Wedge

The Dave special had its moments...

Kochanski-free season? Great news. Apart from that and actual dates, Dave had already announced their plans for a new season.
Now if they could get Grant back on board ahah...

Woot!.

I liked Konchanski!  :(

Hey, welcome back ;)

She sucked in series 7, was bearable (and occasionally funny) in series 8, and was actually pretty good in her only scene in the Dave special. (Probably because she only had one scene, really...)
That still doesn't make her a full member of the crew for me... Her chemistry with Lister was non-existent (because she was so much asexual when it came to him, or anyone else for that matter) and it was a sad mistake -- heck, the original Kochanski was better in that respect.

Anyway -- I'm personally waiting for that new series. I think I'll enjoy it, because I'll be mainly happy to see the characters in action again, and I have very low expectations for it because after all this time, we know Doug Naylor isn't a great sitcom writer and bothers too much about the storyline and not enough about character interaction and situation gags. Plus, the special wasn't that funny either. But it was probably due to not being shot in front of an audience -- even adding subtle canned laughter isn't going to cut it in this situation.

I think the main problem with Kochanski as envisioned by Chloe Annett, is... Chloe Annett. I remember seeing her in another sci-fi-esque series, Crime Traveller, and there was little chemistry there too.

That wouldn't surprise me a bit.

Did you ever see Crime Traveller, btw? Though it was one of the BBC's mini-series deals that never went anywhere (mostly, IMO, because of Chloe friggin' Annett), the premise was interesting and even now I still think it was brilliantly written.

It centres on Chloe who is this scientist for the police and her detective friend, and she's built a mostly-working time machine in her basement. So they go back and investigate crimes, and very often in the investigation 'in the present', there's some 'guy' seen in the area that the police 'want to talk to', and of course it's one or both of them in the past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_Traveller has more information, and as much as I love Jonathan Creek (which ultimately replaced it), I wish it had been renewed for more.

(Yes, I know the article cites tension in the Beeb at the time, but I'm not entirely convinced. I still think Annett is half the reason herself.)

Also I would note that she had some minor parts in Jeeves and Wooster episodes; it wasn't until I looked it up a long time later that I realised, because she actually *acts* in those and has some chemistry, but I wonder how much of that is rubbing off from Hugh Laurie.

Never heard of anything in your post... :-/

That's a shame because it was quite cool in execution, even if there wasn't as much on screen chemistry as there could have been.

Wouldn't mind if you shared names of good uk shows. I'm always in for that. Eh, I never watched Blackadder until this year after all. And it's a well known show.

Plus it would change my mind... RIP Floppy, beloved dog, 1994-2011. :sob:

:(

Good UK shows depends on your preferences.

QI is always worth watching for comedy, with Stephen Fry and Alan Davies as regulars, and a whole host of random people as guests for silliness and Alan Davies losing each week. Also, if you like the later series of Blackadder, they were partly written by Richard Curtis, who is also responsible for a couple of rather watchable rom-coms (Love Actually in particular), but also for The Vicar of Dibley. If you don't have an aversion to Dawn French, it is watchable enough.[1]

Other comedy to watch out for is Porridge,[2] or if you're of a more 1970s vogue, Open All Hours.[3][4]

If drama is more your thing, I'd suggest Spooks (start from the start, though),[5] Hustle's quite good too,[6] plus you might like New Tricks, not so sure about that though.[7]

If murder/mystery is your thing, I'd suggest Jonathan Creek[8], or the ITV adaptations of Sherlock Holmes (starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes), Poirot (with David Suchet as Poirot), and/or Miss Marple (Joan Hickson as Miss Marple, not the later ones) - they're a bit older to find though.

If you're more into the CSI method of murder mystery rather than the detective using their brains, either Bones or Waking The Dead would be good watching.[9]

That's about all I can think of for now at least.

