Torchwood’s a much happier family these days, with the feuding of Series One largely forgotten, but having a relative visiting can be a stressful time for any household. Martha Jones’ arrival is a lower profile affair than many had expected, with an apparently arbitrary premiere on BBC3, but it looks set to launch a high-octane arc for the show.
Hello there. I'm Seb Patrick. You may remember me and my associate James Hunt from such comics review colums as Panel Beating and Alternate Cover. You know, back when this site actually had comics coverage. Well, we're back. Kind of. You see, we now have a brand new comics review site, Comics Daily, which we're rather happy with; but we didn't want to completely neglect NTS in terms of content. So here's the deal - every Saturday, we're going to post a "digest" of CD content. You'll get our Thursday "headline review" of the week in full, along with snippets of the rest of the week's content, which you can choose to visit and peruse as you please...
This week, the headline review is a gruelling dissection of Jeph Loeb's catastrophic Ultimates 3 #3, while our retro "Dusting Off" series looks at a mid-90s Superman : The Man of Steel. Plus Booster Gold, Hulk and New Avengers...
Writing a story set in partly in the heads of your protagonists is a high-risk strategy. It can excuse almost any flaw of logic and allows you to actively contradict what has gone before, but only as long as the events that unfold manage to hold your audience’s attention. By taking Torchwood to breaking point, Adam overcomes this pitfall with ease.
It's not for nothing that The Two Ronnies are regarded as one of Britain's greatest double acts, although they were never a double act in the conventional way, due to Barker being first and foremost an actor, rather than a comedian. Both the Ronnies have had autobiographies and biographies released (several, in Barker's case), but I must admit that an autobiography of the partnership itself is an interesting idea.
Continue reading "And It's Goodnight From Him... The Autobiography of The Two Ronnies" »
I was only 7 years old when Tiswas finished and even before it finished my parents (I think understandably) did not like me watching it, instead preferring me to watch Noel Edmonds in Multi-Coloured Swap Shop on the other side. I did however occasionally get a chance to watch a few minutes of ITV on Saturday mornings. Indeed the only thing my memory now associates the ATV zoom ident with is Tiswas (me having grown up in the Granada region).
Life On Mars was undoubtedly one of the best dramas the BBC has produced for years, and deservedly became a ratings hit and minor cultural phenomenon. Ashes To Ashes has a lot weighing on it - it arrives just a year after we saw John Simm leap off a car park and back into the 70s, and lead actor aside, all the important creative talent has returned. While every effort has been made to make this stylistically a very different beast, it still operates around the same central conceit - and as wonderful and bizarre as it is to see a television franchise based around a group of old-school coppers who exist only in the coma dreams of their modern day equivalents - it's a mystery which has been solved, and regardless of the quality of episode one, it's hard not to feel like you know exactly what's going to happen throughout.
Cath Treganna’s Out Of Time was the high point of Torchwood’s first series, and earnt her a hasty recommission to supply the first part of the show’s finale. Thankfully, Meat sees her retaining the same quality of writing in a more action-orientated story, delivering a memorable tale that leaves a permanent mark on the team.
Why are we here? What's life all about? Is God really real, or is there some doubt? Well tonight, we're going to sort it all out...because tonight it's The Meaning of Life.
Continue reading "Essay: Looking For Meaning in The Meaning of Life" »
So, Hippies, one of my favourite underrated sitcoms, is actually getting a release! This is excellent news, obviously. Unfortunately, most of this didn't happen - but seeing as I was just expecting a vanilla set, I was pleased to read the following:
Torchwood is a show built around bold choices. However, allowing seven and a half percent of your annual running time to be labelled “The Tosh Episode” is a brave stroke, even by Davies & Chibnall’s standards. Thankfully, rather than a straight repeat of last year’s Greeks Bearing Gifts, this episode is a little more rooted in the character.
Fuck me, it looks great. (High quality version, so even if you've seen it it's worth a look - none of your YouTube crap.)
Series starts Thursday, BBC ONE, 9:00pm. There's also a preview clip on the BBC site, but I'm waiting to see it properly. I still can't get over the fact that the BBC are making drama I want to see again...
In its present monthly form, anyway.
A great shame, although obviously completely understandable. Thanks to everyone there for a great site, that I always enjoyed reading - and let's hope it returns in some form at some point...
By far the best of the recent tributes to Jeremy Beadle I've read.
"After three and a half hours, I was flagging. But Beadle had unlimited energy, fuelled it seemed in part by the simple fact he was talking to someone who was an enthusiast. It had become clear quite quickly that Beadle gravitated towards enthusiasts, and not just of the telly stripe. If you were interested in anything, I sensed Beadle would have been happy to talk to you, give you a leg up and do whatever he could to help out, because he was an enthusiast too (of lots of different things as it happens, including quizzes, telly and tales of murder)."
