently sensible, and if some of the larger audience television drama attracts can be tempted to give radio drama a listen as a result of integrated marketing for both mediums, so much the better.

However, more interestingly, Howe also states that the label ‘drama’ better represents what they make. He’s right. A one-off drama is effectively a play, whatever terminology you choose to use. But ‘drama’ encompasses serials and series too, which is a pertinent point in view of the current Radio 4 schedule.

The station’s play slots, particularly the Afternoon Play, have increasingly become home to serialised plays or series episodes over recent years, such as Sebastian Baczkiewicz’s Pilgrim and the just-concluded run of outings for advocate Norman Birkett. The trend looks set to continue. Of this week’s five Afternoon Play slots, three are used for the new crime series The Interrogation and another for the conclusion of Pilgrim, leaving only one non-series play. Even the usually stand-alone Saturday Play is affected, becoming a two-part adaptation (starting a Play, ending a Drama) in the style of the Classic Serial. Next week’s schedule – from which the renaming takes effect – is similarly series-heavy, with the first four Afternoon Dramas being instalments of the Number 10 series.

The rebranding seems to recognise this more flexible approach to drama programming within the existing play slots. Howe reports that the new label will make no difference to what we’re hearing. I don’t doubt the integrity of his assertion, but the new titles give rise to the possibility of ‘mission creep’. When it’s no longer called Afternoon Play, why should it be a play at all? In radio as in television, the one-off drama, whatever we’re calling it, is the most expensive drama format. Series and serials have the dual benefits of economies of scale, making them cheaper minute for minute than one-offs, and a regular, returning audience who tune in for their latest fix. There’s nothing wrong with series and serials, but plays give us variety, unpredictability (in a good way) and are the main conduit for the emergence of new drama talents. These are reasons to keep a space for plays.

With BBC funding being squeezed, can we expect the more expensive and unpredictable play format to hold its own without even a label to reserve its spot? It seems unlikely. Should we expect series and serials to squeeze out the genuine plays over time? Will we be left with occasional ‘one-off dramas’ on radio where once we had a string of plays, as with television before it?

When is a play not a play? Perhaps when it’s a ‘drama’.

Blakewatch - Ep 7 Mission to Destiny

2012-02-15T20:00:00.000Z

The Challenge: 52 Weeks in The Year- 52 Episodes of Blake’s 7. Can we watch them all?

Episode 7- Mission to Destiny

(1978) Writer: Terry Nation / Director: Pennant Roberts

Blake and co investigate a small spaceship which has been locked in a fixed orbit with its crew incapacitated. Reviving its inhabitants they discover it is on an important mission to the colony Destiny to return a device that will save their livelihood – but there is a killer on board and a single clue written in blood.

Two things become apparent in this episode. The first is that Blake, Avon and Jenna are instantly believed and never questioned even though when the Destiny crew wake up, the trio are wandering around their damaged ship and examining their murdered crewmate. Now it would be trusting at the best of times to take them on face value but given the circumstances it does seem odd that nobody challenges them. However this pales into insignificance when you consider the central flaw of the story.

One of the suspects became glued to Avon's shoulder

It is established that while Avon and Cally will stay on the craft to help repair it, Blake will take the device to the colony on their behalf and then come back for them. So, why not just give them a lift which would save coming back especially as it’s realised that the Destiny craft will not make the journey. Then, wouldn’t you know it, at the end Blake gives them a lift back anyway!

If you put this aside, what you’re left with is a basic whodunnit that points suspicion at everyone except the person it is yet makes them all so dull that you’re not really that bothered. You’re only way of guessing who actually dunnit is to try and see which of them is the shiftiest. My money was on the bloke with the beard that looked as if it was glued on to his chin. Amusingly Avon also uses this means of deduction and perhaps because he gets it wrong proceeds to punch Sara when she is unveiled!

With such a good cast, they really should have been able to make more of the colonists than they do but their dialogue is dry as a desert; when people in telefantasy start talking about crops and fungus then that drying paint begins to look more interesting. The Liberator’s journey vies with the happenings on the craft as to which is the least exciting and it’s something of a draw.

On the positive side, we have Paul Darrow in sardonic form making proceedings far more enjoyable sometimes with a raised eyebrow, sometimes a glib remark. Indeed when he and Cally are investigating there’s a Doctor Who vibe between them. Also, there’s an excellent opening sequence shot mostly from point of view camera and climaxing in a brief but quite graphic assault. In fact when he wants to, director Pennant Roberts can add quite an atmosphere, it’s just that he doesn’t always seem to want to. The mystery of what is written in blood is an intriguing element to the story that more could have been made of. The only good plot twist we do get later is when Blake opens the box that is supposed to contain the vital element and it’s not there – though this of course gives away who the culprit is as she fetched the box earlier on.

They were amazed to find an early iPad on the ship

In what is becoming something of a theme with the series, a little more attention to detail would benefit this episode greatly. Instead a strong premise is frittered away on a script that isn’t exciting enough to engage properly with the ideas it puts forward.

Notes

Cally finds a homing device that turns out to be quite significant yet hides it away in her tunic forgetting about it until the denouement. You’d think she’d at least have mentioned it to Avon.

When the Liberator is travelling through the space storm we are told about the shields protecting it yet we hear the rocks continually hitting the metal hull. Perhaps Zen is playing the `rocks hit hull` sound effects tape to enhance the mood of danger?

It is supposed to take them four days to get to Destiny and yet it seems to take them no time at all to nip back after they retreat from the storm. So how long did they travel before they met it?

The colonists include several well known TV faces including Barry Jackson (until recently Midsomer Murders’ pathologist), Brian Capron (nasty Richard Hillman from Coronation Street and for older readers Mr Hopwood from Grange Hill) and John Leeson (the voice of K9 on Doctor Who)

It is rumoured this story was originally written for another series and Terry Nation appropriated it when short of ideas.

Up-words - The Gravity King

2012-02-13T19:23:00.000Z

Up-words- The Best of the Paper Issues of This way up 2002-10

November 2002

When Isaac Newton was eleven, he made a kite and tied fireworks to it before taking it out at dusk and flying it, much to his neighbour’s shock; they thought it was a comet and in those days, comets foretold disaster. How cosmic is that though; a kite with fireworks going off as it flew. Some accounts claim is was a lantern, which isn’t quite as exciting. The BBC’s recent Great Britons` series has had its moments, though not those you’d expect. Apart from the puzzlement as to why John Lennon is in the top 10 at all (at least on his own and not with McCartney) the main things has been how passionately various celebrity experts have fought their corner, making even the most mundane characters seem amazing. Like Oliver Cromwell; a fascinating figure who laid the foundation for parliamentary democracy but has languished in the historical sin bin because of one massacre. But, for a fanzine like this, Cromwell’s a bit dry.

Isaac Newton, on the other hand is like a pop star from before pop music existed; he’s a trailblazer who went crazy and spent a lost decade fiddling with alchemy yet ended up knighted and feted.

A man who worked out – well not entirely on his own but it takes a genius to stitch the clues together – what the Universe is all about and, for good measure, also invented telescopes and lots of other scientific things Iike calculus (thanks for that!) that I don’t understand at all. Not that it matters – I voted for him and here’s why. Born prematurely on Xmas Day 1642, he was so weedy he wasn't expected to survive and his mother later said he was tiny enough to "fit into a quart mug.” Isaac’s father had died a few months before he was born and when his mother, Hannah Newton, re-married two years later she just left her son behind with his grandmother even though she was only living a mile away.

As a child Newton on his grandmother's farm in the small village of Woolsthorpe, little Isaac Newton kept himself very busy. At school he studied mostly Latin but at home he studied everything. He particularly liked to build things such as kites, water clocks, sundials, waterwheels, and even – yes - windmills. At King’s School in nearby Grantham, he stayed with friends of his mother who were druggists and also developed an interest in chemistry. Yet there was no sense of the intellect that would later surface; in fact he was a poor pupil, often spent lessons staring out of the window thinking of ideas for experiments which he would later try, such as the kite episode. Or his waterless windmill powered by a mouse on a treadmill. Unsurprisingly the other children found him odd and unfriendly but were in for a shock one day when he turned on a bully beating him into a pulp and then, displaying the nature of his character decide he had to beat him academically too. Pretty soon, he was top of the class. This pattern repeated itself throughout his life; he could never accept criticism and strained to better his rivals to the point where he ended up conducting bitter feuds, sometimes in public, which would also cause mental breakdowns on at least two occasions.

Isaac Newton invented this!

As a teenager, Newton was taken out of school by his mother because her second husband had died and she now wanted him to help run the farm but he proved hapless at such a mundane task and instead spent his tile scribbling in notebooks on such topics as making gold ink, a phonetic alphabet, magic tricks and even medical recipes.

Much later, after he had attained wide fame for his many achievements, he was how he had managed to come up with so many brilliant discoveries. He replied: "By always thinking about them." But this constant thinking when he should have been concerned with farming matters drove his mother to agree to send him off to Cambridge where he was admitted as a "subsizar," a student who earned his way by working part time as a servant to other, wealthier students.

His first years at Cambridge were quiet and unremarkable. By the time he went there, the scientific revolution of the 17th century was happening in a melting pot of new ideas; Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Descartes had all helped develop a new view of nature that operated under specific rules and mathematical principles. Yet at Cambridge everyone was still studying the old science -- the science developed by the ancient Greeks 2000 years before. Newton studied it too but his head was elsewhere as usual. He kept to himself and studied, avoided parties, and conducted lots of experiments in his room. In one he almost ruined his eyes by watching the sun for hours at a time to observe its colours. He had to spend several days in complete darkness before his eyes regained their normal vision.
Newton earned his degree in three and a half years and then made plans to stay on but those plans were interrupted by The Great Plague which had begun in London in 1664 spread to Cambridge by the following summer causing the University to be closed and Newton had to go back home. Yet it was this hiatus from 1665 –67 that became the platform for all his greatest work. He had time to do what he did best think and came up with this little lot -

SCIENCE BIT#1 OPTICS

Before Newton, scientists still believed Aristotle's ancient theory that white light is a simple, pure entity with no parts or multiple qualities. Newton proved differently. His work with colour began with experiments with prisms. At the time scientists believed that a prism changed the rays of the sun as it passed through creating the variety of colours that spilled out. They thought light started out white and was darkened by the prism to shades of blue, green, violet, and the rest.

Newton had a different idea -- he believed the prism didn't change the light, it only reflected what was there to start with. Sunlight was already a blend of different colours and each emerged as they were bent differently through the prism. He conducted different experiments that proved his point and then identified the various colours of light: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Today, indigo and violet are considered as one (violet) but Newton separated them because he liked the idea of having seven colours to match the notes of the musical scale. He called this array of colours the SPECTRUM, which is what they've been called ever since.

realised that telescopes of his time were defective -- if they focused on one ray of light passing through the lens, say a violet ray, other rays would be out of focus, such as the orange rays. The solution, he decided, was to build a telescope that focused with a mirror instead of a lens. In a mirror, all colours are reflected the same and would focus together. With that inspiration, Newton built the first reflecting telescope. Spectrum was indeed go!

With Newton, as with most scientists, one discovery always led to another. In this case, his work with prisms and lights led him to invent a new telescope. As he studied light he

Looks just like a 1970s album cover, doesn't it?

SCIENCE BIT#2 CALCULUS

The second major discovery Newton made at this time was calculus that he called the "method of fluxions." He came up with simple analytical methods that brought together a whole range of different techniques that had been developed to solve problems such as finding areas, tangents, and the lengths of curves. Those methods became a powerful tool of problem solving in both mathematics and physics. And still nobody understands them!

SCIENCE BIT #3 GRAVITY

This is the famous one - the theory of gravity. Sitting under a tree he watched an apple plummet to the ground and he had his Eureka! Moment though it helped he was thinking about the forces that keep the moon in orbit. This set him thinking whether it could be that the same force that caused the apple to fall to earth might be the one that holds the moon in orbit round the Earth? This led him eventually to the law of gravitation. Or something.
Whether the apple thing was true or not (and eggheads and historians have debated for yonks) there is no doubt about the three Laws of Motion that he did discover viz:

Law of Inertia: If a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it's acted upon by a force.

Law of Force. The speed or acceleration of a body is directly proportional to the force (F) and inversely proportional to the mass (M). The larger the force, the larger the acceleration; the larger the mass, the smaller the acceleration. This is his most important law. It is the one that leads to all other basic equations of dynamics and has served as the framework for natural science ever since.

The Other one (this doesn’t have a catchy name) The actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and directly opposite or, more commonly put, "to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." It means simply that the downward force of a book slammed onto a table is equal to the upward force of the table on the book. Mmm, simple enough then.
It was Newton who originated the term gravity, using the Latin word gravitas, which means "heaviness" or "weight." He also discovered centrifugal force - the force away from the centre - of a body moving in a uniformly circular path.
The tremendous insight that came with all his work on gravity was Newton's idea that the Earth's gravity extended all the way to the moon, offering a counterbalance to its centrifugal force. He was able to figure out that the centrifugal force of the moon (and any other planet) decreases as the inverse square of its distance from the centre of its motion. But you knew that….

In 1684 Newton took all these findings and published what's considered his greatest work entitled the `Principia`. Inspired partly by Halle (of Comet fame), Newton spent 18 months on what was a treatment of new physics and their application to astronomy. It’s full title was "The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" or, as it's known today, "Principia." Almost ever boffin agrees that "Principia" is the greatest scientific book ever written and it’s been called “the fundamental work for all of modern science.”

In "Principia," Newton analysed the motion of orbiting bodies, projectiles, pendula, and free-fall near the Earth and demonstrated that planets were attracted to the sun and that all heavenly bodies mutually attract one another. He expanded his law of universal gravitation -- that all matter attracts every other piece of matter with a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. All the disparate theories that had gone before were this transformed into one unifying one.

Oddly, despite this, his academic career had been less than amazing; after the plague he returned to Cambridge and by the time he was 26 was a mathematics professor although by all accounts his lectures were not too good. But he was a genius so it didn’t matter, he preferred to work on his own ideas, hardly sleeping and eating poorly. There is an even a story that one person at Cambridge claimed to have only seen Newton laugh once. He would however indulge in public feuds with other experts, who dared criticise papers he wrote, notable Robert Hooke with whom he had a lifelong rivalry.

It was after one of these spats turned to fury that he went into a hiatus for several years, turning to his interest in alchemy and pottering about with it in seclusion. But all that changed when the `Principia` was published and Newton became as famous as a pop star would be today. But just like our most cherished pop stars, he was unpredictable and in 1693 Newton suffered another nervous breakdown. He began to send angry letters to his personal friends, accusing them of things that were completely imaginary. Then, he recovered again, retired from research and moved to London. Three years later, when he was 54, the government offered him a prestigious position as Warden of the Royal Mint and a short time later, Master of the Royal Mint. When he was 61, The Royal Society elected Newton president. They had offered him the post earlier but he refused to accept it until Society member and foe Robert Hooke had died.

Newton needed the wig to hide his un-naturally large brain

In later years, Newton did most of his work at home in the study above his bedroom and still indulged in feuds with other noted scientists. Many years later, it was suggested that much of his erratic behaviour was caused by exposure to mercury during his alchemy years; recent studies of a hair sample from Newton showed he had forty times the level of Mercury considered normal. Knighted when he was 63, Newton lived until he was 84 and was
buried at Westminster Abbey, where the inscription on his tomb reads: "Let Mortals rejoice that there has existed such and so great an ornament of the human race."

Shortly before he died, he is quoted as having said "I have been but as a child playing on the seashore, now finding some prettier pebble or more beautiful shell than my companions, while the unbounded ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me."
Words: Adam Hope

An apple, yesterday

Unsafe as Houses

2012-02-11T18:45:00.000Z

Whitechapel Season Three: Episodes 1 and 2

It’s not every (or indeed any other) series that can finish a story with the main detective clearing up the office by placing bits of paper in the bin. Indeed there are not many police series that would spook and tease us with supernatural imagery and then offer a reveal that will make you think twice before hiring a decorator again. And as for the fact that this police squad have a resident criminologist with old paper files advising them from the basement- well, that could only be Whitechapel. Somehow it straddles the line between bizarre freak show, police series and historical drama all at once. It doesn’t always quite work but isn’t it fantastic that it tries?

After a terrific first series and a slightly disappointing- though still good- second Whitechapel’s third outing sees a necessary adjustment to the format. Instead of copycat crimes, we have Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton, as melodramatic as ever) installed as a civilian advisor on historical precedent that will shed some light on current cases. This allows the show to retain its superb signature look. Locales where dark foreboding old buildings mingle with modernity, flashes of odd happenings and historic documents and a police station that would look nearly the same if manned by Victorian costumed officers are the stock in trade of a show that pushes its gruesome credentials as far as the time slot will allow.

