James Clay Stuff

December 19, 2019December 19, 2019

Televisual Advent Calendar #19 – Jeeves and Wooster

You bally well are informed, Jeeves! Do you know everything?

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 was one of the first series I watched having purchased it from iTunes having missed it when it was broadcast on ITV. One of the nice features of purchasing it from iTunes was no adverts. I think having being really spoilt with boxed sets, iTunes, and today Netflix and Amazon Prime, when I watch live commercial TV I feel the advertising is really intrusive. I do realise that advertising is essential for commercial TV, as it pays for the programming, so I really shouldn’t be precious and complain, but…

I really enjoyed A Bit of Fry and Laurie when it was broadcast on the BBC, a classic comedy series with some really sketches. I have since then been a real fan of Stephen Fry and what he has done. Hugh Laurie, probably less so. It was first broadcast from April 1990, when I was still at university, so didn’t watch it “live”. I actually watched very little TV at university, mainly as I only had a small portable black and white television (remember those) and generally didn’t have the time to sit down and watch a TV series on a regular basis.

Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster and Stephen Fry as Jeeves in an episode from ITV's 90s series 'Jeeves and Wooster' ( Rex Features ) — Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster and Stephen Fry as Jeeves in an episode from ITV’s 90s series ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ ( Rex Features )

Jeeves and Wooster was one of the first things I bought from iTunes when it was launched. We watched Jeeves and Wooster on a regular basis, trying not to binge watch the series in one go… restricting ourselves to a single episode only.

It was a marvellous period piece, beautifully acted and very funny. The interaction between the bumbling Wooster and the rather suave (and clever) Jeeves combined with excellent stories (from the pen of P G Wodehouse) made for an engaging and delightful television series.

I stopped buying iTunes videos, well we moved house and I lost my fibre broadband. You couldn’t really use iTunes films and TV programmes on a slow 1Mb/s ADSL connection. Even when I got a 4G contract, because it wasn’t wifi, iTunes wouldn’t let you download or stream content. In the end I moved over to Amazon Video and Netflix, because they would work over 3G and 4G. Now I have fibre again, I have started to buy videos again from iTunes, mainly when they are on special offer. As I like to stream stuff over 4G when I am on the move or staying away, I have started more to purchase films and TV shows from Amazon. Trouble is I now have a film library in iTunes, one in Amazon and due to the demise of Flixster I also have a film library on Google Play. This along with the physical film library (DVD and Blu-Ray) means it can be challenging to remember what I have already, but also where it is. As a result I have duplicated purchases more than once.

One of the challenges with digital purchases are when titles are withdrawn, are you still able to access your films and TV programmes. As it happens at the time of writing Jeeves and Wooster is no longer available on iTunes to purchase, nor is it available on Amazon Video or Google Play. It’s not on the new Britbox service either. I have checked my iTunes library and it is still there and I am able to download it, so I haven’t lost it.

So if you want to watch Jeeves and Wooster you’re going to need to buy the DVDs…

It’s the bally ballyness of it all that makes it all seem so bally bally.

Get Jeeves and Wooster on DVD.
At the time of writing Jeeves and Wooster is not available to buy on Amazon Video.
At the time of writing Jeeves and Wooster is no longer available on iTunes.

December 18, 2019December 19, 2019

Televisual Advent Calendar #18 – Doctor Who

EXTERMINATE!

My doctor was Tom Baker.

I do remember watching some of the Jon Pertwee episodes, but I remember watching Robot, which was Tom Baker’s first episode as the new Doctor Who and was about a Giant Robot. The special effects were both amazing and terrible, the big robot was awesome, but when they sent in the British Army, the tank they used was an Action Man tank, I had one of those. It was pushed into shot with the appropriate sound effects.

I think that was one of the things with Doctor Who in the late 1970s, having seen the amazing Star Wars at the cinema and various TV shows such as Buck Rogers and Star Trek, the special effects that the BBC used with Doctor Who were both sometimes awesome and sometimes laughably bad!

Doctor Who was one of those series I remember making time for. Part of the reason was I liked it, but also a whole season was often made up of a series of stories told in a number of episodes. If you missed an episode it was not always easy to work out what was going on.

I really loved the Tom Baker years, what with Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Romana and Leela. There were some stories which I remember vividly and still resonate with me today. Genesis of the Daleks has always struck me as probably one of the greatest Doctor Who stories. This was where they introduced Davros, but also asked that huge philosophical question, about time travel, should the Doctor stop the Daleks at the moment of their birth?

Then there was The Seeds of Doom, the story when the plants fought back. I also remember the robots from Doctor Who and the The Robots of Death, these seemingly docile robots, who are anything but docile. The Pyramids of Mars was a great story and I loved the Egyptian connection and the paradox of time travel that confounds Sarah Jane Smith. The Talons of Weng-Chiang scared me silly back then and I probably wouldn’t watch it now because it still scares, and the fact that they used stereotypical representation of Chinese characters and an unconvincing giant rat!

When Tom Baker regenerated into Peter Davison, I kind of lost interest in Doctor Who, and stopped caring if I saw it or not, maybe it was linked to the fact I was growing up. Though having said that I did enjoy Sylvester McCoy’s interpretation of the Doctor and Remembrance of the Daleks is probably one of my favourite stories of all time, up there with Genesis. I also loved the Curse of Fenric story set during the second world war.

