(no subject)

[llywela]

1. It was a good night for actor Mark Lewis Jones last night – on BBC1 he was an upright, hard-working pillar-of-the-community in Baker Boys (which I haven’t seen yet – that’ll be an iPlayer job) and at exactly the same time he could also be found over on BBC3 as a depraved, evil vampire on Being Human! Not bad going.

2. The location-spotting in the new season of Being Human is awesome. I love that they’ve moved to South Wales. *G*

3. I have somehow managed to volunteer to do some transcribing for the FreeCEN online census project and am now learning how to navigate the systems in place for that (and how to decipher illegible 19th century handwriting!)

4. Finally got around to watching the Dirk Gently adaptation that aired on one of the BBC’s digital channels a couple of months back. I was in two minds before I watched it, and I remain in two minds now! On the one hand, taken at face value, it was a fun, light-hearted hour’s entertainment, with a suitably convoluted, brain-twister of a plot. But on the other hand…it bore little or no resemblance whatsoever to the book on which it is based and therefore it just felt wrong. The names of the characters were pretty much the only thing the show had in common with the book – and even their personalities and/or back stories had been changed. They hadn’t just modernised the plot, they re-wrote the entire story and gave it a completely different plot. And Dirk Gently himself was hopelessly miscast. So I remain in two minds. Half of me thinks it was a decent, fun hour of bubblegum entertainment, which is clearly all it was intended to be, but the other half of me resents it deeply for not being faithful to Douglas Adams' original vision. Ah, TV adaptations of much-loved books are always so contentious!

Comments

[bagpuss1966.livejournal.com]

I watched Part 1 on iPlayer (part 2 isn't there yet for some reason). It was a bit slow, I thought, but has potential and I guess they're building up the characters/plot in the first one.

Owain Jones - and before you ask, no, he doesn't! ;)

(If you don't watch Gavin and Stacey then that probably won't mean much to you!).

[bagpuss1966.livejournal.com]

Oh great - according to the BBC page on this, they're not showing episode 2 (or presumably 3...) on iPlayer so I won't be able to watch any more!

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Crap, 'cause I've been waiting for it to come up on iPlayer so I could watch - as far as I can see, though, ep 2 is still listed as 'coming soon' on iPlayer, so it may yet appear. And luckily I do have other means of acquiring stuff (and can share, if need be...)

[bagpuss1966.livejournal.com]

Thanks Jo. :) I might take you up on that offer if you can acquire the episodes, but fingers crossed they might yet show up on iPlayer. :)

I've just realised that in my earlier post I typed Owain Jones - he's a friend of mine! I meant to type Owain Hughes - d'oh!!

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Okay, we'll play it by ear, then, but if it doesn't show up, let me know and we'll see what we can do. It's nice to be able to follow a story through to the end, once you've started it!

[bagpuss1966.livejournal.com]

I watched part two tonight (yay - iPlayer came up trumps!) and enjoyed it so much more than part 1.

Who is Eve Myles (who Gaynor doesn't like?)

I like Rob - I thought he'd come good. I have a sneaking suspicion that something might go wrong there though...

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

iPlayer comes through at last!

Eve Myles is Gwen in Torchwood. She's kinda been a bit over-exposed in these parts since Torchwood took off, which probably contributes to Gaynor's ambivalence toward her.

I'm interested to see where they take the Rob-Sarah-Owen triangle in the third instalment, especially since they've allowed it to be a genuinely complex situation rather than going down the Hollywood road of making one guy the hero and the other the villain so that the ending is obvious. Not to mention raising the stakes by having Rob invest in the bakery - not just because of all the jobs involved but because it was such a huge gesture of love and commitment to Sarah. And means so much more coming from a man to whom such gestures don't come easy. And yet Owen is the hero of the show, if it has one at all, so...anything could happen in the final episode!

[bagpuss1966.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I've never seen Torchwood so I don't actually know which one she is, but I'm guessing Sarah?

I like Rob, but I can't see this going well for him.

Luke and Abi watched some of this one with me - Abi recognised the daughter (Emma?) from Tracey Beaker! Good to see her get this role. :)

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

I liked that it didn't rush - they've got 3 episodes to tell the story and that gives them space to take their time. So I liked that the first episode did just that: took its time establishing the characters and how they all fit together in that community, and then took its time exploring the impact on each of them when the factory closed. Also, I suppose, being set locally it just felt relevant to me in a way that not many shows do, being so deeply rooted in the South Wales location as it is.