‘The world’s gone mad! I didn’t invite any of these gangsters to my garden party!’ What was it about? Roobarb and Custard are the principal characters in Roobarb, a series of short animations for children originally shown on BBC One in 1974. Roobarb was a dog based on creator George Calveley’s own pet pooch … >
As it reaches it’s five year anniversary, I decided to rewatch Doctor Who star Matt Smith’s 90-minute BBC film Christopher and His Kind. Directed by Geoffrey Sax (the director 1996’s Doctor Who TV Movie, don’t you know?), the 2011 biopic is based on the memoirs of English novelist Christopher Isherwood, a young man who travelled to Berlin in … >
‘CI5?’ ‘Yeah, it’s kind of like MI5.’ ‘What’s the difference?’ ‘They invent the problems and we have to solve them.’ What was it about? Created by Brian Clemens, writer and script editor of The Avengers, The Professionals was an action thriller series chronicling the operatives of CI5: a unique crime-fighting government agency with the mandate and … >
We referred to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as the ‘black sheep’ of the Bond family. However, a similar claim could be made for this, Sean Connery’s one-off return (as long as we only count Never Say Never Again as an unofficial Bond). It’s a complete tonal shift from its predecessor and plays out as … >
‘This house is full of eyes … all looking at me.’ What was it about? Adapted from the first of Lucy M. Boston’s series of novels, The Children of Green Knowe is a sedately-paced ghostly period drama which was originally shown on BBC One in December 1986. 1950s public schoolboy Tolly goes to spend … >
And so we come to the black sheep of the Bond family… Sean Connery left the building and George Lazenby picked up the reins in a film whose reputation seems to rise and fall depending on the phases of the moon. > Buy the complete James Bond collection on Blu-ray. The plot We start … >
‘What are you making down there – poison gas?’ What was it about? Gerry Davis and Dr Kit Pedler first worked together during the 1960s, when Doctor Who producer Innes Lloyd brought them into his production team as story editor and technical advisor respectively. Together, Pedler and Davis brought some contemporary scientific realism to the … >
Season 2’s ninth episode, ‘Lady of the Lake’, is at number nine in our list of the Top 10 Merlin episodes. This episode was one of extreme rarity; Merlin finds love! The main adventure was the arrival of a mysterious girl, Freya, who had been captured by villainous bounty hunter, Heilig. His brutal ways led … >
Sharon Horgan, recently of Catastrophe fame, is getting back together with her old writing partner Dennis Kelly (Utopia). And unlike many reunions, it’s actually a very good plan. It’s been ten years since Horgan and Kelly teamed up on the criminally under-watched Pulling. It lasted two seasons before BBC Three broke our hearts and stupidly … >
Arguably the Bondiest of all Bond films and the prime inspiration for practically every spy spoof that has ever spoofed, You Only Live Twice is truly the epitome of the view that ‘bigger is better’. Let’s dive in and find out… > Buy the complete James Bond collection on Blu-ray. The plot A US … >