Recommended Television Programmes

[JSB Rules]

We've watched some of the episodes of Point Zero, but broke off as I took out a Netflix subscription to see Adolescent - and need to watch anything else there of worth before I cancel. We only watch and hour or two in an evening, and when I shared access with one of the offspring spent too much time searching for the few things to find and watch which, according to our preferences rose above middle of the road/hollywood style material which is the content there. Too easy to let the subscription run on, unused....

I record Rumpole and the french Maigret on Talking Point TV, an occasional film - and have indulged myself on sampling a few reminiscence byways. I thought I might watch Family at War but missed a few as the scheduler seemed to go haywire. I was trying to decide whether my fondness for the best of the past was influencing me when I thought these programs (+archive iPlayer programs surfacing nowadays - Memento Mori, Play for Today etc) - much less sophisticated and lower budget but that it really doesn't matter that much - great acting, the words can be heard!

I watched Miss Austen - Keeley Hawes as the surviving sister of Jane and the others deliver fine performances, dealing with the past events, Cassandra retrieving Jane's letters. Its clear the series is not on a limitless budget - none of the glossy, super smooth finish of the likes of Point Zero but still costly I should think; no paring back on costumes or horse and carriages, and plenty of, if not mostly location filming. I suspect we are lucky to have it, perhaps there won't be many more - the BBC funding paring back all over the piece, although I'd like to be reassured the middle, senior and executive management are reducing as much as the journalism and programme makers...... BBC4 is now a repeats only channel (correct? - I think) so we will get few new programs on Art, Archaeology, Science, History etc.

Couldn't agree more CD re BBC4. Friday evenings in particular are a total waste of time - this week's Friday schedule as follows: 7.00pm - TOTP 1997; 7.30pm - TOTP 1997 (must have been a cracking year to show two old episodes!); 8.00pm - TOTP 1989; 8.30pm - TOTP 1976; 9.00pm - TOTP 1973; 9.35pm - 6 Music Festival 2025; 10.35pm - Primal Scream: The Lost Memphis Tapes (perhaps there was a very good reason they were lost, e.g. they were rubbish?); 11.35pm - Sam Smith at the Proms (more dumbing down at last year's Proms).

It beggars belief that any scheduler/controller could think that little lot would draw in a sizeable audience!

[LMcD]

Couldn't agree more CD re BBC4. Friday evenings in particular are a total waste of time - this week's Friday schedule as follows: 7.00pm - TOTP 1997; 7.30pm - TOTP 1997 (must have been a cracking year to show two old episodes!); 8.00pm - TOTP 1989; 8.30pm - TOTP 1976; 9.00pm - TOTP 1973; 9.35pm - 6 Music Festival 2025; 10.35pm - Primal Scream: The Lost Memphis Tapes (perhaps there was a very good reason they were lost, e.g. they were rubbish?); 11.35pm - Sam Smith at the Proms (more dumbing down at last year's Proms).

It beggars belief that any scheduler/controller could think that little lot would draw in a sizeable audience!

True, there are very few original programmes on BBC4, but I'm very pleased to have been given the chance to watch programmes that I first enjoyed years ago or, in some cases, missed the first time round, such as 'Roads To Freedom', the 'Scots Quair' trilogy, 'Shoulder To Shoulder' and the 1954 '1984'. I'm not sure whether Sondheim's 'Company', which I recorded on Sunday, is a repeat.

[eighthobstruction]

....LMcD, I think you wrote exactly the same post in 2019....

[LMcD]

....LMcD, I think you wrote exactly the same post in 2019....

Well, many of the repeats I've enjoyed on BBC4 recently were being broadcast for the first time in 40 or so years.

[johncorrigan]

I didn't see the Simon Schama programme about Auschwitz on BBC 2 last night - I was watching a programme about Ancient Greece, but turned over and caught the Sam Mendes documentary following two soldiers, Lewis and Lawrie, who filmed incidents at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in March/April 1945. Absolutely horrific yet rivetting including interviews with the two soldiers. I will go back and watch the Schama doc later but 'What They Found' is well worth a watch if you can stomach it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0029tzn/what-they-found

[Serial_Apologist]

I didn't see the Simon Schama programme about Auschwitz on BBC 2 last night - I was watching a programme about Ancient Greece, but turned over and caught the Sam Mendes documentary following two soldiers, Lewis and Lawrie, who filmed incidents at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in March/April 1945. Absolutely horrific yet rivetting including interviews with the two soldiers. I will go back and watch the Schama doc later but 'What They Found' is well worth a watch if you can stomach it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0029tzn/what-they-found

I missed the link deliberately following the harrowing details of the Schama documentary. Watching early Schama programmes recently I had found myself disillusioned with what I had come to feel to be glib and often evasive attitudes, but this was certainly not true of last night, in dealing with antisemitic atrocities in Latvia (where his own mother had come from), well before the establishment of the death camps in Germany and Poland. It used to be alleged that the Holocaust took place without the German public's knowledge; while this has recently been questioned, there was no question whatever over the general populaces of some of the Baltic states having not only direct knowledge and experience of anti-Jewish pogroms taking place all over the parts of eastern Europe subsequently to come under USSR control, as shown on a map of atrocity locations, but their unabashed naked complicity. Schama talked of hundreds of years of regional antisemitism having led up to this, but one was nevertheless shocked at the scale of this.

[gurnemanz]

I have both programmes earmarked to watch. Our German A Level teacher had been part of the liberation of Belsen and told us about his experiences in some detail. In the mid 60s his memories must have been still very vivid.

