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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, January 11, 2013 - 06:03 am:   

If anything interesting comes up on the horizon, perhaps we can alert others here?...

Anyway, for those in the States, it looks like a good one's coming up on TCM Friday (1/11), 11:00 pm PST: The Psycopath (1966), Amicus film directed by Freddie Francis, from a script by Robert Bloch. Never saw it, but it sounds great! So I shall be setting my DVR....
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.27.130
Posted on Friday, January 11, 2013 - 09:11 am:   

Ah! When you've seen that, Craig, I'll ask you something about it (and maybe you should keep it so you can look at part of it again)...
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Gary Fry (Gary_fry)
Username: Gary_fry

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.25.8.31
Posted on Friday, January 11, 2013 - 09:49 am:   

>>> for those in the States

I'm in a state, but have so far limited it to one. It's only a matter of time, though.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, January 11, 2013 - 01:16 pm:   

Great idea, Gary! Let's make this thread a regular thing.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, January 11, 2013 - 05:02 pm:   

Actually, it was my idea.... (unless Stevie's encouraging Gary's various and unstable states to manifest—not sure I'd want that to be a regular thing, though)

I shall report, Ramsey! I'm greatly looking forward to it. Amicus, Francis, Bloch... well, they had me at "psychopath."
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.177.138.167
Posted on Friday, January 11, 2013 - 06:44 pm:   

I know an interesting story about THE PSYCHOPATH, but I can't remember if it's the same as Ramsey's (and I've never had the chance to see it Craig - you lucky fellow!)
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, January 13, 2013 - 06:22 am:   

Yikes! What a film! I loved every last weird scene of it! I don't want to spoil it for anyone, like you John (who I'm sure will, as I did, savor every moment)—I went in blind, knowing nothing of the story. I will say this: surely The Psychopath must be one of the "sources of the Nile" for all giallo; if not, then it's at the very least the major (sole?) inspiration for Argento's Profondo Rosso, I only now see. How it this film not more known? For those who love this kind of thing—a finely-crafted creepy body-count giallo—this one's surely near the top.... (I'll find a way to preserve this one, and get this to some of your hands, here.)
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.24.162
Posted on Sunday, January 13, 2013 - 08:36 am:   

So! Craig, did you find something odd about the scene where Patrick Wymark explains it all? When I first saw it at the cinema I thought it had gone out of sync. In fact Subotsky thought the denoument too obvious and re-edited the scene with new dialogue that he had to dub over the reaction shots. Stranger still, when I asked Freddie Francis about it he didn't know it had been done.
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John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert)
Username: John_l_probert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.177.138.167
Posted on Sunday, January 13, 2013 - 05:49 pm:   

That's my story!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Sunday, January 13, 2013 - 06:18 pm:   

[potential SPOILERS] I've gone back to view it, Ramsey, and I honestly can't locate the scene you speak about... though there are a few "explanation scenes" at the end—but each one, if there's any re-edited dialogue, it completely escapes me. Is it possible there's more than one version of this film? There is an odd repeating of the line about the "Von Sturms owe you nothing," spoken by Wymark to Judy Huxtable, at the restaurant and then at the Von Sturm home afterwards. That restaurant scene is strange to begin with, because it feels oddly mid-scene, as if something was cut out... and yet, the twirling spaghetti is the perfect match-cut for the chains around Jon Standing, so maybe not.

I thought Patrick Wymark was superb as the story's detective: he exudes by his very presence this sort of mildly-amused world-weariness, verging ever-so-little on the sadistic: he likes watching his suspects squirm, like the hint of some distant, dirty past. Remove the British accent, and he'd have been the ideal "Continental Op," imho. Margaret Johnston as Mrs. Von Sturm was the other stand-out role here, and John Standing's too. The film goes through many twists and turns... but oh yes, it does find a way to land squarely on a very Bloch-ian ending....
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.26.175
Posted on Sunday, January 13, 2013 - 10:50 pm:   

I'm thinking of the final restaurant scene, Craig.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2013 - 12:42 am:   

Sory, Craig. Your idea is a great one! It just got me so excited I didn't know what I was talking about... or to whom.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.30.203.123
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2013 - 09:00 am:   

Taken out of context, Stevie, that's quite a memorable comment. Sadly the context is perfectly innocent.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2013 - 04:26 pm:   

I have seen that entire restaurant scene yet again, Ramsey, and closely... and for the life of me, I cannot detect anything out of sorts. Either I'm simply too dense, or I really wonder now if this is some other edit/version?... Anyway, I'm going to endeavor to get it up onto youtube on a private page (I figure it'll be no different than if I had invited you all over to watch it with me, then) and share the address with those here, so you can view it at your leisure; it might take me a bit of time, but it shall be done.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.184.138.239
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2013 - 11:00 pm:   

The whole film's on YouTube, albeit with German titles.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2013 - 11:46 pm:   

Oh... well, never mind then!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - 11:41 am:   

Is 'The Psychopath' a black and white film that features dolls left at the scene of various murders? If so I believe I saw it on late night telly way back in the day and remember being somewhat impresssed, but little else about the plot.
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.28.248
Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - 11:44 am:   

It isn't black and white, Stevie - maybe your television was?
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.28.248
Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - 11:54 am:   

Ah - what I was thinking of (unless the actor has some kind of tic) is that the young American in the restaurant scene seems to be mouthing unheard dialogue at several points. Look at 1.08.25 on YouTube, for instance, where Wymark's line begins over it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - 12:22 pm:   

I've seen on-screen actors in low budget productions visibly mouth the words of whoever is speaking in order to remember their own lines. Maybe that was it?

Was I right about the detail with the dolls? I recall a scene with one hanging by the neck or maybe it's a completely different film.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - 03:48 pm:   

Ah! Yes, I do see that! And the first time he speaks at the table, he really does seem to be saying more, that was removed.

Giallo was (officiously) only a couple years old when this was shot, so maybe it was already being influenced by tenets of the emerging genre; but surely one can't see this, and not also see the weird (and only coincidental?) parallels to Profondo Rosso....
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.23.213
Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 - 09:47 am:   

Stevie - yes, you're right about the dolls!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 - 12:13 pm:   

You have me itching to see this film again, folks! I was in my early teens which means, yes, I was watching it on my old black and white portable in the bedroom. Strange how things subliminally impress us at such a young inexperienced age and we have no idea why...
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Pete_a (Pete_a)
Username: Pete_a

Registered: 07-2011
Posted From: 108.231.165.81
Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 - 09:38 pm:   

Further to the 're-dialogued' discussion:

Does it also seem possible to anyone else that the last two sequences were originally in reverse order?

Hang on ..... SPOILER ALERT






In the cut as seen, the restaurant scene precedes the climax in the alcove/basement. And yet the scars on Wymark's face suggests to me that the original continuity had it the other way around: In the restaurant, there are two small scars (still red but healing), whereas in the climax the right side of his face bears three or four long deep cuts.

If indeed the climactic horror scene was once intended to come first, it might explain the need to mess with the dialogue in the restaurant scene (because it might have contained references to what had happened in the climax).


Mind you, Craig makes a good point about the felicitous cut from twirled chains to twirled spaghetti, so I don't know ...
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 02:28 am:   

I have to respectfully disagree with you, Pete: it's a good theory... but why, after helping the police catch Standing, would the then be having coffee at another table in that restaurant? The dialogue too, wouldn't match it being reversed... but it's an intriguing theory.

This switching of key scene-order did occur in another, more famous movie. What is it, what is it?... it's coming to me... dammit... does anyone remember?
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 02:30 am:   

Another TV Guide alert: for those again in the U.S. (or access to the channel), TCM is showing, Friday at 12:00 AM, the phenomenal, eerily disturbing, and rarely seen (but recently gaining ascendancy) film-noir THE PROWLER (1951), starring Van Heflin and Evelyn Keyes.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 02:36 am:   

And then directly following that, a film I've never heard of called FINGERS AT THE WINDOW (1942), starring Lew Ayers, Larraine Day, and Basil Rathbone. Has an intriguing premise—ax murderers at an asylum—and my Leonard Maltin Film Guide (which I trust) gives it enough stars to rank DVR-ing; looks like one that never made it to VHS/DVD either, so....
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.20.145
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 11:25 am:   

Hmm - switching of scene order. It did happen in the recut Night of the Demon - would that be it?
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.114
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 12:25 pm:   

A uk tv alert - new series on channel 4 called Utopia - I taped episode 1 on Tuesday and watched it last night and it's one of the best things I've seen for a long time. A stylish and almost surreal conspiracy thriller with a deeply creepy atmosphere. If you've not seen it, watch the first episode on 4od. The regular tv slot for it is Tuesdays at 10pm.
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Seanmcd (Seanmcd)
Username: Seanmcd

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 193.113.57.161
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 01:50 pm:   

I know this one is already a few weeks old but I'm rather enjoying the new 'Ripper St.' On BBC1 Sunday evenings.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Thursday, January 17, 2013 - 04:46 pm:   

I wasn't aware of that film's switching, Ramsey.... But no, it came to me: Fatal Attraction. I've seen it a few times, but I'm still going off memory—the scene where Michael Douglas breaks into Glen Close's apartment, they have a tussle, he leaves her there, having hit her; it's followed by a scene at the police station, with the police telling him there's nothing they can do to help Douglas pursue Close for previous crimes. If I remember the original script (which I read, long ago)/story-of-the-film correctly, these scenes were exactly reversed, and if you watch them closely you can tell. That's because the original shot ending, which test audiences saw, had Close killing herself, Douglas being arrested for her murder, him discovering how to clear his name, etc. It was more static than the released result, which I agree is much better. Anyway, to help accommodate the new ending, that scene reversal was made....
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, January 18, 2013 - 11:54 am:   

On Weber and Tony's recommendation I'm going to watch the first episode of 'Utopia' on Catch Up TV tonight. This thread is working already.

For Christmas I was bought the Season 4 box set of 'Fringe' and have been stringing it out through January - currently up to Episode 15 of 22. I'm going to state here and now that it is by far the finest genre TV show of the new millennium so far... even better than 'The Walking Dead' and improving exponentially on 'The X Files' format of stand alone horror episodes interspersed among a genuinely enthralling and ingenious sci-fi story arc and mythology (involving time travel and alternate universes) that has obviously been thought out from the very start of Season 1 to where we are now. I can't praise this show enough. The quality of the writing and its flawless attention to detail and continuity is a model of how to make groundbreaking and intelligent genre entertainment for adults. Every element is sublime! Watch it, people, just watch it!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, January 19, 2013 - 02:35 pm:   

I have to agree with Weber & Tony. The first episode of 'Utopia' was astonishing. I'm already going to stick my neck out and say this is the first essential new genre show of the year. Completely brilliant!

It reminded me in ways of 'Psychoville'. A jet black comedy thriller involving various eccentric and/or homicidal characters hunting a priceless unpublished graphic novel, called "The Utopia Experiments", the author of which was a mad visionary genius who topped himself and went on to become a venerated guru of conspiracy theorists everywhere. The show is remarkably well written and directed with a strikingly cinematic visual style and a likeably oddball cast you grow to care about very quickly... and some bloody awful things happen to them in this first episode alone! It is clever, funny and very disturbing with graphic violence the likes of which I don't believe I've seen on British television before. There is a torture scene, in particular, that had me squirming in my seat and hardly able to look at the screen. Mark my words, this has instant cult classic written all over it already. Awesome show!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - 12:53 pm:   

Episode 2 of 'Utopia' is on Channel 4 at 10.00 tonight. Don't miss it!!
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.184.137.237
Posted on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - 01:07 pm:   

PVR set to stun!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 5.102.90.2
Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 12:36 pm:   

Dr Who - new series returns Saturday 30th March!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 01:02 pm:   

Yeehaa!! Judging by the Christmas special it looks set to be excellent!

Last night's episode of 'Utopia' was less edge-of-the-seat gripping and nauseatingly violent than the first but continues to draw the viewer into its engrossingly labyrinthine plot. Jessica Hyde has to be one of the scariest women ever seen on TV. Shudderingly good!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 5.102.90.2
Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 05:30 pm:   

And Being Human on Sunday 3rd feb!!!!
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Seanmcd (Seanmcd)
Username: Seanmcd

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.129.72.51
Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - 08:38 pm:   

I thought 30th March was really early for new Who then realised that's the Easter weekend!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2013 - 11:24 am:   

They're dropping references like confetti in this Season of 'Fringe'. Last night it was Sherlock Holmes' old dictum, "absence of evidence is evidence in itself", that led to the uncovering of a shock betrayal by one of the central cast members. It also featuered a hilarious dig at that bloody awful reality show, 'The Apprentice', in which an Alan Sugar figure gets a wonderfully bloody comeuppance. I love this show!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2013 - 03:20 pm:   

Is 'The Walking Dead' Season 3 available here on DVD yet? Everyone I know who's been watching it keeps telling me how fantastic and grim, grim, grim it is and I can't wait any longer to see it. 'Fringe' may still be the better show - more all round entertaining and original - but when it comes to flesh-eating zombie horror 'The Walking Dead' is the dog's bollocks!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2013 - 03:26 pm:   

Although 'The Walking Dead' does also have the sexiest woman currently on TV in it... you know the one.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.144.35.96
Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2013 - 10:21 pm:   

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0146d83
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Friday, January 25, 2013 - 04:45 pm:   

Never seen it, Weber. Where can I watch Episode 1 of Series 1 without having to pay for it? If I'm impressed enough I may invest in the box sets but I couldn't jump straight in at Series 5.

