We’re really getting through this new series of Charlie and Lola. I hope it’s not too boring for my regulars, but I’m enjoying rewatching this, especially since my children have quite strong memories of watching these. This episode is Will You Please Stop Messing About?
Charlie is looking forward to seeing his favourite programme, Space Family Hudson.
But their parents have given them a lot of chores to do before they can watch TV.
Lola keeps turning hers into games.
“This is fun Charlie.” “No it’s not.”
I feel for Charlie. I hate putting the washing up away.
And frankly, who could resist pretending to be a ghost when putting the washing away.
The last chore is picking up all the fallen apples, but in the end, they’re having so much fun playing games with the apples, that when Lola says “Charlie, you are going to miss it” he replies “I’m sure I can see it again sometime.” of course, if their family were nice, they’d be recording it for him anyway. This is 2006 after all. (Give it four years, and iPlayer eliminates most of these stresses.)
Media Centre Description: Children’s animation. Join Lola and Charlie, a brother and sister, as they deal with topics that affect their everyday lives. Charlie can only watch his favourite TV show Space Family Hudson after he and Lola have completed some little jobs for Mum and Dad. Lola can’t help but get distracted, and every job becomes a wonderful game. For Charlie, these games are not fun, time is running out and he’s going to miss his favourite programme of all time. Charlie begs Lola to hurry.
BBC Genome: BBC TWO Monday 23 October 2006 07:00
The next recording is the BBC One repeat of last week’s Spooks.
Media Centre Description: Drama series about the British Security Service. Ros is trapped in the Saudi siege, forced to watch hourly assassinations as the government refuse to negotiate with the terrorists who demand the return of Al Qaeda prisoners in Saudi Arabia. But are these terrorists really Al Qaeda?
Recorded from BBC ONE on Monday 23 October 2006 21:00
BBC Genome: BBC ONE Monday 23 October 2006 21:00
After this there’s a trail for Graham Norton’s Bigger Picture.
There’s a Torchwood trail, this time for the BBC Two showing. And a trailer for the Electric Proms, which has frankly left me puzzled.
Then the recording stops after a few minutes of the 10 O’Clock News, leading with an inquiry into cash for honours. Yet another news story that’s echoing today.
The next recording hops over to BBC Three for the end of Eastenders. And another of those very strange trails for the Electric Proms.
There’s also a mega trail for new programmes on BBC Three.
Then, the next episode of Spooks. It starts with a man praying (note the prominent crucifix on the wall) and then kissing a bullet. I’m guessing he’s not a good guy.
Harry is told by another carbon-copy supercilious government adviser, Charles Lee (Pip Torrens) that the muslim cleric and terrorist Khalid Mansoor will not face trial, despite MI5 having video of him trying to persuade an 18 year old to blow himself up in Westminster Abbey. He implies that MI5’s methods might have rendered the evidence inadmissible. He also tells Harry that he will need to supervise his briefing documents to the Home Office.
The team watch the news coverage, as Mansoor walks out of the high court. There’s gunshots, as the man we saw in the opening shoots him dead, shouts “Death to the enemies of Christ” and shoots himself. Adam asks Harry “Tell me that wasn’t us, Harry.”
On TV, Bishop David Newman (Lennie James) is denying that this is Christians “rising up” against Islam.
They identify the killer, a former marine with drug and alcohol problems, whose last address was a homeless shelter. “These places offer free bed and board as long as you accept Jesus.” “So this place cured Ellis of his addiction?” “And introduced him to a new one. Religion. The opium of the masses.” Cut to that self same shelter, and Steven Paynton is lecturing a lot of very hard looking men about how Jesus Christ is the best addiction of all. He’s played by Shaun Dingwall, Pete Tyler himself. So with him and Lennie James, that’s two guest stars drawn from Doctor Who. And as the men are reciting the Lord’s Prayer, we see another very heavy-set man walk up to a muslim man, say “Death to the enemies of Christ” and let off a hand grenade.
Bishop Newman and Paynton meet. Newman seems to have condoned the death of Mansoor but not the second attack. “The death of Khalid Mansoor was supposed to be the beginning and the end of this, Steven. An example to our enemies that we can’t be pushed around, and to our government that the people would support a tougher stance on Islam and it was working. Our job was done.” But Paynton says the job needs to continue.
MI5 very soon identify Paynton as a common link between the two attacks. They monitor the internet café he frequents, using fibre-optic surveillance directly through a monitor. And although the computer he sat down at looks like a PC, if you flip the screenshot it’s a Mac running Safari. They’ve sent him an email from an organisation called the League of Christ, which used to be a genuine organisation, but which died out, and the team have set it up as a front, an organisation that’s “cash-rich and eager to fund Paynton’s holy war.”
