h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sherlock isn't period It's about as up to the minute as it can be.

Perhaps we keep getting the same stories over and over because *really good* stories are worth re-telling and it's rare to get it spot-on first time. And technology moves on - from black-and-white to colour was probably the first reason for re-makes but we've moved on again since then, particularly with special effects.

And murders always pull in the punters ...

Mol

I did some checking. The BBC aren't going to revisit Poirot. They're doing two of the Partners in Crime stories (Tommy and Tuppence), plus Then There Were None. There last time Tommy and Tuppence were adapted was 1984, so they're probably due another outing. Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians) is another story hasn't been done recently. It's all to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Christie's birth. I'm looking forward to it - it will make a change from Poirot and Marple.

If they were really going to celebrate Agatha Christie's birth they would re-broadcast all the fabulous Joan Hickson Miss Marples

Wasn't Antony Andrews Tommy last time we had Tommy and Tuppence? I'll just go and check ...

Mol

Yes, in 2006

Mol

Ah, yes. Tommy and Tuppence as part of ITV's Miss Marple. I watched a couple of the early stories and found them such a travesty that I gave up on the series. That's why my memory of Partners in Crime dates back to the 1984 adaptation with Francesca Annis as Tuppence.

I always liked Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple.

I've almost given up watching television as there is so much awful crime drama in a CSI stylee (as for NCIS even the delectable Mark Harmon can't balance out the excrable flippig Abby )

What I'd like to see is more of the classic stuff but not Austen (unless it really hasn't been done before): Silas Marner is a fantastic story. There must be some Dickens that hasn't been covered? and how about a few Georgette Heyers? An Infamous Army would be good for next year's 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

The modern Sherlocks have been absolutely brilliant, it really is a pity that there are so few of them - but perhaps that is one of the reasons they are so good, there isn't an overabundance of them.

And following on from the lovely Hollow Crown load of Shakespeare - I really wouldn't mind The Bard getting more of the Shakespeare Retold treatment (I especially loved MacBeth as a <chef&lt

And then there were the Chaucer adaptations.

What we really really need, though, is a new Ivanhoe

I second the need for a new Ivanhoe, but it would be very difficult to match the 1982 cast, though the 1997 version was good too. But I can't believe there hasn't been an Ivanhoe in the 21st Century, or even one of Scott's other novels, such as Kenilworth.

<BB<

There was a 21st Century Ivanhoe, except they called the series 'Dark Knight' for some reason. It wasn't great.

http://epguides.com/darkknight/guide.shtml


Geggs

Oh, I missed that one, but that was on in the 3 years when I didn't have a television. So not worth getting on DVD, then?

<BB<

I would advise against it.


Geggs

I did mention Scott in my first post. There's more to his work than Ivanhoe, although not all of it's good. Then there's R L Stephenson, who wrote more than just Treasure Island. Like I said, there are plenty of authors to choose from without turning to Dickens for material.

I agree about Shakespeare, possibly some of his lesser known works. Chaucer could be interesting. A few of The Canterbury Tales were given a modern twist some years ago,but that's about it.

The stuff I really miss on TV is from way back in the late 70s early 80s - the real gritty tough stuff like Secret Army. They just don't really do that sort of thing any more as far as I can tell.
There's far too much style over substance in a lot of things these days.

Spooks nearly got there for a while but then went so over the top as to become a farce for me.

It was synchronous roughly with Hustle which I couldnt bear to be on the same continent as. I note this is now winning awards in the USA (with different cast and directors etc to be be fair). I can only hope it isn't as unbelievably vacuous as it was here.

I didn't like Hustle at all, can you tell?

I also miss the days when you had to actually wait a week to see the next episode so it really kept you hanging on and gripped. None of this downloading the entire box-set and watching it all in one go malarchy.

I sound like an old fuddy duddy now, even to myself

Oh I don't know, I quite enjoy the immersive feel of watching an entire season in one go. There's an intensity to the experience. The downside is I sometimes can feel a bit depressed at the end, almost like a sense of loss.

Yeah, I tried to play catch-up on the new Sherlock series
when BBC Canada re-ran them all in a Marathon as prelude
to the new season.

And while the fast pace kept me gripped, lest I lose the plot,
it eventually made me very cynical. Arthur Dent is a perfect
Watson but as a true actor who knows that acting is basically
RE-acting, so he is constantly having to retreat into a Richard
Hammond kow-tow whenever Englebert Combyerdink does his
best/worst Jeremy Clarkson bull-headed bit.

Cumberbunch plays Sherlock as a cross between an aloof Roger
Moore and a bitter Pierce Brosnon but once he steps beyond
mere arrogance and flies into intolerance and psuedo-intellectual
indignation he is a bad parody of Clarkson at his gruffest and
most unforgivable. Poor Richard Hammond.

~jwf~

Yes but are we getting too much of the same stories over and over.I'd love to see Georgette Heyer's historical novels brought to life.The Infamous Army is an excellent idea set against the Battle of Waterloo.

Anything but Catherine Cookson anyway.

There are plenty of good books I'd like to see well dramatised. The problem is that too often they are so heavily adapted that I'm disappointed.

Oo! Oo! You just reminded me of Sharpe.
Now there's a great TV series with lots of good acting,
high production values and some original story lines.
And it all comes out of an otherwise 'lesser', formulaic,
history-bound series of books about an unlikely heroic
romantic hero.

To a lesser extent (because of the enormous costs involved
in staging realistic sea battles) the Hornblower series also
brought history to life.

How about some new fictional series based on a rogue
fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain. CGI effects for battling
aircraft are now quite believable and of very high quality.
Maybe base it on Douglas Bader... Too soon?

The true story is still more incredible than any fiction?
Hmm...


~jwf~

Too soon for a drama about World War Two Britain? There are so many you couldn't carry them in a wheelbarrow.

I do like Foyles War.

~jwf~

Foyle's War is one we never got into. Until we signed up to Netflix ... DH is currently going through them at a rate of two episodes a night.

Mol