What was the last TV show you watched?

[Edward]

Cabaret, the Donmar Warehouse 1993 production (and the second revival since the original West End production). It was filmed at the time for UK Channel 4. Alas not available there now, but I chanced across it on Youtube.

Sam Mendes created a production very much his own. Darker than the film, I would say. Alan ***ming as the Emcee is outstanding. More overtly ***ual than previous portrayals, aggressive and threatening. Jane Horrocks an outstanding Sally Bowles. As has been the case with every major production, Mendes made his own chop and choices choices with the songs - in is 'Mein Herr' from the film, out goes 'Money', and, interestingly, also out goes 'Maybe This Time', thereby making Sally a much harder-edged character, which works very well. Horrocks' angry, in-character rendition of 'Life is a Cabaret' takes place immediately after the bitter row with Clifford following her revelation of the ********. Clifford too is interesting. I've seen productions over the years that treated his character quite differently, from the 2006 West End revival, in which he was played as very much a *** man who sees Sally with her prospective child as, effectively, a knowing beard ("It could be mine" is delivered as a joke, which then quickly gains pace as a concept of 'we could go back the US and be normal'), through even one Youth Theatre production a friend was in where any sniff of Clifford being anything other than entirely hetero***ual was completely excised (that in 2003 - I suspect things would be different now, even if still, with a cast of 16-21 year olds, the shows overall was somewhat sanitised). In Mendes' vision, Clifford is very much a bi***ual man, ill at ease with the same-*** attraction side of himself (more, impliedly, out of fear of being exposed and ostracised than anything; as in other productions, his "American prudishness" amuses the Berliners among the Cabaret), which puts another, nuanced sheen on his ambiguous relationship with Sally.

Beyond all this, the musical performances are marvellous, and I've never seen the initial rendition of Tomorrow Belongs to Me delivered in quite so chilling a manner.

For fans of the show, well worth seeking out.

 

[Harp]

^ Recall the Liza Minelli/Joel Grey version.

 

[Edward]

^ Recall the Liza Minelli/Joel Grey version.

I wish I could access a good filming of Joel Gray on stage. The film remains an interesting curio (and in some respects closer to Isherwood's novels than the stage musical), though in truth I've preferred several stage Sallys by a long way over Minelli's rendition of the character. There's a lot to like about the film, though, and it's a slid part of the Cabaret legacy. Probably the version most people see first these days, I should think.

This weekend I'm going to try and seek out a version of I Am A Camera, the 1955 film based on the first stage-retelling of Isherwood's books, from 1951. It's a straight drama, not a musical.

The other one worth seeing if it ever comes up again was the 2011 BBC tv-film Christopher and his kind, a dramatisation of Isherwood's eponymous 1976 autobiography. It's an interesting watch in and of itself, but particularly when you're familiar with Cabaret and want to see the stories of the peopled who inspired it. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1651062/

This week, I've been watching the new Amazon Prime take on a version of the Sherlock Holmes origin story, set before Conan Doyle's stories begin. Several episodes into the eight-episode series, it's quite fun. The work is the product of Guy Ritchie and his team, though in tone it is very much closer to a Steven 'Peaky Blinders' Knight series than to Ritchie's previous outings with Robert Downey Junior as the adult Holmes. Those were fun in and of themselves as an alternative take on the character. In this, although it's very much a prequel of sorts to the original stories, we see something I would consider much closer to the actual character from the original page, albeit in a 'reckless youth' era. James Moriarty is quickly established as a friend and comrade of Holmes, from whom he learns much. Presumably, should the show run on sufficiently, we may get to see then transform into the bitter enemies they became in Conan Doyle's stories. The whole look of the show, filmed on location primarily in Wales, Oxford, and with Bristol standing in for Victorian London, is absolutely beautiful. The level of action is appropriate, and, like any good Steven Knight piece (I'm honestly surprised he wasn't involved here, tbh), soundtracked with anachronistic but highly appropriate later material. An early chase sequence plays out to the drive of the Damned's Neat Neat Neat. The action, however, does not overwhelm the character building, or the detection work by Holmes, which remains true to the character being brilliant at deduction, rather than the absurd wizardry to which the BBC's Sherlock all too often resorted in its diminished third and fourth series. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8599532/?ref_=fn_t_1 Well worth a watch.

