I am looking forward to Ghostbusters Afterlife next year, even though part of me says I shouldn’t…
Gringotts Bank
The first time we went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour was in 2015, just after they had added the Hogwarts Express and Kings Cross set to the tour. At the end of November 2019 we made a return visit, mainly to see how different it was dressed for Christmas and with snow.
There were two new parts to the tour, which we hadn’t seen, the first was the Forbidden Forest, which to be honest I wasn’t too impressed with, then again I wasn’t that impressed with the way the forest looked in the film. The second part we hadn’t seen, which opened this year was the Gringotts Bank set. Well that set was amazing. The level of detail and attention was incredible. I also liked the “destroyed” version as well.
Televisual Advent Calendar #15 – The Professionals
Anarchy, acts of terror, crimes against the public. To combat it I’ve got special men – experts from the army, the police, from every service – these are The Professionals.
This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series for London Weekend Television (LWT) that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983.
It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon Jackson as agents of the fictional “CI5” (Criminal Intelligence 5). I remembered the character names of Bodie and Doyle, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember the character name of Gordon Jackson. Thank you internet, it was of course Cowley.
I did think for many years that CI5 was a real organisation that this series was based on, though I never saw it in the news. The concept of CI5 was that it would deal with crime and activities that the regular police did not have the capability or capacity to deal with, but not so much that the military or the secret service (MI5) would be involved.
The “fake” premise of CI5 allowed the makes of the series to deal with a whole range of villians, from foreign agents, terrorists to serious criminals. You couldn’t nitpick the series and say, that isn’t in the remit of CI5… as CI5 didn’t exist!
This was also the era of the standalone episodic drama, each episode was an individual story which wasn’t linked to any other, no story arcs here. This meant you could drop in and out of the series.
I remember being enthralled watching the antics of Bodie and Doyle, but apart from car chases, firearms, I don’t recall many of the plots…
Like some other series in the Televisual Advent Calendar, I am discussing series which I really like, or as in some cases have a nostalgic fondness for. The Professionals certainly falls into the latter camp, along with series such as C.A.T.S. Eyes, later Bugs, and others that I remember watching regularly, but really to be honest were quite shallow in many ways. I don’t think they would work today, and I am not sure I would want to watch them again now.
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The Yule Ball
The first time I went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour was in 2015, just after they had added the Hogwarts Express and Kings Cross set to the tour. At the end of November 2019 we made a return visit, mainly to see how different it was dressed for Christmas and with snow.
I had seen the Yule Ball set before, but that time it was in the main part of the tour, this time it was placed at the end of the Great Hall.
Televisual Advent Calendar #14 – The Wonder Years
“When it came to surveillance, the KGB had nothing on my mother.”
This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.
As I go through the series I like for this calendar, I am starting to see a thread for nostalgia, so maybe no surprise that the series I am focusing on today is The Wonder Years.
Launched just over thirty years ago, back in 1988, The Wonder Years went on to become one of the most cherished, acclaimed and influential comedy dramas of all time. I loved the trials tribulations of the growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s, in an America that was troubled by the Vietnam War and Nixon, as well as the Cold War. It was also about the wonderment of the future when the space race was in full force. I most certainly did not grow up in the USA in the 1960s, so there isn’t that frame of reference, but the stories I could certainly relate to from when I was growing up.
I loved the gentle tone of the series, I loved the music and whenever I hear “With a Little Help from My Friends,” I am reminded of the series. The show’s opening theme, Joe Cocker’s rendition of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends,” was not the Beatles one, but it was a great cover.
There was also something about the structure, a grown up narrator remembering his childhood. You never see the narrator, but he was the bookends of each episode. This format has been copied many times since, notably on the recent The Big Bang Theory spin-off, Sheldon.
I think I must have watched The Wonder Years when it was broadcast live on Channel 4, and it’s not a series I had subsequently purchased on VHS (or DVD) nor have I streamed it either.
I find it somewhat amusing that I am being nostalgic about a series which was all about nostalgia.
Televisual Advent Calendar #13 – Stranger Things
“You shouldn’t like things because people tell you you’re supposed to.”
This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.
There must be something about series set in the 1980s, as yesterday I posted about The Americans, which is set in the 1980s and in today’s post I am talking about the Netflix series Stranger Things. I really like the 1980s vibe in the series, from the pop culture references of the time, the clothing, the games, the vehicles and just the whole atmospheric aspects of the series.
The concept and background reminded me of Steven Spielberg’s Super 8 film from 2011, as well as ET, but it’s not about aliens landing as that film was. There have been three seasons of Stranger Things and I have enjoyed all three seasons. Without giving away spoilers, each of the different seasons has a particular plot which are all linked in someway. I have to say that there were certain aspects that confused me and I think a second viewing will certainly help.
There are some great characters and these are portrayed outstandingly by some young talented actors. They are believable in what is quite a weird world, but they believe in their friends and are willing to do what is required to help them. There are some quite big names for the adult characters and Winona Ryder is excellent.
This is one of those series that is starting to define what Netflix is about, this was premiered on Netflix and has gained a somewhat of a cult following. You have an idea of how popular something is today, by the availability of merchandise. As well as the traditional cult TV things you would expect, there is also a Lego set!
Not that long ago, a series would be broadcast on mainstream terrestrial television, and then after a few years would appear on a streaming service such as Netflix. Today we are seeing many more series which are made just for Netflix, and you see them first on Netflix. Stranger Things is certainly one of those series that makes me continue to subscribe to Netflix.
