stephen-lambe Reviews

1899 (2022)

Brilliantly done if a little more derivative than Dark

[8/10 · 22 November 2022]

1899 is another fabulous series. It's brilliantly realised and (mainly) well-acted. Some of the dialogue is a bit clunky at times and some of the understanding between characters speaking to each other in languages they don't understand seems a bit forced. However, don't worry about the pacing - it's deliberately brooding, and for those complaining about 'aimless' subplots compared to Dark are, I think, misremembering that superb series. Dark is littered with little subplots. I found 1899 mesmerising and easy to binge. I was sucked into its atmosphere and never felt bored.

It does have a couple of issues. Whereas each little subplot and interaction in Dark added to the atmosphere, we are left with the feeling in 1899 that similar little character developments are meaningless since we know, after a while, that this is a simulation, so are what these characters feeling and their relationships real? By the end, we aren't sure - that's for season 2, presumably.

Secondly, the plot devices - brilliantly stitched together though they are - all seem very familiar. Sinister ship? Dr Who. Simulation? Try Star Trek or the Matrix or even Red Dwarf. Dr Who fans will note a lot of running up and down corridors too....

As someone who loves Dark - I won't say it's the 'bes't show of the last few years - that would be opinion not fact, something that reviewes here often get confused - but it is my favourite. 1899 is not far off being of that quality. Nearly - but not quite - and I shall await season two eagerly.

UFO: Timelash (1971) Season 1, Episode 18

Don't believe the hype - it's terrible, yet fascinating

[3/10 · 18 September 2020]

I've been watching the series for the first time in many years and I'm enjoying it - in a cheesy, kitsch sort of way. This episode seems to get a lot of love from fans - but really - it's awful, in a sort of so-bad-it's- good sort of way that actually makes it worth a look.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of breaking-the-fourth-wall type invention at play here, which is worthy of some merit. But the plot makes no sense whatsoever, Wanda Ventham exists only so that Straker has someone to spout nonsense exposition to, and the alien craft looks terrible in broad daylight. Oh, and there's a fight sequence in which we get long, lingering looks at the face of Ed Bishops stuntman.

Furthermore, the silliest car chase in TV history takes place. You can hear the conversation: 'Hey, we've got these tiny orange cars. They are really cool. How do we shoehorn them into an episode?' There's a car crash at the end, which seems quite appropriate...

Worst of all, a fine actor in Patrick Allen delivers his worst performance ever, with dialogue that is beyond even his talents. That terrible laugh!

The best performance comes from Grant Taylor's eyebrows. Magnificent.

It's genuinely worth watching, though. It's hilarious!

King of the Castle (1977)

Don't show this series to your kids...

[8/10 · 15 August 2020]

I remember this series from 1977, when I was fifteen, and it made a huge impression of me. Now it's finally available on DVD, I can understand why.

First of all, it's not recommended for kids of today. The pacing is slow - a modern day show would polish this off in 90 minutes or less, rather than three and a half hours. The special effects are rudimentary and the fight sequences laughable. It has dated very badly.

But - beyond that - it's brilliantly inventive. A mixture of macabre, deadpan comedy, social satire and dream-like Fantasy.

In the plot, a meek working class lad - Roland - has a scholarship to sing in a choir, but he's failing. He's also being bullied by a gang in the tower block in which he lives. After getting stuck in a lift which is under repair, he plunges into a netherworld, where he's now in a castle. His mission? To climb up to the top and escape. But he is not his own master - he is being manipulated by the sinister Vein (Taffryn Thomas, in delightfully creepy form). Each character he meets is paralleled in his real life, and is, of course, played by the same actor.

As he ascends, he meets a Frankenstein-like inventor (Fulton McKay chewing the scenery magnificently), an overprotective mother, is put to work in a ridiculous, terrible kitchen and suffers at the hands of pointless bureaucracy. He wins, yet there is a twist; he faces a trial and a final battle.

The use of film for the modern sequences and pristine video for the fantasy ones is an obvious yet clever device, while the dialogue is powerful and deliberately repetitive, almost leaving prose behind and lapsing into blank verse, at times.

And it's dark. Very dark. In the opening episode, the choir are performing a choral piece by Bartok at his most discordant. In episode four, the workers in the kitchen are told 'Work brings freedom'. Arbeit Macht Frei. I don't ever remember the Holocaust being referenced in such a way in a show for children. It's chilling, but it's effective nonetheless.Elsewhere, there are shades of Kafka - a clear influence on the writers, Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who also contributed to Doctor Who.

