New British TV Show Reviews
March 12, 2010
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Alan Carr: Chatty Man (3/10)
Ever
since Graham Norton defected to the BBC, Channel 4 has been on the
lookout for a replacement. They finally tapped the co-host of The
Friday Night Project and now Carr has a weekly series that is not far
removed from Norton's original series from over a decade ago.
Celebrities come into Carr's fake apartment stage set, get offered a
drink, there's some chat, a clip from whatever they are promoting, and
a musical act. Carr pushes the camp envelope about as far as one can
take it in the 2010s, but he is genuinely funny and a good standup
comedian.
Alan Whicker's Journey of a Lifetime (3/10)
Alan
Whicker was an ubiquitous television presenter in the 1960s and 70s (a
memorable Monty Python sketch was set on "Whicker Island" where all the
lads dressed and talked like him). Nowadays he narrates documentaries
like The Comedy Map of Britain, but in Journey, clips from his
original groundbreaking documentaries seen on Whicker's World (he was first person to show a
Spanish bullfight on British TV) are mixed in with present-day
commentary by Whicker. The result is a great look at television
history as well as a celebration of one its best-known personalities.
All The Small Things (3/10)
Sentimental
BBC drama about a church choral group that is torn apart when Michael
the director (Neil Pearson) walks out on his family to take up with
Layla, a sexy newcomer (Sarah Alexander with the crazy eyes). Esther
his wife starts a new group that is more inclusive, their children
choose sides, and there are various subplots involving the
administration of the parish including Annette Badland as the snobby
middle-class queen bee, and a new younger priest who has a past with
Layla and a growing interest in Esther. Goodness and niceness always
win out in the end, and there are some fun musical numbers along the
way.
Al Murray's Multiple Personality Disorder (3/10)
Until
now I've been lukewarm about Al Murray, whose blustery "publican"
character is a bit one-note to me. But in this ITV sketch comedy
series, Murray gets to expand his repertoire with some fine and funny
characterizations including conman Barrington Blowtorch, Ray Winstone
attempting to assay several parts, and a very camp aide to Hitler. For
the most part it works and I look forward to seeing more from Murray in
the future.
As Seen On TV (3/10)
BBC
celebrity quiz show based on television trivia which features clips and
questions on TV history. My favorite part is where they run a montage
of clips and not only do you have answer questions based on it but
guess the year they are from. It's shows like this that somehow
justify tvaholics like me and all the arcane knowledge we've picked up
over the years.
Bang Goes The Theory (3/10)
BBC
magazine program about science features perky telegenic presenters
showing off the latest discoveries or performing bizarre experiments
such as climbing a building using household vacuum cleaners or creating
a sound cannon. It's fast and colorful, part of the Open University,
and the BBC's remit to "inform."
Boy Meets Girl (3/10)
ITV
fantasy/drama series about a lazy box store employee and conspiracy theorist
(Martin Freeman) who swaps bodies with a sexy newspaper columnist
(Rachel Sterling). Now he has to pretend to be a lady (and not freak
out her fiancee played by Paterson Joseph) while looking for a his
missing body. Goofy as it is, this is an old plot but a good
supporting cast (including Angela Griffin, Marshall Lancaster and James
Lance) help the time pass by fairly painlessly.
Dead Set (3/10)
TV critic
Charlie Brooker devised this brilliant concept: What if zombies
attacked the Big Brother house? And we're off! We get a quick glimpse
of the behind-the-scenes personnel (including the fire-breathing
producer) before all hell breaks loose and we are given a proper zombie
movie with tons of gore, death and destruction. Eventually a few
survivors hole up inside the Big Brother house (including a plucky
production assistant), but the producer's eventual insistence on doing
things his way or the highway spells disaster in this novel E4
mini-series.
Desperate Romantics (3/10)
A
romp through 19th Century art history and the loosely-adapted story of
the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the angry young men who were shaking up
the British art scene in the 1850s including Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(Aiden Turner from Being Human), William Holman Hunt (Rafe Spall,
Timothy's son), and John Everett Millais (Samuel Barnett). Based on
the book by Franny Moyle, adapted by Peter Bowker, this is no stuffy
BBC costume drama but a high-energy mix of sex, adultery, nudity and
dirty language with a little art appreciation thrown in. If you liked
Russell T. Davies version of Casanova, this series is very much in
that vein.
