Recommended Television Programmes

[Nick Armstrong]

Have now just about caught all of 'Fleabag' season 1 and well worth it it was, as far as I'm concerned. Season 2 Episode 2 was just excellent TV. Wonderful performances throughout and terrific filming and writing. Starting to rival 'Detectorists' in my book, and that is praise of my highest order.

- I don't think that "fiction" TV has produced anything "better" than Fleabag: it's up there with the best of anything from the past. Uses the medium perfectly: a Novel perfectly "written" with TV "vocabulary", "grammar", "syntax" etc etc

Need to try this after such encomia!

[eighthobstruction]

Need to try this after such encomia!

Yes I concur with fhg....tremendous stuff....if you like things a bit left field esp....I watched series one last winter straight through.....brilliant.... I had tried it first time around and rejected it after eps2....but I was wrong....

[Dave2002]

Oh dear, oh dear.... the whole long Commons day seems to have ended in the same confusion, the same entrenched positions and..... great groans of intense ennui...
Because The May Deal is...going to return next week for another...."meaningful vote..". MARCH 29 gets ever closer....

Question Time - Thursday:

Q: Why can't there be a 2nd referendum - when Mrs May's deal is coming round for the 3rd ..... 4th .... time. .....

Ah - the rules are different? I see.....

Applying that kind of logic why not abandon General Elections? Only By-Elections should be necessary as MPs resign, become ill, or pass away. Otherwise "The People decided n years ago"!

Bercow is great. Not sure I'd like his job, but "Division", "Clear the lobbies", "Lock ... ", "Unlock ...", "The Ayes/Noes have it ..." Enthralling lines - be good to bellow them out once in a lifetime.

Good acting, and (arguably) the best comedy show in town!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes I concur with fhg....tremendous stuff....if you like things a bit left field esp....I watched series one last winter straight through.....brilliant.... I had tried it first time around and rejected it after eps2....but I was wrong....

Yes - it's (she's) not immediately attractive, and the situations she gets herself into certainly aren't! At first it seems a mixture of the most hilarious vulgarity and something unpleasant & ugly, but the character and the situations are allowed to develop - and there's such a vast spectrum of emotional and psychological nuance ... as well as filthy humour ... and an aching sorrow, too.

I wish I could write nearly as well as Phoebe Waller-Bridge ... just a quarter as well would do!

[vinteuil]

Yes - it's (she's) not immediately attractive, and the situations she gets herself into certainly aren't! At first it seems a mixture of the most hilarious vulgarity and something unpleasant & ugly, but the character and the situations are allowed to develop - and there's such a vast spectrum of emotional and psychological nuance ... as well as filthy humour ... and an aching sorrow, too.

... it's also Very Funny!

'
... we were fans of the first series of Fleabag, and were able to watch the first episode of series two last night. Immaculate. So precise, sharp, funny. Quite the best thing on tele at the moment. This, and the recent Killing Eve, such jewels.

.

And the relationship between the sisters!!

And Andrew Scott!!!

Joy, joy, joy...

.

[eighthobstruction]

Yes - it's (she's) not immediately attractive, and the situations she gets herself into certainly aren't! At first it seems a mixture of the most hilarious vulgarity and something unpleasant & ugly, but the character and the situations are allowed to develop - and there's such a vast spectrum of emotional and psychological nuance ... as well as filthy humour ... and an aching sorrow, too.

I wish I could write nearly as well as Phoebe Waller-Bridge ... just a quarter as well would do!

Yeah....well put, her brittleness with just enough guile and strength....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... it's also Very Funny!



And the relationship between the sisters!!

And Andrew Scott!!!

Joy, joy, joy...

.

- and then, turns on a sixpence, and it's suddenly heart-breaking ... or even more hilarious (you can't predict, but none of it is arbitrary). The brother-in-law is possibly the most single-dimensioned of the characters - but I've met slimey types like him, so I can cope with that. And Olivia Coleman is so good as a bitchy character, too!

In fact, it's so good I'm surprised Conchis hasn't started a Thread saying how rubbish it is.

[eighthobstruction]

....

[LMcD]

Question Time - Thursday:

Q: Why can't there be a 2nd referendum - when Mrs May's deal is coming round for the 3rd ..... 4th .... time. .....

Ah - the rules are different? I see.....

Applying that kind of logic why not abandon General Elections? Only By-Elections should be necessary as MPs resign, become ill, or pass away. Otherwise "The People decided n years ago"!

Bercow is great. Not sure I'd like his job, but "Division", "Clear the lobbies", "Lock ... ", "Unlock ...", "The Ayes/Noes have it ..." Enthralling lines - be good to bellow them out once in a lifetime.

Good acting, and (arguably) the best comedy show in town!

I agree - but, like all great comedies, it also carries the seeds of great tragedy.....

[johncorrigan]

- and then, turns on a sixpence, and it's suddenly heart-breaking ... or even more hilarious (you can't predict, but none of it is arbitrary). The brother-in-law is possibly the most single-dimensioned of the characters - but I've met slimey types like him, so I can cope with that. And Olivia Coleman is so good as a bitchy character, too!

I've had a 'Fleabag' week - after being overwhelmed by the opening episode of Season 2, Mrs C and I have gobbled up season 1, between which we got episode 2 of series 2. Probably a mistake as we were getting things out of order a bit, but I couldn't help it. As I said earlier, it has a sense about it which reminds me of some of the great Bunuel films of the 70s. 'Fleabag' herself is such a terrific character, and as you said, ferney, the whole thing can turn on a sixpence as happened in the final episode of series 1 - took me completely by surprise the change in tone. Olivia Coleman's character is more than bitchy, I reckon...she's evil! Brilliant TV!

[Dave2002]

Currently watching "The Brexit Millionaires" on Channel 4. Very illuminating. How the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg make massive profit out of promoting Brexit.

Just caught up with this one - Dispatches on C4. Thanks for mentioning it.

[Richard Tarleton]

People, she's Colman, not Coleman

Seriously I haven't watched having been rather put off by the reviews in the Times/ST. Hugo Rifkind wrote a lengthy article on the etiquette to be observed by men watching with a female partner, Camilla Long said she couldn't think why men would want to watch it at all, and somebody else said something else discouraging...... Perhaps we'll give it a go.

[ardcarp]

Currently watching "The Brexit Millionaires" on Channel 4. Very illuminating. How the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg make massive profit out of promoting Brexit.

Mrs A and I often pondered if members of the ERG (a name as inappropriate as Winnie Mandela's 'Football Team') were in it for the Patriotism or the Cash. We watched the programme...and now we know.

[oddoneout]

Mrs A and I often pondered if members of the ERG (a name as inappropriate Winnie Mandela's 'Football Team') were in it for the Patriotism or the Cash. We watched the programme...and now we know.

Gives 'research' a bad name?

[Cockney Sparrow]

Mrs A and I often pondered if members of the ERG (a name as inappropriate as Winnie Mandela's 'Football Team') were in it for the Patriotism or the Cash. We watched the programme...and now we know.

A watchword all my working life, and it gets stronger as the years go by, reading Private Eye - FOLLOW THE MONEY !