Other TV programmes you like or loathe

I've recorded it

What's been your TV highlights over the xmas holidays?

There's been a couple of programmes I've thoroughly enjoyed. Firstly the final ever episode of Detectorists, which was a nigh on perfect way to end the story. I've absolutely loved every episode,  such a gentle and subtle approach to comedy and brilliant characters.  The other highlight was Bill, the comedy film about Shakespeare moving to London ....really cleverly done, if a little bit panto in places. Coincidentally, both programmes featured Simon Farnaby, who I've not really noticed in much TV before now.

Also enjoyed the festive Bake off (especially great to see Selasi again) and the xmas Dr Who (though it's sort of sad to see Peter Capaldi leave, I think he's coped well with some dire storylines, will be interesting to see how Jodie Whittaker fares with new writers).

On the downside I usually enjoy Channel 4s Big Fat Quiz, but gave up on it this year -  found most of the contestants quite irritating.

I haven't watched much of Christmas tv recorded a lot thou. I did watch The Festive Bake Off and enjoyed it. Dr Who obligatory viewing for family at Christmas. Tbh I'm still undecided about the episode and new Dr! I have watched the re run of David Tennant as Dr Who with Catherine Tate as assistant and enjoyed it immensely. ..
I'm going to watch Call The Midwife special on New Years Day as hubby be working (nhs) and it's my b'day... so day of sofa treats and full choice of tv recordings....
Enjoy pizza x

I hope you have a lovely Birthday on New Years Day Sax xxxx Enjoy your sofa day as well.
I'm just going to have a few of those days - having had my Mum to stay over Xmas and have been caring for her as she is quite frail now.

TBH I haven't thought much of the festive offerings on TV - The Strictly Xmas Special was one of the highpoints for me. I also enjoyed the programme about the making of 'Saturday Night Fever' and I also managed to watch the programme about the past series of Strictly on Channel 5 (recommended by Tango) which was good - why don't we get the same sort of thing from the beeb?? They have so much material for a couple of series of 'best bits' which would be great to see in the off season.

If anyone has netflix and likes fast-moving, slightly gory, 'catch the serial killer' TV, then I recommend La Mante (the Mantis). It's six episodes -subtitled from french- of utter daftness, but I really enjoyed it. The lead actor seems to have a single facial expression that someone stole his sweeties, but apart from him it's well acted and the plot runs at a mile a minute.

On the french theme, anyone else watching the current series of Spiral on BBC4 Saturday nights? I'm so happy to see it back, the characters are all so believable.

Ooh thanks Jingle..I've got addicted to Frontier on Netflix with Jason Mamova from GOT Karl... Set in New Frontier USA (17 something) all fighting over fur trapping/trading rights etc.Hudson Bay Company a big company protecting rights with Nasty Chief played by Alan (Armstrong? ) something mmm the guy from New Tricks used a cycle to get to office and character name Brian!..
New Star Trek good too love it and keep seeing trailer for Artic Murders on more4 written by Rebecca Johnson. Looks very good sort of swedes murder style detective

Well, I succumbed to amazon prime, and though I mostly watch fillums on it (dire one mostly - so few memorable, good, uplifiting, hearty filllums. Last one I saw of that fotted that description wasprobably The King's Speech...).

Am continuing with Outlander, but it is a full hour of real, proper, almost old-fashioned TV - the pace is much slower than most current series and there is a lot of detail contained in each episode, so you have to keep up and concentrate hard. I find I can;t binge on this. It is is old skool once a week viewing. But cinematographically beautiful series, with great actors, and great writing. Dare I say it, I find the TV series has more depth than the books of Diane Gabaldon on which it is based. Her characters are a bit two dimensional and often wanders into Mills and Boon territory. The series is much mroe meaty and intelligent...

I have also discovered Lucifer, which is just a bif of fun TV with the rather lovely Tom Ellis camping it up with all his might for the US audiences.

Sax mentioned the Detectorists... This is easily the best TV comedy drama for about a gazilllion years. Possibly ever. It is gentle and knowing and observational of the human character. If Jane Austen was to write a TV show, it would be like this. The final episode was beyond beautiful - it was a sublime and perfect peice of television. I cannot praise it enough. I am going to miss it dreadfully. And the theme tune byt the lovely Johnny Flynn is also awesome - I feel warm and fuzzy inside whenever I hear it (which is quite a lot as it is on several of my playlists!)

