Detectorists

 

More than a decade after it started  and three years since it ended, Detectorists remains a treat. Back in 2014 the idea that a series could sustain a tale of two mates whose hobby is metal detecting might have seemed unlikely yet over ten years later Detectorists has surely secured its place in the pantheon of memorably tv? In fact, its probably up there in the `must watch more than once` tv. Though set in the present day the series has a timeless appeal which won’t date. Many of its cultural references hark back to earlier decades and its premise encompasses centuries of history. Yet it is built on a small scale with scenes often involving little more than idle chat and banter or geeky talks about buttons and suchlike. It mightn’t work with many series but it definitely does in this one.

 

Fairies (1978)

 

BBC play that tells the story of the Cottingley Fairies photos- just five years before the truth emerged.

Can you imagine if someone took a photograph of a strange creature now and posted it on Instagram how much fuss there would be? It would be trending in minutes. In 1917 this was not the case. Photographs were almost exclusively for private use so it’s not unusual that after two girls had taken pictures of what appeared to be real fairies they lay untouched for three years until a chance sighting of the pictures led to what was a lot of excitement around the world. The sensation was heightened when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, by then a world famous author, believed that the pictures were real. It ignited a debate; a tabloid frenzy and differing opinions from the villagers whose quiet life was interrupted when word got out where these fairies apparently were. It’s a true story and BBC4 recently showed Fairies, a Play of the Week drama, first broadcast in 1978. It’s a pity it was made four years before he truth was finally uncovered…

 

Oil Strike North

 

The North sea oil boom was a huge thing in the 1970s. In theory it was supposed to make the UK self-sufficient in oil supplies instead of relying on the Arab countries who dominated the market. It was controversial in many ways. There were suggestions that Scotland, off whose coast the oil fields sat, did not receive enough of the profits while others argued that the environmental cost was not worth it. For a period, the industry thrived and there were benefits for the communities adjacent to the fields. Given such topicality it is no wonder a tv drama was commissioned in the form of Oil Strike North. The name sounds exciting and the series suggests that oil companies competed, sometimes ruthlessly, over the fields and there was much wheeling and dealing. It also depicts the pressurised environment on the rigs themselves, cut off from land amidst harsh weather

 

War and Peace (1972) Parts 19 & 20

 

Episode Nineteen- The Road to Life

An episode that shows the aftermath of the war once the French have been expelled from Russia culminates in a ceremony to honour General Kutusov whereas behind closed doors we see the Tsar expressing some dissatisfaction as to the way the campaign was conducted. The old man ends up having to agree that he needs to retire as the Tsar decides he will lead the army from now on. Frank Middlemass is often an actor of large gestures but his work in this scene is subtly still yet with just a hint of the disdain the Marshal clearly feels towards the country’s ruler. Outside a grand ball continues as if nothing has happened in recent years.

War and Peace (1972) Parts 15 to 18

 

Episode Fifteen- Moscow!

“He’s caught his bear but he’s trapped in the cage with it” is Marshal Kutusov’s accurate opinion of Napoleon’s situation. We see the French Emperor arrive in Moscow feeling he can be generous in victory, talking of a strict but compassionate regime and he quickly sends for dignitaries to speak to. He soon learns the truth that anyone of rank has left the city in the hands of looters and arsonists determined to let Moscow burn rather than allow the French to properly occupy it. It is a gripping opening alright as Napoleon struts around a very grand room – yet another impressive set- and declares he will have his office here even though the place is the size of a small church and similarly decorated. Yet his confidence soon turns to anger and its noticeable that his ideas shift with every development which his Generals can all  see. It’s a well calibrated performance from David Swift who revels in Napoleon’s force of will yet shows his frustrations too.

War and Peace (1972) Parts 12 to 14

 

Episode Twelve- Fortunes of War

The rigour with which this story tackles different aspects of war yet also seamlessly draws together the different characters is never more evident than in this episode. Without showing us any actual fighting the impact of the campaign is illustrated in a number of ways. There is an impressive early shot of the French advance filmed with hand held cameras that has a quality like news footage you’d expect in modern productions. Almost casually the camera picks up more and more soldiers in the distance showing the size of the invading army. Once again the modern viewer has to remember that this is not digitally created- all those extras were actually present. It is so authentic looking I was half expecting a reporter to be brought into shot describing the advance!

