Hinterland / Y Gwyll

[vinteuil]

.

... not mentioned in the Radio Times, but available currently on BBC i-player - a new series of Hinterland.

We watched the first episode tonight - I had forgotten how good this is. The Welsh atmosphere almost overwhelming.... Beautifully photographed, too...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... not mentioned in the Radio Times, but available currently on BBC i-player - a new series of Hinterland.
We watched the first episode tonight - I had forgotten how good this is. The Welsh atmosphere almost overwhelming.... Beautifully photographed, too...

- I watched the first pair of episodes last week: is it a BBC1 Wales broadcast - saving it for BBC4 later in the year? I have been a fan since the first series, and couldn't understand why Anna (formerly of this parish) was so hostile to it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08lqbrs/hinterland-series-3-episode-1-part-1

The repeat of the "pilot" film of the Danish Department Q* series is well worth watching, too, prior to a run of the next two films:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0801gdr/department-q-the-keeper-of-lost-causes

* - not to be confused with late '60s Spooner & Berman ITV series Department S which we have to thank for the character Jason King, resulting about 20% of the boys I taught at the beginning of my career in the early 80s being called Jason. I don't think the new Danish series will result in a run on the name "Carl".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh ... and if anyone hasn't seen the previous two series (or who did but can't remember the details) the Beeb has kindly supplied this seven-minute "previously on" film:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04m41sp/hinterland-the-story-so-far

[Richard Tarleton]

- I watched the first pair of episodes last week: is it a BBC1 Wales broadcast - saving it for BBC4 later in the year? I have been a fan since the first series, and couldn't understand why Anna (formerly of this parish) was so hostile to it.

It's a funny thing - I've absolutlely loved the other recent/current Celtic/Nordic fringe series, Shetland, but for some reason this just hasn't appealed at all, in spite of trying. Scenery, atmosphere - yes, yes - lighting self-consciously Scandi (I haven't noticed whether it's based on/inspired by novels or whether it's original TV drama); script, acting, subtitles - perhaps the problem's in that area....

[Dave2002]

The repeat of the "pilot" film of the Danish Department Q* series is well worth watching, too, prior to a run of the next two films:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0801gdr/department-q-the-keeper-of-lost-causes

The pilot was quite good, though rather dark. The next one seemed too violent, and perhaps needlessly unpleasant. Not sure if we'll bother with the remaining one.

Might try to pick up Hinterland though, as have seen the previous episodes.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The next one seemed too violent, and perhaps needlessly unpleasant. Not sure if we'll bother with the remaining one.

I agree - I'll still watch the third, in the hope that they don't rely so much on the ketchup, but the second film was a big disappointment.

[Richard Tarleton]

Ferney, I take it all back. Having gorged on the first two long episodes of Hinterland on Netflix, I've decided I like it a lot.

I just get depressed by the landscapes, when they're driving backwards and forwards between Aberystwyth and the latest murder scene. A sheep-grazed ecological desert, dotted with clumps of conifer plantation. As George Monbiot points out (often), everywhere else in Europe the uplands are repositories of wildlife riches - in Britain they are even more impoverished than the lowlands, thanks to sheep, and in Wales worst of all. But they do add to the general mood, coupled with the dark lighting. Mathias seems to do everything at night, by torchlight.

My neighbour has dropped a hint or two about where it's all going, and there have been a few pointers thus far - his super looks and sounds a wrong 'un.....

[jean]

...As George Monbiot points out (often), everywhere else in Europe the uplands are repositories of wildlife riches - in Britain they are even more impoverished than the lowlands, thanks to sheep, and in Wales worst of all...

I can't let this pass without comment, as I have just come back from a visit to my sister who lives on the edge of this:

Coed Dinorwig (also known as Coed Allt Wen or Coed Chwarel), stands as a prominent feature on the steep slopes overlooking Llyn Padarn. The canopy of this nationally important ancient woodland is dominated by Sessile Oak with some scattered Birch. Mountain Ash, Holly and Hazel typify much of the understorey, combining to provide a dazzling autumnal display of colour. The ground flora comprises communities of Bell-Heather, Bilberry, Greater Woodrush and Bramble, pretty Bluebells in spring and seemingly evergreen ferns, lichens and mosses. Look out for the uncommon Helleborine, a nationally scare species of orchid with delicate white flowers. Together with the plant life, the forest is also home to Wood Ants, the Speckled Wood Butterfly and bird species including Lesser Spotted and Green Woodpeckers, Pied Flycatcher and Redstart. The internationally endangered Lesser Horseshoe Bat, are known to hibernate in the nearby Vivian Quarry. Other bats include the Common Pipistrelle and Daubenton, which forage in the woodland and above Llyn Padarn respectively.

We saw them all! (Well, perhaps not quite all...)

.

[eighthobstruction]

....ooo I love a bit of dour....

.... the misery is palpable, but very open to parody should any comedian get hold of it....I'm already striking poses; Mathius like, while looking into the distance in the cold windy drizzle on the tops around here....I'm going to go to the charity shops to see if I can get an especially tight shirt to perfect my stance....

[Richard Tarleton]

We saw them all! (Well, perhaps not quite all...)

.

Don't want to go too far OT, on a subject which causes much controversy - pockets of biodiversity and great beauty exist, especially in Snowdonia, in areas from which sheep have been excluded, or which are too steep for sheep to graze. But huge swathes of - well, the hinterland of Hinterland, the Cambrian Mountains and the Brecon Beacons, which ought to be home to woodland and dwarf shrubs and everything that goes with them, have been reduced to an acid grassland monoculture, devoid of biodiversity, by sheep.

[vinteuil]

.

... this new series of Hinterland, which some may have already caught on i-player, starts on BBC4 this Saturday 6 May at 9pm.

Be there, or be sgwâr ...

[Richard Tarleton]

.

... this new series of Hinterland, which some may have already caught on i-player, starts on BBC4 this Saturday 6 May at 9pm.

Be there, or be sgwâr ...

Still on series 1, courtesy of Netflix. Thought has clearly been given to the soundtrack - episode 4, featuring murder in the marshes at Borth, featured drumming snipe, grasshopper warbler, sedge warbler..... A bit naughty, though, getting off with victim's mother - even for a maverick cop. But plenty of hints where it's all going.....

[Dave2002]

Just finished watching the latest series. Some quite interesting film techniques, and the plot bacame rather interesting - referring back to earlier series.

[Richard Tarleton]

Half-way through series 2. Absorbing - even if the noir is laid on with a trowel, and the angsty cop bit carried to extremes - Richard Harrington's furrowed brow a fixture. The hillbilly settlements and businesses in the, er, hinterland, all a bit Deliverance...... People like to visit the settings of TV and film dramas, but I can't see these bleak wintry landscapes doing a great deal for tourism, Aberystwyth at its grimmest...... But who knows

[Dave2002]

If you get a move on you may be able to watch series 3 before it is taken down from iPlayer - or perhaps you've already recorded it.

The sound track is somewhat overdone, but it does seem to have been created as a "genre' series.