It's not all great. Some of the modern day set ups for the fantasy sequences don't quite make as much sense as they should, and the central performance by Philip Da Costa as Roland is a bit weak at times. The ending to the fantasy section is also disappointing, although the final end to the show, back in the real world, does satisfy. But the rest of the cast are terrific and if you shift your mindset to the late 70s, when kids TV ran to different pacing and tiny budgets, my guess is you'll really enjoy this incredibly inventive series.

Counterpart (2017– )

Not quite the classic it might have been, but still very good

[8/10 · 10 November 2019]

I've just discovered the series on Starz and binge watched both seasons.

On the plus side - a great fundamental Sci-Fi concept which the show doesn't even attempt to explain until mid way through season two, in a one off episode that one of the best hours of TV I've ever seen. Good performances (in the main) and a good 'villain' in the glorious Christiane Paul. Superb locations and special effects - including seamless 'double' scenes that are so well done, you forget that there aren't two J.K Simmons' in the scene. The show isn't really Sci-fi, though. It's a spy thriller with a twist based around a single 'what if' concept. Some of the subtleties - including the various moral dilemma's presented by the story are also well handled.

On the minus side - the world building is a little off, and so becomes distracting. Neither of the worlds presented here are 'ours'. One has Iphones and flatscreen TVs (or is that just a mistake?) but 80s-style computer technology. The other has crappier, but still cool, mobile phones and some fancy new architecture. The story requites a lot of it's viewer to work out precisely what world we are in. I found myself forgetting momentarily, then having to work it out. That it expects thought isn't a bad thing, but it pulls the viewer out of the story.

As for the story, there are so many twists over its 20 episodes - some not sufficiently set up - that the viewers patience is tested, while some of the dialogue - particularly around the mechanics of spy operations - is a bit 'on the money'.

But, that said, I'm picking holes because I enjoyed it so much. It wasn't perfect, but it was great fun and a noble effort from all concerned. Perhaps it'll develop cult status over the next few years. It deserves it.

Twin Peaks (1990–1991)

Experimentation on mainstream US TV - with odd results, but not in a Lynchian Way...

[6/10 · 18 August 2017]

SPOILER: I'd just started watching the 2017 version of Twin Peaks, but realised that I was a little hazy about some of the characters from the old series, so I've just binge-watched all 30 original episodes.

Like many - probably millions - I bailed a few episodes into season 2 when the killer of Laura Palmer was revealed and Maddie too had been killed back in 1991. So good was Ray Wise as Leland that when he left the series, much of the interest went with it, leaving Season 2 floundering rather in an attempt (it now appears) to rebuild. I had hoped that I'd missed out on some brilliant TV. In the main,I didn't.

Series 1 is fine - sufficiently Lynchian to be interesting, but also promising in its pastiche of daytime soaps and teen drama. The first few episodes of Season 2 are superb, chilling and shocking, even if the "Bob" character doesn't quite have the power it once did, although Piper Laurie in Japanese drag may be enough to spit your..er..coffee across the room.

The rest of season 2 - except a great final episode - are a bit of a trial. The pastiche feeling has gone, the oddness of Cooper's character suppressed into a series which is at times awful, and at other times so broadly comic - without really being funny - as to be ridiculous. Nadine, for instance, becomes a teenager and develops super strength while Richard Horne loses his mind and becomes convinced he is General Lee. Elsewhere, characters have personality transplants. Audrey changes from dangerous teen tease into a pillar of the community in about two episodes. Pete - it turns out - is s chess genius. These are just a few examples. It's all a bit horrific. In a bad way.

In short, Twin Peaks, while fondly remembered, was actually pretty terrible for almost half it's entire running length and while some of the performances still stand up - MacLachlan, Beymer, Fenn and Wise in particular - it probably would have been a better series if all the other hands on the tiller in season two hadn't flailed around trying to find a series of plot lines, and more importantly a tone - that worked.

The first 15 or 16 episodes, it has to be said, are unlike anything ever seen on TV, however. Definitely a series of two halves.

