The first recording today is a repeat for the blog, as it’s an episode of That Mitchell and Webb Look that I looked at on its original run.
“Now we know!”
Media Centre Description: Comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Includes a pioneering new medical technique called Hammers; how to win your very own massive yacht; and a chance to jump off a cliff for just two quid. With Olivia Colman, James Bachman, Paterson Joseph and Abigail Burdess.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Thursday 20th September 2007 21:58
After this, there’s a Thursdays are Funny trail featuring Peter Serafinowicz. Then the recording stops.
The other recording today takes us to ITV4 (and yes, *all* the ads are for chatlines and mobile porn). And we’re going back to 1973 for a rather forgotten science fiction movie, The Final Programme. It’s based on a novel by Michael Moorcock, and was directed by Robert Fuest, perhaps most famous for directing The Abominable Dr Phibes.
The film stars Jon Finch as Jerry Cornelius, a Nobel Prize winner, and starts with him attending his father’s rather dramatic funeral in Lapland. He’s wearing a fur coat, probably a good idea in Lapland, and it’s one of several fur coats on view in this movie. It was the 70s. Things were different then.
We flash back to a conversation he had with Professor Hira who imparts some wisdom about the Hindu view of life. “Our present age began on February the 18th in the year 3,102 B.C.” “Really?” “Yes. In the afternoon.” From this conversation we learn that the world is coming to an end, although the reason for its ending is never really made clear.
The film is full of familiar British actors. Graham Crowden plays Dr Smiles, who’s interested in some microfilm that Cornelius’ father had at his house. He says he worked with his father, but they’ve now made a breakthrough that requires the microfilm. Cornelius isn’t particularly interested in helping him, and in fact is thinking of blowing up his father’s house.
Cornelius doesn’t waste his time with coffee in the car. No, for him, the best driving tipple is a plastic cup of straight whiskey. The large stack of cups is a nice touch. It was the 70s. A different time altogether.
Harry Andrews picks him up on a boat. I think he’s his servant or something. He tells Cornelius what his brother Frank has been doing with their sister Catherine. He’s been keeping her drugged and asleep. “All he eats now is bars of chocolate and strawberry jam. Well, that’s no good for anyone, is it?” Does he spread the strawberry jam on the chocolate? Cornelius tells John that he’s going to blow up the house. He says he’ll do it with Napalm, although he mispronounces it with a short first ‘a’ and emphasis on the second syllable.
Trafalgar Square has seen better days.
Sterling Hayden plays Major Wrongway Lindbergh, who seems to get Cornelius’ weapons dealer.
It’s not always Whiskey. He enjoys a Watneys Pale Ale here, which seemed a little downmarket.
The production design for this film is very wacky. Unless this was a real place. It was the 70s, after all. These scenes reminded me a lot of A Clockwork Orange.
He meets with Shades, an assassin, played by Ronald Lacey. Cornelius wants to buy Napalm, and I liked that Shades corrected his pronunciation.
Dr Smiles and his colleagues meet with Miss Brunner, played by Jenny Runacre, also festooned in fur. She’s part of their research, and doesn’t seem happy to involve Cornelius with whatever they’re doing.
The guns in this all seem to shoot needles.
Cornelius meets them, and takes them to his father’s house, but all the defences are on, which seems to involve very garish colours.
There’s secret doors and booby traps.
Cornelius finds his servant, John, has been shot by his brother, when he tried to help his sister Catherine escape the house.
He finds his sister, drugged in bad by his brother, who comes in and starts shooting. There’s a needle fight which ends with tragedy, when Cornelius shoots at the shadow of his brother, only to find it’s actually his sister Catherine. She’s played by Sarah Douglas, and it’s a rather thankless role as she’s fridged almost as soon as we meet her.
His brother Frank is played by Derrick O’Connor.
Miss Brunner has more luck against Frank than Jerry did, and she’s soon throwing him around. She gets him to open the safe and get the microfilm they want, but he tricks her and takes the film for himself.
Cornelius recovers from the needle he was shot with, and Brunner takes him out for a meal, where the entertainment appears to be something like mud wrestling. Sandra Dickinson appears as a waitress.
Brunner introduces him to Jenny, a friend of hers. I thought she looked familiar – she played Sue Osman in Eastenders for a long time.
One of the running themes in this film is Cornelius’ fondness for biscuits. Particularly McVities Plain Chocolate Home Wheat. I have to admit I identify with this particular character trait very strongly, as our treat box here is always well stocked with Plain Chocolate Digestives. He also cracks an “I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition” line when Jenny asks him a lot of questions. in 1973, Python would have been still on TV.
It wouldn’t be a 1970s film without a bit of gratuitous nudity. After the Spanish Inquisition line just a moment ago, I can’t help wondering if this is a homage to Terry Jones on the organ.
After a bit of music, the two women snuggle on the couch, and there’s a strange shot of Brunner’s hand, going all motion-blur. I thought this might just be a metaphor for bonking, but when Cornelius gets up in the morning, he finds Brunner playing exactly the same piece that Jenny was playing, and Jenny is nowhere to be found. He asks where she is. “Oh, she got absorbed in somebody else.”
The two of them travel to Turkey where Brunner’s computer has tracked Frank. He’s contacted a man called Baxter, who stole some of Cornelius Senior’s secrets back in the day. Frank is trying to sell the microfilm, wince Brunner seemed to want it very badly. Baxter is played by Patrick Magee.
While Jerry spends a very dull time running after Frank, Brunner finds Baxter, and does her absorbing thing on him. Jerry kills Frank, and they get the microfilm. Brunner persuades Cornelius to join her in Lapland, where they’re running some kind of experiment that they needed the microfilm for.
They have the most complex computer in the world in their facility. “She’s called Duel.” Cornelius isn’t impressed. “She spin dry as well?”
They’ve also got the brains of eminent scientists in fishtanks. The intent is to collect the whole sum of human knowledge, then feed it into a human brain, but the problem is that “No brain could possibly accept such an enormous charge to blow all its circuits.” “Ah. Not one brain, Mr Cornelius. But two.”
Miss Brunner explains the whole plan. “We are about to produce an all-purpose human being. An hermaphrodite, in every respect. Self-fertilizing, self-regenerating, immortal. Repeating itself over and over again. Retaining knowledge with the help of Duel.”
She’s been keeping a young man called Dimitri in order to merge with him, but a little earlier she tried to kill him, so he’s out for revenge. There’s a fight sequence in which Cornelius seems to fall over a lot, at the end of which, Brunner just kills Dimitri. She’s clearly tired of him.
Brunner and Cornelius get it together, as the scientists start the Final Programme.
But the scientists don’t come out of it very well.
For some reason, the hermaphrodite synthesis of Brunner and Cornelius looks like a neanderthal. At this point, I suspect the makers were channelling another Kubrick film, 2001.
What a strange film.
Media Centre Description: Sci-fi black comedy about scientists racing to create a self-reproducing superhuman before the world ends. Based on the novel by Michael Moorcock, which features the first appearance of anti-hero Jerry Cornelius.
