TV

The Sandbaggers
1x03 Is Your Journey Really Necessary?
Sandbaggers' surprise character deaths may not have the visceral impact of Spooks' (but then, very little beats a deep fat fryer in that respect), but they carry more than enough bleak punchiness of their own. This programme is excellent, by-the-way.

The Sarah Jane Adventures
2x03 The Day of the Clown Part One
I find it very intriguing that both SJA, Doctor Who's kid-friendly spin-off, and Torchwood, Doctor Who's adult-oriented spin-off, have done circus-related episodes. That must say something about the fear of clowns... (Both did them in their second series too, though that's not nearly as intriguing a coincidence/pattern.)

Wired
Part 1 (of 3)
The third (and final, I believe) serial in ITV's 'Monday thrillers' strand, this has a lot to live up to after the slow-paced (in a good way), intelligently written drama of both The Children and Place of Execution. The modern high-tech setting pushes it more toward Spooks territory, though it's not as whooshy (for want of a better phrase, clearly) as BBC shows of this ilk -- who'd've thought ITV would ever be less 'edgy', 'modern' and 'we need to make it appeal to people with no attention span' than the BBC? Part 1 shows potential; I hope it can maintain it.

Non-Fiction

Letters Between a Father and a Son (aka Between Father and Son: Family Letters) by V.S. Naipaul, edited by Gillon Aitken
Introduction by Gillon Aitken
The introduction seems to average about 10 commas and semi-colons per sentence.

Articles

Che & Day The Earth Stood Still Posters by Emily Phillips
(from Empire Online)
Continuing my Che coverage (why, I'm still not sure), it seems the film will be split in half -- in France, at least -- bearing the twin titles -- on the poster, at least -- of Che: Premiere Partie - L'Argentin and Che: Deuxieme Partie - Guerilla. "Un Film de Steven Soderbergh" indeed. For English-speaking readers, they translate as Che: First Part - The Argentinian and Che: Second Part - Guerilla. What titles will appear on screen at the films' open (or indeed close these days) is anyone's guess. Of course, most people won't care enough to guess. (There's also a poster for the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still at that link, as you may have guessed. I'm not fussed, to be honest.)

Fey Blamed For 'Ruining' Palin's Reputation
(from WENN)
To just get political, briefly: yay!

Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes — FIRST PICTURES
and
Jude Law as Dr. Watson — FIRST LOOK
(from Just Jared.com)
The first link shows Holmes looking a little Charlie Chaplin-like (ironically enough), presumably undercover in some way. The second set of pictures are much more promising. I still think Law's a poor actor by and large, but at least he looks the part. I remain cautiously optimistic.

Will there be a Before Sunset Sequel? by Brad Brevet
(from RopeofSilicon)
Posting reviews of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset prompted me to look into this. The answer is... a bit vague...

Woody Allen's Manhattan Reveals the Meaning of Life by Brad Brevet
(from RopeofSilicon)
An interesting article, about both Allen's beautiful film and what is required of one's favourite movies.

shameless eBay self-promotion: update

As you may know from yesterday, I'm selling a variety of items on eBay at the moment, so thought I'd bring them to the attention of anyone reading this. All are available as either auctions (with low low low starting prices) or Buy It Now prices (the latter disappears when someone bids, incidentally).

Many items have sold already (anything sold from yesterday has been removed, anything sold since posting this is crossed out) while others are already being bid on (those are in bold) -- so act fast if you want anything!

DVDs

Casino Royale 2-disc Collector's Edition

Doctor Who Complete Davros Collection box set (new)

The Game

Ghost in the Shell

L.A. Confidential

Marnie (The Hitchcock Collection)

The Prisoner The Ultimate Collection (complete series)

The West Wing Season 1 Part 1

The West Wing Season 1 Part 2

Books

Casino Royale (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

Diamonds Are Forever (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

Dr No (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

From Russia With Love (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

Goldfinger (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

Live and Let Die (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

Moonraker (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

Thunderball (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

You Only Live Twice (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

Toys

Doctor Who Micro-Universe: Captain Jack's Chula Ship (with exclusive Captain Jack mini-figure)

All these auctions end next weekend -- provided they don't go for Buy It Now before then of course, which many have.

I've still got more items to sell, which I'll add soon. These include:

The Hound of the Baskervilles with Richard Roxburgh, Ian Hart and Richard E. Grant

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking

Doctor Who Empress of the Racnoss action figure

So, eyes open -- though I'll undoubtedly mention them here.