Game, Set, and Match (1988– )

ITV attempts Tinker, Tailor...and the results are complex, flawed but worthwhile

[8/10 · 19 June 2017]

I am a big fan of Len Deighton and his Bernard Sampson books. However Sampson is not George Smiley - his characterisation - and that of many of the other characters in the novels - are less oblique and layered than Le Carre's main protagonists. That doesn't make them worse - it just means that Deighton's CIS is less old boys club, and more a traditional office, with it's petty politics, one-upmanship and illicit affairs, while Sampson himself is part class-warrior and part action hero - and always an unreliable narrator.

The problem with this excellent - if flawed - series is that the producers seemed to want to cash in on the success of the Guinness Smiley's by making everything as arch as possible, with the plot buried in half-explained conversations and it's melancholic string-quartet soundtrack.

Had they presented Sampson as just one notch more James Bond, the series might have won higher viewing figures, but no - they made everything as enigmatic possible.

That said, the plot largely mirrors the books except an extended and added Polish-based sequence at the start of Berlin Game. Sampson is superbly played by Ian Holm as an older and more cerebral figure than the books, but equally bitter. It's not just in the casting, he's written that way, making Holm a perfect choice for the script, but not for the Sampson in the books. Holm is superb, but whether his is "right", depends on your perspective. For Deighton, he isn't. But this Sampson "works" in the context of the adaptation.

Spoiler. Fans of the next 6 books will note that a sequence in Mexico Set - where what appears to be a visit from Fiona him incognito is played out as Sampson perceives in it at the time, not as the events actually happened when revisited in Spy Sinker (yet to be written when the series was made).

As for the casting, there are hits and misses. Holm, as discussed, is superb, as are the statuesque Mel Martin as Fiona and Michael Culver as a beautifully oily Dicky Cruyer. Anthony Bate is just too British to play the (admittedly anglophile) Brett Renssalaer and Eva Ebner is far from the Frau Hennig of the novels. However, most of the cast give excellent performances.

Overall, this is a well done, and well made adaptation that failed at the first hurdle by being just a touch to oblique for its own good. A very worthy effort, though, and certainly worthj spending time on.

Daughters of Satan (1972)

Diabolical

[2/10 · 13 March 2017]

By all that we hold dear in today's TV and Cinema this movie is completely inept.

The script is poor (though there are a few good lines), the plotting ridiculous, the pace slow, the direction terrible, there's no tension and hardly any scares. Oh, and the music sounds like it was written for a daytime soap. In fact the special effects are so terrible that some are hilarious. At one point the heroine - in witchy mode - puts some sort of smoke pellet into a glass of water to choke our hero and the smoke is clearly billowing from behind the glass, not out of it. The paintings are terrible - we only recognise the 16th Century version of Tom Selleck because in the painting he has the same 70s-style moustache. Brilliant!

I saw this as a teenager, and my head must have been turned by the brief topless scenes, because there's little else here except some atmospheric shots of Manila as it was in 1972 and a half-decent - performances by Selleck and Tani Guthrie who at least show they might be better with a decent director.

Otherwise, the occasional moments of fun are probably not worth the rental.

Fortitude (2015–2018)

Bonkers roller-coaster of a series that requires serious suspension of disbelief

[6/10 · 14 February 2017]

I've just binge-watched Season 2 after - almost - not returning after season 1. Both seasons are a bit of a mess, to be honest, but the ride through both of them is not without a lot of fun.

On the plus side, the scenery is great and the acting excellent. Watch out, in particular, for Ken Stott's marvellously nervy bureaucrat in season 2. I also find Alexandra Moen's Norwegian accent totally adorable. However, one of the problems with the series - particularly in season 2 - is that almost every performance requires the adjective "deranged" from Denis Quaid to Richard Dormer - who has been like that for most of both series, to be honest.

The series also does that Game of Thrones trick of bumping off major characters without warning. This is fine in principle, but when (as happens in series 2) it's one of your your central characters, who you've just started to like after disliking them for most of season 1, getting their comeuppance, you are left for nobody to root for except a murderer who bites peoples throats out due to some mysterious - and not yet fully explained - genetic transformation.

The music - more noise really - does a good job in being unsettling and there are a couple of beautiful uses of John Taverner's The Lamb.

One final warning - the gore is horrific and completely unnecessary given that at the point I'm thinking of I had no particular interest in whether that particular character mutilated himself or not.

That said - and here's where I justify my..er..Fortitude - each episode had so much incident and was such an bonkers ride, that I found myself somewhat mesmerised. Don't expect a satisfying ending. Some people live and some people die, and I didn't care much for any of them, but by golly if a TV series with a story line like this can even get made (despite the gore), there's hope for the world, and even if Fortitude doesn't really work in itself, I applaud the ambition!

