The TV Thread

[Bedford Roughyed]

Andor season 2 on Disney+.  It’s fantastic.  That’s my review.

[Futtocks]

 

[Futtocks]

I'm having a mini-binge of episodes of Hannay, starring Robert Powell. Old-fashioned adventures of good eggs versus bad sorts, with Powell picking up from his performance in The 39 Steps a decade previously.

[Oxford]

 

[Oxford]

 

[Futtocks]

Claire Grogan and one member of Strawberry Switchblade play a very cheap-looking Space Invaders knock-off.

 

[Sidi Fidi Gold]

10 minutes ago, Futtocks said:

Claire Grogan and one member of Strawberry Switchblade play a very cheap-looking Space Invaders knock-off.

 

Strawberry Switchblade, it only seems like, since yesterday that they had their big hit, I've forgot what they called it though.

[Oxford]

 

[Father Gascoigne]

On a browse of looking at things to download, I came across a new C4 documentary, which I just watched. 

I'd never heard of Greggs, but according to the documentary it's overtaken McDonalds in the UK. The sausage in their signature sausage roll is 24% meat, which is somewhat disconcerting. 

Edited May 13 by Father Gascoigne

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 hour ago, Father Gascoigne said:

On a browse of looking at things to download, I came across a new C4 documentary, which I just watched. 

I'd never heard of Greggs, but according to the documentary it's overtaken McDonalds in the UK. The sausage in their signature sausage roll is 24% meat, which is somewhat disconcerting. 

It's this joke of a bakery chain that all American tourists here are desperate to try out because they think it is a big fast food place in this country despite a good proportion of Britons and British Geese thinking it is worse quality food than you would get in a Siberian Gulag.

[Futtocks]

2 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

It's this joke of a bakery chain that all American tourists here are desperate to try out because they think it is a big fast food place in this country despite a good proportion of Britons and British Geese thinking it is worse quality food than you would get in a Siberian Gulag.

It has become a bit of an inverted snobbery brand here. Always namechecked as being miles better than anything "poncey".

[Stirlin]

Just finished this series , stars Benicio Del Torro , Paul Dano  and Patricia Arquette .

Watch Escape at Dannemora, Season 1 | Prime Video

[Futtocks]

Currently on the iPlayer, Arrows with Eric Bristow (1979). A half-hour special about the Crafty Cockney when he was a rising star. Quite a time capsule, even if Darts isn't your thing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04v6f99/arrows-with-eric-bristow 

[Bedford Roughyed]

On 24/04/2025 at 10:56, Bedford Roughyed said:

Andor season 2 on Disney+.  It’s fantastic.  That’s my review.

As the season is over, I can report that it's superb.  

[Oxford]

"Forgotten British Television" on Youtube in case anyone's not come across it yet.

[Oxford]

 

[Oxford]

It's one of those things where you imagine  your memory's playing tricks but because of the amount of stuff I'm just finding I'm starting to think telly was better then ......

It may have been actors were a lot cheaper of course 

[Gerrumonside ref]

Rematch

(European produced but now on Disney+)

This drama charts the most famous man vs machine matchup when world chess champion Garry Kasparov took on IBM’s Deep Blue in the 1990s.

It’s a very interesting story, well told and well acted, weaving fact with dramatised elements to produce a great psychological drama whether you understand chess or not.

I’d studied the games many years ago as part of a chess training regime and understood some of the background controversy, but this drama had me gripped with its ‘auteur’ European style of telling.

8/10

 

 

 

[Oxford]

 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Over the last few nights, I've started watching Frasier again for the first time in years and I must say, I am really enjoying it.

As I've said on here before, one of my biggest loves in life is British comedy. I've never been a big fan of American television (my film preferences are very much British as well) however for some reason I've always got on with Frasier. I think it's because there is a real variety of quite original storylines and I do especially like the running story of Niles' love for Daphne. 

The stories have far more variety and imagination than something like Friends where just about every story over 10 seasons is just about relationships and sex which quite frankly just gets very boring very quickly.

I just needed something different to watch rather than the same half dozen or so British shows over and over and so far I am very satisfied!

[Adelaide Tiger]

A few weeks ago I came across a new channel on Foxtel called Australian Classic and much to my great joy every night at 6pm is an episode of Skippy which was always my favourite show as a kid.   I may now be 61 years of age but when every episode starts with Sonny whistling for Skippy, I feel the same joy as I did when I was 4 or 5 years old when Skippy first hit the UK screens in the late 60’s.

I still remember when my wife to be, first met my mam.  They got yapping and somehow their conversation went on to what was I like as a kid.  My mam just said ‘Ooh, he loved watching Skippy.  Every time it came on, he would jump up and down on the settee twirling his arms around his head pretending to be the helicopter!’.  So every time an episode starts the wife says ‘Are you going to be jump on the settee tonight?’.

[Derwent]

Bob Servant - rewatched it recently after a few years, still very funny and Brian Cox is very good in the title role.

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, Derwent said:

Bob Servant - rewatched it recently after a few years, still very funny and Brian Cox is very good in the title role.

He did a few Bob Servant shows on Radio 4 too, but they aren't currently available on iPlayer.

But there's this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002ctnp/remembers-brian-cox-remembers-bob-servant 

Edited May 30 by Futtocks

[Futtocks]

17 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Over the last few nights, I've started watching Frasier again for the first time in years and I must say, I am really enjoying it.

As I've said on here before, one of my biggest loves in life is British comedy. I've never been a big fan of American television (my film preferences are very much British as well) however for some reason I've always got on with Frasier. I think it's because there is a real variety of quite original storylines and I do especially like the running story of Niles' love for Daphne. 

The stories have far more variety and imagination than something like Friends where just about every story over 10 seasons is just about relationships and sex which quite frankly just gets very boring very quickly.

I just needed something different to watch rather than the same half dozen or so British shows over and over and so far I am very satisfied!

Frasier is not just a perpetual pleasure for me, but it's one of the vanishingly few TV shows my dad can watch without coming across someone he can't stand.

So at least we can watch TV together for about half an hour at a time when I visit.

Edited May 30 by Futtocks

[OriginalMrC]

18 hours ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Over the last few nights, I've started watching Frasier again for the first time in years and I must say, I am really enjoying it.

As I've said on here before, one of my biggest loves in life is British comedy. I've never been a big fan of American television (my film preferences are very much British as well) however for some reason I've always got on with Frasier. I think it's because there is a real variety of quite original storylines and I do especially like the running story of Niles' love for Daphne. 

The stories have far more variety and imagination than something like Friends where just about every story over 10 seasons is just about relationships and sex which quite frankly just gets very boring very quickly.

I just needed something different to watch rather than the same half dozen or so British shows over and over and so far I am very satisfied!

Frasier is great. Something I'll happily watch over and over. Its not quite up there with Seinfeld for me but its certainly up there.

I love British sitcoms but the US has produced loads of brilliant sitcoms too.