BBC One Christmas 2008 Drama Preview

There's a helluva lot of good TV on this Christmas, and most of it's on the BBC. This one-minute trail features clips from all their big drama highlights, most notably Doctor Who, a new version of The 39 Steps, and a return for Jonathan Creek. Hurrah!

Watch it here.

Some of BBC One's other Christmas highlights, not in the trailer, include a Gavin & Stacey special, a documentary for Blackadder's 25th anniversary, Blackadder Rides Again (one can only hope a decent & complete DVD set is to follow), and a new Hitchcock-inspired Wallace & Gromit, A Matter of Loaf & Death.

Plus, on BBC Four, there's Crooked House, which sounds brilliant. Read a whole feature on it here.

TV

Argumental
1x06 (1/12/08 edition)

Clone
1x03 The Line
The problem with Clone is, it's a sitcom, but it's not terribly funny. It is terribly dated though. If it'd been made in the '70s it would probably be a classic. Or totally forgotten.

The Graham Norton Show
4x09 (27/11/08 edition, uncut repeat)

The Sarah Jane Adventures
2x08 The Mark of the Beserker Part Two
Only running two weeks behind...

Survivors [2008]
1x02 Episode 2
The problem with Survivors is, it's full of stock characters stuck in cliched stories. It does pretty much exactly what you'd expect it to do, usually exactly when you'd expect it to do it, and with the exact lines you'd imagine too. Oh dear oh dear. Hopefully things will improve or it'll be a waste of such a good first part.

DVD Extras

a variety of extras from Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series, including:

BBC Trailers (Disc 1)
Ooh, I love the Voyage of the Damned trailers, especially the long cinema one. I hope there's one to come this year...

David Tennant's Video Diaries (Part 1)
David Tennant and Julie Gardner -- with Phil Collinson and Russell T Davies on the phone! -- get a police escort into Blackpool to turn on the illuminations. Brilliant!

Deleted Scenes: Voyage of the Damned
It's funny watching the deleted scenes -- they're all pre-filmising, so the picture's all video-y, and with studio sound only... which means they really, really look and sound like classic Who. A very odd experience.

Deleted Scenes: Howard Attfield
Howard Attfield originally reprised his role fromThe Runaway Bride as Donna's dad, filling Wilf's part. However, the actor was too ill to continue filming and sadly passed away shortly after completing these scenes for episode one.

Deleted Scenes: Journey's End
Including an alternate ending that, frankly, belongs deleted. Though obviously it also belongs on DVD for everyone to see.

the start of The Journey (So Far)
Woah, it's surprisingly weird seeing Eccleston as the Doctor again. Not watched any of his eps for years. It's funny to remember how uncertain everyone was if Tennant could follow in his shoes, whereas now, for me, he's virtually wiped Eccleston from memory.

+ commentary snippets
The Doctor Who team are an engaging lot y'know -- I listened to the start of every commentary to hear who the participants were and, out of curiosity, to see how chatty they were, then wound up listening to several minutes of them! On Journey's End it was over 20 minutes before I finally turned it off again.

I really ought to go listen to all the commentaries, though I'm now obviously 55 episodes behind! And there's another 40 commentaries if you count the podcast ones.

Actually, there's a point to be made here: the VotD commentary on this set is a new one, the first time they've done that for the DVD (the other two Christmas specials duplicated the online commentaries, while the remaining episodes had different podcast and DVD commentaries). But the DVD has Russell Tovey (who played the relatively minor role of Midshipman Frame), Murray Gold (who does the music), and Peter Bennett (the first assistant director. Yes, really.) I'm sure they're all lovely people with interesting things to say, but that line-up just doesn't compare to the podcast's Dream Team of Russell T Davies, Phil Collinson and Julie Gardner. When the DVD is the one you pay for and the online ones a nice bonus, surely the better commentary should be on the disc?

At least the online ones are all still online, but, as I've thought since series two, surely there would be room on the discs to squeeze in an extra commentary track for each ep? I know we shouldn't complain -- as I said, they're all still available online for free, and most TV shows don't manage a single commentary for every episode never mind two! -- but... well, why not, hm?

