Television programmes [2]

{{{{Patrick's Stewart's Macbeth- good but like all Macbeth's you wont leave feeling good or happy- this is descent into paranoia and psychotic madness, its a tale that starts at the level of bloody and grim and only goes darker from there}}}

Thanks for the suggestions Petty, something else for the 'read/watch' pile

listen if you want a good intro into Shakespeare what you need to avoid like the plague is anything heavy and involved, what you need is to feel how enjoyable he can be and then if you get fascinated then try the more 'serious' stuff, so I suggest 'The Merchant of Venice' with Al Pacino and 'Much Ado about Nothing' with various brilliant actors which is light and beautiful to look at with never a dull moment.

{{{Brilliant one paragraph summary of the difference between Uk and US sitcoms, using the two different versions of the Office as an example-

'UK sitcoms tend to be darker than American ones, encouraged by a powerful public broadcasting system whose aim is to serve the varying tastes of taxpayers, not the upbeat preferences of advertisers, and by a national psyche fixated on the immutability of the class system, not on a dream of self-improvement. Americans believe that things will get better. Brits laugh at how things stay the same. To become a hit in the United States, The Office not only had to transform the tragic, grating boss into a less tragic, less grating, more well-meaning boss; it had to cast off the message, central to the British original, that work is where you go to waste your life.' }}}

That sounds about right. We don't want our tragedy to reflect on our every day lives, we want our tragedy to be about depths of feeling we don't need to deal with.

As for Kenneth Branagh, I think the best thing said about him was a reviewer for Othello, who said "Branagh is the only living actor who can make Shakespeare sound like street talk", which is actually a massive compliment.

{{Meant to say that quote above is from the Washington post I think- and yeah Brannagh does have a gift for the dialogue}}}

{{{Ah that takes me back! And check out the young guest stars in this scene playing the posh Uni- how many can you name?}}}

{{Not actually a tv show but um couldn't find where to put it. Good and interesting for the differences, its a BBC radio play adaptation of An American Werewolf in London, I think with many of the original cast. }}}

Good film.

So they chucked the Mexican out. lol.

{{{Whooooo! New series of Red Dwarf- and not only that we are getting 2 new series!! }}}




{{If youve never seen Red Dwarf this is a good episode to introduce yourself with as the set up at the start nicely explains the main characters. And its just a lot of fun}}}




{{set speed to 1.25}}}

halfwise wrote:That sounds about right.  We don't want our tragedy to reflect on our every day lives, we want our tragedy to be about depths of feeling we don't need to deal with.

As for Kenneth Branagh, I think the best thing said about him was a reviewer for Othello, who said "Branagh is the only living actor who can make Shakespeare sound like street talk", which is actually a massive compliment.

I'm just about to watch his version of Hamlet actually, speaking of which.

I wasn't too enamoured of his Hamlet. It was a bit drawn-out and cerebral (as indicated by the shades of ivory throughout) - and while it's probably a good thing to have a true deep dive into Hamlet on film, I felt a need for some more grittiness. If you averaged Branagh's and (dare I say it?) Mel Gibson's versions, I think we may get closer to something that pleases everyone.

{{{I have never seen a version of Hamlet I like- think I will have to make my own version- I am of the strong opinion everyone has got Hamlet completely wrong and its not meant to be played as a tragedy at all. Its a black comedy. Done very much in the style of House of Cards full of asides to the audience fomrrom the main character- but noone ever does it that way }}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{{ Its a black comedy. Done very much in the style of House of Cards full of asides to the audience fomrrom the main character }}}

I'd definitely watch that!

We've been watching "Orphan Black", barely into season 2 now.  Love it, love it, love it!

This is all Tatiana Maslany, she is bloody brilliant.







I am also madly in love with Felix.

It's amazing how much makeup, hairstyle and accoutrements can change a person. I think you have to know someone a long time before you can recognize them after a complete makeover.

Loved all of these.

{{{That musicbox in Camberwidge Green used to give me fucking nightmares- not o much at the start when they coe up out of it- but at the end when they are put back in it- the whole way they go form alive and moving to just stopped dead and then the weir music box music starts and it opens it and its all pointy and pitch black inside and then down he goes into it!

I think all that stuff had a huge effect on my tastes in writing and tv since- if you grew up in the 70's in the UK in particular your childhood was a full of the most surreal weird concepts and music, all those writers coming of a 60's acid binge and expressing it in these wonderful,. inventive, but often totally bonkers out there ways.

I mean seriously, Bod!

My two favourite episodes of Bagpuss as a child- in that these are the two I never forgot from childhood, there not being vcr's or anything else to rewatch them on, these really stuck with me





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This was my fav tune as a child...........



I loved Bagpuss as well

Watching a rerun of the original X-Files pilot, which I have never seen before. They are both so young and adorable.

these were my favourites

my absolute favourite as a kid was The Singing Ringing Tree. its weird and funny but strangely haunting, I know lots of people who saw it as youngsters and still remember it

That was odd, to say the least.

No idea about the quality of the subtitles, but the first couple of minutes looked okay. Pompel & Pilt - a children's tv show about two repairmen, doors and the vile Janitor Gorgon