istara Reviews

Studio One: They Came to Baghdad (1952) Season 4, Episode 35

Worth watching only as a curiosity for Christie fans

[6/10 · 20 May 2023]

To say that this is not a faithful adaptation of They Came to Baghdad would be the understatement of the century.

It has most of the characters and some of the plot. The problem is the framing of it all. You can see how the producers would struggle to fit a novel like They Came to Baghdad into under an hour.

The problem is that all the charm and fun of They Came to Baghdad is lost. There's no mystery regarding who is the hero, who is the villain - a key aspect of the book. Victoria Jones' character is very much changed. The exotic settings aren't there.

It does get better - the first scene with Anna Scheele buying tartan cloth is confusing and awful. Once we're in Baghdad things are more familiar.

I don't know if anyone will ever bring a faithful adaptation of They Came to Baghdad to the screen. It might be too difficult to adapt script-wise, it might not be commercially viable. But it's something that would be fascinating to see. Maybe GenAI will make it a possibility one day.

For now, we have this. And thankfully, we still have the wonderful book it's loosely based on.

Sharp Stick (2022)

Watchable but flawed

[7/10 · 7 January 2023]

I watched Sharp Stick as an in-flight movie so not at optimal picture quality, but it was still a reasonably enjoyable movie.

The main problem is the age and character of the main protagonist. As another reviewer commented, it seems as though she was written as a much younger character, but made older in the final script (possibly to avoid offending current paranoia/social mores?) It isn't really credible that any woman in her mid-twenties, living in LA, wouldn't have heard of basic intimate acts. Particularly with a very sassy, savvy sister.

There is a lot of intimate action in this, though in terms of nudity it's not explicit. I thought the first scenes were well done, but the central plot of adultery was somewhat brushed aside along with the husband and wife. Why she later does what she does - extreme behaviour/acts for anyone - didn't seem very realistic.

I did enjoy Scott Speedman as adult actor Vance. Luka Sabbat was also very good, although the final "happy ending" (not intended as a pun though I suppose it could be!) wasn't convincing, and was odd. I didn't feel the animated sequences really fit the tone of the rest of the movie.

But all in all it's interesting and certainly worth a view on a long haul flight.

The Larkins (2021–2022)

Confusing changes

[6/10 · 18 December 2022]

I don't really understand the motivation behind this (extremely loose) adaptation of HE Bates' novels.

A lot of reviewers have commented on the anachronistic racial diversity. It is anachronistic but that doesn't particularly bother me, the problem is more that the script sounds "written by white people" and is very heavy-handed with how it manages that aspect.

What does bother me is jamming 2020s morals and mores into a 1950s setting. The original series and books are very much laid back, laissez-faire, rural romping and hedonism. Amoral, perhaps.

This new series is full of contemporary angst and grating moralising. Ma sounding like a modern-day parenting manual. Lectures on classism. Mariette endlessly wanting to widen her horizons, which cheapens the whole "rural idyll" that the Larkins' village represents.

Then weird plot changes. Why is Oscar no longer their baby? The Larkin children getting it into their heads that Pa is committing adultery. The silly Charley/Tom rivalry.

It's not unenjoyable, but a lot of it just feels pointless, and it lacks the innocent pleasure of the books and the earlier series.

I would urge anyone watching this to give the earlier series a go if you haven't seen it, as well as read the books. There's so much more to love there.

Alma's Not Normal (2020– )

Brilliantly funny, superb cast

[10/10 · 16 October 2022]

Rita, Sue & Bob Too meets Game Face. Alma's Not normal is a brilliant piece of British comedy drama featuring the escapades of three generations of women in Bolton.

Siobhan Finneran gives an exceptional performance but all the cast are very strong, with Alma's character developing and growing throughout the series. The flashbacks of Alma's younger years are also excellent. The series ends on a bittersweet but ultimately positive note.

Highly recommend this one. It's gritty at time, poignant at times, but above all warm-hearted and very funny. Great to read that there will be a second series.