Thus we get three different stories this time, not directly linked to past crimes but informed by them. The first (you really feel that each should have macabre titles) sees the team investigate the murder of four people at a bespoke tailors where there is no evidence of a break in. As the investigation continues, the viewer is regaled with flashes of a person scuttling across a ceiling like a spider, a disturbing image that will stick with you long after you’ve finished watching. The trail leads to Marcus Salter the brother of the tailor who cannot stand the light and is given a creepy, devilish air by David Schneider. The climax sees him escape from a locked police cell, a cliff hanger of Sherlock like dexterity designed to keep you thinking for a week. The episode effortlessly shows how Whitechapel has found its groove again. It’s not just in the atmospherics or gore either. The characters have developed – and new officer Megan Riley played by Hannah Walters is a welcome, brassy addition to the all male team.

"Are you standing on a box, sir?"
"No, I am not standing on a box"
"You so are standing on a box"

The second episode slants a different way, slowly unpeeling the mystery with a mix of strange visuals. Writers Ben Court and Caroline Ip manage to weave together a satisfying conclusion that also overlaps into the personal lives of the main two characters without seeming too contrived. The production is atmospheric and imaginative making us imagine all kinds of things. . A number of striking sequences pop up, the best of which is when we see someone looking in a mirror and the reflection of a face they cannot see looking back at them. The idea of someone sneaking about in your house’s walls is quite terrifying anyway but the way director John Strickland uses slow moving pov cameras and unsettling sound effects makes it all the more so.

In the midst of this visual smorgasbord there is always a danger of the actors getting lost but luckily this does not happen. There’s room for small nuggets of humour, notably when Chandler attends a quiz night in Buchan’s company. Also nicely underplayed are the simple scenes between Rupert Penry Jones’s fussy OCD Chandler and the much less inhibited Lizzie Pepper played by Christina Chong who is also a regular in the excellent Monroe and who will hopefully remain in this cast too. It hardly needs mentioning that Phil Davis puts in another good performance; Ray Miles is a mixture of touch cop and family man, elements that Davis judges perfectly.

"I wish I had a box"

Some may find the parallels with old cases a little too snug a fit but it helps create a series that is strikingly different to the norm. Even critics are starting to warm to the idea that even if you don’t fall for the storyline, the show’s bold take on the genre will keep you entertained. If you want a comparison try sitting through the recent Above Suspicion without falling asleep whereas Whitechapel knows what it has to do.

Words: John Connors

Blakewatch - Ep 6 Seek - Locate - Destroy

2012-02-09T19:28:00.001Z

52 Weeks in a Year- 52 Episodes of Blake’s 7

Episode 6- Seek – Locate - Destroy

(1978) Writer: Terry Nation / Director: Vere Lorrimer

A mission to steal vital equipment that will allow Blake to de-code Federation messages goes wrong leading to Cally’s capture and an encounter with notorious Space Commander Travis who is brought in by Supreme Commander Servalan to ensnare our heroes.

Every good hero needs a decent nemesis but in this case is it Servalan or Travis? Despite a melodramatic effort to introduce the latter as the key antagonist – he even gets a big “I’ll get you Blake, grrh” bit at the end- by simply listening to her minions and looking ice cool in an all white outfit more suited to the Federation Ball than a day at the office, Servalan steals all the thunder in this episode.

The 1978 series of `Strictly Come Dancing` begins

Her demeanour- and the way her flirty behaviour with assistant Ray turns off when he challenges her judgement- hints at the way she made it this far. Whereas Blake and Travis’ mutual hatred results in displays of macho posturing, she is a character that you can tell has far more potential. From her first scene in which she says nothing for quite a while, this is obviously a role Jacqueline Pearce is ideal for.

That’s not to demean Travis too much; the eye patch thingy looks silly but impressively Stephen Greif manages to still seem menacing and far more dangerous than any Federation officer thus far seen. His deductions at the bombsite are a strong contrast to the methods he is reputed to employ and there is no doubt he has a presence. By revealing a personal feud between Blake and Travis, Terry Nation ups the stakes to good effect.

Other impressive elements of the episode include a running start with Blake arriving for the mission and the plot being revealed as we go along, so much better than the static `this is the plan` scenes we’ve had previously. The narrative is pacier than the last couple of episodes but the contrast between the running about in the base and the more stately tone in Servalan’s office is well judged. This seems the most complete, balanced episode so far culminating in a brief but well played confrontation between Blake and Travis that includes a genuinely surprising twist that shows the sometimes plodding Nation can be more imaginative with structure. If you’ve forgotten how this scene kicks off, you’ll like it even more.

There are lingering issues with the choreography of the action, sometimes it looks fine, other times laboured but this is probably as much to do with time constraints during filming than anything. A few bits and pieces can never disguise the gas works location which does not really resemble a communications complex of any sort. Omitting the clumsy robot would probably help as it is clearly designed only to allow for the plot to get Blake and Vila inside.

"Er, have I brought too many sandwiches?"

Some very strong performances from the crew this time round, in particular from Gareth Thomas whose reaction to Travis’ involvement is never less than totally convincing. Michael Keating seems to have settled into his role quite well and proves an asset to proceedings because Vila is liable to make mistakes. `Seek-Locate-Destroy` is the best episode to date with a sense that the key elements of the space saga are now clicking into place promisingly.

Notes -

The Federation does not really seem to do security very well. They guard their key communications centre with robots from whom you can apparently hide by lying on the ground. The main security gate- on which the sign reads `Top Security` (is this a subsidiary of Top Shop?) has to be opened by a complex scanning system yet is low and flimsy enough to be vaulted over or cut through. And a key piece of equipment, with which Blake and co can tap into all messages, is not even remembered by anyone until they search through wreckage and study plans. Finally, all the rooms in this important location have ordinary doors without any kind of security lock.

Blake and co have obviously been to Millets since last episode as they all now have matching tunics for missions. Plus Vila has purchased a sandwich box for his tools.

Travis’ eye thing resembles a piece of tarmac stuck to his face, its effect further undermined by the fact you can see his eye looking through a small hole. So was his eye replaced and he chose to leave what are presumably meant to be burns? Or are we not supposed to see the actor’s real eye?

When they rig up the stolen machine so they can listen in to Federation messages, it is agreed the crew will take turns on the headphones. Yet it is also mentioned that all the messages are being recorded so why don’t they just ask Zen to let them know if anything significant turns up?

Peter Craze who plays Servalan’s assistant is the brother of Doctor Who companion Michael Craze and has also appeared in DW himself amongst a range of credits taking in many key TV series of the 1960s and 70s.

The Centero communications base was actually Fulham Gasworks which was also visited by The Sweeney. (the TV series not the police)

Up-words - A Very British Science Fiction

2012-02-03T19:23:00.002Z

Up-words- The Best of the Paper Issues of This way up 2002-10

July 2002

It’s difficult to argue in a Doctor Who fanzine that Robert Holmes is an under-rated writer, given the number of eulogies aimed at the programme’s most backlash-proof contributor. As writer and script editor, he established some of the series’ most enduring ideas (the Autons, the Master, the Sontarans etc), and rewrote previously cherished continuity with lasting consequences. And yet, whilst we treasure his sparkling dialogue, subversive political themes and audacious concepts, doesn’t he deserve wider recognition than the hack writer of episodic, formulaic drama series he painted himself to be?

For those Who fans more interested in the writing than in the sub-TV-Quick-fandom of cast photos and behind-the-scenes anecdotes, Holmes is in the top rank. A few writers stand out, not just for their contribution to the series, but for a consistency of theme across their body of work. Such criteria make Terry Nation an important writer, even if his work seems to lack complexity or originality. Or John Lucarotti and David Whitaker, who grasped the potential for character-driven drama in the early historicals. Then there are idiosyncratic writers, like Ian Stuart Black, Christopher H Bidmead, Chris Boucher, Douglas Adams, Stephen Gallagher, Christopher Bailey, or (in the tiny list of slumming-it ‘proper’ writers) Louis Marks and Rona Munro. The rest tend to be hacks meeting a specific brief, though we’ve all enjoyed the contributions of Terrance Dicks, David Fisher, even Eric Saward. It is from this group that the fan favourites come, deceptive writers able to keep to the formula whilst pursuing their own vision: Malcolm Hulke, Brian Hayles and, of course, Robert Holmes, a self-professed churner-out of “good, clean, escapist hokum”.

The problem is that Doctor Who - like many series that Holmes contributed to, from Bergerac to Blake’s 7 - was a continuing episodic series. As Rosalind Coward argued in an article about Dennis Potter, tv writers cannot be seen simply as communicating their ideas to an audience, because of the institutional way meaning is constructed, with the involvement of producers, directors, cast and crew. Although – courting seriousness as part of its legacy from the theatre - tv drama promoted the writer, the truth was more complex (some say The Singing Detective was as much Jon Amiel as Potter). Each Doctor Who episode opens with the serial title and the credit ‘by [the writer]’, but the writer was never in control. As those diatribes against JN-T revealed, series can be seen as a producer’s medium, with each episode a frenetic battle marshalled by a writer and director, with only the producer holding the plans to the overall war. Holmes suffered from the demands of production teams, often being lumbered with such writing-by-numbers projects as ‘Terror of the Autons’ and ‘The Two Doctors’. Many writers complained that the show (er) doctored their scripts to a formula; given this, is it possible to analyse the contribution of any of its writers?

The answer to this, we hope, is ‘yes’. Of course we have to acknowledge the influence of producers (Who fandom is arguably ahead of television studies in talking of the Letts or Hinchliffe ‘eras’) or even lead actors. Then there’s the role of the director. Although the writer is less privileged since the decline of the single play, critics rarely take television directors as seriously as their cinema counterparts. And if Alan Clarke and Stephen Frears have lived in Dennis Potter’s shadow, don’t expect a South Bank Show special on Pennant Roberts. Mind you, there should be scope in fandom for analysis of directors, given the ‘classics’ associated with David Maloney and the pioneering reputations of Lovett Bickford and Graeme Harper. It is possible to privilege the role of the writer whilst taking into account the role of producers, cast and directors (I should call this a “hierarchy of discourses”, but I’d rather not). You don’t have to be a theorist to notice that a Doctor Who story written by Robert Holmes is a different beast to a Doctor Who story written by Terrance Dicks. His writing has its own dominant themes and style.

How to describe what Holmes brought to Who without saying “isomorphic controls” or “revisionist history of the Time Lords”, or asking what he had against poachers? There’s his witty dialogue, luxuriating in its own verbosity, crackling between characters in his (lazily if not inaccurately dubbed “Dickensian”) propensity for double-acts. It also conjures up a sense of place more efficiently than allegedly futuristic design. Like all great science-fiction writers, Holmes uses the future to comment on the present, playfully in ‘The Sun Makers’ or with a sense of colonial discourses in ‘The Power of Kroll’. His is a very British science-fiction, and the nation is symbolised in his recurring use of once-great figures whose greed for power has resulted in grotesque decay, in the vegetable-envying Morbius, the putrefying Master of ‘The Deadly Assassin’ or Sharaz Jek. The same applies to his knowingly revisionist historical settings, from ‘The Time Warrior’ to the story that sums up his intertextual (aka plagiaristic) use of genre and myth, ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’. Common across these times is a concern for the nature of humanity, and how it is compromised by political and economic systems.

As I once said in Faze, consciousness, and its ideological struggle against groups threatening homogenisation, are the dominant discourses in Holmes’ writing. Often this homogenisation is attempted through the use of the media, which Holmes configures in horror terms (a plot device that has aged well in these media-literate times). The Auton stories set their controlling evils around broadcast signals and satellites. In ‘Spearhead From Space’, a threat to the Doctor’s life sneaks into hospital in the company of journalists. In ‘Terror of the Autons’ (in which the Doctor is attacked by a phone), the evil threat is to be transmitted via radio signals. ‘The Caves of Androzani’ is a tangled web of false messages broadcast by Sharaz Jek, Chellak and Morgus, around which people lose their identities, becoming replaceable by replicas.

Holmes often sends up television, for instance Runcible’s witless political reporting in ‘The Deadly Assassin’. His ultimate metaphor for television is the Miniscope in ‘Carnival of Monsters’. A box in the corner of the room, it is distrusted by Inter Minor’s grey-faced rulers (who are in favour of public service broadcasting), bringing colour and a ruthless commercial profit motive (as the bureaucrats predict, it also unleashes monstrous dangers on society). Echoing Survivor, it is the location into which our heroes are dropped and forced to survive. Like people in ‘reality TV’ the Doctor and Jo are ‘livestock’ to be exploited for commercial gain - as Jo puts it, “outside there are creatures just looking at us for kicks?” The Doctor is appalled: “Roll up, roll up, roll up, and see these funny little creatures in their native habitat! …Poke ‘em with a stick and make ‘em jump!” There are many delightful tv in-jokes. In a sniggeringly simplistic portrayal of tv violence’s corrupting effects, Vorg turns a dial to show that “the peaceful Tellurians can be made to behave in an amusingly violent way”. This followed the controversy over ‘Terror of the Autons’, in which Holmes’ wish to ‘frighten the little buggers’ resulted in primetime asphyxiation. His overzealousness in the carnage department, particularly the blood and guts of ‘The Brain of Morbius’ and the drowning sequence in ‘The Deadly Assassin’, ultimately did the show more harm than good. This is one of the few criticisms of Holmes to stand up, along with his apparent racism – take the inscrutable Orientals in his treatment for the film Invasion, and ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’.

As I’ve said before, ‘Carnival of Monsters’ is also an entertaining examination of Doctor Who’s relationship with its audience. Vorg and Shirna arrive with a faulty machine just like the Doctor and Jo, and the fact that they appear on a production line might be a comment on the writing process… “Roll up, roll up, and see the monster show!”, Vorg announces, saying the Drashigs are “great favourites with the children”. The crew of the SS Bernice are trapped in repetitive scenes shot slightly differently, which could be a statement on such formulaic drama as Doctor Who. Jo spends the story being captured, escaping and being re-captured – she acknowledges this pattern now (“here we go again!”), but by the next story has to accept it with a straight face. Jo points out that “they’re saying exactly the same things as before”, but is herself soon asking “What’s happening, Doctor?” once again. The monster attacks on the SS Bernice, which the crew soon can’t remember, may be an ironic comment on Doctor Who’s format, and its audience’s response – an interruption to the mundane that is quickly forgotten.

In many of Holmes’ scripts, the story turns on characters becoming self-aware, reasserting their ideology after noting the constructedness of the landscape around them. In ‘The Deadly Assassin’, the Doctor survives the Matrix by asserting that “I deny this reality”. However, he cannot inspire this process in ‘Carnival of Monsters’, as none of the Miniscope’s “exhibits” are ever fully aware of their fictionality. Often, the homogenisation threatened by monsters is an extension of the society they are attacking. In ‘The Ark in Space’, the Wirrn threaten a society that has homogenised itself. Man’s “chosen” descendents have “eliminated” all “regressive transmitters” through ethnic cleansing. So, the sleepers (in their functional boxes) are in danger from “the infrastructure” (a social threat personified in the Wirrn). Noah, the humans’ Prime Unit (whom Libri won’t disobey), becomes the Wirrn’s Swarm Leader (a term repeated from ‘Spearhead From Space’), and they too blindly follow him into space. As in The Quatermass Experiment (let’s draw a veil over Holmes’ outrageous stealing from Nigel Kneale for now), the human struggles against his takeover, and ultimately sacrifices himself, motivated by “some vestige of human spirit”. So, although Holmes’ scripts call for self-awareness, Noah is just one of his characters to find it a painful process. In the Auton stories, those who escape the control of the Nestenes or the Master die. In ‘The Ribos Operation’ and ‘The Mysterious Planet’, characters who seek outside knowledge are belittled. Most disturbingly, in ‘The Two Doctors’, when Chessene becomes self-aware and rejects Androgum augmentation, it is an act of bestial regression which leads her to lick up blood.

Often, individual consciousness is restricted by the state or by society, making Holmes Doctor Who’s most political writer. In ‘The Sun Makers’, the state engenders conformity, as much through the media’s propagation of economic consensus as through the release of mind-numbing gas. The Doctor appropriates the means of communication, transmitting false messages to incite revolution among an oppressed factory proletariat. There’s something sneakily subversive about ‘The Sun Makers’, the delicious idea of leftie revolutionary politics being transmitted to millions of young people during a primetime family action show. Ultimately, though, it’s more a comedy about the tax system, as its misquote of Marx (“What’ve you got to lose?”/”Only your claims!”) shows. Holmes is of course using the standard Who trope of overthrowing oppressors, but, as Philip MacDonald noted, when Terrance Dicks novelised the scene in which the Gatherer is gleefully murdered by cheering rebels, he toned it down so that the rebels “turned away in disgust” with the “feeling things had got out of hand, gone a bit too far”. In fact, the conflict between capitalism and workers’ rights is a common thread running through Holmes’ work. Take ‘Spearhead From Space’, in which the menace comes from the automation of a factory, with the Autons uniformed drone servants, a workforce made passive (as General Scobie points out, you “don’t get machines going out on strike”). Another android workforce appears in ‘The Caves of Androzani’, an explicitly political script with Thatcherism embodied in Morgus, using unemployment and (Falklands?) war as political tools, while asset-stripping industry. People are as much a commodity as the guns and spectrox. Throughout his scripts, power relations are defined by ownership and value, scarcity and plenty, but here he also topically challenges the allegiances of powerful multinational corporations.