Fiction

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
Chapters 17 - 18 [2nd read]
The first of these chapters, titled 'My Dear Boy', is probably the novel's most famous. Yep, it's the torture scene! For one of my MA modules we have to write a piece in the style of another writer.

No, I'm not doing Fleming; rather, a few years ago, a certain Hollywood writer-director expressed an interest in doing a version of Casino Royale. Personally, I'd've loved to have seen it -- though it would've been very different to the version we got and, perhaps, in the long-run, that was better -- so I've run with the idea and decided to do the novel's most infamous scene in his style. He wanted to set it in the '50s, and I believe he would've done a reasonably faithful job, but for the purposes of this exercise I'm taking his usual style and applying that.

I'll probably post the result at some point, hence why I've not mentioned the guy's name (though some will work it out) -- it's just more fun if you don't know.

Poem of the Day: Ode Written on the First of December

by Robert Southey

Welcome to a week of poems about December, seeing as it's December.

Today's first poem is by English Romantic poet Robert Southey, hence a preoccupation with nature. I must admit to not being entirely convinced by the content of this one, but the title was far too appropriate to resist (for obvious reasons) and there are definitely some good lines.

Tho' now no more the musing ear
Delights to listen to the breeze
That lingers o'er the green wood shade,
I love thee Winter! well.

Sweet are the harmonies of Spring,
Sweet is the summer's evening gale,
Pleasant the autumnal winds that shake
The many-colour'd grove.

And pleasant to the sober'd soul
The silence of the wintry scene,
When Nature shrouds her in her trance

Not undelightful now to roam
The wild heath sparkling on the sight;
Not undelightful now to pace
The forest's ample rounds;

And see the spangled branches shine,
And mark the moss of many a hue
That varies the old tree's brown bark,
Or o'er the grey stone spreads.

The cluster'd berries claim the eye
O'er the bright hollies gay green leaves,
The ivy round the leafless oak
Clasps its full foliage close.

So VIRTUE diffident of strength
Clings to RELIGION'S firmer aid,
And by RELIGION'S aid upheld
Endures calamity.

Nor void of beauties now the spring,
Whose waters hid from summer sun
Have sooth'd the thirsty pilgrim's ear
With more than melody.

The green moss shines with icey glare,
The long grass bends its spear-like form,
And lovely is the silvery scene
When faint the sunbeams smile.

Reflection too may love the hour
When Nature, hid in Winter's grave,
No more expands the bursting bud
Or bids the flowret bloom.

For Nature soon in Spring's best charms
Shall rise reviv'd from Winter's grave.
Again expand the bursting bud,
And bid the flowret bloom.

Personally, I don't like Spring.

Tomorrow, some Keats.

TV

Live at the Apollo
4x01 (28/11/08 edition)
Michael McIntyre (one of the absolute best observational comedians), American Rich Hall (lots of nice things to say about the British), and Rhod Gilbert (he's Welsh donchaknow) open the new series with a doozy of an episode.

Outnumbered
2x03 Episode 3
Outnumbered's at its best when there's virtually no plot and the kids are allowed to shine -- unfortunately, this episode was a little too much of the former and not quite enough of the latter. Still, the next one looks like a doozy.

Spooks
7x06 Accidental Discovery
Spooks has done pretty well for itself this series, I think. It's still not back in the real world as much as the early series were, but it's good spy-thriller entertainment nonetheless. Looks like next week's (or rather, tomorrow's) will be a doozy too.

Top Gear
12x05 (30/11/08 edition)
Tonight's episode was so low in doozying that I spent the first 10 minutes or more unsure if they'd shown an old one by accident.

Poetry

Fall of the Rebel Angels: Poems 1996-2006 by Andy Brown
Part II (pages 29-36)

Articles

Blah Indeed by clydefro
(from clydefro at FilmJournal)
See here for my thoughts.

First Look At Gambit's Wolverine Appearance by Rafe Telsch
(from Cinema Blend)
Gambit, Gambit, yay! Not necessarily convinced by this photo, but there's time.
In other X-Men news, that exciting box set of the first two seasons of the amazing '90s animated series seems to have disappeared from the radar. Where is it? I want it!
Edit: here's an answer, in an article about the latest X-Men animated series.