Overall it is an atmospheric series, which will benefit from repeated viewings. There will be a fourth season, but I have no idea where they will be going with it, which I think is one of the things I like about the series.
Televisual Advent Calendar #12 – The Americans
The American people have elected a madman as their president. He is expanding their military forces on a massive scale. He is against nuclear arms-control agreements. He makes no secret of his desire to destroy us. Our war is not so cold anymore, Elizabeth. What happens behind enemy lines will determine the outcome of this struggle.
This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.
I don’t recall where I read about this series, but it certainly intrigued me. Set during the Cold War, it follows the story of Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), two Soviet KGB officers posing as an American married couple living in a suburb of Washington, D.C. with their children, Paige and Henry. They are part of a KGB Illegals programme where KGB agents are in deep-cover, acting and living as Americans. They had jobs, they had families and friends, but they also did spying and other covert activities. It wasn’t just about the KGB illegals, it was also about the FBI who were trying to find them and discover what they were up to.
I love watching the period spy craft and use of surveillance technology, which was high tech at the time, but looks very primitive now. Of course there was no world wide web or social media, so in some respects it was easier to hide.
The design of the series was excellent and it certainly felt like the 1980s, the cars, the clothes, the furniture, even the office equipment. I am sure there were probably errors, but the look and feel of the series was very much of the era. It was also the era where the Soviet Union were the bad guys and were trying their best to defend their motherland from what they saw as the aggression of the Americans.
I remember reading about how the KGB had (allegedly) created fake American towns in the Soviet Union to train their agents how to behave and act like Americans. I think that remembering this, was what made me interested in the series and the fact it was set in the 1980s as well. Some of the more, how should I put this, mature aspects of the series I think could have been left out, I felt they didn’t really add to the stories.
Overall it was an intriguing series, it was a combination of domestic strife combined with secret agents, spies and undercover activities.
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Televisual Advent Calendar #11 – The Day of the Triffids
“When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.”
This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.
This is one of those dystopian science fiction series, that felt too close to comfort. On one fateful night a meteor storm makes everyone blind. If that’s not bad enough, some carnivorous plants, the triffids take advantage of the situation to feed on the newly blinded population. A few sighted survivors try and make it through, and in the process have to deal with, not just triffids, but gangs, tinpot dictators, gangs and a disintegrating society.
This was the original BBC Version broadcast in 1981, starring John Duttine as Bill Masen. There were six episodes, each 30 minutes long. I remember watching the series and been enthralled by this horrific future, knowing in one way that it couldn’t happen, but fearful it might.
It was one of those series where I wanted to watch more, find out more about the world and how it changed and what happened to the characters. I felt there was a lot more to the stories behind the characters, and too much was missing from either passages of time between the episodes, and too much simple exposition on what happened to other characters and communities in passing comments.
Today you can imagine someone taking The Day of the Triffids and turning into an epic series of episodes like The Walking Dead. That way more of the world could be unearthed and more insight to what happened to the characters.
A new version was made ten years ago, but though it had some qualities, I didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as the 1981 version.
I really remember enjoying watching The Day of the Triffids and it was scary and well made television.
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Hogwarts Great Hall
The first time I went to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour was in 2015, just after they had added the Hogwarts Express and Kings Cross set to the tour. At the end of November 2019 we made a return visit, mainly to see how different it was dressed for Christmas and with snow.
“It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting… The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight… Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars… It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn’t simply open on to the heaven.”
At the Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour during late November and in December they dress the Great Hall for Christmas. There are Christmas trees, decorations and a Christmas feast on the tables.
Televisual Advent Calendar #10 – The Big Bang Theory
Bazinga!
This is my 2019 Televisual Advent Calendar. I did a musical version in 2011 and a cinematic one in 2012. It is in no particular order and I make no apologies for the TV series that I am blogging about. These TV series have either made me think, I have enjoyed or have had some impact on me. These are scripted TV series, some are drama, some are comedy, some are both. I found it really hard to narrow this down to just 24.
I never got into The Big Bang Theory when it was first broadcast. It took me ages to get around to watching it, but when I did, I loved it.
Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists, the kind of “beautiful minds” that understand how the universe works. But none of that genius helps them interact with people, especially women. All this begins to change when a free-spirited beauty named Penny moves in next door.
The interwoven stories of the six diverse characters were very funny. Many times I laughed out loud. I really enjoyed the character of Will Wheaton played by Will Wheaton. It was quite bizarre to see an actor portray a caricature of themselves. Of course as the series progressed other famous actors (a fair few from Star Trek) did a similar thing.
I really enjoyed the pop culture references as well as the science stuff. There was quite a bit of stuff that went over my head, I don’t do comics for example. However as someone who has watched Star Trek, Star Wars and other science fiction stuff, I liked how those aspects of popular culture was brought into the storytelling.
This was a series that I probably binge watched on Netflix rather than watch on a weekly basis on Channel 4 (or was it E4). So when it came to watching the final series 12, I did watch this “live” and was so disappointed about the impact of the advert breaks on the watching experience. I think I have been spoilt with services such as iTunes, Amazon Prime and Netflix.
It’s one of those things that I find with services such as Netflix, when I think am I making best use of the service, am I getting value for money, do I need to still subscribe? I find with Netflix that when I look at how I am using this service, that something does come along that I want to watch, so I keep subscribing.
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