Recorded from ITV4 on Friday 21st September 2007 01:53
After this, there’s the start of a movie news programme which starts off with something that really surprised me – a very brief clip from a trailer for Iron Man. Given it doesn’t come out until 2008, this might be the first view anyone has had of it. And yet the only bit of the programme I have here spends almost all its time talking about the long forgotten Daniel Radcliffe film December Boys. Curse you, ITV4 you’re such a tease.
Today’s first recording is mislabelled by Media Centre. It’s an episode of Masters of Horror but not The Washingtonians. This is actually the last episode in the series, Dream Cruise, written by Naoya Takayama and Norio Tsuruta, and directed by Tsuruta.
It starts with two young boys in trouble on the water. The younger one can’t stay afloat, and sinks.
Daniel Gillies plays Jack, the surviving brother, who still has nightmares about letting his brother drown.
He’s a lawyer, and he’s asked to meet with one of the company’s clients, Eiji Saito at the Marina. On arriving he meets Yuri, Eiji’s wife, and it sounds like they’ve been having an affair.
Eiji meets them and it’s fairly obvious from the way he’s behaving and talking that he knows (or suspects strongly) that Jack and Yuri are having an affair. He invites Jack for a trip on his boat. No good can come of this.
But the boat’s engine stops. Eiji thinks it might be something fouling the propellor, and after Jack refuses to get in the water to check it (due to his crippling fear of the water) Eiji goes down to check, and starts to pull what looks like a lot of hair from the propellor. This is quite tense, as there’s something making the boat’s engine start on its own.
The subtitles on this aren’t always the most grammatical, but you might infer from this that he has apparently died underwater and is now acting even more strangely. He blames Yuri for this, and starts going after her with the boat anchor, while Jack is groggy after being attacked.
Jack wakes up and has to fend off Eiji. But then, after managing to stab him, Eiji’s arm just falls off.
Then his head is suddenly very damaged. This isn’t making much sense.
Eiji falls overboard, but his arm is still causing Jack a lot of trouble.
Yuri wakes up locked in the toilet. I don’t think toilets can usually be locked from the outside, so I’m assuming this is more spooky goings on. Certainly, the sink and toilet gushing water and filling the small cubicle is not the usual behaviour of such appliances.
As she’s drowning, Yuri sees a flashback to when Eiji murdered his first wife on the boat, so we now assume she’s the one who has been haunting everything.
Pretty soon, the first Mrs Saito turns up in full long-haired, weirdly crawling J-Horror mode.
They get off the boat, and swim away, but the problem with ghosts is they tend to float quite well.
As Yuri is being pulled underwater by Mrs Saito, it looks like Jack is going to lose another loved one to the deep. But no! From out of the darkness, the ghost of his younger brother swims up and helps Yuri escape. He wasn’t haunting Jack, he was looking after him.
I didn’t think much of this one, I’m afraid. Another very slight story stretched out over an hour or so. I might have preferred the advertised episode about a cannibal George Washington.
Media Centre Description: A series of one-hour horror films directed by the masters of the genre. A man discovers a letter in a relative’s trunk which exposes a terrible secret about George Washington and may re-write American history. Was the first President a cannibal?
Recorded from f tn on Wednesday 19th September 2007 21:58
After this, the recording ends with the start of Beadle’s About.
The next recording starts with the end of an episode of Comics Britannia.
There’s a trail for Flight of the Conchords.
Then, another comics-based documentary, Jonathan Ross in Search of Steve Ditko.
I love the studio.
Remarkably, this is one of only three or four photos of Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man, known to exist.
This programme is having fun with the format, as Jonathan visits his younger self.
Paul Gambaccini has been a fan for a long time.
Also visiting Jonathan in his Comic Room is writer Mark Millar, who was the first (and of this recording, only) British writer to write Spider-Man.
I’m slightly nervous every time someone handles a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, even though this is probably Ross’s copy. It feels like something that should be handled with soft gloves in a clean room.
I’m going out on a limb, early on, and saying that they’re unlikely to get anywhere near Ditko, so really, this documentary is an excuse for Ross to meet all his favourite non-reclusive comic creators, so he pops up to Northampton to visit Alan Moore.
Over to New York to meet Jerry Robinson, a mentor to Ditko, one of the original Batman artists, and co-creator of The Joker.
Flo Steinberg worked for Stan Lee in the 60s.
Joe Quesada was Editor-in-Chief of Marvel at the time this documentary was made.
Ralph Macchio was an editor at Marvel, and worked with Ditko when he was young. “It was fascinating because he would sit there with me over my shoulder, and he would go through every single page, panel by panel, and it was like watching a master at work, because I would be able to see how he would solve story problems”
cat yronwode was a fan of Ditko’s other big Marvel character, Doctor Strange. “We certainly believed that Steve Ditko was on drugs.”
Inevitably, Neil Gaiman turns up. He talks about the possible reasons why Ditko left Marvel Comics at the height of their success. “There are famously a number of issues that they clashed over. Stan is meant to have looked at comments of Ditko’s where Spider-Man is swinging past protesters and he’s meant to be saying things like now just look at those dirty hippies down there and Stan would go in and give him a word balloon that says hey kids I’m with you, and you feel that politically, there’s a wonderful clash between swinging Stan Lee and the magnificently uptight, world-class uptight, impossibly uptight Steve Ditko.”
I know this documentary is all about Ditko, but here’s John Romita, who was the artist at the time I started reading Spider-Man, and he’s always been the definitive Spidey artist for me.
After 45 minutes, the programme finally gets to Stan Lee. It’s very interesting to hear him be quite defensive over the question of authorship and creation of the characters. He really does think that the person who thought it up is the creator.
In New York, Jonathan does find Steve Ditko’s office, and phones him to see if he might talk to him. “Just spoke to Steve Ditko. Essentially told me to fuck off. But in the most polite and firm manner I have ever encountered.”
But Jonathan is undaunted, and he and Neil Gaiman go up to Ditko’s office, without the crew. “Just went and shook Steve Ditko’s hand and had a long chat with him.” “We had a very long chat with him.” “We had a long chat with Steve Ditko and he talked to us about creating Spider-Man and I said could I ask you a big favour, could I have my photo taken? Oh no, wouldn’t have his photo taken. He was so sweet wasn’t he? He was just the loveliest man.” It’s rather lovely to see them so star-struck.
Here’s the whole documentary (uploaded by someone else).
Media Centre Description: Documentary in which Jonathan Ross tries to track down and interview one of his heroes, the reclusive 80-year-old American comic book artist Steve Ditko, creator of Spiderman. Ditko has never given an interview and consistently, if politely, declines all offers to talk about his work. Ross travels to glamorous LA, exciting New York and chilly Northampton to meet with fellow fans and comic book professionals such as Alan Moore and Paul Gambaccini in order to discover more about the man.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Thursday 20th September 2007 00:30
Media Centre Description: Gordon Ottershaw has the misfortune to support a football team which has not won a match for six years. But worse is to come, in this rare look at football fanaticism in the 1930s. Will their tragedy bring Gordon’s triumph? Or not? This is just one of the questions this film hopes to answer. Or not.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Tuesday 18th September 2007 21:00
Today’s recording opens with a great trail for Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe where he wanders on during the BBC Four ident. It’s at the start of the full recording below.
