PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 458

The price of Hyperdrive dropped a bit and I decided to order a copy of the three DVD set. It's got the two series of the show, only 12 episodes in all, and some extras. The series was created and written by Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley and John Henderson is the director.

That's Kevin Elton, Nick Frost and Miranda Hart in what are some of the worst uniforms on a TV show. All I can think of is that they look like the front of the jackets are dingy. The trio are the main characters in the show. I like all three actors. Nick you know from the Simon Pegg films he's in and the odd bit of TV. Miranda I like on panel shows and she was really great in Lee Mack's series Not Going Out. I was sad to see her character move on. Kevin I had only become aware of recently, he appears on a couple of Bill Bailey's Live Comedy DVDs. He had a show briefly and you can see it on YouTube.

Nick is the Captain of a ship in the British Space Navy. He's not very competent but neither is his crew. Some took their jobs instead of prison. Besides keeping an eye out on British citizens in space he's been tasked to make business deals with new alien races. He's not quite up to either job. Amanda is the diplomatic officer and Kevin is the first officer. She's not very good at her job and he's a crazy man. Amanda has a crush on the Captain but he's not interested.

They often get into a lot of trouble with those aliens, mostly because they screw up the mission someway. There isn't anyone in the rest of the crew that's very competent, either. There isn't much help from the Navy, Nick and his ship aren't to well respected by the Top Brass. Still they muddle on.

I really liked the big inflatable head dresses on the aliens up there. Most of the costumes on the aliens are fun and the make up is top notch. I thought the CGI was pretty good. They hired good artists who created interesting space ships and nice imaginary locations. The insides of the ships and alien locations were good. They even shot some scenes in a quarry. Somewhat traditional in a BBC SF show.

It's a well made show and liked it. It's not going to be in my top ten SF comedies, top twenty maybe. It gets compared to Red Dwarf, but it doesn't live up to that comparison. It's a different type of show, different type of comedy. The Captain is more a pencil pusher than a James T Kirk kind of guy. Hyperdrive gets compared to The Office and that's not as weird as you might think, both programs are about incompetent corporate types running an office. While there's a good bit of humor but it's pretty low key stuff and I'm not laughing at all the jokes. I did like the characters, even though they are a bunch of idiots. The actors all do a great job playing the parts and they all seem to be having a great time doing it. I'm not sad to have bought the DVD and I'll watch it again sometime. There are some average extras and the writers and writers do commentaries for each episode. I've only listened to the first series commentaries but they are filled with info and useless natter in equal portions. I've certainly heard worse.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong BBC 2017

From the YouTube video description: As part of its commitment to community theatre, the BBC has commissioned The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, an amateur dramatics group, to recreate the JM Barrie classic as part of their festive programming. But can they pull it off? Narrated by David Suchet and filmed in front of a live audience, watch as Peter Pan flies through the air, Captain Hook and his pirates set adrift in the lagoon, and Tinkerbell is due to light up the stage in a stunning electrical costume... what can possibly go wrong?! Find out here.

I thought it was pretty funny and worth a look for those that like a bit of silly with their theater.

Medieval Lives with Terry Jones

Terry Jones hosts Medieval Lives, a 2003 BBC production that ran 8 episodes, and he's also the writer of the series. One of the episodes was nominated for an Emmy. It's an interesting look at medieval life and it changes what I thought was the truth. Isn't that the way of the world. If you piled up all the books that have wrong info from the last 100 years you could have a good bonfire. I didn't know that Richard III was a better king then Richard the Lionhearted.

Here's a bit from the Wikipedia in which Terry comments on why he made the series: Terry Jones explained his motivation for making this series in the article in The Observer "The main reason I wanted to make Medieval Lives was to get my own back on the Renaissance. It's not that the Renaissance has ever done me any harm personally, you understand. It's just that I'm sick of the way people's eyes light up when they start talking about the Renaissance. I'm sick of the way art critics tend to say: 'Aaaah! The Renaissance!' with that deeply self-satisfied air of someone who is at last getting down to the Real Thing. And I'm sick to death of that ridiculous assumption that that before the Renaissance human beings had no sense of individuality."

It's an entertaining series, as is the Gladiator: The Brutal Truth program from a few years earlier. Even though they call it a Medieval Lives Extra it has nothing to do with the series.

Ben Elton - The Man From Auntie Series 1-2

Ben Elton: The Man from Auntie is a 1990 BBC production. The title is a play on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. with Auntie being a nickname for the BBC. The first series aired in 1990 and the second series in 1994. In 1998 Ben returned to the BBC for The Ben Elton Show.