1.	Newly appointed woman vicar joins rural, rustic town and despite flaring up against the classical rural types, it all works out. Cue also having ditzy verger sidekick.
2.	Sitcom set in a prison, with the inimitable Ronnie Barker, the sadly-departed-too-soon Richard Beckinsale as his cellmare and a nice turn from David Jason as a very elderly prisoner. Might be harder to follow than some of the other comedies out there, it's pretty English in some of the wording of the jokes.
3.	Ronnie Barker runs a small convenience store, with a vicious till, David Jason as the slightly hopeless assistant. Great in its day, maybe not so much now.
4.	Note I'm not suggesting Only Fools and Horses. While it was great in its very original incarnation (David Jason as the rogue-ish dodgy dealing Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter, and Nicholas Lyndhurst as his dopey younger brother Rodney, it very quickly grew ever more ridiculous after both Del and Rodney end up meeting people and getting married. Though if you watch the very last group of specials, you will understand why Amy Pond is a policewoman and Rory Williams is a Roman centurion. Yes, it is essentially a throw-back to that scene where Rodney and Cassandra are trying to sort out their marriage and try... dressing up for each other.
5.	I've seen all of series 1-3, plus bits of later episodes, mostly haven't gotten round to buying it yet. The show's about the British intelligence service, MI5, looking at protecting the country, and the various things that they do. Technobabble aside, it is pretty good drama.
6.	Though personally series 4 was a let down for me and I'm still undecided about series 5, haven't got series 6 on DVD yet, though oddly enough it was a random series 6 episode that got me hooked in the first place. The show's about a group of con artists who do the 'big scores', setting up for big payoff, but it doesn't always quite go to plan.
7.	The premise is odd enough, get together a group of retired ex-police officers and form them into an 'unofficial' unit to investigate cold cases. Because they were often involved in the cases originally, there is all sorts of tension that might emerge.
8.	He's the creative consultant to a slightly sleazy magician, and because of his understanding of how tricks are performed, he can usually unravel the most bizarre murders. Unlike most shows, the focus is on how the murder was done, as opposed to the usual formulas of who did it, or we know who did it, how does the detective figure it out. It's also pretty funny in places, IMO it went downhill in series 4 which is why since then there have only been occasional specials.
9.	I don't actually watch these. I just couldn't get into them. They are popular enough, though.

I have! Enjoyed it at the time, really, but think a bit different of it nowadays after reading the criticism by the SFX editors -- they're spot on, aren't they? :P+1 from me! :DThis. Brilliant series. I've seen all of series 1 to 10; the tenth and final series was broadcast last October and it's a superb ending for the series, imo.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the drama series Monarch of the Glen in my early teens. Not sure if either of you has seen that one? haha

Ah, I haven't rewatched in a while and it's entirely possible that I'd look more harshly on it now - but certainly at the time I really didn't notice such things.

Well... We had it coming. He'd been very feeble in the last 3 weeks. Barely able to walk. He required constant care and stopped eating and drinking altogether a few days ago. It's a fine age for a dog. But it doesn't stop it from being heartbreaking. I miss my dirty old dog :( It's a very sad, sad atmosphere in my place today. So I don't wanna talk about it too much... And I'll be geeking away as much as I possibly can.I don't know... When it comes to sitcoms, I love Python, Red Dwarf, Smack the Pony, IT Crowd, Father Ted, Coupling (obviously), Goodness Gracious Me (that one was odd!), etc. And I hated things like The Fast Show, and err... Oh well that's pretty much all I hated. I'm not a big fan of AbFab but it makes me smile. As for 'regular' shows, I don't have anything in mind right now but I'm not a sucker for cheap-looking 'serious' fictions. (And yes, I did try to watch Doctor Who's Pyramids of Mars.. And stopped when I saw the ridiculous monsters. Oh my. Too bad I love all of these Doctors, because I have a serious problem with the rest of the show.)
As you already know, to me the best 'serious' British show is The Prisoner. And it doesn't look cheap. Well, except for the episode 'The General' with its supercomputer, but the episode has more important issues anyway.
I watched 'Mad Dogs', a recent show with my dear Life on Mars cast, and was a bit disappointed. It wasn't bad per se, but I just didn't find it too exciting.

Did you ever see that TV movie with Christopher Eccleston as a guy who thinks he's Jesus? I have this under the hand but I'm unsure whether it's any good.

The only on-the-air shows I'm watching currently are, whatever the country of origin: South Park (still in great shape), Being Erica (MY chick show. I own it. I wanna have its children now.), Misfits (the new guy is pretty fun), Once upon a time (mostly for the missus...), The Big Bang Theory (current season is an improvement), Merlin (season 3 sucked, season 4 rocks, don't ask), The Walking Dead (season 1 rocked, season 2 sucks but I still have hope), and Mawaru Penguindrum (I'm only starting but it's pretty good). That's about all... I'm waiting for Glee to be over before I start watching it. At least the mid-season break.
I just wanna find more things to watch on a weekly basis (current shows), and possibly on a daily basis (past shows.)'Losing'? It's a game? (QI is French for IQ so I'd naturally think that... :P)Yeah I like Curtis a lot, Love Actually is not too bad (for a genre I'm not into, I think after you've seen Harry & Sally you can hardly watch anything else without thinking it doesn't compare), Weddings & Funerals was pretty good, I should watch The Boat that Rocks at some point... And of course I loved that Van Gogh episode eheh.I only know her through a couple of sketches she did with Saunders, notably the Doctor Who parody that wasn't particularly hilarious. I've heard of Dibley several times as it's supposedly one of the top shows ever but I'm not sure about the point..... I mean, is it funny or whatever, because the pitch isn't particularly exciting.