One Small Hitch (2013)

Very un-romantic

[2/10 · 25 August 2022]

Three quarters of the way through this film and the hero is still sleeping with and sleazing over multiple other women. How is this romantic?

As another reviewer commented, it's yet another movie with the girl chastely pining over a man who has no apparent interest in her and every interest in getting with every other woman in the movie.

Dreadful.

Diana (I) (2021)

Brilliant

[10/10 · 11 October 2021]

This is enormous fun. Many of the lyrics are absolutely absurd, but that just adds to the enjoyment. What's not to love about the Queen singing about being "An Officer's Wife"? Or rhymes such as "Harry, my ginger-haired son/You'll always be second to none".

The costumes are particularly spectacular, with Jeanna de Waal looking eerily like Diana in several scenes. The singing from all the cast is highly professional throughout.

The final scene when Diana walks away into the darkness with only flashbulbs breaking up the blackness is quite a poignant moment.

I loved this. It's very watchable. It's a musical, after all, not a serious documentary.

Last Christmas (2019)

Sweet film, not too saccharine

[8/10 · 27 June 2021]

An enjoyable Christmas romance movie with a twist that prevents it being overly-saccharine. The leads are strong and very watchable, and the character development of Kate/Katarina from someone truly awful to a good person was quite credible.

The only real error was making the family Eastern European. Even as a non-European, Emma Thompson's accent etc felt cringeworthy, and judging by the reviews here, they got everything wrong. There was no need to make the lead family migrants or Eastern European, the film was diverse enough. Or why not simply make the sister's partner a refugee or someone at the homeless shelter?

If you're looking for a Christmas film and can't stomach a maudlin American Hallmark nausea-fest, give this one a try. Yes, it does overdo the London-luvvie-PC thing, but there's just enough grit to make it palatable.

Pauline's Quirkes (1976)

A slice of the seventies

[10/10 · 12 May 2021]

Pauline's Quirkes almost has to be seen to be believed. It's a chat show with sketches starring UK actress Pauline Quirke when she was about 16/17, also featuring her later Birds of a Feather co-star Linda Robson.

What's uncanny is that these actresses have not changed in hairstyle, appearance, and mannerisms in nearly half a century. When you first watch Pauline's Quirkes, having only seen the actresses' later work, you find yourself wondering if this a skit where the adult actresses are "playing themselves" as young teenagers.

But no - that's Pauline and Linda in their teens. Same hair, same style, same dynamic.

It's worth catching an episode for the curiosity value and for nostalgia about UK teenage culture in the mid-1970s.

Girls5eva (2021– )

Brilliant show, 1990s nostalgia

[10/10 · 7 May 2021]

A superb cast, great songs and strong performance make Girls5Eva a hugely enjoyable and funny comedy. It's also a delight to watch something with good drama that isn't about crime and doesn't end up with someone getting killed like so many current shows resort to.

All four leads put on amazing performances. Vocals are strong. The 1990s fashion, styling and singing is eerily accurate: at times you feel you must have seen some of the songs and music videos back in the Spice Girls era.

The only slight disappointment is that Ashley Park doesn't get much airtime. Her character is dead in the present day but she appears in several flashbacks. However, based on the last episode, if there is a second series we may get to see more of her.

Highly recommended. It's an uplifting show that also casts a sharp eye on past and current celebrity and internet culture.

Country Comfort (2021)

It could be so much better than it is

[5/10 · 30 March 2021]

Country Comfort features a very talented cast and an interesting concept that includes frequent musical performances - currently a popular theme in many shows, from Glee to Zoey's Incredible Playlist.

The problem is that it goes all out for schlock and schmaltz rather than trying to have any edge or layers of humour. It's syrup.

Compared to The Nanny, ostensibly a similar concept, it falls flat. (Ditzy glamorous brunette non-qualified nanny. Hot widower. Blonde Other Woman. Houseful of cute kids including precocious youngest girl. Etc). Many reviewers have described Country Comfort as "heartwarming" - but so is the Nanny. But The Nanny has Niles - a figure that Country Comfort desperately needs to save it from drowning in glurge.

