fifteen minutes of mantra-filled oompah

Self-regarding nonsense

2012-01-12T07:37:00.000Z

I know it's an awful cliché for a screenwriting blogger to post a new year review, but when has that ever stopped me before?

For me, 2011 was very much the year the wheels came off: I don't think I wrote more than around half-a-dozen pages of script (and a couple of short prose experiments).

My juddering halt may have been at least partially due to losing my friend and writing partner Janet in August: Care and Control, the drama pilot we wrote together, attracted a lot more interest than anything I'd written on my own, so I didn't really have much of an appetite for returning to solo writing.

Even so, in the last three months of last year I suddenly found myself with a bit of spare time after one of my regular freelance gigs dried up. However, various anxieties and distractions meant I never allowed myself to get into the habit of writing again.

More than anything, I think my failings during 2011 highlight the importance of habit and momentum in writing. When I was doing my MA and working full-time a few years ago, I still managed to find time to produce a high volume of work and hit all my deadlines.

I'm a firm believer in the “little and often” school of writing: from my experience I've found I get a lot more done during a week of five one-hour sessions than leaving it for a single eight-hour splurge.

Writing in a regular routine pays off in so many ways: it means you've always got a point to return to, giving you momentum, and having the story constantly running in the back of your brain means that if you hit a problem, your subconscious will often have shaped the perfect answer by the time you return.

Fortunately I've had something to direct my attention towards straight away: this year's Red Planet Prize. I'm totally revising a pre-MA script for it, and it's been great to crack open Final Draft again and leave myself always looking forward to getting back to the keyboard – a feeling I've not had for yonks.

Having been out of the screenwriting “zone” for so long, I was pleased to find a useful approach on Scott Myer's indispensible Go Into The Story blog. He refers to it as the “1, 2, 7, 14” programme: each week you should read one script, watch two films, write seven pages and – here's the possibly tricky bit – spend 14 hours on preparation, research, plotting etc.

Another helpful framework for goal-setting was suggested by David Bishop on his Vicious Imagery blog. He says that every objective you set yourself should be 'SMART' – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely.

That might sound like the sort of toot you'd find on a conference centre flipchart, but the beauty of it for me is the 'attainable' aspect.

Sure, you can say you'll aim to have an agent or a Doctors commission by the end of the year, but those ultimately rely on the actions of other people.

The SMART approach liberates you from the disappointment of external factors foiling your plans. So, instead of pledging to get yourself an agent, you can say you'll knock up a new spec script and approach a certain number of agents with it.

It's also worth remembering the saying (can't remember where it originated) that 'luck' is the point where preparedness meets opportunity: keep producing material, and eventually you'll stumble across an opening where what you've got in your bag somewhere is exactly what someone is looking for.

I'm sure I'll set a few more goals once I've got my initial Red Planet entry out of the way, but for now I feel like I've made a giant leap forward just by dragging myself out of paralysing inertia.

The only way is up!

What Makes a Masterpiece? Stories and Film

2012-01-03T20:17:00.001Z

This looks like it might be of interest to anyone who thinks about the art, craft and science of creating stories.

It's on More4 at 9pm on Saturday 7 January, but I'm guessing it'll be on the 4oD on-demand service afterwards.

WHAT MAKES A MASTERPIECE? 1/3: Stories and Film

We have always thought that the power of great art lies in its mysterious ability to move us. But now science is claiming to have discovered the secret to why we like what we like, and is challenging some of our most deeply held beliefs about the arts.

Presented by Matthew Cain, Culture Editor of Channel 4 News, this three-part series explores the world of art through the prism of 'neuro-aesthetics': a field of scientific research that looks at how the human brain processes art.

Each episode focuses on a different art form, as Cain explores some surprising theories about how art affects us and asks if neuroscience could radically change our attitudes to human creativity. This first episode looks at stories and film.

Advances in neuroscience are allowing scientists to measure exactly what goes on in our brains when the cinema lights go down and the action begins. Matthew Cain learns why Jaws is so effective and why we're drawn to horror movies, and finds out about the neurons that actually make us 'feel' the fear and tension.

One experiment even shows just how differently men and women respond to the same scene in a James Bond movie, prompting the question: if directors want to fill the multiplexes, should they make his and hers versions of the same film?

And if science has found the answers, will it be used to manipulate what we think, what we like and even what we buy? Cain sees how advertisers are using science to read our subconscious responses to commercials in order to create the most effective ads.

Matthew also meets Christopher Booker, who believes that every story ever told adheres to one of seven basic plots; and Gurindha Chada, the director of Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice, who talks about the formula of storytelling.

