What are you watching

I thought The Go Between was excellent [as was An Inspector Calls]. Lady Chatterly was pretty bad and almost made me stop watching on Sunday nights, in fact, I did say last week that there was a limit to how many programmes of this kind I could watch on a Sunday evening. Compounded by the fact that I'd read that the way forward for the Beeb was to produce lots of dramas of this kind to sell on [a la Poldark] but was still going to scrap my beloved BBC4 [sob].Annoyingly catchup only has series 5 of Ripper Street from 5 onwards but I have made a start with them, having sort of watched episodes one and two. I don't think the planned series of 4 and 5 is a good idea and it might run out of steam [it's already done a Dallas type back from the dead thing has it not].G-G; do you not find Long Susan quite fascinating?? I'm now going to throw Dixon of Dock Green into the spaghetti western/Titus Groan analogy of RS.As for the language, I have to watch it with subtitles in an attempt to make out what on earth they're talking about...I don't think it's meant to be Victorian English but a made up language..unfortunately it dawned on me last night that it's either modelled on Russell Brands way of speaking or he has based himself on it.....I think I may, in the future be having to tie myself to some railings in an attempt to save the Beeb..and now Channel 4 is under threat. Adverts apart it's still the best channel of it's kind and finances a lot of good British films.
 
I really enjoyed the first series of Ripper Street, didn't like the second so much and then it sort of fell by the wayside. Maybe I'll have another go.
 
If you do can you explain to me episode by episode what's actually happening? What I do like about it is that each episode can be watched on it's own without much prior knowledge but then everything interlinks eventually [at least, it would if I understood what was going on]. The episode with Blake, Rose and the little caged birds was so sad...My son gave me the dvd of Snow White and I thought it was rubbish but caught a bit of it on the telly last night and thought it was quite watchable [wouldn't have wanted to see it at the cinema though].
 
Lol - my usual watching is Rizzoli and Isles, Castle and other such American comedyish crime things - i doubt very much I will understand any of Ripper Street enough to be able to explain !!! You need someone like Kirsty for that, she is much more fastidious (I think that's the word I need) with TV shows than I am - I watch purely for enjoyment and don't tend to take much in at all about things that go on or are right/wrong with things !!
 
Enjoying Cradle to Grave on BBC2 which is based on Danny Bakers' memoirs.

Not sure about Peter Kays' southern accent,but once you get used to it it doesn't detract from things.

They even managed to recreate the football scene from Kes in the last episoide and did it well with the coach ironically being called Mr Glover.
John Henshaw played the role made famous of course by the late Brian Glover.

Gareth Hale even turned up as the wonderfully named Teddy Arseholes.
I leave it to you to see where the name came from, it is quite funny.

For those who grew up in the 70's it will bring back a few memories, such as the introduction of the VCR (although I don't remember us getting one until the early 80's), recording music onto tape from LP's and the radio,dodgy wallpaper and the fashions of the day.
 
Quick heads up - anyone interested, they are showing Ripper Street on alibi at 10pm on Sundays ( I only know because I've just watched castle !) tonight is series 1 episode 3, so should be available easily on catch up for the others and I should think they might carry on through the series maybe....
 
Have just watched the new X-Files trailer "The Truth is still out there" and as a fan on the X-Files I'm looking forward to the new 6 part series coming in January. I'm hoping it will be shown in the U.K at the same time as it rolls out in the States, but I'm not sure.
Either way I will watch it at some point.
 
To celebrate it's 25th birthday, IMDB has released the results of its poll:- "25 most popular TV series as voted by imdb users".

Can you guess the winner? :)

I'ld agree that the vote winner is a landmark in television. (Personally, I loved it).