Examine the essence of Holmes’ work and you find the template for what fans see as “good” Doctor Who: pacy narrative, sharp one-liners, idiosyncratic characterisation, and the triumph of human individualism over the hive mentality. This is unsurprising, as Holmes set that template as script editor during its most successful period, establishing a sadly restricted but hugely entertaining formula. But how to gauge the impact of Holmes’ script-editorship? This is too big an issue to address here, raising an aspect of authorship theory so far neglected by academic writing: the extent to which script editors ‘author’ drama series. In productions by prestigious writers, the script editor has less power than the tea boy, but the script editor had an uncharacteristically powerful influence on the long-term development of shows like Doctor Who. Eric Saward once stated that he rewrote a huge percentage of most of the stories he script-edited. So, surely the ‘eras’ of script editors provide a clearer ‘periodisation’ than the incumbency of any lead actor? Holmes wrote some of his best scripts to cover the failure of other writers to meet a deadline, but he also rewrote the scripts of others to varying degrees (with the original authors walking away from ‘The Ark in Space’, ‘Pyramids of Mars’ and ‘The Brain of Morbius’ for starters). A full study of Robert Holmes would have to analyse the stories he script-edited as fully as the ones he wrote. So, although a lot has been written about Robert Holmes, it is a mark of his contribution to Doctor Who that there is still much to be said.

Words: Dave Rolinson

Blakewatch - Ep 5 The Web

2012-02-01T19:42:00.001Z

52 Weeks in a Year- 52 Episodes of Blake’s 7

Episode 5- The Web

(1978) Writer: Terry Nation / Director: Michael E. Briant

Aliens from the legends of Cally’s people force her to ensure the Liberator is diverted towards a large web in space inside which is a planet inhabited by genetically engineered creatures called Decimas and their enigmatic creators. And some tables. And a head in a jar.

Hampered by some overly wordy dialogue and some mixed direction,` The Web` never quite fulfils its potential. Terry Nation taps into his inspiration for the development of the Daleks with a plot exploring the ramifications of genetic engineering and the value of life. Interesting enough you’d think, but every time the episode seems about to take off a pile of techno babble pushes it back. In fact it becomes so un-involving that you lose interest in the outcome.

Darrow and Mrs Darrow often took the kids on a forest picnic

It starts well enough with Cally wandering around casually sabotaging the Liberator and knocking Vila out. There’s weird camera povs interspersed with whispering messages from afar and glimpses of a forest covered in a web like material.

The flat direction often comes in the bridge scenes. For example as the ship is being pulled at increasing speeds there is little in the way of sound effects to emphasise that fact. While the actors are speaking about what is happening, there is no sense of urgency and at the least a rising engine noise might have helped. Much better are the scenes highlighting Avon’s potential duplicity. Blake transports to the planet where he is attacked by small green creatures later identified as Decimas and initially helped but then politely threatened by the inhabitants of what looks like an ostentatious tent who are after power cells.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the Decimas are the result of the couple’s experiments and there’s some strong righteous anger from Gareth Thomas as Blake argues against a plan to wipe them out. The script starts to come apart because there is no context to what is happening and the connection with Cally’s people, mentioned earlier ends up having no relevance. . While the revelation that Geela and Novara are actually machines themselves is a surprise, we never really find out much about the creature sitting in the jar and the ending sees the Decimas rampage through the tent squealing like infants overdosing on marzipan!. One of them seems determined to turn a table over and has quite a struggle doing it!

"Get it, lads!" The Decimas spot another table

Visually the episode’s planetary scenes are given a woozy quality that suits the plot. There’s an impressive amount of web stuff in the woods and the Decima costumes are very good even if their behaviour does little to evoke our sympathy but you can see what they were going for. Less excusable is the appearance of the tent which just looks silly and the head in the jar that doesn’t really work either visually or as an idea. But you wonder if a young Mighty Boosh were watching.

Notes –

Geela and Novara use Cally to sabotage the Liberator but if they want its power cells, why not just get her to hijack the ship?

It’s very convenient that the aliens happen upon someone from Auron. If the Liberator had not ventured nearby, what would they do for power cells?

Deep Roy is the lead Decima a couple of years after his role in the classic Doctor Who story `Talons of Weng Chiang` as Mr Sin while Miles Fothergill who plays Novara was SV7 in another Doctor Who classic `The Robots of Death`

Up-words - Crossing the Boundaries

2012-01-29T18:54:00.002Z

Up-words- The Best of the Paper Issues of This way up 2002-10
May 2002

In the television schedules, there are some timeslots that are synonymous with certain kinds of programming. Channel controllers may ramble on and on about how this isn't the case and their output is diverse and varied blah blah blah etc, but there is no escaping the fact that, by and large, they tend to put the same genres in the same timeslots. If it's on between eight o'clock and nine o'clock at night and lasts for either fifty minutes or an hour, chances are it will be a detective series aimed squarely at a mainstream audience. Similarly, if it is supposed to be shown in a ridiculously unsuitable early evening or late night timeslot but instead ends up being shunted wildly around the schedules to make way for Championship Snooker or Crown Green Rowing, then chances are that it is a popular telefantasy series with a loyal and sizeable audience (who, so the schedulers would appear to believe, are available to watch television at any given hour of the day on the off-chance that their favoured programme might actually end up being shown at some point). Sadly, while science fiction, fantasy and mainstream audiences were once virtually inseparable in the world of television, they are now kept segregated as widely apart as possible, and on current evidence it would seem that most people in the industry wouldn't even have nightmares about combining them. Yet not so long ago, the BBC did attempt to combine them. Back in 1992, with a suitable flourish of publicity, they launched an impressive and highly enjoyable series named "Virtual Murder", which on face value seemed likely to win over mainstream and cult audiences alike. So, in that case, how come it still isn't pulling in huge viewing figures to this day? Well, in all honesty, that's almost as puzzling a mystery as the ones that were investigated in the series itself.

Virtual Murder was described in the typically point-missing BBC publicity that accompanied its arrival as being "an Avengers for the 1990s", and many critics and viewers alike made the mistake of thinking that statement meant that the series would be a direct updated equivalent of the classic tongue-in-cheek 1960s adventures of those 'quintessentially English' crime fighters John Steed and Emma Peel. This serves as a perfect example of why previews and press releases should never be used to judge the nature of a television series, as not only would updating The Avengers have been a futile and pointless exercise (as indeed was proved by a certain feature film about five years later), there was actually no way in which such a motive could ever have been ascribed to Virtual Murder" What the badly-worded and ambiguous statement was probably actually supposed to convey was the fact that Virtual Murder represented to the genre of 'hard hitting' 1990s television crime drama what The Avengers had been for its 1960s counterpart. While Virtual Murder shared the same techniques of using off-the-wall, larger than life villains and outlandish, exaggerated plots that had made The Avengers so enduring enjoyable, in terms of the actual mechanics of the series it concerned itself very much with present-day methods of crime-fighting, including forensic science and psychological profiling.

The central character was Doctor John 'JC' Cornelius (Nicholas Clay), a renowned expert and lecturer in Psychology at Birmingham University, who (aided by his lab partner Sam Valentine, played by Kim Thomson), used his vast knowledge of the subject to assist the police in their efforts to track down the more unusual criminals that crossed their path. On face value, this might sound like a perfectly straightforward and conventional premise for a crime drama series, but that was where any similarity with the likes of Cracker started and ended. Created by Harry Robertson and Brian Degas (who had previously been responsible for Specials, a short-lived series about the Special Police Force), Virtual Murder purposefully indulged in wilfully exaggerated and whimsical plots, of the sort that simply would have not have been tolerated in a more straightforward detective series. While this concept might give headaches to today's breed of 'focus group'-orientated programme controllers, who would no doubt end up spending many sleepless nights worrying about the format's 'low demographic stratagem audience share value' or something, there is no question that it made for exciting, distinctive and highly individual viewing.

The curious approach of the series was demonstrated in no uncertain terms by the opening episode, 'Meltdown To Murder' – which, in a move that suggests that someone somewhere was determined to make the idea work, was written by the brilliant Phillip Martin, who had masterminded the equally bizarre late 1970s BBC crime drama Gangsters. The episode (in which Martin, in common with all of his television scripts, took a small but significant acting role) saw Cornelius called in to investigate a spate of incidents in which valuable paintings had simply started melting for no readily obvious reason. The ensuing plot was suitably intricate and complex, revealing the man responsible to be Jed Frewin, a master of disguise and an old adversary of Cornelius, and sure enough the plot involved an hilarious 'flashback' sequence showing the two men in the 1970s, during which Cornelius was sighted in typically "Open University"-style getup! Incidentally, Frewin was played by E!nn Reitel, who was just one of an impressive array of guest stars who enlivened the episodes with impressive performances, including Hywel Bennet, Tony Robinson, and - making a very unlikely appearance as an undertaker - Julian Clary.

As the series progressed, the storylines and characters grew ever more peculiar, and even the more 'conventional' episodes, for example 'Last Train To Hell And Back', were littered with completely bizarre and outlandish scenes and premises, from abstract deliberate clues left at crime scenes that were so vague as to potentially not actually be clues at all, to Cornelius sending a fax of his tie by accident. In what was possibly both the most memorable and the most baffling moment of the entire series, 'A Torch For Silverado' featured Jon Pertwee as a pensioner who had made it his mission in life to blow up brothels and sex shops (which was certainly one of the most enduringly disturbing images depicted on television in the 1990s). In many respects, 'A Torch For Silverado' serves as a perfect example of how the series worked. The plot was bizarre and outlandish enough to satisfy fans of the genre, yet it was also true that the techniques used to track down Silverado and his intended targets would have fitted perfectly comfortably into any more 'traditional' detective drama - and on top of all that, it was a genuinely tense and nail biting storyline peppered with plenty of humorous moments. Virtual Murder had huge crossover appeal, with the potential to win over disparate audiences, and it's unfortunate that ultimately it didn't really fulfil that potential.

Virtual Murder revelled in blurring the distinction between fantasy and reality, and fittingly, the conclusion to each episode was left deliberately vague with regard to the question of whether there might actually have been a rational explanation for the weird goings-on or not. For example, the ending of 'A Dream Of Dracula' was deliberately ambiguous, and left the viewer as uncertain as the investigative team as to whether the suspect they had devoted the episode to tracking down actually was a genuine vampire or not. What made this particularly enjoyable was the way that, unlike many of the similarly inclined series to have appeared on television over the years, Virtual Murder did not make any heavy-handed attempts to stress that 'this was something that could have happened in real life', and instead conveyed a gloriously ambiguous sense that even the participants in the storyline were in fact unsure as to whether the events had actually taken place or not. Incidentally, Nicholas Clay claimed during promotional interviews for the series that each of the cases featured in the episodes was in fact based on a corresponding real-life incident. Ahem.

Unusually, Virtual Murder was not produced by the BBC's main drama department but instead was made by the Birmingham-based regional station BBC Pebble Mill (perhaps providing an indication of the differences in mindset of what made for 'good' programming that existed at the time), and was broadcast on the main BBC1 network between 24 July and 28 August 1992. The series enjoyed the same sort of prime-time weeknight slot that had been routinely afforded to similarly quirky crime dramas (notably including The Avengers and Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased)) in the 1960s and early 1970s, but which had eluded the fantasy and science fiction genres for many years by that point. Virtual Murder was actually, in retrospect, part of a wave of similarly-inclined programmes that blended crime-fighting, fantasy and science fiction, and humour, which also included the likes of Moon And Son and Bugs, that were also launched in similarly high-profile slots.

Regrettably, it was to be the exact same straddling of audiences that had made the programmes to distinctive and in many cases exciting that was also to prove to be their downfall. Such series are notorious for taking a while - often as much as an entire two series - to properly catch on with a mainstream audience, and so Virtual Murder, like all of the others, was dependent on the more immediate reaction of genre fans to be adjudged a success. Unfortunately, the inexplicable reaction of the majority of mouthier genre fans appeared to be to ignore such programmes completely, or worse still sneer and be openly negative about them, and then wait until they had all started fawning over The X-Files to start complaining about the BBC's haphazard scheduling of genre shows and asking in baffled tones why the corporation never made any equivalent programmes of its own. Even if they hadn't considered many of the offerings to be exactly classics of the genre, then at least they could have supported the intention behind the initiative, instead of just being pointlessly destructive and then wondering why they were being treated as an insignificant sector of the audience some time later. It's easy to start going on about how great it would be to see this sort of stuff in high-profile timeslots, but the fact remains that it was great to see Virtual Murder in a high-profile timeslot, and it remains a shame that so many fans of the genre either seemed to miss the point of the show, or to miss out on it completely.

Words: Tim Worthington

Blakewatch - Time Squad

2012-01-26T19:06:00.001Z

52 Weeks in a Year- 52 Episodes of Blake’s 7

Episode 4- Time Squad

(1978) Writer: Terry Nation / Director: Pennant Roberts

Blake’s plan to attack the Federation’s key communications centre on Saurian Major is diverted to pick up a small spaceship whose centuries old inhabitants are cryogenically frozen. As the others transport down to undertake the mission, Jenna and Gan are left on the Liberator to battle the now awakened aliens.

It’s interesting how perceptions about an old programme prove not to be the case. Having not seen most of these episodes since they were originally broadcast when we were all much younger and more easily impressed, I’d always thought that Jenna was a boring character there to do little more than decorate the set while Vila was a witty, cool addition to the crew. Watching `Time Squad`, this is certainly wrong at this stage of the series development.

Cally spots some paint drying

Somehow Sally Knyvette is able to make even the most banal dialogue sound convincing and while all around her struggle to escape the bounds of technobabble, observation or sarcasm, Jenna seems comparatively human. She certainly owns this episode, mixing it up with her macho colleagues without losing either her femininity or her tougher side. The others seem to be play acting over their pasts- let’s face it Avon is the only one who seems like he’s done anything more criminal than be fined for speeding- whereas Jenna acts in a way that shows guile and a sense of mystery. Knyvette is versatile enough to play both the damsel in distress and heroine at once. Four episodes in, she is the show’s strongest asset.

This episode’s twin storylines give everyone something to do, perhaps exposing the unevenness of the main cast. Gareth Thomas already looks fed up half the time, while Michael Keating barely bothers to involve himself unless he gets one of Vila’s snippy lines, which already seem repetitive. Yes, he’s a bit of a coward, but does every line he gets have to remind us of that fact?

David Jackson struggles with Gan’s moments in the spotlight, a shame as potentially he is an interesting character. His acting in the scene where he explains the limiter’s origins is as painful to watch and listen to (“they killed my woman!”) as the device is to wear! Gan’s role in the narrative is confusing too- one minute he’s the strong silent simple type, next thing he’s reeling off as much technical dialogue as the others.

Paul Darrow seems to relish his role; was he talking Gareth T into leaving between scenes you wonder? Yet we know little about Avon at this stage and the character seems an unlikely team player. To his credit, Terry Nation does acknowledge this but the writing is not convincing enough as to why he stays. Surely if he set about it, Avon could easily despatch the others and run off with the Liberator? The fact that he doesn’t needs some addressing. We also meet the final member of the crew, the telepathic Cally played by Jan Chappell who makes a strong first impression. The interaction between Blake and Cally is well played by both actors - Gareth Thomas seems to work better with the female actors.

"Are you awake?" "If that's anyone from Blake's 7 I'm staying in here"

The usually staid Pennant Roberts unexpectedly adds tension to the Liberator scenes making the most of the sequences where the aliens have woken up; at one point he even uses a bit of hand held camera, rare in those days. Subdued lighting and some good incidental music help too. Visually, the alien craft is well made even if the logic of its cramped dimensions does not ultimately feed into the plot other than to add a bit of drama when the air starts running out.

It’s an odd episode that builds momentum as it goes and if you can stick with the sluggish first twenty minutes, it gets better.

Points

The Saurian Major scenes involve orange filters and some odd looking plants which just about make it look like an alien planet, at least until we arrive at the power station.

It is supposed to be a major communications hub for the Federation yet what we see looks rather like an energy producing factory of some kind, obviously because of where it was filmed. So if the comms equipment is in one room, what’s the rest of the place for?

The alien’s craft is designed for five people so why didn’t the aliens make it bigger? Just think of the awkwardness if they all wake up for a coffee at once! Still its handy they carry universal power draining cables that fit perfectly into the Liberator’s sockets.

It seems rather ambitious of Cally’s people to expect one person to carry out the mission, like sending a task force of one to a war zone.

Gan’s limiter stops him fighting the aliens here yet showed no such inhibitions in the previous two episodes. Perhaps it only kicks in if he is carrying a weapon.

A Different Sort of War

2012-01-25T20:34:00.001Z

Can Steven Spielberg’s film version of War Horse win its spurs?

