TV – Slugger O'Toole

The trouble with making drama – Part 1: The small screen…

Ciaran Ward on October 15, 2022, 2:25 pm

| Readers 1677

While I was watching Bloodlands the BBC drama series starring Jimmy Nesbitt as a bent PSNI detective, it occurred to me that a new sub-genre of post-Troubles legacy drama has effectively emerged. Like similar serials such as Line of Duty or The Fall, Bloodlands is not specifically about politico-sectarian conflict, but this theme is inevitably lurking in the background with regular references to past events involving paramilitaries. During my formative years in the 1980s and 90s there seemed to be …

We need to stop producing any new books, films and TV shows until we all have had a chance to catch up…

Brian O'Neill on August 16, 2020, 10:34 am

| Readers 1032

One of the stresses of modern life is the tsunami of content out there. Aside from the bottomless pit of social media and online news there has never been such a volume of everything. On my TV I have the BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV, Britbox and NowTV. The issue is I only watch about 1 hour of TV a day so it is impossible to even touch the surface of all the new shows out there. …

Happy Birthday Ulster Television…

John Mooney on November 2, 2019, 2:16 pm

| Readers 1496

Ok, it is a few days late… but I have been carrying this card around for months. I suppose there are a few folks here who cannot remember live before Tinternet. I suppose there will be not so many who remember what life was like before TV. Do I? Well not really. I certainly watched the 1956 Cup Final in Uncle Jackies house (that’s the one where the Manchester City goalie Bert Trautmann broke his neck). And 1957 when the …

The Nuclear Option

Dan McGinn on January 25, 2018, 11:48 pm

| Readers 3805

No sooner had the debate begun about how ‘Derry Girls’ really measures up as a sitcom, than BBC Northern Ireland decided last week to air the first of three new episodes of ‘Give My Head Peace’. Thanks BBC because you just reminded everyone what a massive leap forward Lisa McGee’s not quite perfect Channel 4 sitcom is for Northern Irish comedy. Now entering the second half of its six episode run, the fourth episode of ‘Derry Girls’ again delivered …

“I’m trying not to take The Fall personally.”

Pete Baker on October 30, 2016, 12:34 pm

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Guardian TV critic Stuart Heritage with a nail on head review of the “dead dog of a show” that The Fall became. From the Guardian review Even by most recent standards, The Fall was dire this year. Now that it’s done, and Paul Spector is dead and Stella Gibson is back enigmatically muttering like a woman who lost her keys, it’s hard to fathom why anyone was ever excited about this dreary puddle of a show in the first place. …

“The Borgias couldn’t give a stuffed fig about sense”

Pete Baker on August 12, 2011, 5:01 pm

| Readers 6

If Camelot was anything to go by the actual series will fail to match the promise of the review and will be cancelled after one season. Until then enjoy another epic review, this time of The Borgias, by Sarah Dempster at the Guardian’s TV blog. Created by director Neil Jordan, The Borgias is a potboiler in the (throbbing, purple) vein of The Tudors and Camelot. Stuffed to the chancel with priests, bums, greed, shouting, bribery, incest, poisonings and knockers, the …

Peter and Martin make new friends in the Sesame Tree

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 9, 2010, 6:07 pm

| Readers 39

Launch of the second series of Sesame Tree

Martin McGuinness was famously pictured with Muppets Potto and Hilda at the launch of the first series of Sesame Tree, the local co-production with Sesame Workshop. This morning he was accompanied by fellow eejit (his words, not mine) Peter Robinson at the launch of the second series which airs on BBC’s CBeebies from 22 November. In their speeches, the First and deputy First Ministers were both upbeat about the production and the local creative sector. Continuing the banter started by …

Christine and Colin make star status

Brian Walker on June 21, 2010, 11:17 pm

| Readers 20

Christine is to rejoin Adrian on GMTV as Colin replaces Adrian on Match of the Day as Christine pines for Frank – or not? Young Ulster stars right up there among the celebs and the big money. With Jonathan Ross as the awful warning, Christine’s smiley PR about loving the Beeb is actually hard headed. But 900k from the Beeb versus £2 million a year from GMTV is a no brainer, luv, and you know it! Just think of the rest of us in these hard times as you giggle your way through the early mornings. Brian WalkerFormer BBC …