Recommended Television Programmes

[ardcarp]

It was very dark and pretty nasty in places

...but, despite all those wonderful and expensive sets...so SLOW in unfolding. I've only watched episode 1 so far. Are there really 2 more???

[Lat-Literal]

Good to see Michael Aspel introducing the previously lost episodes of Morecambe and Wise after all these years and extensive illness. Philip Morris who tracked them down in Sierra Leone is doing excellent work across the world to resurrect lost BBC programmes. The techniques that are used to provide colour etc are truly extraordinary. The first of the two programmes was better than the second but both were probably better than anticipated. One could see how the art had been perfected in the three years following 1968 when they were broadcast including in the editing. There was one item in the second of the two which did go on for too long. Modernists might well be focussed on some of the less pc content, not that it was extreme, but there was also slightly more of a suggestiveness that by the 1970s had gone.

The inclusion of Ronnie Carroll in the second one led to some research on my part. Six top 40 entries between 1956 and 1963. Two in the top ten. Two performances in the Eurovision Song Contest - 1960 and 1963. A wayward, somewhat ethereal man, perhaps increasingly into later age. He contested his home Hampstead and Highgate constituency seat in the 1997 UK General Election and the Uxbridge by-election in July that year with the Rainbow Alliance. In 2008, he was standing on a platform of Make Politicians History in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election and in 2015 he was The Eurovisionary Carroll back in Hampstead. A regular caller to BBC Radio London, I feel sure he must have been well acquainted with the perennial Rainbow George who has been doing so for 40 odd years and who I think knew Peter Cook.

The song Carroll sang - Once Upon a Time - may be a classic but I'm not sure. I thought it strong. It sounded like late 1960s Bacharach although it was earlier and while Streisand never recorded it, it would have suited her. She has always selected her songs carefully. It turns out that it was written by Charles Strouse for a 1962 musical, All American, which was panned by the critics. They didn't like the story. I do and think there is considerable scope for resurrecting it in a modern form: Quote: "Based on the Robert Lewis Taylor 1950 novel Professor Fodorski, it is set on the campus of the fictional Southern Baptist Institute of Technology: the worlds of science and sports collide when the principles of engineering are applied to football strategies and football strategies are used to teach the principles of engineering. The techniques of a Hungarian immigrant, Professor Fodorski, are successful, resulting in a winning team, and he finds himself the target of an ad man who wants to exploit his new-found fame".

[johncorrigan]

...but, despite all those wonderful and expensive sets...so SLOW in unfolding. I've only watched episode 1 so far. Are there really 2 more???

Yes, the first was fairly slow, ardcap, but I thought it set the scene for where Poirot was in his life, no longer the high profile detective, and 2 and 3 got better and better for me.

[vinteuil]

...but, despite all those wonderful and expensive sets...so SLOW in unfolding. I've only watched episode 1 so far. Are there really 2 more???

... just remember, this is an Agatha Christie -

SPOILER ALERT

you don't really think the obvious baddie is going to turn out to be the baddie?

[ardcarp]

Yes, the first was fairly slow, ardcap, but I thought it set the scene for where Poirot was in his life, no longer the high profile detective, and 2 and 3 got better and better for me.

Oh good. Actually it was quite interesting to note how a subtle musical score played a part in the...albeit drawn out...tension of #1

[Nick Armstrong]

I'll start by saying that I have never read any of Agatha Christie's 'Poirot' books. I've heard plenty Poirot on the radio, seen him played by the likes of Finney and Ustinov and, I seem to recall, recently by Sir Ken Banana. And of course I've seen a fair few with Suchet, and I recall his version of the 'ABC Murders'. I approached John Malkovich's 'Poirot', dramatized over the last three evenings, with some serious doubt. It was very dark and pretty nasty in places and I was riveted throughout. I have no idea whether the tales of Poirot's past that happen in the programmes exist in Chrisitie's books or not, but I loved it. Some fine performances, but especially from Malkovich himself, and some wonderful sets too. Really enjoyed it.

Oh dear. Non, non et non...

I've watched those previous versions too, and read a few of the books (though not The ABC Murders)... I hated this adaptation. It wasn't a question of fidelity or otherwise to the books (the Belgian history of Poirot, especially the final collar-based revelation , was invented for this mini-series, afaik). It was the combination of effortful, self-conscious 'dark/sinister/let's-do-it-differently' direction that got me - and the self-indulgent tension-sapping lingering on certain carefully set-up scenes; combined with the central performance.

I'm a fan of Malkovich (the only reason I stuck with it to the end - unlike recent Christmas attempts e.g. the travesty mentioned by ferney). But I didn't buy AT ALL this characterisation. I don't care if he has a moustache or a goatee. I do care that the accent is - amid all the strenuous 'realism' - utterly unconvincing. Maybe I'm just too familiar with how francophones speak English (or French/Belgian for that matter!) - but poor old Malkovich joins a long and dishonourable list of holders of the Dick Van Dyke award for dreadful screen accents.

To be fair, Suchet's accent wasn't much better (especially when the character resorts to French phrases - his 'precis-uh-ment's and 'pas DE tout's grate and were so easily avoidable) but at least in context it had a sort of caricature quality, and Suchet sometimes got dead right the inflections of the francophone speaking English. His double-act with the excellent Philip Jackson as Japp worked very well by the way - in a recent one I saw, I loved this exchange, when HP visited Japp at home:

- Do you have perhaps a tisane?

