Recommended Television Programmes

[Constantbee]

I’m getting texts and emails by the bucket load ( well a few, anyway) from people asking me whether I am watching this. I suppose I’ll have to.

Well, I was thinking of you as I was watching, TS. Lots of glam shots of the city making it look an attractive place to visit, and incidentally another gripping real life crime drama. Pathos in the tragedy is invoked by the introduction from the very first episode of Dawn Sturgess, the unwitting bystander who fell victim to the poison, and her partner Charlie Rowley. If the Russians had wanted to score a moral victory from the case they couldn't have chosen better victims if they had tried, as these must have been some of the poorest, and therefore most vulnerable, people in the vicinity at the time, IMHO.

Given the psychology impact of the poisoning on Salisbury I'm wondering how the city is coping with Coronavirus. It's not that long ago, is it? Barely two years?

[johncorrigan]

Not sure how realistic, but really powerful stuff. Go for it.

Really enjoying it. Anne-Marie Duff putting in an excellent performance as the Public Health boss.

[LMcD]

You don't have to wait. All 3 episodes have been on the iPlayer for some days.

I need a little time to recover after each episode!

[Stunsworth]

Recently finished watching The Eddy on Netflix.

A drama set in a Parisian jazz club where most of actors/musicians play their instruments - primarily because they’re mainly musicians acting rather than the other way round.

[Serial_Apologist]

Recently finished watching The Eddy on Netflix.

A drama set in a Parisian jazz club where most of actors/musicians play their instruments - primarily because they’re mainly musicians acting rather than the other way round.

Hmm - must check out which musicians they are.

[Stunsworth]

Hmm - must check out which musicians they are.

This is the band’s pianist, quite a CV...

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0449205/bio

[Serial_Apologist]

This is the band’s pianist, quite a CV...

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0449205/bio

Thanks for this info!

[Nick Armstrong]

Currently devouring a great and under-rated series on Amazon Prime streaming, HALT & CATCH FIRE https://www.amazon.co.uk/Halt-Catch-.../dp/B00O4ZT2FQ

Referred to by the Guardian as one of the best shows that nobody watched, it’s about a (fictional) group of people involved in the emerging tech boom in the 1980s... Not a subject that would normally entice me, but a friend’s enthusiastic recommendation prompted a look, and indeed it’s compelling stuff.

It ran to 4 seasons of 10 episodes (about to finish season 2 here) and the general view is that the seasons just went from strength to strength. I’ve certainly found that with the first two. Season 1 is about the effort to create and bring out a compact, portable PC; season 2 moves to the start of online games and - most relevantly - online messaging and chat communities... such as this!

Strong cast and absorbing plot lines both commercial and personal.

Thoroughly recommended!

[Bryn]

Currently devouring a great and under-rated series on Amazon Prime streaming, HALT & CATCH FIRE https://www.amazon.co.uk/Halt-Catch-.../dp/B00O4ZT2FQ

Referred to by the Guardian as one of the best shows that nobody watched, it’s about a (fictional) group of people involved in the emerging tech boom in the 1980s... Not a subject that would normally entice me, but a friend’s enthusiastic recommendation prompted a look, and indeed it’s compelling stuff.

It ran to 4 seasons of 10 episodes (about to finish season 2 here) and the general view is that the seasons just went from strength to strength. I’ve certainly found that with the first two. Season 1 is about the effort to create and bring out a compact, portable PC; season 2 moves to the start of online games and - most relevantly - online messaging and chat communities... such as this!

Strong cast and absorbing plot lines both commercial and personal.

Thoroughly recommended!

Recommnedation duly accepted. Just watched 1:1 and have paused 1:2.

[Stunsworth]

Currently devouring a great and under-rated series on Amazon Prime streaming, HALT & CATCH FIRE https://www.amazon.co.uk/Halt-Catch-.../dp/B00O4ZT2FQ

Referred to by the Guardian as one of the best shows that nobody watched, it’s about a (fictional) group of people involved in the emerging tech boom in the 1980s... Not a subject that would normally entice me, but a friend’s enthusiastic recommendation prompted a look, and indeed it’s compelling stuff.

