The word genre is used in television and film to categorize different types of programme or film. In film it refers to narrative types, such as the western, the melodrama or the action film, whereas in television it is used to describe different forms, such as the game show, documentaries or the news. However, there […]
Brian Clemens is one prolific guy. Although he only ever directed one movie (Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter for Hammer in 1974) he wrote and produced tons of television. He’s best known for writing and producing The Avengers, one of the best and most influential British TV series of all time. This year is the fiftieth […]
I know I’m a little behind the rest of the world in watching Alias, but the benefit of that is that the boxsets are now pretty cheap. I finished Season 2 a while back and I’ve flown through this one, thanks to having a very long commute to work every day. In comparison, Season 3 […]
I started reading the Discworld novels sometime in the late 1980s. They were a revelation. I loved everything about them. Even then, I couldn’t understand why someone hadn’t tried to make a movie. Over the years we got stage plays, animations and radio adaptations, but still nothing “real”. Then, four years ago, Sky produced their own version […]
I think by Season 2 they’d figured out who was watching the show, and why.
I know I’m always behind everyone else when it comes to shows like this. I never get to watch stuff when it’s actually on, with the exception of UK shows that sensibly stick to six episodes per series. But these massive […]
In 1964 the BBC, as part of their regular “Wednesday Play” series, produced a 90 minute drama based on the assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944. John Carson played Col. Claus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg, now best known for being played by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie. I’ve not seen that, so I can’t compare them, […]
Psychoville is the latest TV creation from the stable of The League of Gentlemen. Back in 2006, during the “year out” from the League (which has turned into a full blown retirement), Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith decided to try and write something new. According to Reece, speaking during a discussion at the BFI Southbank […]
Okay, so this isn’t retro as such, being only a couple of years old, but it feels and looks old, which is good enough for me. I’m almost positive that thousands of people have already reviewed this series on the internet, but I only got the box set last week so you’ll have to indulge […]