The OA (2016–2019)

Mesmerizing New Series - but not for everyone

[9/10 · 4 January 2017]

I loved this - and as many have said it became a binge watch, but one that has really stayed with me. If you like your S-F action packed and easy to understand this is not for you. However, if you like a bit of ambiguity and a serene pace that feels totally immersive, this really is the series for you. I was trying to think of a comparison, but tonally it feels like a cross between "Contact" and "Donnie Darko" - but spread out over 7 hours.

It's not perfect - the contrast between Prairie's story and the teen drama elements jars occasionally, and there are a few glaring plot holes and some odd errors. The fact that the girl playing the young Prairie very obviously has brown eyes rather than blue being just one.

I completely accept that even some people who are able to see past the pacing and may not get past some of the the more "out there" themes - such as the Moves. It's not going to be for everyone, and that's fine.

However, this was one series where I was completely happy to go with the flow and accept the vision of the creators, including the beautifully ambiguous ending. I really hope it picks up a substantial audience. From the number of reviews already, it looks like it may have done.

Better Call Saul (2015–2022)

Brilliant, subtle and unexpected

[10/10 · 22 April 2016]

20 episodes in, now, and this is currently the most interesting and subtle long-form series on TV. As we know that Jimmy will become Saul at some point, we are gently teased as his moral stature waxes and wanes. We feel he might turn, and yet he stays on the right side of our affections, making Jimmy both likable and frustrating. Season 2 has played out magnificently. As with Breaking Bad, this is the story of a man's descent, yet the gradations are far more subtle - so far at least. It's remarkable TV, but despite some violence, it won't please those that like their TV fast paced and obvious. Jimmy's story is parallelled by Mike's, and perhaps the only frustration is that their stories have been almost entirely separate in Season 2. These are two men going through the same thing - in different ways.

The Night Manager (2016–2025)

Brilliant adaptation of / improvement on flawed Le Carre novel

[10/10 · 1 April 2016]

It's very hard to find fault with this masterly adaptation of this "difficult" Le Carre novel. Aside from the updating - it's set in the present day rather than the early 90s - and the changing of Burre's sex (played by the brilliant Olivia Coleman) - the first four episodes are very faithful to the book. The final two rewrite the unsatisfactory conclusion of the novel completely, providing a much less stodgy and rather more tense conclusion, placing Pine centre stage while paying lip service obliquely to Burre's final "sting" which concludes the book.

While the conclusion is a little less downbeat than the book, it still leaves things open enough for a second series to be possible - and I suspect we might get one.

I, for one, can't wait. This is James Bond with a brain, and all the better for it.

Edge (2015 TV Movie)

Grim and gratuitously violent western

[5/10 · 9 November 2015]

I am rather partial to a Western, and this one actually has a bit of promise to it. It's action packed, has some good dialogue and some convincing performances.Ryan Kwanten is particularly good.

But, by golly it's probably the most gratuitously violent programme I've ever seen on TV, and I've seen plenty of violent stuff. Also, very few of the characters are remotely sympathetic - when you feel most sorry for a dog and a horse, then there's something wrong.

So, Shane Black and Co may need to modify this one for a full series. I'm unlikely to watch it unless it tones down the series and makes its main character more sympathetic.

Les témoins (2014– )

Hugely enjoyable, if slightly flawed French noir

[9/10 · 1 September 2015]

I've just finished watching this series following its run on Channel 4 in the UK, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It has bags of atmosphere, some fabulous and very intense acting, and a great central character in the stunning Marie Dompnier. Certainly an actress to watch.

In addition, considering its 6 hour running time and novelistic structure, not to mention 2 intertwined mysteries to keep the viewer guessing, it really jogs along at quite a clip, with as much intrigue and incident per episode as many mini-series have in their entire running times.

There were a few plotting issues that lose it one point out of 10, but otherwise I thought this was as gripping as anything I've seen on TV for a while.

High Society (1956)

A great musical

[9/10 · 23 August 2015]

An average of 7 out of 10? With Sinatra at the height of his powers and THOSE songs?

Most of the lower scores for this film are from people who get hung up about the fact that this is a lesser remake of the brilliant Philadelphia Story. My advice would be to look on that film as separately as you can. In terms of plot, script and (to a lesser extent) performance this is indeed a simplification. Tracey's "arc" seems clunkier and more hurried and Crosby loses so much romantic screen time to Sinatra that when the final romantic denouement happens you think "where did THAT come from".

