(no subject)

[llywela]

Decided to check out Eve Myles' new show tonight - called Baker Boys, the first of the three installments aired on BBC Wales on Sunday. It's a drama about a small community that revolves around a bakery, which is the major employer in the district; the bakery is owned by a large multi-national corporation, and when that large multi-national goes bust, it takes the bakery down with it. So, the first episode established the characters and the vibrant community in which they live, and then explored the impact on those characters and their community when the main source of employment in the area disappears overnight.

I fell in love with the show completely, which I really wasn't expecting - I was only watching out of mild passing interest, really, having seen a bit of it at my mum's the other day that caught my eye. But I loved everything about it. I loved the characters and their dynamics, I loved their community, I loved the valley location and scenery, I loved the way the story was woven - I loved the down-to-earthness of it, the immediacy of it and the familiarity of it, the way the story was steeped in the South Wales culture that I grew up in and still live in today, the way it felt so enormously real.

Also, it transpires that Eve Myles' character in the show, Sarah, has a daughter who is 15 and disabled and stroppy as hell, and my god, some of those scenes could have been us with Chelsea, they really could. Even Chelsea herself could see the resemblance and laughed her head off over it!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how episode two plays out!

Comments

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

That sounds really good - I wonder if there's any chance it'll be on over here... *g*

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Not sure if it'll be aired outside Wales ever, but it's up on iPlayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xzg46/Baker_Boys_Episode_1/

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Ah, cheers - though I'm having problems watching iPlayer at the moment, it keeps telling me my bandwidth isn't good enough (and my landlady keeps telling me it's cos we're "the end of the line" as far as the internet-wire goes... and yet I've done it before... Sounds worth another try, though!

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

If the bandwidth isn't good enough for streaming, as I understand it you can download stuff from iPlayer direct to your harddrive and then play in media player - for a limited time only, though, so I'm not sure how it works.

I miss iPlayer downloader, the one that let you rip stuff off iPlayer to keep for good. It doesn't work any more, though.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I often do download - you get to keep it for a month, I think. Trouble is, it's giving me a download time of 8 hours plus, which admittedly makes it sound like a bandwidth problem, though I don't really know enough about how that works... I'll have to try at different times of day/night and see if it improves with fewer people using it... or try the itv one, and see if I have the same issues there...

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

What a nuisance! So much for fast broadband for all, eh.

Ooh, but I found the show on a torrent site, so might have to acquire a permanent copy for myself that way...

[welshdreamer.livejournal.com]

I caught it on iPlayer on your recommendation and enjoyed it...I didn't watch it originally because I'm not all that keen on Eve Myles, so I'm glad to see she wasn't centre-stage the whole time.

I like the guy who used to be in High Hopes :)

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Heh, I didn't watch it live either for pretty much the same reason! Eve Myles is okay, but I wouldn't have watched a show just for her. I just happened to catch a few scenes at my mum's house when they watched it on catch up and it piqued my interest enough to check it out properly. I'm glad I did!

If anyone is centre-stage it's the bloke, her character's ex. But on the whole it's a nice ensemble cast. I particularly liked the supervisor, the ex-miner - such a proud working man reduced to the dole, something about his story really touched me.