BBC Original British Drama

[Captain Shaw]

It was probably an oversight not to have it from the start.

I think they were seeing it as a mark of quality, then realised how shite Torchwood is and just stuck it on everything.

So I take it Torchwood did not get any better?
I might watch the last ep just to find out what's going on or I could just read it on wiki.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

It was probably an oversight not to have it from the start.

I think they were seeing it as a mark of quality, then realised how shite Torchwood is and just stuck it on everything.

So I take it Torchwood did not get any better?
I might watch the last ep just to find out what's going on or I could just read it on wiki.

Had a half decent episode here and there and a few minutes of worthwhile stuff per episode, but overall not really. Though I hear the last one is fairly good.

 

[Starkers]

Did anyone watch The Bodyfarm? It was ok, but nothing beyond that. Twas nice to see Ray Carling again, and also Larry Nightingale from Blink (took me most of the episode to place him, for shame!) and I did like Eve at one point saying she'd had enough of hostile interrogations but on the whole it's nothing new, and in fact nothing Silent Witness doesn't do a whole lot slicker, and their scientific advisors either stink or they don't listen to them. How quickly did they get DNA and paternity tests done? Seconds, minutes? Even by tv standards it was fast!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Recorded, not watched yet though. Not expecting great things to be honest.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Philip Glenister's new series Hidden starts on October 6th at 9 on BBC One...

Ronan Bennett's new drama, Hidden, marks a highly anticipated return to BBC One for Philip Glenister, who stars in this taut and compelling four-part conspiracy thriller directed by Niall MacCormick.
Harry Venn (Glenister) is a small-time solicitor who is forced to revisit his murky past and quickly finds himself caught up in a much more complex and deeper conspiracy.
Harry is approached by Gina Hawkes, a lawyer looking for a missing alibi witness for her client – the witness being an old acquaintance of his, the long-term criminal Joe Collins.
The case reminds Harry of his own brief criminal past as a getaway driver for his older brother; a venture that ended with the death of his brother and their associate Hillman in a robbery that went horribly wrong.
The guilt Harry feels from this incident drives him to uncover what went awry in a seemingly simple operation. His only lead is that he knows the killings were commissioned by a man named Styles.

Merlin also starts on the 1st presumably before or after the last episode of Doctor Who.

And there's a Biopic of Shirley Bassey's life on BBC Four next Thursday...

Leading BBC Two's Mixed Race season, Ruth Negga (Misfits, Criminal Justice, Five Daughters) leads an all-star cast in Shirley, an intimate and revealing drama that looks at the life of Dame Shirley Bassey – one of the world's most enduring and successful divas and a national treasure.
The film charts Bassey's early career, from her humble roots in Wales in the Thirties to the start of her rise to international stardom in the Sixties. But this is no ordinary rags-to-riches story.

 

[Starkers]

Hidden sounds interesting, I'll obviously be watching Merlin, and I might give the Shirley Bassey bio a go as well.

 

[Captain Shaw]

Ruth Negga is sensational as Shirley Bassey in this biopic that charts her ascent from dirt-poor beginnings in Tiger Bay all the way to London’s West End.

Misfits fans will recognise Negga as the teleporting Nikki from series two. Here she transforms herself into the small town girl with the massive voice and even bigger dreams while Charlie *Creed-Miles plays her manager Mike Sullivan. “When I met you, you were a girl in a dirty jumper from Splott,” he reminds her.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/columnists/todays-tv/2011/09/29/shirley-bbc2-9pm-115875-23452894/
Shirley airs tonight on BBC2 at 9pm.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Looks like the Beeb have commissioned a third series of Garrow's Law. I remember liking the first 2 episodes but I never saw any more.

