DB7

An assorted bag last night. Dead Man's Shoes followed by Alf's Button Afloat.

DMS was a very bloody tale of small town revenge but the tension never builds as Paddy Considine despatches each victim. It couuld have done with being a bit more stylistic as seeing a gang of drug dealers packed into a Citreon C5 looks more humourous than menacing.

Alf's Button Afloat is a typical Varnel fantasy comedy that places the Crazy Gang onboard HMS Invicta - with Alastair Sim the genie trapped in the tunic button. Good clean fun as the gang help the guy get his gal.

DB7

oops Also watched the pilot for Blackadder. (never seen it before) Tony Robinson didn't play Baldrick but 'cunning plan' was already in the script. Edmund's character was far more in tune with the black-clad Machiavellian of the later episodes than the wet fop of the first series.

smudge

We watched the first episode of the 1971 PUBLIC EYE TV series. Another cracking release from Network Video and well worth the money. Very difficult to resist the temptation of watching more than one episode a night - but Missus says I have to be disciplined (Ooh-er!) so that it'll last us a couple of weeks....

Also watched DEAD MAN WEDS ep2, which I'd recorded the night before, and herself was crying with laughter when the dorky-boy took the Obituary and read it over, " In memory of XXX - the Deadest Dad in town..." ('Dearest' hisses the daughter, as the mum breaks down again.) "Old people can't write for **** can they ?"

It shows promise - hopefully it won't just fade out like Peter KAy's MAX & PADDY did in the end.

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

The_Late_Peter_Cook

I watched 'The Family Way' on DVD. It was the first time I watched that movie since the late 'eighties. It was far better than I remembered, John Mills in particular gave an excellent performance.

DB7

The Majestic on BBC2.
Jim Carey's a McCarthy era screenwriter suspected of being a communist, he suffers amnesia after his car plunges into the river and starts a new life in a small town when washed ashore. Obviously the Feds eventually track him down and his memory returns.

An old style Capraesque feelgood movie with a good performance from Carey in a straight role.

DB7

The Great Riviera Bank Robbery (1979). (aka Dirty Money).

An obscure heist film with tv-film values starring Ian McShane and Warren Clarke. Sadly the real events of a 1976 Nice bank robbery are more remarkable than this by-numbers reenactment portrays.

Apparently most of the money was never recovered and the criminal mastermind died in South America in the late 1980s.

Jim

I don't like being ill - who does? But this week I've got the the 'deaded crut', as the Goons would say. So what a black and white treat from Channel 4!

All Brit movies on in the afternoon!

Watched the video of Porterhouse Blue last night - brilliant! Poor old Lionel Zipser, just about to become a non-virgin, only to get blown up!!!!

Did the production company 'blow-up' more than was intended. The college looked to be a real old part or the campus. Does anyone know more about this please? I shall have to watch it again - it's excellent!

Good morning boys.

deckard

Yep! Channel 4 certainly take the prize at the moment, lots of good stuff being shown almost daily. Just stop and think a minute...if it weren't for them we'd be in a right sorry state! Regards, Decks.

"and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock"

The_Late_Peter_Cook

No Highway In The Sky (1951). Despite starring James Stewart and Marlena Dietrich it seemed British to the core, with a stalwart supporting cast which included Kenneth More, Jack Hawkins and Dora Bryan.

Steve Crook

Recently I got the DVDs that have been released so far of the TV series Press Gang (1989). Starring Julia Sawalha, Dexter Fletcher, Paul Reynolds and many other young actors who have since gone on to great things (and some others who were very good but seem to have not become so famous).

Ostensibly a children's TV series, it was broadcast in the "after school" slot. It covered some amazing subjects like drug abuse, disability, child abuse, suicide and many others. But it did them in a very skillful way thanks to the great acting and superb writing by Steven Moffat, probably one of the best TV writers around at the moment. He also wrote Coupling (2000).

Steve

Steve Crook

PaPAS

DB7

Strongroom courtesy of Smudge. Another taut little crime drama from Veron Sewell. The two leads from Sewell's Man in the Back Seat reappear and once again are crooks struck down with a crisis of conscience; not helped by series of coincidences conspiring against them.

The_Late_Peter_Cook

The Good Die Young taped off Channel 4. A bit stodgey in places at the start, but turned into a very gripping thriller. Stanley Baker was vey good (as usual1) and the airport conclusion remindered of THE KILLING which was a made a couple of years later.

By the way, that still of Gloria Grahame being drowned by John Ireland in the A-Z listing doesn't appear in the actual movie. Instead there's a comic moment where he drops her in the bath and walks away to the sound of her annoyed shouts.

[ 22. January 2005, 18:33: Message edited by: The_Late_Peter_Cook ]

mysteriesofedgarwallace

Strongroom is a cracking film, with an un-expected twist in the dying seconds.
Also, Derren Nesbitt (one of my favourite actors) is always very good value for money,

DB7

I chuckled at the scene in the van when having just robbed a bank, Nesbitt exclaims "What do you want me to do? Break the law!" when it's suggested he drive the bank managers car without a driving license.

The_Late_Peter_Cook

TOWN ON TRIAL, another afternoon movie taped off Channel 4 and another that was given shortshift by the Radio Times reviewer.

Far better than I remembered (I first saw it well over ten years ago), Mills was fine in a hard-edged role (the kind that you normally saw Stanley Baker play)