Stuff I Watched: 29th Oct – 3rd Nov 2009

It’s been a bit of a slow TV watching week, this week, and I’m struggling to keep up with my Sky planner.  This post only covers programmes up to the 3rd, but that’s because I haven’t watched anything worth writing about in the last 4 days.  I just thought I’d tell you that, in case you were wondering.  I know you weren’t wondering, so I shouldn’t really have bothered.

Russell Howard’s Good News Extra: BBC3 (Recorded 24th Oct Watched 29th Oct)

Isn’t annoying when the BBC broadcast an extended edition of a show that you already watched a few days ago, but you feel like you have to watch it anyway because otherwise you’d feel cheated out of the extra material?  Or is that just me being worryingly obsessive?  Luckily (for me), all the extra material was at the end, so I was able to whizz right through it.

I thought that the ‘extra’ stuff would just be clips, jokes and out-takes that didn’t quite make the original cut, but it actually consisted of a 15-minute stand up set by Steve Hall (We Are Klang).  It was a bit weird as it was completely unrelated to the half hour that preceded it, but it I have to congratulate the programme-makers for sneaking some more stand up on  to television.

In future, Mr BBC, just show the longer version and save me some time.

The Thick of It: BBC HD (R 24th Oct W 31st Oct)

The very welcome return of the anti-West Wing, The Thick of It.  It’s incredibly fast paced, cutting and very funny, plus it features the best swearing on TV.  Rebecca Front plays new instated minister Nicola Murray, a politician who was so far out of the political reckoning that she seems to be the only person not scared of Malcolm Tucker.  It’s a very intelligent satire and I’m not remotely qualified to comment on it any further.  In fact, I’ve probably broken a few laws by saying as much as I already have.  Just watch it.

Ghosts in the Machine: BBC4 (R 27th Oct W 1st Nov)

A typically interesting BBC4 documentary that took a look back at the history of ghosts on British TV.  The reason that I mention it is that there was a long look at Ghostwatch, a 1992 one-off drama that should have been laughable and yet was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen on television.  It was a fake TV ghost hunt featuring Michael Parkinson, Craig Charles and Sarah Greene (all playing themselves),  investigating the strange occurrences in a typical suburban home, before things start to go very, very wrong.  It shouldn’t be scary because a) you know it’s fake and b) it looks fake, but it plays some subconscious trick on you that makes you think it’s real anyway.  All I know is that the thought of Mr Pipes creeps me out to this day.

Sadly, this documentary places the genesis of shows like Most Haunted with Ghostwatch and so it wasn’t entirely a good thing.  I own it on DVD (it’s never been repeated on British TV), so I might have to give it another watch.  In the day time, of course.

FlashForward: Channel 5 (R 26th Oct W 2nd Nov)

I got 17 minutes in to this episode (whichever episode it was), before finally giving up for good.  The programme had an intriguing premise, but its execution was awful.   I realised that I didn’t care about any of it in the slightest, so I did the sensible thing and deleted it.  Just the simple act of deletion gave me more pleasure than all the episodes that I had watched, combined.

Did Heston Change Little Chef?: Channel 4 (R 28th Oct W 3rd Oct)

It’s always satisfying to watch follow up editions of documentaries and reality shows, so you can see what actually happened once the TV crew had gone home.   There is also the added bonus that there are lots of ‘reminders’ of what happened originally, so you can fast forward through chunks of them (if you’ve got a good enough memory to remember what had happened).

The original series followed superstar chef, Heston Blumenthal, and his attempts to revamp the tired Little Chef chain.  This resulted in a modernised flagship store in Popham and a promise that the model would be rolled out if it proved to be a success.  On his return, Blumenthal found the Little Chef management team to be as incompetent as ever, completely ignoring his advice and then making excuses as to why they’re actually right.  There was a promise that ingredients wouldn’t be downgraded in quality, but a brief search through the pantry revealed bisto and oven chips.  After some persistent badgering, however, the message did finally seem to get through and two additional restaurants were modernised.

From his ‘wacky’ style of cuisine, you might be forgiven if you presumed that Blumenthal was completely up his own arse, but he’s actually a very down to earth guy and he did a really good job here.

Chuck: Virgin 1 (R 3rd Nov W 3rd Nov)

It’s quite unusual for me to watch a programme on the same day that I recorded it, so that’s probably a good indicator on how much I wanted to watch this.  It was the final episode of season 2 and they went for the classic comic book plot of ‘wedding interrupted by bad guys’.  Last week’s episode was not only excellent, but also seemed to provide a fitting end to the season, so they were going to have to really up the ante to provide a decent finale.  I’m glad to say that they did.  Many bloggers would give you a plot outline and details on what happened in the episode, but you’ve either seen the episode and know what happened, or you haven’t seen it and I don’t want to spoil it for you.  They’re my excuses and I’m sticking to them.

There have been times during this season when I thought that the series may have been losing its way, but the concluding few episodes really pulled everything together – they were able to combine emotion, comedy and action in a way that’s rarely seen.  I’d accidentally read a spoiler for the end of the episode (and I won’t say what happened in case you haven’t seen it yet), but it was still an awesome, crowd pleasing moment, with the cherry on top of Casey’s hilarious reactions to Chuck.

It’s just a shame that we’ll now probably have a long wait until season 3.