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Can't stop waching Homes Under the Hammer. It's even on the telly at the gym. I get dead upset when they show a house at the end and they haven't actually completely refurbished it.
 
The State Within, DVD. Joint BBC production with US company. Jason Isaacs as British Ambassador to the US, Sharon Gless as Secretary of Defence, also starring Ben Daniels, Neil Pearson, Lennie James, Eva Birthistle.........plane blown up over Washington by bomb set of by British Muslim, or was it, and that's the opening two minutes? Brilliant television, fantastic cast, twists and turns all over the place.
 
Did anyone watch this last night

Philomena, the Oscar-nominated, multi-award-winning movie about Philomena Lee’s 50-year search for the son stolen from her by nuns and given up for adoption, captivated the world.

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It was a depressing tale, but leavened by a semi-happy ending: Philomena discovered what became of her baby and forgave those who had wrenched them apart.

It’s to be hoped that journalist Martin Sixsmith, who wrote the book on which the film is based and was portrayed on screen by Steve Coogan, receives the same appreciative audience for his follow-up documentary, Ireland’s Lost Babies, which goes out on BBC2 tonight Wednesday September 17 and RTE1 tomorrow Thursday September 18.

It’s a vitally important, devastatingly powerful piece of work that will move you to tears one moment and blood-boiling outrage the next. Just don’t expect a re-run of Philomena. You’ll look in vain here for even the slightest hint of a happy ending.

After the film was released, Sixsmith was contacted by other individuals with stories to tell. Some were mothers whose babies the nuns had taken away and sold, like items of merchandise from a mail order catalogue (which is essentially how they were regarded), to well-off American couples. The average cost of the transaction was $320; there was an understanding that generous “donations” from the adoptive parents would follow.

Others were the very children who had been torn from their birth mothers’ embrace and transported across the Atlantic.

But the documentary begins in rural Ireland, where Sixsmith meets Lily Boyce, who kept her pregnancy secret from everyone right up to the moment of birth. Her outraged mother led Lily and her newborn son, who she named Joseph, to the gates of Castlepollard Mother and Baby Home, one of the many grim dives where young women and their ‘illegitimate’ children were locked away like dirty little secrets.

When Joseph was 17 months, the nuns told Lily to dress him so he could go to his new family. She was allowed to wave to him from the top of the stairs as he was led away. Lily eventually succeeded in contacting Joseph and received a letter from him. But there has been no Long Lost Family-style ending.

Cathy Deasy arrived in New York City in 1958 when she was four. Her new parents had never set foot on Irish soil. “It was all done by mail,” she tells Sixsmith. At first, Cathy was happy — the lucky recipient of an idyllic childhood.

But when her older adoptive sister flew the nest to California, her father turned against Cathy. The money in her college fund was blown on a cruise. When she turned 18, she was thrown out of the house. Her parents sold up and moved to California to be with their biological daughter, abandoning Cathy.

She was finally reunited with her birth mother, who has since died, on a trip to Ireland. Home movie footage shows their touching meeting, but also Cathy’s confrontation with the nun who had the information she’d been seeking half her life at her fingertips, yet had refused to pass it on.

You can hardly grade one act of cruelty against another, yet there are other stories here that reveal even deeper levels of wickedness.

The real Martin Sixsmith is less visibly angry than Coogan’s screen incarnation; you, however, will have anger to spare after this.

Ireland's Lost Babies: TONIGHT, BBC2, 9PM; TOMORROW, RTE1, 10PM
- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/entertain...e-the-next-30593309.html#sthash.Ji04IqEO.dpuf


Well worth a watch.
 
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Instead of the above two, I watched Traders: Millions By The Minute over on Beeb2.
Highly entertaining and educational, it featured half-a-dozen home traders playing the Forex markets ( worth 5 Trillion dollars a day apparently). The home traders ranged from one guy who has made a couple of million to a rather sad case who has earned zilch in his seven years of trading.
Some excellent one-liners off the cuff from the participants ...........
"Set your price and wait for the Market to come to you".

"The majority of people think about the possible winnings; the successful traders focus on the possible losses".
 