I have also been catching up with Taskmaster on UKTVPlay. I only discovered at Christmas when my cousin told me about it... I had two series and the champion of champions to watch.... It really tickles me - I am often laughing out loud all by myself...

I was really hoping all those 'Great British.... (insert challenge here)' programmes were going to be on - the ones that were on this time last year. Like the painting challenge, the interior desing one, and of course, my favourite, the Pottery Throwdown wiht the marvellous Sara Cox. But I have seen no evidence of them thus far... Unless you all know different......

Hi Diamonds, good to 'see' you here    I've got Prime too, though mainly got it for the free postage with amazon, I find their TV and film selection rather limited compared to Netflix. The best things I've watched on Prime were Mad Dogs, and the first series of Mr Robot - I'm not sure if they're still available now. Mad Dogs I particularly liked, about a group of middle aged men getting embroiled with drug dealers in Belize. A bit gory but  entertaining and slightly surreal.

I totally agree with you about Detectorists, so gentle, and I loved the detail put into creating every character rather than just the two lead roles. The finale was superb.  OH missed it first time round, so we're going to do a binge-watch some weekend.

As far as I know the great Pottery Throw down has been discontinued, along with the GB Sewing Bee and also the GB Allotment Challenge. I loved all of them, really can't understand why they've been axed.  Think the BBC Painting challenge should be on later this year, I recall Richard Cole mentioning filming it while he was on Strictly.  If you have Sky Arts, the Portrait Artist of the Year is currently on, you could catch up. It's been very good this year, as always.

I'm really looking forward to the start of Shetland next week, I think Douglas Henshall is such a brilliant actor, and I like the slow pace and the scenery. It always reminds me of Wallander, only scottish.

On the comedy front, I'm loving the current series of Two Doors Down - didn't really like it until I got to know the characters, but now it's a big favourite.

Have also been very pleasantly surprised with Derry Girls...the initial trailers didn't look good and I missed the first two episodes, but having watched the last four episodes I really liked it.  Didn't realise at the time, but parts of it were filmed just up the road from me.  I totally choked up at the last 30 seconds of the final episode, it was done perfectly.

Just on the Strictly front...I took a look at DS the other day, and noticed the appreciation thread for Mollie and AJ is by far the biggest ever for any couple, think it was heading towards 1.5 million views. That was really nice to see - they may not have made it to the final, but I'm sure their partnership will have done both careers a lot of good.

I;ve not seen any of Shetland... My colleagues at work are both really into it and a bit in love with the TV incarnation of Jimmy Perez (so much so that one of them has names her van 'Little Jimmy' in his honour - which is perhaps more grown up than my 'Tilly Teapot'...). Anyway, they were also reading the books and banged on about it so much that I demanded to be loaned th ebooks. I have read the first four. But from what I can ascertain, the first episode of the TV series starts with either the third or fourth book. So I think I should try and catch up on the earlier series and read the rest of the books before I watch this current series so I don't get any spoilers. Sadly, so far, the earlier series aren't available on i-player. It would be nice if they put them on just before they air this series - they have done it with other drama series....

Re Prime vs Netflix.... I have access to netflix but I actually have found more to watch on prime - which is why I got prime (I rarely purchase things on t'Ned Ludd\'s only living descendant, despite beinbg a milllion miles from proper shops. Or maybe because of that - I like to save all my shopping for the few times I vwenture into a big town, ANd I am very touchy feely see-y - I like to be able to see the colours and feel stuff. And books I like to browse through before buying. I find online shopping buying extremely shortshighted - not totally blind but you only get a vague idea of what you are going to get.... ALso, I am super impatient. If i see something and decide I want it, I want it NOW! If I am in a shop I just pay for it and swan out of the shop smugly clutching my purchase. Even with prime I won;t get it until next day, and I usually find the few things I might like to purchase online are not with prime! I have digressed so much I have diverted to Argentina on my way to Cape Town....) The entire boxed set of Friends is about the only thing I am interested in on Netflix. And i find most films fairly forgettable and don;t find the films any better or worse on one or the other...