War and Peace (1972) Parts 8 to 11

 

Episode Eight- A Beautiful Tale

It is not just battles that this series stages impeccably. This episode’s centrepiece is a lavish ball which is the most impressive example of such an event I have seen done in a tv drama series. Usually with this sort of thing you get a handful of dancers shot close up to avoid revealing the limited number of extras or space available. It is meant to give the impression of there being many more participants but often you can tell there aren’t.  Here we have dozens of dancers gliding about in a vast room and just to ensure we know it, we see the shot from all angles. Sometimes the camera is ceiling height looking down on the symmetry of it all, other times we’re deep in the dance following people round. There’s no stinting on the soundtrack either with a large set of musicians playing what are presumably authentic period pieces. As a way of making you feel as if you are there it is superbly constructed. Yet the finished scenes do not feel over organised or placed; instead there is still the feel of people enjoying themselves despite the formal nature of the dances and the bright lights. In fact not even some movies can marshall such an impressive display.

W1A Series 3

It’s about the BBC but really W1A’s pin sharp observations of corporate behaviour would fit many a business.  Set mostly in the bizarrely colourful New Broadcasting House which is replete with gaudy impractical furniture and rooms named after television icons, the series follows the travails of Ian Fletcher the BBC’s head of Values as he tries – in the benignly careworn manner only Hugh Bonneville is so skilled at conveying – to steady the accident prone Corporation through the choppy waters of a landscape it is ill suited to exist in. There is a lot of truth in the narrative of the show if you choose to notice but it is also gloriously funny. 

Breadxit!

The Great British Bake Off will never be the same again. 

On the face of it a programme moving from one channel to another should not make much of a stir in this day and age. After all we are continuously told that people don’t bother with scheduled TV much now and prefer to watch on demand  However the news that The Great British Bake Off will be moving to Channel 4 next year has provoked quite a furore (plus some witty headlines). More than anything It seems to symbolise the declining power of the BBC which is snared in a trap whereby success is discouraged. Which rather seems at odds with the idea that it is a public service broadcaster therefore should offer what a lot of people (ie licence fee payers) actually want to see. People have (rightly) made a fuss about this yet just a few months ago wasn’t there a call for the Corporation to offload its greatest successes and not try to compete with commercial channels? The BBC cannot do both so which is it to be? Or is this just another cut in a death by a thousand cuts?  

Blogmas#1 Sprouts for Christmas!

If you’ve watched any of the BBC this week you can’t have failed to have noticed the advert featuring a sprout. Sprout Boy as he is known is the Corporation’s unusual choice for their festive mascot this year and features in an animated trail for the season.  In a Christmassy mess (a Christmess?) our green hero can’t get anyone interested in him until he stumbles upon a house where all the BBC’s stars live together- I always knew this happened- and is accepted and made welcome. He’s happy, we’re all happy. However one word of caution- surely Sprout Boy is destined for the Christmas table along with other veg and potatoes? He may be celebrating prematurely! I bet an hour earlier the BBC house welcomed Sally Stuffing and now she’s warming in the kitchen!

Doctor Who The Magician's Apprentice

Doctor Who The Magician’s Apprentice
BBC One, Saturday 19^th September 2015
Review by Sean Alexander
Starring: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Jemma Redgrave, Jami Reid-Quarrell
Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Hettie MacDonald
“Where is the Doctor…?”
Spoilers – dontcha hate ‘em?  In this saturated multimedia world we are now enforced to live in, avoiding anything from sports results, soap storylines or what’s happening in the next series of Doctor Who is only achievable with hermit levels of reclusiveness.  Even if you try your best they’re there on the front of TV guides, in Twitter feeds or on the sides of double-decker buses.  The price of living in a multichannel landscape that has hundreds of channels demanding your attention is that a certain amount of ‘spoilering’ is now deemed necessary rather than optional.  Soaps plaster their storylines all over the tabloid press and TV Quick, while those notorious ‘moles’ that seemingly get wind of even the most covert of TV secrets are so invidious you can only assume they’re also on the programmes’ payroll.  Russell T Davies, himself far from being a stranger to ‘sexing up’ his own products once called them ‘ruiners’, and that’s exactly what they do nine times out ten.  Past the visceral thrill of discovering (blank) is the new (blank) in the first episode of (blank), these ruiners just leave us marking time while watching the final programme until our suspicions are confirmed, rendering their impact hollow and empty.  It’s a tightrope that Doctor Who has trodden with mixed success since 2005, with notable wins (Jenna as Oswin the Dalek, Capaldi’s eyebrows) and losses (Yana is the Master, 11^th’s final phone call to the future Clara) that are as much down to carefully guarded choices as the very real presence of the show’s filming on the streets of London and Cardiff.  But tonight felt like another of those defeats, in more ways than one.
Warning- Spoilers past this point

Save the BBC!