Initially I didn’t really miss Doctor Who when it was axed by the BBC. Even so when it was brought back to our screens in 2005 I did start to watch it again. I really liked the new production values and I have enjoyed many of the stories. One thing I didn’t like about the new relaunched series were the stories which we know could never have happened, like the whole Dalek invasion of earth or when the earth was moved in “The Stolen Earth”. What I remember about the classic Doctor Who was that these things could have happened in our world, just that they were hushed up by the authorities. Remembrance of the Daleks could have happened, but it was just never reported. I really liked the idea that the Doctor was “real”, so was UNIT, but all the things that happened just never made the news. If the earth was moved across the galaxy, it would probably be on wikipedia!

I do like the quintessential Englishness of the Doctor, even if now and again he speaks with a Scottish accent. I like his non-violent approach to problems, even though if now and again by his actions things don’t go right for the bad guys. I love the Tardis, just a bizarre concept and even now when I see an old Police Box (usually on the streets of Glasgow) I think there’s a Tardis.

I not only remember Doctor Who, I am fond of the new series too.

So who was your Doctor?

Get Doctor Who on Blu-Ray or DVD.
Get Doctor Who on Amazon Video.
Get Doctor Who on iTunes.

December 17, 2019December 17, 2019

Televisual Advent Calendar #17 – Frasier

Hey baby, I hear the blues a-callin’
Tossed salads and scrambled eggs

In yesterday’s entry I discussed Cheers, well today I am talking about the more successful spin off of Cheers, which was Frasier. It’s one of those peculiar traits of a successful series to have a spin off, which can sometimes be a sequel or a prequel or in the case of Cheers, take a character from a successful series and give them their own series.

You can think of spin off series which haven’t worked, did we really need Joey after the success of Friends? Is Young Sheldon really as good as The Big Bang Theory?

With Fraiser, they took the weird psychiatrist from Cheers, that Doctor Fraiser Crane, moved him from Boston to Seattle, gave him his own radio show, allowed us to meet his neurotic brother, Niles and then dumped his retired police officer father on him.

Six months ago, I was living in Boston. My wife had left me, which was very painful. Then she came back to me, which was excruciating. On top of that, my practice had grown stagnant, and my social life consisted of hanging around a bar night after night. You see, I was clinging to a life that wasn’t working anymore, and I knew I had to do something, anything. So I ended the marriage once and for all, packed up my things and moved back here to my hometown of Seattle. Go Seahawks.

Could this series be as successful as Cheers? At first it didn’t sound like it would be a success, but the end result, it was a huge success and in the end more successful than Cheers and went on for eleven seasons. I think the reason behind this was because they went with a minor character rather than one of the main characters. I also think the fact they rarely mentioned the bar in Boston and the characters there also helped with allowing this series to grow and mature by itself rather than resting on the laurels of the previous successful show.

This series was a joy to watch, as generally in each episode Fraiser is drawn into a scenario in which he thinks he will come out on top, only for something to go wrong and our hero is left licking his wounds. I really liked the characters of Ros, Niles, Fraiser and his father Martin. I did feel though that the character of Daphne Moon, who was charged with looking after Martin felt a bit false, but I guess they were trying to create a stereotypical British character that wasn’t posh! I did enjoy how Niles attempted to woo Daphne, and his failed attempts, it was almost disappointing when he finally managed to summon the courage to date her and then marry her.

Interestingly there are (quite solid) rumours that there may be a reboot of Fraiser next summer (2020). No longer set in Seattle, as Friaser had moved to Chicago, he may be in a new profession. Will it work, who knows?

Another reason I guess I like this series is that there is a fair amount of time where the action takes place in a coffee shop, this was in a time before coffee shops became the staple of the UK high street.

Get Frasier on DVD.
Get Frasier on Amazon Video.
Get Frasier on iTunes.

December 16, 2019December 17, 2019

Filming in Bristol today

They were filming on Corn Street in Bristol today. ~~No idea what they were filming.~~ Update: They are filming a new HBO series called Industry, which is a new American drama series which follows the lives of young bankers and traders trying to make their way in the world in the aftermath of the 2008 collapse.

There were some powerful lights shining into The Jetty.

December 16, 2019

Televisual Advent Calendar #16 – Cheers

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.

Cheers ran from 1982 to 1993, though I think I watched it when it had its first run on Channel 4, I am not 100% sure on that, I know I watched it when it was repeated on Channel 4.

As a concept this wasn’t a series that really taxed the brain. However I enjoyed the interplay between the different characters. It was about a bar in Boston, the main characters were the staff and customers of that bar, and that’s about it.

It was one of those American comedy programmes that you could pick up, watch and then put down. Though having said that, you did make some kind of emotional investment in the programme and some episodes were quite moving, especially that final episode…

When I look at Cheers I am reminded that for quite a few years I really enjoyed American comedies such as Cheers. I can probably blame Cheers for making me watch not just the spin-off Frasier, but also probably Friends as well.

Get Cheers on DVD.
Get Cheers on Amazon Video.
Get Cheers on iTunes.

December 16, 2019

Ghostbusters Afterlife

I am looking forward to Ghostbusters Afterlife next year, even though part of me says I shouldn’t…

December 15, 2019January 10, 2020

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.

December 15, 2019

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.

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.

Get The Professionals on Blu-Ray.
Get The Professionals on DVD.
Get The Professionals on Amazon Video.
Get The Professionals on iTunes.

December 14, 2019January 15, 2020

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.

December 14, 2019December 15, 2019

Televisual Advent Calendar #14 – The Wonder Years

“When it came to surveillance, the KGB had nothing on my mother.”

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.

Get The Wonder Years on DVD.