 

[Harp]

^ Always open for a decent Holmes, though to be honest about it, Jeremy Brett stole the character
cleanly with his hand in glove deftness and urbane manner. The quintessential Holmes in my opinion,
and not to be outdone by Downey, ***berbatch, or anyone else. ***berbatch nailed Alan Turing in
The Imitation Game and rates highly with me. Downey handled the Holmes role well enough; however, directorial interpretive license ruined the film with a decidedly erroneous approach.

 

[Edward]

^ Always open for a decent Holmes, though to be honest about it, Jeremy Brett stole the character
cleanly with his hand in glove deftness and urbane manner. The quintessential Holmes in my opinion,
and not to be outdone by Downey, ***berbatch, or anyone else. ***berbatch nailed Alan Turing in
The Imitation Game and rates highly with me. Downey handled the Holmes role well enough; however, directorial interpretive license ruined the film with a decidedly erroneous approach.

I have a lot of time for Brett's portrayal. Probably the first I ever saw (I think he was how I discovered Holmes; I'd have been ten in 1984 when it first screened. As memory serves, it was preceded by a Young Sherlock Holmes series in 1982, which I do recall seeing, though I think it was a later repeat after Brett had screened that I would have seen, as I'm sure I remember it coming after I'd seen some adult Holmes. It's also one that sat very true to the books as I recall. Such a shame they didn't manage all of them (I believe they did somewhere around two thirds of the stories). There's room in the world for a production company to really commit to doing all of the Holmes canon with one Sherlock, in the same manner as Suchet played Poirot in every Christie story. Perhaps if the present Young Sherlock is a success, it might stimulate market demand for something along those lines.

The Downey Jr version was certainly wide of the mark for the books as written, though in terms of doing something interesting with it that hadn't been done before, it had its place for me. The current series feels much truer to what I would imagine the character on the page to be like at nineteen. It'll be interesting to see how they develop this; it could in theory run on past the prequel stage and evolve into the adult Holmes with the will and the funding.

***berbatch's turn was marvellous for the first two series, but the latter half of the show I found rather poor. I like to blame this on Moffat (I rate Gatiss too highly as a writer for him to be to blame), as it disappeared into all Moffat's typical tropes, particularly a fifty minute episode dominated by forty five minutes of set-up in which we are invited to view the writer as being as clever as he clearly believes himself to be, followed by a lazy and rushed conclusion, full of plotholes. A shame, as the earlier series had such promise.

 

[Edward]

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man (Netflix) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15574124/

Posting this here as, really, it's a TV show in the end, and inevitably discussion will veer much back into the TV series and its continuation.

This being the feature-length conclusion to the show, which also had a cinema release. Timing didn't work for me to catch it in the cinema, though anyone who gets the opportunity will certainly find this piece to be on a cinematic scale. The basic arc of the narrative - which could be said to be old gangster comes out of retirement for one last job - works as a standalone, but really its true purpose is to act as both love letter and conclusion to the television series.


As ever with Peaky, the narrative here incorporates elements of true history with the Small Heath boys. The action opens during the Birmingham Blitz, with a depiction of the real event of the 1940 bombing of the Birmingham Small Arms factory (in Peaky World, a workplace with direct connections to the Peaky Blinders). The night shift munitions workers had been offered the chance to go to a shelter, but unanimously chose to remain and keep working through the bombing. Here the events play out as they did in real life: a Luftwaffe bomb scores a direct hit, destroying the factory and killing all inside. (The film's closing credits carry a dedication to those workers who died that night.)

The narrative then shifts to contrast the ongoing war with the half-life of Tommy Shelby, who has since last we saw him cut himself off from the outside world, living among his various ghosts, with only the loyal Johnny Dogs for company, visiting the graves of his daughter, brother Arthur, and others buried within the grounds of his country estate. The Shelby dead present a foreboding presence in the film; their absence is almost a character in itself. Tommy is, however, inevitably drawn back into the Small Heath underworld in order to deal with his problematic son, who has taken over "running the Peaky Blinders like it's nineteen nineteen". Thereafter we have a tale of family, loyalty, and thwarting Germany's WWII-era leaderships (the last element somewhat based on known Germany's WWII-era leadership plots to undermine the British economy with forged banknotes).

