Friday, July 23, 2004
Oh yes, the weekend is here and it looks like it's going to be a fucking beauty. Of course, by Sunday lunchtime I'll be hiding under the desk and begging for the return of the cold, wet weather. As it is I've got stuff which I really should turn my eye to this weekend, not least the fact I've got Starsky and Hutch, I suspect all I'll need is one hot night and I'll get to explore what it does to watch that when you've got insomnia. I'm currently thinking there's no male double act that Stiller and Owen couldn't turn their hand to, Green Lantern and Green Arrow, the Dukes of Hazzard, Bert and Ernie in the live action Sesame Street movie?
I've got to try and do some writing as well. My whistle feels slightly wettened by the editing I've done over the last few weeks, so I might be able to move ahead with my current project. I've felt a little disheartened as in one of my completed stories I created 'MI-Null' and thought I was being really cool and cutting edge by naming it's head Aleph. Since finishing I've joined the Bad Signal email list where Warren Ellis has been talking about his Global Frequency TV Show, where one of the key characters in this super secret organisation is called... Aleph. Oh well, no need to worry, it's not like my stuff would ever get published, or if it did, it wouldn't be until after Ellis' eventual Cerebus-like death anyway.
So, I've been watching The Prisoner a fair bit over the last few weeks. I'm about six episodes in thus far (and I can't help but laugh that the number one on Google for 'The Prisoner' at the moment is a redirect to the official Harry Potter movie website), it's, umm, it's not actually that good is it? I think it's one of those programs that started dating as soon as it was made. I suspect that if it were remade today we'd replace incredibly grumpy scowl-meister Patrick McGoohan with someone like Matthew Perry and rather than his reason for refusing to tell them why he was resigning being some vague abstract notion of his freedom not to tell them, it would be because he knew they'd shoot him as soon as they found out. But for Number 6 to be put out that the Secret Service are concerned with security in the middle of the Cold War, a decade after Blunt and his mates legged it to Russia, and he's moaning because Leo McKern wants to talk to him about why he doesn't want to be a spy any more? It's not as if he's resigning from being a Chartered Accountant. Things have been vaguely straightforward so far, though the election episode seemed to have been made on very bad drugs by all concerned.
On the subject of TV, BBC America, the BBC's commercial US digital channel, has announced it is now available in 40 million homes for the first time. Checking their website BBC America are showing The Prisoner and some class acts too, like The Office and Waking the Dead. They're also showing Little Britain, but no Smoking Room yet, hah! Mind you, BBC America is showing Coupling and Monarch of the Glen, which is probably enough to get us added to 'The Axis of Evil'.
In what sounds like a worse idea than 'In Bed With Grahame Norton and David Blunkett' the BBC are asking for people who lack any trace of humility (or indeed humanity) to volunteer for The Real Little Britain. Yes, if you're as big a freak in real life as the characters in Little Britain you can be followed around with a video camera for a day as you live your warped little lives. They want to hear stories on such subjects as falling for your boss, life as a teenage girl who talks incoherently or Are you the only gay in the village or is there a thriving community? How important is meeting/socialising with other gays? Much as I love the show, would I really want to use that as a context to talk about gay/transsexual issues?
Oh, and Kirstie Alley is to star in a US comedy about an overweight celebrity called Fat Actress, should we expect a lively comedy about and outgoing and vivacious woman, or lots of jokes about her arse eclipsing the sun? In these pictures here she doesn't even look that fat, except by the anorexic standards of Hollywood.
I've got to try and do some writing as well. My whistle feels slightly wettened by the editing I've done over the last few weeks, so I might be able to move ahead with my current project. I've felt a little disheartened as in one of my completed stories I created 'MI-Null' and thought I was being really cool and cutting edge by naming it's head Aleph. Since finishing I've joined the Bad Signal email list where Warren Ellis has been talking about his Global Frequency TV Show, where one of the key characters in this super secret organisation is called... Aleph. Oh well, no need to worry, it's not like my stuff would ever get published, or if it did, it wouldn't be until after Ellis' eventual Cerebus-like death anyway.
So, I've been watching The Prisoner a fair bit over the last few weeks. I'm about six episodes in thus far (and I can't help but laugh that the number one on Google for 'The Prisoner' at the moment is a redirect to the official Harry Potter movie website), it's, umm, it's not actually that good is it? I think it's one of those programs that started dating as soon as it was made. I suspect that if it were remade today we'd replace incredibly grumpy scowl-meister Patrick McGoohan with someone like Matthew Perry and rather than his reason for refusing to tell them why he was resigning being some vague abstract notion of his freedom not to tell them, it would be because he knew they'd shoot him as soon as they found out. But for Number 6 to be put out that the Secret Service are concerned with security in the middle of the Cold War, a decade after Blunt and his mates legged it to Russia, and he's moaning because Leo McKern wants to talk to him about why he doesn't want to be a spy any more? It's not as if he's resigning from being a Chartered Accountant. Things have been vaguely straightforward so far, though the election episode seemed to have been made on very bad drugs by all concerned.
On the subject of TV, BBC America, the BBC's commercial US digital channel, has announced it is now available in 40 million homes for the first time. Checking their website BBC America are showing The Prisoner and some class acts too, like The Office and Waking the Dead. They're also showing Little Britain, but no Smoking Room yet, hah! Mind you, BBC America is showing Coupling and Monarch of the Glen, which is probably enough to get us added to 'The Axis of Evil'.
In what sounds like a worse idea than 'In Bed With Grahame Norton and David Blunkett' the BBC are asking for people who lack any trace of humility (or indeed humanity) to volunteer for The Real Little Britain. Yes, if you're as big a freak in real life as the characters in Little Britain you can be followed around with a video camera for a day as you live your warped little lives. They want to hear stories on such subjects as falling for your boss, life as a teenage girl who talks incoherently or Are you the only gay in the village or is there a thriving community? How important is meeting/socialising with other gays? Much as I love the show, would I really want to use that as a context to talk about gay/transsexual issues?
Oh, and Kirstie Alley is to star in a US comedy about an overweight celebrity called Fat Actress, should we expect a lively comedy about and outgoing and vivacious woman, or lots of jokes about her arse eclipsing the sun? In these pictures here she doesn't even look that fat, except by the anorexic standards of Hollywood.
