Recommended Television Programmes

[Nick Armstrong]

No...The Two Popes (with Hopkins) was an entirely different Netflix production.... the first HBO/Sky Atlantic series was titled The Young Pope - The New Pope is its successor.

Ah yes I was referring to The Young Pope - which was a hoot - ....but I suffered from a temporary delusion that Hopkins was in it. Must be conflating Westworld, which I saw around the same time in the same company, with recent publicity for the Netflix production you mention, which I haven’t seen.

[LMcD]

No-one else in a fever of anticipation about this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRhZ0mIATrM

First 2 eps tonight. One of the most moving, funny, provoking, visually and verbally striking dramas of the last ten years, whose cast list now includes John Malkovich, Sharon Stone and....wait for it....Marilyn Manson. The Devil really is in the detail here.

From series one....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_vhwZZjgac

It's not really worth my while getting excited about it, seeing as I have no means of watching it!

[Richard Tarleton]

Ah yes I was referring to The Young Pope - which was a hoot - ....but I suffered from a temporary delusion that Hopkins was in it. Must be conflating Westworld, which I saw around the same time in the same company, with recent publicity for the Netflix production you mention, which I haven’t seen.

I "reviewed" The Two Popes here

Tho the new series The New Pope also appears to have two popes in it

[Nick Armstrong]

Tho the new series The New Pope also appears to have two popes in it

I suspect that contributed to my confusion

[jayne lee wilson]

It's not really worth my while getting excited about it, seeing as I have no means of watching it!

Go see the Snowcats and your soul will be soothed....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07y5mm6

[Stanfordian]

I "reviewed" The Two Popes here

Tho the new series The New Pope also appears to have two popes in it

I have enough trouble observing to the teaching of one Pope never mind two.

[Constantbee]

No...The Two Popes (with Hopkins) was an entirely different Netflix production.... the first HBO/Sky Atlantic series was titled The Young Pope - The New Pope is its successor.

***

I loved this coupla programmes, but then all catlovers would, wouldn't they....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000crsh

Buchanan is a very engaging presenter, knowledgeable, affectionate and communicative, and we got as many long, loving lingering shots of the big kitties as we could desire...
Is there a more beautiful animal on the planet? I have a lovely big cuddly-toy Lynx and when I'm at home it goes wherever I go.

We have a cat who assures me his karma in life is to be reincarnated as a lynx

I stopped buying Spanish strawberries when I found out that irrigation schemes for strawberry farms were draining water away from Doñana region and threatening the livelihood of the Iberian Lynx, now one of the rarest cats on earth.

[johncorrigan]

I have enough trouble observing to the teaching of one Pope never mind two.

Reminds me of the Reverend Ian Paisley coming home one day and saying to his wife: 'WHAT EXACTLY IS THAT UNUSUAL SMELL IN THE LIVING ROOM, DEAR?' She replies, 'It's a new fragrant plant material in the bowl there that I just bought.' To which Ian replied, 'WE'LL HAVE NO POTPOURRI HERE!'

[Richard Tarleton]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]The latter is indirectly one reason I too have been intrigued by this dramatisation, and glad of the level of detail. (I am finding it very well done, including James Norton who I usually find more wooden than the surrounding furniture but who seems somehow right as the strange Stephen Ward with all his socialite veneer).

I loved the quote from Mervyn Griffith-Jones, for the prosecution - "He gave her a pony. That's the sum of £25, not the diminuitive horse".

Norton the best I've seen him. We have Tom Mangold's documentary to look forward to as well.

[Serial_Apologist]

I loved the quote from Mervyn Griffith-Jones, for the prosecution - "He gave her a pony. That's the sum of £25, not the diminuitive horse".

Norton the best I've seen him. We have Tom Mangold's documentary to look forward to as well.

Very much looking forward to the latter.

[Stanfordian]

'Real Crime and Punishment- The Prosecutors' - BBC 4 TV
Three-part series documenting the work of the Crown Prosecution Service, following a number of cases over an 18-month period and focusing on three different parts of the process.

[Petrushka]

I loved the quote from Mervyn Griffith-Jones, for the prosecution - "He gave her a pony. That's the sum of £25, not the diminuitive horse".

Norton the best I've seen him. We have Tom Mangold's documentary to look forward to as well.

Mangold's piece in the latest issue of Radio Times is well worth a read. Surprised he's not written a book about the Profumo Affair considering his closeness to the action. The series is one of the best dramas the BBC has done in years and, even though we all know how it ends, it's gripping stuff. James Norton is excellent as is Sophie Cookson but Ellie Bamber as Mandy Rice-Davies has a gift of a role and doesn't disappoint.

[muzzer]

I’ve not been as gripped, I’m afraid. I think the performances are fine as far as they go but I can’t quite get over the locations all obviously being not in London. The sandstone and hills give it away as Bristol. It doesn’t quite have the flavour of the seat of power that the story revolves around,

[jayne lee wilson]

Mangold's piece in the latest issue of Radio Times is well worth a read. Surprised he's not written a book about the Profumo Affair considering his closeness to the action. The series is one of the best dramas the BBC has done in years and, even though we all know how it ends, it's gripping stuff. James Norton is excellent as is Sophie Cookson but Ellie Bamber as Mandy Rice-Davies has a gift of a role and doesn't disappoint.

I though ep 5 was very moving, Norton dignified in his fatality, but what shame it had to end at that point... waiting 7 days seems perverse following that....hardly a cliffhanger is it? Without the green button, perhaps a double-length finale would have been better...

The New Pope has indeed proved compelling, a level of scripted, acted, beautifully photographed and directed excellence rarely seen on TV....like a feature film from a classic 60/70s Italian Director.... but they're treading a fine line between creative freedom and wilful, sub-plotting fantasy, perhaps trying a bit too hard to subvert expectation.......
Series One was a very focussed tale, on the Young Pope who is revisionist, but retro-revisionist, insisting on much stricter Catholic Traditions being observed, no matter what the potential alienation...

John Malkovich a screen magnet, just as Jude Law (The Young Pope, still in a coma) was. I hope this doesn't lose itself in the (admittedly riveting) more fantastical storyline tributaries.... excellent theme song though ("Good Time Girl") encapsulating the series' essence in its chaste sensuality....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Greatly enjoying Good Omens on BBC2.