TV

Have I Got News For You
40x05 (11/11/10 edition; extended repeat)
An exceptionally amusing edition, I thought.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mad Men
4x10 Hands and Knees
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Rob Brydon Show
1x03 (1/10/10 edition)
Stephen Fry -- yay! Seasick Steve -- yay! And Daniel Sloss, one of the few young comedians I actually quite like.

Films

The Spiral Staircase (1945)
[#112 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Articles

Couple who met at university to marry by James Browne
(from Caledonian Mercury)

Two people who went to university together are to get married, it has emerged.

William Windsor (or possibly Wales or possibly Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) and Kate Middleton, both 28, met at St Andrews University eight years ago.

Mr Windsor is a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF – and also a prince.

Wall-to-wall, dewy-eyed hysterical coverage can be found in every other media outlet.

TV

Colditz
1x13 The Way Out

The Event
1x05 Casualties of War
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
24x04 Episode 4
Presented by Sir Terry Wogan. I need say no more.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Sarah Jane Adventures
4x09 Lost in Time Part One
4x10 Lost in Time Part Two
[Watch parts one and two, or a compilation of both, on iPlayer.]

TV

Ask Rhod Gilbert
1x07 Episode 7

Colditz
1x11 Court Martial
1x12 Murder?

Due South
1x12 You Must Remember This [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Miranda
2x01 The New Me
A triumphant return for one of the Beeb's best sitcoms currently on the air. We're having a rather good time for sitcoms at the minute, actually, I think.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Spooks
9x08 Episode 8 [season finale]
Series finale? Could be. But apparently it isn't.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Carpool
1x01 Jason Manford & Rufus Hound
1x02 Chris Addison & Arthur Smith
Carpool -- or Carpool with Toyota Prius Toyota, as the title screen would have it -- is an odd programme really: host Robert Llewellyn drives a famous/fairly well-known (delete as appropriate) person somewhere and they chat along the way. It's not like a proper chat show -- it's not nearly so structured -- but it doesn't strain for out-and-out comedy either. For better or worse, it really is like watching two people just have a chat in the car. Some viewers will therefore hate it, but I can see why this means it's developed a cult following among others.

Colditz
1x10 Tweedledum
Having read several articles about Colditz in the build up to Yesterday's repeat run, it seems to be a rule that this episode must always be mentioned when discussing the series. It's the award-winning one where a doctor's orderly feigns madness in an attempt to escape and (spoilers!) though he's successful, having to fake madness permanently for months on end sends him genuinely insane. Fortunately, the quality of the episode means it survives the repeated hype, particularly an excellent performance from Michael Bryant as the orderly in question.

Due South
1x11 Gift of the Wheelman [2nd watch]
Merry Christmas! Bit early, I know, but that's what happen when you watch US series at odd times -- they almost invariably have a Christmas-themed episode.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Harry Patch: The Last Tommy
Documentary on the last few surviving veterans from World War I, which aired in August 2009 after the last, Harry Patch, passed away.

The Stephen K Amos Show
1x01 Episode 1
Well that was... inconsistent.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Born Free (1966)

It’s easy to see why this is a classic for animal lovers: the constantly playful cubs are are delight, the affectionate older Elsa endearing, the attempts to release her ethologically engaging

And its sequel,

Living Free (1972)

The Adamsons devote months of their time, give up a promising career, spend all their savings, drive themselves into debt, and are nearly killed several times, all in a frequently-extreme effort to save three delinquent lion cubs who would be put down were it not for their sentimental attachment.

And finally...

Late Spring (1949)

It would be a lie to say Late Spring came as some kind of personal revelation to the unimpeachable genius of Ozu; but, at least, I got on with it considerably better than I did Tokyo Story. I might even go so far as to say I enjoyed it.

More next Sunday.

