this week on 100 Films

At last, a new review has been posted to 100 Films in a Year this week! Hurrah!

And so, the most fabulous thing was...

The King's Speech (2010)

The core of the film, the screenplay, is excellent — dramatic, funny, truthful. It won Best Original Screenplay… but surely it was an adapted screenplay? It’s so grounded in real events, based (at least in part, or so I thought) on the real man’s diaries and the book that was in turn based on them. When the Adapted Screenplay nominations include films loosely inspired by short films and semi-spin-offs from TV series that don’t even feature many of the same characters, never mind actually adapting their source for the big screen, surely something like this is definitely adapted?

More next Sunday. Hopefully a lot more. But we'll see.

TV

Castle
1x09 Little Girl Lost
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Pointless
4x47 (9/8/11 edition)
4x48 (10/8/11 edition)
Episode 47 had one of the more embarrassing finals I've witnessed... but I didn't care for one of the finalists, so I can't say I minded.
[Watch the 9/8/11 and 10/8/11 editions (again) on iPlayer.]

Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain
Episode 1 Comic Partnerships (of 2)
Episode 2 Solo Performance (of 2)
Ronnie Corbett takes a personal little toddle through some of the highs of British comedy from the past 50-ish years, accompanied by several modern comedy greats. Despite the presenter seeming out of place on the channel, it is quite an ITV-y show -- cheap & tacky title credits; ad break-friendly editing -- but note how the vast majority of the interviewees are what one might call 'BBC People'. For whatever reason, ITV's comedy track record really is appalling.
[Watch episodes one and two (again) on ITV Player.]

Films

Source Code (2011)
[#73 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

Articles

BBC One's Miranda repeat tops new My Family by Paul Millar
(from Digital Spy)

BBC One's repeat of Miranda was more popular than a new episode of My Family last night. The Miranda Hart sitcom... grabbed 4.11m (19.3%) at 9.30pm... prior to that My Family amused 3.79m (13.8%).

Finally, some justice in TV viewing figures.

Big Brother isn't watching you by Russell Brand
(from guardian.co.uk)
Quite long, but Brand is surprisingly worth reading for his thoughts on the recent UK riots.

TV

How I Met Your Mother
6x24 Challenge Accepted [season finale]
Pretty mediocre episode, especially for a finale, but neat twist at the end.
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Law & Order: UK
5x05 Intent
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

The Rob Brydon Show
2x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Collection Count

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

Remember that Amazon US package that was definitely delayed and I was having to wait a frustratingly long time before they'd agree to send me a replacement?

Well, it arrived.

So they were right.

But I have it now, and that's the main thing.

Number of titles in collection: 1,357 [up 5]
Of which DVDs: 1,128 [up 2]
Of which Blu-rays: 229 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,358 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 1,430 [up 3]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,027 [up 22]

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Pointless
4x46 (8/8/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Torchwood: Miracle Day
4x05 The Categories of Life
Torchwood's probably at its best when it gets dark, as here. I rather guessed where it was headed with that ending mind. We're only halfway through now so it's a good time for it to be really kicking off... but can it sustain it for the second half of the series?
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Articles

BBC's Spooks axed after a decade by Tara Conlan
(from guardian.co.uk)
While I still quite like Spooks, this is overdue. To say they're ending it "in its prime" isn't true (in my opinion, obviously) -- it's prime was years ago; the first three or four series, I think. Since then it's becoming increasingly implausible, irrelevant and repetitive. It's also interesting how they talk about it being fast-paced and densely plotted... for its time. I think that's true: when it started it was those things; now it sometimes feels slow and simplistic, or if not the latter than over-complicated in the hope of doing something different to what they've already done.
But, like I say, it's still quite good, so better to end it now than let it really decline later.

TV

Pointless
4x45 (5/8/11 edition)
Stephen Sondheim might have written Mamma Mia!? Funniest thing I've heard in a long time.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Single-Handed
2x04 Between Two Fires Part 2
Well, maybe we'll get what I hoped for in the finale. We can add nasty cousin to the list too. And maybe some decent explanation about why Eithne seems to hate Gemma so much -- she's done nothing to her, and, in fact, has always been on Eithne's side.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Articles

Third Window after the riots
(from Third Window Films Facebook page)
One of the many independent companies affected by the Sony DADC fire speaks out about what this means for them. I imagine the story is exactly the same at all the other small companies. Fingers crossed that they're all able to ride it out in the long term. Bleeding Cool's list of how to help such companies is being continually updated.

TV

The Hour
1x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Pointless
4x44 (4/8/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Torchwood: First Born by James Goss
Pages 41-127

As the quarter-way point (p.66) approaches, the novel begins to clarify What's Going On In Rawbone… as if we hadn't guessed most of it from the blurb. But why? How? And what's it got to do with Torchwood? Thankfully, as the tale reaches its one-third point (p.86) there's some proper mystery and intrigue creeping in, and by halfway (p.127) it's getting nicely sinister, building to a cliffhanger-y almost-revelation. This all seems to have given the story the kickstart I felt it needed; it's rattling along quite decently now, much better than the early plod.

One thing, though: don't write bits of your novel in French assuming the reader will be able to understand. That was fine 150 years ago, but nowadays, not so much. Thanks.