BUT - it still works just fine and the songs are simply..er..sensational. Grace Kelly is lovely and funny even if there is a bit of a Katherine Hepburn impersonation going on, and Sinatra delivers the funniest lines in the film with great timing. And, of course, the boy can sing.

For me the only slight false note comes from Louis Armstrong's monosyllabic commentary on the action. We KNOW where our sympathies lie, Louis - you don't need to tell us! But his songs - and the band - are as great as anything else in the film.

Final shout out for Celeste Holm -her performance is the best and most layered in the film.

Overall - the simplification of Philadelphia Story works well enough and any minus points are almost entirely made up for by the exuberant performances of Cole Porter's great songs.

The Game (2014–2015)

Cartoonish but Fun Spy Thriller

[7/10 · 21 June 2015]

Many of the other reviews here - whether giving a good, bad or mediocre rating - have got the tone of this fun series about right. This is not for people looking for something in the vein of Le Carre or Deighton, excepting on a surface level. While (as many have said) it is wonderfully played with great intensity and commitment by a great cast, there's always a feeling that it's all style and no substance whatsoever. Like a parody of Le Carre novel with most of the jokes removed and Daddy's M15 never feels like it could really exist. That's not to say that it isn't good fun - I enjoyed it immensely - but while Funeral in Berlin and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy will stay with me for as long as I have breath I'll have forgotten The Game in a couple of weeks, which is a bit of a shame.

Black Books: The Big Lock-Out (2000) Season 1, Episode 5

The single best half hour of TV comedy - well, possibly, ever?

[10/10 · 12 June 2015]

OK, well that's quite a claim and it probably doesn't stand up to a huge amount of scrutiny give all the other great British and American comedy there have been over the last - oh - 50 years or so. BUT as TV episodes go this is the one I return to most often for repeat viewings. The first series of Black Books is the best by some way (due, largely to Graham Linehan's genius), and this is the best episode. Pretty much note-perfect from Nick Frost's mullet-haired security engineer with a lisp and a Subbuteo player in his hair to a wonderful - career creating some might say - performance from Tamsin Greig ("I'm sorry, Howell, I got my fffoot stuck in the fffridge"). Only the Bill Bailey absinthe induced survivalist sub plot (those are not words used in the same sentence often) weakens the episode very slightly, but that's just being picky. Even the made up fast food brand names are genius.

Funeral in Berlin (1966)

First rate and surprisingly multi-layered

[9/10 · 8 February 2015]

First of all, I really don't buy the "realistic spy" reputation that Len Deighton's Harry Palmer stories have won. For that, try John Le Carre. Although Palmer is a down-to-earth creation, all 3 filmed stories take off into rather more far-fetched narratives pretty early on.

That said, this middle film of the 3 offers a really tight plot, with no noticeable holes (as far as I can see) - even though some have found the shift from bogus defection (in fact a Russian plot to eliminate a German organisation that has staged various such missions) to German war criminal attempting to lay his hands on a Swiss bank account, a tad disconcerting. The film always keeps the watcher on his toes - and a brief moment of exposition from Caine just after the titular Funeral is vital.

Despite his dubious employment of local criminals to provide housebreaking and forgery services, Caine's Palmer provides a vital moral centre while the people he comes across - even the amoral Ross - weave their own agenda's around him.

While stylistically this film may have dated somewhat, its performances and razor-sharp story make it a cut above many films from the same era, and it's colour photography and sardonic wit make it an easier watch than the equally impressive, but altogether more grim, the Spy who came in from the Cold.

Casanova '73 (1973)

Galton and Simpson on autopilot in this dubious farce

[5/10 · 4 February 2015]

This series is a real oddity. I was quite surprised that it was written by Galton and Simpson, since it has none of the wit, pathos or charm of some of their other work.

Leslie Phillips, essentially, reprises the lecherous, charming bounder that we know and love, but as a man in his mid 40s, his character takes on a creepier edge. The chief flaw in this series of 7 farces, which were, I understand, intended to send up the permissive society, is the relationship between Phillips and his wife. She knows he is cheating on her (a running joke in the series is his ever-more elaborate lying about his whereabouts), yet her reactions seem curious as much as angry or upset, as if the whole thing were a game for her too. Yet when offered sex herself by Henry, as in the last scene in episode seven, she is only too willing. Never mind where he's "been"...

