TV

Downton Abbey
3x09 A Journey to the Highlands [Christmas special]
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Live at the Apollo
8x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
at Christmas
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Spy
2x11 Codename: Show Stopper [Christmas special]
2x12 Behind the Scenes
If the technical-season-finale resolved most of the season's on-going plot threads, this resolves the rest -- including some stuff that's formed part of the backbone of the entire series. But it also definitively sets it up for a third run, so hurrah!
Plus, an uncommonly serious-minded making-of for a comedy show, but also good fun with it. Win-win.

TV

Castle
2x22 Food To Die For
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Have I Got News For You
44x10 (21/12/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch the extended version (again) on iPlayer.]

Little Crackers
3x06 The Awkward Age
Sky show these in all sorts of different orders, so I figured I may as well jump in where I please -- it's not like they really form a series. Plus they're all over the place on catch-up (listed individually as, for instance, Dylan Moran's Little Cracker, rather than as a series of Little Crackers), so what's a man to do?
I like the addition of making-of attachments this year, but that might just be me.

Miranda
3x01 It Was Panning
Hurrah for the much-belated return of Miranda! And I thought it was fabulous too, so even better.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Paddy's 2012 Show and Telly
I remembered this as being not too bad last year, but clearly I wiped it from my memory because looking it up now I hated it. And this one was definitely awful. Just... ugh.
[Watch it (again), if you must, on ITV Player.]

The Sarah Millican Television Programme
2x00 Christmas Special
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

World's Biggest Pets
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Articles

DIY Tardis looks bigger on inside with augmented reality
by Leo Kelion (from BBC News)

Kinda awesome. I'm sure someone at the BBC is now beavering away to make this a toy people can buy. And if they're not, they should be.

TV

Doctor Who
33x06 The Snowmen [Christmas special]

Well I thought that was a properly Christmassy and properly special Christmas special, with some real magic moments (the "taller on the inside" staircase, for just one). Considering I've found myself moderately underwhelmed by large chunks of the last two series, and didn't care for last year's Christmas special, it was a nice to finally just enjoy some Who.

Also, it was completely standalone, which a good Doctor Who Christmas special really should be, but also was absolutely aware of what had gone on in the first half of this season and considerably set up what's to come in the second half. Nice job, Mr Moffat.

Plus, Ian McKellen was awesome, Richard E Grant wasn't irritating (in fact, he was pretty good too), and as much as I hated Oswin Oswald in Asylum of the Daleks, I liked Clara here. So that was a nice surprise!

The other Big New Things were, of course: the TARDIS interior, which I like stylistically but seems a bit small after the grandiose last one; the new theme music, which sounded like the build-up of the old one (with added bass), but lacking the big dramatic proper-theme pay-off; and a new title sequence, which I thought was fantastic. 1.5 out of 3 on those counts, then, but maybe the rest just takes some getting used to.

All in all, I think it was a certifiable success.

(I rather like the poster, a full-size version of which should be viewable here.)

[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]


Friday Night Dinner
2x07 Christmas [special]
aka Mark Heap Christmas Special 2 of 3.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]


The Mentalist
5x08 Red Sails in the Sunset
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]


Rolf's Animal Clinic
1x07 Rolf's Animal Christmas [special]
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]


Room on the Broom
[#94a in 100 Films in a Year 2012]
Wasn't familiar with this one, from the writer, illustrator and filmmakers behind the two Gruffalos, but I loved it! Wonderful family entertainment.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

Has 3D film-making had its day?
by Vincent Dowd (from BBC News)

"Not exactly, but maybe a bit," is kind of the conclusion of this balanced article -- a rare thing when it comes to 3D, which tends to come with a love-it or hate-it bias. Worth a read for the interested.

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x05 Christmas [final episode]

The Great British Bake Off
Christmas Masterclass
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x09 (14/12/12 edition; extended repeat)

Merlin
5x13 The Diamond of the Day Part Two [series finale]
Well that surprised me -- I wasn't expecting anything nearly as definitive. They only announced it was the final finale recently, as if a sixth series was a genuine possibility. Perhaps they shot two endings? Who knows.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x13 Christmas Special [season finale]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Outnumbered
5x00 The Sick Party [Christmas special]
aka Mark Heap Christmas Special 1 of 3.
Took a while to get going, but it turned out OK. I think the kids are quite definitively too old for it now though -- Ben and Karen really seem to have shot up and matured in the last year. It would still be nice if they properly wrapped it up somehow, but I think it's time for that now.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Snowman
I haven't watched this since I was very little, but it is still rather magical.