Finally, Matthew tries to put the principles he has learned to the test when he makes an animated story of his own and measures its effect on the brain.

Top Boy, Channel 4

2011-11-01T11:21:00.000Z

My latest review on Orange. I worried I was being a bit hard on it, but after enjoying Hidden I was expecting much more from writer Ronan Bennett.

A lot of the drug-related stuff seemed a bit over-familiar and hackneyed, and it would have been interesting to see more of Ra'Nell having to take care of himself.

It's by no means a bad drama, but it could have been so much more.

Top Boy is a four-part drama being stripped across Channel 4 this week, billed as “an honest and gripping rendition of inner-city drug and gang culture”. However, despite coming from the hot pen of writer Ronan Bennett (Hidden), the opener was just another humdrum excursion into familiar territory.

At the heart of the drama is Dushane (Ashley Walters) – a “soldier” in a local drug network who's sick of bottom-feeding and fancies a shot at the big time. When top boss Bobby Raikes (Geoff Bell) gives him his opportunity, Dushane also has to deal with the unwelcome attentions of a rival gang, led by the violent Kemale (Tayo 'Scorcher' Jarrett).

Meanwhile, schoolboy Ra'Nell (Malcolm Kamuleke) is left to fend for himself when his mum Lisa (Sharon Duncan Brewster) goes into hospital with mental health problems, leaving him vulnerable to the temptation of working for Dushane. Elsewhere, Lisa's pregnant mate Heather (Kierston Wareing) is moving into the dope farming business.

As a bit of drama, Top Boy works OK; there's quite a bit going on and the performances are convincing – especially from Kamuleke and another young actor, Giacomo Mancini, who plays his friend Gem. However, the big problem is it doesn't seem to give us anything new about this shadowy side of society.

Normally we'd get at least some attempt to show the social forces that push people like Dushane into criminal lifestyles, but here it's hard to care, and even harder not to feel like we're being manipulated into fearing for youngsters like Ra'Nell and Gem.

For all the ripped-from-the-headlines trappings, by the end of the episode we're in the familiar dramatic scenario of a couple of Jack-the-lad types needing to find a lot of money quickly to pay back Mr Big.

I'm sure the people behind the series went into it with the best intentions, but by the end it the first episode of Top Boy seemed like another cheap holiday in other people's misery: nothing we haven't seen done before, and done better.

My advice: stick to series 1 of The Wire.

Death in Paradise, BBC One (by Red Planet Prize finalist Robert Thorogood)

2011-10-26T10:19:00.000+01:00

Here's an Orange review of last night's first ep of Death in Paradise on BBC One.

There's obviously been a lot of interest in this series from a screenwriting point of view, as it came about through its creator, Robert Thorogood, getting the opportunity to pitch the idea to Tony Jordan via the Red Planet Prize.

There's a short article by Robert here, as part of the press pack for the series.

About 15 minutes into tonight's first episode of Death in Paradise, my mind was already beginning to drift towards the kettle. As London copper DI Richard Poole (played by Ben Miller) reluctantly arrived at an idyllic Caribbean island to help investigate a murder, we were battered over the head with every cliché imaginable about uptight Brits and laid-back islanders.

But then something quite remarkable happened. A contemporary TV detective actually started to do a bit of detective work! Poole looked for clues and made razor-sharp deductions, rather than crawling into a whisky bottle and sulking about his disintegrating marriage or that terrible thing that happened to his sister when they were kids.

However, while Poole's sudden transformation into the Greatest Living Detective was good news for the episode, it also left me scratching my noddle a bit, as up to that point he'd been depicted as a bit of a clot whom his colleagues back at Croydon had been glad to see the back of.

Anyway, the story moved on at high speed, as it looked like the murder victim, a senior police officer (Hugo Speer), had been involved in a bit of people-smuggling with local toff James Lavender (Rupert Graves), as well as a bit of how's-your-father with the latter's wife Sarah (Coralie Audret).

With a refreshing lack of ludicrously flashy technology, Poole and his local colleagues had to crack the case together the old way, and when Lavender turned up dead as well, I was suddenly interested: I'd assumed Graves would be round for the whole series, and it was nice to have my expectations tinkered with.

The whole thing looked like money for jam for Miller, who didn't have to stretch himself much in playing the abrasive but sporadically brilliant Poole, while the rest of the cast, including Don Warrington and Red Dwarf's Danny John-Jules, brought a lot of charm to the low-intensity local law-enforcers.