Winstone Threatens To Leave U.K.
(from WENN)
I couldn't care less which country Ray Winstone lives in, but he's making a good point. "Winstone wants to leave his native Britain and start a new life abroad -- because the U.K. justice system is too lenient on criminals. [He] blames the government under Labour Party leader Gordon Brown for not doing enough to tackle crime and punish offenders... "I wouldn't mind if we actually see something being done with all the money they take off in taxes. [But we have] a legal system that doesn't support the coppers when things finally get to court... [Britain]'s just not that great any more, is it? Let's be honest. This country isn't going to the dogs. It's gone to the dogs. We're a mess.""

don't trust blah!

I've always thought blah! (also known as BlahDVD, or Blah DVD, or whatever) looked a bit dodgy and never trusted them enough to order from them. Not sure why, that's just the impression I've had.

Now, this piece by clydefro over at FilmJournal suggests I was right to be suspicious. I don't think customers routinely get that sort of treatment from more respectable sites like Amazon or Play.

I don't imagine many have heard of blah! anyway, and it's not like they're a great deal cheaper than several other places, so I'll be continuing to follow my instincts.

TV

Einstein and Eddington
David Tennant and Andy Serkis both give great performances -- as do the rest of the cast, it must be said -- in this excellent TV movie. What might have been a dry near-documentary is brought to life by a broadening of topics and themes -- it's as much (perhaps even more) about the First World War and its wide-ranging effects, as well as the boundaries and the applications of science, as it is about the specific theory the titular characters uncovered and proved (respectively).

Have I Got News For You
36x06 (28/11/08 edition; extended repeat)

Lead Balloon
3x03 Fax

Merlin
1x11 The Labyrinth of Gedref

Survivors [2008]
1x01 Episode 1
Feature-length opening ep for BBC One's "it's not a remake of the TV series, honest" adaptation of Terry Nation's novel based on his famous '70s TV series. It's a strong start, dealing first with the horror of the virus' outbreak and the way it brings down the country before moving on to set up of the group of survivors we'll be following. There's also a hint of some Hidden Conspiracy in the closing moments. Very much a First Episode then; it remains to be seen if the remaining five will play as a serial or a series of stories. Also, considering the number of British shows that get remade for the US these days, this seems a prime candidate for such treatment in the future.

Fiction

Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove
Part Eight [the end]
Well, that's certainly... the end... The problem with the final part is it deals almost exclusively with the bits of the plot I didn't like in the first place, and in trying to wrap up so many disparate strands -- and, apparently, throw some new ones into the mix at the last minute -- it ends up as a bit of a muddle, with an inconclusive finale. A disappointing end then, but not surprisingly so.

At the back of the book, there's an Afterword by Neil Gaiman that does a good job of explaining his thinking behind the series. Doesn't excuse the ties to normal Marvel continuity, if you ask me. There's also an interesting piece of the series' unique covers by artist Scott McKowen and a selection of pages showing the 'enhanced pencils' technique Andy Kubert used to illustrate the story -- comparing these to the final art shows how much impact the oft-ignored inkers & colourists have on finished comics! Rounding things off, there's the complete script for part one, an inclusion that's always great for anyone interested in writing comics, accompanied by early character sketches.

Magazines

As has become almost as much of a tradition as the Doctor Who Christmas special, here's the pre-Christmas Radio Times with the Doctor Who cover -- even though the episode itself won't be on til two weeks after this edition ends!

Anyway, this is -- rather appropriately -- Doctor Who's 45th RT cover, just weeks after the programme's 45th anniversary. It's also the series' 23rd RT cover since it returned in 2005, and the 8th this year. Yep, Doctor Who sells.

TV

8 Out of 10 Cats
7x13 (27/11/08 edition) [season finale]

Russell Brand's Ponderland
2x05 Class [season finale]

Films

Enchanted (2007)
[#80 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]

Mamma Mia! (2008)
[#81 in 100 Films in a Year 2008]

Poem of the Day: Haiku Achoo

by Jack W. Staton

Last week I posted my poem Haiku Achoo, noting that it was surely a title that had been used before. Indeed, a quick search of the web revealed at least one other example, courtesy of poetry.com. For the sake of comparison and what have you, I'm sharing it with you this week:

Achoo! A-achoo!
Sneezing, I write my Haiku
And wipe my red nose.