There are also some particularly painful elements. The son lusting over the nanny is initially awkward, ultimately creepy. The guest star appearance by Leanne Rimes (Cibrian's real life wife - they even make an in-joke about this) is cringemaking. Not so much Rimes' performance but all the "Leann freaking Rimes" adulation leading up to it. The religiosity of the second episode is also execrable. I found myself wondering if I was watching Touched By An Angel at times.

Ultimately it does a disservice to Southern American folk, who are surely more intelligent, edgy, interesting and multifaceted than this.

South Riding (2011)

Excellent production, bleak material

[10/10 · 14 February 2021]

This is a very well-made, well-cast and well-acted miniseries, based on Winifred Holtby's novel South Riding, published posthumously in 1936. There have been several adaptation of it, including a 1938 film, a 1974 TV series, a 1999 radio version, and now this 2011 adaptation.

Sarah Burton, a woman who lost her fiancé in the Great War, takes up the position of headmistress at a girls' school in Yorkshire. She clashes with various local politicians and bigwigs, despite originally being a local girl herself. Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays Sarah, is particularly outstanding, as is the young actress playing Lydia Holly (Charlie May Clark). Penelope Wilton as Mrs. Beddows is excellent as always. The male cast are also strong.

As a caution: there are some graphic scenes of horses dying (not gory, but traumatic).

It is enjoyable, and there is a happy ending for at least one character, but also an overwhelming amount of poverty, sickness and death. "It's grim oop North" did go rather frequently through my mind. Incurable madness, death in childbirth, tuberculosis, heart disease: it does become rather a roll-call of misery.

Ultimately I was left with a sense of many people's stories being unfulfilled, but perhaps that was the point. The 1998 film version (which I haven't seen) was described by one critic as: "not an altogether satisfying love story, it is more interesting as a portrait of pre-WW II life in the country". I think that would be a fair review for this 2011 adaptation as well.

The Box of Delights (1984)

Traditional Christmas treasure

[10/10 · 31 December 2020]

We watch The Box of Delights every year at Christmas. There is nothing to match it for the atmosphere of a traditional British Christmas, winter darkness, mystery and magic.

The series is very true to the book - at least as far as the special effects of the era permitted. There are some sequences that had to be omitted or adjusted. The blending of animation and live action was cutting edge at the time, and now has vintage charm that more than compensates for any lack of modern CGI (similarly to how the original Snow White is timeless).

The Box of Delights is also very well acted and the locations are spectacular. The snow scenes were filmed in Scotland during the very cold and snowy winter of 1984, and are magical.

I would urge fans of the series to read the book, if they haven't already. There is much to enjoy. John Masefield's other children's novel, The Midnight Folk, also features Kay Harker, Abner Brown and others. It would be wonderful to see a television series of it as well in future.

The Secret Garden (2020)

Mr Darcy becomes Mrs Danvers

[6/10 · 28 September 2020]

The Secret Garden (2020) is a movie of two halves. The first half verges on excellent, with some creative and beautiful CGI used to represent Mary's imagination. The scenes in the chaos of golden, dusty India followed by the bleak grey of England are harrowing in different ways.

It starts so well: how could it finish so badly?

About half way through the whole thing devolves into a car crash of overblown CGI Disney schmaltz. Suddenly dream/imagination sequences are "real", there are ghosts, there's a bizarre attempt to create a mystery where there's no mystery in the book nor a need for one (isn't the Garden enough?) and weird themes of mental illness and maternal abandonment that simply don't add anything. That these children are orphaned is surely enough?

The child actress who plays Mary, Dixie Egerickx (she'll be spelling out that surname all her life) is superb. She has an "intelligent stillness" that sets her apart. I don't doubt she will go very far, and probably end up a Dame if she sticks with acting. She's very watchable.

