Bron | | | Broen - The Bridge

Danish / Swedish thriller Bron / Broen aka The Bridge returned for a third series.

The Bridge

A Place To Call Home - Disc 3

Australian drama A Place To Call Home was supposed to have ended with the second series, then another network stepped in to keep it going. They rewrote the final episode (23 - Unforgettable) and gave it a different ending in order to continue the story. 
A Place To Call Home

The Last Kingdom

Southwest England circa 875. The Anglo-Saxons are defending their CGI villages against attacks by hordes of trendy hipster Viking dudes and dudettes. A little something for the Game of Thrones crowd, minus the dragons and magic stuff. 
The Last Kingdom

Smörgåsbord 104 & 105

Absolutely Anything

Cider With Rosie

London Road

Minted In Manchester: a TV film. Could not find any info at all.

Mr. Holmes

Enid

From Time To Time

Jimmy P.

Man Up

The Day We Sang

The Coroner

The Coroner is a new crime drama filmed in south Devon. 

The Coroner

Casting The Coroner

Drifters

UK sitcom Drifters returned for a third series. The British Comedy Guide calls it the "female Inbetweeners".

Drifters

Emmerdale 2015 - Disc 9

Scot Squad + Gltichy

Two comedy shows that spoof reality TV.

Scot Squad is a police mockumentary and Glitchy spoofs prank shows....sort of. Glitchy is the brainchild of Ryan Sampson (After You've Gone, Plebs, Up The Women, Undercover).

Scot Squad

Glitchy

Chandler & Co.

Mid-1990's British one-hour crime drama about two female private detectives starring Catherine Russell (daughter of Nicholas Smith of Are You Being Served?). Her co-stars in series 1 were Barbara Flynn and Peter Capaldi. They weren't available for the filming of series 2 so Susan Fleetwood came aboard as the new detective partner of Chandler, the Catherine Russell character, Sadly, Fleetwood died just a few weeks after the last episode aired and series producer Nicholas Palmer died in between the recording and airing of the second series. Russell has been starring in Holby City for the past 4 or 5 years and Capaldi is Doctor Who, but we haven't seen much of Barbara Flynn since Pat & Cabbage aired a couple years ago. 

Chandler & Co.

Step Dave - Series 2

New Zealand romantic comedy-drama Step Dave returned for a second series of thirteen 45-minute episodes. Sorry, but I can't find any websites that offers much information.

Step Dave

The Beautiful Lie + Glitch

New drama from Australia

The Beautiful Lie

Glitch

EastEnders 2015 - Disc 7

Adam Smith - Disc 1

Adam Smith is an early 70's Scottish drama. 
"Set in a fictional Scottish village, Adam Smith traces a church minister's struggle to rediscover new meaning in life following the death of his wife. Opening at a crisis point for the grieving minister, the series chronicles his recovering sense of purpose, deep commitment to his spiritual work, and also the opposition he sometimes faces within the close-knit community he serves with deep devotion and sympathy. Poor housing, religious differences and marital breakdowns are just a few of the issues to be dealt with, the manse often serving as a refuge for local victims of circumstance; this first series also finds Adam making a decision that could change his life forever.
Cult favourite actor Andrew Keir stars as Adam Smith, with Oscar nominee Tom Conti as the minister's sharpest critic, local doctor Andrew Calvi. Brigit Forsyth is Adam's daughter, Annie, who also takes an active role in his work; in her final television role, Golden Globe winner Janet Munro stars as troubled parishioner Elizabeth Crichton. Written primarily by Oscar-nominated Trevor Griffiths (Bill Brand)." 
Janet Munro was quite good in this but unfortunately she died before the second series was produced. Janet was somewhat familiar to us in the US from the several big Disney films she appeared in back in the late 50's / early 60's. As shown below, Tom Conti and Brigit Forsyth starred in this as well. Brigit will be returning to TV in about 5 weeks when the second series of Still Open All Hours begins. (I wouldn't be surprised if the second series of this turns up before too long.)   

River City 2015 - Disc 4

The latest from Scotland's weekly drama serial. 

Machair - Disc 4

Fourth series of the 1990's Scottish Gaelic drama from the northern Outer Hebrides.

