Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Death In Paradise - Disc 2

Death In Paradise returned for a second series. A crime drama-comedy starring Ben Miller and Sara Martins, it takes place on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and will be returning with a third series in a year or so.
Death In Paradise

Monday, February 25, 2013

Primeval: New World

Primeval: New World.....Primeval moves over to Canada (Vancouver) for this one. The science fiction drama has ended and it's not returning.
Primeval New World

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Dancing On The Edge + Spies Of Warsaw

2 new drama mini-series that take place in the 1930's.

Dancing On The Edge
Early 1930's London jazz scene and race is the topic.
Dancing on the Edge

Spies Of Warsaw, starring David Tennant, based on the 2008 spy novel by Alan Furst. Adapted for TV by veteran writing team Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (The Likely Lads, Not Only...But Also, Porridge, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Old Boy Network, Full Stretch, Lovejoy).
Spies of Warsaw
If you read the info on the link above, you'll see the note about due to a low budget outtakes were often left in including a train scene with someone sticking their bottom out a window. 

Engrenages (Spiral) - Disc 4

Series 4, State Of Terror, of the French crime thriller Engrenages (Spiral) has 12 episodes and will not fit on a single disc. Here are the first 4 episodes. The last 6 will be on a 5th disc and available on March 16. French audio with hard coded English subtitles.
Engrenages (Spiral)

Ripper Street

Ripper Street, a new mystery drama set in 1889 in London's East End. It will be returning with a second series sometime in 2014.
Ripper Street

Friday, February 22, 2013

Blandings + Great Night Out + Way To Go

3 new comedies. 

Blandings, based on the Blandings Castle stories by P.G. Wodehouse, takes place in the late 1920's. Starring Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders (no - not going to list their numerous major credits - too tired) and Mark Williams (the Harry Potter films, Father Brown, The Fast Show, Grass) and Jack Farthing with guest stars such as David Walliams, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Jessica Hynes.
Blandings

Great Night Out takes place in suburban Manchester and is about a group of lifelong friends. Very solid cast on this one. William Ash (Soldier Soldier, Where The Heart Is, Burn It, Waterloo Road and in the current comedy Being Eileen), Lee Boardman (Rome, Ladies of Letters), Craig Parkinson (Massive, Whitechapel, In With The Flynns, Misfits, Line of Duty, Secret of Crickley Hall), Stephen Walters (Buried, The Visit, Good Cop), Rebekah Staton (State of Play, Tess of D'Ubervilles, No Heroics, Pulling, Home Time, Hunderby, Spy), Christine Bottomley (Early Doors, The Street, Massive, Tess of D'Ubervilles, Hope Springs, Land Girls), Naomi Bentley (Dalziel & Pascoe, Grownups, Primeval, Mutual Friends, Ideal, White Van Man, Miranda), Susie Blake (Born And Bred, Victoria Wood, Singles, A Prince Among Men, Roger Roger, Coronation Street, Parents, Mrs. Brown's Boys) and finally...Ricky Tomlinson (The Royle Family, Cracker, Playing The Field, Mike Bassett: Manager) with appearances by Isy Suttie (Peep Show, Whites), Keith Allen....and so on.
Great Night Out 

Way To Go....about 3 guys who start an assisted suicide business. Starring Blake Harrison (The Inbetweeners, The Increasingly Poor Decision of Todd Margaret, Bleak Old Shop of Stuff), Marc Wootton (Cyderdelic, La La Land), Laura Aikman (Teenage Kicks, Mitchell & Webb, Personal Affairs, Lemon La Vida Loca) and so on.......
Way to Go

I have no idea if any of these are returning. I watched the first two and they get the UK TV FL seal of approval.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Pramface

Pramface, the BBC Three comedy, returned for a second series.
Pramface

Get Real + Punchdrunk

2 more sitcoms from the 90's.

Get Real starring Lindsay Duncan (Travelling Man, Kit Curran, Dead Head, G.B.H., Colin's Sandwich, A Year In Provence, Jake's Progress, Rome, Come Fly With Me, White Heat and recently in a couple episodes of Merlin and Spy), Lesley Vickerage (Between The Lines, Soldier Soldier, My Good Friend, Grafters, Insp. Lynley, was recently in a couple episodes of Friday Night Dinner and Lewis), Lloyd Owen (Hearts & Bones, Monarch of the Glen) and Simon Godley (Lazarus & Dingwall, Paris) as four friends. Episode 3 is missing. Not sure why. Maybe it's out there somewhere, maybe not. I'll keep looking.
Get Real


Punchdrunk, a Scottish comedy starring Kenny Ireland (Benidorm, Victoria Wood), Diana Hardcastle (First Among Equals), John Kazek (Rab C. Nesbitt)
Punchdrunk

Monday, February 18, 2013

Us Girls

Us Girls.......a family-centered comedy with three generations of problems...reminiscent of After Henry.
Us Girls

Richard Briers 1934 - 2013

Richard Briers has died. Richard enjoyed a long career on the stage and in front of the camera and starred in some of Britain's most popular television programs such as the 60's sitcom Marriage Lines, 70's sitcoms The Good Life and The Other One, the 80's comedy Ever Decreasing Circles, the 90's comedy Down To Earth and the 2000's Scottish comedy-drama Monarch of the Glen as well as cult favorites such as The Norman ConquestsIf You See God Tell Him, Heavy Weather and many guest appearances as well as other shows that seem to have been lost to time.  
Richard Briers dies
I'm hoping to have the surviving Marriage Lines episodes available shortly and I have Down To Earth but am missing 1 episode and trying to track it down.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Asylum + Me, You & Him + Sometime, Never

A 3-for-1 of 90's sitcoms. I'm not going to waste too much of my time on this as there seems to be zero interest in this stuff.