Plus, there are no subs available, which is pretty much a deal-breaker to me.
Heck, I've been waiting for some time to watch 'I, Claudius', and subtitles just came out for it... Unfortunately, the last two episodes are still missing subs so I'm waiting for someone to do them first... The only show I watch without subs is South Park, and that's only because I'm too eager to see the new episodes and I just can't wait for subs. :PI'm not much into old shows, although I'm also open to anything (Fawlty Towers is a classic -- heck, I should probably rewatch my DVD box for it. I think I haven't watched the bonus features. If there are any.)
Just not geared towards a particular decade (except for the current one.)
Open All Hours has subtitles available, and Porridge doesn't.I remember seeing a short scene on YouTube or something. It was funny. Then again, I suppose the reason it was on YouTube is that this particular scene was considered funny.Only heard of it by name.I have no idea who these people are, though... As a reminder, I'm just one of those annoying Froggies, and we don't have the BBC in here ;)

I know Jason is a revered actor but I only saw him in the Discworld movies and, 'meh'. He was okay in Hogfather but I couldn't understand the point of him playing Rincewind later. Not only didn't he look the part at all, he was probably too old for it, and it just wasn't funny. Then again it's also a problem with the book...I wanna watch THAT :lol:Only heard of it through it being the previous starring role of that Ashes to Ashes girl. And yes, thank you for reminding of this one -- I always thought I should give Spooks a try. It's been shown in France but dubbed only -- no thank you.
Never heard about Hustle and New Tricks until now -- I'll look into it, I like that kind of pitch. New Tricks, why not, later.
Oh wait, I just checked on Wikipedia -- both shows were shown in France. New Tricks I never heard of even with its French title, while Hustle I *did* hear of, but it was shown on a commercial channel so I just avoided it. Plus the French title sucked ("The VIP con-men" or something). Heck, I thought it was a French show...Not really, but I do appreciate a good Poirot or Holmes of course :) And Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes. And David E. Kelley's shows. That's about all... Never watched CSI etc....And yet another show I saw on my TV programme, without being aware it's British ;)
I like the pitch, too, I'll remember to give it a try next time I see it on TV.Ah yes... There's a Japanese show, Detective Conan (in reference to Doyle), which absolutely loves closed room murders. I think I read about 28 volumes of the manga before I got sick of it, but I'd say I enjoyed at least 25 of it -- all murder cases where the genius kid/teen solves very smart mysteries. It's slimmed down to a level where the guest characters don't even matter anymore. It's all about the tricks themselves, most of the time. Apart from the annoying story clichés and character-design, it's a really good thing to read (or watch on TV) if you like these.Watched them all, loved them all. I can't decided who's the better actor between the two!
They're all available on DVD here. I'm only missing the TV movies for Holmes on DVD -- pretty much out of stock and there aren't suitable subtitles online either. Bah.I never delved into Marple because (1) I'm not sure about the whole concept, (2) I'm not sure about who the definitive Marple is, either.Really, as I said above, I've never even watched a single second of any CSI show, eheh. Couldn't tell you whether I like it or not!My girl is a big fan of Bones. I'm not. I just watch bits of it occasionally because I miss my Angel.Thank you very much for the suggestions :)

I can understand that. Had my share of poorly dogs in my youth.Hmm, then you best be careful with the BBC back catalogue...See, to me first seeing that at the age of about 8, it was entrancing. In hindsight, it's held up at least no worse than most of the old back catalogue and in many ways it held up better, because it's not quite so ridiculous as some of the monsters.Yeah, it's a legend. The remake was ridiculously bad, however. Even though I'm a fan of Ian McKellen, I gave up part way into episode one.No, I didn't. I've seen him in other things since watching him as Who and it just doesn't work for me.There's not a great deal that's current that's really worth watching in the UK to be honest.It's allegedly a panel knowledge based quiz show. I saw 'allegedly' because while it has such a format, it's not exactly adhered to. The right answer is usually irrelevant, and answers that are interesting (and often irrelevant) are rewarded. Answers that are boring and wrong (especially if they're common myths) are frequently penalised, which is why Alan Davies is usually the loser by voicing the expected, very wrong answer for a 10 point penalty. Honestly, I can only remember the occasional episode that Davies even has a *positive* score, let alone a winning one.

I only have the first series on DVD, but even on that series, we have Bill Bailey, Hugh Laurie,[1] Phill Jupitus, Sean Lock, John Sessions, Jo Brand, Clive Anderson, Jimmy Carr... you get the picture.

