British TV Show Reviews "E"

Early Doors (3/04)
Yet another of the post-modern comedies pioneered by Steve Coogan and encouraged by the success of The Royle Family where traditional jokes, much less any plot, are virtually non-existent.  This BBC series, set in a pub, stars Royle's Craig Cash as one of the regulars, and each episode is just a cross section of the different conversations going on both in front of and behind the bar.  These "slice of real life" shows, albeit scripted with actors, seem popular but to me a little goes a long way.

Edinburgh Nights (1/99)
As part of the huge Edinburgh Festival held each August in that great Scottish city, the BBC fronts a late-night arts program hosted by Mark Lamarr that looks at all aspects of the festival including movies, comics, plays, books, and art. Part variety show, part interview show, Lamarr keeps the three-ring circus moving, even when his guests break out in loud fights (which is frequent). If you can't get to Edinburgh, this is a good look at what's on the cutting edge, and up-and-coming talent.

8 Out of 10 Cats (4/07)
Jimmy Carr (Distraction) hosts this celebrity quiz show based on public surveys.  A good jokey time is had by all.

Einstein's Brain (7/94)
A Japanese professor crisscrosses the United States to track down the brain of the famous scientist in this documentary. His broken English is hard to follow at times, but you have to admire his tenacity in going wherever it takes to locate whatever happened to the missing organ. A bit over-long but it does show the dedication some people have in pursuing their dreams--even if it's having a chunk of Einie's brain as a memento to take back to Japan.

The Election Night Armistice (9/97)
As an alternative to the 1997 General Election coverage on BBC-1, BBC-2 turned over the night of May 1st to live blow-by-blow satire by the Armistice gang, complete with mock candidates, bizarre analysis, and general irreverence for the entire democratic process.

Eleven Men Against Eleven (1/96)
James Bolam (The Beiderbecke Affair) stars in this TV movie as a former football (soccer) player who is now an assistant coach for a corrupt city team. When the rest of the coaching staff is indicted, Bolam is called up to lead the team for the remaining games of the season and keep the team in contention. But the players are more concerned with commercial endorsements than playing good football, while the team's owners are trying to hold off a vigorous investigation by Inland Revenue. Can Bolam save the day and return his team to its glory days or are they behind him forever?

The 11 O'Clock Show (11/99)
The topical thrice-weekly comedy show returns to late night Channel 4 with a makeover and Iain Lee taking over as solo host. The day's headlines are lampooned, Lee still takes to the streets to ambush unsuspecting pedestrians, and rapper Ali G continues his bizarre interviews with people of importance who are slowly getting in on the joke.

Eleventh Hour (4/07)
Patrick Stewart stars in this ludicrous ITV series as a one-man "X-Files" who manages each week to save the world single-handedly from a deadly menace (viruses and the like) all the while making speech after speech about the foolishness and shortsidedness of most of humanity.  Apparently he's so valuable to the government that he's given a sexy bodyguard (but only one-- there has to be some element of suspense) but absolutely no staff or resources despite the fact he (and he alone) manages to know how to combat whatever the problem is.  Geez, even Doctor Who had UNIT!

Elidor (7/95)
6-part children's fantasy adventure. Four siblings are chosen to protect the "treasures of Elidor" from falling into the hands of dimension-hopping medieval baddies who threaten our world. This meager plot is dragged out far too long with the result being that things happen v-e-r-r-r-r-y s-l-o-o-o-o-o-w-l-y. A shame since it features nice visual effects.

Emlyn's Moon (8/91)
Welsh children's fantasy series with Gareth Thomas (Blake's 7) and Sian Phillips.

The Empress (4/94)
One of those "art" things that Channel Four puts on. This was a "new wave" musical about a beautiful Empress who wants the perfect husband and ends up marrying an Arnold Schwarzenegger clone--where they found a guy with that body who can sing, I'll never know. Certainly not opera, and the TV commentators they kept cutting to who sung about the action going on just added to the weird mix of styles. Strange but fascinating.