The Man From Auntie is mostly Ben talking a mile a minute, they cut away to a short sketch every few minutes. I though I recognized the occasional other actor but I wasn't sure from what, the names in the credits weren't familiar. 

Ben is a long time stand up comic and TV show writer. His best stuff might be The Young Ones or Blackadder, it's a tough call.

Now For Nookie Series 1

Now For Nookie is a 1981 TV series that ran 6 episodes back in 1981. Roger De Courcey and Nookie Bear host the kids comedy show. There's them yakking, doing the ventriloquist thing, some sketches and a pop star sings a song. Lulu appeared in one episode but I haven't seen that one yet. What I read on the internet tells me Nookie was fairly popular back in the 70s and 80s. I don't remember ever hearing about him but a lot of the TV he would be doing would never have made it to Canadian TV. Only with the arrival of DVD and YouTube can you see a lot of these things. These episodes do have a British DVD release but it's not worth the 12 bucks it would cost me to get one sent over.

Friday Night Movies 647

Up first is the new Jackie Chan movie Kung Fu Yoga. It came out in 2017 and it's written and directed by Stanley Tong. This is a sequel of sorts to The Myth, Jackie plays the same archeologist in both films. I'd forgotten that, The Myth isn't near the top of favorite Jackie movies. Stanley directed The Myth and it was the last film he directed before Kung Fu Yoga.

Jackie is one of the better archeologists in China. He tells a story, that's show in CGI animation, about India's lost Magadha treasure and how it was lost. This happened in Tibet over 1500 years ago. Then the movie takes up to the Terracotta Warrior Museum.

Jackie and his team find the treasure under the ice, they dig down, pull out a huge core of ice, and descend to the treasure. A greedy guy from India thinks the treasure should be his because he's a descendant of one of the people who died while carrying the treasure. He attacks the group and they fight back. The baddies plans are thwarted for now.

One of Jackie's team runs off with a big ass diamond. It turns up at auction and one of Jackie's team steals it. Everyone goes to India and gets treasure hunting. They find that big ass treasure and the baddie shows up again. There's a good bit of fighting, that looks OK, the archeology stuff is pretty goofy. In fact the whole movie is goofy and cartoon like. Some of the CGI isn't up to the better work we've been seeing out of China. There's a nice car chase in Dubai with all the cars being really expensive super cars. Some get wrecked a bit. No one gets hurt to bad, and I don't think anyone died. It's entertaining enough, kind of mindless fun, but it's not good enough to to get more than a 6 out of me. I was being kind because it only scores a 5.3 on the IMDb, that's pretty low for Jackie. The Myth gets a 6.2 and I gave it a 7. I'll pick up Kung Fu Yoga but I'll wait until it gets cheap.

I decided to order a copy of the Beat Girl Blu-Ray after seeing it again. We are watching the BFI restoration of the movie, it contains both a Blu-Ray and DVD. It's a 1960 British film that was called Wild For Kicks in the US. It's written by Dail Amber and directed by Edmond T Gréville. Dail didn't write more than 4 movies and a couple of TV shows. I haven't seen any of his other material. I did see the movie that Edmond directed right after Beat Girl, it was The Hands Of Orlac. You might have seen it. Most of his work was in the 1930s in France.

Beat Girl about a rich, spoilt teen, called Jennifer, who goes wild when her father brings home his French bride. It's been a couple of years since she died so he's not out of line or anything but his selfish daughter is only interested in wrecking the marriage. She is quite a bitch. You'd want to slap her if you met her.

She hangs out with some other beats, Oliver Reed is one of them, he plays Plaid Shirt, according to the credits. Pop star Adam Faith plays the beat with a heart of pacifism, he's got the guitar up above. They all hang out at a subterranean beat club. David Farr plays Jennifer's dad, Noëlle Adam plays the French bride Nichole, Christopher Lee plays sleazy strip club owner Kenny, Nigel Green is Kenny's right hand man at the strip club, which is called Les Girls. Scenes in the club are pretty sedate and there are so many lights on that the old men can't get a wank in. The girls never strip down too far, they have panties on and pasties. It's all rather innocent, in it's way.

I'd seen this last year, on YouTube, and enjoyed it. I couldn't remember the title but once a bit of the story played out it was starting to get familiar. There's some nice extras, part of what's driving my picking up a copy of the Blu-Ray. It comes with a DVD of the movie and it's only about 11 bucks with exchange and shipping. BFI has a few DVD/Blu-Ray combo titles for the same price. Of course I'll need to get an all region Blu-ray but that's been on the back burner for a while. I'm going to need one eventually, I was thinking it won't be long before I want a movie that I can only get in the UK or Europe.