Asylum......with people like Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes (when she was Jessica Stevenson), Julian Barratt and Norman Lovett.
Asylum

Me, You and Him.....more Punt & Dennis with Nick Hancock and Harriet Thorpe.
Me, You and Him

Sometime, Never.....with Sarah Crowe and Ann Bryson
Sometime, Never

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Tygo Road + What You Looking At?

2 sitcoms from the early 90's.

Tygo Road - I believe the pilot episode and first episode are the same thing. The pilot was part of Comic Asides program. Some of the other pilots from that series that became shows were KYTV, I Lovett, Mornin' Sarge, and The High Life.
Tygo Road

What You Looking At? - the first 10 minutes of the last episode are missing.
What You Looking At?

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Holby City - Series 14 Disc 8

Holby City - Series 14 Disc 8....the latest from the medical drama.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Moving On - Series 4

Moving On, the Jimmy McGovern produced drama anthology series, returned again this year with 5 new stand alone episodes (21-25).
Moving On

Lewis - Disc 6

Lewis - Disc 6....with Series 7, the final series for this crime drama.
For those of you in the USA, these are the full-length episodes and not the butchered ones that will eventually find their way to PBS.
Lewis

Lilyhammer

Lilyhammer is a Norwegian crime comedy-drama starring Steven Van Zandt who is better known as Miami Steve, a long serving guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Dialogue is a mix of English and Norwegian and it has hard-coded English subtitles for the Norwegian. A second series is currently being produced in Norway. 
Lilyhammer

Friday, February 8, 2013

Mornin' Sarge + Poor Little Rich Girls

Heads up! The attack of the rare 80's sitcoms continues:

Mornin' Sarge is a hapless cop comedy starring it's three writers: Rebecca Stevens, Pete McCarthy, Tony Hasse (Colin's Sandwich), plus Robin Driscoll and Paul Brooke - someone with a very familiar face for the many supporting roles and guest appearances he made during his long career (as well as steady roles in Kit Curran and Blott On The Landscape). 

Poor Little Rich Girls stars Maria Aitken and Jill Bennett as two cousins that reconnect after many years when each falls on hard times. Also featuring Joan Hickson. 

Silent Witness - Disc 18

Silent Witness - 17 years old and still going strong. Here's the latest series.
Silent Witness

Split Ends + Sob Sisters + Third Time Lucky

It's a rare 80's sitcoms trifecta courtesy of Stu of the Southampton Stu's.

Split Ends starring Anita Dobson (Up The Elephant..., EastEnders 1986-1987, Get Well Soon) as a hair salon owner romantically involved with American businessman Harry Ditson (Executive Stress). Peter Blake (Penmarric, Watch This Space, Dear John, Fiddlers Three) works at the salon and the late Robin Davies (And Mother Makes Three/Five, Spearhead), Barbara New (You Rang M'Lord, Oh Doctor Beeching) and Lee Whitlock (Shine On Harvey Moon) are also in the cast.

Sob Sisters starring Gwen Taylor (Duty Free, A Bit Of A Do, Screaming, Pilgrim's Rest, The Sharp End, Conjugal Rites, A Perfect State, Barbara, Heartbeat, Coronation Street) and Polly Adams (The First Churchills, The Camomile Lawn, Bonjour La Classe) and Freddie Jones (Ghosts of Motley Hall, Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, The District Nurse, Vanity Fair, Emmerdale) with Philip Bird (Fresh/French Fields, Tripper's/Slinger's Day, Brass). Written by Andrew Marshall (Whoops Apocalypse, Hot Metal, If You See God Tell Him, 2point4 Children, Health And Efficiency, Dad).

Third Time Lucky starring the late Derek Nimo (All Gas And Gaiters, Oh Brother, Oh Father, Life Begins At Forty) and Nerys Hughes (The Liver Birds, The District Nurse). Written by Jan Butlin (Life Begins At Forty, That Beryl Marston!, No Strings).

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Hilary

Hilary is a mid-80's sitcom starring Marti Caine as a TV station employee who is a divorcee with a 19 year old son. With Jack Smethurst (For the Love of Ada, Love Thy Neighbour), Philip Madoc (A Mind To Kill and of course immortalized in the famous 1973 episode of Dad's Army as the German officer POW - Don't tell him, Pike!), and Carolyn Moody. 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Mrs. Brown's Boys - Disc 2

Mrs. Brown's Boys returned on Christmas Eve to begin a new series of 8 episodes. Mrs. Brown and family will be returning at the end of the year with 2 new Christmas specials. And before the first e-mail arrives asking me if this is a cartoon, no, it's an Irish sitcom produced in Glasgow.
Mrs. Brown's Boys

King & Castle


King & Castle is a late 1980's crime drama-comedy type of thing (sort of like Stay Lucky?) starring Derek Martin and Nigel Planer. Nigel will be celebrating his 60th birthday in a couple weeks. From IMDB: "Tough ex-cop Ronald King sets up a debt collection agency with a naive young partner, David Castle, and find themselves embroiled in more than just unpaid bills."

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Borgen - Series 2

The second, and final, series of the Danish political drama Borgen. In Danish with hard-coded English subtitles.
Borgen

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Friday, February 1, 2013

Person Of Interest



Person of Interest is a US crime drama currently in its second season. It also airs in Canada, the UK, New Zealand and Australia. 
Person of Interest