TV

Colditz
1x09 Bribery and Corruption

Have I Got News For You
40x04 (4/11/10 edition; extended repeat)

Merlin
3x10 Queen of Hearts
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Russell Howard's Good News
3x03 (4/11/10 edition; extended repeat)

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

It's one of those weeks where more's changed than it appears in the list, thanks to a raft of new acquisitions, some DVD-to-BD upgrades, some DVDs disappearing in advance of a future upgrade, and more shenanigans of that sort. Hence the 24-hour delay.

For the curious, the TV episodes figure jumps so much thanks to Doctor Who series 5 (13), the complete Dollhouse (26), and a classic Doctor Who (Horror of Fang Rock, 4).

Number of titles in collection: 1,239 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,102 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 137 [up 5]

Number of discs in collection: 3,037 [up 14]
Number of films in collection: 1,305 [up 1]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,333 [up 43]

Statistic of the week:

DTS soundtracks:
258
(20.8% of the total)

Last week I promised to provide updates on some of the stats from the early weeks of Collection Count, and so here's another: the number of titles which include a DTS soundtrack, originally featured exactly a year ago on (obviously) 13th November 2009.

On DVD, DTS soundtracks were a coveted rarity (as far as I've been able to tell down the years, most audiophiles believe they're superior to Dolby). But while Dolby tracks dominated the surround sphere on DVD, it seems that on Blu-ray DTS's DTS-HD Master Audio format has beaten out Dolby's TrueHD on the whole. Which, in short, means this number is jumping up all the time. Lovely.

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Event
1x04 A Matter of Life and Death
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
8x03 (5/11/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

How I Met Your Mother
5x24 Doppelgangers [season finale]
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Articles

Q&A: The executive producer of 24! by Catriona Wightman
(from Digital Spy)
Beware of spoilers if (like me) you've yet to see season eight, but there are also some intriguing largely-non-spoiler-y hints about the potential movie (which isn't greenlit but is very much in the works).

Title of Christmas Special Revealed!
(from Doctor Who official site)

Back in July, Ben Stephenson, Controller BBC Drama Commissioning, revealed the story will be, 'Doctor Who's clever twist on the much loved A Christmas Carol' and now the title reflects that... The Doctor's next adventure is entitled: A Christmas Carol.

Smacks a little of "oh fine, let's just call it that then" to me.

TV

Argumental
3x13 Best of Argumental [series finale]
These end-of-season compilations feel so pointless when they're literally just a "best of" -- add unseen bits and outtakes, please.

Due South
1x10 A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Mock the Week
9x11 (7/10/10 edition)
It's a bit odd watching something topical like Mock the Week a month or two after broadcast. When you catch them a year (or more, or much more) later on Dave, it's just very old news; but like this, it just feels a tad out of date. This episode especially, I suppose, because it covers the Chilean miners when they were still very much stuck down the mine.

QI
8x08 Hypothetical
Annoyingly, I completely missed episode seven because BBC Two decided to stop showing the extended versions for no apparent reason, and I didn't realise soon enough to catch the (inexplicably, not series-linked) regular episode. Grr.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Sarah Jane Adventures
4x07 The Empty Planet Part One
4x08 The Empty Planet Part Two
[Watch parts one and two, or a compilation of both, on iPlayer.]

TV

Mad Men
4x09 The Beautiful Girls
How does this keep being so good? And why don't more people watch it?
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
24x03 Episode 3
aka The Jedward Edition. Oh my.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Thorne
1x03 Sleepyhead Part 3
Twist-tastic! Though that bit with the tongue at the end could've been done better -- it was so CGI-y I assumed the story had somehow slipped into a dream.

TV

Due South
1x09 Chicago Holiday Part 2 [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Thorne
1x02 Sleepyhead Part 2

TV

Colditz
1x08 The Traitor

Due South
1x08 Chicago Holiday Part 1 [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Thorne
1x01 Sleepyhead Part 1
This is Sky's attempt at home-produced Adult Crime Drama... so why it has a name like a CBBC series I don't know.

Whites
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Ask Rhod Gilbert
1x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Colditz
1x07 Lord, Didn't It Rain

Dave's One Night Stand
1x04 Sarah Millican
One of the more successful editions of this series, I thought; certainly more so than the preceding episode.
There's one more episode of One Night Stand (tonight's, in fact), but as it stars the unfunny Russell Kane and two others I'm never sure about, I just can't be bothered -- the Johnny Vegas one was bad enough.
[Watch it (again) on Dave's website.]