But the main programme is the second part in the Comics Britannia series – Boys and Girls.
Posy Simmonds remembers reading the EC Horror comics.
Alan Moore reads some to us.
Writer Alan Grant. “My brother and I were allowed to go to the shop in Oban and buy ourselves a comic for reading in bed, and we each bought an EC horror comic. The two of us waking up at about half one or two o’clock in the morning screaming our heads off.”
Because of the moral panic that broke out over the Horror Comics, some people looked to produce more wholesome fare for the young people, like the Reverend Marcus Morris, who learned about publishing to produce something more edifying.
Jodi Cudlipp, who worked with him says “He was most interested in layout. I mean, words he knew, but layout and things like that he knew nothing about. On one occasion, I said to him, in this magazine, can you bleed off into the gutter? I mean, can you carry the picture into the gutter? And he said, oh, he said, that’s wonderful. Bleed off into the gutter. He said, can I actually say that in church? I said, yes, if you want.”
Max Hastings: “On the one hand, he was the old dog collar man, the former vicar, with this very strong moral sense. But on the other hand, he was one of the legendary serial bonkers of his day around media London.”
But the comic he produced was the legendary Eagle.
Gerald Scarfe was a reader from day one. He once entered a drawing competition and won first prize. One of the runners up was a David Hockney of Bradford.
There’s archive footage of Marcus Morris describing the evolution of Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future. He started off as a parson in the touch East End of London, then he was Padre to the interplanetary fleet, before he became the hero.
The artist Frank Hampson was responsible for the script, which was fully painted.
Paul Gravett explains how Hampson worked, “getting his fellow studio assistants to dress up in outfits and they had to have all the space helmets and things, photographing these for referencing to make them as convincing as possible.”
Don Harley worked with Hampson. “I had to draw Digby running around in shorts and sock suspenders and the drawing was about three quarters of an inch high and I couldn’t get the sock suspenders right. I mean they were about a millimeter. Well very small and he sent me backwards and forwards about three times to put them right.”
Of course, they needed something for the young ladies, so they produced Girl.
Mel Gibson (not that one): “And the first stories that they did involved titles like Kitty Hawke and her all-girl crew who said things like ‘now then let’s show the chaps that we can do things as well as they can’.”
Jacqueline Wilson was an early reader. “Belle of the Ballet was everything I aspired to. For a long time though, very unfortunately, I had no idea how you pronounced either Belle or Ballet and so I once told my teacher when I was about eight that I truly loved Belly of the Ballette.”
But as well as the quite posh Girl, comics like Bunty appealed to a wider readership.
Stella Duffy talks about the typical characters. “They’re full of girls who really shouldn’t be doing so well because they’re poor or blind or their dad’s a crim or something terrible’s happened in their past”
War comics were popular too, like Commando.
Frank Skinner was a fan. “I think you have to accept that war is a great place for heroics and in those Commando comics that was what was brilliant about it. It almost didn’t matter what the conflict was, it was just that individual act of bravery and it was great. There was a lot of stiff upper lip and a lot of cool nerves in it.”
George Low: “the really nasty Nazis always tended to be blonde. Even when we wanted them not to be, the artists would draw them as blonde.”
Gordon Livingstone was an artist on Commando. “Bear in mind this was after I came out having done my national service and that was it. I had an insight into it and was fairly well versed in uniforms which is an absolute must and you got to get things right because there’s no more critical audience than little children believe you me.”
Romance comics also bloomed.
Posy Simmonds draws an example of the kind of girls that were in the romance comics.
“In 1964 DC Thompson launched a new girls comic that had all the swagger of swinging London and a title that came as quite a surprise when it was revealed to the company’s youngest writer, Jacqueline Wilson.” “They looked at each other twinkling and said and you know what its name is and I said no and they said it’s going to be called Jackie. And then they said sort of in chorus ‘named after you’.” This is the most amazing fact ever.
Girl’s comics were changing too. John Saunders of IPC talks about their research. “The readers wanted to cry. We asked girls, we went into schools and we said why don’t you like the stories that exist now and they said they were too tame they really wanted to cry so we made them cry we made them cry buckets.”
Tammy in 1971 brought more changes. Pat Mills: “I was a freelance writer working for Tammy and Tammy was really the girls comic that created the revolution. There was an attempt to do something new to do something dramatic and really to bring girls comics up to date.”
Another innovation was the Photo-Story. Some of them featured then-unknowns like a young Hugh Grant.
Stella Duffy has hysterics when she finds someone who looks like George Michael, then learns that it’s really him.
“That’s fantastic! Oh dear you know they did all just look gay even when they weren’t out those boys then didn’t they?”
There’s some weird crossovers, like Spandau Ballet appearing in Roy of the Rovers.
Barrie Tomlinson talks about a famous storyline, inspired by the shooting of JR Ewing in Dallas.
Battle comic took a lot of inspiration from the stories written for Tammy, and writer Pat Mills wrote Charley’s War, set in World War One.
Here’s the whole episode.
Media Centre Description: Armando Iannucci presents a series which explores the history of British comics. He looks at boys’ and girls’ adventure comics of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, from the Eagle and Bunty through to Jackie and Commando. Fans such as cartoonists Posy Simmonds and Gerald Scarfe, writers Max Hastings and Jacqueline Wilson and comedian Frank Skinner reveal their favourite comics characters.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Monday 17th September 2007 20:58
There’s a location report on Kenneth Branagh’s As You Like It.
Media Centre Description: The latest film news and reviews with Jonathan Ross, who this week gives his verdict on western thriller 3:10 to Yuma, starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Plus, Daniel Radcliffe discusses his role in the Australian coming-of-age drama The December Boys; a look at hit US comedy Superbad; and a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Kenneth Branagh’s latest Shakespeare adaptation, As You Like It.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 15th September 2007 12:28
After this, there’s a trail for Heroes Catch-up. A a trail for Jonathan Ross in Search of Steve Ditko.
There’s also a new trail for The Restaurant.
There’s also a trail for Radio 3.
Then the recording stops with the start of Howard Hawks: American Artist.
The next recording is a movie. It’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. It’s a video game adaptation, so that doesn’t bode well. I’ve not played much Final Fantasy myself so I’ve got no real investment, and anyway, my understanding is that every Final Fantasy has a completely different set of characters.
I’ll be honest, one of my least favourite parts of video games is the cutscenes, and I try to skip through them as fast as possible, so to have a movie which is basically one long cutscene isn’t playing to my preferences. The cutscene feeling is made worse because this is fully CG animated, but with fairly realistic human models, so combined with the 2001-era CG rendering, and a very dull colour palette, a lot of the time this feels like I’m watching Doom 3 cutscenes.
Our hero is Dr Aki Ross, a scientist who is researching Phantoms – alien life forms which can kill people on contact by destroying their Gaia spirit. She’s also been infected by phantoms, making the army mistrust her, but the infection is being kept under control with a device she wears. The humans are at war with the Phantoms, looking for a way to destroy them, and she’s looking for eight spirits from different animals or people to combine to make a wave that can negate the Phantoms. She’s voiced by Ming-Na Wen from Mulan and Agents of Shield.