Vote Results
 
My diagnosis is a clear case of Simply Red Syndrome plaguing members of Club 18-30

Sherlock, yes indeedy and I assume there's a new series on the way

Other than that, I saw bits and pieces of Twin Peaks and X-Files, and of course read (again, again and again) all of Herge's Adventures of Tintin; but the rest have bypassed me, or I them
 
Haven't heard of lots of the series in that list either. But, as I'm rapidly becoming a 'cumberbitch' after seeing The Imitation Game, I recently bought the box set of Sherlock, never having seen it. When it comes to the X Files I always think of the episode about the man who could kept coming up through the pipes, albeit always wondering why Gillian Anderson never had a torch with her. Who'd've thought she would become such a big star over here [my favourite Miss Havisham ever.]I've just watched the whole of The White Queen, having dismissed it as a load of rubbish first time round [as if someone would stand by the side of the road to meet the king who would then fall in love and marry her; pah!]However, after reading the Phillippa Gregory book [albeit a rather sensationalised version of history but still with a lot of historical accuracy]and visiting Middelham Castle and Richard III's grave I dipped into it again and was glued to the telly for several nights. Certainly a most fascinating period of English history and largely overlooked till Ms Gregory 'discovered' it and Richard was also unearthed. What with that new historical series starting on Thursday and a new series of Detectorists [can it POSSIBLY be as good as the first???] I can only be thankful that I've retired and can stay up all night watching things. And I'm loving 'Rivers' too....
 
Blimey - after Sherlock ( I'm not counting the top 20 GoT moments as that's all I've seen of that) I have to go right to 15 to coupling before I've seen anything else !! Then I finish with the flourish that is Father Ted...

Wow.
 
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Most I hadn't seen but I did enjoy True Detective until friend who recorded it for me wiped last 3 episodes before I'd seen them.

Surprised Fargo isn't there - thought the first series was excellent. Roll on tonight for the return.
 
moehat said:
I've just watched the whole of The White Queen, having dismissed it as a load of rubbish first time round [as if someone would stand by the side of the road to meet the king who would then fall in love and marry her; pah!]However, after reading the Phillippa Gregory book [albeit a rather sensationalised version of history but still with a lot of historical accuracy]and visiting Middelham Castle and Richard III's grave I dipped into it again and was glued to the telly for several nights. Certainly a most fascinating period of English history and largely overlooked till Ms Gregory 'discovered' it and Richard was also unearthed. What with that new historical series starting on Thursday
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Glad you enjoyed The White Queen; I recall some banter with you on TRF regarding its merits, which were flawed but still very good and most enjoyable. If I had to name a period of history that fascinates me most it would be loosely centred on the Wars of the Roses and the infighting between the descendents of Edward III

English history ends for me in 1603 with the death of Good Queen Bess and the arrival of those useless Stuarts

Middleham Castle is a superb ruin isn't it?

What's this new historical series starting on Thursday? I haven't bought the Radio Times since the mid-80s
 
'The Last Kingdom' from the Bernard Cornwell books about the Saxons. Strange thing about tv programmes, films and books is that you have to find them plausible and the characters either hateful or likeable. Even if the whole basis if the story is implausible [eg Rivers] something has to kick in to make you believe it and enter that world [even when it's historically accurate.] I always found Bamburgh so chocolate box'y that I had no sense of the past there until I read that Warwick the Kingmaker had besieged the castle at one time, which changed my whole perception of the place. Bernard Cornwells ancestor 'Eider the Flamebearer' [I'm not making it up, honest] took Beddanburg Castle [now Bamburgh] for the Saxons. What was fascinating about the 'Cousins Wars' was the way that people had to live with people that had murdered their family and pretend it had never happened for the sake of peace and the safety of their remaining family [something we probably need to re learn how to do in this day and age perhaps].However, Middleham is now probably my favourite place in the universe and the Richard III my favourite pub.
 
....I still can't work out Henry VII's claim to the throne, though, as it was through his mother who was only married to the king prior to marrying his father..and did Elizabeth's daughter really plan to marry her uncle Richard? Not a good idea from a gene pool perspective perhaps.
 