I will need something to follow 'Fringe' as only 5 episodes left of this season. Was also considering 'Dexter' as people are always telling me I'd love it.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.239.242.196
Posted on Friday, January 25, 2013 - 04:51 pm:   

Where have you been all these years Stevie? Being human is THE single best genre tv show made in britain in the past 20 years. And Dexter is the best show ever from across the pond!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Friday, January 25, 2013 - 05:15 pm:   

Never watched either of them, Weber, though the box sets have called to me a few times. I won't invest unless I can watch a show from the very beginning and know that I'm going to like it. For example, I believed I would like 'Lost' but found it infuriating, rather than intriguing, and gave up after 4 episodes.

Get this, I've never watched 'The Sopranos' either - just never got into it in its heyday. So which show would you go for? 'The Sopranos', 'Dexter' or 'Being Human'? Long running TV series take up too much time in one's life to sit through unless your are absolutely sure they are worth the effort. Same with novels. That's my philosophy.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 66.87.4.131
Posted on Friday, January 25, 2013 - 05:36 pm:   

None of those, Stevie - "Breaking Bad" first!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Saturday, January 26, 2013 - 06:25 pm:   

Never heard of it, Craig. Give me an idea what it's about and why you think it's so good.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.231.21
Posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 10:38 pm:   

Utopia gets better and better. This week started with possibly the most disturbing scene I've seen on tv in a long long time. If you've not caught it yet, check it on 4od.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - 10:57 pm:   

Couldn't agree more, Weber! The show is incredibly well done and gripping with scenes of shockingly graphic violence that I'm really surprised got past the British TV censors. What makes it unmissable is the quality of the writing and the astonishingly cinematic directorial style. Whoever directed this has one hell of an eye for striking compositions, while the vivid use of colour and pitch perfect framing coupled with the fluidity of the camera work give it an almost Hitchcockian feel. That climactic shootout sequence was a masterclass in suspense and the shit-scary assassin character grows ever more like Javier Bardem in 'No Country For Old Men' with every episode. Absolutely brilliant show that should win every award going, imo.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 212.140.118.61
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2013 - 10:46 am:   

It's well done but the increasing child-killing is very painful.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2013 - 11:20 am:   

**** SPOILERS ****

It was a relief, and strangely jarring, to see the two children running off hand-in-hand together at the end - like something from a kids' adventure series. What I love about the show is its sheer unpredictability. Anthing can happen and anyone can die from one minute to the next. That was made abundantly clear from the first episode when they killed off the scariest character without flinching. It's make believe and strictly for adults, Tony. I've checked and its a collaborative directorial effort by Marc Munden, Wayne Che Yip & Alex Garcia Lopez, while the creator/writer is Dennis Kelly, who previously worked on 'Spooks' [to which there was an in-joke reference in the last episode that I'm just getting now] and something called 'Pulling', as well as much theatre work. The writing is sublime but the visual style is what really makes this show special.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 212.140.118.61
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2013 - 11:41 am:   

I like the visuals and admire the tone, but it bugs me in a way - it's sort of cold. I'm still watching, though.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, January 31, 2013 - 12:24 pm:   

For me, it's that very coldness, what Weber called its "deeply creepy atmosphere", coupled with the unpredictability, that makes the show so compulsive, Tony.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.41
Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2013 - 10:42 pm:   

Two episodes left of Season 4 of 'Fringe' and I can't stress enough how intelligent and original this show is. The writers have taken risk after risk with character development and ruthlessly logical progression of the overarching mythology while always keeping the stand alone story strengths that it really is a joy for this fussiest and most analytical of genre fans to behold. After this I'll probably have another year of pent up excitement and questions to wait until the climactic Season 5. It really is that enthrallingly original and unlike any other cult TV show ever made. 'The Avengers' meets 'Doctor Who' and 'The X Files' with a vengeance. Please don't miss it, people!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 31.54.11.176
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:10 am:   

Charlie brooker must be a fan of Ray Bradbury. As good as Black Mirror was, it started off as an online version of Night Call Collect and morphed into one of his Marionette stories.

Still very very good and I'll admit it did tug at the old heartstings but it was hardly original...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:50 am:   

There was a brilliant twist in this week's episode of 'Utopia' that completely changed my view of all that has gone on, and a few of the principal characters' along with me, convincing them and I that the "bad guys" actually have a point and if what they say is true (and we all know in our hearts that it is) then they are in fact the saviours of humankind!! All allegiances and loyalties are suddenly off in this brilliant series. The message is that there is no black and white, no right and wrong, no good and evil in this fucked up modern world... there is only pragmatism and difficult choices to be made by us all. If a story can be called inspiringly bleak then this is it. It reminds me now of Frank Herbert's great masterpiece of apocalyptic sci-fi, 'The White Plague' (1982).
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.143
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 09:41 am:   

Stevie, you do realise you're advocating eugenics...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 11:33 am:   

**** SPOILERS ****

What Stephen Rea's character spelled out in last night's episode made perfect if horrible sense, Weber, when looked at in the long term. Some such solution is going to be inevitable if the human race is to survive. Frank Herbert's "mad" scientist character in 'The White Plague' realised that over 30 years ago!

We're already seeing the first signs of economic fracturing and 100 years before full meltdown is a conservative estimate, in real terms. The one question is who gets to decide who can procreate not who lives and dies. A random lottery would be the fairest choice but the nature of man would ensure that the vested interests at the top of the heap would never let that happen. We live in frightening times and they're only going to get worse. That's the final message of the ironically titled 'Utopia'!!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.22
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 12:08 pm:   

Spoiler - spoiler spoiler - the enforced sterilisation of 95% of the world's population is not an option. It's something the nazis would do. There are enough resources in the world to feed everyone with no issues. The only reason it doesn't happen is because 1% of the people are literally eating 60% of the pie and not leaving enough crumbs for the rest. There are far better solutions than the horrific options given in Utopia.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.28
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 02:54 pm:   

But it isn't enforced sterilisation of targeted individuals but rather the introduction into the whole human race of a sterilisation gene that will balance the population to manageable levels over successive generations without anyone being any the wiser. If handled correctly and kept secret the phenomenon would be put down to mother nature correcting the balance by natural selection and no one would be aware that scientists had intervened. It would work, Weber, and there would be no victims - just potential generations who would never be born and that the planet could not sustain anyway. That is the terrifying genius of what is proposed in 'Utopia'! It would actually solve the biggest problem facing the human race this century! I bet they're already working on it... God help us all!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 03:39 pm:   

I totally understand why Wilson did what he did. He had nothing left to live for and realised, in a blinding flash of revelation, that what they were proposing was the only way for the human race to avoid otherwise inevitable armageddon. Being a conspiracy theorist he was naturally able to see the truth of the bigger picture in an instant! His conversion was akin to a born again christian being shown proof that there is no God. Brilliant show!!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 04:07 pm:   

spoiler spoile spoiler - it is enforced sterilisation. They aren't giving people a choice in the matter. Just trying to make 95% of the population - at their choosing - sterile. it's monstrous. regardlkess of any pretty speeches. plus the fact that they've committed school massacres in the name of this action...
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.239.243.195
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 04:31 pm:   

You can't seriously believe that the enforced sterilisation by underhand and devious means is a better solution to the world's problems than sharing the world's resources more fairly and finding better sources of renewable energy...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 05:57 pm:   

You really think that, no matter how bad things get, the governments of the world are ever going to get together and co-operate, Weber? Stephen Rea's line about "What have they given us? Energy saving light bulbs!!" just about said it all. The stable door was left open decades ago and the horse is in another county. Only the coldly pragmatic eye of science may be able to provide an answer where politics, by the very nature of the beast, cannot. Or am I just playing Devil's advocate... hur hur.
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Mbfg (Mbfg)
Username: Mbfg

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 80.5.8.49
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 06:59 pm:   

Saw the first "Black Mirror" last night. Not bad.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.17.171.66
Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2013 - 10:45 pm:   

Isn't the problem that while we could provide for everyone right now continued population growth and global warming will ensure that's not an option in a matter of decades?

It's a great show though. Arby really turned into a classic sympathetic monster for me in this week's episode.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 11:35 am:   

Well I thought the conclusion to 'Utopia' was shattering! It was the moral ambiguity of the story and (again) the stark choices each of the characters were presented with that made this series so gripping. I could see all points of view and have been left with a moral dilemma of my own... just how much is justified to save the human race and the planet? The brilliantly handled twist ending and unexpected fate of Jessica Hyde was one of the cruellest things I can recall happening to a character on British television. She was a right bitch but she didn't deserve that! Yet, ultimately, the arch villain of the show was the one in the right - when looked at dispassionately and logically. The end justifies the means... the end being UTOPIA. Wonderful groundbreaking stuff, imho!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 12:38 pm:   

I wonder if there's a second series planned? There were certainly enough loose ends left to be tied up. But even if there isn't this was still a cracking conclusion. A fate worse than death or what!
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.183.79.10
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 12:41 pm:   

I've not watched the last episode of UTOPIA yet, but last week Channel 4 was promoting the DVD which is labelled "Utopia - series one", so I'd guess they're doing the US thing of carrying on with a successful series.
Sorry, 'season'.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, February 20, 2013 - 12:43 pm:   

I'm glad to hear that, Mick.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.231.144
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 12:08 am:   

Just watched the ending of Utopia. Fucking hell that was bleak. Loved every minute of it. One of the least predictable things on tv for many many years. I didn't see the reveals coming till they were right on top of us. I'm not sure if I want to see a series 2 though. Where can they take the story from there?
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.231.144
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 12:12 am:   

That plus black mirror and being human, telly is rather awesome at the moment... :-)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 01:04 pm:   

I've missed this 'Black Mirror' show so far and always been a big fan of Charlie Brooker since reading his column in The Guardian every week. Is the last series out on DVD?
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.59.115.60
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 01:46 pm:   

Stevie - yes:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006B893B2%3FSubscriptionId%3D035HRQETZ S3GCGBJ3F82%26tag%3Dfindhotelinth-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3 D165953
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.183.79.10
Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2013 - 11:34 pm:   

Finished UTOPIA now, and immediately ordered the Blu Ray!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 11:29 am:   

Finished Season 4 of 'Fringe' last night and all the loose ends have been brilliantly tied up in preparation for the climactic Season 5... which I'll probably have to wait another year to see!

So it's decision time. I need a new box set to invest in to replace this wonderful series. Pay day on Tuesday and I'm open to suggestions!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 12:46 pm:   

So far I'm veering towards 'The Sopranos' which sounds like the best thing on TV of recent years that I missed. Haven't seen a single second and heard nothing but rave reviews.

Also in contention a nostalgic rewatch of 'Star Trek : The Next Generation' from start to finish (preceded by the original series, which I already have) or possibly 'Secret Army' from the 70s - the golden era of British TV and, apparently, this was one of the best drama series then on the box. Or maybe go with Season 3 of the original 'Twilight Zone'? Or 'Night Gallery' or 'Kolchak : The Night Stalker'?!?! Whatever I choose it will have to be absolute top quality classic stuff to follow 'Fringe'...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 01:03 pm:   

Or what about the complete 'Danger Man' followed by a rewatch of 'The Prisoner'?! Decisions, decisions...
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.239.243.103
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 01:05 pm:   

Dexter
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 01:11 pm:   

Bloody hell! Just discovered that Season 5 of 'Fringe' is due for DVD release this May!! Yeehaa!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 01:14 pm:   

I'll try and download the opening episodes of 'Dexter' and 'Being Human' to get a flavour of them first, Weber. I'm a right fussy sod when it comes to long running TV shows. Necessarily so...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 01:18 pm:   

I wonder when Season 3 of 'The Walking Dead' will be released? I so miss that show...
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.72.193
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 02:20 pm:   

I watched the second episode of Black Mirror last night (I haven't actually watched the first yet, but the new one piqued my curiosity more).

No spoilers, but ... damn. That was brutal. Even scarier, you can imagine a lot of people thinking the whole concept might not be a bad idea in reality.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.173
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 04:14 pm:   

One of my friends is giving me a disc with the first 8 episodes of season 3 of walking dead this week.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 04:29 pm:   

Stevie, while you're downloading free stuff, download the original pilot to "Shameless," too—the American version—from a couple years back: it's free through Amazon (or, was a month ago). Once again, a show I instantly fell in love with, and wish I had the time (and $$$) to rip through the 2 seasons on DVD already, the third one ongoing....

Don't waste your time re-watching old TV shows though—life's too short!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Friday, February 22, 2013 - 07:32 pm:   

My philosophy is very different, Craig, and matches my approach to literature and cinema. I only want to watch the absolute very best and consider the 60s & 70s to be the golden era of television. There are so many old shows I've never seen and they get just as much precedence in my mind as the good modern ones.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 1.169.137.209
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2013 - 11:40 am:   

I'm the same way, Stevie.
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Des (Des)
Username: Des

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.147.66.20
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 09:14 am:   

Was Waldo the cartoon 'politician' in Black Mirror a premonition or caricature of Italy's Beppe Grillo?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 12:45 pm:   

Of all things I ended up with the complete 'The Flintstones' & 'Top Cat' last night (the purrfect accompaniment to 'Sgt Bilko'). QUIZ TIME: Name the renowned US sitcom (that I've never seen) that inspired Fred, Wilma, Barney & Betty?

