Well once again the week was dominated by the Olympics extravaganza so non-sporting televisual enjoyment was a little difficult to find. I did my best though.
Sunday: Swimming 1500 metres final
Why didn’t Grant Hackett just go a little bit faster?? I’m sure it’s more frustrating and disappointing to lose by a little rather than a lot.
Doctor Who
These are the episodes I like the best with The Doctor going back in time to a particular historical period. When I was very young my mother read Agatha Christie constantly. There seemed to be a series of publications out at that time with very disturbing and graphic covers. The one that first springs to mind was I think a vicar with a tennis racket instead of a head. So what was fun here (apart from the wonderful 1920s fashions and seeing Felicity Kendall so many years after The Good Life) was watching this episode with my mother who took great delight in detecting the book titles in the dialogue!
Thursday: Buildings That Shaped Britain
Simon Thurley and his team of architects and historians are dreadfully earnest but this episode was the most interesting yet as they looked at the changes to the countryside resulting from the agrarian revolution. In particular the Piece Hall (I think that’s what it was called anyway…might have been Piece Mall?) at Halifax was an astonishing building once one of the busiest markets in Northern England. I’m looking forward to next week’s episode which will look at the buildings of the Industrial Revolution.
Friday: Olympics
You know you’ve watched far too much of the Olympics when you find yourself screaming at the television when an Australian rider falls off DURING THE BMX. Since when did this become an Olympic sport??? And why on earth was I watching it?? So many questions…..not enough answers…
Friday: Father Ted
Aaah Father Dougall…how lovely you are. Sitting with Ted in the hospital as they wait to see what happens to Father Stone (struck by lightning while playing crazy golf), the conversation went something like:
Dougall: Where is he then Ted?
Ted: He’s having some tests?
Dougall: General Knowledge???
HaHaHaHaHa…. Everyone in my lounge room laughed out loud. Corny but funny nonetheless.
Friday: Poirot
I watched the first half hour and then went to bed. Beautifully styled….but as my mother and Catriona at Circulating Library both observed – why do they have to muck around with these books when they adapt for television?
Frankly (and I’ve been trying not to geek out on other people’s blogs since I wrote that essay about regeneration for your last Week in Television–sorry about that!–but I can’t help it here) it’s worse when they muck around with Cards on the Table because Christie points out in her foreward that this is an experimental book: “The deduction must . . . be entirely psychological,” she argues, because “There are only four starters and any one of them, given the right circumstances, might have committed the crime.”
But the adaptation threw all that way. And took curiously non-specific liberties with the character of poor old renamed Superintendent Battle.
hey – re “geeking out” – go for your life!
that’s an interesting comment by Christie that adds another dimension to the frustration we feel when tv producers take matters into their own (sometimes misguided) hands.
Did you find that Felicity Kendal was a little wooden in her acting?? Maybe I’m just used to seeing her in comedies but there was ‘something’ that made her stand out for the wrong reasons!
well her face seemed very different…maybe it was aging or maybe she has had some work done…maybe botox was preventing her from giving us natural facial expressions!
I think Felicity Kendall has definitely had some work done; her eyes don’t look quite the same, which is usually a sign. If she’s had work done to her lips, that might have affected her delivery, like when Hollywood starlets get veneers and can’t speak terribly comprehensibly.
But then Felicity Kendall always makes me think of Vyvyan’s anti- Good Life rant in The Young Ones now: I can’t ever see her the same way again.
oooh I don’t remember that from the young ones…but i am sure it would colour your view of the good life…so i am still a big fan of that show and love richard briers in anything….also the best thing penelope keith ever did i reckon
to me it looked like her lips had totally disappeared into her face though…usually plastic surgery makes them scarily full…