October 2010 Archives

The Stephen K Amos Show BBC2, Friday 10pm
The man who once joked that he would have to assassinate Lenny Henry to have any chance of having his own show manages to do so without resorting to wetwork. Although — has anyone seen Len on the telly recently? Hmmm… I always try and appraise sketch shows without resorting to the cliché of “hit and miss”, and always fail. Maybe that’s because it’s so, so true…

Merlin BBC1, Saturday 7.55pm
In recent weeks, BBC1’s swords and sorcery saga has really hit its stride, managing to balance comedy and action to create an entertaining mix. This week, Arthur heads out on a quest. No, not that one.

The Armstrong & Miler Show BBC1, Saturday 9.45pm
A third BBC series for the masters of sketch comedy. I saw them try out some material for this new series, and it was considerably more hit than miss. Oops, sorry.

Single Father BBC1, Sunday 9pm
The final episode of this superlative family drama, and Dave’s world is perilously close to falling apart. Mick Ford’s writing has been so finely attuned that it helps elide over the less likely bits of coincidence, resulting a drama that has me completely enthralled.

Downton Abbey ITV1, Sunday 9pm
The penultimate episode of ITV1’s drama, and the plot strands are trundling along nicely. Maggie Smith’s withering putdowns are the highlight in this sumptuous series.

Psychoville Halloween Special BBC2, Sunday 10pm
The comedy horror show returns for a one-off special which includes four tales of terror. Creators Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are joined by Eileen Atkins, Dawn French, Imelda Staunton and others.

Now in its tenth series, Harry Hill’s TV Burp has grown from being a cult little hit into one of ITV1’s regular Saturday evening staples. Despite the increased attention, Hill’s iconoclastic humour has barely changed — but on TV Burp it has become constrained by the format a little.

His new venture is much more freewheeling. It’s also not going to be on telly — instead, Harry Hill’s Little Internet Show is going to be distributed online via AOL. The company’s broadband customers will be able to see each episode of the ten-part series first, on Fridays from today: wider public access will be via aol.co.uk from Monday.

Given Hill’s comedic style, it will come as a relief to some that each episode is less than five minutes in length (the first sneaks in at under four once you discount the opening titles and closing credits). Set around Hill’s holiday home in Whitstable, the promised “celebrity guests” turn out to be deliberately poor impersonations, some of which will be familiar to viewers of TV Burp. The first episode includes a version of Simon Cowell which seems to consist of an Action Man figure with a paper bag on his head, while “Susan Boyle” (a regular on the last series of TV Burp), while looking remarkably similar as pictured above, is played by a man who can’t act, but is all the more amusing for that.

The whole enterprise deliberately looks like it was made on a shoestring, which adds to the whole “home movie” effect Hill is clearly going for. Whether that’s for you, you can decide on Monday (or, if you have AOL Broadband, today).

Michael Price composed the music for BBC4’s adaptation of The First Men in the Moon. He studied on the Tonmeister course at Surrey University and went on to write a number of scores for contemporary dance. He moved into film in 1996, when he was invited by Michael Kamen to orchestrate and program electronic sounds for the Paramount movie Event Horizon. His credits include the BBC’s Sherlock and the film Wild Target. Price has worked with large orchestras on his own scores, but when budgets are smaller, he creates scores by himself, in his studio at home, using pre-recorded sounds he has built up over the years. This was the case for The First Men in the Moon.

How did you become involved with The First Men in the Moon?

I met Mark Gatiss on Crooked House and we met up again on Sherlock. So when Mark started thinking about who should score The First Men in the Moon, I was on his speed dial at that point. It’s a pretty ambitious project. To make a movie that looks like that on the budget I imagine they had is quite impressive.

What kind of sound did you want for The First Men in the Moon?

Damon Thomas, the director, would talk about the sounds and colours he wanted from the start - he wanted everything to be done with a twist. If a piano was used, then he wanted that with a hint of something off-kilter in the background, or where a flute was used, it had to be doubled with some unearthly pipe sound behind it. Damon’s brief was classic storytelling, but with something unsettling behind it.

How did you want the music when the actors are on the Earth to stand out from that used when they are on the moon?