Five Minutes of Heaven (3/10)
Liam
Neeson and James Nesbitt star in this intense drama about a man
(Neeson) who is scheduled to appear on a television program with the
brother (Nesbitt) of a boy he killed 33 years earlier in a sectarian
incident. Nesbitt is hoping for revenge but he's more feckless than
Hamlet about being able to go through with it. Two great Irish actors
are allowed the chance to do their thing based on a real incident.
Freefall (3/10)
The economic
crash of 2008 is dramatized in this BBC TV movie that features both
high-flying financiers (Aidan Gillan), and a sleazy sub-zero mortgage
salesman who shamelessly talks an old working class school friend into buying a house
he can't afford. There's really no happy endings here (though I doubt
few bank executives ended up the way Gillan's character did), and the
family ultimately loses their "dream" house. As for the salesman, we
see him going door to door pitching "green" products, still driving his
flashy car.
Genius (3/10)
Dave Gorman
hosts this BBC competition where celebrities like Frank Skinner and Catherine Tate come on
and vote on inventions submitted by the general public who must explain
their wacky ideas in person. Of course most of them are absurd, but a
few are intriguing and perhaps worthy of the show's title.
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (3/10)
Johnny
Depp (who played Thompson in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas") narrates
this comprehensive BBC documentary featuring readings of Thompson's
work, as well as interviews with such figures as George McGovern and
Jimmy Carter (Thompson's political writings in the 1970s had a big
impact on those elections, or so this documentary would have you
believe). Full of historical footage, recreations, and real-life
interviews with Thompson (the inspiration for the character Duke in
"Doonesbury"), his friends and family also comment about his life and then
suicide in 2005.
Hope Springs (3/10)
Alex
Kingston leads the cast of four women who recently get out of prison,
rip off Alex's criminal husband, and end up in a small one-pub village
in Scotland when their attempt to escape to Barbados goes awry.
Instead, they purchase the run-down hotel/pub from its current owner
(Annette Crosbie) with their ill-gotten gains in order to buy time
until they can get new passports and out of the country. But they get
involved in the affairs in the small village, including the sleazy
banker who secretly has already committed two murders and impregnated
the local policeman's fiancee, and wants the hotel for himself. And
Alex's husband isn't far behind either in this BBC drama series.
Horne & Corden (3/10)
The
two male stars of Gavin and Stacey teamed up for this BBC3 sketch
comedy series...with mixed results. Mathew Horne has already played a
number of characters in comedies including The Catherine Tate Show
and Roman's Empire, but James Corden tends to go for the Chris Farley type
of character, and there's only so much of that you can take. But they are
both nice young men and they'll do better next time.
How Not To Live Your Life (3/10)
Dan
Clark wrote and stars in this BBC comedy as Don the ultimate slacker
who manages to inherit his grandmother's house but then discovers (to
his horror) that he can't spend the rest of his life just sitting
around watching television. There are amusing fantasy sequences,
headed by captions such as "5 Things Not To Say In A Job Interview" and
we get to see all five before Don manages to choose the least-incorrect
response to a situation.
The Inbetweeners (3/10)
The
comic misadventures of four sixteen year old boys at a comprehensive
school are narrated by Will (Simon Bird), an unpopular nerd in this
Channel 4 series. Will is the kind of person who will eventually grow
up to be a comic, perhaps the next David Mitchell, but now he has to
survive the thousand cruelties of school. His only friends are Simon,
a fairly intelligent and good looking boy, but with poor choice in
girls and with parents who dispense terrible advice; Jay, a compulsive
liar and exaggerator; and Neil, who is thick beyond words. Funny, but
at the same time, painful to watch, we've all been there, humiliated in
front of our peers with no escape in sight.
Lark Rise To Candleford (3/10)
A Sunday evening family-oriented serialized BBC costume drama
based on the books by Flora Thompson about two towns: the tiny
pre-industrial village of Lark Rise, filled with poor but honest
working class folk, and nearby Candleford, a market town with a
burgeoning middle class. Connecting them is our narrator, Laura
from Lark Rise who is given a job in Candleford's post office by her
cousin Dorcas (Julia Sawalha). The slow pace and uplifting
morality may not suit all tastes but for fans of this genre, it's a
well-mounted, well-acted series.