The visuals are stunning. As ever with this show, costume is important. There's a moment when Tommy sheds his 'retirement' clothes in favour of his Peaky 'uniform', which is as iconic and powerful as Professor Jones donning the fedora again. A particularly nice touch is how the new generation of Blinders dress, echoing the previous generation (most obviously with the caps), but with very 1930s details (as appropriate for 1940).

No plot spoilers here, save to say that I found it a highly satisfying conclusion to the saga of the Shelby family between 1919 and 1940. Steven Knight, the writer, always said from the off that he wanted to tell the 'between the wars' story, an era often ignored in popular culture in Britain. He did say early on that he foresaw the ending of the story being with the first air raid siren in Birmingham (which came in mid 1940). This film moves the action on from that by several months. Myself, I always thought that an appropriate ending would be when Tommy's son, Duke's conscription papers hit the mat, heralding the coming brutalisation of another generation of Shelby men, to return (if they return) damaged and dangerous after 1945. This film, however, in incorporating WW2 rather than leading up to it, is more of a bridge, a passing of the torch, to a new generation. It's unclear whether, when the story picks up in 1953 (an ordered two-season, next-generation show is already in the works), Duke and his Blinders will have been through the hell of war; much may depend on whether they can avoid conscription. They're a different proposition altogether, as while Duke's ferocity has, by this film's end, been somewhat tempered with a sense of morality, he's already a brutalised killer without seeing war.

Also reported planned is a prequel based around Aunt Polly. A better choice perhaps, than a once mooted idea of a WW1 set prequel focussing on the Small Heath *****s. Much as I'd watch that to death, I can't help but think that maybe the legend of In the Bleak Mid Winter works best in the imagination? Though in truth, the more I think about it, the more I also think it would be truly arresting as a screen moment.

Any case, the 1953 story is currently in the works (filming began on the fifth of March, 2026), and should be on screen in 2027.

 

[Harp]

^ Sam Neil's admonishment to Murphy's character Thomas Shelby that ''men such as we must
pay for love,'' is quite telling; beyond shadows cast long into fateful thunderstorm gales.
No spoilers here, but a blackbird cackles distant memory toward ghosts reincarnate and live demons
hellbent vengeance set against the Second World War, a lone harbinger portending tragedy.
Shelby seems proverbial Sisyphean figure, unable to escape cobweb fate shackle or the times surrounding him. A Classic continuance with excellence throughout its spellbinding capture.

 

[Edward]

^ Sam Neil's admonishment to Murphy's character Thomas Shelby that ''men such as we must
pay for love,'' is quite telling; beyond shadows cast long into fateful thunderstorm gales.
No spoilers here, but a blackbird cackles distant memory toward ghosts reincarnate and live demons
hellbent vengeance set against the Second World War, a lone harbinger portending tragedy.
Shelby seems proverbial Sisyphean figure, unable to escape cobweb fate shackle or the times surrounding him. A Classic continuance with excellence throughout its spellbinding capture.

There's certainly something of Michael Corleone about Tommy Shelby. Sam Neil's turn in Peaky was outstanding; not only did he nail a challenging accent, but it was an excellent delivery of an accent and dialect very specific to a particular area and social class, gave real depth to the character. He might have been only seven when he left the Six Counties, but he clearly absorbed a lot in that short time.

 

[Harp]

^ I didn't know of his Northern Ireland background; only that he was a Kiwi with evident polish.
Particularly fond of Riley, Ace of Spies and his work in The Tudors as Wolsey. I was in Las Vegas for
professional concern when I chanced Tudors, and Neil kept me glued to television, firmly resistant collegial
entreaties to fun and frolic. It's unfortunate he lost Bond to Dalton. Biased, but Bond is best played by
an Irishman or Scot. With Campbell, he captured the essence of man, milieu, and moment with extraordinary
precision.