Her mentor is Doctor Sid. He believes the all life is part of Gaia, and when we die, our spirits join with the Gaia of the planet. This apparently makes him a bit of an iconoclast, even though his discoveries have helped them build barriers around cities against the Phantoms. He’s voiced by Donald Sutherland.
The bad guy in this is General Hein. He doesn’t want to stop the Phantoms by finding spirits, he just wants to shoot them with his big fucking gun, the Zeus Gun. And he spends most of the movie manipulating things so he can get permission to do so. He’s voiced by James Woods.
There’s a brief voice cameo from Jean Simmons as a council member. Almost pointless, but let’s face it, if you could get Jean Simmons to do an hour’s voice work on your movie, you would, wouldn’t you?
The same is true for Keith David, who has a couple of lines in the same scene.
Steve Buscemi voices Neil, one of the soldiers helping Aki.
Along with Peri Gilpin as Jane.
And Ving Rhames as Ryan.
And the captain of the soldiers, Captain Gray, is voiced by Alec Baldwin. He and Aki have a romantic history, which gets rekindled during this. I’m not sure that 2001-era ‘photorealistic’ CGI really works with characters kissing. Thank goodness it didn’t go any further than that.
I’ll be honest, I did struggle with this. We get a little bit of value from Steve Buscemi, as he’s at least given something resembling amusing dialogue, but generally this did try my patience. Still, there was this scene that was cribbed directly from Aliens, so at least they’re stealing from the best, even if they don’t have James Cameron’s directorial flair.
Media Centre Description: Lavish computer-generated animation about the efforts of a group of humans to resist an alien invasion and to find the antidote to a lethal extraterrestrial virus. If they are to save mankind from extinction, a select few must venture deep into the alien stronghold. Featuring the voices of Donald Sutherland, Ming-Na and James Woods.
Recorded from Five on Saturday 15th September 2007 17:58
After this, there’s the start of the news, leading with more developments in the Maddie McCann case, and long queues at branches of Northern Rock as savers tried to get their money out. I’ve included this at the end of the ad break.
First today, another edited recording. It’s an episode of A Bucket O’ French and Saunders, the 20th anniversary compilation series, with a fair bit of original material around the edges.
If I’m honest, I found some of the montages a bit annoying – short clips from thematically related bits of sketches – music, dance.
But we do get original material, starting with a white room sketch.
And it’s nice to get a classic introduction. “It’s me, your comedy partner Dawn French.”
This programme particularly looks at one guest star they’ve had over the years, Helen Mirren, and they do a bit about how they wouldn’t be able to get her on the show now, until they hit on the idea of presenting her with an award. So as Jen reads out the citation, there’s a look back at her glittering career in The Queen.
The Other Queen.
and Prime Suspect.
Announcing the winner, Jen pauses for a very long time, while the actual Helen Mirren is pictured on a satellite link, waiting. And later in the programme they cut back, and Jen is still waiting to be told who won, so Dawn tells her to just say Ricky Gervais, Helen Mirren looks a bit cross, and when Jen says “And Ricky can’t be here this evening, but Helen, would you mind presenting it to him in Hollywood when you see him?” it cuts back to an empty chair. I really hope they actually booked Dame Helen Mirren to sit in a chair and say nothing, and this wasn’t a bit of stock footage.
Whilst most of the clips are familiar, there’s some that I don’t remember at all, like the two English women who’ve moved to an American gated community, which has a very dark ending.
This is the second programme in a few days where the BBC have done that thing that the other channels love doing (and the CBBC channels too) of putting a caption over the current programme telling the viewer what’s next. Do they still do this on live TV? I so rarely watch anything that’s live these days, it’s all iPlayer. I hate this, particularly on BBC One.
Media Centre Description: A selection of new and vintage sketches from the popular comedy double act. After 20 years of trying to persuade Madonna to appear on the show, the duo finally put their yearning to rest. Davina McCall stars as Dawn and Jennifer’s mentor when they attempt to graduate from the Presenters’ Academy in time to present the French and Saunders Academy Awards. They pay tribute to Helen Mirren’s wealth of characters, and Kate Moss drops in for a ‘model off’ with Dawn. Contains strong language.
Recorded from BBC ONE on Friday 14th September 2007 21:00
After this, despite this being edited, there’s a bit of a trailer for Michael Palin’s New Europe. Maybe one day I’ll find a complete version of it.
The next programme is missing the start. It’s Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, and he’s brought his little dog on, called Pickle.
His guests are Quentin Tarantino, promoting the movie Grindhouse. He likes Jonathan’s facial hair and suggests it’s a little bit Jason King.
Trinny and Susannah.
And Samuel L Jackson. He’s talking about Snakes on a Plane, and he’s honest about the fact that it didn’t make as much money as they hoped. “But there’s something about those people that sit at home and blog, that built the movie up, they talked about it, and it’s great, I can’t wait for Snakes on a Plane. They made their own posters, they did all this stuff. And none of them left their computers to go to a movie.”
But the highlight of the interview is when Jonathan gives him some dialogue and asks him to give a performance. And it’s the chorus from Shaddup Your Face. It’s quite marvellous.
The musical guest is K T Tunstall.
Here’s (almost) the whole show. It lacks the start and end.
Media Centre Description: A mix of music and celebrity chat with Jonathan Ross. Tonight’s guests are provocative US film director Quentin Tarantino, style gurus Trinny and Susannah, and Hollywood big-hitter Samuel L Jackson, who’s in the UK to host Swarovski Fashion Rocks for The Prince‘s Trust. Music comes courtesy of BRIT-award winner K T Tunstall, who performs her latest single, Hold On.
Recorded from BBC ONE on Friday 14th September 2007 22:38
The credits for Jonathan Ross are on the start of the next recording, so we get to see this.
There’s trails for National Lottery Big 7, and the Heroes catch-up weekend.
Then, a movie, Final Destination. I think I did watch this around the time I recorded it, but they tend to blend together.
There’s a few familiar faces, starting with Ali Larter, now in Heroes plays ‘Clear Rivers’. I guess her parents can’t spell Clare.
A class of teenagers are taking a flight from the US to Paris. One of them, our hero Alex, played by Devon Sawa, is nervous about the flight, and as it starts to take off he keeps seeing things that unnerve him, like bits breaking off the seat table.
But when the plane starts taking off, a lot more things start breaking, and there’s electrical explosions, parts of the fuselage start breaking off, people and seats start being sucked out. You’d think this was a Boeing.
But then Alex wakes up. It was all a dream. But then things keep happening that he saw in his dream, and he freaks out. He starts yelling that the plane is going to crash, and there’s a general hubbub. Another of the students, Carter (Kerr Smith) who’s one of those guys with the football jacket, so you know he’s evil, gets out of his seat and starts shouting, and punches Alex. In all the commotion, everyone who’s out of their seats is bundled off the plane by the cabin crew.
There’s a very brief appearance from Roswell’s Brendan Fehr, who stays in his seat.
Clear was also sitting in her seat but she gets up and follows them off the plane, clearly spooked by Alex’s ravings.
Another of the students is Billy Hitchcock, played by Seann William Scott, who’s basically already playing Stifler from American Pie. Was ever an actor so typecast? Incidentally, there’s a pattern here of characters with the names of famous horror directors or actors.