I saw it a while ago and agree about its qualities, I enjoyed it a lot.

[Serial_Apologist]

For several weeks now I have been watching The Repair Shop, 8pm on BBC1 every Wednesday. In it, people take old damaged objects in need of repair, ranging tonight from a set of 1920s weighing scales with a whicker basket atop to take a baby, a miniature whisky barrel, and a home-made clockwork toy railway engine, to a brass-knobbed military parade cane presented decades ago to a 91 WW2 veteran, who was himself there with his, possibly, granddaughter. The repair team, whose skills extend impressively over a wide range of disciplines, operate in The Weald and Downland Museum, situated in a barn set in beautiful countryside near Chichester, and the great joys of this programme consist in observing some of the restoration processes, which result in miraculous transformations, and how they are lovingly applied - obviously the hour only allows for highlights - and the delight and emotion captured in the faces of those whom we had earlier seen bringing the objects to the location as they re-encounter heirlooms previously suspected to be beyond the ravages of time. The whole programme is a paen to the ofttimes forgotten arts and fulfilments of craftsmanship.

[oddoneout]

I didn't see the beginning of this https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k4cg, Keeping Britain Fed, about the supermarkets and supply chains, but found what I did see interesting, and mercifully free of the tiresome trickery that so often afflicts documentaries these days. The scale of the operations, the logistics involved, the way in which so many businesses have adapted are mind boggling. One fact that has rather stuck in my mind is the sausage factory in Ireland which not only took the whole Virus threat threat seriously from the very beginning (eg laying in adequate stocks of PPE...) but has seen its sickness rate drop by up to 50% since introducing its various screening and protection measures.
A great many facts but no point scoring, political or otherwise.

[Serial_Apologist]

I didn't see the beginning of this https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k4cg, Keeping Britain Fed, about the supermarkets and supply chains, but found what I did see interesting, and mercifully free of the tiresome trickery that so often afflicts documentaries these days. The scale of the operations, the logistics involved, the way in which so many businesses have adapted are mind boggling. One fact that has rather stuck in my mind is the sausage factory in Ireland which not only took the whole Virus threat threat seriously from the very beginning (eg laying in adequate stocks of PPE...) but has seen its sickness rate drop by up to 50% since introducing its various screening and protection measures.
A great many facts but no point scoring, political or otherwise.

I don't suppose the either the present time or the subject matter were open to questions which have been posed in the past about the stringent and often arguably unnecessary quality conditions and remunerations imposed by supermarkets on farmers expected to meet their requirements, but Sarah and Adepitan are very good presenters.

[oddoneout]

I don't suppose the either the present time or the subject matter were open to questions which have been posed in the past about the stringent and often arguably unnecessary quality conditions and remunerations imposed by supermarkets on farmers expected to meet their requirements, but Sarah and Adepitan are very good presenters.

Wasn't the purpose of the programme as I see it, they were starting from the finished product stage in effect, and how that has been getting to the shelves in quantity and time. There are certainly questions to be asked about the way our food is produced and supplied, but that would be more than a one hour documentary.

[LezLee]

For several weeks now I have been watching The Repair Shop, 8pm on BBC1 every Wednesday. In it, people take old damaged objects in need of repair, ranging tonight from a set of 1920s weighing scales with a whicker basket atop to take a baby, a miniature whisky barrel, and a home-made clockwork toy railway engine, to a brass-knobbed military parade cane presented decades ago to a 91 WW2 veteran, who was himself there with his, possibly, granddaughter. The repair team, whose skills extend impressively over a wide range of disciplines, operate in The Weald and Downland Museum, situated in a barn set in beautiful countryside near Chichester, and the great joys of this programme consist in observing some of the restoration processes, which result in miraculous transformations, and how they are lovingly applied - obviously the hour only allows for highlights - and the delight and emotion captured in the faces of those whom we had earlier seen bringing the objects to the location as they re-encounter heirlooms previously suspected to be beyond the ravages of time. The whole programme is a paen to the ofttimes forgotten arts and fulfilments of craftsmanship.

I love The Repair Shop. It used to be on in the afternoons and I always thought it worthy of an evening timeslot.