TV

Doctor Who
33x05b Vastra Investigates
After the one we got during Children in Need, here's another brief prequel to Tuesday's Doctor Who Christmas special. Intriguing...
[Watch it (again) on the official Doctor Who site.]

The Graham Norton Show
12x09 (21/12/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Loving Miss Hatto
It must be Christmas -- I actually watched something when it was actually on! See also below.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Mr Stink
Quite marvellous this was -- perfect Christmastime family entertainment. Slightly wish I had a 3D TV to have seen its full effect; not because it needed the extra dimension, but just because... well, it's a gimmick, isn't it -- but sometimes a fun one. I don't think you can watch it online in 3D though. Heck, you can't even watch it in HD!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Spy
2x10 Codename: Last Scupper [season finale]
I say "season finale" -- there's a double-length Christmas special on Boxing Day that I should imagine picks up where this left off. But it was billed as the season finale nonetheless, and did rather wrap some things up at least.

this week on 100 Films

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, Life got in the way of the 100 Films Advent Calendar this week. Nonetheless, five new reviews were published, and they were...


Conan the Barbarian (2011)

I just didn’t really care at any point. The plot kind of pings about through some disconnected set pieces, few of them particularly inspiring with the exception of one featuring ninja-types who are formed out of sand.

Read more here.


The Court Jester (1956)

I’d never heard of The Court Jester before it popped up on on-demand while I had Sky Movies for the Oscars, but apparently it’s “a television matinee favorite”. Maybe just in America (note the spelling in the quote); maybe it just passed me by. Either way, it’s an entertainment worth catching if you can. Get it?

Read more here.


The Return of the Musketeers (1989)

16 years after they first swashed their buckles for director Richard Lester, Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay and Richard Chamberlain return as the titular swordsmen in an adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ Twenty Years After. As feats of sequalisation go, there’s something inherently pleasing about reassembling a cast and crew the best part of two decades later to adapt a tale set at a similar distance.

Read more here.


RoboCop (1987)

Hailed by those who love it as some kind of satirical masterpiece, RoboCop does manage to raise itself above other mindless ’80s action fare, at least to some degree. Equally, should you choose to watch it brain-off then I doubt you’ll be too troubled by its criticisms of corporate greed or the privatisation of public services

Read more here.


RoboCop 2 (1990)

The consensus opinion seems to be that the RoboCop films exist on a steep downward trajectory of quality, starting with the pretty-good first film and ending with the nadir-of-humanity third. In this equation the second lands, naturally, somewhere in the middle — not that good, but not so bad. Personally, I enjoyed it more than the first.

Read more here.


More next Sunday, including the final pair of reviews from the advent calendar!

TV

Adam Hills Stands Up Live
Absolutely hilarious, and nice to see a one-person stand-up on TV that isn't an edited version of a year-old DVD release. Heard some of the stories before in various other places, but they're still hilarious and there was new stuff too. Grand.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Merlin
5x12 The Diamond of the Day Part One
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x12 Touching People
The regular slightly-alternative best-of-the-series. Next week (which was actually on tonight), a Christmas special. Hurrah!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x05 Body Beautiful
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Collection Count

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

Two weeks ago I said there'd be nothing between then and the post-Christmas update (which is next week, fact-fans). Turns out I'm a great big liar, because not only was there something last week, there's a bit more this week too.

In my defence, I thought these things (all imported from America) were going to turn up next week. But hey ho, what can you do? Amazingly fast Christmastime post it is!

Number of titles in collection: 1,516 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [down 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 370 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,798 [up 2]
Number of films in collection: 1,586 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 373 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader, for a running time-containing Christmas-fuelled update.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
12x08 (14/12/12 edition) [2nd watch]
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Merlin
5x11 The Drawing of the Dark
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
10x13 Jobs (XL edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

I've been away. There's an awful lot of catching up to do. Here's a small fraction of it...

