I intended to post my no doubt hugely witty and insightful thoughts about yet more new comedy shows that have graced our screens in the last few weeks but there just haven't been enough hours in the day for me to watch, let alone write about what I've watched. Heck, I'm an entire week behind on Doctors ; I wonder what season they'll be in when I go back ?
Watson & Oliver (BBC2, 10pm Thursdays) afforded me a few wry smiles; they don't have the surreal brilliance of Anna Crilly and Katy Wix but they'll do. Although their 'SUSAN' does make me laugh, especially when Fiona Bruce is in the courtyard.
Vicious (ITV 9pm Mondays) is absolutely camper than a row of tents on Brighton beach* (*not a beach - bank of pebbles) - with Sirs McKellen & Jacobi enjoying themselves enormously, and me as voyeur watching them enjoying themselves enormously while not really finding any of it particularly funny. In fact all I could think of was the anecdote a colleague once told me about seeing Sir Ian play King Lear at the RSC. In the madness on the heath scene he was starkers and she was sitting quite near the front of the stalls so she got a glaring view of the McKellan undercarriage which by her account, he waved around quite happily.
Since writing that, I have enjoyed the subsequent episodes a whole lot more; I think I am getting into the groove of it; McKellan & Jacobi are clearly having a lot of fun and I am starting to, too.
Vicious is followed by The Job Lot which was initially appealing because I knew it featured one of my favourite actors, Russell Tovey, whom I trust to make intelligent choices in his acting career.
I watched with my hubby whose first job was dealing with claimants at a DHSS office in an impoverished area in the early 80s aged 16 and straight from school - an area with a high Indian population , and he was in charge of those whose surnames started with P. So he's been at the front line of such things.
Neither of us found it exceptionally funny on two viewings. Bit of a shame really.
The Apprentice has re-started with a bulk of stock characters who seem to be caricatures of previous contestants. Numpties the lot of them. Enjoyable numptiness though.
Above all my favourite series recently (ended Saturday 11 May, BBC2, 10:30pm) was Alan Yentob's The United States of Television:America in Primetime .
It was an absolute treat for a TV nerd like me.
It's not just about clips from sit-coms; it's a whole social history laid before us in all its delicious American beauty.
From "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!" via Mary Richards to Carrie Bradshaw ; from Father Knows Best to Ray and Debra Barone via Archie Bunker; from Danny deVito as Louie in Taxi to the God that is Hugh Laurie in House, I lapped up every second of these four hours. America reflected in its own prime time programming.
Yentob examined the independent women , the husband, the maverick, the crusader. Of course the sexual revolution of the Sixties changed things for women but even if you look at Lucy she was a determined woman pursuing a dream. And Lucille Ball was a real life business woman to be reckoned with (without her production company with then real life husband Desi Arnaz DesiLu, we might never have had Star Trek. When he was little , my hubby thought DesiLu was the name of the green alien woman on the end credits, but that's an aside ...)
Father doesn't know best any more - you only have to watch one episode of Raymond to know that Debra & Marie are running the show. It was the sexual politics that fascinated me most looking at this. Probably nothing new but four luscious hours of wonderful telly essays.
And damn isn't Jon Hamm good looking...
So there's a brief catch up post ... like buses another will follow soon about my new telly obsession.
I know, you can't wait ;-)
I watched with my hubby whose first job was dealing with claimants at a DHSS office in an impoverished area in the early 80s aged 16 and straight from school - an area with a high Indian population , and he was in charge of those whose surnames started with P. So he's been at the front line of such things.
Neither of us found it exceptionally funny on two viewings. Bit of a shame really.
The Apprentice has re-started with a bulk of stock characters who seem to be caricatures of previous contestants. Numpties the lot of them. Enjoyable numptiness though.
Above all my favourite series recently (ended Saturday 11 May, BBC2, 10:30pm) was Alan Yentob's The United States of Television:America in Primetime .
It was an absolute treat for a TV nerd like me.
It's not just about clips from sit-coms; it's a whole social history laid before us in all its delicious American beauty.
From "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!" via Mary Richards to Carrie Bradshaw ; from Father Knows Best to Ray and Debra Barone via Archie Bunker; from Danny deVito as Louie in Taxi to the God that is Hugh Laurie in House, I lapped up every second of these four hours. America reflected in its own prime time programming.
Yentob examined the independent women , the husband, the maverick, the crusader. Of course the sexual revolution of the Sixties changed things for women but even if you look at Lucy she was a determined woman pursuing a dream. And Lucille Ball was a real life business woman to be reckoned with (without her production company with then real life husband Desi Arnaz DesiLu, we might never have had Star Trek. When he was little , my hubby thought DesiLu was the name of the green alien woman on the end credits, but that's an aside ...)
Father doesn't know best any more - you only have to watch one episode of Raymond to know that Debra & Marie are running the show. It was the sexual politics that fascinated me most looking at this. Probably nothing new but four luscious hours of wonderful telly essays.
And damn isn't Jon Hamm good looking...
So there's a brief catch up post ... like buses another will follow soon about my new telly obsession.
I know, you can't wait ;-)
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