Garrow's Law, the acclaimed legal drama inspired by the life of pioneering 18th century barrister William Garrow, played by Andrew Buchan, will return to BBC One for a third series later this year.
The RTS award-winning drama sees a return of the barrister to the Old Bailey to champion the rights of prisoners against the powers of the State.
An outstanding cast, led by Andrew Buchan (The Fixer) who plays William Garrow also includes Alun Armstrong (New Tricks) playing attorney John Southouse, Lyndsey Marshal (Rome) playing Lady Sarah Hill, Rupert Graves (Sherlock) playing Sir Arthur Hill and Aidan McArdle (The Duchess) playing Garrow's courtroom rival Silvester. New addition Harry Melling (Harry Potter) joins the cast as a regular and plays the role of George Pinnock, Southouse's nephew.
Guest stars for series three include Olivia Grant (Lark Rise To Candleford) who plays Lady Henrietta, Sir Arthur Hill's mistress, Derek Riddell (Five Days) who plays silk maker Matthew Bambridge, Patrick Baladi (Mistresses) who plays General Picton, and Cal Macaninch (Downton Abbey) who plays police constable, Richard Lucas.
Garrow was (wrongly) convicted of "criminal conversation" – a euphemism for having sex with another man's wife – at the end of the last series. As we join him in series three, he is at last free to live with the love of his life, Lady Sarah Hill, but her private agony is the absence of Samuel, her young son, held emotional hostage by Sir Arthur Hill. The cost to her of Samuel's absence – and the cost to Garrow of her attempts to get him back – will test their relationship to the limit. Meanwhile Southouse's nephew turns up in unexpected circumstance in episode two and provides both challenge and consolation to Garrow.

 

[cultcross]

I enjoyed the first season but saw little or none of the second. I might try and catch up with it, as I heard the quality was maintained. The sappy romantic subplot was irritating but the legal stuff was interesting.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

BBC One's Christmas Drama trailer...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdl7eDgFF0w&feature=youtu.be[/yt]

 

[Captain Shaw]

BBC One's Christmas Drama trailer...

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdl7eDgFF0w&feature=youtu.be[/yt]

Looks like casualty and EastEnders are full of festive cheer.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

BBC One's Christmas Drama trailer...

Looks like casualty and EastEnders are full of festive cheer.

Aren't they always? Isn't there even a Doctor Who line something like "The best Walford Christmas Ever!"

 

[Bob The Skutter]

New Stephen Poliakoff drama for BBC Two

From BBC Media Centre

Dancing on the Edge

The drama is set in the early 1930s and follows black jazz musicians, the Louis Lester Band, as they find fame amongst the parties and performances of London’s upper class society. Although many recoil at the performance of black musicians in polite society, the city’s more progressive socialites, including members of the Royal Household, take the band under their wing.
But when the band becomes entangled in their shadowy world, it results in a suspected murder. The walls begin to close in on Louis and the band.
Co-directed by Phillipa Lowthorpe (Five Daughters, Call The Midwife, both for the BBC), produced by Nicky Kentish Barnes (Salmon Fishing, Matchpoint, Scoop!) and executive produced by Alison Owen (Elizabeth, HBO’s Temple Grandin), Paul Trijbits (Jane Eyre, Lay The Favourite), and Faye Ward (Toast), for Ruby Film and Television.
Dancing On The Edge is shooting in London and Birmingham for 16 weeks. Ruby Film and Television produces the series for BBC Two, backed by Endgame Entertainment, Playground, Creative England (through the Advantage Media Production Fund, previously managed by Screen West Midlands), and LipSync Productions. ITV Studios Global Entertainment will distribute the series internationally.

and news about The Hour's second series...