Castle
2x21 Den of Thieves
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Live at the Apollo
8x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Mentalist
5x07 If It Bleeds, It Leads
A new on-going plot? Did we really need one of those? And I swear the Red John story took a jump -- I felt like I'd missed an episode. I appreciate it when series don't treat their viewers like idiots, but every once in a while a helpful nudge of how things got where they are is also appreciated.
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Spy
2x09 Codename: Pulp Friction

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x04 The Plays Wot Ernie Wrote
These were always my favourite part of Morecambe & Wise, so this episode was a particular delight.

The British Comedy Awards 2012
Last year, they found a Harry Hill clip that actually made me laugh. This year, it was a Leigh Francis one. What's the world coming to?
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

this week on 100 Films

I'm still working my way along the 100 Films Advent Calendar, so there's another seven new reviews this week...


The Call of Cthulhu (2005)

The marriage of low-budget and silent film style is one made in heaven, particularly when you add in the dedication of the makers. They built impressive props, ingenious sets, and employed model work in various inventive ways, all to execute a story that includes a cultist swamp orgy, a mysterious island, a sea battle, and a skyscraper-sized monster.

Read more here.


Drive Angry (2011)

It’s got a crazy plot, crazy action, gratuitous violence, gratuitous nudity, rough production values, variable acting, loopy bad guys — the highlight is definitely the latter, with William Fichtner channelling Christopher Walken. The whole thing could do with being punchier and pacier, and shorter

Read more here.


Fantastic Four (2005)

this incarnation of the FF doesn’t really have a story. They kind of meander through a few things that Happen, then a villain finally emerges and they defeat him. It leaves the film bereft of narrative drive; a series of scenes strung together without a common goal.

Read more here.


The Final Destination (2009)

None of the deaths matter because nothing is done to make us care about these characters, or even be broadly interested in them, unlike the best of the earlier entries. So there's zero tension, zero emotion, just elaborate death after elaborate death. It's one of the most hollow films I can think of.

Read more here.


The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

it’s a solid crime/legal thriller; the kind of thing we’d probably get as a 90-minute TV episode over here, but thanks to America not really having that format, it gets the cinema treatment. Nonetheless, it’s well enough acted, with an interesting enough story, to sustain the grander status automatically afforded to something released theatrically.

Read more here.


Passchendaele (2008)

Despite winning a bunch of Canadian film awards, this First World War drama seems to have been really poorly received by critics — the Radio Times even saw fit to award it just 1 star! I must dissent, however, because I thought it was very good.

Read more here.


Tiny Furniture (2010)

Tiny Furniture comes with a predisposition to dislike it from anyone who isn’t a hipster or desperate to be relevant to hipsters... It’s a slow-paced, consciously arthouse-drama-y story film about unlikeable people leading unlikeable lives. I think everyone in it is either selfish or at least self-centred.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
12x08 (14/12/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
10x13 Jobs
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Despite my assertion last week, I can't resist a bargain, and getting The Hammer Collection box set for what equates to 89p per film definitely counts as a bargain in my book. But that really is it until after Christmas now.

Probably.

Number of titles in collection: 1,514 [up 1]
Of which DVDs: 1,147 [up 1]
Of which Blu-rays: 367 [no change]

Number of discs in collection: 3,796 [up 21]
Number of films in collection: 1,584 [up 21]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,700 [no change]
Number of short films in collection: 373 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
12x07 (7/12/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Have I Got News For You
44x09 (14/12/12 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Stephen Fry: Gadget Man
1x04 Fun and Games
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x20 (7/12/12 edition)
[Watch episodes it (again) on 4oD.]

Have I Got News For You
44x08 (7/12/12 edition; extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
26x11 Episode 11
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Bring Me Morecambe & Wise
1x03 At Home with Eric and Ern

Castle
2x20 The Late Shaft
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

John Bishop's Big Year
Episode 2 (of 2)
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Spy
2x08 Codename: Double Oh

TV

1001 Things You Should Know
1x17 (4/12/12 edition)
1x18 (5/12/12 edition)
[Watch episodes 17 and 18 (again) on 4oD.]

The Mentalist
5x06 Cherry Picked
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

QI
10x11 Jumpers (XL edition)