The BBC is always under attack from somewhere. If it’s not because of a particular incident or programme it is about the way the Corporation exists in todays’ very different television landscape. Lately this debate has intensified as the government seems eager to listen more to the BBC’s critics than its defenders. It doesn’t seem to matter that many who accuse the BBC are themselves rivals eager to sink the Corporation. They have played right into the hands of a British government eager to make the BBC weaker.  At the heart of the current debate is the BBC’s commercial aspirations.
It has been suggested that they sell off their online operation and commercial operations (basically the BBC website and BBC Worldwide) and stop making programmes that are obviously competing for ratings like The Voice or Strictly Come Dancing. This argument is clever in a way because if this were to happen the BBC’s ratings certainly would fall, it would be seen as less important and the next round of arguments would be along the lines of the decline of the BBC. How to revive it? Oh why not sell off the whole thing?

The Musketeers Season 2

Why didn’t more people watch The Musketeers second series?

It’s a scenario akin to an end of the football season relegation struggle when something unexpected happens and the team stays up after all. Thus it was that mid- way through the on//off broadcast of the second series The Musketeers had a third confirmed even though the ratings this year ranged from disappointing to disastrous. Someone somewhere in a position of authority clearly likes the series otherwise it would almost certainly have been axed. In this case though, unlike other shows that suffer a ratings decline, the show is improving rather than getting worse. Indeed it could well be that years from now this little seen second season will be uncovered as a lost gem, something that slipped under the radar for a number of reasons.

The Billion Dollar Chicken Shop

BBC documentary goes behind the scenes at KFC.

You’d be hard pressed to imagine it is possible to accumulate three hour’s worth of interesting material on the running of the major fast food business KFC without considerable repetition and you’d be right. What would have been an interesting two part or even single documentary is stretched too thinly across three weeks resulting in an unfocussed programme containing a lot of tiny detail but lacking much wider perspective. There are some funny moments and interesting characters but this food is definitely not fast.  There is also the odd habit of flashing up short sequences of thousands of live chickens waddling around a huge barn every so often as if subliminally reminding us that many chickens were harmed during the making of this production!

Mayday

It’s always refreshing to find a gem of a tv programme lurking and recently I found Mayday which I had never watched for no particular reason. A 5 part serial shown on BBC1 it definitely has a feel of Broadchurch about it. As both were shown very close together in early 2013 this is a case of synergy but it is obviously true that Broadchurch made a much bigger impression. In the event similarities are more superficial; Broadchurch relies very much on the effect the case has on its participants and onlookers across a broad spectrum of characters. It plays as much on the drama tradition of village life- even though not technically set in a village- as it does anything. Mayday narrows its field of vision to an edgier place. It singles out specific characters that start to believe someone near to them may have committed the crime. We see their discoveries, reactions and actions, some of which put them into the frame themselves. Plus it makes the central crime itself more ephemeral- whereas Broadchurch pivots around a murder almost from the off Mayday’s potential victim is initially missing. Is she dead or has she run away? We don’t know till part four and this adds a note that makes for compelling viewing.

Top of the Pops 1979 13 December 1979

Guest Post by Chris Arnsby

BBC4: Top of the Pops 1979 13/12/79

Mike Read, "Well the week's flown past. It's Top of the Pops again, and here's David Bowie to sing over the chart run down."

The 1979 Top of the Pops repeats stutter to an end. Two December shows are unrepeatable; a regular edition for 20/12/79 presented by J**** S*****; and a post-Christmas special from 27/12/79 with D*v* L** Tr*v*s and Mike Read. The Christmas Day special presented by Peter Powell and Kid Jensen goes out on BBC4 on Christmas Eve. Looking over the skipped editions reveals no significant omissions although we do miss a chance to see Legs & Co dancing to Mike Oldfield's Blue Peter theme. If you must see it, it's on Youtube. They're dressed as sexy sailors, natch. Oh, while you're there watch Simon Groom's Blue Peter report on the making of the theme.