Julie Walters is excellent as Mrs Medlock, but then she's always excellent! Isis Davis as Martha is also very enjoyable. Amir Wilson isn't given much of a role as her brother Dickon (I recall it as a larger, more interesting role in the book and other productions). Even in Midsummer when Mary's winter coat has changed to a light skirt and blouse, he appears to be wearing the same padded sack. Edan Hayhurst playing Colin is quite good.

And Colin Firth: poor Colin Firth. In this production he's given a hunchback and ultimately turned into Mrs Danvers, staggering through a burning house with a face like doom - why show us those beautiful frescoes/murals one moment if only to burn them to pieces the next? - while his beloved dead wife's preserved possessions are consumed by the flames. What an absurd ending: Mary and her uncle would have been unconscious within seconds from the heat and flames, but their escape goes on and on and on.

I was left wondering why I had gone to see The Secret Garden but emerged from a surreal production of Rebecca.

I Hate Suzie (2020– )

Brilliant television but not very enjoyable to watch

[8/10 · 7 September 2020]

I Hate Suzie is a televisual tour de force of a celebrity's personal and public life disintegrating at a rapid pace. It's well-cast, well-acted, well-written, creatively shot and edited. Billie Piper is excellent.

The problem is that I Hate Suzie is just not very enjoyable. The subject matter - of a famous actor-singer having photos hacked that expose her affair - was always going to be dark. But by episode three it just feels like you're stuck in a downwards spiralling tunnel with no hope and scant light relief.

Others have commented how "chaotic" and "frantic" this show is. While these aspects are perhaps realistic for the situation and the main character's state of mind, they also don't make very entertaining viewing.

In the "self-pleasure" episode it becomes increasingly hard to know what's real and what's fantasy - which is part of the point, perhaps. It's a nightmarish confusion of sexual desire and over-imagination and emotional meltdown. But at times it pushed past the "shock point" and started to feel gratuitous. Realistic, perhaps, but just too much.

I don't know how I Hate Suzie should have been handled as subject matter. It's a valid and relevant personal disaster that a lot of celebrities (and ordinary peopple) have faced and will still face. Perhaps something a few notches calmer, with some detachment and more dark comedy instead of just spiralling darkness?

Dutch Girls (1985 TV Movie)

Very enjoyable and interesting film

[10/10 · 23 June 2020]

The main fascination with this film is seeing various now-famous actors in their younger days. A schoolboy hockey team travel to the Netherlands on a hockey tour, but are more interested in Dutch girls and have various escapades.

They're supposed to be at school - I think it's mentioned that Colin Firth's character is 17 - but all the actors are in their late twenties and frankly easily look thirty or more. Which added to the amusement factor for me.

You can see why Colin Firth got cast as Darcy from this movie. He has a dignity and intensity that sets him apart. It's a shame Daniel Chatto eventually quit acting as he's pretty good.

Timothy Spall's character is probably the most memorable element - his behaviour is implausibly appalling, at times he displays literally cover-your-face cringe-level rudeness and boorishness - but hilarious nonetheless. He's excellent value.

It's set in 1985 so there's plenty of nostalgia value here. The disco was pretty wince-making, especially the dancing. Yes - people did dance like that in the 80s UK in a lame, awkward way at youth club discos and so on.

Highly recommended, anyway. I wouldn't say it was a classic but it's definitely a gem.

Adam and Evalyn (1949)

A lovely, romantic film

[10/10 · 27 April 2020]

The chemistry fizzes in this loose adaptation of Daddy Long Legs - Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger fell in love in real life during filming and later married.

Orphaned Evelyne mistakenly believes her father is gambler Adam Black, but when the confusion is cleared up he readily steps into a guardian role. He sends her off to finishing school and when she returns two years later (don't these schools have holidays?!) it's a coup-de-foudre on both sides. With all the age-gap/father figure frisson that comes with the legacy of Daddy Long Legs.

Pity poor Moira (Helen Cherry) whom Adam has been stringing along for years. She sees the score from the get-go, though chooses to hang around while Evelyne dates Adam's dodgy brother Roddy, perhaps in the hope that she'll fall for him.