Empty (7/09)
Scottish comedy featuring Gregor Fisher and Billy Boyd as Glasgow repairmen on various jobs in what essentially is a two-person show.  Fisher is the cranky older one, while Boyd is his younger, naive assistant who still has ambition.  Low-key but the charm of the stars make it watchable.

Eskimo Day (11/96)
BBC TV movie about two families going to Cambridge with their teenage children on their admittance interviews. Of course the parents only make everything worse by constantly fretting and driving their kids to distraction. Meanwhile, one of the college dons has an interview of his own: trying to get his elderly professorial father (Alec Guinness!) into a retirement home. But everything works out fine in the end for everyone. There is a great moment about two-thirds the way through the film where everything goes to slow motion as the parents (particularly a doting mother played by Maureen Lipman at her annoying best) watch their son walk down the portal into the college and realize for the first time, "He's leaving us." A brilliant scene, nicely shot, and familiar to anyone whose children have left the nest. A sequel, Cold Enough For Snow ran in 1997.

The Estate Agents (1/03)
Late night Channel Four comedy by the Electric Eel comedy troupe, about three inept realtors working for a gangster who get into bizarre (and often tasteless) situations.  High production values and witty banter make for an engaging collection of gags, mercifully devoid of a laughtrack.

Eureka Street (7/00)
Northern Irish drama (with the obligatory Ballykissangel cast member, in this case Dervla Kirwan) about a group of working class friends trying to survive in Belfast just before the historic Good Friday accord was signed.  The deep hatreds between the Protestants and Catholics is highlighted, particularly by a Catholic man whose friends and bigoted co-workers are unaware of his religion.  But, like the title suggests, it's also about getting rich quick, in this case a fat unpopular slob who cleans himself up, declares himself a businessman and inadvertently keeps making a fortune just by being in the right place at the right time and even gets a rich American girlfriend (Angel's Elizabeth Rohm).  I suppose one has to give the BBC credit for making dramas like this which stir the pot, and showing that not everything is sweetness and nice in that country.

Eurotrash (9/98)
This Channel 4 late night series aimed at the post-pub "lad" crowd, each week features various aspects of sex and kinkiness from the continent, hosted very tongue-in-cheek by Frenchman Antoine De Caunes. Plenty of naked people, fetishes, and strange behavior are put on display each week, which I suppose either reinforces the moral superiority of the British or else provides good wanking material. During the 1998 World Cup, compilation reruns of the previous season were run, broken down country-by-country with new linking material by De Caunes and the usual very large-breasted women.

The Eurovision Song Contest (5/93)
In 1993, the 38th annual Eurovision Song Contest was held in Ireland, host to the event as the previous year's winner. Twenty-five countries competed for being the most popular written song from their country, performed by one of their artistes. But how did this bizarre ritual get started and what's it all about? It began in 1956, mostly as a technical exercise for TV engineers to hook up a show across the entire continent - hence, EuroVISION. Each country submits one song and selects a jury (one year it was cab drivers) who then deliver their votes after the presentation of the songs from each of their home countries. The contest is really about the SONG, not its performance or presenters, and naturally a country isn't allowed to cast any points for itself. The rather jokey reputation the contest has is due to some of the mindless and instantly forgettable songs which have won in some years. Since you have to create a song which will be popular in OTHER countries, a certain type of blandness seeps in which prevents most Eurovision Song winners from breaking out into the popular charts. And they've gotten it wrong a few times too: "Volaire" came in fifth the year it appeared. There have been some famous presenters over the years: Cliff Richard, Julio Iglasias, but the one real success story in the Eurovision Song Contest is ABBA, which took both itself and winning song, "Waterloo," to a successful career. This year, Ireland won again, which gives them the dubious pleasure of having to hold the contest yet again next year until someone wrestles it away from them [as of 1996 it hadn't happened yet!]. It probably won't be Luxemburg which scored only 11 points this year - 10 of them as last-minute sympathy votes from Crete.

The Eustace Brothers (3/04)
The new title for the second season of Paradise Heights.