Machair

Inspector Nardone

Il Commissario (Inspector) Nardone is an Italian period crime drama from a few years ago. The setting is 1950's Milan. I had some problems with the last episode. The original HD file is fine, but converting it down to .avi  resulted in the audio being all over the place. I finally found a converter that didn't do too much damage but still left it out of whack, so I cut it up and made several adjustments and put it back together. The end result still has audio that goes in and out here and there, but it's not too bad and presumably everyone is reading the subtitles anyway. 

Inspector Nardone

River + Unforgotten

Two new crime dramas with a lot of familiar faces and both starring Nicola Walker. 

River

Unforgotten

The Ex-PM + Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane

Some new comedy from Australia. 

The Ex-PM is the latest offering from Shaun Micallef. This also features Lucy Honigman who was also in Mr & Mrs Murder with Micallef, Kate Jenkinson (Killing Time, Tangle, The Lowdown, House Husbands, The Time of Our Lives, Offspring, Hiding), Francis Greenslade of Winners and Losers, and Nicki Wendt who hasn't been seen on TV too often since her Acropolis Now days in the early 90's. 
The Ex-PM

Sammy J & Randy in Ricketts Lane

Open Slather

Open Slather is a new comedy sketch show from Australia. ("Open slather" is Down Under for "unrestricted" I'm told). This has a large cast of talented people including four very familiar faces to people around the English-speaking world (except the USA of course): Gina Riley, Glenn Robbins, Magda Szubanski and Jane Turner - the stars of the excellent Kath & Kim. The first 15 episodes are 45-minutes long and the last 5 are 24-minutes long. I'm not sure what's up with that. The disc below contains all the episodes but they are very small bit rate / low res files that would look fine if you're streaming them to a tablet or laptop, but probably wouldn't look too cool on your big TV.

Open Slather

Warship

1970's Navy drama (first two series)

Warship

Arne Dahl - Disc 3

Arne Dahl new series

Casualty - Series 30 Disc 1

Casualty

Arrest & Trial

Years before Law and Order there was.......Arrest and Trial - a 90-minute crime/legal drama that aired on ABC Sunday nights during the 1963-1964 television season. The two big stars of it were Ben Gazzara and Chuck Connors. Some of the more recognizable faces that made appearances in this include Harvey Korman, Michael Constantine, Anne Francis, James Whitmore, Broderick Crawford, Joey Heatherton, Ed Platt, Richard Basehart, Shelley Fabares, Dabney Coleman, Robert Duval, Sandy Dennis, Martin Balsam, David Carradine, Patricia Crawley, Peter Fonda, Jim Backus, Roddy McDowell and Mickey Rooney. 

Arrest and Trial

This was on 8:30 to 10 pm opposite the second half of the Ed Sullivan Show and the Judy Garland Show on CBS and Grindl and Bonanza on NBC. Anyone remember the comedy Grindl with Imogene Coca besides me? Imogene pretty much was the entire cast so each week there would be different guest stars. Some of the other Sunday night shows that season were My Favorite Martian, The Bill Dana Show (I lived very near Bill's hometown at the time), Disney's Wonderful World of Color and a show called The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters which was a western starring Kurt Russell and Charles Bronson. I have absolutely no memory of that one at all. Not even the name. Uncle Martin the Martian, Disney and Ed Sullivan must have won out at my house. 

You probably knew this, but long before he was The Rifleman, Chuck Connors was a professional athlete. Before the war he kicked around in the low minor league system of the New York Yankees as well as playing in the unaffiliated Northern League (Vermont) and New England League and both college basketball and baseball for Seton Hall. He spent most of his WWII service time stationed at West Point Military Academy in New York where he was able to also play semi-pro basketball for various teams in the New York state area. After the war he was signed by his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team and he spent the summer of '46 playing for their farm club in Newport News. At the end of the baseball season he was signed by the Boston Celtics basketball team and was on their squad that winter, the first year the Celts existed, before returning to baseball in the spring, this time with the Dodgers farm club in Mobile. He returned to the Celtics again the next winter but only played in four games and stuck with baseball after that. The next 3 seasons he spent mostly with the Dodgers top farm club in Montreal, but he did get into one game with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949, a Sunday afternoon game at home against the Phillies. He pinch hit for Carl Furillo in the bottom of the 9th and grounded out to Granny Hamner to end the game. In October 1950 the Dodgers traded Chuck to the Cubs and while he did play in 66 games for Chicago in 1951, he spent the bulk of the next two seasons playing for the Cubs top farm club, the Los Angeles Angels. Being in LA opened the door to acting for him and in between his last two baseball seasons he got a bit part as a police captain in the Spencer Tracy - Katharine Hepburn film "Pat and Mike". See the photo below. That's Charles Bronson next to him.

