Some new black comedy, all involving the "real-life" couple Julia Davis and Julian Barratt.
Flowers, when it was forthcoming, was described as new comedy-drama about a dysfunctional family. It wasn't what I was expecting and by the end of it I have to say it sort of blew me away.
I'd call it a black drama-comedy. It certainly has its many lighter moments, but it also tackled a very serious, and sad, subject and did a beautiful job of it. Featuring a great cast, who all gave wonderful performances, it is an overall solid production. Starring Will Sharpe (who also wrote and directed it), Julian Barratt, Olivia Colman, Sophie Di Martino, Daniel Rigby.
Camping is the latest black comedy offering from Julia Davis. With Steve Pemberton, Vicki Pepperdine, Elizabeth Berrington.......and her previous show, Hunderby, returned back in December for two one-hour episodes. The only files of Camping, that I know of, all suffer from dropped frames which results in some herky-jerky motion.
British comedy Boomers has returned for a second series. Whoever edits this does a great job. The timing and pace is perfect. Nonagenarian June Whitfield returned in the last episode of the series (to marry guest star Geoff McGivern!).
Other guest stars this series include Julia Hills, Nigel Planer, Simon Day, Julia Deakin, Isy Suttie, Lee Boardman.
Scott & Bailey returned for a fifth, and final, series of 3 episodes. Line of Duty returned for a third series.
For those of you in the USA and still stuck in the 20th century clinging to your discs.....Elizabeth in California sends along a message that she picked up a LG-132 player on Amazon for about $28 and that it works very well. This is the same player that Victor in Texas told us about last June.He got his at Walmart for about the same price. As I recall, Victor suggested it is worth buying a programmable remote to use with it as the one that is included with the player is crap. This also has a media USB connection so you can use it for playing videos without discs too. Unfortunately, I think this player only has a composite video out connection (the 3 phono cable array) and not HDMI.
Some 1980's British comedy. I thought I had posted these here, but it appears I never did.
Dogfood Dan and the Carmarthen Cowboy began as a TV movie in 1982 (included here). Six years later it was adapted as a series, but with different actors. The TV series starred Malcolm Storry (currently in Doc Martin, recently in Father Brown, The Shadow Line and New World), Peter Blake (Penmarric, Watch This Space, Agony, Dear John, Split Ends, Fiddlers Three), Lizzie Mickery (Tenko) and Arbel Jones (Heartbeat, 2point4 Children).
The TV movie starred David Daker (Boon, Z Cars, Dr Who, Hallelujah!, Moonfleet), Gareth Thomas (Distant Shores, The Citadel, Parkin's Patch, How Green Was My Valley), Diana Davies (How We Used To Live, A Family at War, Emmerdale) and Helen Cotterill.
Roll Over Beethoven is a Marks & Gran comedy starring Liza Goddard (Skippy, Take Three Girls, The Brothers, Yes Honestly, Watch This Space, Pig in the Middle, That's Love), Richard Vernon (The Man In Room 17 / The Fellows, Duchess of Duke Street, The Sandbaggers, Bognor, Nanny, L For Lester, Paradise Postponed, A Gentleman's Club, Class Act), Nigel Planer (The Young Ones, Shine On Harvey Moon, Filthy Rich & Catflap, King & Castle, Bonjour la Class, The Grimley's, The Comic Strip Presents), Desmond McNamara (Hazell, Streets Apart). There are two missing episodes.
Follow The Money (called Bedrag in Denmark) is a Danish "financial crime thriller".
Following three popular television movies (Bad Debts and Black Tide on Smorg 58, Dead Point on Smorg 74) Australian crime drama character Jack Irish was given a full series. Starring Guy Pearce as Jack (Neighbours, Snowy River The McGregor Saga, Mildred Pierce) and Marta Dusseldorp (Crownies, A Place To Call Home, Janet King) with Roy Billing (Underbelly, Agent Anna) and Aaron Pedersen (Water Rats, The Secret Life of Us, The Circuit, City Homicide, The Code).
Wanted is an Australian crime drama-thriller starring Rebecca Gibney (The Flying Doctors, Snowy, Halifax f.p., Stingers, Packed to the Rafters, Winter), Stephen Peacocke (Home and Away), Ryan Corr (Packed to the Rafters, Banished, Love Child), Nicholas Bell (New Adventures of Black Beauty, The Games, Stingers, Tangle, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, Conspiracy 365, The Ex-PM).
There are many interesting television programs out there. I'd like to post more of them here but there's only so many hours in the day. This one goes beyond interesting as it is also quite charming. Hosted by Timothy West (Big Breadwinner Hog, Edward the King, Brass, Framed, Bedtime, Bleak House, EastEnders) and Prunella Scales (Marriage Lines, Fawlty Towers, Mapp & Lucia, After Henry) who have not only been married for over 50 years, but have also been passionate narrowboat operators for decades. Now in their 80's they still take to the waterways and in this show everyone gets to join them.
Channel 4 comedy Raised By Wolves returned for a second series. Starring Rebekah Staton (Pulling, Great Night Out, Spy, Hunderby, Home Time, etc.), Philip Jackson (Boomers, Poirot, Pete v Life, Sugartown, Home Time, Funland, Grass, The Last Salute, Downwardly Mobile), Helen Monks, Alexa Davies (Detectorists, Cradle To Grave), Molly Risker.
Period detective mystery drama Grantchester returned for a second series.
The "M" series. They begin recording the N series next month with new host Sandy Toksvig.