Articles

British film distributors left reeling by financial impact of Sony/PIAS warehouse fire by Henry Barnes & Andrew Pulver
(from guardian.co.uk)
Attacked and burnt down last night during the London riots, the Sony distribution centre in Enfield held a lot of stock for most/all of the UK's independent film and music labels. Whilst it's largely insured, the time to restock and find new distribution models could have a hugely detrimental effect on these already-struggling companies. Not good. Bleeding Cool have a suggestion for how to help.

Will DC Comics Drop Their UK Print Prices To Match Digital? by Rich Johnston
(from Bleeding Cool)
The UK release of US comics has always felt like it must be a bit of an afterthought to me -- understandably, really, as these are US publishing companies and the UK must be a much smaller market -- but it feels like our significance is increasing (or, I suppose, that I underestimated it) of late. For instance, the only reason we're not getting midnight sales of the New 52 launch (which they're holding in the US) is that there's a Bank Holiday in the way. And now, they're talking about putting a fixed UK price on the covers of the books (something that doesn't currently happen, obviously) and bringing the price down too (so that it's in line with digital). Great for consumers, but not necessarily so great for comic shops, would could be losing a significant percentage of profit on each book, potentially. Interesting times.

TV

Pointless
4x42 (2/8/11 edition)
4x43 (3/8/11 edition)
Highest-ever jackpot! Oo-ooh! But poor Glen and Carron -- stymied twice.
[Watch the 2/8/11 and 3/8/11 editions (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Dragons' Den
9x02 Episode 2
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Gracie!
BBC Four drama about singer and comedienne Gracie Fields and her relationship with Italian film director Monty Banks, starring Jane Horrocks and Tom Hollander, first shown a little under two years ago. The film also details Gracie's fall from the public's affections thanks to lies printed in the papers. Some things never change...

Grand Designs Australia
1x04 Clovelly House
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

Films

Sucker Punch: Extended Cut (2011)
[#72 in 100 Films in a Year 2011]

DVD Extras

Sucker Punch: Behind the Soundtrack

and

Sucker Punch: Animated Shorts
Feudal Warriors
The Trenches
Dragon
Distant Planet

Aside from a Maximum Movie Mode*, these are the only extras on the Sucker Punch Blu-ray, and they run under three minutes each. The first is a brief (obviously) look at the film's intriguing soundtrack. It's clearly designed to be promotional, but incidentally reveals a few interesting tidbits. (An even shorter version of it is linked to above.)

The animated shorts are 'prequels' that detail the background to the fantasy worlds visited in the film. It's the kind of thing you know can't be that essential because otherwise it'd be in the film itself -- The Trenches doesn't have much to do, for instance, because that world is explained in the movie -- but a couple of them are quite good anyway. Distant Planet in particular, as that felt one of the more under-explained environments to me. (All can be watched in full at the above links.)

* which, in fairness, could be very good -- it's potentially a feature-length making-of/commentary, after all.

TV

Castle
1x08 Ghosts
[Watch it (again) on Demand 5.]

Dexter
5x02 Hello, Bandit
Thought they'd do that with the kids. Storytellingly wise.

Horrible Histories with Stephen Fry
1x06 Episode 6 [season finale]
Very much enjoyed this; can see why it's garnered so much praise & so many awards. And now I've got all of the third series recorded to watch at some point -- super!
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

My Favourite Joke
Episode 3 (of 6)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Fiction

Torchwood: First Born by James Goss
Pages 1-40

The first of three novels acting as prequels to the current series of Torchwood. (Well, it's the first published, but all the lists inside the book suggest it's the second. But I think they're all unrelated, so it doesn't matter either way. Anyway, I thought it best to get a wriggle on with this first/second novel because the second/first novel was out imminently, then the second/first arrived in today's post, so I was right. Super.)

Normally I catalogue how much I've read with chapter numbers, and while First Born does have chapters, rather than being all radical and calling them, I dunno, "Chapter 1" (etc.) it instead shifts about viewpoints and just titles each chapter (or "section", I suppose) after which character we're following... so page numbers to chart my progress it is. I'm sure you don't mind/care, dear reader(s).

This shifting perspective also, in this case, means first-person narration. I don't like first-person narration very much generally, and I don't think it works here. You have to get inside the head of the characters in a way that doesn't often fit for a tie-in novel, especially when some of those characters are supporting roles that are written/played quite broadly on TV -- fine on screen as support, but as the lead narration for a chunk of novel? Awkward.

(Or maybe it's just that Goss hasn't quite captured them right -- but my first suggestion was kinder, eh.)

And with the narrator switching around all the time -- occasionally mid-scene -- it's sometimes harder than it should be to remember who the "I" in question is.

But hey-ho, we'll see how the rest of it goes.

Articles

Harry Potter stars say final scene was a challenge for the ages by Geoff Boucher
(from Hero Complex at Los Angeles Times)
I assumed this would be a fluff piece basically saying "ooh, playing 20 years older was hard, man!", but it's actually a decent article about the difficulties of shooting Deathly Hallows Part 2's epilogue. Be warned, though, if you haven't seen the film there are photos that spoil the old-age make-up (if you care, of course).