Warren Mitchell 1926 - 2015

Warren Mitchell

June 90+1

I forgot all about it yesterday, but it was June Whitfield's 90th birthday. She was recently in an episode of EastEnders playing a nun and was also in the recent TV film Cider With Rosie (I thought I put that on a Smorg disc, but looks like it fell through the cracks!). She'll be in the Nov. 25 episode of You, Me & The Apocalypse and will be back at Christmas in the special episode of Boomers and next year will be in the new AbFab film. How's that for 90 years old? Rock on, June!

some old English comedy - upgraded

 

These 4 popular comedies from the past have all been upgraded from old VHS recordings to....something much better....thanks to Ken. A lot of big names in these.

My Wife Next Door starring Hannah Gordon and John Alderton with appearances by Tim Barrett, Mollie Sugden, Diana King, John Bird, John Quayle, Brenda Cowling, James Beck. Hannah is in the current big crime drama Unforgotten, which ends tonight. Haven't seen John Alderton since Little Dorrit. Must have retired.

Room At The Bottom starring James Bolam, Keith Barron, Richard Wilson, Deborah Grant and Oliver Cotton with appearances from George Baker, Michael Jayston, Stephanie Cole, Freddie Jones, Roger Lloyd Pack, John Woodvine.

An Actor's Life For Me starring John Gordon Sinclair, Gina McKee and Victor Spinetti with appearances by John Woodvine {again}, Gareth Hunt, Pat Coombs, Ruth Madoc, Rula Lenska, Geraldine Newman. Anyone out there have .mp3's of the original radio show?

Get Well Soon starring Eddie Marsan, Matthew Cottle, Robert Bathurst, Hugh Bonneville, Neil Stacy, Anita Dobson, Michael Troughton, Patsy Rowlands, Samantha Beckinsale with appearances by Kenneth Cranham, Hermione Norris, Natalie Walter. 

some new English comedy

Bull

Chewing Gum

Marley's Ghosts

Together

The Kennedys

The Job Lot

ITV sitcom The Job Lot returned for a third series with the same cast as the second except the addition of Nick Mohammed and the subtraction of Tony Maudsley and Adeel Akhtar.
The Job Lot

Lewis - Disc 7

Lewis has reached the end of its run. According to published reports, Kevin Whately has decided that 28 years of playing the character (in both Inspector Morse and Lewis) is long enough. Of course he said the same thing a few years ago too. I don't know about the UK, but where I am the only place you'd find an "inspector" that old is on TV - so perhaps it's all for the best.
Lewis

Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey has ended its final series, but it ain't over yet. In 47 days it will officially come to a close on Christmas night with a special episode. If you don't want to wait.....here 'tis.

y gwyll. (Hinterland) - Disc 2

Back in early June 2014 I posted the disc Hinterland, a Welsh crime-drama that first appeared on a Welsh-language channel with Welsh dialogue and then later an English-language version appeared on BBC. Last New Year's Day it returned for a feature-length holiday special episode (in English) and now has returned in Wales with a new second series in Welsh with four 2-part stories so it equals out to 5 new feature-length episodes and the second series is nearly entirely in Welsh with English subtitles. Is this going to appear with English dialogue in the future? Possibly. The wiki page mentions that it will later air on BBC Wales, so I'm assuming that will be an English version. A third series will be produced next year. 
Y Gwyll.

800 Words + The Principal

800 Words is a new comedy-drama from Australia but co-created by New Zealanders James Griffin (The Blue Rose, Outrageous Fortune, Diplomatic Immunity)  and Maxine Fleming (Agent Anna). Seven Network says it has the same feel and vibe as Packed to the Rafters and it has already been renewed for a second series.
800 Words

The Principal is an Australian mini-series. There is a good user-review to read if you scroll down the linked IMDB page.
The Principal

Doc Martin - Disc 7

The Doc is back. Hard to believe it was over 11 years ago now that this one began.

Doc Martin