Stephen Poliakoff's "Dancing on the edge."

[Richard Tarleton]

....My goodness Thurs really must be a desert,....I'm watching Close to the Enemy....obviously for the parady only, because it really is the most incredible load of loaded PANTS....who is it SP knows at Beeb, to keep getting to make these lavish loads of Tosh....( I do hope tosh isn't a rude word, some Public School parlance)....

Gave it almost one episode - total rubbish. The male lead was impersonating Pierce Brosnan. No, tosh quite OK ....

Our must-see watching in recent weeks has been all 4 series of House of Cards (the US one), and - watched in quick succession - The Crown (Netflix, so not bound by weekly slots). Superlative script, acting, production. Piece in today's Times by Hugo Vickers saying how much of it is true. Enough, I'd say. Two ornithological howlers - reed warbler in winter, red kite over Windsor Great Park in early 50s......

[DracoM]

Stopped watching. Found it risibly unwatchable.

[Nick Armstrong]

Close to the Enemy....it really is the most incredible load of loaded PANTS....who is it SP knows at Beeb, to keep getting to make these lavish loads of Tosh...

Gave it almost one episode - total rubbish.

Stopped watching. Found it risibly unwatchable.

Agreed all. Lasted about half of Ep 1 earlier this week; deleted the two recorded episodes and cancelled the timer. Lead performance particularly dire.

I've gone with previous Poliakoffs - Shooting the Past, Perfect Strangers, Lost Prince, and indeed Dancing on the Edge (I see from #51 above...)

This new one's bollocks though.

[ardcarp]

From the Telegraph (not my usual rag, but it's the first review that came up)...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/11/17/close-to-the-enemy-episode-2-review-what-is-going-on-inside-step/

Just about sums it up. Where did Callum's accent and demeanour come from? Nothing like anything I encountered in my post-war childhood.

[muzzer]

I can only conclude it's supposed to be ironic in some po mo way unknown to me. How much of the licence fee was wasted on this I wonder?

[Conchis]

As someone mentioned above, Poliakoff must have a very special friend at court to be indulged by the Beeb as he has been all these years.

Slowness would appear to be his party trick. A lot of gullible people equate slowness with seriousness and seriousness with depth.

I've never seen anything by Poliakoff that isn't ringingly empty - and that goes for handsomely wallpapered fragments of vacuity like The Lost Prince, Shooting The Past and Tigers And Crocodiles (if that's what it was called).

The man is a ponderous fraud: there's no other word for it.

[DracoM]

Wow! That's a bit libellous, mate...........'fraud'??

[Conchis]

Wow! That's a bit libellous, mate...........'fraud'??

He ostensibly offers depth and insight but the 'product' contains only platitudes.

[johncorrigan]

As someone mentioned above, Poliakoff must have a very special friend at court to be indulged by the Beeb as he has been all these years.

Slowness would appear to be his party trick. A lot of gullible people equate slowness with seriousness and seriousness with depth.

I've never seen anything by Poliakoff that isn't ringingly empty - and that goes for handsomely wallpapered fragments of vacuity like The Lost Prince, Shooting The Past and Tigers And Crocodiles (if that's what it was called).

The man is a ponderous fraud: there's no other word for it.

Wholeheartedly agree, Conchis. I watched some of last evening's emptiness just to check if he'd upped his game from some of your aforementioned...I lasted 20 minutes.

[Pulcinella]

Haven't endured the latest episode yet, but might, more in the vain hope that the story might develop into something a bit more interesting: does the young girl become a 2017 leader of the secret service, or some such nonsense? Why the focus on her? And after she must have had years of food deprivation I can't believe that she wouldn't have wolfed a piece of cake down, regardless of how unappetizing it might have looked.

[Anastasius]

I have to disagree as I have thoroughly enjoyed all of his programmes and to say that they are 'empty' is, TBH, a bit snobbish, pretentious and patronising. IMO, of course.

[eighthobstruction]

It is codswallop personified....and the person is SP....it does not work on any level worth worrying about....At this moment my sheep dog worrying a plastic drinks bottle....darnsight more interesting watch than any of SP. But of course this does allow Ana' to real off a short chastisment....snobbish ha ha, pretentious (who me with few teeth and covered in dog hair) ho ho, patronising teehee, well please tell how it should be received beyond 'thoroughly enjoyed' that is (or was).....??

[Richard Tarleton]

As someone mentioned above, Poliakoff must have a very special friend at court to be indulged by the Beeb as he has been all these years.

I googled "Stephne Poliakoff and Alan Yentob" at a venture - wild guess - and sure enough, and here

[Deborah] Moggach, who wrote the novel Tulip Fever and the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated film Pride and Prejudice, has accused the BBC of allowing the director to dominate its schedules with "very, very poor drama".

She even went so far as to claim that the corporation continues to commission his work because he "knows where the bodies are buried".

"He swallows up the budget, basically, of BBC money," she told Mandrake at the launch of Because I am a Girl, a collection of stories to raise money for the children's charity Plan. "People don't say it publicly because they don't want to be named."

So there we have it.

[Anastasius]

It is codswallop personified....and the person is SP....it does not work on any level worth worrying about....At this moment my sheep dog worrying a plastic drinks bottle....darnsight more interesting watch than any of SP. But of course this does allow Ana' to real off a short chastisment....snobbish ha ha, pretentious (who me with few teeth and covered in dog hair) ho ho, patronising teehee, well please tell how it should be received beyond 'thoroughly enjoyed' that is (or was).....??

And your response personifies all that I detest about many of the pseudo-intellectuals that populate this forum and are so far up their ******

[eighthobstruction]

And your response personifies all that I detest about many of the pseudo-intellectuals that populate this forum and are so far up their ******

,,,,Oh Joy....I'll have a long hard look at myself from up there....thank you....

....excellent digging RT....