Recommended Television Programmes

[AuntDaisy]

... I wanted to like this : perhaps I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. It seemed preternaturally s l o w ... we gave up half way

I'd agree, it was slow. I missed the start; the ending was surprisingly moving.

Could you watch on Fast-Forward?

[Serial_Apologist]

I'd agree, it was slow. I missed the start; the ending was surprisingly moving.

Could you watch on Fast-Forward?

I did think of watching that. Instead I had already been captivated by episodes 1 & 2 of Until I Kill You over on ITV1. Starring Ann Maxwell Martin it portrayed the near-murder of Delia Balmer in the 1990s by a date from whom she had gone on to suffer an abusive relationship. Deplorable treatment by the police resulted in failures to link up with two actual murders (the "body in Regents Canal mystery" I recall from the time, and that of an American actress in Amsterdam). Far from victimhood Balmer's character was reputedly well-conveyed by Ms Martin in a memorable heart-stopping performance as prickly and made doubly so by her treatment by cops and court - she sustained horrific life-changing wounds from a knife attack conveyed in near-graphic detail. The real Delia Balmer relates her experiences in a documentary tonight, also on !TV1 at 9pm.

[Nick Armstrong]

A little gem from the early ‘90s on BBC Four this evening: Sir Michael Hordern on a geographical exploration of his love of Hardy’s life and writing. Having years ago had a memorable driving holiday with my old dad tracking down Talbothays Dairy, Flintcombe Ash, the remains of Egdon Heath etc etc, the documentary made me want to go back down there…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...-hardys-dorset

There’s a 5-minute follow-up programme tonight at 22.45 on BBC Four, of Sir Michael H reading two of Hardy’s poems.

[AuntDaisy]

Just seen that Rudolph Cartier / Nigel Kneale's 1954 "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is on BBC4 next Sunday - Peter Cushing, André Morell & Yvonne Mitchell.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00256y7

[johncorrigan]

I didn't know anything about 'Until I Kill You' which is on the STV player up here at the moment. Mrs C was recommended to watch it. Anna Maxwell Martin plays Delia and Shaun Evans plays John who meet in a pub in the 1990s and move in together shortly after. It's based on a true story and put together using extensive interviews. We ended up watching three of the four episodes, and would have watched the whole thing except the interweb lost power. Excellent performances by both main actors...looking forward to the final part.

[Serial_Apologist]

I didn't know anything about 'Until I Kill You' which is on the STV player up here at the moment. Mrs C was recommended to watch it. Anna Maxwell Martin plays Delia and Shaun Evans plays John who meet in a pub in the 1990s and move in together shortly after. It's based on a true story and put together using extensive interviews. We ended up watching three of the four episodes, and would have watched the whole thing except the interweb lost power. Excellent performances by both main actors...looking forward to the final part.

See my Message 3032 above!

Try getting it up again for the final episode, John!
(For anybody else, you have to sign in to watch ITV1's equivalent of the iPlayer, but it's quite straightforward... and free!)

[johncorrigan]

See my Message 3032 above!

Try getting it up again for the final episode, John!
(For anybody else, you have to sign in to watch ITV1's equivalent of the iPlayer, but it's quite straightforward... and free!)

Sorry S_A, missed your original message, yet in some ways glad. I knew nothing of this case. Watched the remaining part this evening. Terrific from start to finish. AMM was fantastic as Delia Balmer; and Shaun Evans also did a great job as Sweeney. Riveting drama.

[Serial_Apologist]

Sorry S_A, missed your original message, yet in some ways glad. I knew nothing of this case. Watched the remaining part this evening. Terrific from start to finish. AMM was fantastic as Delia Balmer; and Shaun Evans also did a great job as Sweeney. Riveting drama.

[LMcD]

I'm really enjoying BBC4's Thomas Hardy season of documentaries and dramatizations. I was surprised to discover that the 2008 'Tess Of The D'Urbervilles' was BBC TV's first adaptation of that particular novel.

[Ian Thumwood]

Don't recommend Philippine soap operas. Best avoided....especially ones with dwarf female lawyers.

[Pulcinella]

Anyone watching Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light?

Started last night, but we're also binge watching The Diplomat.

[LMcD]

[QUOTE=Pulcinella;n1322952]Anyone watching Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light?/QUOTE]

Yes! Riveting ... gripping...

[kernelbogey]

I find Canal Boat Diaries with Robbie Cumming quite soothing: the gentle pace of the travel, his quite relaxed accounts of the industrial history he is travelling through, and affectionate description of his day-to-day boating life. A 2021 series is about to come to an end on BBC4 and there are repeats on other channels.

[LMcD]

An additional heads-up for the new film of 'Curlew River' on BBC4 tomorrow at 7.45 p.m. More details and discussion on the 'Britten' thread.

[Maclintick]

An additional heads-up for the new film of 'Curlew River' on BBC4 tomorrow at 7.45 p.m. More details and discussion on the 'Britten' thread.

Thanks, LMcD. I'll have to catch this later, & meanwhile put in a plug for Made in England - The Films of Powell and Pressburger, a fascinating 2 hour-long homage by Martin Scorsese shown later on BBC2 the same evening. Scorsese's main focus is Powell who became a friend and cinematic father-figure to the younger director late in life. There's little footage of Pressburger, a gnomic presence who retains an enigmatic central european aura in the film, but whose sensibility informs all their greatest work, and whose absence may perhaps be felt in Powell's late solo effort, the revolting Peeping Tom. Whenever I'm tempted to feel well-disposed towards the French, I recall Truffaut's dictum that the phrase "British Cinema'" denoted a jarring concept -- an idea amply contradicted of course by a number of gifted auteurs from these islands, and pre-eminently by The Archers themselves.