Mumbai Calling (3/10)
Perhaps
the best sitcom ITV has mounted in 10 years, too bad they had it
sitting on the shelf for over a year. Sanjeev Bhaskar (Goodness
Gracious Me, The Kumars at Number 42) plays Kenny Gupta, a middle
manager of a British company who, because he's of Indian descent, is
sent to a call center in Mumbai to straighten things out. There he
encounters Dev Raja, the current boss who's a bit of a dodgy guy but
gets things done. Another London-based college, Terry Johnson, also
arrives at the call center and she takes a while to adapt to the Indian
way of doing things. Some of the plot resolutions are right out of
1970s sitcoms--a little too convenient, but there are some definite
laughs from the material, plus a chance to see a different culture on
TV for a change. Shot on location, it won't make anyone forget Blackadder but like Benidorm, it's single-camera film style without
a laugh track, and wouldn't seem out of place on BBC2--high praise for
an ITV comedy.
The Old Guys (3/10)
Surprisingly
funny BBC sitcom (written by some of the same folks behind The Thick
of It and Peep Show) starring Clive Swift and Roger Lloyd Pack as two retirees
sharing a house and their misadventures. Jane Asher is their sexy
neighbor (Joanna Lumley must not have been available) and Katherine
Parkinson plays Lloyd Pack's useless daughter. I thought it all was
quite clever and Swift and Lloyd Pack are both comedy veterans who know
how to get a laugh from every line.
The Omid Djalili Show (3/10)
The
Iranian comic sometimes lays it on a bit too thick in his stand-up act
(yes, we get it, you're from an unpopular country) but the sketches are
original and funny (how many comedy shows dare to feature regular
appearances by Osama Bin Ladin?). One of my favorite sketches in this
BBC series was a parody of Lynne Truss ("Eats Shoots & Leaves"),
just because it's so arcane.
Paradox (3/10)
A small police unit receive images apparently sent from the future that
allow them to attempt to prevent disasters if they can solve the clues
contained within during this high-concept BBC adventure series.
It doesn't make a lick of sense, and the Ministry of Defence won't let
them tell anyone about the images, so our heroes are left flailing
around without any resources in what becomes a weekly game of Beat The
Clock. It's the "ticking clock" scenario taking to the nth
degree, which is great if you like to see characters running around
madly each episode as if in a competition. It's not really drama
as we know, the premise is the series.
Psychoville (3/10)
Two of the League of Gentlemen (Reese Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton) reteam for
this bizarre BBC comedy series following a group of seemingly
unrelated, and surreal, characters (including Dawn French as nurse who
thinks her doll is a real baby) linked by a mysterious blackmailer. As
usual, Shearsmith and Pemberton play a number of the characters, and in
one episode are joined by Mark Gatiss in an amazing one-take homage to
Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope." Filled with dwarves, creepy old men, and eBay
obsessed Siamese-twins, clearly they are not aiming for the mainstream
audience here, but it's good clean black-comedy fun.
Red Riding Trilogy (3/10)
In 1974 a young journalist (Andrew Garfield) uncovers corruption in
darkest Yorkshire in this intense but mesmerizing three part drama with
the Yorkshire Ripper murders in the backdrop. Sean Bean, Warren
Clarke and David Morrissey co-star as each part leaps several years
ahead in the story. This Channel 4 mini-series was shown
theatrically in the USA and was also made available directly On Demand.
Reggie Perrin (3/10)
Martin Clunes stars in the remake of the classic Leonard Rossiter
sitcom about an unhappy corporate executive, written by Simon
Nye. Alas, political correctness doesn't allow Reggie to imagine
a hippopotamus whenever he sees his mother-in-law now (instead, a
demolition ball smashes her off the sofa). Perhaps those who toil
in offices all day can better relate to this series, but I felt it was
unnecessary, especially as it took six episodes just to get to that
iconic scene of Reggie shedding the clothes and trappings of his life
to walk naked into the ocean to be reborn.
Taking the Flak (3/10)
Satire series of BBC foreign correspondents, with a team in a fictional
African country covering a civil war and hoping their segments will
make the Six O'Clock News. Precious egos must be dealt with,
locals negotiated, and affairs consummated, and I wouldn't be surprised
if much of the material we see has some basis in fact, perhaps gleaned
from late night talk in the bar.
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Written and maintained by Ryan K. Johnson (rkj@eskimo.com).
March 12, 2010