Also, that reminds me. When it's on, you might enjoy (or thoroughly despise) Mock The Week. It's pretty polarising and I find it hilarious.I don't think you're really missing that much.David Jason... thought you'd recognise the name more. Other than OFaH, he's also been in Pratchett adaptations and also the TV series A Touch of Frost. (That's a pretty good detective series.)

Lyndhurst... Goodnight Sweetheart is probably his best known work, but he was definitely an 80s actor and looks rather out of place these days.Ah, yes, you have seen them. His role in Hogfather is pretty much typical for his career (except in A Touch of Frost). We're talking about someone who was the voice/narrator from Count Duckula and Dangermouse.

For me, Jason fits both parts - just not together, but he fits in better in Hogfather - leaving the question of who you'd cast as Rincewind. It's never clear from the book how old Rincewind is really supposed to be, especially as he's always depicted as oldish on the covers.Let me save you most of the build-up and insanity, suffice to say that Rodney is a slightly ineffectual male who does roar like a lion when called (but invariably is the lamb being led to slaughter), Cassandra is his wife who is the big shot, a lawyer I believe, but she's the one who calls the shots, and an in attempt to revitalise their marriage, they suggest dressing up as each other's fantasies, writing the names down on pieces of paper and leaving them for each other. (You can already see the parallels; Rory is a lot like Rodney and Cassandra is a lot like Amy, just not as fiery)

He cites someone off The Bill (being a sucker for someone in a police uniform; it wouldn't be the first time he had been attracted to a policewoman, only the previous time it actually *was* a policewoman, complete with handcuffs), while she mentions Gladiator.

So you get the pivotal scene of them walking into the living room to confront each other, and disappear off to the bedroom. Due to other circumstances, they get interrupted by a phone call... and they emerge from the bedroom - just like Amy and Rory do in the Christmas Carol...It's worth giving it a try, but if you don't get hooked by the first couple of episodes (in particular, the second is a lot brutal), you're probably not going to get much mileage out of the rest of it.Yeah, they're the sort of shows I kind of overlooked as well, though I'm wishing I hadn't so much now.Good adaptations are always appreciated. I wasn't a fan of Peter Ustinov in the one adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, for example, and several of the Holmes adaptations (Basil Rathbone anyone?) were not so great.

CSI is one of those shows you will either like or not. It's OK, but it's not exactly brain-stretching fare.

You get genius moments like this:

GUI interface using visual basic to track the killers IP address CSI

Yes, this was in CSI: NY, it's not a hoax or a mash-up, that did actually happen. The plots aren't bad, the execution a bit OTT at times, http://lolwtfcomics.blogspot.com/2011/10/csi-comic-enhance-on-license-plate-zoom.html pretty much sums up how CSI feels sometimes (and Jesus H Christ on a crutch, David Caruso, will you PLEASE STOP TAKING YOUR DAMN GLASSES ON AND OFF EVERY DAMN SENTENCE!)

If I do watch it, it's mostly for the character interaction, not for the crime solving, and I make a point of avoiding CSI: Miami for the above insanity. (CSI: NY is OK, Vegas is good)It's certainly one of those quirky things, and while Alan Davies had reached out in certain areas as a comedian, it was Jonathan Creek that really made his name.*nods* Sounds good, I'll try and dig it out.Miss Marple works for me, but it's an inversion on the detective motif; had Miss Marple not been so successful, we'd never have had Murder, She Wrote. Hmm, maybe that wasn't such a good thing after all :lol:

But Joan Hickson is pretty much *the* character Christie wrote about.I doubt you'd appreciate it, actually. It's not exactly high-brow fare, it is pretty much something that you watch and ignore.Never got into Angel.No problems :)

Funnily enough, I just thought of something; I mentioned Mock the Week, and then I realised that an earlier show created by the same people still holds my interest when it's on: Whose Line Is It Anyway? While it's largely an American show *now* it was originally a British show, though having American guests on it.

Also, you might find either Spitting Image or Drop the Dead Donkey good watching, but in both cases, they're related to what was going on in the country and the world at the time, being quite politically satirical; DtDD at least starts the re-runs (and, AFAIK, the DVD releases) with a brief note as to what was happening at the time so that you're not completely without context. But it's pretty niche humour these days because it's so intrinsically tied to what went on at the time.


Also, in reference to Grimlock, he's one of the Transformers, and like all of the Dinobots, he's pretty bad-ass. For example, in the movie (the proper one :P), they're up against Unicron, which is a giant planet-eating monster Transformer. The Dinobots, despite being miniature in comparison, do not care that they're tiny in comparison.

This video, around the 5 minute mark:

G1 Movie: Part 10: "You Underestimate Me, Galvatron"

1.	And the chemistry there between him and Fry is just spiffing!