Now going online to invest in a live action box set for the coming weeks/months. 'Secret Army', 'Danger Man' & 'The Sopranos' are calling to me. Whichever is the most affordable will win... unless I'm surprised by an irresistible offer out of the blue. Fate do your worst!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 01:14 pm:   

Going for 'Danger Man'. I already have, and have watched, the complete first season when it was half hour B&W episodes - the first one of which is innocuously set in "The Village" with John Drake (McGoohan) having no idea what is ahead of him - so this is the complete collection of hour long episodes, comprising series 2-4, that lead directly into the greatest British TV show of the 60s, which I've watched and mulled over many times, and will do so again after this...

McGoohan's character remained unnamed in 'The Prisoner' for copyright reasons and issues to do with royalties, etc. John Drake is Number Six.

This is easily the best Bond-inspired spy television series ever made. If you want serious espionage look to 'The Sandbaggers'. Another show I'll be catching up with anon.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 01:18 pm:   

Feck it! I'm unfeasibly flush this month and think I'll order the complete 'Dangermouse' as well.
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.59.115.60
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 02:24 pm:   

Stevie - I loved the first series of Danger Man, apart from the false US accent McGoohan puts on, although he dropped this later. I'm also shortly about to start the hour long episodes, even though I've had them for ages. I've already watched the first, and the pace seems almost languid after the snappiness of the thirty minute episodes!
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.22
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 04:57 pm:   

The Honeymooners. I remember it being quite good.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.22
Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 05:06 pm:   

Stevie, I'm half way through the three series of SECRET ARMY. It's superb. I recommend both series of COLDITZ first, as an amuse bouche. Both are by the same writer/producer. COLDITZ is a little more heroic, though still brutally realistic in places, while SECRET ARMY has such moral complexity that you'll be thinking about it long after you've seen it.

There's a good review here:

"Secret Army makes great play of finding ambiguity in what seems clear-cut. Brave young nurses versus Nazi torturers, what could be clearer than that? And yet. By 1944, the saturation bombing of dormitory towns in Germany had given up any pretence of choosing military targets. This always happens with long drawn-out bombing campaigns (compare the end of the Kosovo war), but in 1944 we went further and began attempting massacres. We only really succeeded at Dresden, but not for want of trying. So when [German officers] Brandt and Kessler say they are fighting terrorism, and their desks are piling up with photographs of bombed schools and hospitals, surely they have a point?"

http://film.thedigitalfix.com/content/id/6141/secret-army.html
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2013 - 12:57 pm:   

It's one of those 70s shows I have subliminal memories of my parents never missing and me being too young to appreciate at the time but that certain characters and scenes stuck in my head neverheless. Everything I've heard about it since has me itching to watch the whole thing in the same way I rediscovered 'I, Claudius' & 'Survivors' in recent years on DVD. Both shows piss all over anything similar done since in terms of seriously well written, acted and produced television drama. Apart from 'Cracker' and 'Our Friends In The North', that is, imho...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Thursday, March 07, 2013 - 01:32 pm:   

On Stevie TV yesterday and today and for as long as I'm off work dosed with this blessed flu:

'The Flintstones' Season 1 of 6 : 12.30-1.00
'The Twilight Zone' Season 3 of 5 : 1.00-1.30
'The Wacky Races' Season 1 of 1 : 1.30-1.40
'Star Trek' Season 1 of 3 : 1.40-2.40
'Stop The Pigeon' Season 1 of 1 : 2.40-3.00
'Danger Man' Series 2 of 4 : 3.00-4.00
'Danger Mouse' Series 1 of 10 : 4.00-4.10
'The Addams Family' Season 2 of 3 : 4.10-4.40
'Top Cat' Season 1 of 1 : 4.40-5.10
'The Munsters' Season 2 of 2 : 5.10-5.40
'Scooby Doo, Where Are You?' Season 1 of 5 : 5.40-6.10

...and then it's into horror triple bill time with an old horror (1967 or earlier), modern horror (1968-1993) and a recent horror (1994-the present).

Makes being dosed to the eyeballs seem positively luxurious!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 12:48 pm:   

Just ordered Season 4 of 'The Twilight Zone' when it went to hour long episodes to rival 'The Outer Limits' and 'The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'. I haven't seen a single one of them!

About halfway through Season 3 and the show just gets more impressive and timeless with every repeat viewing. The best genre TV show ever made? After I've watched every episode from all 5 seasons I'll let you know. 'The Outer Limits' currently holds that title, imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 01:11 pm:   

I'm also hopelessly addicted, all over again, to the original 'Star Trek' on DVD. Watching it in broadcast order this time, rather than as they were made the last time. The plan is to watch every episode followed by all the films and all of 'The Next Generation' (the greatest reboot of a franchise in TV history) in order. I'd decided on this course of action a while ago, before I'd heard that the new Star Trek movie 'Into Darkness' is due for release soon!! The last one, also directed by J.J. Abrams, was unfeasibly fantastic entertainment - and I'd fully expected to hate it. A reboot with a new cast in a completely different alternate universe, that bloody well works... that's what I love about sci-fi!

So far watched up as far as "The Menagerie Part I" and the quality just oozes out of every fecking scene. "The Corbomite Manoeuvre", watched for the umpteenth time, still had me on the edge of my seat with breathless suspense. "Not chess, Mr Spock, poker..."

Watching again has me appreciating the depth of characterisation of the principal three all over again. Kirk is very much the anti-hero of the show. His ruthlessness and manipulation of the emotionally vulnerable, whenever his great love, The Enterprise, is threatened, belies his outward affability and likeability. This is most evident when we see him separated into his component halves, by Richard Matheson, in "The Enemy Within", and become a wild beast driven by impulse and a ruthless survival instinct and a weak, ineffectual and spineless bleeding heart liberal on the other side. Bones is the emotional heart of the show and constantly pricks Kirk's conscience, yet is forever disappointed by his friend's resorting to violence when all else fails, explaining his cantankerous and awkward exterior. Spock completes the triumvirate with his cold, callous and inhumanly emotionless pragmatism. Constantly at war with his "weak" human half he represents the Devil in disguise, forever urging Kirk to contemplate unimaginably merciless actions, most notably in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" when he pleads with the Captain to murder his best friend, "before it is too late".

So much depth, intelligence and multi-layered resonance. This groundbreaking TV show still puts to shame anything being produced today. It may even have changed the world. TV entertainment simply doesn't get any better... and it frequently has me laughing out loud, for all the right reasons, to boot. Genius!!
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 01:52 pm:   

Star Trek was Cold War nonsense. An international star ship representing the Earth... called the US Enterprise. No word is more iconic in the mythology of 20th century conservatism. Yes, the ship has officers who are not American and/or not white... but we know who's the leader.

I still remember the episode where the crew find a version of Earth in which the Russians had won the war which, in the Star Trek reality, the Americans have won. Kirk and crew find a sect of brutal thugs, the Comes (which Kirk translates as 'Communists'), ruling over a noble slave people, the Yangs ('Yankees'), who worship a god called 'Freedom'. Kirk comments "That's our god too." Give me strength...
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Playloup66 (Playloup66)
Username: Playloup66

Registered: 05-2011
Posted From: 86.128.217.184
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 02:23 pm:   

How anyone prefers the original 'Star Trek' to 'The Next Generartion' is beyond me!

'TNG' is superior in every single way.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.232.244.38
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 03:48 pm:   

Stevie - I'm with you in what you say about the original Star Trek! I can understand Joel's criticisms too, but you have to remember the time in which this was set. I lived through it and I can tell you that the Cold War was uppermost in many people's minds. People feared for the future, and the idea of different races (and species) getting along and working together was a distant dream. So, yes, the series really challenged the way people thought and felt at the time (though it will probably seem cheesy, sexist, etc nowadays).

And, Playloup, yes! TNG carried on this theme by introducing still more "inter-species" stuff and in some way addressed the sexism of the original. Both were great. I never managed to get into Deep Space 9 in the same way though.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 05:21 pm:   

Watch it again now, Joel, with adult sensibilities, and without the voice of your father in your head, then marvel at the timeless intelligence and entertainment value of one of the greatest and most influential television programmes ever made - or, historically speaking, that ever could be made.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 06:02 pm:   

'Star Trek' concentrated on the stark reality of the human condition while 'The Next Generation' went for the issues at the expense of human honesty, prompted by the disease of political correctness. Both were great shows but 'Star Trek' is the more primal and important because it also dealt with the issues, without fanfare, at a time when they most needed dealt with... and changed the establishment from within as a result. Hence TNG.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.29
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 09:41 pm:   

Joel, I can't think of another piece of television from that era which was more progressive. I suspect it's because it doesn't exist. At 45+ years ago, we're talking about something on the edge of falling out of popular memory and becoming historical.

Communism in the USSR was barbaric. Freedom is a good thing.

I disagree with your assessment of the Spock character, Stevie. I always thought him motivated by compassion and pacifism. And he would follow whatever logical path that would save lives or improve things many others would find too found too difficult to face.

(As opposed to politicians today. When they say that they're making tough choices, it usually just means they are about to be an asshole.)

I disagree about TNG too! Perhaps we forget but US television in the 80s was mostly about many many many police cars rear ending each other to supposed comedic effect. Especially in the 1st season, Roddenberry had:

1) Cast as his lead a middle-aged bald French man,

2) Men wearing skirts (well, a mixture of a skirt and pants - the skant),

3) To an outrageous extent emphasised pacifism, diversity and the value of thought and conversation.

4) To counter Joel's point, the pilot had an American soldier spouting anti-communist rhetoric and is described on screen as "nonsense" and "savagery".

It's unashamedly a supportive of modernism and reason. When DS9 started, Trek entered a somewhat dismal post-modern, sometimes nihilistic, usually unconvincing period which I didn't care for. I'm a modernist and a romantic.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.29
Posted on Wednesday, March 27, 2013 - 09:42 pm:   

Is this the first time anyone has discussed Star Trek on the internet?
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 09:36 am:   

Spock's character progressed and he became gradually more human as the show went on, Proto, but in the early days he was the voice of the unacceptable action that Kirk didn't want to be pushed into. This explains why Spock and McCoy were always at each other's throats in the early episodes. It was a great three way dynamic that made the show so dramatically gripping.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 11:30 am:   

I still find Gene Roddenberry's vision rather moving and remarkably brave for the time. He had great trouble getting anyone to back the show and in the end we have Lucille Ball, of all people, for convincing Desilu productions to take a chance on the format. The rest is history! And, fingers crossed, will come to be our future history... but don't hold your breath.

Another thing that has struck me for the first time is the immense influence Robert A. Heinlein had on the show. The episode "Charlie X", in particular, is like a more sinister inversion of the plot of 'Stranger In A Strange Land'. A young man brought up from birth by an utterly alien race and then plunged back into the rest of humanity without a clue how to act or use the superhuman mental powers they bestowed upon him, in this case, with memorably frightening results. Many of the episodes are pure horror, often of a Lovecraftian nature, as in "The Man Trap" with its hideous salt vampire masquerading in human form. One really feels for McCoy in that one.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 02:40 pm:   

Stevie, I watched the episode I was talking about roughly four years ago, to see if it was as crass as I remembered. It was. Don't patronise me.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 03:00 pm:   

Didn't mean to. But your criticism of the show, when taken as whole rather than isolating the odd dated reference, is still unwarranted, imo. I have a fiercely feminist friend who calls the show crass because they didn't have the bravery to make the Captain a woman, back in the 1960s, to which I can only shake my head in exasperation.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.41.73
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 03:16 pm:   

IIRC, in the original pilot the Enterprise's First Officer was a woman but the network weren't happy about having a woman being shown in a position of power. They also weren't happy about Spock being an alien and told Rodenberry he had to choose between the two characters. Seeing as Star Trek was an SF show Rodenberry decided to keep Spock.

Uhura could have been used to balance this out a little but she tended to get relegated to the sidelines. Still, compared to most roles given to black actresses at the time she was still a powerful role model.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.41.73
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 03:19 pm:   

Btw, I've been watching The Twilight Zone (I'm near the end of season 2) and I'm amazed at some of the stuff Rod Serling got away with in terms of criticising racism, the Cold War etc. It all looks a but tame now but back then I'm surprised that he was even allowed to air certain episodes.
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.232.244.38
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 03:51 pm:   

Good point about The Twilight Zone too, Stu. I think both Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling were great visionaries, and both found a unique way of getting their political and moral points across to the masses (probably without the "authorities" realising what they were doing!).
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 05:23 pm:   

Halfway through Season 3, Stu, and the consistent quality of the scripts is really quite stunning. Last one I watched was the brilliantly macabre sci-fi/horror "To Serve Man" with its famous black comic twist. Even the relatively weaker episodes always have something going for them with the atmospheric b&w and the thrill of spotting all those familiar faces. One episode memorably paired a pre-fame Charles Bronson with a black haired and incredibly sexy young Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha from 'Bewitched'). Just ordered Season 4 as well.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.32.184
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 05:43 pm:   

Stevie, have you seen 'The Encounter' from season 5? George Takei and real life WWII veteran Neville Brand in a story confronting (among other things) racism in WWII propaganda that portrayed the Japanese as subhuman. It is (I think) the only TZ episode not to be syndicated in the US. Although I gather that some of the controversy about the episode was from Japanese-Americans who weren't happy about some liberties taken with the facts regarding Pearl Harbor. I'm not sure how WWII veterans responded to the story.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.32.184
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 05:53 pm:   

Going back to Star Trek and tolerance for a moment, I think this quote from Futurama sums up just how progressive the programme's attitudes truly were:

Fry: [Star Trek] taught me so much. Like, how you should accept people, whether they be black, white, Klingon ... or even female.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.102
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 05:54 pm:   

I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any of Season 4, Stu, and very little, if any, of Season 5.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.32.184
Posted on Thursday, March 28, 2013 - 06:02 pm:   

If you get the chance to see it it's a pretty powerful episode.

