21 posts tagged “itv”

I have blogged about this before, but didn’t post a clip. And it makes me wonder why the Brits need to remake Outrageous Fortune. Is the Kiwi accent that hard to understand?
   Don’t answer that.
   But this show is so West Auckland you couldn’t even remake it in Wellington.

During a quiet moment at work, I put these on. A small tribute to Dennis Waterman, his starring roles, and his singing the ‘feem toon’.

Law & Order UK (from ITV) has started in New Zealand, and just like most remakes, it’s not as good as the original. It’s not bad, but proves again that sometimes, things should just remain in their original form.
   And before someone pounces on me by saying that Law & Order UK is not a remake, but a spin-off (as has happened on YouTube), then perhaps they could tell me why the script for tonight’s episode here is directly based on an American one (and even credits it)? Sorry, old chap, that makes it a remake, just like all those wonderful American shows and movies such as Three’s Company, Sanford & Son, Life on Mars, Coupling, Cosby, Ugly Betty, Three’s a Crowd, Eleventh Hour, Too Close for Comfort, The Office, Viva Laughlin, Kath & Kim, Payne, Amanda’s, The Prisoner, In Treatment, Worst Week, All in the Family, Good Behavior, State of Play …
   The credits are OK, and at least here there has been some departure from the original, though the trade mark noise that starts each scene is still present.

One of my favourite Benny Hill sketches—probably because I was a fan of The New Avengers, which was still on telly when this parody aired. Watch out for Jackie Wright as Mike Gambit! (This was originally preceded by a TV awards’ announcement, where Patrick Macnee wins best actor over Tiddles the Wonder Cat.)

With your Murdoch Press paper—well, News of the World for the next few weeks (started last Sunday)—episodes of Life on Mars on DVD. The TVC is quite humorous:

Shows to be remade, according to The Daily Record in Scotland: Minder, with Shane Richie as Arthur’s nephew; Martin Clunes will star in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin; and The Day of the Triffids (which has been made a few times already). Even British TV, it seems, has run out of new ideas.
   Though I did like that new Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) a few years back.
   As with all shows, I will give them the benefit of the doubt, but it’s also good to see some of the originals.

I know this is an old joke, but I have to do it.

But Philip Glenister has an American accent in Demons on ITV1. Who does he think he is? Harvey Keitel?

Just as I wasn’t enamoured with the idea of US versions of various shows (Outrageous Fortune, The Vicar of Dibley, Kath & Kim, State of Play), and have been keeping an open mind on the American Life on Mars, I must say the reverse is true. I am not particular fond of ITV’s plan to remake Law & Order in the UK, starring the very pleasant-looking Freema Agyeman. Some things only really work in their home countries. While, as with Life on Mars, I will keep an open mind, I can’t imagine the original theme over images of London as opposed to New York. It sounds as bad as remaking Bewitched in the UK, which no one would be stupid enough to do. Oh, wait …

Lost-in-Austen-1

ITV wishes to compete with Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, so it has come up with a new series, Lost in Austen, for next month.
   The heroine, Amanda Price (note that human time travellers must have five letters in their surname, e.g. Tyler and Drake, McFly and Brown), played by Hammersmith-born Jemima Rooper, is transported back to Jane Austen’s time, leading her to wonder: ‘Am I mad, in a coma, or back in time?’
   She’s been reading too much Pride and Prejudice, and notices that in her new world she has assimilated Mr Darcy et al.
   But instead of being struck by an old Cavalier, she has discovered a time portal, once used by Nicholas Lyndhurst to get back to World War II, or something like that.
   Bond girl Gemma Arterton co-stars as Elizabeth Bennet, which kind of reminds me of the time another Bond girl, Rosamund Pike, played Jane Bennet. No word on a cameo from Halle Berry.