Freeview Boxes : Classic or Dud?

film noir season on sky arts from Sunday. 3 part documentary and accompanying films. first up seems to be The Glass Key which I'm not familiar with.

ooh thanks for that heads up!

Glass Key is a Chandler adaptation, prob less known due to not having a famous director and Alan Ladd instead of Bogey or Mitchum

Good tip, Koogs.

THE GLASS KEY is not by Raymond Chandler.

Sorry, Hammett! Got confused because Bogart is Sam Spade in Maltese Falcon but also Marlowe in Big Sleep.

I read The Maltese Falcon just recently and was struck by a) the extreme faithfulness of the Bogart/Huston film and b) that there are no other Sam Spade novels (just a couple of short stories).

Yeah, I read the audiobook of that and it did v much feel like listening to a radio version of the film.

Legend are showing The Twilight Zone (the original) from the beginning. times seem to be all over the shop though.

"Vanishing Point", Talking Pictures, 9.30pm tonight.

Watching a Twilight Zone on Legend and it feels...motion smoothed? Even though I have that turned off and no other channels are?

has been mentioned before, i think, but kenny everett video show is on channel 65 if you need blackface and cartoon breasts and Hot Gossip in the wrong aspect ratio at 12:30 of an afternoon.

bowie was on, smoking between lines, and chasing a man in a bowler hat and suspenders with a violin bow whilst trying to keep a straight face.

I remember enjoying the first couple series, not the stuff that gets repeated in highlights (the Toyah and Rod S takeoffs weren't funny the first time but Toyah introducing hers while dressed as Kenny was, for instance) but the Sid Snot, etc .

But the last few series were painfully unfunny.

they used to repeat episodes of the Kenny Everett Video/Television Show on Paramount Comedy in the late 90s and I was obsessed with it. Sarah Squirm on snl sometimes reminds me a bit of TKEV/TS
the 'spiderman needing a piss' sketch will forever be one of the most perfect pieces of television ever made

this is series 3, 1980

Always kinds liked Captain Kremmen.

in about 10 minutes talking pictures is showing the episode of Maigret with Pauline Boty in it

> Watching a Twilight Zone on Legend and it feels...motion smoothed?

yeah, something looks off but then going from 60s usa series on film(?) to 2020 digital has probably had multiple things done to it

feels like every night the only thing on TV that I want to watch is Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? on That's TV.

Annika on drama, sometime at the weekend. it's Nicola Walker in Scottish marine homicide unit but actually some kind of Scandinavian so she's always dropping in references to Norse mythology (her boat is called mimir for instance) and salty licorice. she talks to the camera as well, displaying its radio 4 roots.

tried the first episode of that cos I loved walker in unforgotten but it was v much not my thing. from what I can remember she has a v annoying child in it.

and astrid, murder in Paris is back. i find out painful to watch at times. it's like Monk but she struggles more with day to day life. but they've got young Astrid pretty much perfect.

and Happy Valley season 1. it's like from 15 years ago but Ryan is the same Ryan. it's brutal and has some great ptsd acting.

Wait, is this a channel called Drama, showing a programme (new?) called Annika? With an English actress playing a Scandinavian in Scotland? And it's all taken from Radio 4 ?!?

Channel 20 yes. mostly old episodes of the bill and to the manor born and stuff of that ilk. also handy for repeats of dickens adaptations.

Annika is not new, but is new to me (oh, 2021 it says). if i'm unsure it's because Drama is all repeats so it's been shown somewhere before (oh, Alibi (uktv / Sky) and Masterpiece in the US).

https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/uktv-tv-adaptation-radio-4-drama-annika-alibi/

For anyone who fancies staying up till 2.45am on Wednesday, Talking Pictures is showing "Thomasine and Bushrod", a Blaxploitation Western from 1974... with music by Arthur Lee!

^ that's not showing up in the epg yet (or in my listings mag for this week or next)

they missed a trick by not calling the new Vic Reeves And His Wife Paint Birds show on sky arts Paint Along With Nancy (and Jim)

it's multiple episodes and has special guests (including edwin collins) so i'm sold.

i don't enjoy celeb stuff but god bless Nancy Kaminsky

the Architecture of Railways show on Yesterday continues to be little gem of a thing. always something interesting on it, like the brutalist, analog electronic signal box in birmingham the other week.

is that the one with the Icelandic presenter i have a sad crush on because yeah it's good and largely annoyance-free

the main presenter is tim dunn, but he does a london underground spin-off with a woman who could possibly be icelandic and has a name that's almost but not quite sidney. (googles... siddy, Sigurbjörg Alma Ingólfsdóttir)

(that signalbox in full - https://www.birminghamworld.uk/news/birmingham-new-street-signal-box-tour-4087955 )

yeah that's right, i googled cos there's something in her tone that feels not full english and i figured she was either mad posh or not a native speaker

or both! both are possible lol

so after the Twilight Zone series 1 they are showing Twilight Zone series 1... (i have the first two seasons on dvd, i was hoping to get to see the rest)

but there are new Bob's Burgers on itv2 as of yesterday. late last night's (repeated 8 today) was a halloween episode and the kids always have good punning costumes

Gradiator (graduate / gladiator), Sherlock Ness Monster, Peter Pan's Labyrinth

The second half of the 8pm double-bill last night (well, we watched it at 9:30pm on +1) was unfamiliar to us and I think everything in the 2023 run so far had been repeats.
I do miss Bob and Linda when they're not on. And Teddy, especially Teddy.

Slits documentary on London Live last night has some great home movie footage. also touches on the Nora / John lydon relationship mentioned in the obit thread.

> And Teddy, especially Teddy.

you're in for a treat tonight then

itv2 has just started Dawson's Creek from the beginning. i remember it as one of a bunch of sassy teen dramas around that time (party of five, my so-called life). was odd how much of it i remembered. the only thing that strikes me as odd is that he's film obsessed but doesn't seem to rate anybody beyond spielberg.

Dr Morbius the early years

Dawson's movie love is very Gregg Turkington yes, iirc they do also watch Casablanca.

Annika being shown on BBC1 on saturday, i notice. odd that it was on Drama first, it's usually the other way around.

Psycho is showing when he goes to sign up for film classes and they all go to the cinema to see some film that they don't ever name (and i didn't recognise. oh, Waitng for Guffman it says on the cinema)

Fireball XL5 on TPTV from saturday. 1962. so after Supercar but before Stingray.

also on TPTV, Picnic At Hanging Rock - 21:30 on Saturday and 21:00 next Monday.

Chimes At Midnight was on TPTV too on Saturday night(?)

haha yes I reviewed that on the last podcast (I review Picnic on the current one)

i semi-watched Chimes on Saturday night, it deserves its rep imo

A friend asked me if TPTV were showing a restored version of Chimes, but I didn't know. My memory is that it was the sound recording that was in most of need of fixing, rather than the image quality.

it looked and sounded fine to me

Looked and sounded good.

probably the best place to note that Network DVD have just gone into administration. 😞

that sky arts documentary about female electronic artists is on again tonight, quarter past midnight.