But back to Star Trek http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Twe0fwtfVUc
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, March 29, 2013 - 11:21 am:   

Stu, there is a very similar episode in Season 3 called "A Quality Of Mercy" in which Dean Stockwell, a Jap hating gung-ho lieutenant in the closing days of World War II, is taught a lesson in empathy by being transported back to 1942 and into the body of a Japanese soldier, when they were winning the war. It also featured Albert Salmi and, I believe, the earliest genre appearance of Leonard Nimoy, who supplies the commentary.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, March 29, 2013 - 11:26 am:   

From 'The Twilight Zone' to 'Fringe'... what an incredible career!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, March 29, 2013 - 12:35 pm:   

On Proto's recommendation I've just ordered the complete collection of 'Colditz'. Have very hazy subliminal memories of this show from my childhood and everything I've read about it makes it sound absolutely essential. To be followed by the same team's 'Secret Army' and 'Kessler'. The golden era of 1970s TV drama at its absolute best.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.44.153
Posted on Friday, March 29, 2013 - 01:16 pm:   

Stevie, I think I saw that Dean Stockwell episode. And even if I haven't I'll be working my way through TZ season 3 pretty soon so I'll see it then.

Btw, did you ever see the DC comic strip 'White Devil, Yellow Devil'?
http://www.artandartifice.com/alex-toth-yellow-devil-white-devil.php

Meditations on morality and inhumanity in war zones ... this has got me wanting to reread my Blazing Combat collection.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.30.205.180
Posted on Sunday, March 31, 2013 - 01:19 am:   

Proto, the Stalinist version of communism may well have been distorted and degraded, but it's a reflection of the current toxic state of capitalism that in the years following the end of the Soviet Union, the average life expectancy in Russia fell by ten years. What 'freedom' have the thousands of Russian women currently working in the Western sex industry benefited from? In the new Russia, the only freedom is the freedom of gangsters, pimps and pushers to harm whoever they choose. Programmes like Star Trek are part of the endless river of propaganda that tell us capitalism is 'freedom' as opposed to what it really is: a sick nightmare.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, March 31, 2013 - 03:49 am:   

'Star Trek' advocates democracy not capitalism, Joel. It's a far from perfect way of governing ourselves but is still the least imperfect that humankind has come up with. Roddenberry's vision was one of equality, social responsibility and community spirit like that extolled so brilliantly in Ken Loach's 'The Spirit Of '45'. The Soviet Union was a tragic corruption of everything socialism stands for. America has a ways to go but I fervently believe they are getting there. The current economic crisis will come to be seen as a turning point and, ultimately, a blessing in disguise.
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Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 2.27.144.202
Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 - 01:54 am:   

Trotsky said, "Socialism needs democracy like a body needs oxygen". Stalinism was a distorted version of socialism, but the version of democracy offered under capitalism – essentially, government by tabloid – is similarly warped and ugly.

I'm not convinced that Star Trek was socialist – 'Enterprise' is too loaded a word for a start – but there are socialists in America, though obviously not in the Democratic Party.

The current economic crisis is already a turning point: it has been used as an opportunity to reverse the post-war reforms and smash the NHS, the welfare state and workers' rights. In the name of 'austerity' we're converting to the American social system, which resembles the British social system of the nineteenth century. If there is going to be any positive movement against this vicious turning back of the clock, it will require mass action on an overwhelming scale.

The brutal 'austerity' regime (whether it calls itself Tory, Coalition or even New Labour) will only be defeated if it is opposed with absolute commitment by a well-informed majority. Stevie, if you think that's going to happen, I applaud your optimism – I'm trying to share it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 - 06:05 am:   

The Wheel of Fortune is spinning for the whole human race, Joel. Personally, I pin my hopes on visionaries like Serling & Roddenberry (and politically progressive Americans like them) having their number come up.

Just watched the fantastic ST episode "Balance Of Terror" which pits the Federation, for the first time, against the Romulan Empire in a breathtakingly tense battle of wits between two noble but pragmatic starship captains on the edge of the Neutral Zone. The time for neutrality in human affairs has come to an end and if we want to end up fighting aliens as one (see 'Starship Troopers' & 'The Forever War') then we need to defeat the enemies of socialism first... but, again, don't hold your breath.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 - 02:42 pm:   

Come to think of it, Joel, the only time capitalism has reared its ugly head in 'Star Trek' was in the guise of slimy entrepreneurial huckster, Harry Mudd, "whose name is mud across the known galaxy", and who goes on to be one of the show's recurring villains. Disconcertingly, when first encountered in "Mudd's Women", he goes under the alias of Walsh!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.36
Posted on Monday, April 08, 2013 - 08:21 pm:   

Proto, my box set of 'Colditz' arrived today and I'm salivating at the thought of getting home to watch the first episode. There's a map of Colditz Castle included and everything!

My most concrete childhood memory of this show was of having the board game and loving it lol.
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Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu

Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 90.244.37.127
Posted on Tuesday, April 09, 2013 - 04:13 pm:   

Stevie, I watched A Quality of Mercy. Very good.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, April 09, 2013 - 04:27 pm:   

You're rapidly catching up on me, Stu.

I'm trying to string 'The Twilight Zone' out as long as possible while alternating it with; 'Star Trek', 'Danger Man', 'Danger Mouse', 'The Addams Family', 'The Munsters', 'Fireball XL5', 'Top Cat', 'The Flintstones', 'The Wacky Races', 'Stop The Pigeon', 'Scooby Doo, Where Are You?'... and now 'Colditz' as well. Not to mention my weekly horror triple bills. Tune in to Stevie TV today, folks!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, April 09, 2013 - 05:37 pm:   

Ah, frig it. I've just treated myself to another two box sets for only a few quid each. The complete 'Ivor The Engine' by Postgate & Firmin (40 five minute episodes made in 1975-77) and possibly my favourite children's TV show of all time, the complete 'The Herbs' (13 fifteen minute episodes made in 1968) & its sequel 'The Adventures Of Parsley' (32 five minute episodes made in 1970). When people talk about the magic of television it is these type of shows I think about first and foremost. Pure joy awaits...
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 114.25.181.180
Posted on Tuesday, April 09, 2013 - 08:38 pm:   

Stevie, when I was a youngster we (my mum and dad and my brother and I) would play the Colditz board game with the theme music from the show playing in the background. My dad would even shine a spotlight on the board for dramatic effect!

I've got the box set but haven't watched it yet. I'm sure it'll bring back some great memories.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.239.243.102
Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 12:31 am:   

Sorry but Dangermouse was the pinnacle of children's tv. Nothing before or since - except possibly Count Duckula - has ever even come close.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 12:53 am:   

Watched the first episode, Huw, and I'm hopelessly hooked already. The first moment those iconic opening credits and that stirring theme music came on was intensely nostalgic. I love those sort of moments. The show is brilliantly made and acted and nail-bitingly tense virtually from the word go. The attention to realism is highly impressive as it is all shot on film and on location. It's almost like being there and I love how the German characters speak German and are devoid of easy caricaturisation.

The first hour is all build up ending with the lead character (Edward Hardwicke, acting out of his skin) being told after capture that he is to be sent to Colditz. To which he replies with a defiant frown - "What the hell is Colditz?!" - and there's another 27 hours of this great drama to go!

I had the board game too, Huw, and have happy memories of sat round the kitchen table playing it with my mates. Trying to collect all the tools while avoiding having to pick up a card and possibly fall foul of the guards or, worse, the dogs. By God, they knew how to entertain in those days!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 01:10 am:   

'Danger Mouse' is the funniest kids cartoon ever to come out of Britain, Weber, and is still as side-splitting today as it ever was. Half the humour is aimed directly at adults with a nod and a wink and ridiculous amounts of innuendo they could never get away with now. David Jason & Terry Scott's voice characterisations are perfection itself. Working my way through it at the minute along with the show that inspired it, 'Danger Man', which is surely the greatest spy adventure series ever made. Each hour long story is completely absorbing as drama and thriller with Patrick McGoohan's easy charm and charisma leaping out of the screen. John Drake is the very antithesis of James Bond, with his reliance on stealth and his wits, over brawn and firepower, to complete each mission, and his avoidance of sex as a distraction - yet he remains every bit as super cool, if not more so. "Be seeing you."
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 01:11 pm:   

The sheer class of 'Fireball XL5' has me irresistibly treating myself for the last time this month with the complete box set of Gerry Anderson's supermarionation masterpiece, 'Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons' (1967-68), as it was just too cheap on Amazon to ignore. That's nearly everything of his collected now, bar the really early b&w shows and some later day stuff. I haven't seen CSATM since I was a kid and have alwayss considered it the best of his puppet shows - even over 'Thunderbirds'. 32 half hour episodes of surprisingly grim and adult toned sci-fi brilliance. Anderson's best show of all, however, remains 'Space 1999' which just pips the wonderful 'UFO' imho.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 01:24 pm:   

I tried to watch the recent CGI remake of 'Captain Scarlet' and just couldn't get into it at all. It still had the strength of storytelling that Anderson's shows always managed but lacked the charm, originality and humour. I think his day had come and gone, after nearly 40 years of hit after hit, but maybe future generations will judge it better than I...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 05:16 pm:   

Okay, one more. The complete 'Lavender Castle' (26 ten minute episodes made in 1996-98) for £3.74 can't be bad! I'm interested to see this as I've heard it's a visually striking mixture of old style stop motion animation and background CGI. It was also Gerry Anderson's last big original hit series and marked a return to the charmingly innocent whimsy of his very earliest shows. It's since become something of a cult classic for all ages - yet again.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 111.251.227.122
Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - 09:46 pm:   

Stevie, I just watched the first two episodes of Colditz and am on the third now! It's a terrific series, for all the reasons you mentioned above. I don't remember much, if anything, of it other than the opening music and titles. I really enjoy watching these shows that I saw as a young boy and have all but forgotten (in terms of details). It's great to get reacquainted with them.

The game was fun, and we still have it somewhere. I don't recall much about it, but for some reason I remember there being a staff car...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013 - 12:42 pm:   

The parallels between 'Fireball XL5' (1962) and 'Star Trek' (1966-69) cotinue to astound me!

The last episode, "Space Immigrants", centred on the Scottish ship's engineer, Jock McAngus, as a surly old whiskey drinking, sexist, racist and homophobic curmudgeon who comes down with acute appendicitis after gorging on haggis and leaves the ship without anyone who can operate the engines. They are on a mission of mercy involving an alien race of little green men, who are so obviously gay it's hilarious (they speak in high voices and mince around quite outrageously while idolising Steve Zodiac!). As Steve says, "They may be nothing like us but we must respect their traditions."

Anyway Jock is particularly critical of ship's doctor, Venus (who is also Russian), declaring, "Women in space! Whatever next?" until she saves his life and they all get home safely.

The final lines go like this:

Jock: "Maybe there's something to be said for women in space after all. And to celebrate I'd like to give ye all a piece of me haggis."

Steve: "I thought you said celebrate, Jock. That sounds more like a punishment!"

To which the crew all roll around laughing while Jock sits fuming... and we're into the theme song again. I swear I haven't laughed so much in ages. My sides were sore by the end of this episode. Absolutley fecking priceless stuff!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.216
Posted on Saturday, April 13, 2013 - 01:55 pm:   

Watched episode 2 of 'Colditz' and it was bloody brilliant! I realise now what they're at. Each of these opening episodes introduces us to one of the principal characters in the build up to their capture. This time it was David McCallum's turn as an RAF pilot. Nerve wrackingly tense throughout even though we know he has to end up a POW. Of course this means it will be several episodes at least until we even see Colditz Castle which heightens the sense of foreboding and excitement all the more. This is one of the best series of its era or any era for that matter. Absolutely bloody brilliant!!
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 46.18.9.37
Posted on Sunday, April 14, 2013 - 11:23 am:   

(Re)discovering STAR TREK, THE TWILIGHT ZONE and COLDITZ for the first time? I'm envious of you lot. (But then, I'm reading GHOST STORY for the first time)

Joel, I agree with pretty much everything you've said above, except that STAR TREK is a capitalist show; they don't even have money in their future!