When it’s on Earth, it was nice to have the music feel a bit more real. For the moon scenes, I used recordings of instruments made out of glass, which gives a haunting, spooky sound.

How long did it take to compose the music for the drama?

I wrote it in about three weeks, which is quick. In a perfect world, you would get six to eight weeks. With this, Damon knew what he wanted and I knew how to do it. It just came out quickly and fluently, but it’s not always like that.

What was it like going from writing music for contemporary dance to working with Michael Kamen on films such as Event Horizon?

It was this astonishing transition from being an arts council-funded contemporary dance musician to seeing what it is like to tell stories on a really big scale. For ages and ages, if I wanted to get musicians together for a score, it involved months of pleading on the phone and buying curries for people.

Then, on my first day with Michael, he asked if we could get an orchestra booked that Thursday because he had just bought a theatre in Notting Hill and wanted to try it out. We had 75 players just to try out the sound of that venue and make noises for Event Horizon. There was more money in that one day than I spent in five years of contemporary dance.

How important is music to an audience’s enjoyment of a film or TV drama?

If you get the tone of it wrong or if you push the audience too far, people will step back and reject it. They don’t want to be told what to think. But on the other hand, if you are with them, experiencing the story with the music, providing a framework, then everything all of a sudden starts to hang together. I don’t mind if people say they didn’t notice the music, so long as they enjoyed the show.

What advice would you give to aspiring film composers?

Learn about the business from the inside out - by finding someone you can be an apprentice to, for example. Give yourself ten years and at the end of that, you will begin to get it. It took me ten years. Now I think I just about get it on a good day.

• The First Men in the Moon will be broadcast on BBC4 at 9pm on October 19
• Read our interview with creator and star Mark Gatiss and his co-star Rory Kinnear

For all the stick it gets — much of it deserved, a lot of it not — it’s rare for anyone to stick their neck out and say that, actually, they are downright proud of the BBC.

Unless you’re Mitch Benn. In which case you make a song about it.

The song will be available on iTunes (and, I understand, other digital download suppliers) from November 1. For more information, see Mitch’s website.

The Sarah Jane Adventures CBBC, Monday & Tuesday 5.15pm (repeated Wednesday & Thursday, BBC2 4.30pm)
A fourth series of the phenomenally successful CBBC spin-off from Doctor Who kicks off with a psychological story from Joseph Lidster. Child prodigy Luke (Tommy Knight) experiences his first nightmare, the haunting figure of The Nightmare Man (Julian Bleach, who also played Davros in DW) is set to terrify more than just his dreams…

Pitmen Painters: A Brush With Broadway BBC1 North East, Monday 7.30pm
A documentary following the author and cast of The Pitmen Painters as their production is transferred, with the full cast intact, to Broadway’s Samuel J Friedman Theatre. Presented by cast member Christopher Connel with contributions from the Manhattan Theater Club (who have brought the play over) and the show’s playwright, Lee Hall. Unfortunately, this documentary is in BBC1’s regional docuemntary slot, so many of us nationally won’t get to see it on broadcast (unless you forage in the depths of Sky’s EPG). however, fingers crossed that it will be available on iPlayer afterwards.

Whitechapel ITV1, MOnday 9pm
Chandler, Miles and Buchan (Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis and Steve Pemberton) are back. After previously chasing down a copycat Jack the Ripper, this time the serial murders in East London bear all the hallmarks of the Krays.

A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss BBC4, Monday 9pm
While his fellow League of Gentlemen member Steve Pemberton concentrates on drama on ITV1, horror fan Gatiss (who recently took on the mantle of The Main in Black for BBC Radio 7) here presents a three-part history of horror films.

Lip Service BBC3, Tuesday 10.30pm
If the BBC is hoping that its new lesbian drama is going to help overcome its unrealistic, stereotypical portrayal of LGB people on our screens, they may be disappointed: Radio Times’ Jack Seale says it fails to avoid both traps of lesbian drama: “portraying lesbianism as exotic deviancy, on screen to entertain randy voyeurs… [and] being too self-conscious and apologetic about the subject matter”.