They're very photogenic leads, photographed beautifully - particularly in Simmons' case - and the attraction between them is electric. The first kiss is a classic. The film is worth watching for this aspect alone, though there's plenty else to recommend it. The young British chaps are highly amusing. Lovely costumes too for both Simmons and Cherry.

A Very Young Lady (1941)

Interesting adaptation of an older play

[8/10 · 26 April 2020]

I watched this to compare it with Girls' Dormitory (1936) as both films are based on Ladislas Fodor's play Matura. The earlier film stars Herbert Marshall, Simone Simon and Ruth Chatterton. This later adaptation stars John Sutton, Jane Withers and Nancy Kelly. The essential plot is that a student at a finishing school, as well as one of the teachers, are both in love with the principal. He's oblivious to both of their affections.

In A Very Young Lady (1941) Jane Withers is Kitty Russell, a tomboy who has been sent to finishing school to develop some airs and graces. She gets into scraps with local lads, dressing as a boy with her face all smudged, before a teacher helps her with a duckling-to-swan transformation for the school dance. The reaction of principal Dr. Franklin Meredith (a very handsome John Sutton) to the transformation - "you're the prettiest girl in the school!" - requires some suspension of disbelief.

At this point Kitty develops a huge crush on Dr. Meredith. "Thirty? Oh my goodness! Why, he's an old man!" her friend Madge comments.

Kitty writes fantasy love letters to Dr. Meredith. These are discovered by another teacher, who thinks she is having a surreptitious and forbidden relationship with a local boy. Grilled by Dr. Meredith, Kitty can't bring herself to tell him the truth. She runs away and he comes to find her. And then she starts to reveal her heart in an excruciating scene that descends into hysterical laughter/tears, but Dr. Meredith still doesn't twig that he's the object of her adoration.

A Very Young Lady (1941) is more faithful to the original play in terms of its comedic aspects (Matura is described as "A Comedy") and also in terms of who ends up with whom. Girls' Dormitory (1936), described as a "romance", has a few comedic moments but is essentially a romantic melodrama. Withers was about 14 or 15 and very much a character actress when she played the ingenue role, whereas Simon was 25/26 and an alluring starlet.

Compared with Girls' Dormitory (1936) and probably the original play, there's no European flavour here: it's very Americanised. There are dates and motorcycles, milkshakes and drugstores, sheriff, pins and corsages. Lots of teenagerhood: these are very much kids, not so much young ladies ready for society and marriage upon graduation. It actually reminded me far more of another Herbert Marshall film: Mad About Music (1938).

There's an odd reference to Tyrone Power in this film: "Oh Madge, I wish I were a carefree child like you! With no one to worry about but Tyrone Power." In Girls' Dormitory (1936) Power, still an unknown, has a brief role, only his second credited part. By 1941 he was a major star and a well-established heartthrob. Is A Very Young Lady (1941) worth a watch? Yes, if you're a fan of one or more or the actors, or you've seen Girls' Dormitory (1936) and are curious. But ultimately my takeout was how superior a movie Girls' Dormitory (1936) is, even if it subverts the plot of the original play.

Goddess (2013)

Disappointing plot

[6/10 · 8 January 2020]

Let's start with the good. The main actress sings well and there's plenty of colour and rhythm with all the dance routines. (She can't lip sync to save her life, but she's a musical theatre actress not a popstar, so it's probably to her credit). Generally it's solidly acted by all the cast.

The bad: the grotesque "moral" of this story. Basically you can't have a glittering career if you're a mother. Despite the fact that your husband is working away from home for months on end enjoying his glittering career, and that there would be no issue whatsoever with taking two pre-school age kids to the US with a nanny for a couple of months: no, your husband will go off with someone else, so you must go back to the remote rural town in Tasmania you've inexplicably chosen to reside in, put your rubber gloves on, and be a small town stay-at-home mom.

I watched with increasing heart-sinking as I saw the ending of this approaching, knowing exactly where it was going, and I hated it every bit as much as the similarly dismal ending of View from the Top (2003).

