Sunday, March 16, 2008
Consuming Passions
JESUS JONES! The Passion, BBC One, 8.00pm Labels: BBC One, BBC Three, BBC1, BBC3, Gavin and Stacey, jesus, The Passion, TV
RUTH JONES! Gavin and Stacey, BBC Three, 9.00pm
We wonder if God* is somehow looking down on lowculture at the moment. With I'd Do Anything last night and the imminent return of The Apprentice, Desperate Housewives, My Name Is Earl, Pulling, Eurovision and Doctor Who, and Gavin and Stacey also returning tonight, we seem to be blessed with telly abundance. So we thought we'd return the favour and also plug Jesus' programme, The Passion.
Yet another dramatisation of the last few days of the life of Jesus may not sound like perfect LC-fare, we grant you. Especially as it has all that betrayal and blood and religion and crucifixion and whatnot in it. But it still might interest you for the following reasons: 1. It is stripped across several nights, Bleak House stylee to be played out more of a soapy-drama. 2. It is on early enough to not be the gore-fest that The Passion of the Christ was. 3. It stars Prime Minister Harriet Jones (aka Penelope Wilton) as Jesus' mum, with James Nesbitt as Pilate and Tom Ellis, Dean Lennox Kelly and Paul Nicholls among the disciples. And OK, you probably know the story and the ending, but it will be interesting to see if, and how, the Beeb can make it feel new and captivating. Of course, one member of team LC had to bring the whole thing down to a wholly unbiblical level by suggesting some of the casting might mean it is also suitable for certain unwholesome pursuits (must...resist...Palm Sunday...jokes). We suggest a few Hail Marys (Maries?) and a couple of rounds of The Lord's Prayer for that young man instead.
Now onto matters of an altogether more serious nature. We loved Gavin and Stacey well before all those bandwagon-jumping awards people. And thus we are rather chuffed to see it back. And yes it IS heartwarming, but yes it is also funny with it. So that makes it just right in our book. Since the last series, Matthew Horne, James Corden and Ruth Jones have become sort-of household names (even if everyone describes them as 'that fat one and that thin one who do Big Brother's Big Mouth and all that other stuff' and 'her who played Myfanway, you know'). Joanna Page has stayed somewhat in the sidelines, which is kind of nice, as she hasn't sullied our image of her as the sweet serial engagee, (think Darren Day but nice, And a girl. And not sleazy.) Stacey.
Last time we saw our Welsh/Essex friends, Gavin and Stacey had just married, Nessa had discovered she was pregnant with (we presume) Smithy's baby and Stacey's brother had a grudge against Uncle Bryn for something we have yet to discover. So even though the central couple got together, engaged and married during series one, there is plenty of other stuff to set up new storylines with. All the usual supporting cast are present and correct for this series: Alison Steadman, Rob Brydon, Julia Davis, Larry Lamb, who has just been cast as Archie Mitchell, dad of Samantha Janus and the other one in EastEnders, and Melanie Walters, last seen playing Elliot's slightly deranged mum with the obsession for keeping the Welsh race pure in Hollyoaks. We can't quite work out if bringing elements of their soapy alter egos' lives into this show would be a work of genius or not.
What we do know is that this double bill will be the greatest thing on BBC Three since, ooh, Raiders of the Lost Ark which precedes it.
*Or the gods, or a higher being, or the force, or fate, or, in the style of Richard Dawkins, 'nothing, you ignorant fools. And stop being happy about wasting your lives watching meaningless telly drivel while you're at it. Oh, and Nick? You'll go blind.'
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Monday, March 03, 2008
Textual identity
WORD! Murder Most Famous, BBC Two, 1.30pm Labels: BBC Three, BBC Two, Mrs In-Betweeny, murder, Murder Most Famous, transsexuals, TV
BIRD! Mrs In-Betweeny, BBC Three, 9.00pm
'They' say that everyone has a book inside them, and celebrities are apparently no exception. BBC Two gives its daytime schedule a bit of a shake every day this week with Murder Most Famous, in which "queen of the psychological thriller" (thanks Wikipedia, and wherever you got it from!) Minette Walters tutors six celebrities in the art of writing a crime fiction novel. The celebs complete daily writing assignments, research the police procedures (paperwork) behind the investigations and meet with "real criminals and victims" (presumably, if we're talking about murder, they mean the victims' families) along the way, and Minette uses her expert knowledge of the methods of murder to quite literally (not literally!) "bump off" the most mediocre writer at the end of each show.
