kinuta

Minority Report TV episode two A travesty of a classic film, awful cast, acting, script. I found it almost but not quite unwatchable.

Ray Donovan . A great finale to a great season. Will be watching it later.

Thanks for the tip, kinuta. I thought this was excellent. Not at all what I expected. Rather 'A Christmas Carol'! And very pertinent to current events. Ken Stott is one of my favourite actors - like Kenneth Moore, Pill Patterson and Bill Nighy, I always feel safe when they are on screen! I've never read any Priestley but can see I need to correct that. What I would like to get my hands on is a long programme he did in 1960 about 1940. I had it on video but it got chewed up. Very much English mythology but only 15 years after the event that's hardly surprising. I don't think I've seen anything on those events with so much contemporary footage - Priestley is there as a voice guiding you, not jumping around in front of the cameras all the time. Talking of which, a couple of nights back: Operation Mincemeat - BBC doc from some time back I found on my digibox, based on the best seller. Vaguely knew about this but found the details fascinating. A bit sceptical about the 'this one deception changed the course of the war' angle but TV documentaries tend to need angles like that. Suffered a bit from the 'what do we show on the screen whilst the tale is being told?' problem - so some rather silly reconstructions. But overall a good programme. For some reason I've completely missed 'This Is England' - will wait for the DVDs to appear in a few weeks and hire from Lovefilm. I need a good, lengthy series to get my teeth into having found nothing that caught my fancy since I finished The Good Wife and House of Cards. All recommendations welcome! Longmire might be up your street. A Wyoming cop with brains , interesting stories interlayed with life on the Cheyenne reservation, tribal law and mythology, a good cast and something more to say than just another take on the usual tough guy thing. I recommend it.

This Is England 90 I'm really enjoying this final season. The trip into the country was beautifully done, one of the best bits of tele I've seen for a while. It's set in the place I lived from the age of ten to twenty. It wasn't as run down then.

I'm afraid there's still no image. I also watched The Go Between. I thought it was a straightforward, satisfactory version that would be sufficient to stand in it's own right providing you hadn't seen the 1971 Joseph Losey/ Harold Pinter version, which is much superior. The supporting cast were good but my main problem was the rather lifeless Joanna Vanderham, not in the same league as Julie Christie, and the tepid portrayal of her relationship with the fancy man: agree about the voguish ripped torsos, glistening with sweat. The camerman was way too enamoured by overuse of lens flare. If you liked it, I'd very much recommend finding the Losey/Pinter/Christie/Bates version. I was quite disappointed as I really love the original and was eager to see a different take on it. An Inspector Calls is easily the best of the three so far.

Re the '60's, whatprogramme othaonabart?, as we say in Sheffield.

An Inspector Calls BBC Excellent, I thought it was as good as the Alistair Sim version.

Treasures Of The Indus Episode 3 Of Gods & Men Beautiful documentary about Tamil Nadu and it's rich culture. Have since watched the previous two episodes, both excellent and very rewarding.

Turks might be the weakest of the three but Salting The Battlefield is good stuff.

Longmire. I'm very late to the game, I had to wait until I was in the right mindset to appreciate this. The stories are uniformly good and the cast work well together. It would have been an easy copout to make Longmire a shoot first take no prisoners type macho man but luckily that isn't the route taken. I'm enjoying it.

Thank goodness the typhoon has finally moved north. Monumental rainfall has caused flooding all over the place Tomorrow promises blue skies!

Typhoon #18 is bringing insane amounts of torrential, hammering rain. Haven't been outside for two days

Ray Donovan This season is really good. Watched some of Hand Of God. Thought it was rubbish , pulled the plug. Now watching the second Ian Richardson as Sherlock Holmes film, The Hound Of The Baskervilles. Good.

Horrible, endless leaden skies and rain. Typhoon 18 passing by with tons more rain in store.

It was all right but ended just dangling in the air, which leads one to conclude that a second season is coming. Methinks that might be a outstaying its welcome.

Found a copy of the 1983 tv production of The Sign Of Four. Creaky and flawed but Ian Richardson is brilliant as Holmes, choosing to make him a slightly warmer, less self centered and sardonic character. It's a shame he only appeared as Holmes in this and The Hound Of The Baskervilles, his might just be my favourite interpretation. The Sign Of Four - Desmond Davis (1983) TV

Tokyo too. At certain times I can't open any threads whatsoever.

Tokyo too. At certain times I can't open any threads whatsoever.

Happy birthday old bean. Feel free to drop by for a curry and walk anytime you like.

Ouch!! Apparently we don't agree on these. I thought Show Me A Hero was very good. Not The Wire, but still well done. I've only seen one episode of Public Morals. Will watch the 2nd episode tonight. The cast were good in SMAH and it was competently made. The thing that sank it for me was simply the story. As a non American, the story of local politics and public housing in Yonkers was just not interesting. If a similar film had been made about public housing related political shenanigans in Tokyo, I doubt it would have seen the light of day. The thing that made The Wire work was the interaction between the cops, the dopers, the politicians and, in season two, the unions. It gave it a wide canvas to paint on. Public Morals was just plain awful, I can't really add more than that.

Merle Haggard did a fine country crooner version too. The Inkspots version is the one I heard before I knew of any birthday connection.

To Each His Own - Eddy Howard I really like the song. Al Martino sang it for Michael Corleone in Godfather 3.

Show Me A Hero Mediocre Public Morals Unwatchable, pulled the plug.

I liked it too.

Sydney Pollack's documentary of the recording of the album. This looks really fantastic, I can't wait to see it.