Sanditon (2019–2023)

Entertaining but not Austen

[8/10 · 19 December 2019]

Sanditon makes for interesting but ultimately rather disappointing viewing. I'm not particularly bothered by the sex/nudity issue that some other reviewers have objected to. Frankly there's plenty of illicit sex in Austen, you just have to read it properly to see that.

The acting is fine. What lets Sanditon down is two things. First: the styling. This was *so right* in the Ehle-Firth Pride and Prejudice, but here there is just too much make-up. HD may have had something to do with it, but all the actresses look far too maquillaged. You can see all the foundation and eyeshadow even on the younger characters, which they simply wouldn't have worn in the Regency Era. Theo James looks like a contemporary men's fragrance model, his hair (and perhaps his stubble) just seem wrong and anachronous.

But the main issue is the writing - characters and dialogue and plot. It's simply not plausible for the era. When Lady Denham (Anne Reid) comes across as even more crass than Mrs Bennett and even more arrogant than Lady Catherine de Bourgh, you know that boundaries are not just being stretched, but completely ignored. I don't really understand the point of doing this. It's like reading a Regency Romance novel by an American author with a heroine called Britnee who is somehow managing to study to be a nuclear scientist in 1815.

I could cope with Theo James' first outburst of nastiness to the heroine, which is kinda sorta understandable given he's defending his brother. But his second berating of her just takes his character way too far past the nasty point, and makes him basically irredeemable as a romantic hero. Yet the heroine is all cow-eyed over him regardless: she shows a bit of spirit at table, and that's not bad, but it's too little too late.

There's a huge missed opportunity to have the heroine flirt more with the handsome young architect. Now that would have made things interesting (and been a more plausible way to pique the hero's interest).

I hope there's a second series, but it won't be a tragedy if there isn't. Ultimately the writing just isn't up to scratch.

After Henry (1988–1992)

A lovely, very witty comedy

[10/10 · 8 September 2019]

After Henry is a very well-written, amusing and also touching comedy, about a widowed grandmother, widowed mother and daughter living in three flats in a single house. They navigate various friendships and relationships throughout the four series.

Joan Sanderson is an absolute treat in whatever she's in: she alone would be enough to make this worth watching. But add in the always delightful Prunella Scales, and you have a real winner. Janine Wood also plays the rather prickly daughter very competently.

The best bits by far are those with Joan Sanderson, but the whole series is enjoyable. It is rather a product of its time: there are a lot of contemporary references to Australian soaps such as Neighbours (which was a craze among UK viewers at the time).

Sadly the final series (4) doesn't reach any real conclusion, but the show was cancelled due to the death of Joan Sanderson.

Free Agents (2009)

Very funny and realistic comedy

[10/10 · 4 September 2019]

Free Agents is a wonderful show and it's a shame they didn't make a second series, though it's somewhat complete by the end of episode six. Sharon Horgan and Stephen Mangan would be a strong enough cast, but adding Anthony Head as their suave, irredeemably perverted boss was a masterstroke of casting. He's glorious to watch.

This is a comedy-drama as much as a sitcom, because there are moments when it's very poignant, though without getting overly heavy. As a snapshot of dating in the late 2000s it's uncomfortably accurate.

So are the fluctuations in who-likes-who-more at each stage of their friendship/relationship.

Definitely worth a watch.

Girls on Top (1985–1986)

Stellar cast but disappointing

[7/10 · 3 September 2019]

Given the absolutely stellar cast - Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Ruby Wax and Tracy Ullman - I was surprised not to have heard of this show. It doesn't seem to be very well known (has it been repeated on TV?) but watching it, one can see why.

There are some funny moments, and it's definitely worth a watch if you're fans of any of the actors.

The main problem is Ruby Wax's character: just overly loud, shouty and grating. I kept wanting to turn the volume down whenever she had a scene.

Tracy Ullman's character is also a bit too much, but would work as the "ditsy clown" with just French and Saunders and their straighter characters. But with Ullman's constant squeaking and Wax's constant shouting, it's all too much.

