36 posts tagged “tv one”

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.

Anyone in New Zealand catch this from the One News 6 p.m. telecast?
   Simon Dallow on the David Bain retrial: ‘His defence team has failed today in a last-bitch did to avoid a retrial over the deaths in Dunedin in 1994.’
   Mr Dallow is a smooth dude: he didn’t blink and continued. Well done, sir!
   But I bet that when the news report aired and the newsroom wasn’t live, he and co-anchor Wendy Petrie had a good giggle.
   Before 6 p.m. Tuesday local time, I believe you can view the gaffe online, in the first few minutes of the programme.

This will be a treat for Lifers: Life on Mars, twice tomorrow night. The first catch is that the TV3 one at 9.30 p.m. is American. The second catch is the British one on TV One has had something like 13 minutes butchered out of it, usually the best bits (e.g. the Camberwick Green sequence). From the NZ City website.

Trivium for tonight: New Zealand fans of Life on Mars can get the show twice on one night. The second original series will continue to be repeated till the great leap of the last episode on TV One, Mondays, 11 p.m. The American series begins, with heavy promotion from TV3, from Monday in just over a week’s time, I believe—and judging by the promos it will enjoy a prime-time slot. It’s almost fortunate that the same stories won’t be shown on the same night.
   In the TV3 ads, Jason O’Mara’s role has been downplayed in favour of the bigger star, Harvey Keitel.

TV3 has started promoting US Life on Mars as part of its new season, showing TV One and Prime how to promote a series in New Zealand.
   Life on Mars, the original, was appallingly promoted by TV One. I probably mentioned it more while I appeared on Good Morning than the network ever did back in 2007. Those who presented with me had not even heard of the show. (The second series, which also failed to enjoy any teaser period of note, is currently being re-run on Mondays on TV One.)
   Very few New Zealanders outside this office even heard of Ashes to Ashes and Prime TV spoiled most of the finalé’s plot by showing the scenes in its 30-second TVC.
   As with Life, which featured my good friend Jennifer Siebel, TV3 is building up a useful audience with teasers featuring Harvey Keitel as Lt Gene Hunt.
   We might complain about American remakes but the fact is few outside the UK would have even heard of the original shows if it weren’t for them in some cases.

It’s probably because Ashes to Ashes is new that I was able to identify where Prime made cuts to fit in the ads—but I have to compliment them because I don’t think they were as serious as what we lost on TV One with Life on Mars.
   I think around seven to ten minutes were cut whereas I am sure we lost over ten with Life on Mars.
   I watched it again tonight, partly to support the network for making a good move—they deserve as many viewers as they can get for not just buying a great series but showing it in the year it was first broadcast in the UK. I think for once we beat the Americans in getting a British series—maybe even the Australians. It’s a real treat to see a British 2008 copyright notice!
   Missing were a few scenes where the Pierrot clown chased Alex down the alleyway, Chris’s final apprehension and shooting of a villain, and entire conversation between Alex and Shaz about death and life flashing before her eyes, and this:

   I know it wasn’t integral to the plot since it was a dream sequence, and if cuts had to be made, I can understand why this went, but since Rainbow aired in New Zealand, too, it would have had some significance to people my age. Even my Dad asked me if there was a cut right there, so he noticed!
   Still, thank God for YouTube and a chance to share this bit with other Lifers in New Zealand.

It’s understandable that TV One in New Zealand has to cut around 13 minutes out of each Life on Mars episode to fit commercials in, but why did it have to be the Camberwick Green sequence from episode five of series two? It was the best bit! (Sam still says he comes out of a box when he gets to the nick, and local viewers will be wondering what on earth he was on about.)
   For Kiwi Lifers, here is the missing bit.

For a moment I thought this was a real billboard saying someone was missing (see the bad typography), since it was the only one I saw. Turns out now it’s for a TV show.

   OK, this was clever (and we do have a lot of clever ads) and I am very glad TVNZ is at least promoting one of its own shows strongly—but is it also irresponsible? By the way, I do not recall what the show is named.

I hope Kiwi Lifers seeing the ninth episode of Life on Mars tonight for the first time enjoyed it. I did watch it again—yes, with the ads—and I didn’t mind the repeat, even if I could have chucked on the DVD. The acting was superb on every count, including that of guest star Marc Warren. Simm and Glenister were brilliant was always. Most of my commentary on the show was on IMDB, so it looks like I didn’t blog as much about the second series as I thought. Those messages, dating back to March 2007, have all disappeared, but I do remember being spooked out by the telephone call at the end from Hyde 2612.
   As to the image at the left, wait till episode five of this series.
   Strangely, the first promo I ever saw for the second series of Life on Mars was around 6.30 p.m.—two hours before the broadcast. If I hadn’t bought the DVD I would have been furious for the late under-promotion. I understand from the VO at the end of the episode that it replaced Without a Trace, and the American show was even advertised in some publications. The decision to air Life on Mars seems to have been a very late one, which explains why there was so little by way of promos.
   If only TV One promoted this prime-time show with the fervour that the BBC had—I even suggested a year ago that the old 1973 NZBC logo should come on before the programme, just as BBC One put on the early-1970s blue globe before its second-series Life on Mars episodes:

   If anyone caught the promo for next week’s episode, Emmy is misspelt by TV One staff as Emme. Let’s hope they catch it before more of this typo airs.

Funny how your memory plays tricks. In 1984, I watched the pilot for Dempsey and Makepeace and thought it was fab. Over dinner, now that my DVD of series one has arrived (as predicted—sooner than the Amazon US order that was placed earlier), I have to say the première episode, written by Ranald Graham, has more holes and cheese moments in the plot than I remembered.
   It was also pretty obvious where London was masquerading as New York: my, how Docklands has changed.
   It was in desperate need of good direction which series producer Tony Wharmby failed to give.
   Graham has written some duffers in his time—the Sweeney! movie had the right amount of action but it made as much sense as Ian Macaskill reading the weather (did anyone understand him?)—and D&M’s first outing was so weak it was a surprise that a series was green-lighted.
   At a guess, British viewers on LWT were mourning the demise of The Professionals and with no real competition, the series was indeed green-lighted for three seasons.
   No wonder the Brandons said they could not understand the plot, in an earlier video I posted here. And they were in it.
   Audiences did deserve better, after the higher production values of The Professionals.
   I still have a few of the 1985–6 episodes on video cassette, which were better than the pilot. Let’s hope it gets better. I have not seen these first series ones since 1984; then the politically correct camp intervened and got Dempsey and Makepeace pulled for TV violence (yet The ‘A’-Team continued). It only re-emerged in New Zealand in 1990 at a later hour—five years after the original UK airing of the second and third series. TVNZ would have been fuming over lost ad revenue.
   A few bonuses on the DVD: an interview with Michael Brandon and Glynis Barber, and commentary over the first two episodes by them. The pilot was shown with the bumps inserted. Missing were subtitles.
   I would have watched more but Life on Mars was starting.