- Come on Poirot, this is Isleworth, not Juan-les-Pins



(Has to be said too that the ITV Poirots were often sadly let down by the shocking performances of the actors playing Poirot's mate Hastings and his secretary Miss Lemon )

But to stick Malkovich in this ultra-realistic new version and give him quite a lot of French dialogue (especially towards the end): bad decision. He was compelling to watch sometimes, though - no complaints there. But why not cast a francophone actor in the main role? I would love to see someone like Daniel Auteuil or Fabrice Luchini play Poirot ... but of course the answer presumably is money/recognisability: I saw this show was produced with Amazon Prime money, and they would want a big US name everyone's heard of rather than a comparatively-unknown person from south of the Channel

Yes by all means change the original, flesh out the characters - but as usual, it's not what you do that matters, but how you do it - and this was leaden and mis-cast, imvho.

NB - the best performance was by the person who played the eventual culprit - very good indeed and chilling in an understated way right at the end.

[ardcarp]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was singularly unimpressed by this. I've got two more episodes to go...it's a sort of family-bonding-in-front-of-the-TV thing. Shall I feign pleasure or just doze off discreetly?

[Richard Tarleton]

I would love to see someone like Daniel Auteuil or Fabrice Luchini play Poirot ... but of course the answer presumably is money/recognisability:

Gerard Depardieu...(age, girth....)

(They were great together in J de F )

Don't know the other guy

But yes, you've nailed it.

[pastoralguy]

Gerard Depardieu...(age, girth....)

(They were great together in J de F )

Don't know the other guy

But yes, you've nailed it.

I've just dug out my beautiful 16mm print of Manon des Source which I'm hoping to show in February. I've always wanted the companion print of Jean de Florette but, alas, it's proved elusive these last last 15 years!

[Nick Armstrong]

Gerard Depardieu...(age, girth....) .

I nearly wrote “as long as it’s not Depardieu” in my earlier post He’s just become too ridiculous.

[ardcarp]

Last two episodes. Back to back.

[johncorrigan]

Oh dear. Non, non et non...

I've watched those previous versions too, and read a few of the books (though not The ABC Murders)... I hated this adaptation. It wasn't a question of fidelity or otherwise to the books (the Belgian history of Poirot, especially the final collar-based revelation , was invented for this mini-series, afaik). It was the combination of effortful, self-conscious 'dark/sinister/let's-do-it-differently' direction that got me - and the self-indulgent tension-sapping lingering on certain carefully set-up scenes; combined with the central performance.

His double-act with the excellent Philip Jackson as Japp worked very well by the way - in a recent one I saw, I loved this exchange, when HP visited Japp at home:


Yes by all means change the original, flesh out the characters - but as usual, it's not what you do that matters, but how you do it - and this was leaden and mis-cast, imvho.

NB - the best performance was by the person who played the eventual culprit - very good indeed and chilling in an understated way right at the end.

As I said previously, Cal, I haven't read any Poirot books. For me he was almost a joke character, this eccentric little egocentric detective who inhabits the Art Nouveau upper classes usually of British society. It was only Jackson's wonderful Japp who seemed able to drag Suchet's Poirot into something approaching real life. I suppose that's what I liked about this adaptation. The idea of dragging an uncertain Poirot into London during the rise of the British Faschist Party, where his fame had dropped away was a really interesting take for me. I liked the idea of the possible back story - it had never occurred to me during Suchet's control of the little black moustache that Poirot might have much of a past, largely because his character never changed much from episode to episode. To have Poirot trapped almost in a different world that was not of his making was very enjoyable for me, and I thought Malkovich did a very good job of it. It was good to see him there.

[antongould]

As I said previously, Cal, I haven't read any Poirot books. For me he was almost a joke character, this eccentric little egocentric detective who inhabits the Art Nouveau upper classes usually of British society. It was only Jackson's wonderful Japp who seemed able to drag Suchet's Poirot into something approaching real life. I suppose that's what I liked about this adaptation. The idea of dragging an uncertain Poirot into London during the rise of the British Faschist Party, where his fame had dropped away was a really interesting take for me. I liked the idea of the possible back story - it had never occurred to me during Suchet's control of the little black moustache that Poirot might have much of a past, largely because his character never changed much from episode to episode. To have Poirot trapped almost in a different world that was not of his making was very enjoyable for me, and I thought Malkovich did a very good job of it. It was good to see him there.

Still very much with you JC .......

[MrGongGong]

Still very much with you JC .......

I thought it was great
Much more engaging than the Suchet version (but i'm NOT a real fan of AC etc)
and interesting sound design as well as visual aesthetic
If people want "faster" paced TV there's plenty about

[jayne lee wilson]

BBC1's big-ticket Les Mis starts tonight... not usually up for costume drama but I'll give it a go....

and....
it's back...back...back! etc.
https://www.hbo.com/true-detective/s...w-cast-trailer

True Detectives 1&2 (Sky Atlantic) were some of the greatest TV I ever watched - and it manages a lot of depth and intensity in a concise number of episodes...Nic Pizzolatto still the writer so .... highest expectations...