Funnily enough, I was browsing i-player last night and came across Two Doors Down... I didn't hold me take me further, but I did wonder about it.... Not heard of Derry Girls - which side is it?

Such a shame about all the GB (insert arts/craft here) programmes. I loved them. Glad the painting one will be back though. Don't have sky so can;t watch the other programme, though a friend of a friend entered last year or the year before and got to the final I think.

I'm having dreadful withdrawal symptoms from Taskmaster! Really hope they do a series 6.

Very glad to hear about Mollie and AJ.... And v sad about Brendan. More about the way in which it is done than the fact of it. ie, no leaving do type look back on his time, a thank you, some speeches etc, like they did with The Love God that is Leonard The Lion Goodman, and like most people get after being 13 years in a job. Just BOOM! Gone. It's one thing I really don't like about the beeb.

Off to watch some more Lucifer now - catch you all soon! And keep the recommendations coming.... :-)

Derry Girls was on channel 4 /more 4 Diamonds, but annoyingly the whole series isn't on catch up yet. Hopefully they'll repeat it sometime.

There was a series which Twirlie recommended a while back called Offspring, which is about an extended Australian family. It's one of those programmes which takes a few episodes to warm to the characters, but I highly recommend it too (can't remember if it was Prime or Netflix, but there's about 7 series and once hooked it's very addictive)

Oh, we're total opposites on the shopping front Diamonds! I only venture into town if I really can't find something online, to the extent that I think I'm probably shop-a-phobic if such a thing exists. I spend a lot of time reading through the book reviews on Amazon to find reviewers who like the same type of book as me, then I search through the other books they've given 5 stars to and order them. It works most of the time, although I've also ended up making some truly dire purchases.

But anyway, back to TV. Someone else mentioned the scandinavian  Rebecka Martinsson Arctic Murders series on More 4, which I also recommend.  If it's got snow, subtitles and crime then I find it's usually very good.

I'll definitely take a look at Taskmaster, have heard it's addictive.

Yes, I totally agree with you about Brendan, a rubbish way to treat one of the longstanding pros. Mauve mentioned on another thread that she'd complained to the Beeb about it, not sure if she ever got a response.  

Anyhow, it's midnight so time for me to watch the winter olympics...I love all winter sports, so going to be a lot of very late nights for the next fortnight!

Hi Jingle & Diamonds hope you're both doing well. I enjoyed Lucifer series too found it light and tongue in cheek too. In the box sets a few gems hidden well. Frontier I loved waiting for new series and I started watching Peaky Blinders from the beginning again. Love the flat caps and the music too adding tension and edge.
I like the painting challenge and Richard always pleasant. Never watched the sewing bee (a tomboy not into sewing)
Films you often find brilliant one I forgot the name but one with Daniel Radcliffe in playing a corpse oh it made us laugh and also think about life being precious. I tend to flick through drsma's & thriller and we watch a film at weekend.
Jamestown? Anyone watching it. We gave up on episode 5 as felt it rather dull. What I did watch on drama channel an episode of The Onedin Line oh my early teens memories of Sunday night viewing and stirring music and Captain James! Looked a little dated and think I'll keep memories happy by only watching the one.

Anyone watching Equiem? The story of the girl that vanished, her mom actress Joanne Scandal who played a cracking detective in tv series comics suicide. Daughter with way dodgy wig a famous celloist finds box under mom's bed. Goes off to spooky house ask questions etc. So far apart from the hair and why? Why? Stay in house enjoying it....

Hello Sax - nice to chat to you again! Hope all is well in Sax-Land :-)

Derry Girls:

Jingle wrote:but annoyingly the whole series isn't on catch up yet.

.

Yes it is! I watched the first epeisode last night and the rest is all there :-) I enjoyed the first episode - I went to a convent school with a uniform so similar it made my head hurt, and though I didn;t live in NI in the troubles, I lived in London at the time and everybody was the same - not 'oh no a bomb scare we may all be killed' but ' flipping 'eck, not again - I'm not going to get home in time for Morse'.... So it resonated. However, I don't like the lead actress - she is too hammy. As a (Guardian?) reviewer said, she's very 'rubbery-jawed' (great description!) and I her face over-acts. I find Michelle and the hard-eyed First Year they attempted to bully on the bus the most convincng performances. For all that, as I say, I enjoyed it and shall watch the rest of the series before it disappears... It seems to be everywhere now that you've mentioned it to me, so I need to be part of the zeitgeist!

