Saturday 21 November

BLOGS

Blog Archive
March 2009
 

Robert Altman's swan song

Robert Altman
  • Posted at 11:22am
  • 06 March 2009
  • by AndrewCollins-RT

For studio insurance purposes, Robert Altman, aged 80, was required to have a standby director on what turned out to be his last film, A Prairie Home Companion (Saturday 7 March, BBC2).

He chose Paul Thomas Anderson, half his age, director of Magnolia (a multi-story collage that had a touch of Altman's narrative democracy about it) and There Will Be Blood (which echoed his love of authentic locations).

In the end, Altman completed the picture, and lived to see its release. He died from leukaemia in November 2006, aged 81.

I was sad to see him go. The languid, grainy, challenging films he...

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Monty Halls' Great Escape

Monty Halls
  • Posted at 5:30pm
  • 05 March 2009
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 7 comments

Maybe it's the approach of spring, but there's definitely something in the air, because everyone seems to be getting a bit frisky. Just look at the saucy on-screen trails for Mistresses and Holby City, all red satin, bondage, whips and black leather. Crikey! Whatever next, Dorcas the insufferable Lark Rise to Candleford postmistress in a gimp mask?

This skittishness is infectious, because how else can I explain my new crush: Jeremy Paxman, writer and presenter of the terrific social history series The Victorians (Sunday BBC2). Where were you when I was doing O-level social and economic history,...

7 comments

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Missing in Soapland

Lauren Crace as Danielle and Samantha Janus as Ronnie from EastEnders
  • Posted at 4:53pm
  • 05 March 2009
  • by GarethMcLean-RT

It is a truth universally acknowledged that, in Soapland at least, long-lost relatives rarely stay lost long enough. As Walford waif Danielle yet again vows to reveal to Ronnie that she's her daughter Amy, it's worth reflecting upon just how many long-lost children have reappeared over the years. Often given up for adoption, sometimes the product of a teenage or ill-advised tryst and occasionally the result of estranged exes' absconding with offspring, the long-lost child is a staple of soap.

In Emmerdale, it's rare for a relation with a revelation not to be a Dingle, though Carrie Nicholls' daughter Scarlett was quickly revealed to be Tom King's love...

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Extreme Fishing with Robson Green

Robson Green holding a sturgeon in Extreme Fishing
  • Posted at 3:21pm
  • 05 March 2009
  • by DavidButcher-RT
  • 36 comments

"It's a waiting game," said Robson Green's fishing guide as they tried to hook a sturgeon in the waters of British Columbia. A waiting game, you say? On TV? I know it's fishing, but that doesn't sound great. If I had to choose between, say, a football game and a waiting game, I know which I'd watch.

But this wasn't just fishing, it was Extreme Fishing with Robson Green. This was Five. They weren't about to make us sit and watch waiting. No, they edited out the waiting and instead gave us the bits where Robson whooped and swore violently and shouted "GET IN!" whenever...

36 comments

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Mad Men - why quality is better than quantity

John Hamm as Don Draper
  • Posted at 4:19pm
  • 02 March 2009
  • by AlisonGraham-RT
  • 12 comments

I have some sympathy with a recent exasperated RT correspondent who bemoaned the ubiquity of critical plaudits for Mad Men (starring Jon Hamm, below), a series that hasn't exactly taken a flaming torch to the ratings. Not that any of us expected it to: I realised long ago that the number of people (and we are not all journalists) who watch Mad Men could comfortably be fitted into an average-sized garden shed while still leaving room for the lawn mower and the paraffin heater.

Yes, there are few things quite as irritating as people banging on about a drama that you just can't bring yourself...

12 comments

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