Chomsky distinguishes between classical iberalism, in which people are free to become all they are capable of being (akin to the old Roman definition of happiness: "the exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope.") and free market capitalism which is only liberating in a superficial and selective manner and enslaves more than it emancipates.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 46.18.9.37
Posted on Sunday, April 14, 2013 - 11:26 am:   

Stevie, COLDITZ, SECRET ARMY and KESSLER comprise 6 series. I've disciplined myself to watch just one series per Christmas. (Though I did overlap the last COLDITZ with the first SECRET ARMY.) I know its hard, but slow down and savour them, if you can.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - 03:42 pm:   

Watching 'Colditz' one episode a week to string it out. This is definitely up there with the very best TV drama series I have seen. On a par with the likes of 'I, Claudius' or 'Our Friends In The North', imho. The fairness and intelligence of the writing and moral ambiguity of the characterisations is of the very highest order, with even the Germans getting to explain their viewpoint with dignity and regret but an unshakeable resolve, that has one almost convinced Churchill would have been wiser to make his peace with them when he had the chance(!), rather than face (then) "inevitable" annihilation. Hitler is spoken of in whispers as a hysterical buffoon who will be ousted once hostilities have ceased and a new rational order of non-Nazis is put in place. This is all presented with remarkable intensity and passion, transporting the viewer back to the pragmatic immediacy of the awful times the characters were living through, on both sides.

Episode 3 introduces us to Christopher Neame as a British sailor washed up on the coast of France without a uniform or any means of identification and mistaken for a spy after capture, as he can speak fluent German having lived there as a child. This one ends memorably with our first imposing sight of Colditz Castle.

Episode 4 is Robert Wagner's turn as the new boy, and first captured American we have seen, who suffers brutally at the hands of the Gestapo. Also introduced is Jack Hedley as the Senior British Officer in charge of prisoners at Colditz. A stiff upper lip old fuddy-duddy who is great mates with the Camp Kommandant, fondly reliving their times blasting hell out of each other in the trenches of World War I - "Now that was a real man's war!", etc. I can't say I like him very much... but there are already signs he may not be quite the pompous oaf he appears.

Truly amazing television and one of the most convincing and powerfully emotional reenactments of the wartime experience I can recall seeing. 'Das Boot' springs to mind as the only other show that could possibly rival it. The beauty is in the attention to detail, the painstakingly fair portrayal of all sides and the sheer powerhouse commitment of the acting. You can tell they had veterans of Colditz involved in every stage of this production. The authenticity just oozes out of every scene. Quite brilliant!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 - 12:40 pm:   

I have so many DVDs to watch now I have to make a list to make sense of it and plan my weekly viewing schedule! This is the raw material in chrono order:

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
The Flintstones (1960-1966)
Danger Man (1960-1968)
Top Cat (1961-1962)
Fireball XL5 (1962-1963)
The Addams Family (1964-1966)
The Munsters (1964-1966)
Bewitched (1964-1972)
Star Trek (1966-1969)
Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons (1967-1968)
The Herbs & The Adventures Of Parsley (1968-1970)
The Wacky Races (1968-1970)
Stop The Pigeon (1969-1970)
Scooby Doo, Where Are You? (1969-1978)
Colditz (1972-1974)
Ivor The Engine (1975-1977)
Danger Mouse (1981-1992)
Blackadder (1983-1989)
Lavender Castle (1999-2000)

Horror Triple Bills - old, modern & recent (1894-1967) + (1968-1993) + (1994-2013)
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - 04:35 pm:   

The latest episode of 'Colditz' was the best yet. This time it was the German staff of Colditz who took centre stage. The Camp Kommandant, Karl, (Bernard Hepton) is a lovely man. One of the most sympathetic characters in the series so far and real old school, honourable Wehrmacht. His Second-in-Command and oldest friend, Willi (Michael Gough), is a Nazi hating alcoholic, who gets the meat of the drama in this ep, and whom Karl has to protect from mouthing off, despite his violent protestations, during visits by the SS to check security. The most moving line in the series so far was Gough's, when asked where he is going, he replies, "Never trust an alcoholic, old friend. I'm just going to report a case of flu." And then there's the steely eyed new Chief of Security, Hauptman Ullman (Hans Meyer), also Wehrmacht, who appears to be the very personification of the heartless heel-clicking Gerry bastard so beloved of Hollywood, but who reveals himself to be a man of honour and compassion when faced with the merciless judgementalism of the SS. TV drama simply doesn't get any better than this. What an awesome show!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 - 04:44 pm:   

Also just ordered both volumes of Season 1 of what, to my mind, is the finest horror anthology TV series since 'Hammer House Of Horror' way back in 1980. Yes, I'm talking about the superb, 'Masters Of Horror' (2005).

It took a pasting from dull-witted horror fans at the time but was sensationally good, imho. I'm really looking forward to watching it again, in tandem with the old triple bills, before ordering Season 2 (2007) and the follow-up, 'Fear Itself' (2008) - both of which I missed!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, May 02, 2013 - 12:36 pm:   

I've just taken a bit of a gamble by ordering the US Region 1 complete box set of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' (1960-1962) - there's no chance of it ever seeing the light of day over here ffs - and I have a multi-region DVD player. The gamble is that it only cost £20 and is Used but said to be in "Very Good" condition from a highly rated seller on Amazon Marketplace.

As the set is now selling for over £90 new and may never be released again I couldn't resist the chance of seeing it. All 67 hour long episodes of what is purported to be the greatest horror anthology TV series ever made. To me this series represents the Holy Grail of televisual terror! Fingers crossed the gamble pays off...
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.78.49
Posted on Thursday, May 02, 2013 - 05:12 pm:   

Just a wee reminder that Hannibal starts on Tuesday on Sky Living.

My first reaction to a Hannibal Lecter TV series was that it was a really bad idea. Then I heard Mads Mikkelsen had been cast as Lecter and I got curious. Now I've heard so many good reports from the US I'm genuinely excited about it.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - 04:29 pm:   

It arrived!! I hold in my hands the Holy Grail of television horror and can barely believe it! The complete box set of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller'. I'll be running home after work praying my multi-region DVD player and TV can play this okay. If so this has just become one of my most treasured possessions. 67 fricking hours worth!! <gulp>
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - 11:30 pm:   

It plays!! Hallelujah!!!! The first episode was a brilliant psycho suspense thriller starring Leslie Nielsen - of all people - that was obviously inspired by Patricia's 'The Talented Mr Ripley'. A psychotically jealous little man and compulsive criminal sets about destroying his boss and assuming his identity. This was like watching a classic film noir movie the production, acting, script, direction, music and glorious chiarascuro b&w cinematography were that good! Stephen King didn't exaggerate the quality of this show and Boris Karloff's pitch perfect introduction was the very model of atmospheric scene setting. To think there are another 66 hour long episodes of this quality to come. Jesus H. Christ, there is a God!!!!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.231.206
Posted on Thursday, May 16, 2013 - 12:12 am:   

Leslie Neilsen was a fine serious actor when he wanted to be. Forbidden Planet being a prime example. He was amazingly good in the Ray Bradbury Tv Theatre episode Marionettes Inc. Very creepy indeed.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, May 16, 2013 - 11:39 am:   

The episode was called "The Twisted Image" and Leslie Nielsen was indeed very good in it as the harassed boss but George Grizzard stole the show as his slimily envious nemesis. The quality of the production was astonishing! It was directed by Arthur Hiller and written by James P. Cavanagh. It also boasted a great jazzy score that really suited the mood.

I also remember Nielsen being very good in villainous roles in 'Day Of The Animals' (1977) and Romero & King's 'Creepshow' (1982).

'Forbidden Planet' (1956) is one of my all-time favourite films. It was a major influence on 'Star Trek' and is still one of the most beautiful, intelligent and scary sci-fi movies ever made.
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.78.49
Posted on Thursday, May 16, 2013 - 05:36 pm:   

The first couple of episodes of Hannibal have been quite good so far, though Mikkelsen's accent is a bit hard to follow at times.

Interestingly, Will Graham is being played as an autistic empath, who Lecter finds so fascinating he decides to infiltrate his life and poke him with a stick until he breaks. It is, also, extremely gruesome. The mushroom corpses in the second episode won't be leaving my head anytime soon.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 1.169.139.234
Posted on Friday, May 17, 2013 - 03:59 pm:   

Stevie, I've just finished watching the first series of Colditz, and I thought it was tremendous fun. The suspense of the last two episodes, in particular, is hard to beat. It's a consistently excellent production all-round, with great characters (both prisoners and captors).

I remember there being some stand-out episodes in Thriller - 'Pigeons from Hell' (based on a Robert Bloch story) and 'The Hungry Glass' come to mind. It's been ages since I watched the series so I really should find time to revisit it...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 - 08:19 am:   

I'm stringing 'Colditz' out one episode a week, Huw, and it's one of the highlights of the week now. A fantastic production in every department. One of the best I've ever watched.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 - 08:31 am:   

Going to do the same with 'Boris Karloff's Thriller'. The quality of the opener has me very excited about what's to come. Television, at its very best, is the equal of cinema, IMO, and shows like these prove it. Add BKT to the list of what I'm watching on Stevie TV above - along with Series 1 of 'Red Dwarf' and the whole ridiculous saga to follow. Just started collecting them, at long last, and picked the first set up for £2.50!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 - 08:36 am:   

Oh, and just started rewatching 'Rising Damp' from the beginning again, for the umpteenth time, and have 'Masters Of Horror' and 'Fear Itself' waiting in the wings.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 - 08:48 am:   

And there's a really rather good 5 part police procedural serial killer thriller called 'The Fall' I started watching this week that stars Gillian Anderson and is set in present day Belfast, rather marvellously. She walked these actual streets!!

Of course they had to make the murderer a Russian Jew to avoid upsetting the more excitable members of our happy little community lol! It's extremely well acted and written and is proving really rather creepy.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 - 02:17 pm:   

What makes this show so engrossing is how the serial killer isn't one of those mad geniuses with an elaborate plan but, rather, a sleazy sex maniac who rapes, tortures and strangles women by night while leading a perfectly normal existence as a grief counsellor and happily married father of two adorable tots by day. It's like a modern day Boston Strangler case set in Belfast in the relatively peaceful aftermath of the Troubles in which women from both sides of the political/religious divide are equally at risk and we have lovely Gillian Anderson, in full on Scully mode, as the serial killer expert from across the water who is called in to help the floundering PSNI (formerly the RUC). It's a clever way to comment on the suspicions that still divide us over here without giving us yet another drama about the fecking Troubles. Accurately observed, as it is, the show could prove highly educational for interested outsiders as well as being a riveting and scary thriller in its own right. An ironically heartening sign of the times that we can start worrying about violent sex crime over here rather than being blown up going to the shops!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.232
Posted on Sunday, May 19, 2013 - 07:40 pm:   

Just picked up, by complete luck, Takashi Miike's Japanese horror TV series, 'MPD Psycho' (2000) - the complete box set for £8! MPD stands for Multiple Personality Disorder.

I have heard it called the most outrageously gruesome series of its kind ever made on Earth and one of the finest things he's ever done! A direct inspiration for 'Masters Of Horror', of which his episode, "Imprint", was one of the very best, if not the best. I'm actually a bit nervous about watching it.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.8
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 - 12:16 am:   

It's heartening to see that the Catholics and Protestants can all get together in peace and agree to hate the Jews.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 213.233.148.8
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 - 12:18 am:   

I found the end of COLDITZ deeply moving. No spoilers - you're going to love it, Stevie. And you've still got the even deeper riches of SECRET ARMY and (reportedly less satisfying) KESSLER.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 - 01:27 am:   

Huw, "Pigeons From Hell" is a classic Robert E. Howard short horror story. I know Robert Bloch wrote many of the scripts for 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' so maybe that's what you were thinking of? I'll let you know when I reach it - sometime over the next 66 weeks!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 - 01:25 pm:   

Is 'The Fall' playing over there? It's airing on BBC2 at 9 pm on Tuesday nights over here. 5 hour long episodes. Apparently a second season with Anderson playing the same character, Stella Gibson, has already been commissioned.

There is a certain quaint old-fashionedness about the show despite all the graphic details. We have a sophisticated American detective and a creepy Eastern European killer thrust into a backwardly bigoted world that is trying to claw its way into the 21st Century and that is alien to both of them and, in which, they cause mayhem. He on the streets, she in the corridors of power.
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Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 111.243.145.158
Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 - 04:20 pm:   

You're right, Stevie - I must have had Robert Bloch on my mind while I was trying to remember the show's episodes. They did 'Youre Truly, Jack the Ripper', I think, among others.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 03:38 pm:   

Watched Episode 2 of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' last night.

"Child's Play", directed by Arthur Hiller & written by Robert Dozier, while not nearly as gripping as the opener, was still a beautifully made and acted little domestic drama with a macabre slant. An eleven year old boy, troubled by witnessing persistent rows between his parents, takes his father's hunting rifle and a box of shells and goes on a bit of a psychotic rampage through the surrounding countryside. The action culminates in him holding an innocent fisherman at gunpoint and projecting all his subconscious hatred of his father onto him, as an invented villain called Black Bart. All very tense and psychologically penetrating with not as cosily predictable a happy ending as one might imagine. I thoroughly enjoyed it in a quality "play of the week" kind of way.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 03:50 pm:   

An interesting addition to the "evil child" sub-genre that was so popular and never better done than at that time (late 50s/early 60s).
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 194.66.23.11
Posted on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 06:45 pm:   

Sure the ultimate evil child picture is from 1973...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.182
Posted on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 07:09 pm:   

I agree. But that period produced more of them than any other. Fear of the child was somehow in the air. 'The Bad Seed', 'Village Of The Damned', 'Children Of The Damned', 'The Innocents', 'The Children's Hour', etc.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - 12:51 pm:   

Watched the very first episode of 'Red Dwarf' last night, for the first time since original broadcast in 1988, and I'd forgotten how brilliant it was. No wonder I was hooked from the start.

