TV

Downton Abbey
1x04 Episode Four
Maggie Smith is beyond excellent.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Film 2010 with Claudia Winkleman
Episode 1 (13/10/10 edition)
So Film... is back, with its new host and its new team (or family, or multiplex, or whatever name they settle on). Personally, I rather liked it. Claudia Winkleman did a bang up job, devoid of her usual irritating presenting style, and having two critics (OK OK, one critic and one presenter/fan, but still) chatting rather than a straight review-to-camera was like the highly successful US At the Movies (aka Siskel & Ebert / Ebert & Roeper). Indeed, in many ways this format is superior to having just a sole critic.
As for the team... neat idea, though that Antonia immediately rubbed me up the wrong way. Don't think I'll get on with her opinions. The "8 year old blogger", on the other hand, seems a complete idiot. His Top 5 list was pathetic, his "I only like films that are about two years old, and that's OK" attitude was idiotic, and even the hosts were taking the mick out of him. He should be dispensed with forthwith.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

QI
8x05 H Animals (extended repeat)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
[#106 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
[#107 in 100 Films in a Year 2010]

Articles

McIntyre's Roadshow pips Piers chatshow by Paul Millar
(from Digital Spy)
Piers Morgan's ratings down! X Factor's ratings down! Strictly beat X Factor during the time they were head to head!
If it weren't for the fact that, at its peak last night, 49% of the viewing public were watching X Factor, I'd be a little proud.

Why I'm calling time on Screen Burn by Charlie Brooker
(from guardian.co.uk)
The always-grumpy, always-funny Charlie Brooker is stopping his Screen Burn column after 11 years. This seemed to cause a minor storm across twitter... evidently from people who missed the sentence where Brooker clearly says, "I'll be back later in the year with a new column, right here in these pages."

this week on 100 Films

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

The Damned United (2009)

I have no love for football. Quite the opposite, in fact. I’m not even entirely sure why I wound up watching this, to be honest. But I’m glad I did, because, even though it’s technically about football, The Damned United is a little bit brilliant. For one thing, it’s not actually about football, not really.

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

widely regarded as not just in the film series’ upper half, but as one of the best episodes the entire franchise has produced... It gets off to a flying start. The first 20 or 30 minutes in particular move at a rate of knots, churning through plot in a way no blockbuster would seem to dare these days. [There's none of] Trek’s renowned “sit around and consider what to do” talkiness.

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Rather than the broadly action-adventure style of other big contemporary sci-fi movies, this concerns a minor dispute over a survey mission to a single planet. Yawn, right? Actually, this is when Insurrection is at its best... the political wrangling kept me engaged. But then it begins an attempt to be all Exciting, at which point it begins to get dull, degenerating into a stock runaround and shoot-out

Film4 are showing the two Star Trek films tonight, at 6:40pm and 9pm respectively. They're preceded by the first Next Generation film, Star Trek: Generations, at 4:20pm, and followed by the crew's final film, Star Trek: Nemesis, at 11:05pm.

More next Sunday.