While Alex and Carter are fighting in the terminal, they don’t notice the plane exploding until the shockwave breaks all the glass.
Kristen Cloke, who worked with producers Glen Morgan and James Wong on Space: Above and Beyond plays the teacher, Val Lewton. See what I mean about the names.
They’re all interviewed by FBI Agents Weine and Schreck. I recognise Schreck as the last name of the actor who played Nosferatu in FW Murnau’s silent film. There’s also a character in the credits called Murnau. The agents are suspicious of Alex, and probably think he blew up the plane somehow.
Carter, the one who hated Alex right from the start, is SO angry about things. They’re at the unveiling of a memorial to the students and teachers lost in the crash. “I hope you don’t think, Browning, because my name ain’t on this wall that I owe you anything.” And what is it with the way he’s walking with his girlfriend. Right behind her, arms round her waist. So many red flags. Does any real human being walk this way?
Billy tells Alex that he passed his driver’s test, with the lowest possible score, and the examiner told him “You’re going to die at a very young age”. I’d argue that if an examiner thought this about his driving, then he’s got no business passing him, but maybe he’d just read the script to this film.
Alex talks to his friend Tod. They clearly haven’t talked much since the crash. Tod’s dad is angry that his brother stayed on the flight. I’d have thought he’d be happy that at least one son survived, but American dads are always weird. Incidentally, Alex’s last name is Browning, which, combined with Tod gives the name of the director of Bela Lugosi’s Dracula (as well as cult classic Freaks). Tod’s actual last name here is Waggner, which is the name of the director of The Wolf Man.
Alex is in his bedroom, first reading the newspaper story of the memorial event yesterday, and then, I’m guessing because the story had a picture of Clear, he grabs a Penthouse from a drawer. You can tell this is from 2000 since he’s got a computer on the internet right there, but he still has to get his porn on paper. But it’s a good thing he does, because an owl flies up to his bedroom window, and he throws the Penthouse at it to scare it away, but the pages get caught in his fan and shred. One falls on his knee, just containing the word “Tod”. At first I thought that was because it’s the German word for Death, but that’s because I didn’t realise his friend was called Tod because I can’t remember character names.
Tod meanwhile, is in the bathroom. He’s already nicked himself shaving, and done some nose hair trimming (do teenagers suffer from excess nose hair? Seems like an older person’s problem.) plus avoided electrocution from a sparking power outlet (American electrical standards are crazy). Then he’s clearing some drying washing from the line over the bath, as some leaking water is moving with scary intention towards him.
Then he slips on the water, tumbles into the bath, the line wraps around his neck, and he knocks some shower gel over so the bath is too slippy for him to properly stand up, and he’s choked by the line. Tod ist tod. The water then retreats from the floor back under the toilet, so as to leave us in no doubt of the supernatural nature of this event.
Alex runs to Tod’s house. Clear is there, watching the police, as are the two FBI agents. As Tod’s body is brought out, his father talks to Alex. “You caused Todd so much guilt over George staying on the plane he took his own life.” Wow, that’s a whole ton of projection, since it’s the father who has been laying down the guilt. Alex doesn’t believe Tod would have done that.
Alex goes to see Clear, they talk about Tod and the plane. Then they decide to break into the funeral home that’s got his body. Because that’s what normal people do. There they meet Tony Todd as Bludworth, the owner of the funeral home. He’s an expert in death, and gives them some useful exposition. “What you have to realize that we’re all just that mouse that a cat has by the tail. Every single move we make from the mundane to the monumental, the red light that we stop at or run, the people we have sex with or won’t with us, the airplanes that we ride or walk out of, it’s all part of death’s sadistic design leading to the grave.” But he holds out some hope for them. “Your friend’s departure shows that death has a new design for all of you. You have to figure out how and when it’s coming back at you. Play it out, Alex, if you think you can get away with it. But remember, the risk of cheating the plan of disrespecting the design could incite a fury that could terrorize even the Grim Reaper.”
Alex and Clear sit at a coffee shop and talk about death’s plan. Clear doesn’t believe it. By coincidence, Carter and Terry are driving past, and he sees Alex, and as usual gets incredibly angry, so he does a u-turn, and almost hits Billy, who is cycling in the opposite direction. As he pulls up, Mrs Lewton comes out of the coffee shop. Suddenly the gang’s all there. Mrs Lewton is moving, and Carter blames that on Alex. I remain gobsmacked at quite how much of a dick Carter is. Even his girlfriend Terry has had enough of his dickishness. “I’m moving on, Carter. And if you want to waste your life beating the shit out of Alex every time you see him, then you can just drop fucking dead.” Which she says while stepping into the road, where she’s run over by a bus travelling at full speed. Are all bus drivers in America drunk? Do they not watch out for random pedestrians stepping into the street. She’s motionless for two seconds. Surely that’s enough time to at least swerve. This remains my least favourite shot in films. (The other freeze frames for this are quite gnarly, but I don’t think we should encourage this behaviour.) Incidentally, Terry’s surname is Chaney, after the actor Lon Chaney.
On the news, there’s a new report on a possible cause of the plane crash, suggesting a fault which would have proceeded around the cabin in a specific order. Alex grabs the graphic in Paint, but then weirdly chooses to trace over it with tracing paper.
Then the tracing paper fits perfectly over another print out of the seating plan. But at least now he has an idea of the order in which they would have died on the plane. And he knows Mrs Lewton is next.
She’s on the phone to a friend when she sees Alex lurking outside, so she calls the FBI and they pick him up. Meanwhile, she finds an old record. “Mom’s favourite.” Oh God, it’s a John Denver record. Why is that significant? Because I know two facts about John Denver. First, he died in a plane crash in a light plane he was flying solo. And second, he was originally going to be the first civilian to fly on the space shuttle, but his place was eventually taken by a teacher, Christa McAuliffe. On the Space Shuttle Challenger flight that blew up on takeoff. So John Denver is a real-life example of Death stalking someone. Although in this case it took Death eleven years to catch up with him.
Mrs Lewton’s death is ludicrously complicated. She’s in her kitchen so obviously surrounded by things that can kill her. Knives! A Kettle! A gas stove! A cracked mug of vodka! The vodka’s spilling on her computer monitor! There’s an animal horn! And in the end she’s killed by almost all of them. The monitor explodes in her face, shredding her jugular, sparks ignite the trail of vodka, the flame bursts up on the stove, which ignites the open vodka bottle and explodes, knocking her over. She reaches up for a cloth to help with her bleeding, but she put it over her knife holder, so she’s then impaled by the largest kitchen knife.
By this time, Alex has been released by the feds, and come straight over, and he sees her, still alive with a knife in her chest. At least his first instinct isn’t to take the knife out, but while he’s telling her to stay still, more things fall over and explode, and a chair is knocked over onto the hilt of the knife, finishing the job. At which point, Alex’s natural stupidity kicks in as he pulls the knife out of her now dead body. He stares at it for a moment, realises what an idiot he is, then drops it and runs, getting out of the house just before it completely explodes, although I’m not sure why.
