Now What Have You Been Watching?

[Stuart Wallis]

"DAHlings, I've been to see my specialist, Doctor Hair-by-Maurice!"

(Sorry if that sounds more camp than it's meant to be btw.)

[Nyder]

Still impressed by A Family At War. Troughton gives a superb performance as a hen-pecked husband who reaches the end of his tether now and then and really loses it! Plus last week there were guest roles for Tony Anholt and the embryos Richard Beckinsale and Nicholas Lyndhurst

[SiHart]

I'm recording Family At War. I'll catch up with it at some point!

[Nyder]

I'm recording Family At War. I'll catch up with it at some point!

Oh do - it's marvellous!

[Andrew Curnow]

Having picked them both up v v cheap at a Car Boot sale, I've mainly been watching series one of Upstairs Downstairs and story one of Sapphire & Steel recently. Enjoying both - UpDown is still a bit 'stagey' and I didn't realise before just how many years they march through in that first year. I think 'The Swedish Tiger' episode is well-known for being utterly bizarre, beginning as it does with an unknown character strolling at random around the set for what seems like forever (I'll never moan about Lovett Bickford's looong pan across the beach huts again) but other than that there's still lots to enjoy - most especially Gordon Jackson's Hudson.

S&S is obviously-dated and yet still eerie and engaging. I've only ever seen it once before, when it first went out, and about the only thing I remembered was Lead barging in through the front door (which I watched last night). One thing which I definitely didn't notice in 1979 is that the sound effect accompanying Sapphire's 'sticking the policeman in a timeloop' power is the noise of a chirruping Zarbi. The title sequence, still brilliant after all these years.

[Si Hunt]

Trawling through Series 6 of Carla Lane's Bread. Well, it's probably Series 6. Apparently two series were joined together at one point, or made as two and shown as one or something and the DVD restores the original order just to confuse you. So there's one more (or less) series on DVD than was screened. I don't give a monkeys to be honest.

This series they've re-cast Aveline with Melanie Hill, and re-cast Joey, and Jack's back, and Lofty's gone, and it's still all very Carla Lane, i.e. almightily depressing. All the women are flighty dreamers, all the men don't understand the women, and there's loads of "speaking in my head" monologies from people being wistful.

Still. The good news is that Carla Lane is now safely dead so can't write any more.

Si.

[Nyder]

I recently saw the first S&S series too. I thought Lead was really creepy the way he kept chortling to himself! The two children were really good in it.


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[Rob McCow]

When Marnie Was There - the final film from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio that made Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke among others. It was stunningly beautiful and absolutely merciless in its tear-jerking. Sob!

[Alex]

When Marnie Was There - the final film from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio that made Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke among others. It was stunningly beautiful and absolutely merciless in its tear-jerking. Sob!

I watched that recently and greatly enjoyed it. I've been watching a lot of Studio Ghibli recently as I'd seen Spirited Away, Prince Mononoke and a few others but not the rest of their films, and all of them have been quite quite beautiful.

Also, Marnie's no longer the final Ghibli film as Hayao Miyazaki's decided to come out of retirement to make one more film, which is great news.

[Stuart Wallis]

Are those that have been watching A Family At War still watching? Only I saw the first few minutes of last night's episode before being called away and missing the closing credits. It's the episode when they bombed the pub, and one woman was speaking to an army corporal who certainly sounded like Michael Craze?

[Nyder]

Yep I'm still watching it - although I'm about 3 eps behind, so I'll keep an eye open for this one. It's a wonderful series!


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[Stuart Wallis]

My family never missed an episode when it was repeated in the eighties - who wasn't in it?!

[Nyder]

Indeed! In the episode I've just watched there was the glamorous Wanda Ventham and the even more glamorous John Savident

[Stuart Wallis]

Glamorous! Ah say glamorous!

[Nyder]

Yep that definitely was Michael Craze. What a pity he wasn’t in the earlier episodes - he could have acted alongside Pat Troughton! A smooth-faced Jack Woolgar was in last weeks, and the week before that ... an equally smooth-faced Lennard Pearce! I’ve never seen him in anything apart from Grandad in Only Fools!

[Stuart Wallis]

Thanks, I thought I recognised the voice. Happened to be watching last night, and there's someone else to keep an eye out for - a pipe-smoking Peter Hawkins!

[Nyder]

Another familiar face in A Family At War ... David Bradley!

[Stuart Wallis]

Who hasn't been in it?!

[Perry Vale]

Trying out Netflix 1 month trial, currently working through....

Star Trek: Discovery (see dedicated thread)

Stranger Things - Pretty good so far, but nothing unexpected.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Hmmm. I'm enjyoing this a lot, but it's despite the character of Dirk, which seems to be Brett Anderson doing a Sheldon (from Big Bang Theory) impersonation.

[Alex]

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Hmmm. I'm enjyoing this a lot, but it's despite the character of Dirk, which seems to be Brett Anderson doing a Sheldon (from Big Bang Theory) impersonation.

Ha, that's a nice description, and I know what you mean, initially he frustrated me at times by being so manic and OTT but they do settle the character down a bit towards the end of the season, and I really enjoyed the second one. Unfortunately it's been cancelled now though, so there won't be a third.

[Rob McCow]

Star Maidens!

Er... it's far tamer than I was expecting. On the plus side, it's mostly filmed around Windsor, Black Park and Bracknell so I'm enjoying the location spotting.

[MacNimon]

I remember Star Maidens at the time, it was repeated for a few years back in the late 70s. I saw it again a few years ago and found it quite ridiculous but fun!

Currently on my watch-list, among others:

Big Bang Theory
Star Trek Discovery
Kidnapped (1978 version with David McCallum as Alan Breck Stuart)
Moonlighting
Arrow Season 4
Flash Season 2
and of course, Blakes 7 from the start

Plus various Star Trek series, episodes at random...I'm surprised to find that there are actually a few episodes of Voyager I like! Also Robert Wagner in Switch...a great 70s tv series which unfortunately has never been released on dvd but low-quality off air recordings can be found on YouTube

[duncan]

I am about to embark on Star Trek Discovery and I also got the Marvel Captain America movies 3D box set for Christmas, so I will be watching them very soon too.

[Alex]

Just watched the first episode of season four of Black Mirror, it's certainly a pretty unique spin on Star Trek and one I enjoyed a lot.

[Perry Vale]

Ha, that's a nice description, and I know what you mean, initially he frustrated me at times by being so manic and OTT but they do settle the character down a bit towards the end of the season, and I really enjoyed the second one. Unfortunately it's been cancelled now though, so there won't be a third.

I didn't really get over my problems with Dirk's character, but I thorughly enjoyed S1 overall. Enjoyed the story and thankfully the rest of the cast didn't put a foot wrong. Highlight for me was Fiona Dourif as Bart, a delight to watch, and stole the show IMO. Season 2 has just dropped on Netflix so I'll be diving straight in later, sad to hear it's now been cancelled but it's rather typical of the industry.

Just watched the first episode of season four of Black Mirror, it's certainly a pretty unique spin on Star Trek and one I enjoyed a lot.

Very funny episode and very dark. My favourite one so far of the first three I've watched.

And one of my earlier comments....

Stranger Things - Pretty good so far, but nothing unexpected.

Wrote that after S1 episode 2.....totally fell in love with it after that. S1 & 2 both excellent.