The mix of convincing deep space sci-fi atmospherics, classic British class based sitcom material and the underplayed but still potent poignancy of the set-up was, and still is, a stroke of genius - with pitch perfect casting!

I'm going to enjoy this long awaited first chrono watch of the whole giddy saga.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.171
Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2013 - 09:40 pm:   

Jesus, I just watched "The Queen Of Spain's Beard" episode of 'Blackadder' and nearly choked laughing. Haven't seen this criminally underrated and bloody hilarious first series since it was broadcast in 1983. Hasn't dated a day and is, if anything, even funnier now. I'd forgotten how brilliant Brian Blessed was as the king in this series. Fantastic comedy!!
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 80.239.243.170
Posted on Saturday, May 25, 2013 - 10:13 pm:   

I've only seen the first series of blackadder once when it was repeated about 10 years back. It's one of my must buy dvd's
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.159.33.151
Posted on Sunday, May 26, 2013 - 12:19 am:   

The DVD set of all the Blackadder series is often available at knock-down prices so it's worth looking around.
This is the set I have:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B001UHO0TY%3FSubscriptionId%3D035HRQETZ S3GCGBJ3F82%26tag%3Dfindhotelinth-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3 D165953

...not bad value for sixteen quid.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.167
Posted on Saturday, June 01, 2013 - 01:31 am:   

Just watched the final episode of Extras again. I'd forgotten how brilliant it was. And it's complete dissection of Celeb Big Brother is genius at its most accurate.
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Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.212.230.167
Posted on Saturday, June 01, 2013 - 01:34 am:   

'Why's she in here?' 'Her son was murdered and now she's got a single out.'
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, June 07, 2013 - 11:52 am:   

Three recent additions to Stevie TV:

'Going Straight' (1978) - the single series sequel to 'Porridge', that I watched in its entirety for the first time in chrono order last year and was gobsmacked by how great a comedy drama it still is. The first episode is as poignant as it is laugh out loud funny as it follows Fletcher, having just been released and sworn never to returtn, on the train home from Slade Prison, where he runs into Mr McKay, who has just been put out to pasture for being too old, and a couple of old acquaintances who have just pulled off a jewel heist. Which way will our hero swing? Brilliant writing by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais as ever. This plays like a natural follow on from the last episode of 'Porridge' with no discernible dip in acting or writing quality at all.

'The Worst Week Of My Life' Series 1 (2004) - I missed this at the time but for one episode which almost made me choke laughing and I've always intended catching up with it since. After Episode 1 I know I was right. This is a faultlessly written and performed classic of British sitcom brilliance on a par with the best the country has ever produced, including 'Fawlty Towers', 'Blackadder', 'I'm Alan Partridge' & 'The Office'. It's heavily inspired by Larry David's comedy of escalating disasters from 'Curb Your Enthusiasm', as was the sublime 'Extras', but puts an even more excruciatingly embarrassing stiff upper lip English spin on the social nightmares that Ben Miller finds himself engulfed by. Criminally underrated and seriously hilarious!!

'Masters Of Science Fiction' (2007) - the tragically short lived sci-fi follow-up to the marvellous 'Masters Of Horror' with the same format and cinematic production values. It only ran to 6 hour long episodes, adapting the stories; 'A Clean Escape' by John Kessel(?), 'The Awakening' by Howard Fast(?), 'Little Brother' by Walter Mosley(?), 'Watchbird' by Robert Sheckley(!), 'The Discarded' by Harlan Ellison(!!) & 'Jerry Was A Man' by Robert A. Heinlein(!!!!). No prizes for why I had to buy this.
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Mbfg (Mbfg)
Username: Mbfg

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 2.218.250.38
Posted on Sunday, June 09, 2013 - 09:10 am:   

Tried to watch "Coma" last Friday night. Thought it might be interesting. It might have been, except for the incidental (so-called) music, which was relentless, too loud and completely drowned out the whole thing. Gave up and watched the second part of the excellent BBC documentary series, "The Iraq War" on iPlayer. If you haven't watched it, do so. All the major players take part and make sure their stories are straight. There are some real surprises and revelations, but none of them can conceal the truth of what that particular adventure was...

Regards
Terry
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Mbfg (Mbfg)
Username: Mbfg

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 2.218.250.38
Posted on Sunday, June 09, 2013 - 09:19 am:   

Dear Weber

I loved "Extras", and found it satisfying on many levels, particularly in the way in which big names were willing to indulge in a little bit of self-mockery; Patrick Stewart's obsession with naked women, Kate Winslett's hard smoking, cynical, totally mercenary portrayal of a wartime nun "It's got nuns and Jews on the run from the nazis, so I'm bound to get an Oscar" Ben Stiller's rampaging ego and encyclopaedic memory of how much money each of his films grossed etc.

Much better than Gervais's stand-up, which I found horrible, a display of tasteless, schoolboy sniggering. A man trying to be clever but coming across as pathetic (and not in the way he brilliantly sketched his greatest screen characters), I mean truly pathetic.

Cheers
Terry
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - 04:14 pm:   

Time for a recap of the last three episodes of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller':

"Worse Than Murder" directed by Mitchell Leisen & written by Mel Goldberg - a grim tale of dark family secrets, murder and blackmail in which all the characters are roundly despicable and out to do each other over for the family inheritance - with Constance Ford relishing her part as the arch-bitch femme fatale at the centre of the plotting. Again this is just like watching a top quality hour long film noir thriller made for the cinema.

"The Mark Of The Hand" directed by Paul Henreid & written by Eric Peters - another twist on the evil child sub-genre this one presents the investigating detective with an innocent looking little girl who has just shot a man to death in cold blood and then proceeds to try and do in her stepmother with a knife as well. When questioned the girl stubbornly refuses to speak and the child psychologists are called in. A clever little mystery with the usual excellent acting and production values.

"Rose's Last Summer" directed by Arthur Hiller & written by Marie Baumer - the suspicious death of an aging and once famous movie starlet, long descended into self-pitying alcoholism, leads her ex-husband and doctor to turn amateur detectives as they are convinced she was murdered. Boasts a neat if gimmicky twist ending and a bravura performance by Mary Astor as Rose.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - 05:43 pm:   

Also have to comment on a recent riveting episode of the ever-excellent 'Colditz' that has to be one of the finest moral dilemma dramas, concerning the sanctity of the Catholic confessional, that I have ever watched. The Allied POWs discover that one of their number, a Polish junior officer, has been informing to the Germans on escape attempts and, after carrying out a secret "court martial", sentence him to be hanged - while making it look like suicide.

Things get even more morally complicated when the prison padre, an Irish Catholic priest played brilliantly by Patrick Troughton (fresh from 'Doctor Who'), reveals that the "traitor" had confessed his sins to him and was forced into informing by an SS threat to torture and kill his Polish wife and child. The prisoners insist on going ahead with the execution and brand Troughton a traitor as well. The priest stands alone in his efforts to save the man while the POWs are shown in a rare villainous light. How this all plays out makes for intensely gripping and suspenseful TV drama of a quality that has rarely, if ever, been equalled. Fantastic writing and acting!!
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - 04:19 am:   

"Rose's Last Summer" (a nifty episode!) is notable for being the only other work (a novel [1952]) by Margaret Millar that was produced—her novel Beast in View was done twice for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," the old and the updated one. Mrs. Millar was married to Ross McDonald, and is now sadly forgotten, even if he's achieving an ever more exalted status. I say "sadly"; but then, her work as a whole (what I've read so far) hasn't that survivability you look for in lit, even I must admit; and yes, she's pretty much become one of those writers only devoted scholars and the extremely curious will ever care about again. Her style is as smooth as silk, making Hemingway read like Henry James; but sometimes, her on-the-nose/sleeve characters can really make you wince. Beast in View (1956) won the Edgar Award, but it holds no surprises anymore; some of her novels, like the late Murder of Miranda (1979), are just bad. But she's worth this attention for a couple of excellent stories—the oft anthologized "The Couple Next Door" (1954), and the equally fine "The People Across the Canyon" (1962): she had what it took to join the ranks of Ellin and others, based on these. And, her novel A Stranger In My Grave (1960), though sometimes painfully awkward to read, still manages to pack a wallop of an ending—where literally, the very last word of the novel, unpacks so much that came before it.

Felt I had to take the time to note her here... she'll be long forgotten, soon enough.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, June 21, 2013 - 12:51 pm:   

Episode 6 of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller', "The Guilty Men", is directed by Jules Bricken and written by John Vlahos. It is a fascinating mini-gangster epic telling of three boys rise from childhood friends in the backstreets of New York to different degrees of "success". The first becomes a respected doctor caring for the poor, the second becomes a top lawyer, of the crooked variety, and the third fights, steals and kills his way to become the head of one of the Mafia's largest crime syndicates. The story concentrates on them as older men looking back over their lives and facing their own mortality with a mixture of pride and fear. This is a neat little morality play with a killer pay-off and great performances by familiar faces; Everett Sloane, Frank Silvera & John Marley. Quality stuff as ever.
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Mbfg (Mbfg)
Username: Mbfg

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.27.114.151
Posted on Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 08:39 pm:   

I've just finished watching "The Returned" (on 4OD). Quiet, puzzling, understated and excellent. No screaming, no gore, no monsters, just the grief of loved ones lost, found, then lost again and that haunting ambiguity I love so much.

Cheers
Terry
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David_lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 92.22.10.67
Posted on Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 10:22 pm:   

Oh, I watched The Returned. I thought it was excellent, can't think why I never started a thread about it actually. I'd love to rewatch it, there must be so much you'd pick up on in the earlier episodes knowing some of the revelations from later on.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, October 09, 2013 - 04:41 pm:   

Time for a recap on Stevie TV. Currently watching, in most cases one episode a week or less regularly (the impatient rush to pleasure being another of the symptoms of the great modern disease):

1. 'The Addams Family' (1964-66) – pitch perfect light “cheer you up” entertainment with glorious performances and production values . What I call “Warm Glow TV” henceforth to be known as WGTV. Lurch still creeps me out!

2. 'Bewitched' (1964-69 “the Dick York years only”) – WGTV and one of the most wittily subversive sitcoms of its decade. I do love Elizabeth Montgomery, especially the glimpses we get of her in her lacy nightie!! They don’t make em like this anymore, and then some...

3. 'Blackadder' (1983-89) – probably the funniest sitcom of the 80s and the finest thing Rowan Atkinson was ever involved with. Just finished Series 4 with only the specials left to watch. I’d rank them: (1) Series 1, (2) Series 2, (3) Series 4, & (4) Series 3. Don’t believe the bollocks about Series 1 being the weakest... it’s the most hilarious production of the lot!

4. 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' (1960-62) – I’m dragging this incredible series out for as long as possible. The quality of the scripts, cinematic direction, production values and acting is a wonder to behold and matches, if not betters, ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘The Outer Limits’ & ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’ in every respect. The first half of Season 1 is predominantly crime and psycho thrillers but with one absolute horror masterpiece so far, “The Purple Room”. I’m just about to get into the stuff that made the show famous...

5. 'Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons' (1967-68) – the best and most adult-oriented of all Gerry Anderson’s timeless puppet shows with one of the most fascinating heroes television ever produced. A spy who dies, often horribly, and is resurrected in virtually every episode, up against the most chillingly Lovecraftian aliens imaginable and their top agent – a rotting and rotten zombie called Captain Black. It’s as if Robert A. Heinlein had wrote the script! Peerless entertainment!!

6. 'Car 54, Where Are You?' (1961-63) – WGTV by the great Nat Hiken as his follow-up to the greatest and funniest sitcom ever made. To see Joe E. Ross & Beatrice Pons still working so well together as the ultimate comedy married couple is a pure joy. Why, why, why the fuck, why has this show been released in its entirety and Ernie’s escapades have not FFS!!!! Larry David, get your finger out and have a word in the right ear over there!!!!

7. 'Colditz' (1972-74) – well into the second series and gripped beyond belief. One of the greatest drama series I’ve ever watched and the best Second World War TV show ever made, in my experience. Only ‘Das Boot’ rivals it for depth of characterisation and raw emotional impact. But I’ve yet to see ‘Secret Army’!

8. 'Dad’s Army' (1968-77) – WGTV par excellence and one of the few British sitcoms of the time to get the American formula just right. The cast are arguably the most sublime group of comic actors ever assembled (bar 'Bilko' of course). Pity what the writers turned to afterward...

9. 'Danger Man' & 'The Prisoner' (1960-68) – two thirds through the second series of DMan with the promise of plunging straight into ‘The Prisoner’ to follow - as audiences at the time would have watched both shows and grew to love John Drake, the most believably cool and charismatic spy of the 60s - as well as the most human.

10. 'Danger Mouse' (1981-92) – the funniest cartoon ever to come out of Britain and the funniest and silliest cartoon of any kind since the glory days of Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry. Inspired by ‘Danger Man’ above and David Jason’s turn as Captain Fantastic in ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’ (1967-69). Forget ‘Only Fools And Horses’ and ‘Terry And June’ [please!!]... this is still the funniest thing DJ or Terry Scott ever did!

11. 'Dastardly & Muttley In Their Flying Machines' aka "Stop The Pigeon" (1969-70) – WGTV and every bit as funny now as it ever was... “Yes, General!” The best cartoon double act of them all, imo.