As a species, it's fair to say that celebrities know as much about the tormented psyche and complicated psychological states of a potential murderer as anyone, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. How many of them will create heroes with exactly the same personality traits, haunted by the memories of the same adolescent traumas, and of exactly the same physical type (or basically the same but two inches taller) as themselves? And how many of these heroes will have names just two vowels and a consonant away from their own? The hopeful-writer roster includes Sherrie 'Soap and chat' Hewson, Angela 'Soap and Postman Pat' Griffin, Matt 'Rogue Traders and leather' Allwright, Brendan 'Strictly Come Dancing' Cole, Diarmuid 'Gardens!' Gavin and Kelvin 'Twat, former Sun editor and no stranger to creating fiction' MacKenzie, with the most promising writer at the end of the week having the opportunity for their crime novel to be published by PanMacmillan as a 'Quick Read' (don't pull that face, they're busy people) for World Book Day. Authorly good!
Over on BBC Three (future! modern!) there's another one of those hour-long drama pilots that may or may not spawn a series - we simply DO NOT KNOW - with ridiculously talented TV goddess Amelia 'Coronation Street, Brass Eye, Big Train, Jam, I'm Alan Partridge and State of Play, amongst many others, and currently doing a very good job as Alex Drake's mother in Ashes to Ashes as well, thank you very much for asking' Bullmore starring as the uncle-turned-aunt-turned-saviour of the recently-orphaned Winslow children as they struggle to cope with the remnants of their embarrassing family in the aftermath of their parents' deaths.
The initial signs for Mrs In-Betweeny look promising, with other welcome and female names in the cast list including Rebekah 'Pulling' Staton, Adjoa 'Oooh, lots of things, but mainly Casualty and Doctor Who' Andoh and Lisa 'We still haven't forgotten she was in Grange Hill' Hammond. Most thrillingly of all, it's written by Caleb Ranson, creator of ITV's wonderful, hugely-underrated and ill-fated soaptacular gem Night and Day. Obviously by those standards this would appear to be pretty normal fare, but when you've had a lengthy spell working with ghosts, Geishas, time-stopping strangers and virginity fairies, sometimes gender realignment, cosmetically-enhanced grannies and death by falling frozen urine are as good as a rest.
By Nick :: Post link
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Monday, February 18, 2008
Three-er factor
FEARSOME! Being Human, BBC Three, 9.00pm Labels: BBC iPlayer, BBC Three, Being Human, future, idents, internet, modern, Russell Tovey's arse, TV
PIONEERSOME! Being Human, BBC Three Live Arena, 9.00pm
FINAL FRONTIERSOME! Being Human, BBC iPlayer, a bit later
It's been nearly a week since BBC Three was thrillingly reborn with a pink new logo, a handful of youth-friendly new idents and a YouTubey new BBC Three website as "the first non-news BBC channel to transform from a linear service to a fully joined-up, multi-platform venture – combining television and the web into a single, integrated offering". Obviously this means our lives are now better, but how are they better? What does new BBC Three mean for YOU, 25- to 34-year-old?*
Future future modern internet! BBC Three embraces the internet - that is to say, the futuriest bits of the internet based on the very futuriest concepts known to man - with Find Three, linking the viewer to such futurey activities as looking at photographs, watching clips of programmes and communicating with other human beings. Modern future modern modern future interactivity! BBC Three gives YOU, the viewer, the chance to appear as a continuity person with Be On TV, the exciting portion of the website where you can watch a video of a girl telling you how to get to the section of the website where you can watch a video of a girl telling you how to get to the section of the website where you can watch a video of a girl telling you how to get to the section of the website where you can watch a video of a girl telling you how to get to that section of the website and frankly it's not unlike the theoretical loop of infinity from Crime Traveller. Future modern future programmes! BBC Three's website has a Live Arena where you can watch programmes as they're broadcast! Simply place your TV next to your computer and move your head between the two during transmission hours for a heady simultaneous screenblast of future living. And then stream it on iPlayer and watch space and time quite literally fall at your feet in awe of your futuriness. Future modern modern future graphics! BBC Three thinks outside the box and adorns its website with crazy images of pears growing on stalks (yes, really!) and twisty cables and microphones and things that are mechanical but also organic and natural, because that's the world we're heading towards, as well as lots of tubes of pink stuff, because pink is also the future. Future future modern!
What it also means is a new! season of new! drama, new! comedy and new! comedy-drama, such as last week's Phoo Action, which wasn't very dramatic or very funny, or tonight's Being Human, which will hopefully be a bit more of both. Two young men - one a 120-year-old vampire, the other a werewolf - move in together, only to find their new home is haunted by the agoraphobic spirit of a previous tenant who died in dodgy circumstances. Writer Toby Whithouse draws on his previous experience blending comedy and drama with a supernatural twist and a creeping sense of menace and horror in episodes of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Where The Heart Is, while lowculture favourite Russell Tovey aka George aka the werewolf draws on his experience of being extremely fit and bares his arse on a number of occasions, including a particularly pause-and-rewatchable rear shot in this promotional clip from BBC Three's trailblazingly modern website. Best of all, they've stuck the important bit right at the start so you get to see it before the iPlayer stream strangles itself and the whole site goes into stasis. Welcome to the future!
*Over 34? Are you sure you shouldn't be dead?
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