Chart music: David Bowie, John I’m Only Dancing (Again) [23].

Fiddler's Dram: Day Trip To Bangor (Didn’t We Have A Lovely Time) [26]. Fiddler's Dram crop up fairly often on worst-of-the-top-ten-novelty-one-hit-wonder lists so they didn't give me the traumatic unpacking of memories I experienced when The Ramblers hit the charts. Also, this is a song I remembered from the inevitable spoof by The Barron Knights ("Didn't we have a lovely time at the office Christmas party"), and it's one I remember liking at the time. It's not necessarily a bad song (I'm trying to choose my words with care here), it's simple, and catchy, and doesn't sound like anything else in the charts, so I can see why it would have caught my attention as I moved up from being a Boney M obsessed eight year old to an Adam and the Ants obsessed nine year old (with a brief detour on the way to run around the playground shouting "Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!"). Watched now the tune is still a weapon grade earworm and I find my eye drawn to the bloke with the perm so enormous that all he can do is shake his head from side to side.

Top of the Pops 1979 6.12.79

Guest Post: Chris Arnsby 

BBC4: Top of the Pops 1979 6/12/79

Simon Bates, "Welcome to Top of the Pops with Que Sera Mi Vida and  The Gibson Brothers."

Simon Bates gets his first go on Top of the Pops. He's been working for Radio 1 since 1975 but this is his first appearance on television. It's not clear why its taken him four years to make the leap from radio to television but until August 1979 he presented the Sunday chart countdown on Radio 1; maybe the BBC didn't want him to become associated with both chart programmes?

Chart music: The Gibson Brothers: Que Sera Mi Vida (If You Should Go) [5].

Darts: Reet Petite [54]. Of course an alternative explanation for Simon Bates' long absence from Top of the Pops might be that no one thought he was any good. Maybe it's first night nerves but he's awkward and uncharismatic and he's wearing a terrible jumper. Mistake number one of the night comes when he describes Darts' unremarkable cover as being "Little Richards' Reet Petite." Surely any fule kno that Jackie Wilson sang Reet Petite?  

Top of the Pops 79 01.11.79

BBC4: Top of the Pops 1979 01/11/79

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby

Mike Read, "It's Thursday night and time for one of the longest running serials on television, Top of the Pops. And here to sing over the charts, Sad Cafe."

Chart music: Sad Cafe, Every Day Hurts [3]

Sparks: Tryouts For The Human Race [45]. Presented in Ron Mael-ascope! A ghostly  Ron Mael is superimposed over Sparks' performance; lit luridly in alternating green, red and blue shades. Imagine what that must have looked like being recorded. A single camera pointing up at Ron Mael as he glares into the lens for three minutes, occasionally bashing at his head to emphasise the song's percussion. If only the raw videotape still existed. Just when you think it can't get any better vision mixer Carol Abbott turns up the electronic effects. Now there are three Rons; like that bit in the Doctor Who story Earthshock when the Cyber-Leader booms, "my army awakes."

Sparks: Ron spots a Ninja

Top of the Pops 1979 25.10.79

BBC4: Top of the Pops 1979 25/10/79

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby

Peter Powell, "Hello! It's the chart show on tv! And on your radio select hit 26! It's Top of the Pops!"

Chart music: The Selector: On My Radio [26]. The Specials feat. Rico: A Message To You Rudy[41]. The Specials (feat. Rico) do their best but it all goes to waste in front of the thunderous gaze of the Top of the Pops audience. The mood of the crowd can be judged from the opening pan around the stage. Nearly everyone seems to be standing still with their arms folded; determined not to have a good time. Did The Specials make an offensive gesture at the crowd just before recording began?

Top of the Pops 1979 11.10.79

Reviewed by Chris Arnsby

Andy Peebles, "Good evening and welcome to another edition of Top of the Pops and let's straight away have a look at this week's brand new top thirty."

Chart music: Al Hudson & The Partners, You Can Do It.

The Dooleys: The Chosen Few [16]. Who, what, why, when? Four questions which need answering. Who liked The Dooleys enough to keep buying their records? What were they thinking? Why did this keep happening? When will The Dooleys stop appearing on Top of the Pops. This must be their last performance... right? RIGHT?