This opener could have been a lot better, by losing the Malibu ad clichés, but it could also have been a lot worse, although the twists of the story and the final revelation did take a bit of swallowing. Still, Lenora Crichlow deserves a mention as the frustrated and undervalued PC Lily Thomson.

For all the postcard gloss of its setting (the series was filmed in Guadalupe), Death in Paradise – created by new writer Robert Thorogood – looks like it should be an engaging if undemanding old-school show, and having a fresh case each week should provide a bit of variety.

Now let's just hope they don't swap the “fish out of water” clichés for the “unlikely partners” clichés that look like they might be heading round the corner.

Holy Flying Circus (Monty Python docudrama, BBC Four)

2011-10-20T11:07:00.001+01:00

Monty Python's Life of Brian has become such a part of the furniture that the furore that surrounded its release back in 1979 seems incredible. Holy Flying Circus, BBC Four's “fantastical re-imagining” of the controversy, was an imaginative, energetic and highly entertaining trip back to those troubled times.

The film, written by Tony Roche (The Thick of It) and directed by Owen Harris (Misfits), admitted to the viewer at the start that “Most of what you are about to see never actually happened”, before launching into a witty mixture of drama, animation and characteristically surreal detours.

Holy Flying Circus recreated the unpredictable feel of the Pythons' work perfectly, with the viewer never sure what exactly in what direction it was going to veer off on next.
The script also nodded cleverly to the show and the films: for instance, the church group that mobilised against Brian had a lot of the People's Front of Judea about it, while Michael Palin's wife was played as Terry Jones (Rufus Jones) playing a woman.

As well as the conflict with those opposed to the film, the controversy took its toll on the Pythons themselves – particularly Michael 'The Nicest Man in the World' Palin and the increasingly crabby and confrontational John Cleese.

Naturally, the friction between them erupted into a spectacular gravity-defying swordfight between puppets of the two men.

The cast were instantly recognisable as the people they played; in the case of Darren Boyd (playing Cleese as Basil Fawlty) and Charles Edwards (Palin), they were almost more like their characters than the comedians themselves.

The only bum note was Jason Thorpe's performance as Alan Dick, the chat show producer who wanted to stage a Heated Debate about the film. Unfortunately he, er, drew heavily on Matt Berry's performance as the infuriating boss in The IT Crowd in an annoyingly derivative way that seemed out of place with the originality of the rest of the film.

I've seen some headlines suggesting the Pythons are unhappy with the film, but for me Holy Flying Circus was a fitting and funny tribute to the group that also managed to make a few serious points about censorship, faith and how close to the edge comedy can – and should – go.

The Comic Strip Presents: The Hunt for Tony Blair (Channel 4)

2011-10-20T11:01:00.001+01:00

Just catching up with a couple of recent reviews for Orange.

It's a little-known fact that telly critics like to have tattoos to commemorate their favourite TV moments. And, as I sit here in the bath dictating these notes to Heinrich, my secretary, I can see '2 November 1982' scrolling down the inside of my thigh into the bubble bath.

Obviously, you don't need me to remind you that was the day Channel 4 launched and “alternative comedy” landed firmly in our laps, courtesy of the Comic Strip team and their cracking Enid Blyton spoof Five Go Mad in Dorset.

Now, 29 years later, at least some of the team have reunited for The Hunt for Tony Blair – “a special '50s-style fugitive film noir spoof” in which Tony Blair (Stephen Mangan) goes on the run to clear his name after being accused of murder.

The film includes nods to classic black-and-white movies like The 39 Steps and Sunset Boulevard, as Blair tries to find out who's responsible for framing him. Not surprisingly, the plot eventually leads back to the angry, scruffy Gordon Brown (Ford Kiernan) and the creepy, bloodless Peter Mandelson (Nigel Planer).

Sadly, as promising as that might sound, none of it really hangs together as funny or biting satire. The whole thing plays out like an idea cobbled together from random audience suggestions at a comedy improv night.

However, while it might have worked on stage for a couple of minutes before being shunted aside for something funnier, here it's dragged out for a very long hour of laboured and fairly irrelevant gags.

There's also something a bit distasteful rather than provocative about the way the deaths of John Smith and Robin Cook are fictionalised for comic effect, and most of the characters seem to have little or nothing recognisable from their real-life counterparts.

Furthermore, while there are still obviously many questions to be answered about Tony Blair's conduct around the invasion of Iraq, this film seems a bit like "yesterday's news" in light of the deepening economic and social gloom currently enveloping the country.

