Blogs

My Murder BBC 3 written by Levi David Addal is a factional account of how a sixteen year old boy was set up by his fifteen year old girlfriend and stabbed to death. The dramatization begins and ends with his death. In between we learn Shakilus Townsend (played by John Boyega) or Shakky is just out of prison or youth borstal and determined to start a new life, go to college and make something of himself. It’s not easy. He refuses to recognize...

Horizon: The Truth about Fat. Surgeon Gabriel Weston chews every word before enunciating. She seems to live off words. There was some swizz about her eating a full fry up and some sticky bun, but I’m sure she never swallowed. Why should a person so thin that she can’t be seen sideways investigate the truth about fat? Perhaps the problem is fat people don’t know they are fat. As someone remarked to me today maybe it’s time you went back to...

White Heat (BBC2) I’ve been following White Heat. White Heat, of course, refers to that antique phrase, by, I think it was good old Tony Benn, that went something like the white heat of new technology, blah, blah, blah…(but without the blahs). So it’s 1965. History is happening on the black and white television in Jack’s livingroom-Churchill is dying and then there is a little matter of his state funeral- bollocks to all that. There’s Petuala...

‘Round Ireland with a Fridge’ (2010) BBC 4, directed by Ed Bye and starring Tony Hank (or Tony Hawk, I can’t read my own writing) as the mad kind of guy that makes a bet that he can hitch-hike around Ireland with a fridge. This is what he does and he lives to tell the tale. Not only does he live to tell the tale he writes a book about it. He makes a BBC drama about it and he gets the girl. Whether he actually gets the girl or whether he just...

(500) Days of Summer written by Scott Neuaster et al and starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. I really like the name Zooey. It’s kinda kooky and sweet. Anyway I can’t remember what Zooey’s character’s name is because she looks kinda kooky with her black hair and denim blue eyes, which are really her best feature, although, I have to admit she has also got a peachy body, but, that apart, she’s no stunner, although she is definitely...

My Secret Phone Sex. Sex sells as we all know and Channel 4 knows in particular. So a documentary about sex sells very well. So we had old hand Jenny, if you’ll pardon the pun, first time Rosa, and upper class and quite pretty sex worker thingmy, whose name I can’t remember. But names don’t matter. It’s all pseudonyms and different voices. Rather like writing. Blindsight, BBC 4. Six blind Tibetans tackle Everest. There were also two blind guides...

Knuckle-bare fist fighters BBC 4. I like Storyville and this is a far more interesting take than something like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. But it’s difficult to make a comparison with something you’ve seen and something you’ve not seen, which is the case in the latter, so I’ll restrict my remarks to the former. The feud between two clans of travelling families, the Quinn Mc Donagh and Joyce’s was filmed over 12 years, but goes back to an incident...

Inglourious Bastards (2009) by Quentin Tarintino is a simple story of how the Second World War was won by Brad Pitt and co. Brad played one of the Bastards a group of renegade soldiers, of Jewish origin, who delighted in killing Nazis and, in particular, SS Nazis. The rest of it is all schmuck. Brad guarantees that the picture will make some money and Tarintino does his Woody Allen and makes films that please himself (cf Kill Bill) and another...

Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective, directed by Jon Amiel and starring Michael Gambon as the Singing Detective. Well, not as the Singing Detective, because he is a fictional product of Philip Marlowe’s deluded brain. He is an author lying in a hospital bed suffering from arthritic psoriasis. His body is one big scab. His books come alive in his head and onscreen. Patients break into popular song and dance numbers and Michael Gambon as Philip...

My Dog Tulip BBC4 by J.R. Ackerly, screenplay by Paul Ferlinger. This is an autobiography of a man and his dog, or a dog and his man. It’s a love story. They love each other. J.R. Ackerly is a fusty middle aged man who lives alone. His life is transformed when Tulip arrives. It’s his dog and no other. When his sister tries to woo Tulip with doggy snacks and tricks it doesn’t work. No vet can treat Tulip because he is so love sick he won’t allow...