Marky B

Generally,I find television a big turn off. I watched Emmerdale (not normally a soap fan,but I watched it a few years ago,go hooked on to a storyling and been with it since),The Bill (it went through a bad patch,but happily it is imrpoving) and of course The Simpsons on Channel 4.
Yet the media is obsessed with Celebrity Big Brother,I'm Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here,the antics of soap stars,and Z list people who perhaps play a small part in a television programme. David Jason is always lauded for his Frost series,but for me he is the most unconvincing detective on television (the most convincing is Jack Meadows in The Bill) as hei s nothing more than Del Boy in disguise. Don't get me wrong,I loved Del Boy and Only Fools and Horses.
Yet on a Saturday afternoon,there are two programmes which go unheralded. Monk,starring Tony Shalhoub and the gorgeous Bitty Schram,and Nero Wolfe starring Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton. Whilst the plots are perhaps implausible,they are both very entertaining programmes and at times witty,with Wolfe coming out with some snappy dialogue. No sex,no bad language,no violence,just good viewing.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed the chief detective in Monk is Ted Levine,Jame Gumm in Silence of the Lambs and apart from the main characters,some of the cast in Nero Wolfe are often used again,but playing different characters.
I look forward to Saturday afternoons just for these unheralded gems.
Ta Ta
Marky B thumbs_u

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

DB7

Never heard of either. oops

I'm not sure ITV or BBC1 have altered much in recent years but the launch of BBC digital seems to have brought about a diluting of BBC2's programming. But the biggest fall from grace is the once pioneering and original CH4; now little more than celebrity/people shows, top 100's and imported US tv.

Freddy

DB7
On behalf of Marky B and myself we humbly beseech you and all who might be interested to tape/watch Saturday afternoon detectives;
Monk, Nero Wolfe and Brett's Holmes, hopefully you will not be dissappointed.
I taped Midsommer on Sunday and couldn't help but notice the length and amount of adverts which interrupted the drama. Methinks I will tape a lot of the commercial channels in future.

regards
Freddy
ps the nice thing about watching is then seeing final score and 3 more points for Tranmere and Liverpool.

The world wags on.

DB7

That's just what we need - more detective shows! smash wink (are we talking afternoons on CH5?)

Man Utd at lunchtime tomorrow so if we win I'll be one happy camper. I'd even be agreeable to a Hugh Grant film. If we lose... violent

Freddy

What what what
BBC 2 , no adverts.
fingers xxxxxx for the game

The world wags on.

Marky B

BBC2 have "Watching the Detectives" on Saturday afternoon. Ifi t is not Monk or Wolfe,it's Cagney and Lacey,Sherlock Holmes and The Rockford Files (another favourite of mine).
Ta Ta
Marky B thumbs_u

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Marky B

In one of the Sunday supplements,Andrew Collins wrote a column about Monk,complaining it was scheduled only if there were no sport to show and at a time when most people are out. It is a shame,it maybe far fetched,but it is one of the most entertaining programmes on television with an excellent acting turn from Tony Shalhoub and a bit of eye candy from Bitty Schram [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wub.gif[/img] .
Ta Ta
Marky B [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I am special. The heavens always open for me.