Recommended Television Programmes

[smittims]

I endorse your recommendation of the french Maigrets; I think on balance they're the best I've seen, though I was very impressed with the Rowan Atkinson ones.

I hope they show all the Bruno Cremers; I was able to find only the first six in DVD stores.

[johncorrigan]

, though I was very impressed with the Rowan Atkinson ones.

Didn't enjoy them, smittims - couldn't stop thinking of Mr Bean.

Have to say that I'm really 'enjoying' the final series of 'Happy Valley' on the Beeb. Feel ready to burst by the end of each episode - I'm glad I have to watch it once a week - not sure the old body would take more.

[kernelbogey]

Rowan Atkinson is so heavily identified in the popular imagination, I believe, as Mr Bean and Blackadder, that I'm astonished to learn that he played Maigret.

[Serial_Apologist]

Rowan Atkinson is so heavily identified in the popular imagination, I believe, as Mr Bean and Blackadder, that I'm astonished to learn that he played Maigret.

I seem to remember him in interview admitting that the bossy, reactionary character of Maigret he portrayed was more true to himself.

[smittims]

When I first saw them I felt convinced that it was his project, that he was a confirmed Maigret fan who had always wanted to play him, so committed was his peformance. I was surprised to hear him say that he had been asked to do the role and had doubted that he had the 'weight' for it.

[eighthobstruction]

...This is a radio programmes I couldnt find the relevant "Radio" thread I am afraid....

This is a subject I have hoped would be covered ar some point : the black inflateables that are used to channel cross - their origins (Turkey), the logistics of it all....The Boat Smugglers Radio 4 monday23/01/23....https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001hf3y

[JasonPalmer]

Just heard an advert on radio 3 for that Marie Antionette program, available on iplayer they say.

Do BBC 2 repay the compliment and advertise radio 3 eh, we should be told ?

[kernelbogey]

Everyone Else Burns: a comedy series on a Christian cult on Ch 4 - droll and witty.

[Nick Armstrong]

A treat coming up on Talking Pictures TV (freeview ch. 82): on Wednesday 25 January at 9pm they’re starting a run of the marvellous French versions of Maigret starting Bruno Cremer made largely in the 1990s. …

Unfortunately it seems I was too optimistic - although the first episode is broadcast this evening, there’s no episode 2 listed for next week - it seems as if it’s a one-off

[Ein Heldenleben]

Unfortunately it seems I was too optimistic - although the first episode is broadcast this evening, there’s no episode 2 listed for next week - it seems as if it’s a one-off

They can bring back Softly, Softly and Gideon’s Way while they are about it.

[Nick Armstrong]

They can bring back Softly, Softly and Gideon’s Way while they are about it.

Gideon’s Way has had a couple of runs since I started watching TPTV, and there’s one going at the moment.

Next episode in just over 10 minutes from now!

[jayne lee wilson]

Just approaching halfway in this, and it is a wonderfully subtle and sensitive study of character; beautifully made on every level: casting, acting, directing, scripting... (from the Elizabeth Strout novel)...(HBO on Sky Boxsets)....

https://www.hbo.com/olive-kitteridge

[JasonPalmer]

Storyville on BBC iplayer seems good, series of documentaries. Orion is good, the man who would be elvis and started watching one about an independant Russian to channel.

[underthecountertenor]

Unfortunately it seems I was too optimistic - although the first episode is broadcast this evening, there’s no episode 2 listed for next week - it seems as if it’s a one-off

Yes, so it would appear. A great shame: I had never seen Cremer's Maigret before and was grateful for your tip-off. I greatly enjoyed "Les Plaisirs de le Nuit" (rather amusingly bowdlerised in translation as "Maigret in Montmartre," presumably by the same smelling-salts-inhaler who subtitled "Je vous dis merde" as "Break a leg," though I suppose that is the only real equivalent). Cremer was almost exactly how I have always imagined Maigret (and extraordinarily 'lived-in' compared to his younger days) and the filming caught the atmosphere perfectly for me. I was quite surprised by how explicit the club scenes were. Music good too.

I was also unaware of Talking Pictures TV until now, so thank you for that too. It does seem like a rather random treasure-trove, as if someone had bought blind a few cardboard boxes of assorted DVDs in a house-clearance auction. But it's rather charmingly presented in its way.

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes, so it would appear. A great shame: I had never seen Cremer's Maigret before and was grateful for your tip-off. I greatly enjoyed "Les Plaisirs de le Nuit" (rather amusingly bowdlerised in translation as "Maigret in Montmartre," presumably by the same smelling-salts-inhaler who subtitled "Je vous dis merde" as "Break a leg," though I suppose that is the only real equivalent). Cremer was almost exactly how I have always imagined Maigret (and extraordinarily 'lived-in' compared to his younger days) and the filming caught the atmosphere perfectly for me. I was quite surprised by how explicit the club scenes were. Music good too.

I was also unaware of Talking Pictures TV until now, so thank you for that too. It does seem like a rather random treasure-trove, as if someone had bought blind a few cardboard boxes of assorted DVDs in a house-clearance auction. But it's rather charmingly presented in its way.

Good to read I agree.

I emailed TPTV about the solitary episode and received a commendably rapid reply, saying:

yes there are more on their way - so you don’t miss the others , please do sign up for our FREE Sunday newsletter, sent to you by email every Sunday. Sign up via www.talkingpicturestv.co.uk In it we list what’s coming up on the channel

So that’s good news. Might be worth signing up, uct. I shall try and post alerts here as and when further Maigret episodes turn up in the schedule.