The other three find him, and Carter keeps asking him if he’s next. Again, Carter is an enormous dick once again, and as he’s driving, decides that the sensible thing to do is to drive like a maniac, then stop on a level crossing. Seriously, this character is the most dickish character ever. Then, the car won’t start again, the rest of them get out, but Carter can’t unstrap himself. Alex tries desperately to pull him out of the car as a train is approaching, and amazingly, succeeds.
Billy is so freaked out by this that he’s yelling at Carter (for good reason) telling his he’s next, warning him to stay away, but there’s a sharp piece of metal from the smashed car sitting near the rails as the train is going past, and it’s picked up by the train and hurled at Billy’s head, slicing it off.
Carter was supposed to be next, it skipped Carter, now Alex is next. So Clear takes him to her cabin, and Alex stays there. And for some reason, although he’s clearly taking precautions – fire extinguisher, eating tuna from a can while wearing protective gloves, the cabin still seems to be filled with enough things that can poke or stab or, as almost happens, a rusty fishhook to give him tetanus.
But then he rethinks the plane, and realises that he’s miscalculated, and that Clear is next. The FBI were staking her out, but she told them where Alex is because they promised to keep him safe. So he has to rush back to Clear, evading the FBI, which Clear is trying to avoid electrocution by lightning or broken live wires and a pool of water.
Alex gets there, but she’s trapped in her car, which is being electrified by the live wire, there’s a gas cannister stuck underneath that’s going to explode any minute, so Alex does the only thing he can, which is grab the wire to give her a chance to get out. “When I do this it’ll skip you and it’ll all be over. It’s the only way we can cheat Death again.”
There’s a nice fake out here, as the FBI guys are trying to resuscitate Alex, and we see a white passageway of light, then it cuts to a plane door opening, and a Six Months Later caption. Carter and Clear are there, having flown to Paris. And then Alex is with them too. “Paris. I can’t believe it, you know, I just can’t believe we got on a plane again, you know I’m saying?”
But Alex still thinks he might be in danger because nobody intervened to save him – although I’d say CPR is an intervention. So he thinks he’s still in danger, and tells the other two to stay away from him. Then Clear sees the reflection of a bus in a window, yells at Alex to look out, and the bus (another homicidal driver) just misses him.
But the bus causes another chain of events that sends a huge illuminated sign swinging at Alex, but this time it’s Carter who saves him. The first non-dickish thing he’s done.
“I told you you were next.” “Then it just skipped me.” “So who’s next?” Sorry Carter, you just had a redemption arc, but it’s you. as the sign swings back and hits him.
Media Centre Description: Horror tale in which a group of teenagers who believe they have cheated death find themselves at the mercy of an unknown force that seems intent on killing them off one by one. When one of the group’s violent prophesy is fulfilled in the form of a plane crash, he and the others who left the flight are subjected to paranormal horror.
Recorded from BBC ONE on Friday 14th September 2007 23:35
After this, there’s a trail for Drop Dead Gorgeous. Then the recording stops as the Weather starts.
The next recording starts with the end of Marc Bolan: The Last Word.
There’s trails for Flight of the Conchords and Radio 3.
Then, we have Mark Lawson Talks to Biddy Baxter, or rather, about 20 minutes of the programme. I’ve no idea why it was cut off, but the next recording looks like it was also interrupted.
Here’s the beginning of the programme, which addresses the recent Blue Peter scandal where a phone-in competition was faked because of a technical failure during the live broadcast, and also mentions the earlier ‘scandal’ over the first Blue Peter pet, Petra.
Media Centre Description: Interview with the TV editor and producer who brought Blue Peter to the screen.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Saturday 15th September 2007 01:48
The next recording starts with the end of The Battle of the Sexes – not the Emma Stone tennis drama, but a Peter Sellers comedy.
Another trail for Heroes catch-up. And a trail for Tribe and BBC Radio 3.
Then, the first few minutes of Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Price. I’ve no idea why the recording just cuts off.
Media Centre Description: Sci-fi drama series about the crew of the USS Enterprise. Counsellor Troi is swept off her feet by a dashing but conniving alien delegate.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 15th September 2007 02:13
The next recording is the last 20 minutes or so of the same episode. Troi and Crusher are sharing romance stories during their exercise session.
Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Price
Media Centre Description: Sci-fi drama series about the crew of the USS Enterprise. Counsellor Troi is swept off her feet by a dashing but conniving alien delegate.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 15th September 2007 02:39
After this, there’s a trail for Stuart: A Life Backwards, and a trail for Long Way Down.
Then this recording ends after the start of the next episode of The Next Generation.
The next recording starts with the end of the previous one.
Then, the next episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Vengeance Factor. This is one that I have written about before and my review includes the threat level of various alien races according to their hairstyle. I called this one Threat Level Mullet.
Media Centre Description: Sci-fi drama series about the crew of the USS Enterprise. The crew’s attempts to mediate in a dispute between warring clans are sabotaged by a mysterious assassin.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Saturday 15th September 2007 02:58
Yet another trail for Heroes catch-up. And yet I still don’t seem to have any episodes this month. There’s a trail for Tribe and for Stuart: A Life Backwards.
Then the recording stops with some Page from Ceefax.
The first recording today is missing the start. It’s another episode of Saxondale. They’re reading the papers together. The others are laughing about David Hasselhoff in leather trousers, while Tommy is more interested in the birthday of Owen McLaren, the World War 2 aircraft designer who invented the baby buggy. “You know, we’re living in a truly sick society when people are more interested in poking fun at the trouser choice of a vulnerable middle -aged man. And by the way, leather is actually incredibly durable. They’re more interested in that than the engineering brilliance of a man who took knowledge gleaned in a brutal conflict and used it to cradle an infant child.”
Incidentally, my dressing gown is very similar to Tommy’s, although I doubt his is a replica of Arthur Dent’s dressing gown in the 2005 Hitchhiker’s Guide movie
They go to a school which has reported a rat. Tommy has to borrow a key from the caretaker, and rather prejudges him. The caretaker suggests he drops the keys off at the pub. “They’ve got Sky Sports.” “Do they? Does this pub also have some half -forgotten St. George’s flag-bunting stapled to a mock wooden beam?” “Yeah. Pop over.” No thank you. I’ll politely decline.”
Tommy’s neighbour pops over for some banter. He’s just watched the DaVinci Code. He’s also having some friends over to organise a pub quiz team. “You know, some of those semi-skilled guys, they know a damn sight more than they think.” Tommy replies “Well, the flip side is that some of the suited and booted guys turn out to be thick as pig shit.”
After this conversation, Tommy goes to return the keys to the caretaker, and thinks he should apologise for being so judgy. He notices that he has Robert Altman’s Short Cuts on DVD. “And I thought perhaps we could sup and discuss the work of Altman.” “Oh, what, this? Oh, yes, cracking stuff. I like the ginger bird.” “Yeah, it’s Julianne Moore. Really good actress.” “Well, most of them, they take their bra off, but in that one, she takes her knickers off.” “Yeah, yeah, she’s very enigmatic, brave performer.” “No, you can see her fanny.”
Mags has been painting again. Mary Queen of Scots being executed. “I wanted to capture her defiance.” “Job done. I mean, she speaks to you. She sort of says, you know, this guy might be about to strike a blow for the Reformation, but I have still got butt cheeks you could bounce a pound coin off.”