Gold+1 one of the funniest scenes ever where partridge makes a conference room out of a toilet door and still has me laughing on the floor
 
Moehat and Drone, I URGE you to read The Sunne In Splendour by Sharon Penman. And then read the rest of her books about the WOTR and the Plantagenets. Sunne In Splendour is a fantastic book, starts with Warwick The King Maker, through Edward, Henry V1, Richard and the beginning of the legacy of Bosworth. I like some of Gregory's books but Penman blows her out of the water.
 
moehat said:
....I still can't work out Henry VII's claim to the throne, though, as it was through his mother who was only married to the king prior to marrying his father..and did Elizabeth's daughter really plan to marry her uncle Richard? Not a good idea from a gene pool perspective perhaps.
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Henry VII's claim to the throne was tenuous and I reckon the only reason he remained king was his wise marriage to Elizabeth of York, who was a daughter of Edward IV, a neice of Richard III and sister to 'the princes in the tower': this union brought together the Yorkist and Lancastrian lineages thus ending the Wars of the Roses

Henry VII had weak claims through both his father Edmund Tudor, who was a maternal half-brother to Henry VI; and in my opinion a still weaker claim through his mother Margaret Beaufort, a great-grandaughter of the originator of the Lancastrian lineage, John O'Gaunt (1st Duke of Lancaster)

Mind you, the claims of the regal descendents (Edward IV and Richard III) of John's brother Edmund of Langley (1st Duke of York), the originator of the Yorkist lineage, were also dubious

Little wonder all these cousins x-times removed and half-kin were at each others throats for a hundred-or-so years

There's a racing connection here: If history were different and it was Henry VII and not Richard III killed at Bosworth then it's plausible that former trainer Willie Hastings-Bass (17th Earl of Huntingdon) would be king today, as he descends directly from George, Duke of Clarence (Richard III's brother) via his grand daughter Margaret Pole ('the last of the Plantagenets') whose own grand-daughter Catherine Pole married Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon

Confused? I continue to be, but it's all fascinating stuff and greater minds than mine have debated the Yorkist/Lancastrian web-of-intrigue and no doubt will continue to do so

I'll reserve judgement on 'The Last Kingdom' having only seen the first episode so far. There looks to be a decent tale emerging but first impressions are too much disjointed action and gore, not enough dialogue
 
G-G said:
Moehat and Drone, I URGE you to read The Sunne In Splendour by Sharon Penman. And then read the rest of her books about the WOTR and the Plantagenets. Sunne In Splendour is a fantastic book, starts with Warwick The King Maker, through Edward, Henry V1, Richard and the beginning of the legacy of Bosworth. I like some of Gregory's books but Penman blows her out of the water.
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Thanks GG, that's new to me so will check it out
 
moehat said:
....I still can't work out Henry VII's claim to the throne, though, as it was through his mother who was only married to the king prior to marrying his father..and did Elizabeth's daughter really plan to marry her uncle Richard? Not a good idea from a gene pool perspective perhaps.
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No he didn't - Richard plan to marry Elizabeth. Absolutely no way. Apart from anything else he put out 'an announcement' that he had no intention. ( Covered in Sunne In Splendour) Stay at the Richard 111 when I can when visiting my 'baby' , first foal out of my mare. Now two and half and I am really lucky that the people who own him don't mind that I go and see him.
 
Drone said:
There's a racing connection here: If history were different and it was Henry VII and not Richard III killed at Bosworth then it's plausible that former trainer Willie Hastings-Bass (17th Earl of Huntingdon) would be king today, as he descends directly from George, Duke of Clarence (Richard III's brother) via his grand daughter Margaret Pole ('the last of the Plantagenets') whose own grand-daughter Catherine Pole married Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon
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Well no, because the off spring of the attained could not inherit the throne and Clarence died a traitor and the law still stands.:) Doesn't explain why Henry V111 felt the need to get rid of Clarence's daughter at the age of 72 with no trial, unless he really believed that his mother was in fact illegitimate and had no claim as her father had married her mother bigamously, as revealed after Edward's death by Bishop Stillington.
You gotta read Penman. Someone nagged and nagged me to read it, I really didn't fancy it from the description although a lover of history, I had fallen out of love with reading, but I am so glad I did. It's a fantastic book, the story so well told, and it reignited my love of reading and history, and started a love for Richard 111.
Enjoying The Last Kingdom so far although have read it's not historically accurate, so that just means more reading to be done!
 
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In another life and another time I used to enjoy historical novels. Decades ago, literally.
My favourite author by far was a "Jane Lane"; I read most of her works, but my best-loved one would have been "Conies In The Hay".
Any of you folks ever come across her any of her books?

I really should get back to reading again, but finding the time etc etc ............... :rolleyes:
 
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