That said, there are a few laughs, a few moments of perception and the odd nice performance (particularly a young Maureen Lipman in one episode) although the main cast, particularly Phillips, often seem a little under-rehearsed in the studio recordings...and at least his character normally comes a cropper, as in the Beauty Contest episode. Here he arranges to fix the content in favour of Miss Limburg (a funny Astrid Frank playing a terrible German stereotype), Miss England is voted for by the other judges as a result of a "party" the night before. Creepier and creepier! In the same episode, it's also interesting to see contest presenter Hugh Paddick as a very camp gay in rehearsal for the show morph into a macho stereotype for the actual show itself. This would have been funnier if the gay version of Hugh weren't such a terrible stereotype, but this was 1973 I guess.

The best moment is in episode 6, when having failed to help Madeline Smith lose her virginity due to erectile dysfunction (she wants to be more "experienced" for her husband) - after some appalling emotional blackmail from the girl, I might add - it turns out that the husband has clearly had more success in the same area - with Henry's wife. A nice twist.

So, far from a lost classic - it's really not that funny - but an interesting curiosity, and a damn site better than On the Buses!

Alucard (2008 Video)

Great fun if you leave your expectations at the door...

[5/10 · 2 February 2015]

It's high time this move / video had a review!

I stumbled across this ditty of Amazon Prime on a day I was working from home. First of all, let me say that as long as you take this film for what it is (or seems to be)- a piece of Am Dram on video, not really a movie with any real preventions towards professionalism, it makes it very enjoyable, and worth two and a half hours of your time (particularly if you're also doing some sort of mundane manual task at the same time).

First the bad bits: The film has some dubious performances and accents. Is this meant to be Britain? It has no sense of pacing or place and the soundtrack, while sometimes effective is often misjudged. The solo violinist need taking out and - well, given a few more lessons, to be honest.

BUT the script is the most faithful to Stoker's original I can think of, despite the rather clunky references to cellphones and laptops. Once I got used to the chunks of Stoker's rather ripe prose being spoken by the cast in a modern setting - quite Shakespearean, really - I found the whole thing rather charming.

OK, so some scene's are lifted from Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the final fight scene (hey, we know a girl who's a gymnast, let's chuck her in there and let her do some back flips for no apparent reason) is hilarious. The editing is well done, the make up and effects (fake blood gushes around like water) quite convincing considering the zero budget and the cast give everything. The two female leads are particularly engaging, and there one bizarre moment of frontal male nudity that will turn some heads.

The final problem is merely technical - filmed on standard video just prior (presumably)to the HD revolution, it feels like a period piece even though it's less than 10 years old. But that's part of the fun.

If you don't have Amazon Prime, catch this on youtube. I enjoyed it!

The Look of Love (2013)

Well made but shallow bio-pic

[7/10 · 17 January 2014]

There's an excellent story in here somewhere, and this movie does its best to tell a 40 year story in little more than an hour and a half, and while it's an enjoyable ride, it's all too sketchy to be really satisfying. The tone and performances are great. Coogan is very good and his improvisatory talents bring out similar qualities in many of the rest of the cast. Presumably a talent for improve is why actors like Chris Addison and James Lance were chosen, but even Tamsin Egerton has a good bash at it. The tone is odd in places - it's a drama with jokes but the cast has been plucked out of British stand up and television comedy, so we feel that we should be laughing more. Another reviewer made the comment that he couldn't understand why the cinema audience laughed in the cocaine / childbirth scene, as it is so serious. The point is that it is both tragic and hilarious - a scene and film CAN be both. Check out the deleted scenes on the DVD for some of the funnier but less appropriate scenes. Oh, and Chris Addison's beard is dreadful. Overall, though, it doesn't really hold together as a drama. None of the characters are fleshed out enough for us to care about them enough, but it's a great ride nonetheless.

You, Me & Them (2013–2015)

Clichéd, comfortable, unconvincing.... and very funny

[8/10 · 14 November 2013]

OK, so this isn't the most radical of sitcoms. It's full of middle class clichés not to mention many situations and characters we've seen up teen times before. But I really like it. As long as you can suspend your disbelief long enough to believe that a man can be (pretty much) stalked by his ex wife yet tolerated, then the wit and one liners, not to mention the charm of many of the show's cast should win you over easily enough. The acting is (in the main) pretty broad. Lindsay Duncan is OTT but very funny as the ex wife, and Antony Head is probably the only cast member that seems to be underplaying as Ed. Everyone else just stays on the right side of outright mugging. But hey, leave your radicalism in another room and take this programme for what it is - an enjoyable, funny sitcom in the traditional style.

