BBC Miniseries: Bleak House

Welcome back to BBC miniseries as we move into classical writings depicting the strengths and flaws in English men and women in Victorian London and can think of no other author of the time better to give a curt view of such a time than Charles Dickens. A long running legal case Jarndyce and Jarndyce, due to conflicting wills is drawn out to the point of madness showing a satire on the English judicial system and how bureaucracy can fail even the most noble of houses. This is Bleak House.

Hmm, Mulder is streaking in the rain again.

Our story is told from the eyes of its narrator and protagonist Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin of Enduring Love, North & South, Doctor Who, Becoming Jane, Poppy Shakespeare, Free Agents, The Night Watch and Death Comes to Pemberly) as she is Dickens' only female narrator in all his novels, novellas and short stories. Raised as an orphan under the cruel and heartless vigil of Miss Barbary (Kelly Hunter of The House of Eliott, Being Human, Resort to Murder, Hollow Reed, Life Force, Perfect Strangers, Henry VIII, Waking the Dead and Doctor Who).

Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson of The Turning, The Mighty, The X-Files, The House of Mirth, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, The Last King of Scotland, Closure, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Boogie Woogie and Any Human Heart) holds a secret of a previous affair with a man Captain Hawdon and a daughter by him. Sir Leicester Dedlock (Timothy West of Witch Hunt, Twisted Nerve, The Tragedy of King Richard II, The Day of the Jackal, Edward the King, The Devil's Advocate, Churchill and the Generals, Oliver Twist, When Are We Married, Brass and Framed) is blissfully unaware of this secret nagging at his wife's soul and conscience.

I hereby order the meeting of the powdered wig club to an end!

Concerned for his standing with this account and the well-being of his employer, lawyer or is it solicitor? Mr. Tulkinghorn (Charles Dance of Edward the King, For Your Eyes Only, The Jewel in the Crown, Plenty, The Golden Child, Hidden City, Alien 3, Last Action Hero and Game of Thrones), an odious, small minded man convinced that whatever Lady Hedlock has kept secret will be the downfall of Sir Hedlock and must be watched at all times, so far as he convinces her maid to keep him abreast to her goings on. What will become of this will? Will Esther ever be free of her class standing?? Will Lady Dedlock forgive herself of her previous affair??

The novel this is derived from spoke volumes for the need of a reform in the legal so much that it made its own re-evaluation in the 1870s. Directed by TV directors Justin Chadwick (Life Force, EastEnders, Red Cap, MI-5, The Other Boleyn Girl and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom) and Susanna White (Holby City, Love Again, Teachers, Lie with Me, Jane Eyre, The Diary of a Nobody, Nanny McPhee Returns and Billions) this adaptation is viewed as a soap opera style of a series and I disagree. It was compelling, fast paced as much as it could be and showed many facets of humanity through in and throughout. While I have only seen the 1985 version prior to this, I feel its cast alone carries the story well on their shoulders and delivers the performance necessary for the piece. On a side note, I did get the biggest chuckle out of Guppy (Burn Gorman of Torchwood, The Runaway, The Hour, Up There, The Dark Knight Rises and Spies of Warsaw) and started laughing, shouting "OWEN LIIIIIIIIVES!!!!"

Come miss or we shan't meet the Doctor.

Shows Across the Pond: The Sweeney

Hey folks. Back again. Just to mention again Rotten Reelz can be reached at rottenreelzreviews@gmail.com for comments, critiques, queries and even suggestions. That being said I found a show from across the pond on parallel with Starsky &Hutch here. Giving all the levels of clashing classes, police and official corruption, bribery and oh so close links to criminal elements. The Flying Squad, a division of the Metropolitan Police tended to the scum of armed robbery and violent crimes. Watched like a hawk by their Detective Chief Superintedent, DI Jack Regan and DS George Carter are on the case. This is The Sweeney.

Gonna plug ya with my Roscoe, see?

Created in 1975 by writer Ian Kennedy Martin (The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, The Capone Investment, Mitchell, The Sweeney, The Chinese Detective, The Fourth Floor and King & Castle) mirroring the actual corruption of the real-life Flying Squad in which actual commander of the Flying Squad, our heroes Detective Inspector Jack Regan (John Thaw of Inspector Morse, Mitch, Cry Freedom, Bomber Harris, Home to Roost, Into the Blue and Goodnight, Mister Tom) and Detective Sergeant George Carter (Dennis Waterman of Scars of Dracula, Sextet, Alices's Adventures in Wonderland, Sweeney!, The Life and Loves of a She-Devil, Tube Mice, Minder and Cold Justice) working the streets and being the thief takers. (Detective Chief Superintendent Kenneth Dury in 1977 up for five counts of corruption and set to the hoosegow for 8 years.)

Regan, the chief "thief-taker" is a hard ass cop annoyed with Scotland Yard procedures and red tape constantly complaining about it. Clearly from Manchester he attempts to muddle his accent poorer upbringing is a seat of ridicule for his Londoner partner George Carter. A bit of a womanizer, quick to a fist fight, divorced with a daughter offers a working class dynamic. Carter is a force unto himself. The man drinks like a fish whilst smoking like a chimney. A former boxer, lover of football (Soccer for us Yanks) after the death of his wife he chased many a skirt but not as successful as Regan he is constantly more a good cop to Regan's bad cop.

Give us the dirt or it's lights out for you, me old son.