Desert Orchid said:
Just watched episode 2 of Cilla. Excellent stuff.
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Sheridan Smith has turned into a cracking actress since her 'Two Pints of Lager' days. She's even doing all the singing in this, better than Cilla?

She was also excellent playing Ronnie Biggs' wife in Mrs. Biggs.
 
Sons of Anarchy. Thought I'd give it a go as the creator was one of the main guys behind The Shield.

So far so good but it makes me laugh that here you have a show featuring a very violent Motorcycle gang and like Breaking Bad (and we all know the main protagonist's MO in that drama) it seems the most dislikable character is the main matriarchal figure. It could be argued Carmella was more annoying than Tony as well.


Can't believe the main guy is the young blonde lad in Queer as Folk. That show has turned into a good training ground for high class American dramas.
 
The red wedding is the only one I've watched - and I only found that because Zoe ball kept going on about how shocking the ending was.... Not sure I could manage to watch more than a few, it was amazing but way too gorey for my liking, I'm a dainty soul normally !!!!
 
I love the Superhero rubbish so I am downloading and watching Graceland, Arrow, Person of Interest, The Flash, Shield and The Blacklist.

I initially didn't fancy watching Gotham but downloaded a few days ago. Glad I did it's as good or better than any on the above

One serious for me that is outdoing them all is "Strike Back" A must if you have't seen it

Unfortunately Sully Stapleton while here in downtown Bangkok, got a bit carried away and fell out of a tuk tuk and landed on his head.

Poor guy was badly injured and missed all of the build up to his big movie break in "300" and the final 10 episodes won't be ready until 2015
 
For a comedy, I thought You're the Worst was really funny, although its finished in the US now, hopefully it will be shown over here. Still enjoying New Girl, and Marry Me is ok.

Other stuff I'm enjoying, Blacklist, POI, Madam Secretary is very good, The Good Wife goes from strength to strength, Walking Deda, as usual, first episode was brilliant but think they blew 80% of the budget on it as the 2nd was meh, Legends was very good, Homeland has started well, much better than season 3, The Affair might be ok, haven't decided yet, and Franklin and Bash i really enjoy.

Haven't watched Gotham yet.
 
My viewing consists of:

The Blacklist (just hurry and and tell us the connection!)
Arrow (good solid story and enough humour to laugh at itself)
Sleepy Hollow (quirky and fun with endless storylines)
Once Upon A Time (eye candy = Hook)
The Flash (promising beginning and tie in with Arrow)
Vampire Diaries (on its last fangs but sticking with it!)
The Originals (much better story lines than its daddy TVD)
Reign (took a while to get into but once you ignore the history element its bearable!)
Bones (another def on its last legs wouldnt be surprised if this is the last season)
Marvel Agents of Shield (glad stuck with it as it all built up to the Captain America 2 film and is going great now)

Cant beat GoT - never read the books and pleased that I didnt. Red Wedding was like WOW. Let us know when you had done Season 4!

Peaky Blinders is gripping if its your bag - def a marmite programme
Our Girl just finished on BBC - stoopid story but made a nice change from all the US stuff I overdose on

Downton Abbey has picked up this season but again if its got another 2 left thats about it.

(OK I admit theres a theme - most of them have either a British male lead or total fantasy story!)
 
I love Peaky Blinders; partly because of the incredible soundtrack and partly because I'm a Brummie girl. But last weeks episode bothered me. He's bought a filly to run in the Derby and it's trained by a woman at a time when women weren't allowed to train. Ok; I know that fillies can run in the Derby and that women could train as long as someone elses name was on the licence but I can't help but feel that the writers haven't done their homework properly. Maybe the reasons for these anomalies will become clear [other than the trainer being Tommy's latest love interest] but it's bugging me.
 
moehat said:
I love Peaky Blinders;
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The problem I'm having with season2 of Peaky Blinders is the production/directing of the episodes. It's shot as if it were a pop video -- the slo-mo walking etc, the posing, the incongruous soundtrack music. It's far too stylised for my liking. Overdone. It's like it is really "up itself". Trying to be too smart for its own good.
 
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