It’s only because the First World War was nearly a hundred years ago that we can approach it in the way that War Horse does. Sad though the treatment of animals during the conflict was it pales into irrelevance when you consider the human cost. Distance allows us to embrace other sorts of war stories though, just as we do for conflicts of an even older vintage. Also, it is worth remembering that War Horse is a children’s book so as a way of introducing younger people to the horrors of war, you can see the importance of Michael Morpurgo’s story. So critics who mock the idea that war is being sanitised by the story or in particular by this film should really know better. True, there is no blood, the moments where people are killed cleverly disguised and the entire narrative has the glossy sheen of family friendly entertainment but the message is there strongly enough.

"The catering truck's open!"

NB SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

You don’t need the whole `realism` of the same director’s Saving Private Ryan battle scenes to be shocked by the trenches as a cavalry charge shown proves. We see the patriotic thrill of the charge, the vicious melee of the impact and then, in a manner that makes as much impact as if we saw soldiers being shot off their animals, the sight of dozens and dozens of rider less horses on the other side.

Spielberg is equally capable of making something as domestic as ploughing a field into an epic moment. We’ve seen farmer Ted Narracott (an intense, near wordless Peter Mullan) pay well over the odds for young horse they call Joey simply to out manoeuvre his landlord Lyons (a ferrety David Thewlis) only to receive the scorn of his wife (Emily Watson, superb as ever). Their son Albert (Jeremy Irvine, believable) vows to make the horse capable of the farm duties for which is appears ill equipped while the family are threatened with eviction by Lyons unless they can make the fields fit for purpose.

So, at the last minute in the pouring rain and watched by a sceptical village Albert and Joey manage to plough the difficult land. Like much of this film the scene is rich in symbolism and poor in dialogue, but the actors sell it with their effort and the great director makes it work. The story has a simple, old fashioned belief in heroism, friendship and loyalty that should strike a chord with people of all ages and is definitely Spielberg’s milieu.

"You're a remarkable 'orse you know." "Shut up kid and get me my oats.

There is a cavalcade of people that Joey encounters, each managing to encapsulate their characters in a comparatively short time. The best performances come from Tom Hiddleston as Captain Nicholls, an officer who would be the hero of another film, Robert Emms as Lyon’s son who ends up in the trenches with Albert, Niels Arestrup as the eccentric farmer dispensing pearls of wisdom and whose grand-daughter hides the horse and the always reliable Toby Kebbell as the Joey’s unnamed and unexpected saviour who brings a down to earth quality to proceedings.

Unlike the acclaimed stage play, the scenes on the Narracott farm and surrounding village are more involving than the subsequent wartime travails, largely because Lee Hall and Richard Curtis’s script chooses to follow Joey exclusively rather than, as the play did, show Albert’s war experiences too. The latter only returns to the story for the final half hour or so by which time the narrative has become too episodic. Another unexpected element is that, while the puppets in the stage play became characters, real horses cannot quite achieve that so the whole thing becomes less involving as it moves along.

That being said, Spielberg never misses the opportunity to show something powerful or interesting whether a small detail like seeing someone through Joey’s eye or the drama of the horse’s solo flight across No Man’s Land. The ending is obvious even if you don’t know the plot beforehand and, kid’s story or not, the idea that an entire company of battle hardened soldiers would put themselves to such trouble over an “orse”, however “incredible”, does not quite ring true.

Spielberg optioned the story after being bowled over by the stage play but in moving away from some of the latter’s strengths, the end result does not quite convey the story’s bond between horse and boy as well. War Horse is definitely worth seeing though - flaws and all, it shows that Spielberg still has few peers when it comes to big films.

"Hey, I found another remarkable 'orse. Tenth one today!"

Words: John Newman

Up-words

2012-01-23T19:28:00.000Z

The Best of This way up on paper 2002-10

Introduction by John Connors

It really is a whole ten years since the first issue was written and produced which is amazing. It’s flown by very quickly. By the time This way up was launched in early 2002 I’d already been editing fanzines for quite a long time but the landscape had changed. Instead of rival paper zines competing for readers, most fan activity had migrated online in the form of message boards, blogs and websites. However the content of many of these was very similar to paper based zines except not usually as thorough or well written.

My theory was that if a paper zine could beat the blogs and websites in quality, the fact that it couldn’t match the speed or interactivity would not matter to the proportion of fans that preferred to read more considered material. In order to level the playing field further I also decided to offer the zine free. This was something that had not really been done before mainly because it means the editor having to pay for the printing costs. Luckily these were falling relatively year on year. The idea was that you could request a particular issue or be added to the mailing list to receive all issues.

By the end of the last decade it was becoming obvious that online articles were now as good as ones in paper zines, in fact I was amazed by how quickly perceptive in depth pieces were being posted within 24 hours of broadcast or release. A new generation of writers had grown up without the space to refine and re-edit their work making the idea of regular `issues` redundant if they were trying to compete with up to date online formats.

So in 2009 we started a dual format; still producing a paper version for people who wished to receive it but also having the issue available in PDF format from the Live From Mars website. In truth, this was only ever a temporary fix and after a few issues solely as PDFs, in 2011 This way up moved into this current format which allows new material to be uploaded quickly while retaining something of the feel of a zine.

The other main aspect of the zine from the start is that while starting with a proportion of Doctor Who content this would gradually be phased out to fulfil the remit of covering things not well served by the professional media. This was all going well until the 2003 announcement of the series’ return which meant a change of direction albeit a welcome one.

Up -words is a new series that starts this week and will run throughout our tenth anniversary year interspersed between regular posts. I’ll be selecting what I consider to be the paper zine’s `greatest hits`. I’ve tried to include the articles or reviews that generated the most response or which I feel are the most interesting, different or accomplished. There may be some issues not represented at all and lots from other issues. I’ve left them in the context they were written so you can see how accurately (or not) we predicted trends.

Watch out- it's starting very soon!

Blakewatch

2012-01-18T19:59:00.003Z

Season One Episodes 1-3

There are 52 episodes of Blake’s 7 and there are 52 weeks in a year. Our challenge is to watch one episode each week of 2012. Can it be done? Will it dispel some of the myths that have grown up around the series? Does Avon really say “let’s go” every episode?

One proviso. This is not, by any stretch, a proper episode guide and if you’re the kind of person that takes Blake’s 7 seriously you might not agree with the tone. What it is are observations, theories and comments on each episode based partly on pub conversations. What better way to celebrate the, erm, 34^th anniversary of the start of the show.

Inevitably then, let’s go…

Episode 1 - The Way Back

(1978) Writer: Terry Nation / Director: Michael E.Briant

In the far future, Rog Blake discovers he has been brainwashed when he is contacted by rebels for whom he is a symbol of defiance against the totalitarian Federation but his involvement leads him to be framed and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The advantage Blake’s 7 always had- and used less and less as it went on- was it’s later evening time slot allowing darker resonances and that’s certainly what they do to start. In fact the opening episode will surprise anyone watching for the first time as it effectively draws a scenario that could be pulled from today’s headlines. Allowing for the typical 1970s production styles, this is quite near the knuckle material.

A former rebel who has already been brainwashed into compliance, we meet Blake as he is persuaded to go outside the huge dome in which everyone lives to attend a meeting of potential revolutionaries who still see him as a symbol of hope. But there is a traitor in the crowds and all but Blake are killed by militia while he is taken back to stand trial on a series of fabricated charges for which he is sentenced to life on a penal colony. When his lawyer begins to suspect Blake may have been framed the race is on to find evidence before embarkation.

It’s one of Terry Nation’s better scripts in which he is less procedural than usual allowing the darker themes to work through. If you feel there is not enough emotion, then that’s probably more to do with the way genre TV was then. What is particularly impressive is the way in which the officials act and the lengths they are prepared to go to for example the conversation between the officials in Van Glynd’s office as they casually discuss Blake’s fate with a pleased look on their faces.

"Yes, I went to that barber too..."

Visually there are an impressive number of extras used which adds some believability and the outdoor filming is good while a surprisingly large number of sets do manage to convey some scope to this future world. One shot of Blake and co running away from the dome is a superb use of old style CSO blue screen effects.

As Blake Gareth Thomas seems uncomfortable and not the sort of charismatic leader you’d imagine. Then again, maybe that’s the point. The glimpses of both Jenna and Vila we get show how well both started- Sally Knyvette is especially good showing a bitter side. The end is so downbeat you might imagine it as one off play but if you saw it as the start of a series there’s no way you’d want to miss the next one.

Points

Justice is depicted as having all the information put into two globes which then confer with a judicial globe to give the result. It all takes less than a minute.

The security guards never remove their restrictive helmets and visors even when sitting at a desk doing clerical work

Gillian Bailey who guests as Ravella, one of the couple that lures Blake outside is one of the Double Deckers but she does not sing “come outside, come outside, come outside to the double decker” or indeed anything at all.

Robert Beatty who guests as Bran Foster once played Ronald Reagan in a TV Movie and was in William Hartnell’s last Doctor Who story during a 50 year long career.

Episode 2 - Space Fall

(1978) Writer: Terry Nation / Director: Pennant Roberts

Blake and some fellow prisoners try but fail to take over the prison ship, the London. Blake, Avon and Jenna are subsequently sent to investigate an alien spaceship which they decide to steal.

Set entirely on the spaceship carrying prisoners to Cygnus Alpha, `Space Fall` is almost a second first episode in that it properly introduces most of the regulars. The time spans four months and sees them planning to escape while the ship is being attacked by enemies unknown. Again you can see evidence of a generous budget even if the choreography of the episode means a lot of standing around.

There are some unconvincing moments though where Vila distracts guards with magic tricks to allow people to climb into the infrastructure. Yet a later scene hinges on a security camera looking down on them from above being disabled- how come this camera never picked up the excursion into the hull?

The confines do produce some tense moments though they drag it out a bit. We also see the Liberator for the first time. It’s a very unusual design with chairs that block vision across the set but it works as an alien ship.

"Do you think this ship's big enough for my acting?"

Points

It is said that the sealant which fills gaps in the ship’s hull hardens in a seconds but Jenna holds it in her hand for longer than that and does not spend the rest of the series with it encased in concrete!

The London flight deck is manned by a trio of familiar genre actors who also enjoyed (well whether they enjoyed it or not we can only guess) time in Marmite Doctor Who stories. Glyn Jones would soon find himself as Rohm Dutt in the `Power of Kroll` though was spared the fate of having to be painted green and sing “Kroll, kroll, kroll (repeat to fade). Leslie Schofield was 70s TV second grumpiest man after Prentis Hancock. He had recently spent time in a loincloth (though not painted green) in `Face of Evil`. Norman Tipton had also spent some time in the CGI caves of `Underworld` around this time. He later starred in a TV sitcom with Paul Nicholas that nobody has ever heard of called Two Up, Two Down.

This is the first TV credit Michael Mackenzie has after starring in Ace of Wands.

Even though the ship has communicators and he has just spoken to the rebels on one, the captain still sends Artix to run with a message to Raiker.

Episode 3- Cygnus Alpha

(1978) Writer: Terry Nation / Director: Vere Lorrimer

After finding the alien ship- the Liberator- is armed with weapons and a teleport system, Blake, Avon and Jenna attempt to rescue the other prisoners from Cygnus Alpha, where they are being held by the religious sect descended from the original prisoners though only manage to bring two- Vila and Gan- back

Anyone who has watched a lot of sci-fi/ fantasy telly will know what to expect from this episode which does a fair job of bringing together most of the Seven. Turns out that the Federation’s penal planet is also the home of melodramatic actors each trying to out proclaim each other. In quick succession we meet Pamela Salem (witchy predictions), Robert Russell (menacing demeanour) and – by heavens- Brian Blessed. Each of them does their thing with Blessed taking the prize for completely unnecessary yelling.

"Anyone fancy a ticket for the Health Lottery?"

Dumped on the planet without even the luxury of sandwiches, the prisoners- most of whom have aged by years and totally changed during the 8 month journey- fall under the spell of the quasi religious inhabitants. Blessed and co are supposed to be the descendents of the first prisoners left here though with no sign of children and Pamela the only woman, perhaps they won’t last much longer anyway.

While the scenes inside the Cygnus Alpha temples are stagy, outside is a different matter with a lot of effort taken to create an alien looking world thanks to night filming and sound effects. The action sequences outside are also good .There’s also another excellent special effect with a large alien Moon sitting in the distance which probably couldn’t be done better today.

The best bits involve Blake, Avon and Jenna on the Liberator clearly not trusting each other. Jenna, whose character started out as a promising counterpoint to Blake is already softening but there’s still an edge to her enjoyable scenes with Paul Darrow. We also meet Zen for the first time and he is snippy in the extreme.

Points

The events of `Space Fall` took place half way through the voyage meaning this episode is set four months later. Yet when we cut back to Blake, Avon and Jenna no time has passed at all. Perhaps they spent the months pressing buttons?

On the Liberator the trio work out that they can only have one gun each and when they attempt to touch a second, it burns their hands. Yet moments later Blake hands Jenna a second gun and nothing happens.

Mr Artix deserves his promotion; as well as being the navigator, he also has to send comms, fly the ship, and he’s despatched to drop the prisoners off on the planet even though there are lots of guards. And you just know he’ll have to listen to the captain moaning for 8 months on the journey back.

Once again new viewers in 1978 would be tricked into thinking a couple of the prisoners were going to be part of the regular cast but they don’t make it through to the end.

Best of Enemies

2012-01-16T19:27:00.002Z

Can the much anticipated showdown between Holmes and Moriarty possibly live up to expectations? Do you really need to ask!

A hat trick? Of course! If Steve Thompson’s first season episode is considered the weakest of the three that’s only because the other two are so good. This time he gets the season finale and `The Reichenbach Fall` once again changes tack from its predecessors but is their equal in every way. Filled with devilish asides, clever and most unexpected developments and the core of three fascinating characters portrayed by a trio of actors at the top of their game it is nigh on perfect. Plus it leaves us with a great big mystery to chew on at the end.

SPOILERS- Go no further till you’ve seen this episode!

Moriarty is back in a big way. He masterminds a triptych of simultaneous crimes in which nothing it stolen but ends with his arrest leading to a trial at which he says nothing, offering no defence. This is merely a prelude to his determination to bring Sherlock down. Again the clever title- the reference to the recovery of a painting that makes Sherlock a national celebrity- and our foreknowledge of the basics of the story add a fizzling tension. Thompson turns the story- in part - into an examination of how celebrity will distort, confuse and finally burn, how in the end you can only trust your friends. Moriarty’s plan seems at times random and petty, almost like a bored child- just as Sherlock was bored in last week’s episode- yet it suddenly pulls together with some bolts that even the most avid watcher will not have spotted coming out of the blue.

It’s Moriarty’s episode of course allowing Andrew Scott full reign –well he does don the crown jewels in a hilariously narcissistic moment- as he takes the skill of screen villainy to new levels of absurdity. Scott is tremendous throughout, whether taunting Sherlock in their magnetic encounters or sometimes saying absolutely nothing. During the trial he expresses himself through grimaces alone. Afterwards, director Toby Haynes- splendid throughout- has the two in adjacent cells unable to see each other but knowing the other is there. When Moriarty shows up as `Richard Brook` in the episode’s second greatest unexpected turn Scott is so convincing we begin to think the whole scenario is true.

Like a wounded animal determined to retain his dignity and by no means defeated Benedict Cumberbatch is able to take Sherlock to a new dimension, showing vulnerability and even concern, often by the subtlest alteration of tone or look. The remarkable thing about his performances in this role- and the way it is written- is how this Holmes would work in his normal time period as well as the present day.

Where the series has made the greatest changes to the Holmes we are familiar with from previous films or TV is in the way Sherlock and Watson interact. It’s a portrayal of friendship, loyalty and respect that many modern dramas don’t go near. The episodes often acknowledge this with jibes about the nature of their relationship suggesting a lot of us think in a `tabloid` way nowadays even if we don’t read them. Martin Freeman is arguably what glues the series and in particular this episode together- he is the everyman struggling to make sense of the extraordinarily clever duo swirling around him. It would have been easy to have made the character rather stupid but this Watson is not unintelligent, neither is he intimidated by Sherlock’s knowledge, perhaps why they are friends. Thompson’s fluid script floats around this friendship leading us to the conclusion that it will be John who will save the day.

The rooftop confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty is one we don’t really want to end- you could watch these two trying to outsmart each other for hours but it does end in a manner that shocks even for this most unpredictable show. It’s fitting that the end should be wrapped up in a puzzle – how exactly does Sherlock pull off the trick of appearing to fall to his death in front of our eyes- or perhaps crucially in front of John’s eyes – and then be glimpsed watching the aftermath of his own funeral apparently unscathed.

We may not find out for 18 months or two years given the busy schedules of the main participants but the theory we’re going with at TWU Towers- this having been cobbled together by several people- is that Sherlock actually fell into a lorry packed with boxes that would break his fall. That cyclist who knocked Watson over as no passing fluke, but one Sherlock’s homeless brigade who in the melee administered some of that mind altering drug from last week’s episode. We subsequently see matters from Watson’s perspective- in the meantime the Sherlock mask and coat has been placed on Moriarty’s body so as far as Watson is concerned it is his friend. The mask was something surely used by Moriarty when kidnapping the child- hence she screamed when she saw Sherlock. It’s not specifically mentioned but seems likely. After this, Mycroft will arrange the rest to ensure Sherlock is officially deceased. The mask can soon be removed so that Moriarty can be seen to be buried- he won’t be back we reckon, which is a pity but of course by then Andrew Scott should have his own series of something or other.