12. 'Fireball XL5' (1962-63) – the most seriously underrated of all Gerry Anderson’s sci-fi shows and one of the most influential in TV history. It has all the b&w charm and gripping narrative strengths of the golden era of 1950s sci-fi and was a huge influence on ‘Star Trek’ and all that followed. It is also pant-wettingly funny and has the best starship captain ever! Forget Kirk – Zap Brannigan, pah! - Steve Zodiac is the dog’s bollocks!!

And this is the best theme song ever – written by the great Barry Gray (and memorably covered by XTC):

I wish I was a spaceman
The fastest guy alive
I'd fly you 'round the universe
In Fireball XL5
Way out in space together
Conquerors of the sky
My heart would be a fireball, a fireball
Every time I gazed into your starry eyes

We'd take the path to Jupiter
And maybe very soon
We'd cruise along the Milky Way
And land upon the Moon
To a wonderland of star dust
We'd zoom our way to Mars
My heart would be a fireball, a fireball
If you would be my Venus of the stars

But though I'm not a spaceman
Famous and renowned
I'm just a guy that's down to earth
With both feet on the ground
It's all imagination
I'll never reach the stars
My heart is still a fireball, a fireball
Every time I gaze into your starry eyes

We'd make our way to Mercury
And travel wide and far.
We'd take a trip to Paradise
And wish upon a star.
We'd steer a course for Heaven,
Love would be our guide.
My heart would be a Fireball, a Fireball
Cause you would be the angel by my side.

[It's better if you can hear the tune and no surprise that it was a chart hit in its original form for Don Spencer in 1962]

13. 'The Herbs' & 'The Adventures Of Parsley' (1968-70) – pure misty-eyed nostalgia and one of the most lovingly crafted and genuinely magical TV shows of all time. One believes utterly in the world revealed behind that door. Sheer perfection!

14. 'Hippies' (1999) – the most criminally underrated, unfairly neglected and seriously hilarious sitcom of the 90s - from the creators of ‘Father Ted’. If there were any justice it would have been just as highly venerated and successful. Only six episodes but they are ridiculously wonderful. Simon Pegg has never been more naturally funny than here.

15. 'Ivor The Engine' (1959-77) – WGTV of remarkable charm, innocence and wit from the mind of the great Oliver Postgate. It’s all in the wonderful attention to detail and the wealth of eccentric characters who drift in and out of each episode like old friends. My favourite is mad old Mr Dinwiddy.

16. 'Jam' (2000) – just starting a first rewatch of this weird as fuck black comedy/horror sketch show that may not be the funniest thing Chris Morris was ever involved with but is, imo, the crowning culmination of his career! TV comedy has never been this brave or this bloody hypnotically odd!

17. 'Lavender Castle' (1999-2000) – a truly magical and very funny late period show from the great Gerry Anderson that pisses all over anything else made for children and appreciative adults in the last 20 odd years. The gob-smackingly beautiful special effects, that combine puppets, stop frame animation and background CGI, and the host of wonderful characters (heroic and villainous), narrative strengths of the continuing story and painstaking attention to every tiniest detail make this a joy to behold!

18. 'Masters Of Horror', 'Masters Of Science Fiction' & 'Fear Itself' (2005-08) – just recently started a first rewatch of the absolutely brilliant MOH – a serious contender for the best horror TV antho ever made – with the thrill of a first viewing of MOSF and the horror follow-up ‘Fear Itself’ to follow. All purchase and lined up... It was outrageously underappreciated by fickle horror fans at the time but, imo, it's a TV masterpiece!

19. 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' (1969-74) – on my umpteenth rewatch (including the films in chrono order) of the second funniest TV comedy series ever made (after ‘Sgt Bilko’) and I really don’t need to say much more than that, do I...

20. 'MPD Psycho' (2000) – about to start this 6 hour Japanese horror mini-series from the warped imagination of Takashi Miike. By all accounts it’s one of the best and most extreme things he ever did and was made at the height of his shock-horror infamy. Gulp...

21. 'The Munsters' (1964-66) – WGTV of a simplicity, warmth and charm that has rarely been equalled on screen. The cast and production values are perfection itself! Well into Season 2 and if I had to pick a favourite episode it would be the one in which Herman mistakenly comes to believe that Lily is pregnant... but to whom?!?! The pay-off is one of the most hilarious things I ever saw – up there with the chimp episode of ‘Sgt Bilko’!!

22. 'The Office' (2001-03) – just finished both series with only the double bumper Christmas special to come this weekend. One of the most sublimely funny and fascinatingly multi-layered sitcoms ever written. This time all my sympathies were with David Brent while Tim seemed to be the real shit playing up as a “cool dude” for the cameras! It’s all in the character development.

23. 'Red Dwarf' (1988-2012) – been watching it all, at long last, in chrono order and currently almost finished Series 6. Sheer genius from start to finish and every bit as gripping high concept sci-fi as it is a jaw-achingly funny classic British sitcom. Funniest episode so far has to be the introduction of Ace Rimmer, or maybe the one with the giant brain-sucking bugs, or the one where they discover they’re merely characters in a virtual reality game, or the one with the Venusian chopsticks, or... you get the idea.

24. 'Scooby Doo, Where Are You?' (1969-78) – WGTV and my favourite cartoon series of all time. As a child I pestered my parents to get me a Great Dane and was determined to teach him to talk. It’s the serious way they treat the horror elements and the genuine frisson of fear that was always there that makes the classic 70s series so timelessly thrilling for children (and adults) everywhere. Then fecking Scrappy came along and they lost the fear element.... Scooby was never the same again <sob>.

25. 'Spaced' (1999-2001) – Believe it or not I missed this highly thought of sitcom at the time and have only just started watching it on DVD. Two episodes in and, so far, all the critical adulation is more than deserved. It’s as much a surprisingly moving character drama as it is a classically structured flat-based sitcom and an exercise in pure televisual surrealism. Being a huge fan of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg & Nick Frost’s trilogy of sublime horror spoofs – ‘Shaun Of The Dead’ (2004), ‘Hot Fuzz’ (2007) & ‘The World’s End’ (2013) – I thought it was about time I got round to watching this!

26. 'Star Trek' (1966-69) – halfway through Season 2, for the umpteenth time, with the promise of ‘The Animated Series’, all the films and ‘Star Trek : The Next Generation’ to come – in chrono order for the first time - right up to and including J.J. Abram’s astonishingly faithful and successful reboot. I’m no Trekkie but I do consider this wonderful show to be the jewel in the crown of my DVD collection. Endlessly rewatchable and mind-bogglingly entertaining the franchise fully deserves its legendary status... and that’s just about the most stupidly unnecessary thing I’ve ever come out with on here!

27. 'Top Cat' (1961-62) – WGTV and possibly the most genuinely funny, best characterised and loveable cartoon sitcom ever made! Well it was based on ‘Sgt Bilko’, so duh... Every time Maurice Gosfield speaks I can’t help smiling. I love this show!!

28. 'The Twilight Zone' (1959-64) – NO INTRODUCTION NECESSARY. I’m motoring through Season 4, when it went to hour long episodes, and I’m beginning to think it might be the most criminally underrated series of its era. Brilliantly mounted and ingenious stories by Rod Serling, Richard Matheson & Charles Beaumont (among other famous writers) with the running time to really give the characters and plots justice. Once I’ve finished this monumental series I’ll be ordering and starting straight into ‘Night Gallery’ (1969-73).

29. 'The Wacky Races' (1968-69) – WGTV with that dastardly duo again. It spawned two spin-off series featuring three of the racers. Who can name which three? And how many racers were there in total, name them (cars and characters) and identify the genre each represented. For the craic... and without recourse to Wiki.

30. 'The Water Margin' (1976-78) – just started a second DVD rewatch of this ridiculously entertaining dubbed 70s epic from Japan that everyone of a certain age loves, loves, loves with unconditional abandon!! Everything about the show is fucking awesome! The epic plot, the wealth of characters, the attention to detail and historical accuracy, the brilliantly quotable philosophical gems that litter every episode, the incredibly gory and exciting fight sequences, the humour, the pathos, the intrigue, the sheer “what the fuck is going to happen next” unpredictability and, of course, the intensely exhilarating music. It’s completely nuts and runs for 26 delirious hours of pure mayhem. The very model of what I call goosebumpy TV!!

31. 'The Young Ones' (1982-84) – two episodes into my first DVD rewatch since I fell in love with the show as a teenager and it’s every bit as stupidly, riotously, gruesomely, making-it-up-as-they-go-alongedly hilarious as I remembered. Incendiary bomb television comedy of a comparable genius to ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’, imho. After this I’ll be ordering and rewatching ‘Filthy, Rich & Catflap’ and ‘Bottom’ for the first time since way back then as well! It’s been far too long...

That's what's showing on Stevie TV these days. Life is good.

In case any of you are wondering where I get the time to watch all this stuff it's because I watch very little current TV at all. 'Doctor Who' and 'The Walking Dead' are about it at the minute. Only quality will suffice!

Can anyone spot what links all the above shows?
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Mbfg (Mbfg)
Username: Mbfg

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 86.27.114.151
Posted on Wednesday, October 09, 2013 - 11:01 pm:   

Quite a list Stevie. Some real nostalgia moments in there. Fireball XL5 is just about the first television programme I remember watching.

My current TV favourite is the magnificent "Peaky Blinders". Superb plots and sub-plots, breathtaking cinematography and Sam Neill is in the role he was born to.

Cheers
Terry
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 01:51 am:   

I only discovered it for the first time on DVD quite recently, Terry, and fell in love with the show after one episode. It's sublimely funny and utterly charming with the great storytelling, characters and production values that were always the hallmarks of Gerry Anderson's TV shows.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 08:23 am:   

Okay, guys: "American Horror Story: Coven" is premiering on Fox UK on October 29th at 10pm. You have been alerted—set your DVRs.

Just watched episode one of Season 3... oh yeah, it promises to be as f***ed up great as the last two.
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David Lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 176.248.120.78
Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 04:39 pm:   

Sleepy Hollow is starting in the UK this week on Living, I think. It's about Ichabod Crane waking up in the modern world and hunting down the Headless Horseman and various demons. It might be awful, but the trailer made it look like it could be pretty fun: http://youtu.be/BFHvr-EhmUo
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 05:00 pm:   

I've been gripped by 5 TV shows that aired this year: 'The Walking Dead', 'Fringe', 'Utopia', 'The Fall' & 'Doctor Who' - in that order.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, October 10, 2013 - 06:42 pm:   

Time for a recap of recently watched episodes of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller':

Ep7: "The Purple Room", written and directed by Douglas Heyes, was the first pure scary-as-feck gothic horror episode of the show. Made as a one-off Halloween special it had such an impact that the producers were eventually convinced to move away from crime thrillers and dedicate the programme entirely to horror. Even Boris Karloff relishes his candelabra clutching intro in this one so it was a no-brainer really. This is a stone cold classic haunted room yarn featuring your typical spooky mansion and the shunned bedroom of the title in which bloody murder was committed 100 years before. Rip Torn plays the hard-headed sceptic who dares to spend a night in the purple room despite all warnings and the rest is as gloriously, atmospherically cliched as one could hope for... up to a point. It also boasts a fine twist. Absolutely wonderful and with several scenes - one in particular - that had the hair standing up on my head!!

Ep8: "The Watcher”, directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sandord, stands up as one of the most groundbreaking TV dramas of its era that I have seen. This features a very young Richard Chamberlain as a teenage hunk in a small American town who is secretly lusted after by a self-loathing creepy old “born again chistian” religious nut – chillingly played by Martin Gabel. Pretending to take the boy under his avuncular wing this arch-hypocrite is eaten up with jealousy at the parade of girls who continually turn the lad’s head and is driven into a self-righteous homicidal rage in which he proceeds to murder his “rivals” one-by-one as “brazen Jezebels” who would corrupt the golden youth he longs to... well, you know. A brilliant psychological thriller of nail-biting suspense.

Ep9: “Girl With A Secret”, directed by Mitchell Leisen and written by Charles Beaumont, is a nifty Hitchcockian spy thriller in which the wife of an American agent is placed in an impossible position by stumbling upon one of her husband’s most important secrets and being unable to tell a soul – not even her own family - as it would mean his cover being blown and instant death while away from home on his latest mission. Of course the bad guys come calling and she’s left all on her own with no one to trust. The story plays with the test of trust between husband and wife quite ingeniously as, up until then, she had no idea what his real job was... and even now, can she believe that he is what he claims to be? Top quality entertainment as ever.

Ep10: “The Prediction”, directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sandford, is another stone cold classic supernatural horror episode starring Boris Karloff himself as a fake stage Swami who claims to foretell the future of random audience members. Then one night he is struck by a hideous premonition that a boxer is going to be killed in the ring and tries desperately to stop the fight... to no avail. From there the man finds himself haunted by visions of impending death for random people he comes into contact with and slowly begins to lose his mind as each and every prediction comes horribly true. Everything about this one is sublime right up to the brilliantly macabre twist ending. Karloff is remarkably intense and moving as the anguished fortune teller.

Ep11: “The Fatal Impulse”, directed by Gerald Mayer and written by Philip MacDonald, features Elisha Cook Jnr as a mad bomber who terrorises a city by placing a pocket-sized bomb in a random woman’s handbag, encountered in a crowded lift, that is timed to explode at 11pm. The rest of the episode is a riveting exercise in escalating suspense with a wonderfully sympathetic no-nonsense performance by Robert Lansing as the increasingly pressurised police lieutenant in charge of the hunt for the unwitting walking bomb. There’s nothing particularly original here but the simplicity of the set-up coupled with the commitment of the cast results in a true gem of a nail-biter – with a nicely judged vein of black humour to boot.