Family Tree 2013

Christopher Guest and Jim Piddock, they created, wrote and produced Family Tree and Christopher directed. It's a 2013 production for HBO and the BBC. There's only one season and it has 8 episodes. HBO cancelled the series in 2014. Not enough tits or stabbing for the HBO crowd. That's my guess. I've not been much of a fan of HBO's comedy, the one with Brian BenBen, Dream On, was downright embarrassing, yet it proved to be rather popular. It was filled with bad jokes and bare breasts, so I guess that helped it's ratings. I didn't like Curb Your Enthusiasm at all. Larry David was so stupid in that it was painful to watch. On the other hand one of their comedy series is a big favorite, The Larry Sanders Show with Garry Shandling. I bought the UK DVD of Family Tree because it cost me 12 bucks, shipped to me, and the US DVD is about double on Amazon US.

Chris O'Dowd is Tom Chadwick, he gets a box from his late aunt Victoria, awoman he did not know. A photo and some buttons lead Tom on a search for his ancestors. He travels about the UK first and then takes a trip to Los Angeles. He meets all sorts of relatives and even a potential girlfriend. The show ends with a bit of a cliff hanger, someone should be slapped, but Tom does get some idea of  his family history. It's a painful lesson, in a way.

If you've seen Waiting For Guffman, or any of Christopher Guest's other comedies, you'll know what to expect joke wise. The words dry and subtle come to mind. Plenty of that going on here, I thought Family Tree didn't ever get real funny, I had no belly shaking laughter coming out of me. Compared to The IT Crowd or Ideal, Family Tree comes out flat.

You can't fault the acting, I thought everyone did well with their parts and there are a great number of entertaining actors on set. Joining Chris are Nina Conti, Michael McKean, Ed Begley Jr, Kevin Pollock, Bob Balaban, Fred Willard, Don Lake and Graham Green. Those are the ones I thought people might know best. Though the script was written by Guest and Piddock, both of whom appear in roles in the film, the actors get to do a lot of improvising. Sometimes it worked better than others.

I'm not sad to have seen it, or bought it. I'll probably watch it again, mostly to watch Chris and Nina. I'd certainly be watching The IT Crowd a couple of times before that happens.

8 Out Of 10 Cats On YouTube

Someone named acaster has been putting episodes of 8 Out Of 10 Cats up on YouTube. S0 far they have posted nearly the whole series 1-18, there are a few random episodes missing, but more are being added daily. There have been two series after 18 but they haven't posted any of those yet. 8 Out Of 10 Cats is one of my top panel shows. It might not achieve the intellectual level of Qi but there are way better nob gags. Sometimes I laugh so hard, I can hardly catch my breath.

The show is hosted by Jimmy Carr and each week he's joined by the two team captains and 4 additional panelists. Sean Lock hosted one team for the first 18 series. He's been replaced by Rob Beckett for the last two. The other team had Dave Spikey for series 1-3, Jason Manford for series 4- 10, with Jon Richardson captained for series 11-18. Replacing Jon for the last two series has been Aisling Bee.

I do miss Jon and Sean but Rob and Aisling are able replacements. With that many comedians you'd expect a lot of jokes and they deliver. I've seen some of these episodes 2 and 3 times and I still laugh. Out loud.

There are a few other programs posted, some might be of interest to Brit TV fans. The Great Comic Relief Bake Off and The Great Sport Relief Bake Off are posted, and a series I hadn't seen before, called King Of..., looked kind of interesting. There's a few random Qi's and series 3 of That Mitchell and Webb Look.

Gangsta Granny 2014

Gangsta Granny is the 2nd adaptation of a David Walliams novel. It's one of David's books that I haven't read. I need to get a copy but just haven't. I think about it then forget. Maybe this will remind me. The novel is adapted by David Walliams, Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil, with Matt Lipsey directing. Andy and Kevin have been writing for TV, as a team, since the early 90s. I've seen a smallish amount of their large pile of work: Big Train, Black Books, Little Britain and The Boy In The Dress. Matt's directed the 2nd series of Little Britain, Human Remains, Pyschoville, and Big School.

Reece Buttery plays Ben and Julia McKenzie plays Granny. Ben is a plumbing enthusiast and Granny makes cabbage soup for tea. Ben isn't very happy being fobbed off on Granny, he finds it boring, even though it makes his Gran happy.

David Walliams plays Granny's son Mike and Miranda Hart is Ben's mom Linda. They are a rather self absorbed couple who are very interested in dancing. That's why Ben gets left with Granny, they dance away the evening. They try to get Ben interested in dancing.