Whatever it turns out to be- and let’s face it they don’t have the sort of easy options of a shape shifting robot or a time travelling device- it’s difficult to remember the ending of a TV series evoking such energetic debate for many a year. `The Reichenbach Fall` is a thrilling ending to an exhilarating trio of episodes that will surely be remembered as some of the best TV drama of this decade.

Words: John Connors

Misfits Moving On

2012-01-13T19:00:00.000Z

Season 3’s second half saw some stories drawing to a close...

The second half of the series sees the show take on the familiar genres of both zombies and ghosts in separate episodes giving something of an interesting and irrelevant spin on them. The zombie episode is the most straight forward, outrageously fun episode of the show so far. The scenario does recall the gory humour of the first season with bodies everywhere, lots of running about and wise cracking. It’s a glimpse of what the show has lost to some extent. Director Will Sinclair pulls all the expected tricks out of the bag to good effect – especially involving the cat- but it’s the actors that sell it.

Just an average sort of day for the Misfits...

There are ghosts aplenty in the last episode which revisits some familiar first season characters in a new light. The talking point is undoubtedly the fact that two regulars are written out- one in an especially brutal way and this seems to point to something of a reset for the confirmed season 4 as the denouement removes one of the main storylines for good.

There’s still plenty of room for near the knuckle humour, notably in episode 6 which gives us the double headed plot of Curtis managing to get himself pregnant and Rudy’s rather dramatic STD, which ends up being quite a clever comment on male and female attitudes. In both cases the resolution to these problems is ingenious and rather amusing.

Episode 5 is perhaps the most accomplished of the season and a superb re-statement of what makes Misfits such an interesting show. It uses all the characters to their advantage built around a central story of a girl in a coma being able to take over Kelly’s body. Whereas this might have been used for comic effect, instead the focus is on the ramifications of such an act.

Kelly reacts with joy at her episode's good review

Lauren Socha shows why she won a BAFTA last year, her subtlety when portraying someone different in her body is impressive. The episode has a heart, which the series has been accused of lacking, yet unfurls at a leisurely pace, allowing the season’s best character work to date. Unfortunately this episode is where we say goodbye to Craig Parkinson’s droll Shaun whose occasional wandering into odd goings on and not really caring have been one of the season’s highlights.

Though more wayward than its predecessors season three has shown Misfits remains an inventive, fun series that in some ways defies serious analysis. The writers have started moving into and playing with more conventional genre plots than before with mixed results but you have to applaud their willingness to do so.

Words: John Connors

Ideal Holmes

2012-01-09T20:00:00.000Z

On the trail of `The Hounds of Baskerville`

We’re only in the second week of 2012 and both main terrestrial channels are running big adverts about original drama but the bar has already been set. It would indeed be surprising if many of the other series being touted can match Sherlock’s stellar second season. Last week it was sexual shenanigans, suggestive twists and blink and you miss it turns, now we have something else.

Sherlock and John are surprised by Mrs Hudson's choice of wallpaper

Entirely different in tone from last week’s episode; `The Hounds of Baskerville` (note the subtle alteration) plays superbly on our expectations. Mark Gatiss’ absorbing adaptation stretches beyond detective fiction to encompass conspiracy thriller, horror, psychological thriller and adventure managing to imbue each with the necessary ambience. Out of the confines of London for much of the time, the episode naturally takes advantage of the striking landscape and the Baskerville research centre.

Bored with a lack of decent cases, Sherlock is ready to bracket Henry Knight’s claims of a giant killer canine that took his father twenty years ago as bunkum until Knight refers to the animal as a “hound” tweaking Holmes’ imagination. Knight is played effectively (by Russell Tovey of Being Human in familiar territory here) as an increasingly gibbering wreck and the adventure plays very much to horror conventions at first. There’s the odd locals, the sightings, the mystery of why a vegetarian pub restaurant would have a large meat bill and there’s the legend of the hound itself. People claim to have seen it but Sherlock is, as you’d imagine, cynical about that. That is until he sees it.

Alongside this, the investigation of Baskerville reveals animal experiments and Gatiss wants us to conclude that some sort of mutant animal escaped. Yet matters take a different turn. While never matching the stealth of twists in last week’s caper, this episode focuses more on reactions and introduces some interesting aspects of Sherlock and Watson’s friendship. There is a lot to enjoy – Gatiss’ dialogue sparks as Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman draw every nuance they can. Both have never been better in these roles than they are in this episode, their volatile friendship amply demonstrated in several exchanges that run the gamut from the witty to the angry. Plus we see Sherlock almost admit he’s been wrong about something.

If the pace is slower than usual, there is a tension that builds as matters develop as well as some well sketched decoys to mislead us as to the nature of the case. Gatiss supports this with moments of humour but then pulls us back to the brink- if last week’s episode was Moffat’s finest TV work then this must be one of the more eclectic Gattis’ best scripts. The narrative never runs out of steam yet constantly delights however familiar or otherwise you are with the original story. The keystones of that story are still in place, with inventive contemporary re-imaginings.

Director Paul McGuigan again turns a great script into a filmic joy, rising to the challenge of balancing the horror, the camaraderie and some atmospheric set pieces with dexterity. He knows how to ratchet up the tension; one scene where Watson is seemingly trapped with the animal in a sealed lab is nail biting and his visualisation of Knight’s visions becomes extremely powerful.

Sherlock resorted to his light sabre to sort out the hound

The modern translation manages to be self aware enough to use the ever present fog on the moor as the ultimate source of the hallucinations that make people see the hound, a neat comment on a horror film staple. Then having convinced us that the animal does not really exist, don’t they just go and bring it on for the finale anyway in an awesome double bluff! After nearly 90 minutes of shadows, growling and deception there it is, a great big red eyed slavering monster that is too scary even for Steven Moffat’s other show.

In short then, if you haven’t deduced it yet, this was as good as but different than last week’s episode leaving the viewer with only one question - how brilliant is this series?

Words: John Connors

Kind of Magic

2012-01-06T19:00:00.000Z

The last five episodes of season 4 of Merlin reviewed..

`Lancelot du Lac` sees the supposedly deceased knight return to stir up tensions and spoil Arthur and Gwen’s impending wedding. This sets in motion events leading to poor Gwen’s banishment and an example of an episode with an unhappy ending in which the status quo changes. Lucy Watkins writes with a good sense of the arguments though is less strong when it comes to the way people react to what has happened. Merlin’s inaction throughout is uncharacteristic and most unlikely. The fact that he still sits on the secret of Agravaine’s treachery is also starting to look silly- surely this would be the perfect moment for him to reveal it.

No complaints though about the acting; Bradley James in particular rises to the occasion so you can feel Arthur’s loss while Angel Coulby finally gets some decent screen time. You can certainly believe in the betrayal that has split the character’s relationship in two.

With a noticeably more loquacious, playful script by Howard Overman and some atmospheric direction from Jeremy Webb, `A Herald of the New Age` is a standout episode even in such an excellent season. It’s the little things like sounds of dripping water or the way the cameras move around the shrine in the forest that drench the episode in atmosphere. It may be that Webb uses some standard horror motifs (plus the impressive water effect first seen in the Doctor Who classic `The Waters of Mars`) with the ghostly boy’s sudden appearances and the creepy moment when he puts his finger to his lips but it suits the series.

Overman’s script has a simple yet very strong twist that allows the episode to conclude in a much more powerful manner than any big action showdown might. The pace is slower than usual but this suits the story line. The other aspect that impresses is that some of the cast get to do more than usual. His work on Misfits shows how well Overman can handle group dialogue, which has remained perhaps the only weakness on Merlin- and here he shows how it can be done. Adetomiwa Edun shines when given a substantial role as Elyan is haunted and then possessed. Colin Morgan too seems to delight in bringing a more sarcastic Merlin to the fore and the interplay with Bradley James is more mature now. James handles the big scene near the end with a subtlety that makes it affecting and strong. This is one of the very best Merlin episodes yet and in this season that’s saying something.

"Can I just mention, in case you'd not guessed by now that I'm quite evil."

What comes across from `The Hunter’s Heart` is how vicious both Morgana and Agravaine can be. The show does have a tendency to sugar coat its more violent aspects- notably to the point of obvious cuts to shots of people being stabbed. Here, director Jeremy Webb is prepared to show a little more and it does help underline the threat when we see Agravaine s brutal acts. As for Morgana her turning Gwen into a deer in the middle of Arthur’s hunt is particularly cruel.

It’s a good episode for the female cast members for a change. One of the noticeable things about this season has been the fact that almost all the regularly featured characters are male while many of the villains have been women. Perhaps that’s what you get when you have four blokes show running! Now at least Gwen gets a decent part of the action, only the second episode where Angel Coulby has had much to do this season.

The sequence where Merlin realises the deer is really Gwen has a real elemental quality to it, emphasising the source of his powers. Richard McBrien’s script also has some more mature exchanges between Arthur and Merlin allowing us to see the sort of people they are becoming as they get older.

The two part finale `The Sword in the Stone` begins with a very speedy invasion of Camelot from which Merlin, Arthur and the knights can only flee. Morgana seems to have become even darker now, yet maybe is turning into too melodramatic a villain? After such a careful build up and with a two episode spread some of the narrative seems perfunctory in place though other parts are excellent.

The spell that makes Arthur compliant somehow slows the dynamics of the first part which becomes an extended chase sequence. Guest starring Tristan and Isolde never really spark partly because Ben Daniels looks as if he’d rather be somewhere else-or at least wearing a better wig. It’s left to the lead actors to take the season to its conclusion.

The final episode has a suitably mythic feel for the actual sword in the stone scenes. However the most interesting bits are glimpses into Merlin’s darker side as he despatches Agravaine’s soldiers and then the man himself with barely concealed venom. Perhaps a darker, less controlled side to Merlin will be one of the themes of season five? Unfortunately there is again a sense of rushing things- Agravaine himself dies quickly and without a real payoff even if he does discover Merlin’s magic in the last moments of his life. A promising duel between Morgana and Gwen is cut short and we are again deprived of a showdown between the villainess and Merlin’s Emerys.

Director Alice Troughton does a sterling job of infusing the epic into a script that seems too eager to reach an easy conclusion. The ending is lovely of course as Arthur and Gwen finally tie the knot and she becomes Queen, hoping no doubt for more to do next season. Plus we have an intriguing coda suggesting a battle of dragons is in the offing as well.

This has definitely been the show’s most accomplished season despite the occasional slip up and the nagging problem of frugal dialogue in scenes where people should be talking. If the fifth season is to be, as has always been suggested, the final conclusion to the overall arc, Merlin should be prepared to take even more chances than it has laudably done this year. In the meantime we can luxuriate in a fantasy series that has worked, is constantly entertaining and very well made- plus the ratings have kept up too. Almost as secretly as the magic that Merlin himself keeps hidden the series has become one of the best on television.

Words: John Connors

Brilliant Minds

2012-01-02T11:13:00.004Z

After the brilliant first series, could Sherlock get any better?

Genius at work. And that could apply equally to Sherlock Holmes or to Steven Moffat. We’ve waited the best part of eighteen months to discover just how the cliff hanger to the first series of Sherlock is resolved and inevitably the suggestion has been that a second season might somehow disappoint, that the first series’ powerful mixture of inscrutable Englishness, modern tech and character based interaction was a fluke. Not a bit of it. `A Scandal in Belgravia` is the best Sherlock yet, packed with pin sharp wit, clever plot twists, intriguing characters and some excellent editing tricks to pull us through. It is the best thing Steven Moffat has ever written for TV, it is seriously that good. What a way to start the New Year!

"I think I used too much wallpaper paste."

We open straight back in the swimming baths- which itself looks suitably Victorian- for a brilliant musical gag and a lead in to the new adventure. Needless to say in his short time on screen Andrew Scott’s Moriaty again manages to outdo every TV villain you’ve seen in many a year. Just his accent, changes of mood and casual nastiness works superbly. Series of this nature often pit their sides unequally- either the hero is too virtuous or dull or the villain too over the top but this series manages to make both equally mesmerising to watch. So even though he’s not the subject of this story, there’s another equally interesting character waiting in the wings.

The recent Sherlock Holmes movie despatches Irene Adler rather too easily forgetting that of all the characters the detective meets, she has a different hold on him. Moffat’s script and especially Lara Pulver’s playfully seductive portrayal rises to all the possibilities. Irene and Sherlock duel with words and deeds, their connivances and trickery difficult to keep up with on one viewing but in a way you don’t need to take in every move. Just a look, a movement of the eyebrows is enough. On screen chemistry smoulders even though they never even kiss. Never mind the bromance everyone keeps talking about between Holmes and Watson, this affair of the mind between Sherlock and Irene is enough in itself to keep you watching.

Yet it’s not all by any means. We’re taken sideways into the mystery via a series of brief cases that seem to bore Sherlock but which turn out to be relevant later on while the central mystery of compromising photos on Irene’s mobile that no less a client than Buckingham Palace wants Sherlock to retrieve becomes a fascinating game. No detail is unnecessary and the visual use of sharp edits and flashbacks –including the Criminal Minds trick of placing the detective at the scene even when he isn’t actually there- means we have to pay constant attention. This is not to be watched while ironing, eating or texting. It requires 100%.

There are some twists it would be unfair to mention- if you’ve seen it you’ll be smiling knowingly, if not then go to the iPlayer now! Each one seems more audacious than the last including a final turn that only works because of how far we’ve gone even though your initial reaction might be `come on, how does he do that?`

Benedict Cumberbatch may have the silliest name ever but he fits the role of Sherlock so perfectly it is now difficult to imagine anyone else playing it while Martin Freeman’s John Watson is the loyal but by no means downtrodden foil. It’s good to see Una Stubbs have more to do in this episode as she is everyone’s favourite landlady, Rupert Graves plays a wonderfully laconic Lestrade and Mark Gatiss has a substantial role as the older, oily, officious Mycroft.

Throughout the episode Sherlock tries to unlock the phone, trying to guess what password Irene would use and when we- and he- finally find out what the word is it is so obvious yet nobody will have guessed. It’s that kind of story. In many ways there is nothing new- a scandal, CIA agents barging in, one side tricking another, the will- they, wont- they fission between detective and can’t be trusted woman. Yet the final result is an engrossing, energetic, effervescent 90 minutes. Yes, it’s the best thing that’s been on TV in 2012 but I bet we will still be saying that a year from now.

Words: John Connors

Christmas Trees

2011-12-29T18:53:00.003Z

The first twenty minutes or so of the latest festive frolic are perfect Doctor Who- whimsical, funny, affecting and imaginative. James Bond-like we join matters at the end of an unseen adventure as the Doctor saves the world but ends up plummeting to Earth in a safety suit from which he cannot escape. Its wartime Britain but resourceful housewife Madge Arwell helps him receiving a promise of a favour in return if she ever needs it. Three years later with her pilot husband missing believed dead; Madge wants to give her two children one great Xmas before telling them the truth she has so far avoided revealing to them.

"Blimey, Rory's changed a bit!"

There are some delightful comedic moments as the Doctor, posing as the caretaker of the rambling country house in which they spend Yuletide, shows them round. Visually the 1940’s plus style looks very festive on screen, the piece de resistance being the fact that the Doctor chooses hammocks rather than beds. Matt Smith is superb at this kind of thing and as we delve into the mystery of an oversized present under the tree, it all looks set for a rollicking adventure.

The story title tells you where the ideas are coming from but once the kids and their mother have climbed into the voluminous box in which there is a snowy forest matters diversify completely with no talking animals to be found. Instead we discover two visually impressive but narratively limited Tree People who are trying to evacuate their fellow beings before acid rain pours down on the planet.

The whole tree plot is not particularly engaging and as with the shark last year, the show seems to have wasted a great visual with a lot more potential. The story, unusually for Steven Moffat, is straight forward and after the impressive first third has a flabby mid section before picking up for a dramatic if predictable climax. Having drawn us into a Narnia like world, Moffat seems unable to provide a suitably magical tale to match.

Madge on the look out for a bit more of a plot.

There is something about the plot that isn’t very exciting, perhaps because we don’t really find the trees interesting or sympathetic. All the musical swells and interesting direction from Farren Blackburn cannot disguise the slim story is being extended beyond its natural running time. It is significant too that whenever Claire Skinner is off screen, there is nothing to connect to for the viewer. Madge’s kids are not especially well drawn while Bill Bailey and co- theoretically the villains of the piece- play for laughs in some superfluous filler scenes.

It pulls together at the end because the human fate of Madge and her husband is far more exciting than what happens to a lot of trees. Though you can see the denouement a mile off, if it does give you a warm glow and the unexpected coda is lovely too showing that sometimes Matt Smith can be just as brilliant at small, quiet moments.