Well, I fixed my Taskmaster withdrawal with.... spending the entire weekend and Monday catching up wiht all four series of Line of Duty! That was a watercooler conversation I missed out on until midway through the 4th series and it was a very busy time at work and Spring was springing so my spare time was spent out and about, so I didn't bother watching it... But OMG!! I was SO hooked. The first series not so much, but the other three were so tense at times I could hardly breathe. I found an old Guardian episode by episode guide which I read after thewatching the relevant episode and then read all the theories in the comments section. The reason I mention that is because it reminded me of this forum - genuine fans who can agree to disagree without harshness, and a lot of the same people re-uniting each series :-) Anyway, like the nation I am so in love withTed (I've always liked Adrian Dunbar, so i have, the lovely fella), and can't believe the next series isn;t on until spring 2019! I spent the eveining being Ted wiht a similarly entranced friend on Pancake night, and we walked (rather drunkenly ) back to her place speaking in a terrible NI accent - we did a tour of Ireland as we did so, slipping into Dublin, Galway, and, of all things Cork (which I can never do when I try)! Oh, and for some reason a bit of Devon/Cornwall too....

I saw Requiem on catch up but then I read about all the spooky stuff and decided it wasn't for me. Not a fan of horror/spooky/ghosty.

I remember my Mum loving the Onedin Line - she was totally in love with Capt James!

I might try and find the ozzy thing - there's actually so much stuff out there once you start trawling or asking for recommendations. I'm thinking of trying Happy Valley next, but I think it will be a committment like Line of Duty, and it's actually turning out fairly sunny, so I think I shall spend most of the day outdoors today :-)

Keep the recommnedations coming!

I've just watched all 6 episodes of The Young Offenders on the iplayer, and laughed my head off (with a few tears too). It wouldn't be everyone's idea of comedy, but if you find programmes like the Inbetweeners funny then I recommend it. Best watched back to back I think.

Jingle I'd seen a clip and thought I might like it. I'll take your suggestion and watch it
I gave up on Requiem as the actresses hair/wig giving me eebie jeebies re the whole it's not real scenario and the plot all 9ver the place. Anyone kept watching it?
Loving the Su2C bake off and omg Bickford Countdown so so funny.. I did scream hairnets to both Stacey & Young guy from Dance group my mind gone blank re names. Diversity hurrah but nope forgotten Christian name.

I'm not sure re the new format of Generation Game I love Mel & Sue but will I miss our B,rucie too much?

I've been really enjoying 'Back in Time for Tea' on BBC2. I love social history and food history so I used to love 'Back in Time for Dinner' but in a way I've been enjoying 'Back in Time for Tea' even more. It is the same concept but deals with how the working classes lived and ate in the North since 1918. I really like the archive film clips and the way they deal with social change as well as the food stuff. It was particularly good the way they put over the fact that in the 1960s it suddenly became a young persons world - rather than their parents, as it had been in previous decades - you could really understand the background to this when seeing things from the northern perspective. I also loved how Marus Wareing took them to a Harvester and other famous faces who popped up throughout.............also some dance stuff too with rock n roll and northern soul. Well done the beeb on a high quality series.....catch it on the iplayer if you've missed it. I recommend

Alson - did anyone see the tribute to B rucie show last weekend? I had a tear in my eye. It was a bit of a teary evening really - T+D skating on DOI - then a rather downbeat end to the series of Midwife (I thought) and then B rucie.........what a legend! I did think it rather strange that Lance Ellington didn't make an appearance, as he worked on B rucie's one man show with him, which was one of the last things that B rucie did. I expected him to be in the SCD singers at least, but the young boy was there instead. Thought they would have at least done a little film interview with him, like they did B rendan and A nton

saxonsiren wrote:
I'm not sure re the new format of Generation Game I love Mel & Sue but will I miss our B,rucie too much?