Both have a casual relationship with their chief DCI Frank Haskins (Garfield Morgan of Albert!, Henry VIII and His Six Wives, Z Cars, The Man Was Hunting Himself, The Odessa File, Crown Court, George and Mildred, Shelly and Jenny's War) who they refer by first name rather than by rank. Of the three he is married with three children all attending boarding schools (probably Hogwarts) is the only one with a stable background having a former service in Royal Corps of Signals (ran radio during the War) and is constantly at lager heads with Regan on procedures and conventional police work.

This show has that same gritty dark feel that the original Get Carter and brings a seedy underbelly of London showing rampant crime and cops coming down on them like a ton of bricks. Laughed myself sick seeing more than a handful of guest stars I immediately recognized. Such as: Patrick Troughton, John Rhy-Davies, Brian Blessed, Joss Ackland, Prunella Gee, Geraldine James and Stuart Wilson. It's sinister, cleverly-written and well cast. One for those that loved the grimy, 

nebulous vibe of the cop drama films and TV of the seventies. Highly recommend this for folks enjoying something tenebrous and redeeming at the same time.

Oh that's the face of a man losing his temper.

THE BRITISH INVASION: As Times Goes By

THE BRITISH INVASION CONTINUES!!! Sheesh, looks like a newspaper heading. Imagine a pair of lovers prior to the Korean War. A young second lieutenant falls for a nurse in 1953 and they are in love but they become separated when the lieutenant was posted to Korea and lose track of each other. This is As Time Goes By.

Stop grinning or you will have no tip.

Second Lieutenant Lionel Hardcastle (Geoffrey Palmer of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Fawlty Towers, Whoops Apocalypse, The Last Song, A Fish Called Wanda, Hot Metal, The Savages and North by Northamptonshire) has spent the last 38 years on a plantation in Kenya as a coffee planter decides to write his memoirs when the secretarial agency is owned by a former nurse name of Jean Pargetter (Judi Dench of Hilda Lessways, A Study in Terror, Theatre 625, A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Fine Romance, GoldenEye, Shakespeare in Love, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, Pride & Prejudice, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ). Jean created her agency Type For You after the passing of her husband and raise her daughter Judith (Moira Brooker of The Doctor and the Devils, Made in Heaven, Owd Bob, Out of Sight, As Time Goes By and The Bill) as an assistant for the firm.

Oh do begone, camera 2!

Jean realizes that Lionel is the same Lionel of some many years ago. Naturally both have their pride and are equally stubborn on how broke of their first love. After a few confusing miscommunications and misconceptions that their mutual letters were lost and did not make their way to each other. Lionel's publisher Alistair Deacon (Philip Bretherton of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: At Bertram's Hotel, Hollyoaks, Casualty, Footballers' Wives, Coronation Street and Young Dracula) a boy genius with more energy and verve than any man should but he is a whiz at the game with far too many contacts and connections come Hell or highwater he will publish Lionel's book and pull out all the stops to get it out there.

Can a romance of so many years ago ever be rekindled? Can two lovers ever reunite?

A few comments on the series now.

The man and woman in the pictures of the beginning of the show are supposed to be Jean and Lionel are actually Judi Dench's daughter and Geoffrey Palmer's son. The role of Jean was originally written for Jean Simmons (Guys and Dolls, The Big Country, Spartacus and Howl's Moving Castle). With the program's original title was "Winter with flowers" but when the cake featured with the title, the cast and crew didn't want any cake until the name of the series was changed and I can't say I blamed them. Given the precarious nature of BBC programming and scheduling the series managed the 10 year stretch and unlike most of American series it did not go over 13 episodes per season. 

Whatever happened to the cat?

 

THE BRITISH INVASION!!!!!

They have infected your television, social media and music. Your friends attempt cockney accents and fail. The repeated Monty Python skits that your friends and family are slowly killing. Face facts, the BBC has invaded your lives for many years. Hey folks, I am back with a new week altogether as this week we enjoy some comedy, drama and maybe even a mystery or two.

Hmm Tramadol makes one...loose.

With the aid of BBC America, most of the states are aware that not only England exists but there is some genuine entertainment meant to be had and enjoyed for all. With science fiction, sci-fi fantasy, some horror titles and far too many of their series remade by the Americans. * slap * Bad ole America. Series like Couplings, The Office and Broadchurch have been imitated with a failed pilot and four episodes and flopped, Broadchurch with Gracepoint and The Office with...well The Office.

For as many successes these different series will have there seems to be America over in the corner, wallflowering and thinking, "If only I could be as cool as that." Wake up America!!! There are plenty of shows and film we have reason to take applause and bow for that we really do not need to resort to re-labeling every British creation. Case in point, I was watching Netflix's streaming Being Human but the tags were wrong so I got the actual UK version and thought, "Wow this is really good but I don't recognize the cast as I did from the promos. Maybe this is an earlier season." Yeah, so while I have seen both versions and each do take away with their own spin. Face facts, folks. Original is usually better.

With all this in mind, the quiet attacks have occurred and you are all helpless before "THE BRITISH INVASION"... Well is was either that or The British Are Here and the last running up was BBC Gems. So if you fancy a cuppa and some biccies, turn on the telly and have a few sniggers then I welcome you to the landing of THE BRITISH INVASION. Cheery'o. Uh I mean ta-ta.   Bugger.  Bye then!

The face Caroline Munro's fanboys make when they see her.