Slade in Flame (1975)

Decent, if underdeveloped story

[7/10 · 23 December 2012]

I have at last seen this movie for the first time due to its showing on BBC4. At 90 minutes, and containing a fair amount of (very good)Slade / Flame performance footage, the story struck me as somewhat underdeveloped. Only Johnny Shannon's character - brilliantly played - feels reasonably rounded. I wanted to know more about Conti's character as well, and we get the smallest snippets of info about the band, although, surprisingly, it's Don Powell's character we learn most about. As for the band, Holder is a natural, and Jimmy Lee, with quite a bit of acting to do, has a decent bash at it. Dave Hill plays himself (as others have said) and Don Powell turns out to to be a decent comedian even if his dramatic chops are less convincing. A note of warning - the broadcast sound was terrible, with a fair amount of the band's dialogue (and Emperor Rosco's in the concert scene)inaudible. Decent film that might have benefited from 15 or 20 minutes further development.

Mornin' Sarge (1989– )

Morning Sarge - far better than the Thin Blue Line

[9/10 · 17 May 2006]

Yes, I remember it well...in fact a few lines have found their way into the parlance between my brother any myself. It's pointless repeating them as they lose a lot in translation.

The series was simply very silly and very funny. It probably failed to get a second series due to the lack of a "name" actor leading the series, and the lack of any particularly sympathetic characters

Paul Brooke played Sarge, who was just a bit dense. Tony Haase played the Inspector. Well meaning, bumbling. A bit dense. Pete McCarthy played the keen-as-mustard young Constable, who was also a bit dense. Robin Driscoll played the cynical, corrupt detective, who just happened (you guessed it) to be a bit dense.

Very fondly remembered, here, at least!

Stephen

Schalcken the Painter (1979 TV Movie)

Surely a candidate for BBC 4 - let's hope the Beeb haven't erased it!

[9/10 · 21 September 2005]

There's no point repeating what other viewers have said - this is one of the great lost classics of BBC television.A stunning piece of work, and the climactic scene is both erotic and horrific.

It may not originally have been "A Ghost Story for Christmas", but I'm sure it was shown in that slot at some point in the 80s.

There was a companion piece made in 1987 - again with Charles Gray as narrator - this time based on an incident the life of Italian painter Cariani. It was called Cariani and the Courtesans, and starred a pre-Withnail Paul McGann.

It lacks the atmosphere or the horror of the earlier piece, but it's worth a look if the chance ever presents itself.

Red (1976)

Bizarre Mid 70s British erotic horror short

[7/10 · 21 September 2005]

Though I've only seen this film once - and then over 25 years ago, much of its detail has stayed with me due to its erotic content - seen at a time when as a 16 year old I was very impressionable. I'll run through the plot, as, at a guess, I doubt anyone will get a chance to see it.

I saw the film in Guildford, UK - probably in 1979. It was a short feature in support of the dreadful Omen 2 (William Holden etc). This was at a time when shorts were not infrequent in support of a main film in the Uk. I went with a group of friends one afternoon, and this was an X, (or 18 cert) so we were over a year too young to get into the film - the first time I had done this.

The film was written and directed by Swedish starlet Astrid Frank, who makes a brief appearance as a maid with a low neckline. Essentially, the plot is this: A painter is entertained by a group of 3 troubadours - two males (one played - hilariously- by Roy North who at the time was undergoing some celebrity as straight man to children's TVs puppet fox, Basil Brush on the BBC)and one female, played by the utterly delectable Gabrielle Drake. I remember a rather awful musical sequence a few minutes in.

That night, the unseen painter witnesses a horrible ritual. There is something of an extended orgy, with Gabrielle (extensively nude)tied up and ravished by her two colleagues, who then murder her and cut off her head (the head was quite chilling, I remember). The painter rushes back to his room, and paints the gory scene.

That morning, Gabrielle seems alive and well - except for a ruby red scar around her neck! Quite a twist, eh? (Ahem) I can't tell you whether this was any good or not - it probably wasn't, and it certainly couldn't have been made in todays mainstream, but the film had a profound effect on a teenager during that difficult emergence from puberty...