Overall it seems a more modest story than previous Xmas episodes and in terms of excitement is somewhat lacking. Perhaps the fact it was made so close to transmission restricted what could be done? Like last year’s `A Christmas Carol`, you’re unlikely to want to see this at any other time of the year. Viewed on Christmas Day though, its likeable sheen is a welcome present.

Words: John Newman

Winter's Reach

2011-12-15T19:05:00.001Z

Thought last winter was cold? The people of 1664 might have something to say…

One of the aspects of winter we have got used to recently is the media informing us of “snow chaos” as the temperatures plummet, snow falls and ice lurks in hidden corners. Certainly the winters of 1962-3 and 2010-11 qualify as bad ones but generally people around today have escaped the UK’s very worst winters. During the decade up to two years ago we became used to mild winters with very little snow and no need for 18 layers of clothing. That may not be the case for much longer though with many climate scientists suggesting we are entering a mini Ice Age similar to the one that created some of the severest winters in the 1600s.

So, to celebrate the possibility of this impending Big Freeze, here’s a rundown of some of the UK’s most notable winters since records began….

1620-21: So cold there was a Frost fair held on the Thames in London though quite how you can sell frost remains a mystery.

1664-65: This winter contained what is reputed to be the coldest day ever in England plus a severe frost lasting about 2 months.

1683-84: Mid December saw the 'great frost' start in the UK and Central Europe with the Thames frozen all the way to London Bridge by early January 1684. It’s said this is the longest frost ever recorded and in Somerset the ground was frozen as far down as 4 feet. Just think’ thermals had not been invented and people didn’t even have double glazing or in some cases windows.

1739-40: Temperatures as low as minus 24 degrees celsius were reported with lots of very strong winds.

1794-95: The freeze began on Xmas Eve running until late March with temperatures as low as minus 21 degrees celsius reported. The rivers Severn and Thames both froze and the legendary Frost Fairs were held once more while during a short respite in January all that ice thawing caused floods.

1813-1814: This was the last time to date that the tidal stretch of the Thames froze and this winter saw one of the highest amounts of snow for hundreds of years. There was also a period of extremely heavy fog in January just to make things a bit worse. The stage coaches were probably on strike as well!

1816: Not strictly a winter season, more like winter all year. 1816 is known as “the year without summer” as a volcanic eruption in the East Indies disrupted weather patterns meaning there was still snow on the ground in July.

A frozen Thames in 1962

1819-20: This severe winter included temperatures of minus 23 degrees celsius recorded in Tunbridge Wells.

1875-76: One of the snowiest winters on record with two feet of snow recorded for lengthy periods around the country and on several occasions.

1946-47: The worst winter since 1814 really got going in late January 1947 with continuous snow cover until mid March. Some people probably blamed Germany.

1962-63: From late December 1962 there was bitter cold and drifting snow until the Spring. People say the snow in some parts of the country was so deep they could walk along the top of frozen hedgerows and shrubbery. Then again, they may have been to the pub beforehand.

1978-79: The last really severe, snowy winter, as far as official sources go with snow falls of 7 inches and drifts of 6 to 7 feet as well as extremely cold temperatures for months. One snowdrift in the North East was reported as being 15 feet. So if you live there don’t moan about this winter to your parents unless you want very long anecdotes about walking along hedgerows.

1984-85: A particularly cold and snowy winter especially in Southern England with 6 or 7 inches of snow falling.

2010/11: Last winter! December 2010 was the coldest in over 100 years with two main snow falls that froze the country and made something of a mockery of all our technology. Temperatures were around 5 degrees celsius below average. The people of the 1600s would laugh at our inability to keep going in what they would probably call a mild winter.

New York winter 2010. "Nothing to go on about" says 1600s person.

Time Frames

2011-12-11T20:04:00.001Z

Martin Scorsese's new film Hugo is wonderful- and frustrating but definitely worth seeing.
Words: John Connors

Sometimes a film arrives that defies categorisation and simply sits majestically in its own space. Though marketed- somewhat erroneously- as a children’s movie, Hugo is such an enterprise. While not without flaws and sometimes struggling to contain a narrative packed with exposition, Hugo is a delight because someone dared to make it.

There are easier ways of telling the time...

In the early 1930s, twelve year old Hugo Cabret lives in the bowels of Paris railway station, eking an existence with stolen food while he keeps the clocks on time, a task taught him by his now missing alcoholic uncle who reluctantly took him on after Hugo’s inventor father died in a fire at the museum where he worked. The boy’s only tangible reminder of his father is a metal automaton and the plans to make it so he steals items from a second hand stall in the station market to try and complete the project. He believes the automaton, which sits with a pen in its hand, will have a message for him if he can get it to work. When the stall’s cantankerous owner catches him stealing and takes the notebook, Hugo receives unexpected help from the old man’s god-daughter Isabelle which in turn leads to a much bigger sort of adventure.

It sounds good enough you’d think and indeed it is. The first half of the film is glowing with a warmth, intricacy and imagination that fuels the best children’s stories- i.e. the ones adults can enjoy as well. Sacha Baron Cohen’s station Inspector who sends stray boys to the orphanage adds a hissable if accident prone villain whose calamities will have younger viewers amused. Then there is a mid way tonal shift that effectively kicks any idea of Hugo being a kid’s film into touch as it blossoms into a butterfly like adult life which celebrates the creative genius of one of the art form’s pioneers.

"That's SIR Ben Kingsley to you, lad"

Isabelle’s god father, you see, is long lost film director George Melies and the rest of the film concerns his story. This is clearly what attracted Martin Scorsese to what would otherwise not be his kind of movie and it’s an odd sort of fit in theory. Such a delicate balance could easily turn into a mess or indeed mush but in the hands of Scorsese, Hugo becomes something quite beautiful, thoughtful and sympathetic. The children who enjoyed the station hi jinks will be mystified!

The script does take a little too much on though; as well as the already lengthy main story we have inserts depicting the tentative relationship between two older eccentrics- played with aplomb by Frances de la Tour and Richard Griffiths - as well as the station inspector’s hidden infatuation with flower stall owner Lisette (Emily Mortimer) . These are lovely touches subtly played with silent movie style panache- perhaps this is the idea, they are all part of the tribute- but stretch the running time to near uncomfortable length. Also, having taken himself to a place where we are cheering his every move, Hugo himself becomes something of a cipher later on, his history relegated to unanswered questions particularly surrounding the issue of who did set fire to the museum. It feels like two separate films have somehow merged into each other.

"Yes, it is a real moustache. Why do you ask monsieur?"

However reproducing the era of Melies, as best as we can know it, or in making the railway station a dynamic play ground, Scorsese excels and you sense that like many of his films repeated viewing will be needed to fully absorb every aspect. It may seem an odd juxtaposition for a tribute to the earliest days of cinema to be using the very latest 3D technology but Scorsese perhaps sees in today’s developments the same pioneering spirit that drove George Melies in the 1900s. And make no mistake; he develops 3D more than any other director has yet done. He understands that it works not when you throw things out of the film at the viewer- as seems to have quickly become the norm- nor when you try and dazzle by showing off, but in simply bringing us inside the film. As his restless cameras explore the station we see dazzling detail of the likes never before captured in a 3D film from the dust particles in the air to the clogging masses of steam or the cold of the snow outside. In a dazzling opening sequence we follow Hugo around the conduits, pipes and walkways of the place as he darts from clock to clock and the sense of place and of movement is the best 3D you’ve seen, better even than Avatar, because it feels so real.

Asa Butterfield, a promising Mordred in the TV series Merlin- has an expressive face and an emotional response to the material but does not necessarily get the best lines. You can see the actor wanting to push the boy’s feistiness yet once marooned in a sea of old films he loses his place in his own film. Nonetheless Butterfield makes a big impact early on and will surely go on to quite a career. The script does not really pin Hugo’s character down enough and later delights in putting him in somewhat bizarre peril, just to reproduce scenes from famous movies, notably his dangling from the station clock face. While charming, this starts to seem contrived and there are probably loads of other similar homage’s only cinephiles could spot. By the end it feels as if we are being treated to a (nonetheless fascinating) education rather than an entertainment. As Melies, Ben Kingsley shows his classy side, never overplaying the old man and at the end, when it counts, allowing a subtle depiction rather than an over emotional one. Chloe Moritz as Isabelle, confirms her potential as one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars.

"C3PO? Never heard of 'im, guv"

Hugo is a film that fascinates for its artistry yet frustrates for its diversions and incompleteness but is always interesting. Perhaps this is the mark of a great work though it is certainly a difficult film to sell to any particular audience, evidenced by the largely half empty cinemas it has been playing to. A film like this struggles in today’s market dominated by branding and of target audiences though it has already been nominated for a slew of awards. Ultimately maybe its reputation will grow and one day, rather like Melies, will be rediscovered and delight a future generation. Or perhaps why not go and see it now?

Snow Business

2011-12-07T19:13:00.000Z

If this winter is anything like the last two, snowmen should be appearing everywhere. While it may supposedly be children who make them the truth is that snowmen fascinate people of all ages.

The best time to make one is when snow has compacted but is still moist, a few days after it has snowed rather than straight away. If the snow is powdery it won’t stick together properly. You can make a large snowball by simply rolling the snow until it is large enough- some people create three spheres for head, torso and lower body. If you’re ambitious then you could shape it out of one huge lump of snow but this is harder work.

You can then use various items to bring the snowman to life- a carrot for a nose, stones for eyes and sticks for arms. Items of clothing brighten up Frosty, as you will inevitably call him, but if you do decide to pop a woolly hat or scarf on your creation, then you may find these items missing the following morning.

Some people claim snowmen have only existed since the early 1900s but the widely acknowledged definitive book `The History of the Snowman` written by Bob Eckstein documents them from medieval times. The earliest illustration he found dates back to 1380 and was found in The Hague.

The official record for the world’s largest snowman was set in Maine in the United States in 2008 and was actually a snow woman. She stood 122 feet 1 inch tall.

There is now a World day of Snowman held every year on 18 January though exactly what people should do to become involved is vague. The official website declares rather airily “This is your day, a day you may form by yourself” which could mean anything or indeed apply to any day.

People can become somewhat irrational when it comes to their snowman. Last year, Kent Police branded a Chatham woman “irresponsible” after she dialed 999 to report that her snowman had been stolen.

A website called Urban Pup sells clothes designed to be put on snowmen including a sweater with a hood and a coat.

Snowmen have inevitably been brought to life in a whole series of fictional situations. Once animated Mr S gets up to all kinds of things but is generally seen as a benevolent force, the best loved being Raymond Briggs’ story `The Snowman` which has become a stage show.

Missing Misfit Makes A Difference

2011-12-05T19:01:00.000Z

Can Misfits survive without its lead character?
John Connors looks at the first half of the third season to find out.

At first it seems as if the departure of Robert Sheehan and his larger than life character Nathan will make little difference to Misfits. Newcomer Rudy with his two personalities talking to each other initially proves easily able to make us forget Nathan. Joe Gilgun provides identifiable enough gaps between Rudy’s two aspects and the conversations he has with himself are wittily scripted and performed. In a Nathan like way, for much of the first episode he’s at risk of making the others seem a little dull and responsible. Visually the episode bristles with confidence from its trademark shooting style and some excellent effects, the most subtle of these being Curtis’ shadowy morphing which seems to happen without you noticing.

We also seem to be exploring more about Seth, the guy who gives out the powers and who develops something of a relationship with Kelly. While that side of things is fine and indeed played perfectly by both actors, the idea of a person whose power is the ability to collect and give out powers seems to diminish the initial idea that the storm caused the characters to develop these powers based on aspects of their personalities. This is still referenced in the animated opening credits. The fact that subsequent episodes seem to draw a parallel with drug dealing is interesting though suggests that hundreds of people have these powers and in the end seems to make the show less unique.

It may be that the show’s writers are running out of ideas especially given the fact that the characters are back in the orange overalls at the end of the opener in what seems like an attempt to reboot rather than develop. Thus the next three episodes disappoint on different levels. Episode 2 is simply too slow and does not really explore Curtis on more than a superficial level. As a character he has barely changed since the start and it’s not as if Nathan Stewart Jarrett could not play weightier material, he simply doesn’t get it. Curtis’ attempts to reignite his athletics career as a girl is played more for laughs than anything and while comedy has always been a big part of the show, the script here is lacking in something that makes us like or even be particularly interested in his dilemma. It’s a shame as this is an interesting concept but somehow doesn’t gel here.

Experienced genre TV watchers will guess the premise of the third episode fairly quickly as it has been used on several occasions but that should not spoil our enjoyment too much. While testing out his superhoodie skills Simon rescues a teenager called Peter who turns out to be a superhero fan with the power to make whatever he draws in comic book form actually happen. Perhaps a more cautious approach would have allowed the plot- and the question as to whether we’re actually seeing what’s really happening- to simmer for longer but as it is some of the emotional impact is lost too soon. Also, Iwan Rheon struggles to convey what his character is feeling as well as both Antonia Thomas or Michael Marcus (who plays Peter) do so it’s a little lop sided.

Peter’s drawings (uncredited but perhaps done by the series’ art department) are excellent while the scenario allows Rudy to add dollops of inaccurate speculation as to what Simon and Peter are up to. It’s during this episode though that you can’t help feeling that in creating Rudy, the writers have not made him distinct enough from Nathan to be a vital character. There are many occasions here where he appears to be speaking lines written for his predecessor. Joseph Gilgun does his best –especially with the split personality scenes – but Rudy has yet to contribute anything that defines him as anything other than Nathan mark 2.

As for the fourth episode, it may be looked back on as an aberration or it could be pinpointed as the moment when Misfits went off the boil. Its’ difficult to see what the thinking is behind doing this story as it does not seem to relate either to any ongoing storyline nor the main characters themselves apart from the superficial fact that Kelly saves Seth but she could do that in any context.

The cast struggle to put meaning into scenes that move the programme into a broader genre place that it does not really belong in. The jokes are forced and the extra characters behave as if in an episode of Blake’s Seven which is not what Misfits is about. All credit to the production team for staging what is in all likelihood the most expensive episode to date- though still miniscule even compared to the likes of Merlin or Doctor Who- but they should really have spent the money elsewhere.

Even if you accept the episode on face value and treat it seriously it is somewhat lacking in all areas. Time travel stories demand the writer’s diligence if they are to be in any way believable; even Doctor Who’s Steven Moffett is not immune to trying to be too clever with this kind of stuff. Yet his recent work is Shakespearian compared to the cut and paste approach in which every situation is too conveniently contrived treating time travel as if it’s like catching a train. Nonchalance in crazy situations has served the series well but this is one fantastical leap too far. The Hitler gimmick is over done in genre series anyway and one can only groan as Adolf is wheeled out in yet another series as an easy short cut to `changing history`. The whole thing is just too simplistic to work, too weakly written to intrigue or even amuse.

The Third Assistant Director & The Showgirl

2011-12-02T19:25:00.000Z

John Newman reviews the film My Week with Marilyn

In 1956 Marilyn Munroe came to the UK to film The Prince and the Showgirl an inconsequential Terrance Rattigan penned comedy also starring Laurence Olivier. On set as well, working as a third assistant director was Colin Clark whose connections had wrangled him the job of third assistant director in which he ended up looking after the Hollywood star. Filming was legendarily fractious; in one sentence in this film, adapted by Adrian Hodges from Clark’s book, the character sums up the differences between Marilyn and as she dubs him “Lord Olivier” as two stars in different fields both seeking the credibility that the other had.

Although supposedly based on a true story, we may never know exactly how accurate some of the scenes are but Simon Curtis’ film does a terrific job conveying the fragile egos that inhabit the claustrophobic film set as well as the sexual frisson that lurks in such an environment. Clark, though 23, seems like a child when faced with both stars but it is this guileless behaviour that seems to attract Marilyn. Insecure and talking a lot of pills- her every drama attended to by acting coach Paula Strasberg and new husband Arthur Miller - she finally manages to escape to a country house where she attempts to build a genuine friendship with Clark. Of course, he falls for her totally and of course, it can’t last.

Much rests on the portrayals of two legends whose persona we know well. Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branagh are both exemplary in the roles. Michelle Williams adds to an increasingly impressive list of performances her every nuance revealing just why Marilyn captured the world’s heart. She cleverly stops short of an over mannered interpretation and we see a convincing (though who can know how accurate) look at the real Norma Jean behind the image. The most telling scene comes when Colin is showing her round some landmarks and they come face to face with a group of staff and she whispers “Shall I be her?” proceeding to morph into the skittish playful Marilyn Monroe that is so familiar. Yet we also see her behind the scenes, fragile, vulnerable and insecure needing constant reassurance. Williams inhabits the part with the sort of instinct that wins Oscars.

Kenneth Branagh must find himself in an odd place playing Olivier, an actor to whom he has often been compared and which he now portrays as a “dead behind the eyes” older man desperately courting Marilyn’s star quality while becoming enraged by her lack of professionalism on set. There are moments when his physical resemblance, especially a scene where he is looking into a mirror, makes it an uncannily truthful portrait while he is excellent conveying Olivier’s pent up rage.