Downton Abbey
1x07 Episode Seven [season finale]
A satisfying finale: packed with drama, but enough happy resolutions and/or desired turnouts to keep it enjoyable without slipping too far into implausible audience-wish-fulfillment. Looking forward to seeing where they go with it in the second series -- covering the years of the First World War, as it seems to imply, or perhaps a Surprising Four Year Jump Forward? Either way, it's eagerly awaited.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Spooks
9x07 Episode 7
One of the better episodes this year, even if it did feel like one huge infodump in places. Ruth's subplot was excellent, however.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

Somehow, it holds a decent score on both viewer-rated IMDb and critic-rated Rotten Tomatoes. This surprised me for two reasons: one, I thought it had gone down badly; and two, it deserved to go down badly. No pleasant surprises here — it's as weak and irritating as the title.

Hercules (1997)

the tale is told with surprising faithfulness. There’s still a healthy dose of anachronistic content to liven up the humour though. In fact, the sequences with Hercules’ adoring fans and merchandising empire ring even more true in this Twilight-obsessed world than they did 13 years ago.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Rambo becomes a superhuman killing machine — running round a jungle topless, muscles shiny and bulging, taking out more-or-less an army single-handed. It’s cartoonish and ludicrous, which can be fun in its own way... but only for action movie fans, losing any crossover appeal the first film had.

And as we passed into November last Monday, there's also the October summary to check out.

More next Sunday.

TV

Argumental
3x12 (2/11/10 edition)

The Armstrong & Miller Show
3x01 Episode 1
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Dave's One Night Stand
1x03 Johnny Vegas
Or, The Fat Northerner Edition.
[Watch it (again) on Dave's website.]

House
7x05 Unplanned Parenthood
It's quite neat being behind on programmes -- there's no new House on Sky1 this Sunday, thanks to a two-week hiatus in the US, but being a week behind already I shan't notice. Shiny.

How I Met Your Mother
5x23 The Wedding Bride
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Merlin
3x08 The Eye of the Phoenix
3x09 Love in the Time of Dragons
The Eye of the Phoenix was particularly good, I thought; perhaps Merlin's best episode, in fact.
[Watch The Eye of the Phoenix and Love in the Time of Dragons (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Due South
1x07 Chinatown [2nd watch]
A particularly good episode, I thought. Just in case you're interested.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Event
1x03 Protect Them From the Truth
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

The Graham Norton Show
8x02 (29/10/10 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
3x04 Red Carpet Treatment
[Watch it (again) on the new-look Demand Five.]

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

Some solid increases this week. It would've been more, but I was forgetting that TheHut-owned sites such as Sendit and Zavvi are untrustworthy when it comes to sending out items complete or as advertised, so there's a number of returns to make. They're also not top of the pile when it comes to sending out pre-orders, so a few things to wait for there too.

Best of all, though, is the number of titles in my collection. In case you need it spelling out: one, two, three, four...

Number of titles in collection: 1,234 [up 7]
Of which DVDs: 1,102 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 132 [up 6]

Number of discs in collection: 3,023 [up 15]
Number of films in collection: 1,304 [up 8]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 4,290 [up 10]

Statistic of the week:

Number of titles produced in the '00s:
664
(53.8% of the total)

After the look-how-far-I've-come first anniversary list of stats a fortnight ago, I've been curious about how a few other early Statistics of the Week have changed in the past year. So, over the next few weeks, I'll be picking up on some I've done before.

First is the first, number of titles produced in the '00s, which was at 589 titles (or 55.3% of my collection) back on 30th October 2009. The total has increased (by 12.7%), but how large a part of my collection they are is down (by 1.5%). Clearly I've bought more older films this year, though with the '10s now in the equation for the newest releases I should imagine it will only sink further in future.

See you next week, faithful reader.