Adam has a mission that means he has to be undercover, and his son Wes is sad that he’s leaving again.
Adam is posing as the head of a brokerage firm that manages the under the table financial transactions for extremist religious groups. “If we tempt him with a possibility of a big strike against his enemies, we can persuade him to postpone his attacks and buy ourselves enough time to uncover his organisation.”
Charles Lee quizzes Harry about the League of Christ. Harry doesn’t tell him that it’s their own cover, just that it wants to fund Paynton’s war. Lee pushes Harry for more information, but Harry won’t compromise the details of their operations. Which is a good thing because the next time we see him, Lee is talking to Bishop Newman about the League of Christ. We learn that the two of them encouraged Paynton to organise the hit on Mansoor, but didn’t expect him to keep going. Because fanatical religious murderers always stop at one, don’t they?
Paynton visits the church again. He knows Newman has asked him there to try to kill him, but he also knows he won’t, and taunts him. “I know why you brought me here. But you haven’t got the guts to kill me, any more than you had the guts to deal with Khalid Mansoor by yourself.”
Newman meets with Lee again. They both know they’re in over their heads, that neither can control Paynton. And Lee has also found out that the League of Christ is an MI5 cover operation, thanks to information leaked to him by the Israeli embassy, who are worried about the organisation because “They smell anti-Semiticism (sic)”. So he knows that MI5 are close to getting the information they need from Paynton which will lead them to Lee and Newman. Lee says that he’s going to let the Israelis think that the League of Christ is genuine. “Perhaps the time has come to confirm their worst suspicions and to suggest that they put an end to the sorry fiasco in their own inimitable way.”
Adam needs to get the information about who was backing Paynton. They know that whoever it was probably knows they are getting close to him, so they’ll either tell him, or kill him. So Adam suggests that he grab Paynton in character as the League of Christ broker. He does this, and Paynton admits that David Newman told him to kill Mansoor.
But all’s not well, when Jenny phones Thames House to tell them that Adam’s son Wes has gone missing. It looks like he’s run away from home. Zaf tells Adam, but Adam still has to get the full details of Paynton’s army from him, so he has to somehow put it out of his mind.
Harry pays Bishop Newman a visit. When Newman asks how he can protect people like Mansoor, Harry tells him “You see a man like Khalid Mansoor, talking about a Britain under Islamic rule, and it frightens you. It frightens a lot of people. But I see a man like you – conspiring to kill Mansoor, embarking on a journey from which there can be no return… and it frightens me just as much. Today you kill Muslims, tomorrow Jews, and soon we’ll be back burning Catholics and witches. Afghanistan under the Taliban frightens me no more than England under Cromwell.”
Adam takes Paynton to the homeless shelter he runs, to get the names of his ‘soldiers’. One interesting morsel – it looks like this episode is set in February 2007. Paynton tells Adam that one of the men is going to set off a huge explosion in Manchester within the hour. Then the lights in the shelter cut out. Adam is starting to have a breakdown thinking about his son.
Thermal imaging shows a team of armed me making their way through the building, and they’re not MI5. Paynton gets shot by them.
Ros is the only backup, so she has to go in. She hits the guard, and from his gun identifies the men as Mossad, the Israeli secret service.
Adam recovers when they tell him Wes has been found, but he and Ros are still up against several armed men with night vision goggles. Harry is on the phone to the Israeli embassy telling them that the League of Christ was their cover, and it’s not a real organisation. Adam comes face to face with one of the agents, there’s a dramatic pause, the armed man gets a message, and walks off.
When it’s all safe, Zaf arrives in Thames house to tell them they’ve found Wes, at Paddington, trying to get to Heathrow. So Jo lied to Adam.
Harry tells Ros that the loose ends are tied up. The story will be that Paynton was a “delusional right-wing psychopath who managed to persuade two of his converts to martyr themselves for his cause. When the Western world didn’t rise up in support, he took his own life. There was no sponsor.” “And Mossad?” “Tail firmly between their legs.” “They could tell us who put them up to it.” “I suspect whoever that was won’t be making it into work this morning.” Then we see Lee being watched.
Media Centre Description: Drama series about the British Security Service.
BBC Genome: BBC THREE Monday 23 October 2006 22:30
After this, a trail for the next episode of Torchwood.
There’s some 60 Seconds news, including Richard Hammond after his almost fatal car crash.
VHiStory 