So, dear reader, whose is better -- Mr Staton's, or mine? As with all good writers, I appreciate your honest feedback.

TV

The Graham Norton Show
4x08 (20/11/08 edition, uncut repeat)

Little Dorrit
Part 10 (of 14)
Today, it's the turn of Mr Meagles to receive a "go --!" cry, and the accompanying "hurrah!"

Never Mind the Buzzcocks
22x09 (27/11/08 edition)
It's the 198th episode special! Only on Buzzcocks, eh.

Three Apparitionses, two Sarah Jane Adventureses, two Survivorses, two Heroeses, and a single Spooks. Yes, I'm shockingly behind on any TV show whose name ends in "S". (Plus Lead Balloon, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Ponderland (just tonight's in each case), and Heroes Unmasked -- of which there are four.)

Fiction

Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert & Richard Isanove
Part Seven
After all the action, the pace slows a tad, moving pieces into place for the final bumper-length part. There's some added plot twists for good measure, though it must be said that most aren't all that surprising.

Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine: Special Edition #21
In Their Own Words - Volume Five: 1987-96
I'm always buying these things and not really getting round to reading them, but I did have a proper flick through this for once and read some bits, so there, including the very up-to-date (it references Tom Baker's Have I Got News...) Introduction by Benjamin Cook, and a rather good Afterword by Paul Cornell.

Articles

Don't dismiss Heat. It's a very superior product by Philip Hensher
(from Philip Hensher's column at The Independent)
Hensher is an interesting beast -- one minute he'll seem like a literary snob, slating the likes of Harry Potter and Alexander McCall Smith, but then merrily defend Heat magazine. Agree or not, at least he can make a reasonable argument.

What scandal lurks behind The Wire? by Philip Hensher
(from Philip Hensher's column at The Independent)
Everyone loves The Wire. Except, no one watches it. I really must get round to it myself...

Poem of the Day: To the Dead in the Graveyard Underneath My Window

by Adelaide Crapsey

How can you resist a title like that? Especially when it was written by a woman in 1914.

As for the poem itself, in my estimation it starts off well but begins to meander and go on a bit, getting a little too dense for its own good toward the end. Nonetheless, it's an interesting one.

Written in A Moment of Exasperation

How can you lie so still? All day I watch
And never a blade of all the green sod moves
To show where restlessly you toss and turn,
And fling a desperate arm or draw up knees
Stiffened and aching from their long disuse;
I watch all night and not one ghost comes forth
To take its freedom of the midnight hour.
Oh, have you no rebellion in your bones?
The very worms must scorn you where you lie,
A pallid mouldering acquiescent folk,
Meek habitants of unresented graves.
Why are you there in your straight row on row
Where I must ever see you from my bed
That in your mere dumb presence iterate
The text so weary in my ears: "Lie still
And rest; be patient and lie still and rest."
I'll not be patient! I will not lie still!
There is a brown road runs between the pines,
And further on the purple woodlands lie,
And still beyond blue mountains lift and loom;
And I would walk the road and I would be
Deep in the wooded shade and I would reach
The windy mountain tops that touch the clouds.
My eyes may follow but my feet are held.
Recumbent as you others must I too
Submit? Be mimic of your movelessness
With pillow and counterpane for stone and sod?
And if the many sayings of the wise
Teach of submission I will not submit
But with a spirit all unreconciled
Flash an unquenched defiance to the stars.
Better it is to walk, to run, to dance,
Better it is to laugh and leap and sing,
To know the open skies of dawn and night,
To move untrammeled down the flaming noon,
And I will clamour it through weary days
Keeping the edge of deprivation sharp,
Nor with the pliant speaking on my lips
Of resignation, sister to defeat.
I'll not be patient. I will not lie still.

And in ironic quietude who is
The despot of our days and lord of dust
Needs but, scarce heeding, wait to drop
Grim casual comment on rebellion's end;
"Yes, yes . . Wilful and petulant but now
As dead and quiet as the others are."
And this each body and ghost of you hath heard
That in your graves do therefore lie so still.

And after all that talk of death, remember: tomorrow's Funny Friday.