BBC Media Centre

Our highly competitive, sharp-witted and passionate news trio will be joined by a host of new characters in BBC Two’s first original British returning drama series since The Cops.
Written and created by the award-winning Abi Morgan and produced by Kudos Film and TV, the second six-part series of The Hour will see the return of Bel (Romola Garai), Hector (Dominic West) and Freddie (Ben Whishaw) alongside beloved Lix (Anna Chancellor), scheming McCain (Julian Rhind-Tutt) and newly assertive Marnie Madden (Oona Chaplin), in this highly acclaimed 1950s newsroom drama, which averaged viewing figures of 2.2 million on BBC Two earlier this year.
Series two rejoins The Hour team a year on in 1957 where we are introduced to new characters played by Peter Capaldi (The Thick Of It, The Nativity) Hannah Tointon (The Inbetweeners) and Tom Burke (State of Play).
The six new episodes will see the team still striving to broadcast the stories they believe in as they grapple with the looming spectre of the Cold War and changing social mores.
The series will chart political intrigue and corruption against the highly charged backdrop of a country in the grip of unsettling and rapid change. With the space race and nuclear power, Britain seems on the threshold of a new era of modernisation, economic optimism, scientific progress and cultural change in the face of new immigration from the Commonwealth. But under the buoyant veneer, our characters become deeply embroiled in cover-ups, sexual intrigues and the resurgence of Mosley’s fascism.
Bel Rowley (Romola Garai) is still single and determined not to get involved with another married man. Clarence is in prison and she must now report to Randall Brown (Peter Capaldi) the eccentric new Head of News. Whilst juggling the sparky relationships around her, she finds out that Hector is being lured to ITV. She fights for her programme and finds herself taking on her adversary, Bill Kendall (Tom Burke), a producer whose magnetic charm she can’t help but find irresistible.
Hector Madden (Dominic West) has risen to the status of a national celebrity, all whilst maintaining his lifestyle as a happily married man and face of The Hour. He is unsettled by Marnie’s (Oona Chaplin) desire to establish her own career and finds himself drawn to the late night clubs of Soho where he befriends Kiki (Hannah Tointon), a club hostess. No longer happy at The Hour under Randall’s new regime, he is tempted by offers from ITV, but when a night at the club goes badly wrong, scandal threatens and Hector must try to stop a news story that could destroy his marriage and his career.
Freddie Lyons (Ben Whishaw), who was fired after ‘The Lord Elms’ live interview, makes an unexpected return to The Hour. Having been away for several months travelling around the world, he returns as co-host of The Hour, to both Bel and Hector’s surprise. He has however not lost his passion to investigate and as he becomes embroiled with exposing a cover-up, it becomes clear that the ghosts of the past will not let Freddie go.
Lix (Anna Chancellor) is still heading up the foreign desk, fighting for airtime for international stories, but a new side to her is revealed when Randall arrives at The Hour. Meanwhile, McCain (Julian Rhind-Tutt) is now Head of Press for Macmillan, protecting the recently elected Prime Minister and the closed circle of his cabinet.

 

[Deckerd]

That reminds me. I think everyone needs to see this at least once in their lives

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loNQgax53Jk[/yt]

 

[Deckerd]

The DW team look about as comfortable as a nun in a poledancing club.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

The DW team look about as comfortable as a nun in a poledancing club.

Is she watching or doing the dancing? Just so I can get the picture right in my head...

 

[Captain Shaw]

That reminds me. I think everyone needs to see this at least once in their lives

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loNQgax53Jk[/yt]

God I hate that AD, what was the BBC thinking?
Its has if they want to lose the licence fee.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

That reminds me. I think everyone needs to see this at least once in their lives

God I hate that AD, what was the BBC thinking?
Its has if they want to lose the licence fee.

I guess they didn't pay attention to Charlie...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/09/charlie-brooker-bbc-cuts