Tommy is asked by the school to give a careers talk. Obviously, he jumps at the chance to impart his wisdom to the next generation. It doesn’t go as well as he’d like, until the bell rings, and one of the boys asks him if he really toured with Pink Floyd, so he sits with a few of them, telling his stories.
But when the boys leave, he realises they’ve glued his bum to the chair. Raymond says “I’ll get some scissors.” “I’m not cutting a hole out of a perfectly good pair of black wranglers. Those kids have got to realise actions have consequences. They’re messing with the wrong guy.”
He also gets annoyed that the teacher owns a cool sports car.
Back home, Mags finds the pages that Tommy asked the kids to write about what they’d learned. The first couple are promising. “‘I learned that you should think for yourself and not just believe what you were told.’ ‘Today, I learned to look at things in a different way.’ These are amazing.” But pretty soon they change. “‘What a dick.’ Oh, well. There’s always a couple. Uh, ‘dick’. ‘Dick.’ ‘Bit of a dick.’ ‘Total dick.’ Uh, ‘prick.'” And some of them drew pictures. But Tommy calls it a success. “I’ve tried to teach those kids to kick against the pricks. I’m just the first prick, if you like, of many that they’ll kick against. Those first two guys, they were just… arse lickers. It’s the others, the prick-kickers. It’s just one of them goes on to form some sort of guitar-based band that invents a whole new sound, even if it’s mildly derivative of certain progressive rock bands of the mid -70s. Then… Mags, my work here is done.”
The recording stops here – because I was recording something else on the other tuner.
Media Centre Description: Comedy series about an ex-roadie now running a pest control business. Tommy and Raymond visit a school where Tommy is determined to show that he’s not just a dumb rat-catcher. He decides to enlighten the school kids with his worldly wisdom but instead of being a standard fusty old teacher he decides to ‘blow their minds’.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Thursday 13th September 2007 21:35
Media Centre Description: Comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Includes a new government initiative to simplify asking for a chair in a pub; a clip from the first TV broadcast in history; and a green clarinet that makes you reveal embarrassing truths. With Olivia Colman, James Bachman, Paterson Joseph and Abigail Burdess.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Thursday 13th September 2007 22:00
After this, there’s a trail for Stuart: A Life Backwards with Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy, although it’s blocked on YouTube because the BBC can’t trim their copyright samples properly.
There’s also a trail for Tribe. And one for The National Lottery Big 7.
Then the recording stops during Newsnight which leads on a pretty seismic news story – the collapse of the bank Northern Rock as a result of the crash in the financial markets. This is going to be news for the next couple of years.
The next recording starts during the Previously On for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – Nevada Day part 2. We’ve missed quite a few episodes because I guess I’m an idiot. Tom Jeter has been arrested in Nevada for not paying a speeding fine, and Simon Styles, who went there to help him, has been arrested for possession of cannabis.
Harry is under fire for a statement she made about gay marriage, so she’s being seen as a gay basher. Jordan asks her to not perform at concerts for a faith group known for their anti-gay stance.
In Perump, Nevada, Tom, Simon, Network Executive Jack Rudolph and Danny are there with Zhang Tao, a man who might invest $100m into the network, and his daughter Kim, who’s a huge fan of Tom. She wants a picture with him, but Jack takes her camera and drops it on the floor to prevent a picture of Tom in handcuffs getting out.
John Goodman is the judge in the case. He gets a call from the Governor, which Jack assumes (since he’s raised money for him in the past) will get Tom off the hook, but when the judge comes back he says “Yeah, the instructions were to be very careful not to show Mr. Jeter any special treatment. Apparently, Mr. Rudolph, you’re a big contributor and fundraiser for the governor, and he’s a little sensitive about that.”
Lucy Davis (playing a writer called Lucy) is in the writers room. Another new writer, Darius, is asking her why some people are called Sir and others aren’t. “Is this a white people thing?” “I’m not white, Darius. I’m English.”
Because Tom and Simon are not available, the sketches for the night’s shows have to be redistributed. Dylan is asked to do the news with Harriet, but he’s suffering a crisis of confidence, as it’s not the kind of thing he normally does on the show.
Back in Perump, Nevada, it’s not looking good for Tom. “Well, we got a reckless driving. Wilful wanton disregard for public safety, causing death, bodily injury, and harm.” But the Assistant District Attorney spots something on Tom’s wrist. “That prisoner guy’s got some kind of arm bracelet. It’s like a military thing. I don’t know what it means.” The Judge looks at the bracelet, asks a few questions, then explains. “Mr. Jeter’s younger brother is a staff sergeant with the 820th Red Horse Squadron deployed out of Nellis Air Force Base. You know what Red Horse does? they go into war zones and they build things incredibly fast. A hospital in three days, roads, bridges.” “Is it dangerous?” “You want to go to a Taliban-controlled region of Afghanistan right now with an American flag on your shoulder and build a school?” “Why didn’t he say anything?” “This isn’t his first tour, is it?” “It’s his third.” “You see, staff sergeant Jeter is just playing Russian Roulette at this point because you should see what happens to the casualty numbers with multiple tours. He didn’t want his little brother’s last act on this Earth to be getting him out of a speeding ticket. I’m right, right?” “Yes, sir.” “What do you know, I’m Agatha Christie.” The Judge lets them all go.
Writer Lucy pitches a sketch based on the game Operation where a group of men take turns removing parts of the woman, like self-esteem, her soul, etc. Matt asks if she’s just had a hard break-up and she starts crying on his shoulder.
Arriving back at Studio 60, Jack is saying goodbye to Mr Zhang when his daughter checks her Blackberry and sees the gossip news about Jordan and the others. Kim translates, saying her father thinks “This woman has brought shame to your company. I’m sorry for my father. He’s very much set in old and maybe cliched ways of honour.” Jack launches into a rather out of character defence of Tom, Simon and Jordan. I particularly liked the line “Jordan McDeere has been all over the gossip pages because when she was 25, she married a… fraction of a man.” He then tells him that he should take his business to Time Warner.
Kim translates all of that to her father, who thinks for a moment, then his demeanour changes and he says something else. Kim explains “This is my fault. I translated wrong. He said that it’s the ex-husband that brought dishonour upon himself by speaking. It’s a subtle grammatical nuance.”
Dylan is back doing his characters. Simon comes to see him. “I heard you were good.” Which gives him a confidence boost. I do like it when these shows are people helping each other, and not coming to blows all the time.
It’s looking like Matt and Harry might be drifting together.
Media Centre Description: Drama series about a late-night comedy sketch show. Jack pleads in front of a Nevada judge to try to get Tom released in time for the Friday night show. Tension grows between Matt and Harriet.
Recorded from More 4 on Thursday 13th September 2007 22:05
The last recording today starts with the end of The Man who Walked Across the World.
There’s a trail for Flight of the Conchords.
And a trail for Radio 3.
Then, Mark Lawson Talks to Stephen King.
