Stephen Poliakoff's "Dancing on the edge."

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

merged so i hope this is ok with every one ....

You can't see the join.

[aeolium]

Utopia...doesn't even deserve to be in the same post as Poliakoff.

Why not? I've said why I think the Poliakoff is very poor and also (in another post) what interests me about Utopia. Perhaps you could say what you think is very good about the Poliakoff and why you think Utopia is "pure unadulterated trash". Someone else asked about other dramas that were better than Dancing on the Edge - that's why I included Utopia in my post, because I thought it was much better, and I still do.

[Byas'd Opinion]

I've been persevering with Dancing on the Edge, but I'm finding it a bit of a struggle.

Did the whole "getting a black musician to play at a Nazi-era German Embassy" plotline last night ring a bit false with anyone else? I thought the series was set round about 1933-34, which I'd imagine was too early for the German Diplomatic Service to have been completely Nazified. (Although of course under a totalitarian regime, if the Party expects you to be outraged, it's safest for you to act outraged.) Wikipedia says that the German ambassador at the time, Leopold von Hoesch, was not a Nazi supporter - Ribbentrop didn't take over until 1936.

On the other hand, I've been enjoying Utopia a lot. There's a freshness to its visual language that sets it apart from most other contemporary TV dramas. I think it's trying to recreate the style of a comic book on screen. There are lots of stylised tableau-like shots which could be seen as the equivalent to the individual frames of a comic. OK, it's not realist - don't expect well-rounded complex characters or a plausible plot - and it is VERY violent in places, but it's doing something a bit different from other current dramas and doing it well.

[Anna]

In 1935 Germany passed a law banning the playing of jazz music on German radio stations. More draconian measures against jazz, and jazz musicians (black and Jewish, white Aryan jazz was ok it seems) came about in 1937 so I reckon it's true to the era portrayed in the series.

[Resurrection Man]

Why not? I've said why I think the Poliakoff is very poor and also (in another post) what interests me about Utopia. Perhaps you could say what you think is very good about the Poliakoff and why you think Utopia is "pure unadulterated trash". Someone else asked about other dramas that were better than Dancing on the Edge - that's why I included Utopia in my post, because I thought it was much better, and I still do.

Dancing on the Edge has stunning visuals, superb acting, great settings. A well-developing plot and characterisation. The cinematography is brilliant.

You asked why I didn't like Utopia. To be honest, I had to go back to Channel 4 4oD to remind myself what it was all about. Once I saw the plotline it all came back to me....some kids sitting round in a pub talking about some silly computer game. That's about as far as I got....simply didn't interest me. Did I feel any empathy with the main characters? No. Did I really care what they did or what happened to them? No.

Each to their own, of course.

[Nick Armstrong]

I have a Shaun the Sheep eggcup.

Staying ontopic, I'm going to stick with DotE, three more episodes to go and I think it's shaping up nicely.

Same here. I thought Ep 1 dragged a little, though beautiful to look at (plus hidden intrigue in relation to the trashed hotel room). Ep 2 had some odd, static moments, but the strangeness of the sighting of Julian down a long corridor, and the sudden aftermath of violence, galvanised things and I thought Ep 3 was gripping.

Yes the self-conscious staging and beauty of the New Year's eve scene on the village bridge was a whisker from being over the top, but it's a sumptuous watch, and the performances by the two singers, and above all Chiwetel Ejiofor as Louis Lester, are riveting

And who are the two weird, gaunt people waiting outside the hotel along with the press...?!

Shades of David Lynch there, creepy stuff...

[aeolium]

You asked why I didn't like Utopia. To be honest, I had to go back to Channel 4 4oD to remind myself what it was all about. Once I saw the plotline it all came back to me....some kids sitting round in a pub talking about some silly computer game.

There is no computer game in the plot of Utopia so I wonder how much of the series you have watched.

