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In the TV drama landscape, not every drama can be as genre-busting as, say, Line of Duty or Happy Valley. The surer commissions are those which guarantee sofa-grabbing returns – where resilience of format, and potential for re-commission, matter more than the moral or emotional challenging of the viewer. Which is why a writer with … >
‘One for all and all for one’ – even for those of us, of a certain age, who wish to follow this line with the assertion that ‘Muskehounds are always ready’, there can be little doubt that Dumas’ most famous novel has proven an endlessly fruitful inspiration to successive generations of adapters. There was even a 1928 musical with lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse!
Hot on the heels of last Christmas’s really rather excellent Treasure Island, Sky1 have set their sights on another literary adaptation: John Meade Falkner’s swashbuckling tale of smugglers on the South Coast, Moonfleet.
Downton Abbey never fails to over-promise and under-deliver. There is, at least, a kind of consistency in this; but it makes for exasperating viewing. After the calamitous events of last Christmas’s festive episode, this year, writer Julian Fellowes was taking no chances. Like an over-cautious Christmas tree decorator, he sought to take his characters out … >
When writer Steven Moffat helms a series, you know that the one-liners are going to come thick and fast – and so it has proven with the Matt Smith years of Doctor Who: an era which, in many ways, is exemplified by its catchphrases. Here we take a look at some of these, and what … >
In retrospect, Series 4 of Downton Abbey looks like a gigantic exercise in repositioning the characters in readiness for Series 5.
You know that the Jazz Age has well and truly come to Downton when his Lordship goes to America. Lord Grantham has his suspicions, as well he might, that this is a rather arbitrary plot development.
Never a programme to devise a new storyline when an old one will do, Downton introduced a new lady’s maid tonight, Miss Baxter (Raquel Cassidy), who came in like a Mary Poppins with evil on her mind.
After the horrific events of last week’s house party, viewers of Downton Abbey will have tuned in this week to see how sensitively Julian Fellowes dealt with the fallout, and whether any kindness could be restored if not to Anna then the programme as a whole.
Whatever the exact circumstances surrounding the return of these missing episodes to the BBC archive, nothing can take away the sheer joy at seeing them – for many fans, for the first time.