Charlie Brooker

Anyway, among all the articles detailing which bits of Radio 1 Extra will be shared with Radio 1, and which daytime shows are likely to be axed and so on, the one thing I can't find is any mention of how much the BBC spends on promotional trails. I'm not talking about the on-air trails consisting of edited highlights. I'm talking about the bespoke mini-movies encouraging me to watch such little-known broadcasts as Strictly Come Dancing; ads created not from footage from the shows themselves, but from specially-shot glossy nonsense.
These things turn me silver with rage. Yeah, silver. I TURN SILVER. And they turn me silver not because they're bad – on the contrary, they're often very well made indeed – but because they have absolutely no right to exist in any civilised universe. It's like watching the BBC shit money into a big glittery bin.
To shoot the recent Strictly trailer, for instance, in which celebrities lead a crowd of "ordinary folk" in a patronising pied-piper dance, I'd guess they had to close a couple of streets for several days (including one very tricky night shoot involving lots of pretty lights). It's glossily made and quite complicated, so there's also a big crew to pay. And as well as the stars themselves, all of whom require costume and makeup, I'd say they also had to hire about 50 extras. And a shitload of catering. All these people should be employed to make shows, not adverts for shows. That's like paying Heston Blumenthal millions to design a bespoke scent that'll tempt people to your soup truck, which only serves bargain soup made with cheap ingredients because that's all you can afford, having blown all the money on the smell.
All that time and money to advertise a show which everybody knows about anyway. You could hold a bit of cardboard with "STRICTLY'S COMING BACK" scrawled on it in front of the lens for 10 seconds and it would have 10 times the impact. Madness.
And it's not just madness in the short-term: what about legacy? If all that time and money and street-closing and dancing and filming had been used to create a show instead of an advert, they might've created something they could broadcast again, or sell on DVD, or flog to the Swiss and the Kenyans. Instead they blew it on a promo that'll air for a few weeks before getting tossed on to the ever-mounting stack of other never-to-be-shown-again adverts, which sit there gathering dust in nobody's memories – pointless visual epics informing you that the BBC sometimes broadcasts football and has radio stations.
I wouldn't mind if they used the money to sew some shiny new buttons on Ian Beale's shirt. Or maybe a bunch of pitchforks and flaming torches for those terrified farmers round Cameron's way. Film that. At least it's money spent on the right thing.

 

[Captain Shaw]

That reminds me. I think everyone needs to see this at least once in their lives

God I hate that AD, what was the BBC thinking?
Its has if they want to lose the licence fee.

I guess they didn't pay attention to Charlie...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/09/charlie-brooker-bbc-cuts

Charlie Brooker

Anyway, among all the articles detailing which bits of Radio 1 Extra will be shared with Radio 1, and which daytime shows are likely to be axed and so on, the one thing I can't find is any mention of how much the BBC spends on promotional trails. I'm not talking about the on-air trails consisting of edited highlights. I'm talking about the bespoke mini-movies encouraging me to watch such little-known broadcasts as Strictly Come Dancing; ads created not from footage from the shows themselves, but from specially-shot glossy nonsense.
These things turn me silver with rage. Yeah, silver. I TURN SILVER. And they turn me silver not because they're bad – on the contrary, they're often very well made indeed – but because they have absolutely no right to exist in any civilised universe. It's like watching the BBC shit money into a big glittery bin.
To shoot the recent Strictly trailer, for instance, in which celebrities lead a crowd of "ordinary folk" in a patronising pied-piper dance, I'd guess they had to close a couple of streets for several days (including one very tricky night shoot involving lots of pretty lights). It's glossily made and quite complicated, so there's also a big crew to pay. And as well as the stars themselves, all of whom require costume and makeup, I'd say they also had to hire about 50 extras. And a shitload of catering. All these people should be employed to make shows, not adverts for shows. That's like paying Heston Blumenthal millions to design a bespoke scent that'll tempt people to your soup truck, which only serves bargain soup made with cheap ingredients because that's all you can afford, having blown all the money on the smell.
All that time and money to advertise a show which everybody knows about anyway. You could hold a bit of cardboard with "STRICTLY'S COMING BACK" scrawled on it in front of the lens for 10 seconds and it would have 10 times the impact. Madness.
And it's not just madness in the short-term: what about legacy? If all that time and money and street-closing and dancing and filming had been used to create a show instead of an advert, they might've created something they could broadcast again, or sell on DVD, or flog to the Swiss and the Kenyans. Instead they blew it on a promo that'll air for a few weeks before getting tossed on to the ever-mounting stack of other never-to-be-shown-again adverts, which sit there gathering dust in nobody's memories – pointless visual epics informing you that the BBC sometimes broadcasts football and has radio stations.
I wouldn't mind if they used the money to sew some shiny new buttons on Ian Beale's shirt. Or maybe a bunch of pitchforks and flaming torches for those terrified farmers round Cameron's way. Film that. At least it's money spent on the right thing.

So true.
Also because more and more people are watching the BBC via I player, there are less and less people watching the ads.

 

[Lonemagpie]

So, the fucking Gruffalo's a drama now? What?