[Nick Armstrong]

Talking Pictures TV is repeating Granada TV's ear;y 1970s saga A Family At War, which I sometimes think is the best TV drama I've ever seen . Not only is it well-acted and well-filmed (as many are even today) but also (Unlike them) it has a superb script.

Oh dear, I have to take exception to your ‘well-acted’ comment. I have really been trying to like this series (which I dimly remember the ‘grown-ups’ watching when first broadcast - chiefly due to the VW theme music) - I’ve had it on series-record and have watched all the episodes to date.

I have to say that (with a few honourable exceptions of course) it features some of the ropiest acting I’ve seen - not least Michael Williams (Mr Judi Dench) about as hammy as it gets …. Worst of all, sadly, James Beck (Walker the spiv from Dad’s Army) absolutely awful in a bit part

I confess I haven’t been struck by the quality of the script, but I suppose it does accurately conjure up the drab & gloomy lives endured by the families back home during the war. Makes for pretty debilitating viewing though…

[vinteuil]

.

... The Residence

just delicious....

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/mar/20/the-residence-review-netflix-white-house-mystery-uzo-aduba

.

[Nick Armstrong]

.

... The Residence

just delicious....



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Oooo thanks, wasn’t aware of this one

[LMcD]

Oh dear, I have to take exception to your ‘well-acted’ comment. I have really been trying to like this series (which I dimly remember the ‘grown-ups’ watching when first broadcast - chiefly due to the VW theme music) - I’ve had it on series-record and have watched all the episodes to date.

I have to say that (with a few honourable exceptions of course) it features some of the ropiest acting I’ve seen - not least Michael Williams (Mr Judi Dench) about as hammy as it gets …. Worst of all, sadly, James Beck (Walker the spiv from Dad’s Army) absolutely awful in a bit part

I confess I haven’t been struck by the quality of the script, but I suppose it does accurately conjure up the drab & gloomy lives endured by the families back home during the war. Makes for pretty debilitating viewing though…

The worst thing about the Michael Williams episode was that Barbara Flynn wasn't in it, but I'm pleased to say that she's in 'A Very Peculiar Practice', which I've just started enjoying all over again having picked it up at our local table-top sale for 50p.

[smittims]

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy A Family at War, Nick. I remain delighted with it. I think one of its many strengths is that it was witten by people who had been around at the time it depicts, so all sorts of lttle realistic details about life in the war are reflected faithfully. I continue to find the acting quite convincing in this respect, for instance David's helpless fecklessness , Jean's refusal to see through his lies and her failure to instil in him the morality she upholds, Edwin's self-loathing at his history of 'giving-in' for the sake of his family , Margaret's dilemma over John's disappearance.

Some of the episodes were poignant dramas in miniature: the boy who ran away from a home where he feels no longer welcome, to mourn his father drowned on an Atlantic convoy, an episode featuring a delightful cameo by Julie Goodyear as his mother ('I'm glad 'e's dead: 'e were a pig. I shall remarry of course . Ya think I'm common, don't ya?') and David's young son , whose eager anticipation of his father's arrival on Christmas leave turns to bitter disillusion as all David can think of is getting back to his new London mistress.

These are all vital aspects of the important and significant period of our history brought to life . In contrast, more recent period dramas such as Parade's End and Howards End seemed to me to display a lamentable lack of understanding of the period they depicted, and were marred by irritating anachronisms in speech and manner. I've quite given up on modern TV and find these old films increasingly rewarding.

[LMcD]

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy A Family at War, Nick. I remain delighted with it. I think one of its many strengths is that it was witten by people who had been around at the time it depicts, so all sorts of lttle realistic details about life in the war are reflected faithfully. I continue to find the acting quite convincing in this respect, for instance David's helpless fecklessness , Jean's refusal to see through his lies and her failure to instil in him the morality she upholds, Edwin's self-loathing at his history of 'giving-in' for the sake of his family , Margaret's dilemma over John's disappearance.

Some of the episodes were poignant dramas in miniature: the boy who ran away from a home where he feels no longer welcome, to mourn his father drowned on an Atlantic convoy, an episode featuring a delightful cameo by Julie Goodyear as his mother ('I'm glad 'e's dead: 'e were a pig. I shall remarry of course . Ya think I'm common, don't ya?') and David's young son , whose eager anticipation of his father's arrival on Christmas leave turns to bitter disillusion as all David can think of is getting back to his new London mistress.

These are all vital aspects of the important and significant period of our history brought to life . In contrast, more recent period dramas such as Parade's End and Howards End seemed to me to display a lamentable lack of understanding of the period they depicted, and were marred by irritating anachronisms in speech and manner. I've quite given up on modern TV and find these old films increasingly rewarding.

I think it's really a soap opera in disguise, but like you I remain delighted. Some episodes are black-and-white, a consequence of the ITV strike which may also have caused other production problems,

[Ein Heldenleben]

Oh dear, I have to take exception to your ‘well-acted’ comment. I have really been trying to like this series (which I dimly remember the ‘grown-ups’ watching when first broadcast - chiefly due to the VW theme music) - I’ve had it on series-record and have watched all the episodes to date.

I have to say that (with a few honourable exceptions of course) it features some of the ropiest acting I’ve seen - not least Michael Williams (Mr Judi Dench) about as hammy as it gets …. Worst of all, sadly, James Beck (Walker the spiv from Dad’s Army) absolutely awful in a bit part

I confess I haven’t been struck by the quality of the script, but I suppose it does accurately conjure up the drab & gloomy lives endured by the families back home during the war. Makes for pretty debilitating viewing though…

Clunky drama with all time greatest “sig” tune….

[LMcD]

Clunky drama with all time greatest “sig” tune….

My introduction to the symphonies of Vaughan Williams.