As Colin Clark, Eddie Redmayne has to look star struck and love struck which he does very well bringing across the fact that Clark did really fall for her. There are also strong supporting roles as well for Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike, Dominic Cooper as Marilyn’s pushy American manager and Julia Ormond as Olivier’s wife Vivien Leigh whose acceptance of her husband’s weaknesses and her own situation provide a mature counterpoint to Marilyn.

Curtis captures the tedium of production well and by use of re-staged clips from the film they are making successfully conveys what all the fuss about Marilyn was about. The Prince and the Showgirl itself though seems a flimsy thing and you do wonder what any of the actors were doing in it.

If Curtis’ sequences of the time Marilyn and Colin spend together is too literally bathed in bright sunshine - while the rest of the time the weather is noticeably overcast -then he more than compensates a weakness for literal visual motifs by getting his actors to convince at every turn. In terms of the difficulties between Marilyn and Olivier the film does not take sides, as it easily could, and this is an enormous asset. Just when you start to think of Olivier as a bully, the narrative opens up his vulnerability; just when it seems Marilyn really is untalented we find out what troubles her and then she lights up the screen.

Inevitably a personal memoir regarding such a powerful encounter is subjective and if the film has a fault, it is that we do not really get under the skin of Clark’s character, who as one reviewer of the original book commented must have been either the wettest 23 year old in history or a complete fantasist!. Nonetheless as an entrancing, entertaining portrait of two legends and an often amusing look at the whims of being a star, My Week with Marilyn works a treat.

Everyone's A Fan Now

2011-11-27T19:11:00.003Z

Once upon a time, you’d have to go to a fan gathering or convention to hear people speaking Fan. It’s the way that they talked when they were such big fans of something they speak with the faux authority of actually being involved in the subject rather than just a fan of it. There’s a lexicon that used to be exclusively used by fans which included phrases like “season”, “character arc”, “Plot development” and so on. Regular people never talked like that; the most they might observe in those legendary water cooler moments of old was that a TV programme or film was “great” or “crap”

Not any more. Nowadays everyone speaks Fan. You hear people who’ve never worn a Klingon mask or screamed at David Tennant talking about “season five”. They discuss story arcs like you can buy them at Tescos. It’s spread to other genres too; now people compare the merits of the plots and characters of seasons 3 and 4 of Doc Martin or Spooks for example. Even James Bond, the perennially unchanging spy now apparently luxuriates in a character arc.

Why has this happened? You can blame (if blame is something we should attach to this) the programme makers and the spate of behind the scenes items on TV and, especially on DVD. Interviews now talk of these matters in a way they never used to. In an age when we are told privacy is an untenable concept, people want to know everything. Secrets are only there to be discovered.

Thanks to Special Features, we now know all the nuts and bolts of film and television production.

Whereas once only dedicated fans talked about things like “scene sync” and “CSO” much to the bewilderment of anyone else, these days everybody knows about “motion capture” and “CGI”.

The natural progression of this has been an explosion in amateur things; much of it posted on the likes of You Tube because armed with the knowledge of production, thousands of people think they can make their own programmes. Meanwhile television is full of programmes whose outcome can be directly influenced by us when we vote. Calls may well be considerably higher from some providers but that doesn’t stop millions calling to save their favourite contestant being evicted from the house, kitchen, stage, jungle or ballroom. Or even to vote for their favourite building. Asparagus Academy and Strictly Plumbing can only be a heartbeat away.

It has been said, rather wisely, that every generation gets the entertainment it deserves and if we are either making it or voting to influence it, then that has never been truer. Fandom as a concept means little now because everybody is part of it but that creates a level of expectation that few endeavours can satisfy. Look at the speed with which Downton Abbey went from 2010’s huge new hit to 2011’s disappointment. That is Fan stuff through and through; what the music press used to refer to as the “build ‘em up and knock ‘em down syndrome”.

We can never go back, partly because technology won’t allow us, but mainly because people now expect to directly influence the entertainment they receive. The days when inside knowledge and analytical opinion were the exclusive province of fandom has gone forever.

Wishful Thinking

2011-11-23T19:26:00.000Z

John Newman looks at the unusual 2006 UK film The Lives of the Saints

The period from the late 1990s until last year was a rich one for home grown cinema yielding a number of excellent (and admittedly some not so excellent) movies showcasing UK talent from in front and behind the camera. Many of these films did follow a certain pattern, by economic necessity set in urban cities- often London- and starring both unknowns and what seemed to be like a repertory of actors skilled at this sort of `gritty` drama. Slipping under the wider critical radar in 2006, The Lives of the Saints is such a film.

On first glance it appears to follow the expected template both in casting and surroundings. There’s an ugly gangster vibe to the boorish Mr Karva as he intimidates and bullies his way round his patch and belittles his stepson Othello. Early signs that this is something different include an enigmatic voiceover about a character called Roadrunner whose speed is seemingly used to ferry various substances around the area- and some stylish editing. Then the aforementioned athlete stumbles over a child lying in a field- at first this angers him and in a moment his mood changes to a beatific peace of mind. For the first time since people can recall he stops running- and therefore incurs the wrath of Mr Korva - and seems almost re-born.

Othello, his girlfriend, Tina and best mate Emilio take the boy home, clean him up and try to decipher the strange language he is speaking. When they do, they come to believe he is some kind of oracle; he seems to know the results of horse races before they happen and Othello starts to use this knowledge to accumulate a fortune and lifestyle of his own. From being cowed and embarrassed by his father’s behaviour he starts to act like him. It becomes apparent that the child seems to possess an ability to make character’s deepest dreams happen, their own “taste of heaven” as one character puts it.

One exchanged look between the boy and cafe waitress Christella convinces her that her deceased child has returned. This does not develop as you might expect for Christella ends up believing a vagrant is the child, takes him into the café and force feeds him! Also the local priest’s faith is challenged by the existence of the child while Karva becomes ostracised by Othello who becomes rich quickly, the gift for prediction seemingly now inside him without the need of the child. Othello turns on Emilio who is then recruited by Karva to take the child only to be himself consumed by his desire for revenge leading to a shock ending. What is especially fresh is the manner in which the narrative swerves around our expectations, building a momentum and providing a satisfactory ending as well. There are several key junctures where you expect one thing and something different happens.

The terrifyng Mr Karva played by James Cosmo

This is a film that demands you meet it on its own terms. It could be allegorical, it draws on religious iconography yet never once moves into what we might term `fantasy` motifs. The never named boy’s power is shown by a mere blink and a change in the music and because the he never says a discernable word throughout (you have to turn the sound up to hear muttering in some odd language) there are no answers. The Shakespearian monikers of some of the characters might lead you to believe it is some modern day version of one of his plays.

The film is written by Tony Grisoni (who wrote Brothers of the Head and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas) and directed by both celebrity photographer Rankin and Chris Cottam who took on the project largely due to people saying it was too complicated to be made. In fact the film came about due to a unique partnership between the film makers and trendy clothes firm Meltin’ Pot. They financed the movie like “private producers”, and it is their clothes that many of the characters wear. There is a conscious Greek look for the older characters whereas the younger ones have a London look.

Gillian Kearney as Christabella whose faith makes her imagine her son is back

Grisoni’s said his inspiration for the story came from Renaissance paintings showing saints walking amongst the people. Modern day saints, he says, are people that everyone recognises in a particular area. The film’s writer Tony Grisolni has said that essentially the dreams that each of the characters have is already inside them, the child merely the catalyst. How he works- or indeed why- remains a mystery.

Leading the cast with a bellicose performance of some ferocity is James Cosmo, his usual Scots accent replaced by a Greek growl. Karva is a horrendous character at first, but both script and Cosmo’s performance later allow us to empathise a little, if not sympathise. The father/ son dynamic with Othello is never over played- because they are not blood relatives, both are more free to treat each other as business rivals. David Leon shines in the tricky role as Othello starts out as the protagonist but grows more distant and nasty before his sudden fall from grace. Emma Pierson excels too as her role develops from the usual grouchy girlfriend type we’ve seen many times into someone who seems to have an empathy- a maternal one perhaps?- with the child. One of the best things about the film is that Bronson Webb is given a substantial role as Emilio. Usually afforded only smaller parts, Webb is superb showing both sides of a character for who at first amuses, then is cast aside and finally returns to prove more dangerous than anyone.

Gillian Kearney and Mark Warren also appear both stretching out of their comfort zones and essaying the more religious side of the plot. When Christella believes she has found her son, she is transformed like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis but it is all shown in her face. Warren-in the only main part that feels slightly under written plays Father Daniel whose faith is tested and who harbours a little secret that will surprise.

Emilio played by Bronson Webb turns nasty when he gets his wish

Stylistically the film never strays from its urban base, playing out scenes in dingy pool halls, games arcades, cafes and an ordinary church. Rankin and Cottam’s intention seems to be to keep it as real as they can which only emphasises the oddness of what is happening. Speeded up film of traffic on the high street punctuates the action and the dialogue is very natural (some of the early scenes between Othello, Emilio and Tina seem as if they might be improvised). The action was shot entirely on location in London’s Green Lanes but at times it takes on different looks as the narrative unfolds.

Inevitably, some will have seen this film and been disappointed that the explanation of what has occurred is not presented on an expositional plate at the end. Indeed, the film makers seem to have anticipated such a response but informing us, in the final line that the events were never mentioned again! Surely anything that they might come up with would not be as interesting as the speculation open minded viewers will indulge in? In fact it’s difficult to know what people might want- a large spaceship to land perhaps.

Understandably you can gauge the sort of reactions at the time of its release from just two comments on its IMDB page- one calls it “a terrible, terrible movie” while another’s response is “one of the most original films ever made”. It was nominated for an award at the Locarno International Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2007 London Film Festival.

Certainly, we can say the film is about how one thing can tear the established order apart and challenge the way we think of ourselves. The arrival of the child sets all kinds of cogs spinning in people’s head. It’s also about how we often don’t understand that getting what we want changes us for the worst.

Directors Chris Cottam (left) and Rankin on location

So the question we really want to ask is about the nature of the child. One of the scenes that does not follow the route you expect is when Father Daniel meets the child yet decides he is not, as the others have said, an angel. I had a theory that perhaps the child does not really affect anything and it’s all in people’s heads. Or that the events are told from Othello’s point of view so the others change to suit his perception of them. It is worth seeing to see what you think- and don’t be put off by the first five minutes- because this type of film is rare. The only movie one could compare it too is Box of Moonlight, which despite totally different locale and characters possesses a similarly enigmatic fascination in its bones.

The Lives of the Saints will surprise you and whether you like that surprise is another matter but it remains a tantalisingly bold piece of UK film making.

Spellbound

2011-11-20T20:02:00.000Z

John Newman on episodes 4 to 8 of the fourth series of Merlin

These are heady days for Merlin, confidentially occupying the old Casualty slot and keeping healthy ratings despite The X Factor being on opposite. It might be something to do with the quality of stories this season and also the fact that they underscore an ongoing plot rather than being mostly stand alone. In other series- notably Doctor Who – this approach has come in for some criticism but it appears to be paying dividends for Merlin. The season so far seems altogether more focussed, more driven with the plots freer because they don’t necessarily have to end up with the status quo week after week. It also fits the sort of legend that King Arthur- whichever version you might name- really is; epic, grandiose and taking characters on amazing journeys. For a series like this to be thriving and still reaching new heights- both artistically and commercially- in its fourth season is something to celebrate. Even Morgana in her dark cottage is probably smiling about it once a week!

Evil Morgana doesn't want you to see the spoliers....or does she?

`Althusa` sees Merlin on the trail of the last dragon egg and after a slow start builds to a rather impressive climax. Julian Boreden an old pupil of Gaius arrives in Camelot assuming his former mentor will help him retrieve the last piece of the key to the tomb of Ashkanar from the vaults, to enable him to enter and find the egg, hidden there for centuries. When Gaius refuses, Merlin steps in but is tricked and can only accompany Arthur and the knights in pursuit of the stolen item.
If the way Merlin obtains the key to the vaults is silly in the extreme, then the subsequent journey is entertaining with a running joke about the food playing into a plot point that allows Merlin to square off against Borden in front of the egg. Its here that Colin Morgan excels, selling us both the significance and for Merlin emotional point of the whole thing, undermining the portentous location. This may well turn out to be a key episode and the final scene where the egg hatches revealing a tiny white dragon is rather powerful, again largely due to Morgan.

There’s a real sense so far of the writers wanting to maintain the momentum and not sidetrack into comedic or repetitive episodes. Another big one `His Father’s Son` sees Camelot threatened with invasion after Arthur- egged on by Agravaine- kills the son of the powerful Queen Annis to set an example but his supposed act of strength backfires. At the same time- again thanks to Uncle A- he calls off his burgeoning romance with Gwen on the grounds she is not really suitable company for a king. Even Merlin feels the chill as Arthur ignores his advice. While a few episodes on this track might have developed some interesting scenarios it is wrapped up rather neatly not to mention anticlimactically when Arthur chooses a trial by combat. Having set up an intriguing scenario, writer Julian Jones does not quite see it through with enough power. Nonetheless the momentum is to be enjoyed as are the scenes of tension between Arthur and Merlin. There’s another impressive army to be seen too. Ultimately there are a too few many conveniences particularly Agravaine’s continued coming and going unnoticed from Camelot and an underwritten Queen Annis does not make the best of Lindsey Duncan’s talents. The tension is diffused to suddenly though it’s a good episode for Bradley James who gets to delve a little deeper into Kingly worries.

"Kidnap me? I don't believe it"

`A Servant of Two Masters` is an unusually paced episode that sees Merlin out to kill Arthur after Morgana captures him and sticks a worm in the back of his neck. I’m sure there was a Star Trek episode that did this but anyway, the results are quite amusing. Even spellbound, Merlin proves an accident prone assassin and there’s lots of fun to be had seeing his attempts to kill the king. This develops into a confrontation between Merlin’s aged alter ego Emyrys and Morgana that hints at the real power both have. However the plot is a little too disparate and the mood okayed more for laughs to really have us believe anyone is in much danger.

After coming under suspicion for being the traitor in the castle, Gaius is kidnapped in `The Secret Sharer` so that Morgana can wheedle the identify of Emrys from him with the help of Alator, one of those handy mystical Celtic types that seem to be around when you need them. From a not especially promising idea the episode blossoms with a series of key scenes underlining the bond between Gaius, Merlin and Arthur. Meanwhile the villainous Agravaine has to work hard to avoid getting himself found out- though of course both Merlin and Gaius already know his involvement. Director Justin Molotnikov brings out the loyalty and hatred between various characters well and if the method by which Alator tries to extract the information is drawn out and unlikely, the story climaxes with a lively confrontation and the secret still under wraps.

`Lamia` is the first non Morgana episode in a while yet oddly the villain is again female. You do start to wonder about that! Anyway, this proves to be an exercise in atmospherics as the titular character, rescued by Merlin and the knights on their way from a mission to help a village, leads them into increasing danger culminating in a tense confrontation in an old castle. Justin Molotnikov is proving quite a find for the show, drenching this episode with the strangeness it requires. For once, the knights get more than a line each and while it is still a little stilted between them, the situation is built up well with Merlin and Gwen ostracised as the others compete to look after Lamia - played by Charlene McKenna with spooky looks and angular body movement. Gwen gets more to do for a change while there’s a thrilling climax that shows how good the show can look.

Lamia's dancing was rather different

Spaghetti Whoops!

2011-11-18T19:12:00.000Z

You’re in a restaurant and things are going well but you have made what could be a fundamental mistake. You have ordered some kind of spaghetti. Not that there’s anything wrong with such a noodletastic meal in itself, it’s just that when it comes to eating it a disaster could potentially be lurking just around the corner.

How do you handle it? The whole wrapping it round a fork never really works because however dutifully you do it, there is always a strand that gets away, ends up leaving a trail everywhere or just falls back onto the plate. And what’s with the spoon? It would be easier to pile the spaghetti onto the spoon and eat it that way but apparently you are not supposed to do that. You are constantly aware that people are watching you wrestle with the food as it fails to conform to your directions.

There are two options. One is to cheat, distract your fellow diners with something intriguing (for example; “Was that a reindeer outside?” or “look President Obama is on that table over there.”) and while they are not looking wildly cut your spaghetti into much smaller pieces and hope nobody will notice. Or you can follow the rules as to how you should actually eat spaghetti.

Never let it be said that we are not educational when we want to be so here is how to avoid those embarrassing spaghetti work outs....

Hold the fork in your hand as if you are going to poke the spaghetti. Don’t do that though because it will make no difference, however much satisfaction you might gain. Scoop up a small amount of noodles on your fork and raise it well above the plate. Don’t take too much because you’ll either have to put far too much in your mouth or it will all just fall back in a big dollop.
Put the prongs of the fork straight down onto a part of the plate where there is no food (this shouldn’t be a problem given how enormous restaurant plates nowadays are)
Twirl the fork round to gather the noodles round the prongs. Gather it all up and plonk it in your mouth.