Media Centre Description: Horror writer Stephen King talks to Mark Lawson about his life and work.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Friday 14th September 2007 01:28
Just a note before we start on today’s recordings. We’ve jumped almost an entire week. That’s the biggest gap I think I’ve seen so far, and it’s annoying, as it means, for example, that I’ve missed the Last Night of the Proms, among other things. I wonder if these might be on one of the hard drives that I couldn’t start. I do need to extract the drives from their enclosures and see if they can be read in a caddy, but I haven’t yet been brave enough to crack them open. One day, maybe.
The first programme today has the start missing. It’s another episode in the Masters of Horror series – Pro-Life. This one is directed by John Carpenter.
This recording starts out a bit glitchy, but about half an hour in, it becomes almost unwatchable. But I could glean that a young woman (well, a 15 year old girl, technically, although the actress looks over 20) is almost run over on a road, so the driver takes her to the clinic where he works. It’s an abortion clinic. But the girl’s father is lurking outside the clinic in a big van, and they know all about him, because he’s not supposed to come within 500 yards of the clinic. He’s played very menacingly by Ron Perlman.
However, this is no ordinary pregnancy – they try to do an ultrasound, but it starts to move a lot, and even breaks the ultrasound scanner.
There’s a nasty bit of gore as the guard gets killed.
Perlman and his three sons get into the clinic with a lot of guns, and get to work torturing one of the doctors with various medical tools.
Whatever the young girl is having, it’s not a baby.
This shot definitely reminded me of The Thing.
Elsewhere in the clinic, the floor is opening, and a guard is pulled down.
It looks like the baby’s father has arrived. Nice animatronics.
Perlman eventually realises that it wasn’t God telling him to protect the baby.
Typical. It’s always the mother who has to do everything. “Time to sleep.”
Well, this was better than some of these have been. I think Carpenter’s last one was good too. Would have been nice to have it without all the glitching.
Media Centre Description: A series of one-hour horror films directed by the masters of the genre. John Carpenter presents a tale of a young girl in an abortion clinic trying terminate a most unusual pregnancy. Outside, her pro-life father battles to protect the life of his unborn grandchild.
Recorded from f tn on Wednesday 12th September 2007 22:05
The other recording today is from BBC Four, so I’m hoping it doesn’t suffer like the last one. I think the BBC channels tended to have more bandwidth so they shouldn’t suffer as badly.
This is Comics Britannia – The Fun Factory.
Armando Iannucci narrates the story of The Beano and The Dandy, created in the 30s by Dundee publisher D. C. Thomson.
Wouldn’t you love to have “Comics Braniac” as your job description?
David Roach explains the appeal of word balloons.
Malcolm Phillips shows off his Dandy issue 1.
Michael Rosen liked Desperate Dan.
Kevin O’Neill was also a fan.
We get to hear about the artists, who were rarely, if ever credited in the comic. Their big star was Dudley Watkins, who was considered so important that he was never called up for the war, and instead kept working on the comics, because of their propaganda potential.
Leo Baxendale, who would later become an important Beano artist, was a big fan of Watkins. “Each week I turned to look at Dudley Watkins stuff and somehow what Dudley did was technically perfect, wondrously so. There was a kind of intensity of focus that went into each drawing and there was that intensity and passion is necessary to reach out and hold readers.”
Morris Heggie thinks that being created in Dundee definitely had an effect on the style of the comics.
Euan Kerr talks about the launch of the Beano, less than a year after the Dandy was launched.
The programme addresses the racist aspect of some of the early strips.
But at the same time, the comics were definitely anti-nazi.
Ian Gray talks about the post-war baby boom which really helped the comics’ circulation.
Dennis the Menace arrived in the 50s.
Dennis was created by artist Davy Law.
Jacqueline Wilson discusses corporal punishment.
The newly arrived Leo Baxendale joined the Beano, and created Little Plum, much loved by Steve Bell.
He also created the Bash Street Kids.
Nick Park remembers getting the Beano every Saturday. I think we used to get it in a Thursday or Friday. Mum used to walk down to the local newsagent where we had it on order. My big sister had Mandy (which I also read) and my little sister had Twinkle which wasn’t very interesting to me.
The last great Beano artist the programme looks at is Ken Reid.
Tony Reid, his son, talks about his father’s style. “The ships were always quite accurately drawn but I know that he had reference books – The Boy’s Book of Ships or something and so he’d be able to know what was a trawler and a tug.”
The workload was so much for Reid that he had a breakdown, and could barely pick up a pen for some time.
New comics arrived in the 60s, like Wham!
Leo Baxendale would create new characters for these comics, like Grimley Fiendish.
He poached Ken Reid from The Beano to draw Frankie Stein.
Here’s the whole thing.
Media Centre Description: Armando Iannucci presents a series which explores the history of British comics. Here, he looks back to a golden age when children’s humour comics sold in their millions and reveals the artists and writers behind magical worlds where grown ups were terrorised and kids ruled. Oscar-winning animator Nick Park, cartoonist Steve Bell, children’s laureate Michael Rosen and writer Jacqueline Wilson confess to their own life long passion for the comic strips of their childhood.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Thursday 13th September 2007 02:23
There’s a trail for Drop Dead Gorgeous. Then the recording stops after a few minutes of Doctor Who Confidential.
So the next recording, inevitably, is Doctor Who Confidential – Making Manhattan.
Media Centre Description: Behind-the-scenes look at the making of Doctor Who. There’s a trip to Manhattan to find out how to recreate 1930s New York in the heart of south Wales. The producer and director of episodes four and five visit the New York locations they plan to reproduce and the visual effects supervisor shows what they need to make Manhattan in Cardiff.
Recorded from BBC THREE on Thursday 6th September 2007 19:43
The first recording today starts with the end of Nina and the Neurons.
There’s an ad for the CBeebies website.
Then, Jackanory Junior – and it’s another repeat, and not the advertised story The Mousehole Cat. This is Holly Aird reading The King of Capri.
Media Centre Description: Shobna Gulati tells Antonia Barber’s classic tale of Mowser, a Cornish cat, and her battle to save the village of Mousehole from the Great Storm-Cat.
Recorded from BBC TWO on Wednesday 5th September 2007 09:58
There’s a trail for Tommy Zoom and then the recording stops after a few minutes of Postman Pat.
Next, the recording starts with Sid’s pirate song, and a Tommy Zoom trail.
Then, a new episode of Jackanory Junior – Fig’s Giant read by Art Malik.
Media Centre Description: Stories for young children. Art Malik reads Geraldine McCaughrean’s re-telling of Gulliver Travels from the point of view of Fig, a little Lilliputican girl who befriends the giant.
Recorded from CBeebies on Wednesday 5th September 2007 17:13
After this there’s a trail for Under 18 and Under the Knife, then the recording stops during Doctor Who Confidential.
The next recording is that episode of Doctor Who Confidential – A New York Story – it’s a cut-down of course.
Media Centre Description: Behind-the-scenes look at the making of Doctor Who episodes. Daleks in Manhattan is set in 1930’s New York and writer Helen Raynor goes Stateside to capture some inspiration by looking out at Manhattan, walking through Central Park, and seeing exactly how people lived in tenement buildings in the 30’s.
Recorded from BBC THREE on Wednesday 5th September 2007 19:43
VHiStory 