Non food related TV

[KeenCook]

Did any of you watch the programme on the Chopin piano competition last night? I found the Russian dragon teacher absolutely stereotypical of what you expect from someone like that!

And I was sorry to see the lovely Italian girl with the great sense of humour knocked out before the finals!

[PatsyMFagan]

What channel ?

[KeenCook]

BBC4

[PatsyMFagan]

[Stokey Sue]

Anyone else try the Agatha Christie?
I don't know how they could make a great cast delivering a fresh corpse surprisingly often into something so dull. I gave up a very short way into episode 2 and forwarded to the end, to confirm I had correctly spotted the murderer 0 or possibly remembered them, I think I read it in 1981 when I had mumps (I read a lot of the non-series Christie novels)

[Norfolkman]

I thought the Lucy Worsley 3 parter about Christie's life was very interesting. Finished today on BBC2.

[Busybee]

Slow Horses on Apple TV. Excellent drama/thriller about MI5.

Great cast, Gary Oldman, Kirstin Scott-Thomas, Samuel West et al.

BB

[Pepper Pig]

The Agatha Christie got some terrible reviews SS. I've got it on catch up but I probbly won't bother. Watched a lovely performance of Handel's Messiah this evening (still on catch up) on Sky Arts. Academy of AM when we were socially distancing. I'd seen it before. It was just so good although I'm not usually bothered about authenticity.

[Earthmaiden]

I watched the Agatha Christie. Not the best but not the worst. I think the golden ages of David Suchet and Joan Hickson (and their budgets) are an almost impossible act to follow.

[Stokey Sue]

I enjoyed the Lucy Worsley series, and enjoyed previous Christie adaptations, particularly the Sarah Phelps ones that really brought out the darkness, but this was so slow, and full of anachronisms (there were quite a few in Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? last year but that was better)

Just watched Death in Paradise, which was what it always is, though it bugged me who was playing the mother of the family of interest - Patsy Kensit!

[Badger's Mate]

I’m with EM on the Agatha Christie. One or two of the reviews could have been written before it was shown, so upset were they by what they would see as the mucking about of the storyline. That said, I found my attention wandering in the second half, which we watched on iPlayer immediately after the first one was broadcast.

As I get older I find myself tutting more at plot devices. We love Shetland and always look forward to seeing a new series, but the two hitmen in the latest story just reminded me so much of Horace & Jasper out of 101 Dalmatians that I couldn’t take them seriously.

[scullion]

yup, underwhelmed with the christy.
there were enough changes to the story (which i read earlier in the year) to annoy as well as the rather slow moving way of filming - too many lingering facial shots. it could have been half an hour less and put into one broadcast. i soldiered on to the end but my partner gave up and did something else a quarter of the way through the first part.

we watched 'Sanford' (prime) last night. it was advertised as a black comedy but there were only a couple of funny bits and not really enough to give it that epithet.
it, too, had some good names in but we would have given it barely three stars at the most. it had the feel of an alternative 'brideshead revisited'/'predator' with the addition of the maze from 'the goblet of fire'.

[WWordsworth]

We love Shetland and always look forward to seeing a new series,

Same here but I found this series a bit flat.
I liked Phyllis Logan in it, but for me it was missing Perez.

[Gruney]

We love Shetland and always look forward to seeing a new series,

Same here but I found this series a bit flat.
I liked Phyllis Logan in it, but for me it was missing Perez.

My feelings precisely.

[Badger's Mate]

Phyllis Logan will always be Lady Felsham to me

I accept that things have to change, but didn’t find the Ashley Jensen character very inspiring. We’ll see how that pans out.

Having a couple of ex Shetland cast members didn’t help the Agatha Christie much though.

[Stokey Sue]

I quite enjoyed the new series of Shetland, once I’d accepted that it was going to be pretty different to the Henshall series, I liked seeing Tosh grow up.i agree though that the hit men were like the broker’s men in a pantomime (replaced by very un scary karaoke singing bouncers in Aladdin).

[Pepper Pig]

I think it's been a rubbish year for Christmas telly. So many gameshow repeats. The stand out for me was Dr Who but I could more or less take or leave anything else. NYE doesn't look inspiring either so I shall have my customary early night and curse when the local fireworks wake me up (although they were a bit timid in Hemel last year compared to Harrow).

[northleedsbhoy]

Did anyone watch An Invitation To Murder on Channel 5? I recorded it and watched it last night and enjoyed it. It’s basically an Agatha Christie knockoff but it was done quite well although a lot of the cast were American or Canadian. It was also filmed in America but the scenery was very reminiscent of our countryside. It’s available on catch up and worth a watch.

Cheers
NLB

[scullion]

i'll put that on the list.
at the moment we are half way through binging on the second series of 'vigil'.

[Earthmaiden]

I binged Vigil over Christmas. Glad I saved it as IMO far better than other things offered.