Even Further Abroad (7/97)
Jonathan Meades is back with another of his witty series (begun in 1994's Further Abroad) dealing with seemingly mundane subjects and "stripping away the artifice" (as he says at the beginning of each episode) and then examining them from another angle. His topics this series include the future, thoroughbred horse racing, caravans (mobile homes), modern church architecture, and an area of England called the Holland Fens where everything looks like the Netherlands and everyone listens to country music and watches stock car racing. Every frame is filled with some visual pun, the largest of all being Meades himself who often is sending himself up. I'd watch this guy read the phone book.

An Evening with Gary Lineker (7/94)
A comedy TV movie based on a stage play about British tourists on holiday in Spain watching the 1990 World Cup. Gary Lineker was the star player that year and here he is the object of affection among the women and the men in this send-up of soccer fanatics. Bored wife Monica (Caroline Quentin) tells her husband that she's leaving him for Gary, and he's all for it--anything that will help England defeat Germany! There are various revelations among the characters and shifting of alliances (this is a stage play after all) but the whole thing shifts into an entirely different reality in the final minutes when the real Gary is magically transported from Italy and appears as a vision before them, dispensing gifts like God and surrounded by a golden aura! The characters have entered a fantasy land where England defeated Germany and went on to face Argentina in the final round, unlike the true reality where they lost in penalty kicks. A very funny and insightful look at soccer fans and the impact it has on their lives and work. With Paul Merton and Martin Clunes.

Even More Aunties Bloomers (5/96)
Every Christmas "Auntie Beeb" (the BBC) trots out its annual collection of bloopers hosted by Terry Wogan. Not surprisingly, its documentaries and current events programming are where most of the funniest things go wrong, particularly a shoot on a farm where two cattle can't resist getting it on while a stoic BBC presenter tries to make his speech in the foreground.

Every Time You Look At Me (10/05)
Pleasant romantic drama with two very unique protagonists: a dwarf hair stylist who loves nightclubbing, and a more reserved schoolteacher with Thalidomide birth defect arms.  It's disinterest at first sight (particularly as he already has a steady girlfriend) but they secretly begin trysts and eventually hook up officially much to consternation of both their families.  Will they see the light or will true love prevail?

An Evil Streak (1/00)
Three part ITV drama starring Trevor Eve (In The Heat of the Sun) as a homosexual writer who gleefully manipulates the lives of his beloved niece (Rosalind Bennett) and his male housekeeper and arranges for them to have an affair. He makes it oh-so-convenient for them to have illicit liaisons in his flat, then arranges to videotape them in action for his amusement afterwards. Eventually the housekeeper's wife and him become co-conspirators but we in the audience already know it will all end badly as the story opens with the niece's suicide.

Experimental (10/05)
Latenight Channel 4 comedy featuring spurious "scientific" experiments (such as which religion does the Royal Mail prefer) accompanied by fancy graphics.  A little goes a long way, but for the after pub crowd, it no doubt proves entertaining.

Exploitica (7/00)
In "Super Chicks," an old B-movie about female wrestlers is given an hilarious new touch with thought balloons added to the characters which completely subverts the original plot.  Fun late-night Channel 4 filler.

Extremely Dangerous (9/00)
Extremely derivative!  Sean Bean (Sharpe, "Goldeneye") stars in this shameless rip-off of The Fugitive as a man on the run, although instead of being a Doctor wrongly accused of killing his wife, he's a former spy.  It might be exciting if we hadn't seen this all done before elsewhere.

Eyes Down (3/04)
Paul O'Grady, best known in Britain as sassy drag queen Lily Savage, has moved over to the BBC and decided to give Lily a rest by playing characters more like himself.  That self would seem to be a self-centered sharp-tongued smart aleck, so it's  Lily but in a tailored suit this time.  This BBC sitcom has O'Grady as the number caller at a midlands Bingo parlor which portrays the sad lives of his co-workers.  A good example of the kind of programming the BBC puts out in the middle of summer.