Now What Have You Been Watching?

[Andrew Curnow]

I seem to have become a bit of a Netflix addict in the past few months:

Stranger Things season 2 (still very addictive, and there are some real moments of both shock and real humour in there - oddly nostalgic)

The Crown season 2 (maybe not quite as engaging as season 1, but definitely very watchable, and Matt Smith is a world away from his Doctor Who, a very credible, convincing Duke of Edinburgh)

Yes Minister - all of it! The series that are and aren't on Netflix seem to be a very random bunch (and annoyingly, just occasionally they'll disappear when I'm halfway through, like Spooks!) but I was very pleased to find this. Yes, in just a few places, there are things you probably wouldn't say nowadays, and of course in some ways it has dated; but overall, it's still very funny, and Paul Eddington in particular is just absolutely superb. I've watched all three series, plus the 'final special' episode where he becomes PM... and I see that the sequel series is on Netflix too!

Nostalgia for the 80s has also driven me to give the new Dynasty a spin, heaven help me! It's oddly awful, and yet curiously watchable - unlike the Dallas revival of a few years back, this is a 'reinvention' not a continuation, and bizarrely for all its modernity it is very old-fashioned. A real oddity.

I'm also (honestly, I don't just watch TV, I do do other things too) partway through DS9 series 2, and (having discovered it's included free with Amazon Prime) The X Files series 2. Plus I'm one series in to the DVDs of Upstairs Downstairs.

and of course, Blakes 7 from the start

What Mac said!

[Stuart Wallis]

Yes Minister - all of it! The series that are and aren't on Netflix seem to be a very random bunch (and annoyingly, just occasionally they'll disappear when I'm halfway through, like Spooks!) but I was very pleased to find this. Yes, in just a few places, there are things you probably wouldn't say nowadays, and of course in some ways it has dated; but overall, it's still very funny, and Paul Eddington in particular is just absolutely superb. I've watched all three series, plus the 'final special' episode where he becomes PM... and I see that the sequel series is on Netflix too!

Two classic pieces of satire - who reads which newspapers, and Kindly Call Me God.

[Rob McCow]

Star Maidens.

It's a real "What WERE they thinking?" kind of TV show! Sort of sci-fi / cheap sitcom / children's BFI film hybrid, with loads of filming in and around Bracknell. Looks very familiar.

[Nyder]

Look who’s back in A Family At War

[Andrew Curnow]

What, Neville Chamberlain??

Star Maidens.

It's a real "What WERE they thinking?" kind of TV show!

I've never seen it, but I must say that the guy who wrote about it in the You & Who Else book really writes with a genuine passion & delight for it, well worth a read. I'm not sure it's well worth a watch mind you...

[Stuart Wallis]

What, Neville Chamberlain??

The League Of Former Prime Ministers gets everywhere! I saw John Major presenting the Six o'clock News last night, disguised as Fiona Bruce!

[Nyder]

I bought Volume 1 of Armchair Theatre many moons ago in a Network DVD sale and I finally got round to ripping the cellophane off last night!

“Say Goodnight To Your Grandma” (Thames TV, 1970) written by and starring Colin Welland as Tony. Susan Jameson plays his wife Jean who has the mother-in-law from Hell (superbly played by Madge Ryan).

Tony and Jean are driving back oop North from that there London to show their new baby Cressida to her respective Grandmas.

The subtle and then no-so-subtle bitching by Nana sends Jean over the edge who wreaks her revenge. I’ll never look at Mrs Wibsey in the same way again


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Alex]

Everything Sucks! - New Netflix show set in the 90s, it's a coming of age piece and all rather sweet.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend S3 - One of my all time favourite shows, this is a musical romantic comedy and just enormously fun, and Rachel Bloom is an amazing performer.

Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge - I don't think I'd watched this in a good twenty years so had forgotten a lot of it. Really enjoyed it a great deal once again though, and can't wait for the new BBC Partridge series coming later this year.

[Nyder]

Armchair Theatre night again - this time it’s “Office Party” (1971) by Fay Wheldon and directed by Voytek!!! It starred Angharad Rees, Ray Brooks, Peter Barkworth, George A Cooper and Diana King.

A most impressive and expansive studio set in the form of the ground floor of a bank. This was the setting of a retirement party for a stuffy Bank Manager. As the alcohol flows the staff and their partners become a lot less inhibited and the home truths start to flow.

I liked the way that you (as the audience) felt like a party onlooker getting to know everyone’s secrets. Not much of a climax though as the party fizzles out and everyone is in work for 9am the next day. Bah to gritty 70s realism

[Stuart Wallis]

directed by Voytek!!!

Sounds like the Hungarian version of Cilit Bang!

As the alcohol flows the staff and their partners become a lot less inhibited and the home truths start to flow.

I liked the way that you (as the audience) felt like a party onlooker getting to know everyone’s secrets. Not much of a climax though as the party fizzles out and everyone is in work for 9am the next day. Bah to gritty 70s realism

Sounds like PS...

[MacNimon]

Current tv I've been watching includes Silent Witness, and Two Doors Down. Mrs Brown's Boys over the festive period, and the new season of Star Trek on Netflix. Also giving the update of Magnum PI a chance, although the jury's still out on that. It's simply so hard to replace an icon such as Tom Selleck (or rather, maybe that moustache) but it's a reasonably enjoyable update.

Classic tv on my watchlist at the moment includes Blake's 7 (of course), BBC's Colditz, the old Robert Wagner/Eddie Albert/Sharon Gless conman series Switch (I found this on YouTube) which brings back memories, I'm really enjoying it and it's well overdue a dvd release. Also working my way through Hammer House Of Mystery & Suspense, which I've never seen any of before...enjoyable stuff so far, maybe not as tight and memorable as Hammer House Of Horror but a bunch of very enjoyable feature-length episodes so far!

[johnnybear]

The Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman series I'm on at the moment! Although the region 1 Sixes aren't as clear as Bionic Woman sets sadly!
JB

[Dirk Gently]

I remember The Six Million Dollar Man as being really grainy when first shown back in the day, late 70s I think in the UK. But most U.S stuff was poor by UK standards, as they filmed in 525 line & the UK in superior 625 line.