 

[graceallen]

The last TV show I watched was The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. It was really fun and relaxing. The interviews were interesting, and the jokes were simple but entertaining. It’s a good show to watch when you want something light and enjoyable.

 

[DogFacePonySoldier]

Not recent but really is one of the most brutal well paced show I have seen. It’s like Sopranos minus all the familial fluff, if you seen Sopranos and remember when they went to Naples with the kid getting smacked that’s the mafia portrayed Naples.

 

[Harp]

Disney's The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (1964); starring Patrick McGoohan as Dr Christopher Syn,
a real life historical eighteenth century English church pastor who rebelled against George III and tyrannous
public taxation with other unlawful practice disguised as a scarecrow. Found YouTube and first watched
childhood, this feature recalls the rich tapestry of reading Walt Disney brought to children with powerful
moral address, bequeathing fond remembrance and deep seated appreciation. Majestic.

 

[Worf]

Disney's The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (1964); starring Patrick McGoohan as Dr Christopher Syn,
a real life historical eighteenth century English church pastor who rebelled against George III and tyrannous
public taxation with other unlawful practice disguised as a scarecrow. Found YouTube and first watched
childhood, this feature recalls the rich tapestry of reading Walt Disney brought to children with powerful
moral address, bequeathing fond remembrance and deep seated appreciation. Majestic.

I remember that program on Disney as a child. Great theme song and one quote stuck with me.... I'm trying to do this from age clouded memory. Please correct me if I get it wrong.

"To Oppose the un-just laws of men, you must follow God's Law" Hence he did not kill.

 

[Harp]

I remember that program on Disney as a child. Great theme song and one quote stuck with me.... I'm trying to do this from age clouded memory. Please correct me if I get it wrong.

"To Oppose the un-just laws of men, you must follow God's Law" Hence he did not kill.

Scarecrow in a memorable episode, sentenced a local turncoat to the rope, so this may have been
an exception. However guised, an eighteenth century English highwayman Crown adversary would need
avail ****** or sword as necessity demanded.
The older I am, I appreciate all the more these shows from childhood, when parents could trust their kids
to television. I recall Paladin in a Have *** Will Travel episode explaining to a potential client that he charged more because he tried to resolve matters amicably without *** play violence. This made a deep impression. All those westerns had a teachable moral writ script.

 

[theeprimitivesound]

Mr Inbetween

 

[Zombie_61]

Disney's The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh (1964); starring Patrick McGoohan as Dr Christopher Syn,
a real life historical eighteenth century English church pastor who rebelled against George III and tyrannous
public taxation with other unlawful practice disguised as a scarecrow. Found YouTube and first watched
childhood, this feature recalls the rich tapestry of reading Walt Disney brought to children with powerful
moral address, bequeathing fond remembrance and deep seated appreciation. Majestic.

I remember watching this on "The Wonderful World of Disney" in the mid- to late-1960s, and liked it quite a bit. I was able to track it down on DVD and, watching it again as an adult, I felt the pace was much too slow for my tastes. Of course, as a child my brain seems to have recorded mostly the more exciting action sequences and not much else, so I'll have to give it another try one of these days.

 

[Harp]

I was able to track it down on DVD and, watching it again as an adult, I felt the pace was much too slow for my tastes.

I enjoy a slower paced psychological build with somewhat supernatural guised form tinged
with Scarecrow. A barn trial scene execution sentence presaged Divine Justice tilt as the
Scarecrow exhibited marked cruelty exactitude as a Christ like figure. Discernible but perhaps overlooked general public. McGoohan's title character is deliberate, cruel in criminal endeavor, but still reserved enigmatic persona. Slow molasses poison against injustice
seen as chess match adversary, not exhorbitant violent climactic rush towards meaningless
crescendo witnessed studio present tense. McGoohan's later Prisoner followed similar vein.

 

[Harp]

Trapsed YouTube yesterday, chanced upon some Peaky Blinders compile. This series strikes lightning with thunderous rolls across screen. Sam Neil, admitted favorite, particularly hit it on the money with his Major Campbell performance. Helen McCrory, Cilian Murphy et al. And the stories within story.

