The Singing Detective (2007)

Glen Creeber, The Singing Detective, London: BFI TV Classics, 2007.
My rating: ***
The Singing Detective by Glen Creeber
Television doesn’t always age well, but Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective more than twenty years later is still just as riveting and confronting. I saw the series when it originally aired in 1986 and was completely fascinated, even [...]

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Star Trek (2008)

Ina Rae Hark, Star Trek. London: BFI publishing, 2008.
My rating: ***
Star Trek by Ina Rae Hark
The author of this book, Ina Rae Hark is a long-standing fan of the series, dating back to the original 1960s series. She is currently professor of English and Film Studies at the University of South Carolina. In [...]

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Doctor Who (2005)

Kim Newman, Doctor Who. London: BFI publishing, 2005.
My rating: ***
Doctor Who by Kim Newman
Kim Newman is a well-known and prolific author of genre novels, overviews on cult and horror film and TV and a reviewer for the film magazine Empire.
This book, an entry in the excellent BFI TV classics series, is an enjoyable [...]

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Foucault and television

Posted on my site michel-foucault.com
What bothers me is the quality of French television. It’s true! It is one of the best in the world unfortunately!…
What bothers and irritates me horribly in France, is that you are obliged to look at the program in advance to know what you can’t miss, and you have to arrange [...]

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Ace of Wands (2)

My rating: *****
The Ace of Wands website
See here for my main post on this series.
I am enjoying my repeat viewing of the series and finding it a lot less clunky second time around. Nonetheless the hilarious difference between the shots of the cast on donkeys in a sandpit with a tame camel tethered in the [...]

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Ace of Wands (1970-2)

My rating: *****
The Ace of Wands website
Note: Simon Coward’s comprehensive Ace of Wands website and Andrew Pixley’s copious viewing notes which accompany the 2007 Network DVD release have been invaluable in providing background information and quotations for this review.
This British children’s fantasy series is by all current technical standards fairly dire. It is slow, there [...]

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Sapphire and Steel (1979-82)

My rating: *****
My Sapphire and Steel pages
Discussion between myself and others
Sapphire and Steel is my favourite science fiction series and I have watched quite a few. Starring the blond duo Joanna Lumley and David McCallum, it was broadcast in Britain from 1979 to 1982 and then, like the characters at the end of the series, [...]

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UFO (1970)

My rating: *****
UFO series home page

I first saw this series back in the early 1970s when it originally went to air on Australian television. I was fascinated by it at the time but it was not until 1995 during a visit to France that my vague and distant memories of the series were reactivated. It [...]

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The 10th Kingdom (2000)

My rating: *****
Imdb link
Fan site
Beware! This is a bit more of a ramble than usual!
I borrowed the DVDs of this 10 hour Hallmark TV series released in 2000 with very low expectations. The cover notes were not enticing and suggested a somewhat tedious ‘family’ fantasy series. However I was pleasantly surprised to find a most [...]

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Supernatural (TV series)

My rating: ***
Season 4 episode 7: ‘It’s the great pumpkin, Sam Winchester’
Well, while I am on a roll, I thought I might as well continue with this discussion of God, angels and demons and the supernatural and so on and so forth. Perhaps a more lengthy piece on the emergence of a neo-gnostic themes in [...]

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