I was reminded of Babes in the Wood (what an odd ensemble that was, with Jacko from Brushstrokes inexplicably hanging around three women half his age) but at least with that, there were just three girls including only one "clown" (the uber ditsy girl brilliantly played by . And it suffered in the second series when Samantha Janus left to be replaced with an over-the-top character rather than another straightman.

Anyway, give this a go if you come across a copy. It's fun for all the guest stars if nothing else: Hugh Laurie is particularly wonderful.

White Gold (2017–2019)

Amusing 1980s dark comedy

[8/10 · 9 April 2019]

White Gold is hitting its stride better in the second series, evolving more into a darker comedy-drama than a straight sitcom.

Ed Westwick very much carries the show. His character is a completely amoral anti-hero, which is working increasingly well as his colleagues/staff are shown to be more human as the second series progresses.

Linzi Cocker is wonderful as his wife, though I wondered why the series creators gave them high school age children? I think the daughter is supposed to be about 15, but Linzi Cocker is only 31 (as is Ed Westwick) and looks even younger. It's an odd point of incongruity - primary school aged children would have been a more realistic fit.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the 1980s soundtrack is fun and nostalgic, as are various references to the era. However, despite a few period costumes - shoulder pads, dropped waists, Thatcher blue - the series somehow feels and looks more like the mid-to-late 1990s (think Men Behaving Badly, or Game On) than the 1980s. This may have something to do with modern filming techniques and technologies as well. Somehow it's a bit too "sharp and clean" to feel like the 80s.

So for me, this is more like a Carry On take on a historic period than something authentic. But that doesn't matter, because at the end of the day it's a comedy - and a great one - not a history documentary.

The Hookup Plan (2018–2022)

Excellent, funny, moving

[10/10 · 24 January 2019]

This is a really lovely, unusual series with a great cast. Elsa is dumped by her (awful) boyfriend who is immediately engaged to someone else. Elsa's friends set her up with a sexy male prostitute. He falls genuinely in love with her and she with him... then she finds out his profession. At the same time all her friend's lives and relationships are in upheaval.

What really elevates this is that both the main characters are really likeable. You want a happy outcome for them.

It's shot in Paris and looks beautiful, and is a refreshing change from the usual cities (eg New York) that this kind of series tends to be set in.

Highly recommended. It's also best if you can watch the French version ("Plan Coeur" on Netflix) with English subtitles.

Get Well Soon (1997)

Needs a dose of better writing

[6/10 · 6 November 2018]

Get Well Soon has a strong cast but very weak writing. The main weakness is the characters, none of whom are very likeable or funny.

It's possible it was made a decade or so too late: the "wartime sitcom" probably had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s with Dad's Army and others, possibly to as late as the early nineties with Goodnight Sweetheart. But Goodnight Sweetheart combined the present with the past and had a more interesting and unique concept than Get Well Soon. The concept of long-term patients in a hospital also peaked in the 70s with Only When I Laugh and the Carry On films.

But even taking its setting aside, too many of the characters are odd and unpleasant and weird. Matthew Cottle is basically playing Martin from Game On (no surprise, the two series overlapped) which might have worked if he'd had the right kind of characters around him. But Eddie Marsan as a fellow patient is aggressive and horrible. Anita Dobson as the mother is very unsympathetic. Samantha Beckinsale as a recently widowed wife is just weird and unconvincing. There's an overly silly vicar and Robert Bathurst is completely wasted as a unfunny-mentally-deluded former flying ace (compare to Rik Mayall's "Ace Flashheart" in Blackadder Goes Forth). The "comedy camp" hospital porter is more like a caricature of a "comedy camp" character (as in Ricky Gervais's show-within-a-show When the Whistle Blows/Extras).

I have only watched the first episode of this, so it's possible the series improved. If I managed to see the others I'll give them a try and edit this review if so. But on the strength of this first episode, it's no surprise this "comedy" failed to make a second series.