Scarcity storytelling. Takes the day away without regret.

 

[Edward]

The last TV show I watched was The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. It was really fun and relaxing. The interviews were interesting, and the jokes were simple but entertaining. It’s a good show to watch when you want something light and enjoyable.

Those nightly chat shows are a fascinating part of US TV culture, looking in on them from the outside. Similar chat show formats have long existed in the UK, but any attempt to take them into a four / five times a week nightly show has never lasted. Graham Norton's V Graham Norton was probably the most recent example in 2002/3 - over here, this sort of thing just seems to work better as a weekly thing. The last one that really ran any more regularly was the early-evening Wogan, which went out on BBC1 three times a week at 7pm, right after the main evening news, for a decade from 1982 to 1992. By 1992, it was perceived as flagging a bit, particularly with subscription television having arrived in the UK via satellite TV in 1990 (on top of home video having become very mainstream by the mid eighties) so viewers weren't so restricted to only the four free to air channels. In terms of the internet shifting things, TV's elder sibling radio seems to be in far ruder health, doubtless in part owing to its greater 'portability' as a medium.

Trapsed YouTube yesterday, chanced upon some Peaky Blinders compile. This series strikes lightning with thunderous rolls across screen. Sam Neil, admitted favorite, particularly hit it on the money with his Major Campbell performance. Helen McCrory, Cilian Murphy et al. And the stories within story.

Scarcity storytelling. Takes the day away without regret.

Helen McCrory was wonderful in it. Particularly adored her last series when she went for the Hepburn / Dietrich trousersuit and fedora look. Met her once - a friend was her dresser for a run at the NT - she was so down to earth and an absolute joy. Friend and I were having a coffee before the work evening started for them (I was going to see the show), and she came over to say hello on her way in. Friend says "This is my friend, Ed", and she - this major screen personality - extends her hand to me and says "Hello, I'm Helen" - none of this assuming that I knew who she was or anything. A delight.



Last night, stumbling around the Streamers after I'd exhausted my regular shows, I chanced across Catch 22 on Prime. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5056196 A 2019 Hulu production, six-part miniseries of Heller's famous novel, this got a lot of attention due to being co-produced, featuring, and also partially direct by George Clooney. I confess I have yet to read the novel so can't comment on how true to the source material it is, but the show is marvellous. It looks glorious - total A2 appreciation for those of you so inclined. I'd love to get to see the jackets close-up. The USAAF Bombardier Group it features is fictional, but I suspect rom the glimpses I've caught that some of the squadron patches and such are real. It comes from the same 'tragedy of war' angle as the likes of M*A*S*H, but the humour is more satirical, darker. It certainly pulls no punches about the sheer terror many experienced during the air war, particularly the front ***ner in a glass bowl on the nose of the plane. Deftly played, there are some real shocks that hit every bit as hard and harder as the emotional gutpunch of the [spoiler alert] mother and Child going down with all hands audible via radio in Memphis Belle. For anyone else who, like me, missed this before now, well worth seeing.

 

[Harp]

^ Only caught a few YouTube glimpses of Clooney's Catch-22; however, I will categorically dismiss George et al as an afterwards two-bit nice try but no cigar because the original (essential film) spectacular 1970s flick starring Alan Arkin as Yossarian, definitely took the cake. Classics done amazingly well crafted, cast, creations should be left alone. Untouched; since, simply put it was superbly done.

Nota bene: Strolled around the Lounge's A2 Jacket celeb wear thread and caught several fine snaps taken of the Pearl Harbor and Redfins leather clad crews. Also, Spencer Tracy's Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo with amazing A2 Doolittle Raiders sewn crest insignia. I still have my own bootleg Aero black horse Deuce from long ago 101st Airborne days, a pride and joy possession. (A tad off topic, but I had a shot at purchasing the Eastman A2 that Helen's husband Damien Lewis wore in Band of Brothers, but passed for whatever reason).

And, speaking of Helen, my heart grieves. A splendid lady and superb actress possessing tornadic charism.
Awe struck over her work in Blinders. Helen's absence in closing Blinders chapter and The Immortal Man sorely noticed and notable. RIP dear rose Helen.