I've only seen snippets of the new Generation Game, but it looked a bit too slapstick and c.elebrity-heavy for me. Going back a few years, Larry Grayson did an OK job after B.ruce, but the Generation Game in my mind really belongs to B.ruce and nobody else. Much as I like Mel and Sue, I don't think anyone could do it better than the original.

Two things I've been watching recently:
The 13 episode Belgian crime, the 13 Commandments (still on 4 on Demand I think). It started off looking a bit too gruesome for me, but after a few episodes turned into a proper detective series, and less of a gore-fest. For anyone who doesn't mind subtitles, I definitely recommend it

The other thing I've recently discovered is the Repair Shop, and have now caught up with all the episodes. It's so fantastic to see proper craftmanship in action, and the reactions of people receiving their restored treasures. Steve the clock-fixer is a genius, but it's also lovely seeing talent in the younger craftsmen and women. A really lovely show, with no gimmicks or egos.

Was just channel hopping this evening and came across a couple of Strictly related people on channel 5. Firstly C.elebs on the Farm has Gleb as a contestant. I watched a few minutes, but found the Towie and Ex on the Beach people just too annoying. It's a pity, because the original version of the Farm from years ago was pretty good I thought.
Later on I spotted James Jordan on the panel of C.eleb Big brother extra bits, along with one of the guys from Blue.

Then of course AJ is going to be on C.eleb Masterchef from this week, which I'm really looking forward to.

Very late revisit to this thread and just catching up with your viewing over the year
Definitely agree if you haven't watched Derry Girls you should- it's fabulous and the last episode tv at its best.

Main reason I popped over to this thread was to find out if anyone else has watched Bodyguard? I just watched the last episode and I felt like I didn't breathe all the way through! Gripping stuff. Ca you still get line of duty on catch up or Netflix? I feel I should watch it.

Hi Alls I've lived The Bodyguard and have the last 2 episodes to catch up on due to holiday, ,,, had to hide from news..... Not watched vanity Fair yet saving that for a week or two... Started The Press but not sure yet

allsewnonbyhand wrote:
Main reason I popped over to this thread was to find out if anyone else has watched Bodyguard? I just watched the last episode and I felt like I didn't breathe all the way through! Gripping stuff. Ca you still get line of duty on catch up or Netflix? I feel I should watch it.

Ooh, I was a latecomer to Bodyguard, but then caught up via iplayer, and watched the final one last night. At one stage in the finale (I'm sure you can imagine where) I just couldn't bear to watch....I had to pause and fast forward!

I'm not sure if Line of Duty is on netflix Allsewn, but if you can find it then you're in for a treat!

Thanks Jingle I've found a box set on Amazon....now to decide whether to give to hubby for Xmas or just binge watch it myself!!

I binge watched Line of Duty last Feb when the boxed set was on iPlayer and sought out the Guardian recaps with their gazillion comments and it was the highlight of my winter! I was so disappointed to learn I had to wait a year for LOD5... :-( Much better than Bodyguard. Can't recommend it enough!

diamondsandpearls wrote:I binge watched Line of Duty last Feb when the boxed set was on iPlayer and sought out the Guardian recaps with their gazillion comments and it was the highlight of my winter! I was so disappointed to learn I had to wait a year for LOD5... :-(  Much better than Bodyguard. Can't recommend it enough!

I've just found season 123 on Netflix which saves me having to buy the complete box set! Result...this could be my viewing sorted out for the next couple of Sundays!

I must be line wolf as didn't enjoy Bodyguard... much prefer No Offence

saxonsiren wrote:I must be line wolf as didn't enjoy Bodyguard... much prefer No Offence

Nope.  You've got me!  (Flippin' autocorrect eh?!)

I enjoyed the first three episodes of Bodyguard and then it lost the plot a bit (and I certainly did - hadn't a clue what was going on- had to consult the Guardian recap and all the comments below it - I recommend it; it's truly marvellous for getting all the nuances of a plot as like here, there are a lot of dedicated followers.  It's a bit like a forum really but, also like here, much friendlier and less troll-y than other forums.  I used it for The Bridge too) - another box set to curl up with...) and then the last episode spun out the tension for so long that in the end I just stopped caring and started breathing normally again and wondering where I'd seen Mrs Bodyguard before... (still haven't a clue).

So I'm with you 50% Sax....