You might call it spaghettiete! And no, you don’t really need the spoon but you can use it to steady the process. If this doesn’t work, never order spaghetti or noodles again. In the meantime happy noodling!

War Stories part 3

2011-11-15T19:36:00.000Z

TOM GRATTAN’S WAR

EPISODE NOTES- SEASON TWO

W = writer(s) / D= director / TX = original transmission date

S2 E1: The Walking Bomb

Stan and Tom give a lift to a mysterious blind stranger with a distinctive case, but when Tom discovers his latest letter from the front is missing, he and Julie run into danger.

W: Frank Charles / D:Stephen Frears / TX: 10/04/70

The first of several episodes directed by Stephen Frears (now renowned for films like The Queen and Hi Fidelity) definitely has a bit of a different feel to it, though how much of this is due to the production team wanting to introduce slightly more mature plots this time round is not clear. Certainly we have moved on in time- this season begins virtually a year after Tom first came to Yorkshire- it’s now March 1916, the day of Tom’s 16^th birthday.

As a scene setter, this episode works effectively, sending Tom and Julie on a paper chase when he discovers his father’s letter missing and quickly revealing to us that the case contains explosives. Contrasting this caper with the Townsends of season 1, the intent is darker now. There is no joking about with either the blind man or his large accomplice Deacon while shading in some of the former’s past history in the war gives a more three dimensional feel to his villainy. At the climax, Blind Mickey as the Narrator informs us he’s called, captures Tom, along with a sleeping tramp he’s disturbed, at the disused railways station where he is preparing his plan while Julie escapes into the moors but is soon lost.

Frears frames his shots cinematically, as you’d expect, and is helped by a sullen sky over the moors and the dirty environs of the disused station. He seems to have also had the music turned down as there is noticeably less of it. The whole thing has a grim feel that perfectly suits Frank Charles’ script.

The title sequence has been slightly altered for this second season with a different news paper and war footage reflecting the passing of time and a slightly changed theme tune. Blind Mickey is played by Rio Fanning, who’s appeared in dozens of well known TV series over the years as diverse as Father Ted, All Creatures Great and Small, District Nurse, The Onedin Line and has also written TV scripts including several for Ballykissangel.

S2 E2: Blind Man’s Buff

The terrorists hide out in a railway station with Tom trying to find out what they are up to, without getting caught.

W: Frank Charles /D: Stephen Frears / TX: 17/04/70

It’s interesting to speculate what the Narrator will be doing at the start of each episode but you can guarantee that whatever it is, he will be sporting his tweed jacket.; here for example he is shovelling coal whilst wearing it!

As Tom, newly escaped, listens the episode reveals the extent of Blind Mickey’s plan and without explicitly saying so- this was 1970 remember- he is clearly a supporter of a united Ireland. He has no liking of Germans, he says, but hates the English. This makes him at once a more dangerous antagonist than any the series has had so far and a surprising twist when you would imagine his motivation would be simple revenge for his accident. His plan is to blow up a railway tunnel when a train full of troops is passing through it. With Julie falling into the clutches of the third plotter- named Soldier Boy- it’s left to Stan to pick up clues as he follows them.

The mood is lifted by the tramp being brought back to the Kirkbys to tell them what he knows; if he can have food and beer, “especially beer!” The cliff hanger reveals Mickey’s revised plan is to blow up a huge viaduct.

S2 E3: Bridge of Death

Tom has to stop the terrorists blowing up a bridge over which a train full of soldiers is due to travel.

W: Frank Charles / D:Stephen Frears / TX: 24/04/70

In another one of the set pieces the series does so well, the episode is mostly given over to a standoff at the viaduct. There’s an impressive number of soldiers at hand (most series have to make do with a handful) and some picturesque shots across the valley and up towards the viaduct itself. The climax where Tom has to pull a wire out of a detonator literally under Mickey’s nose is particularly exciting.

As you’d expect from Stephen Frears, a fair amount is shot without music, leaving the trickling of the water as the sound track and the action looks natural rather than choreographed. With the characters having established themselves earlier, little dialogue intrudes.

And Tom doesn’t get to do quite everything- Soldier Boy is despatched from the top of the viaduct by the soldiers themselves while it is Stan who manages to stop the train headed for the bombs, his method of corralling a flock of sheep onto the line being more effective than Tom’s attempts to shout it to a halt. And doesn’t Stan look chuffed about it!

S2 E4: The Coward

Tom encounters the grandson of a regimental sergeant who appears to be a coward.

W: Frank Charles / D:Stephen Frears / TX: 01/05/70

The first of a two part story in which Julie’s great Uncle Wally and his grandson Chris come to stay. The latter will turn 19 and enrol before the month (April 1916) is out and Tom assumes the other by is as eager to join the action as he is. However, in a narrative that rather cleverly wrong foots the viewer, he starts to think Chris is a coward.

The clues are small and Roy Holder plays the part by barely communicating with Tom, keeping his troubles bottled. He also sleepwalks which provides a surreal sequence. In case this all seems a bit light, George Malpas has fun as Stan imitates the boy’s marching with a pitchfork.

Uncle Wally is played by Bill Fraser, already well know for series like Bootsy and Snudge,
Roy Holder plays Chris- he was a regular character in the well known children’s series Ace of Wands.

S2 E5: Badge of Fear

Tom finds out the truth about Christopher’s cowardice.

W: Tony Essex / D:Stephen Frears / TX: 08/05/70

There’s a subtlety to this script that might be missed on one viewing. Bill Fraser plays to type the gruff, shouty retired soldier who drills his grandson (and Tom) as if they are in the barracks. This is the sort of role the actor played often but there are moments here where we can see the character really does care about Chris even if he is aghast at his apparent cowardice. And Tom’s enthusiasm for the front is given pause for thought too when Stan reads a poem that brings across the harrowing experiences in the trenches.

Eventually Chris ends up sleepwalking into the quarry, a situation from which Tom has tom rescue him and also discovers the truth behind his behaviour. You could say that by revealing there is a genuine reason why Chris acts as he does that has nothing to do with cowardice is dodging the issues raised but Tony Essex’s script does include him concluding that he is a coward in some respects for not telling anyone. It’s a refreshing story with no antagonist as such; just a group of people reacting as best they can to difficult circumstances.

Windsor Davies makes his second appearance in the series as the recruiting sergeant. The film clips shown at the recruitment meeting are the first moving pictures Tom has ever seen.

S2 E6: Eye for an Eye

One of the Kirkby’s neighbours, the Corders suffer the loss of their son in the war which has implications for them and for Tom.W: Tony Essex / D:Michael Blakstad / TX: 15/05/70As the opening narration reminds us, no area was untouched by news of death from home. It’s summer 1916 now and the war is at its height. We see Tom scanning the death lists in the newspaper, a reminder of the shadow hanging over his life but for the nearby Corder family, the worst comes true.

Tony Essex writes with balance, careful to include differing points of view and giving Michael Howe on of his more challenging episodes. Tom has to remain identifiable yet conflicted after he sees Amos Corder shoot one of the German prisoners working in the quarry. His view of Germans is mostly based on what he’s read in the papers, which often seem to portray them as vicious. Tom’s dilemma conflicts the viewer too- we can understand why he doesn’t reveal Amos’ identity because he doesn’t believe the farmer has committed a crime yet we know what the farmer did was wrong. Perhaps this story should have been done earlier in the series- it does rather overlook what Tom has learned in previous encounters with Germans and the way it’s made him re-consider things.

Nonetheless it is a gripping episode, laced with some excellent scenes featuring both Mrs Kirkby and Stan. As surrogate parents to Tom, both characters are a delight to watch- warm hearted yet practical, brash yet caring, they are essential bedrock for the stories. Here Connie Merigold is great as she delivers lines like “I don’t mean anything, only what I say.”

Jean Lockhart as Mrs Corner provides the human side of the situation, unsure what her missing husband will do – her scene with Tom is affecting and underscores the issues he has to face. As befits the tone, the cliff hanger is not a physical danger for Tom but a moral one.

Jack Wooglar, the lighthouse keeper in last season’s final two episodes, plays Amos

S2 E7: Five Minute Fuse

Tom and Stan are trapped above a quarry where Amos plans to explode dynamite and kill the German prisoners.

W: Tony Essex / D: Michael Blakstad / TX: 22/05/70

Tom and Stan track Amos down in a cave underneath the quarry but he holds them hostage till morning when he plans to set off his cache of stolen dynamite Jack Wooglar was a frequent guest in many a 60s TV show but this is one of his best appearances. Without histrionics he portrays Amos as a man destroyed by grief resorting to extreme reactions. It’s surprising how powerful the cave scenes are, director Michael Blaksted putting Amos’ haunted face close to the camera. You have a sense this will not end well and in the end there is a symmetry to the way Amos sacrifices himself yet Tom is able to shout a warning so that body else is killed.

Though no characters remark on it, the most striking thing about the climax is how one of the German prisoners shields Julie from the debris, shaking hands with her afterwards. Humanity triumphs over enmity in the end but as they walk away there are no triumphant shouts or smiles as in previous episodes and you can’t help thinking of what poor Mrs Corder has to bear now. Of all the more thoughtful stories, this is the one that best captures the conflicting morality of wartime behaviour and how there are no easy answers. It reminds you too of just what a talented cast the show had both in the regulars and the guest artistes.

S2 E8: Soldier from Margham

Tom encounters a mysterious soldier who thinks he is still at war.

W: Tony Essex / D:Ian McFarlane / TX: 29/05/70

Opening with some real WW1 footage, this episode tackles the issue of shell shock though the eyes of Tom when he meets a soldier hiding in an old house but in his head still in the battlefield. Director Ian McFarlane conjures up a suitably melodramatic atmosphere for the locale- all shadows and lightning flashes but in the ostensibly less showy side of the encounter it is Michael Howe who gives an assured performance. The actor’s ease by now with the role- and the character’s experience with wartime adventure lend him a more mature air here. There’s a very well shot sequence where Howe- and once again it is cleanly him- climbs across a wobbly rotting beam to the soldier’s aide.

The plot is a tad convoluted, perhaps to add some more action into an otherwise talky episode, but that doesn’t matter. Tom’s determination to help the soldier sits at the heart of matters and proves a superbly moral tale for the intended younger viewer.

Behind the scenes photo from Clive Hicks Jenkins' blog

S2 E9: Peddlar’s Ransom

Tom befriends an aristocratic boy whose carriage has been in an accident but they both end up in danger from a pair of peddlars.

W: Audley Southcott / D:Michael Blakstad / TX: 05/06/70

Just occasionally the series betrays its age – ruminating on how Tom has no friends of his own age, the narration adds “There is Julie- but she’s a girl and couldn’t possibly give him the companionship he needed”. The narrator might be surprised! Then we meet Lord Marcus Beck on his way to Harrow until his carriage crashes and soon he and Tom are competing at shooting and climbing trees. Then a couple of dodgy peddlars nick Lord Beck’s togs and the adventure begins.

While credulity is stretched a little by how quickly the two boys become mates, there are subtle touches such as the way Tom defers to Marcus several times. The peddlars are a piratey couple who seem genuinely dangerous adding to the tension of a cliff hanger where Julie- theoretically out to help Tom and Stan rescue Marcus- is captured in a grave yard.

Clive Hicks Jenkins who plays Lord Beck went to the Italia Conti school with Michael Howe so they were friends before appearing together in this episode and still keep in touch. These days, Clive is an artist and you can find out more on his blog at http://clivehicksjenkins.wordpress.com/

S2 E10: Ghost of Hookey Vale

The peddlers plot unfolds in the grimly named Hookey Vale..

W: Audley Southcott / D:Michael Blakstad / TX: 12/06/70

Our narrator seems to be relishing this episode, explaining the mechanics of kidnapping while brandishing a gun! Julie is now sent by the peddlers to get money from Beck’s parents at the vast Beck House; instead she meets a doddery butler who explains there is nobody there and gives her his wages to use.

The episode is strong on little details- the peddlers for example demand “five gold sovereigns” but these are not being produced because of the war- when Julie hands them notes they don’t believe they are of value. There’s the story of the ghost, related during the night when both Beck and Julie are prisoners. Director Michael Blakstad also gives it a lot of atmosphere.

The eventual rescue is played for laughs with Stan- a mischievous George Malpas - covered in flour giving it his best ghoulish moaning while Tom chucks stones at the windows. Fake ghost stories and kidnappings were a stock storyline for many children’s TV dramas of the 60s and 70s so it does feel familiar but the cast match the melodramatic tone well enough to make it interesting.

S2 E11: The Inventor

In an old castle, Tom and Julie encounter an inventor working on a new weapon- something the Germans are eager to get their hands on.

W: Frank Charles / D: Don Higgins / TX: 19/06/70

The war comes back into sharp focus when Tom receives word that his father has been wounded and he and Julie then encounter an engineer testing a new synchronised aircraft gun in an old castle. It’s one of those issues you never would have thought of but firing machine guns from 1915 era plans would risk splintering the propeller. Bert Norris has devised a method that links the gun mechanism to the engine.

Played with suitable zeal by Tony Selby, Norris is clearly a trusting type despite his top secret work. No sooner have the kids turned up than he has Tom helping him- Julie, though, is sent to make some tea, of course. Where the episode is slightly less successful is in its almost cartoonish portrayal of a couple of German agents whose demeanour is worlds away from the realistic portrayals we’ve seen of the Germans we’ve met in other episodes. In particular, Keller stalks about in uniform (in the middle of England!) shouting at or shooting at people in a rare mis-step for a series so careful to be three dimensional.

S2 E12: Castle of Terror

Trapped in the castle, can Tom foil the spies?

W: Audley Southcott / D: Don Higgins / TX: 26/06/70

Don Higgins adds much to these three episodes, shooting several action sequences in a hand held camera style more familiar to modern TV. He often shoots from above as Tom- who has returned to the castle after leaving his knife behind- is chased and shot at. Julie, meanwhile, goes for help only to run into the gypsies. The episode also offers a short scene where Tom’s oft stated ambition to join his father in the front line seems to have been brought into doubt after hearing of the latter’s injury. Amidst the rambunctious running about, this provides Michael Howe with a chance to show a different side to his acting and adds a context to the running around.

Stan, meanwhile, helps an English pilot fix his plane and in a scene that George Malpas fills with glee, Stan eventually persuades himself to accept the offer to fly in it. Needless to say the biplane adds a further depth- it looks real but may have been a reconstruction. Either way it literally anteaters the episode widening it s scope and making it feel more epic even though we only see a handful of characters. The cliff-hanger is another thrilling escape as Tom tries to get to a telephone only to find it doesn’t work. We have already seen the Germans cutting the wires so know that his mission is fruitless adding to the quality of what is one of the best episodes.

A scene from the final episode

S2 E13: Sky Patrol

An airborne chase ensues as Tom tries to follow the Germans in a bid to stop them escaping with their prisoners.

W: Audley Southcott / D: Don Higgins / TX: 03/07/70

The story climaxes as we want it to with Tom finally taking flight and whether he got very far off the ground it is clearly Michael Howe in the cockpit loving it! The thrills and spills of wartime drama are pulled out for this final episode with the plane pursing the German car- carrying both Julie and Norris- towards the coast.

It lands in time for a face off as Tom heroically confronts the villains in a two stage climax. Keller manages to steal the plane but makes the mistake of using the gun and cuts through the propellers and crashes in a dramatic and very convincing sequence. Then in an act of heroism that is quite unexpected in the moment but ultimately makes sense, Tom pulls Keller from the wreckage. Presumably writer Audley Southcott thought it would be unacceptable for any character to die so bluntly even if it was as a result of his own actions. The viewer is prepared for Keller to be dead (he has after all been something of a cut out German from the start), but Tom’s actions are in character and show how much he has learned in previous encounters. It provides the show with an inspirational finish underscored when the party get back to the farm and we find his father has returned.` Sky Patrol is like a bonsai war film with much packed into its 23 minutes and a fitting finale to this most enjoyable series.

This way up

Blakewatch - Week 8: Duel

Up-words - Big Secrets

When is a Play not a Play?

Blakewatch - Ep 7 Mission to Destiny

Up-words - The Gravity King

Unsafe as Houses

Blakewatch - Ep 6 Seek - Locate - Destroy

Up-words - A Very British Science Fiction

Blakewatch - Ep 5 The Web

Up-words - Crossing the Boundaries

Up-words- The Best of the Paper Issues of This way up 2002-10May 2002

Blakewatch - Time Squad

A Different Sort of War

Up-words

Blakewatch

Best of Enemies

Misfits Moving On

Ideal Holmes

Kind of Magic

Brilliant Minds

Christmas Trees

Winter's Reach

Time Frames

Snow Business

Missing Misfit Makes A Difference

The Third Assistant Director & The Showgirl

Everyone's A Fan Now

Wishful Thinking

Spellbound

Spaghetti Whoops!

War Stories part 3

Up-words- The Best of the Paper Issues of This way up 2002-10
May 2002