That doesn't go so well, Ben didn't practice, or even show up at rehearsals, and his partner dumps him just before they go on. It's all really unimportant to Ben, plumbing is his thing, his parents don't have much of an idea what Ben likes. He Granny had overheard him telling Mike that it's boring staying at Granny's place. She feeds him a story about her being an international jewel thief when she was young and she even has a tin of jewels she stole.

Granny never sold the jewels, she liked the excitement of the thieving, selling them would be wrong. Ben and Granny plan to break into the Tower of London, Granny's one unfinished heist. Ben, because of his plumbing interest, has figured out a way to get into the building via the sewers. The pair has plenty of fun planning.

Rob Brydon play Granny's neighbor, he's the neighborhood watch guy, he's always snooping around, he overhears the pair planning the heist. After Granny has a fall she goes to the hospital and it's discovered that she has a terminal illness. Because she doesn't have much time Ben talks her into continuing with the plan to steal the crown jewels.

Joanna Lumley plays the Queen. She catches them in the act but lets them go with a wish that more young people would act more caring to the elderly.

The family spend more time with Granny but there isn't much time left.

Ben gets a nice bit of as surprise from Granny after she's gone. It's a nice mix of funny and sentiment. The story is good, the cast, even better. Well worth a look.

Mr Stink 2012

Mr Stink is the first BBC adaptation of one of David Walliams' books. As you can see the Beeb cleverly copied the book's title so as to lure the viewer with something which was familiar. A cunning plan that worked rather well, 6.34 million turned on their tellies and watched. I wish I would have seen it then, it was broadcast in 3-D. Sadly the DVD doesn't come with a 3-D version. Mr Stink is the second David Walliams novel, it came out in 2009, I've read it. I really enjoyed it, and to repeat that pleasure, I've sought out other David Walliams books, some of them from foreign countries. Imagine that.

I recently bought a 3 DVD set of the first 3 BBC adaptations of David's books. I'm watching the shows in order of production. I had already seen the last reproduced program on YouTube. It looked so poor I'm sure the DVD will be like seeing it for the first time all over again.

Nell Tiger Free plays Chloe and Hugh Bonneville plays Mr Stink.

Mr Stink has a dog called The Duchess. He hangs out on that bench in a park. Chloe befriends him after the horrible girl at her school hits him with a banana peel. It was a good shot, right out the bus window, but she's still a rotter.

Sheridan Smith plays Chloe's mom Caroline and Johnny Vegas plays Chloe's father Mr Crumb. He doesn't have a first name for some reason. He's out of work but hasn't told anyone. Caroline is running for Tory MP in her area and she's got it in for the homeless. I'd seen Caroline in some of the later episodes of Jonathan Creek and Johnny was the main reason Ideal was so good. Johnny looks so clean cut here.

Isabella Blake-Thomas plays Chloe's sister Annabelle, she's all wrapped up in being a busy child prodigy. Harish Patel plays Raj, the friendly newsagent. He appears in almost all of the Williams novels, and he's often quite integral to the plot.

Steve Pemberton, whom I'd been seeing on The League Of Gentlemen lately, appears on Politics Tonight with Mr Stink. Caroline had been invited but only "if she brings the tramp". Mr Stink is a hit on the program and he gets an invite to see the Prime Minister. David Walliams plays the PM and he needs a bit of boost in his popularity. He hopes to use Mr Stink for that but that's not going to happen. I believe something up the bum was mentioned.

We learn about Mr Stink's background  and Chloe's family problems work themselves out during the show. The family has a lovely family Christmas.

His job done, Mr Stink decides to move on.

I got a tear in my eye at the end when Chloe and Mr Stink part ways, both times I watched it. We'd all like a Mr Stink in our lives, at least once. If you get one, hope he isn't too pongy.

It's a hat trick of script, cast and production. The cast were just great, and no wonder, they had such a great script. David Walliams wrote that script with  Simon Nye. Simon has written plenty of good TV, I've only seen a bit of it, Men Behaving Badly, the Reggie Perrin remake, and the recent The Durrells In Corfu. In the short interview on the DVD David talks about changing the story for the TV program. There might be a lot of small changes but they don't do anything to change the core of the story. Declan Lowney is the director. Declan has directed a lot of TV, including Father Ted, Wired, Little Britain and a show I just received in the mail, Moone Boy.

It's a nice story, you can't find many much better either. There are plenty of jokes and it's got heart without being overly sentimental. I plan to watch this over again. I know I'll be reading his books over again too.