Wonderland: Boy Cheerleaders BBC2, Wednesday 9pm
Cheerleading isn’t particularly large in the UK (although, like so many things, Glee has been helping with that) — but all-male groups are even rarer. This documentary follows a boys’ troupe from inner city Leeds.

Film 2010 BBC1, Wednesday 10.45pm
After Jonathan Ross’ departure from the Beeb, the Film series gets not only a new host but a new format. Claudia Winkleman presents the show live, discussing new film releases with Guardian film journalist Danny Leigh. Given how good she is on Radio 2’s Friday night arts show, this could be a welcome shot in the arm for film coverage on telly.

Reggie Perrin BBC1, Thursday 9.30pm
As if the first series of this misguided revival weren’t bad enough…

The Song of Lunch BBC2, Friday 9pm

Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson work so well together, whether it’s in Truly Madly Deeply (cellos, snot, tears and all), or Love Actually. Here, they bring a poem to life. Christopher Reid’s narrative work is presented as the inner monologue of a man who works in publishing and has lunch with an old flame. A slight plot, maybe, but there’s a fluid sense to to all the previews that should make it a feast for the eyes and ears.

• Read executive producer Greg Wise’s blog about the making of Song of Lunch

Harry Hill’s TV Burp ITV1, Saturday 7.10pm
The high collared wit and his team never fail to find the silliness in the TV schedules and take the proverbial. All is right with the world when TV Burp is on our screens…

The X Factor ITV1, Saturday 7.40pm
The audience manipulation gets more brazen every year, but it keeps dragging in the viewers and racking up the column inches. Cheryl’s decision not to put Gamu through in favour of two young girl performers who messed up their auditions is, I think, less likely to have been a consequence of any perceived visa problems than has been suggsted. I think it’s far more likely it was done to ensure that there was some sort of equal playing field between each category — with Gamu in the mix, the other categories’ shortcomings would have been far too obvious.

Single Father BBC1, Sunday 9pm
David Tennant and Suranne Jones star in a new four-part contemporary drama series about a man struggling to look after his four young children after the sudden death of his wife.

At the risk of coming across as a promotional item for the BBC’s TV blog, writer Mick Ford’s blog post about some of his inspiration for the drama is worth a read. I found this anecdote quite moving, sentimental old duffer that I am:

I was down in Deal, in Kent, writing something else and overheard a story about a bandsman who was killed there in the bombing of the Royal Marines’ barracks in 1989.

This bandsman’s wife was working at the time in the café at the end of the pier. Because the wind was blowing off the sea, no-one there heard the blast, but at the exact moment her husband died, for no apparent reason, she blurted out “I love you too!”.

Probably about the only thing wrong with Single Father is that it clashes with ITV1’s Downton Abbey — which, after a plodding first episode, really picked up last week.

Friday evening is an odd choice for a TV channel to hold its press launch for a new season of programmes. But then, most channels don’t have life sized robots roaming through the after-screening drinks, or green screen photo booths with technology to turn even the most handsome of journalists into Graske, Veil or Kudlak.

Nor, of course, do most channel encourage people to bring their children along. But this was the season launch for CBBC, the BBC’s children’s channel aimed at six- to 12-year-olds. And my inner 12-year-old (who, let’s face it, is not that well hidden at the best of times) was in his element.

The new season promises many new programmes that fall slap bang in The Stage’s remit — including some great new and returning drama series, and news of a new series by one of Britain’s foremost TV writing talents.

More after the jump.

Cross-posted to the Greatest Stage Actor blog

In our print edition and on our special microsite, we are looking at ten of the greatest stage actors of all time, as nominated by a panel of theatre experts from all areas of the industry. Each week, we will be profiling one of the ten — and to go with this, you can vote for which of the ten deserves the crown of ‘Greatest Stage Actor’.

As noted in a blog post from last week (which also ran as the leader column in that week’s issue of The Stage), the further back you go, the less the chance of being able to have witnessed some of our top ten actors’ onstage performances.

For me, Ralph Richardson — who, having been born in 1902 was the oldest of our ten selected actors — is someone whose performance skills I never got to appreciate first hand. Thankfully, while he was still at the height of his theatrical powers, he was part of a cast for a television recording of Twelfth Night that became the most expensive television drama of the age — costing a whopping (by 1970 standards) £200,000.