Ep12: “The Big Blackout”, directed by Maurice Geraghty and written by Oscar Millard, is another entertaining film noir crime thriller that sees a recovered alcoholic, who had been prone to weeks long drunken blackouts, and is now happily married and the captain of a chartered fishing boat, have his shady past come back to haunt him in the form of a motley assortment of vicious hoodlums who call him by another name and are convinced he knows where a fortune in drugs is stashed. Of course he genuinely hasn’t a clue what the hell they’re talking about but he needs to find out fast as they’ve kidnapped his wife and baby daughter and will not hesitate to execute them if he fails to come up with the stuff. Jack Carson is believably bewildered as the self-doubting hero.

Ep13: “Knock Three-One-Two”, directed by Herman Hoffman and written by John Kneubuhl, is easily the best written and acted of the crime stories so far and not least because it features the great Warren Oates in a typically captivating performance as a mentally subnormal newspaper salesman who is convinced he is the one who has been strangling women in the city – during mental blackouts – but no one will believe him, not his friends, not the police, not the press, no one. To them he is poor harmless Benny the loveable local dimwit. But that’s only one of the strands in this ingenious story. Add to that a gambler heavily in debt to the mob who has been given only three days to pay up or he’ll be six feet under and one of the most cruelly clever “perfect murder of a spouse” plots I’ve ever come across all interweaving brilliantly until the viewer’s expectations are left admirably tied in knots, right up to the absolutely perfect ending, and we’re talking another stone cold TV classic!

Next one up is called “Man In The Middle”...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Friday, October 11, 2013 - 09:56 am:   

Don't know how I forgot to mention but what made "The Purple Room" episode even more memorable was that it was all shot in and around that house from 'Psycho' (1960) - and looked every bit as cinematic!
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David Lees (David_lees)
Username: David_lees

Registered: 12-2011
Posted From: 176.248.120.78
Posted on Friday, October 11, 2013 - 03:23 pm:   

Sleepy Hollow's on Universal, not Living, sorry. Oops. Universal have also been showing Bates Motel, which seems pretty good from the first few episodes.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Monday, October 14, 2013 - 03:36 pm:   

'Boris Karloff's Thriller' update and one of them is an absolute corker:

Ep14: "Man In The Middle", directed by Fletcher Markle and written by Howard Rodman, was a fairly routine but entertaining noir crime thriller involving an ordinary joe, played by Mort Sahl, who accidentally overhears a plot to kidnap and murder a society heiress while sitting by himself in the pub. His actions, having been unable to convince her or her family of the threat, are to kidnap her himself until the danger has blown over. This promising set-up is unremarkably handled and suffers from an unconvincingly lacklustre lead performance. Perfectly watchable but nothing special.

Ep15: "The Cheaters", directed by John Brahm and written by Donald S. Sanford, was, however, another kettle of fish entirely and the best episode of the show so far, imho. Based on a Robert Bloch short story this tells the positively M.R. Jamesian tale of a pair of cursed spectacles (or “cheaters” of the title) created by an infamous alchemist cum sorcerer, Dirk Van Prinn, hundreds of years before. Inscribed with the word “Veritas” they show nothing but the truth to the wearer and forced their creator to hang himself on looking in a mirror in the wonderfully frightening intro. Jump forward to the early 60s and one unlucky antique dealer comes into possession of them. From there we have a four story portmanteau horror classic with the glasses passing from one unfortunate owner to the next, all of whom come to ingeniously grisly ends and all of whom are cheaters, in their own sad way... right up until an unscrupulous sensationalist hack writer, Sebastian Grimm, played wonderfully by Harry Townes, works out the history of the specs and comes to understand their power. But all the time the temptation to find out the truth about himself eats away at his soul. The ending, when Grimm returns to the old Van Prinn house and dares to try and cheat his own fate is a horror tour de force!!

This series was exceptional from the start but now it’s really cooking!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 - 12:00 pm:   

Watched three more BKT episodes:

Ep16: "The Hungry Glass", written and directed by Douglas Heyes, even topped "The Cheaters" as a stone cold classic gothic horror episode and was again based on a Robert Bloch short story. This is one of the most perfect haunted house tales I have ever seen produced for television and starred William Shatner in yet another great genre role years before 'Star Trek'. The man seemed to have a golden touch when it came to appearing in these kind of shows; AHP's "The Glass Eye", TTZ's "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet", TOL's "Cold Hands, Warm Heart", etc. The story involves your typical all-American newlywed couple moving into their "dream home" in the country and mildly puzzled to find not a single mirror in the place. Then the wife, Joanna Heyes, discovers a secret room in the attic lined with mirrors and all hell proceeds to break loose! Marvellously atmospheric, unrelentingly grim in tone and scary as feck this is what I dreamed of watching when I thought about this show! Fantastic late night spooky entertainment!!

Ep17: "The Poisoner", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Robert H. Andrews, was a deliciously black comic and atmospheric gaslight murder tale of a heavily in debt Victorian aristocrat who takes to poisoning off his irritating relatives one-by-one for financial gain. The episode is made memorable by an outrageously suave and wittily erudite lead performance from Murray Matheson that would even have put Vincent Price to shame. Incredibly the story is based on the real life exploits of multiple poisoner, Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (1794-1847)! Highly entertaining stuff as ever.

Ep18: "Man In The Cage", directed by Gerald Mayer and written by Stuart Jerome, saw a return to modern crime material with a routine but enjoyable tale of smuggling, double crosses and murder in Tangiers. Philip Carey plays an American businessman who travels to Morocco in search of his missing younger brother and becomes embroiled in a deadly plot involving international gun-runners and a vicious band of Arab radicals. There is one brilliant sequence in this episode that instructs the viewer how to escape from a securely locked iron cage with nothing more than a length of rope and a stick that is worth watching for alone! It's now filed away in the "handy survival tips" area of my brain.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 194.32.31.1
Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2013 - 11:29 am:   

Couldn't resist a late night double bill of 'Boris Karloff's Thriller' last night. Another two excellent mini-films, the secone one exceptional:

Ep19: "Choose A Victim", directed by Richard Carlson and written by George Bellak, was a classic twisty murder tale of a petty criminal beach bum (Larry Blyden) who uses his wiles and macho charm to seduce a lonely and beautiful rich heiress (Susan Oliver) with plans to marry her and get a piece of the high life - if it weren't for her tyrannical uncle guardian (Vaughn Taylor). He coaxes her into murdering the old git and making it look like an accident, so the whole fortune comes to her, and... let's just say there are a few juicy twists. Again this was just like watching an hour long film noir crime thriller made for the cinema - and it isn't half as predictable as it sounds, in a wonderfully Highsmithian kind of way.

Ep20: "Hayfork And Billhook", directed by Herschel Daugherty and written by Alan Caillou, blew me away with its perfect Hammer Horror atmospherics and iconic plot of a Scotland Yard detective inspector (Kenneth Haigh) honeymooning with his beautiful young wife (Audrey Dalton) in Wales when he gets roped into the investigation of a ritual witchcraft murder in the remote border village of Dark Woods! The victim was found pinned to the ground with a hayfork in the middle of an ancient stone circle, used for druid sacrifices, and had a cross carved into his throat with a billhook. Compelled to track down the murderer, despite open hostility from the creepy locals, he finds himself drawn ever deeper into a world of witchcraft and satanism while his dark-eyed wife is haunted by visions of a sinister black dog, said to presage hideous death and only to appear to those with knowledge of the "old religion". Yes, it's every bit as goosepimply atmospheric and scary as it sounds and surely must have had a profound influence on the folk horror boom of the late 60s-early 70s, 'The Wicker Man' (1973) in particular. Can this remarkable series possibly get any better?!?!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Sunday, October 27, 2013 - 03:20 pm:   

As I'm sat in dosed with the cold this weekend I've had time to watch another two excellent episodes of BKT:

Ep21: "The Merriweather File", directed by John Brahm and written by John Kneubuhl, is truly one of the most ingenious whodunit murder mysteries I have seen produced for television! An apparently innocent man called Charles Merriweather (Ross Elliott) appears to have been framed for the murder of a complete stranger when an unidentified corpse is found by a roadside mechanic in the boot of his car. There has already been a murder attempt made on this bewildered ordinary joe's deeply neurotic wife, Ann Merriweather (Bethel Leslie), who still grieves for their young boy killed in a tragic accident three years before. Their concerned next door neighbour, and bachelor, Howard Yates (James Gregory), who harbours a secret love for Ann, turns amateur detective in an attempt to prove his friend's innocence while Police Lt Giddeon (Edward Binns) has no doubt that Merriweather is their man - especially after he is proved to have lied about having huge gambling debts and a kept mistress (K.T. Stevens) with shady connections. Twist after twist leaves the viewer swinging one way after another as to the true murderer's identity and how all this links up on the attempt to kill Mrs Merriweather and the death of their boy. The final explanation had me cursing for getting it half right and glowing with admiration for the cleverness of the writer (this was based on a novel by Lionel White). It's an absolute corker made with great almost giallo-like style and wonderfully committed performances from a top-notch cast of familiar faces. One of the best of the series that will have you mulling over its convolutions and shocker of a perfect ending for quite a while after!! And it is solveable... the culprit is one of the principal characters so have that notebook to hand and hit the pause button just before the final reveal. And yet, even then, ambiguity remains as to who really was the guilty party. Absolutely ingenious stuff!!

Ep22: "The Fingers Of Fear", directed by Jules Bricken and written by Robert H. Andrews, is the single most disturbing and shockingly contemporary story in the series yet!! As groundbreakingly powerful a psychological thriller as "The Watcher" or "Knock Three-One-Two" (see above) and as spine-tinglingly creepy as any of the pure horror episodes! Based on a short story by Philip MacDonald this tells of the manhunt for a paedophile serial killer of young girls, who are found horribly mutilated with a hunting knife after being sexually assaulted. Overwhelming circumstantial evidence leads to the arrest of a hulking simpleton called Ohrback (played brilliantly by Robert Middleton) who has a fascination with knives and a record of hanging around school playgrounds. The mayor insists they stitch the man up as the last thing they need is a public panic with summer festival approaching and the town relying so heavily on tourism (sound familiar). Police Lt Wagner (Nehemiah Persoff) is not completely convinced they have the right man but can do nothing to stop the children being allowed back on the streets and in the parks. While sweet natured old Mr Merriman (Thayer Roberts) cruises the streets looking for friends for his cherished little princess... a plastic life-sized Italian wind-up doll that laughs, cries, talks and gets jealous and very, very angry. This one is disturbing as fuck and quite possibly the best evil doll/serial killer story I have ever seen dramatised!!

Both stories haunt me yet...
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 - 08:29 pm:   

Whoops! Don't know about the time difference, but "American Horror Story: Coven" is beginning at 10:00 pm, on the FX channel over there in GB... make sure you all dvr it, or get someone else to!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.235.90
Posted on Saturday, January 11, 2014 - 06:56 pm:   

Sweet Holy Fuck!!

I just finished watching Series 1 of 'Colditz' and I have to state here and now that it is quite possibly the best written and acted TV production I have ever watched. Up there with all the greats! The episodes "Tweedledum", "The Way Out" and the incredibly suspenseful and exciting two parter "Gone Away" are nothing short of orgasmic perfection!!!!

Anyone who has failed to catch this incredible early 70s BBC production has no right to talk about excellence in television! And I still have the whole of series two to go ffs!!

And the reputedly even better 'Secret Army', by the same makers, to come after that! Yes, folks, there is a God!!!!
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 86.24.62.55
Posted on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - 06:04 am:   

Just watched a fascinating episode of 'Danger Man' called "Colony Three", directed by Don Chaffey and written by Donald Jonson, in which John Drake is sent undercover to infiltrate a remote and mysterious commune-like society of influential western dropouts. It was like watching an early sketch of the idea that led to 'The Prisoner' and, in view of Drake's increasing disillusionment with his ruthless secret service paymasters over recent episodes, I feel sure must have been the genesis for that greatest of all 60s TV series.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 212.183.128.235
Posted on Tuesday, January 14, 2014 - 05:07 pm:   

That 'Danger Man' episode also featured Niall MacGinnis in another memorably sinister role as the No. 2 figure running Colony Three. There is something about that man's voice and calm deliberate delivery that always sends shivers down my spine.
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.235.171
Posted on Friday, February 07, 2014 - 03:26 am:   

I'm now about three quarters of the way through the complete run of 'Colditz' on DVD, watched for the first time over the last year, and it's at times like this that you realise just how much you have come to love a show and the characters in it and how much you will bloody well miss them after the last episode comes to an end. Absolutely magnificent television!! No other words will suffice...
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Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 85.255.235.171
Posted on Friday, February 07, 2014 - 03:33 am:   

Why is a simple story of men imprisoned and trying to escape so profoundly gripping? Because of the truth of the acting and the writing and the gobsmacking integrity with which the makers refused to take sides or condemn the captors - who are more often than not the more sympathetic characters - even though they and we all know well how the story ends. This is not a history lesson but rather a lesson in life and humanity at the most awful time in the history of the human race. What are enemies? What are friends? This magnificent show answers both questions with humbling honesty.

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