On the other hand, I've been enjoying Utopia a lot. There's a freshness to its visual language that sets it apart from most other contemporary TV dramas. I think it's trying to recreate the style of a comic book on screen. There are lots of stylised tableau-like shots which could be seen as the equivalent to the individual frames of a comic. OK, it's not realist - don't expect well-rounded complex characters or a plausible plot - and it is VERY violent in places, but it's doing something a bit different from other current dramas and doing it well.

I agree, Byas'd Opinion. The look of the drama is unrealistic, with vivid colours and tableaux. The way characters talk and behave is unpredictable, and it's this which interests me, rather than the plot which is essentially that of a conspiracy thriller.

Dancing on the Edge may well have fine cinematography and some very good actors in Chiwetel Ejiofor and John Goodman but imo they are simply wasted on this screenplay. I'm beginning to wonder whether Poliakoff should not have been a photographer rather than a playwright: he is clearly so much more interested in image than he is in drama or characterisation. As Jon Wilde commented in the Guardian, "for my money, it's the writing that's at fault here. Like so much of [Poliakoff's] later work (Friends & Crocodiles, Joe's Palace, Glorious 39), Dancing on the Edge is shaping up to be all style and precious little substance."

[Resurrection Man]

There is no computer game in the plot of Utopia so I wonder how much of the series you have watched.
.....

OK..online comic book forum....same difference from this end. As I said I watched very little as it simply did not engage and I had little empathy for either characters or plot.

[Mandryka]

Like the other Poliakoff-bashers, I learned my lesson re: him long ago and have not tuned into this one.

His only good play, imo, was 1977's City Sugar - although, actually, it may only have been Tim Curry's bravura central performance that made it seem better than it was.

I'm not an uncritical admirer of Jimmy McGovern, but a series like the superb (and under-appreciated) Accused is worth any number of Polifluff confections.

[french frank]

Like the other Poliakoff-bashers, I learned my lesson re: him long ago and have not tuned into this one.

One of the few contemporary television plays that I remember from years back is Poliakoff's Caught on a Train, with Peggy Ashcroft and Mchael Kitchen. I'm not sure whether I was impressed by the play or the fact that I did the same train trip to Vienna that same year.

[Mandryka]

One of the few contemporary television plays that I remember from years back is Poliakoff's Caught on a Train, with Peggy Ashcroft and Mchael Kitchen. I'm not sure whether I was impressed by the play or the fact that I did the same train trip to Vienna that same year.

I saw the original broadcast and enjoyed it at the time; saw it again, years later, and realised it was, like just about every other Poliakoff piece, empty stuff. But a good vehicle for Peggy Ashcroft and the then lean and hungry Michael Kitchen.

[aeolium]

I'm not sure whether I was impressed by the play or the fact that I did the same train trip to Vienna that same year.

ff, did you have to stop off at Frankfurt and catch a train from a different platform, like the protagonists in the Poliakoff play? I can only remember doing the journey from Ostend to Vienna and don't recall any changes (it was just an ordinary D-Zug, in the later 1970s).

[clive heath]

It's all over and the dénouémont was neatly unsettled for a moment in the sausage scene but this is my most enjoyed Poliakoff since "Shooting the Past" and though it took a few episodes to get into, I felt the actors inhabited their characters superbly transcending the plot. I shall miss them. Even the two young girls in this last episode had that uncompromising stare as they sat on the sofa.

[Flosshilde]

It's all over and the dénouémont was neatly unsettled for a moment in the sausage scene

[Globaltruth]

Well we'd concocted a different dénouémont.
It was Pamela Luscombe wot done it, out of an insane jealousy of her brother. I could see no other reason for her character in the plot, other than as Stanley's paramour.
She even wondered aloud what her part was at that odd farewell dinner - it would have been a neat dramatic trick, giving the game away in full view.
But, it was not to be and as predictable as feared.
Loads of inconsequences & loose ends, and I tend to agree that there was a lot of strong style not supported by similar strong content; but a pleasant few hours with some elegant moving wallpaper.