While they varied in quality, a new Comic Strip film was always an event back in the day – which makes it particularly sad that their latest outing is so irrelevant and lacking in bite. Maybe it's time the Comic Strip was left to rest in peace.

Hidden, BBC One (Philip Glenister, Thekla Reuten)

2011-10-07T12:38:00.001+01:00

Here's a review of last night's first part of Hidden what I wrote for Orange .

Watching it from a writing point of view, I really liked the way the flashbacks gradually rolled out to introduce bits of exposition that informed the present-day action. Very neatly done by writer Ronan Bennett.

From its opening montage of apparently unrelated scenes, it was obvious that Hidden – a four-part conspiracy thriller – was going to require a bit of attention. As it turned out, the opening episode struck a nice balance between intrigue and clarity, luring the viewer effectively into a shadowy world where very little might be what it seems.

Hidden stars Philip 'Not Gene Hunt' Glenister as Harry Venn, a down-at-heel London solicitor. In true noir fashion, his world is turned upside down when a mysterious femme fatale – lawyer Gina Hawkes (Thekla Reuten) – turns up at his office and offers him a job.

And it's not just any job. In return for finding a man who can provide an alibi for her client (a delightfully creepy cameo from Friday Night Dinner's Paul Ritter), she offers Harry the teasing possibility of some new information about the death of his brother 20 years earlier.

The mystery deepens when Harry and his assistant fail to find any trace of either Gina or the company she claims to represent. Why is she so interested in a violent incident from Harry's past? Whose side is she on – and what are the sides anyway?

Meanwhile, London is blighted by rioting as coalition prime minister Brian Worsley (David Mosley) struggles to hold his government together. Rising political star Alexander Wentworth (Bertie Carvel) smells blood and starts to circle the wounded PM – with the backing of influential power-brokers such as media mogul Elspeth Verney (Anna Chancellor).

The script, by Ronan Bennett, rolls out the mystery very nicely. Flashbacks gradually reveal aspects of Harry's past but still make it clear we haven't seen the full picture yet. It also neatly introduces elements of the bigger picture, teasing us with the hint that whatever Harry's got himself involved in goes to the highest levels of money and power.

All in all, Hidden is a very enjoyable and timely conspiracy thriller. It might not be quite as deliriously bonkers – sorry, “stylised” – as The Shadow Line, but it's a taut and atmospheric drama that manages to be complex without being confusing. Harry might be heading for some dark places, but viewers are going to be tempted to follow him.

Cinema Verite (Sky Atlantic): the birth of reality TV

2011-09-28T10:51:00.000+01:00

Here's another quick review for Orange.

Way back in 1971, before "fascinating social experiments" like Big Brother were even a glint in a producer's eye, American film-maker Craig Gilbert put us on the road to TOWIE with An American Family – the fly-on-the-wall documentary that largely invented "reality TV".

Cinema Verite, produced by HBO Films, dramatised the filming and aftermath of the series, starring James Gandolfini (Jim Royle on steroids) as Gilbert, and Tim Robbins and Diane Lane as Bill and Pat Loud, the heads of the wealthy Californian family that went under the microscope.

As the family struggled to get used to the constant surveillance, the caustic script by veteran screenwriter David Seltzer made it clear that the relationship between the philandering Bill and the flinty, abrasive Pat was already close to breaking point.

And it didn't take long for the boundaries of the project to become blurred. As Gilbert's relationship with Pat veered towards inappropriate territory, he began to use his all-seeing knowledge of the family's affairs to manipulate the Louds into providing the scenes he wanted.

Meanwhile, Pat also sensed how she could use the project to turn up the heat on her husband, while husband-and-wife film crew (Patrick Fugit and Shanna Collins) struggled to reconcile their position of trust with the family with Gilbert's demands for them to get "the best stuff".

The climax of the film came as Bill returned from a business trip to be told by Pat that she wanted him to move out immediately. As the two played out the scene, they were followed, almost surreally, by the ghost-like camera crew, who finally seemed to have achieved the "invisibility" they'd been seeking throughout.

The film was dominated by the iron-willed Pat; Diane Lane gave a performance would strip paint. However, despite some interesting mingling of the original and dramatised footage, the film felt a little unbalanced in favour of the domestic situation.

It would have been interesting to have seen more of the impact that the series clearly had in the media and American society at large. Instead, that was all crammed into a hasty 15-minute coda at the end.

Cinema Verite was a top-quality bit of work – as reflected by the sackful of Emmy nominations it received earlier in the year. However, it was ultimately more interesting as a portrait of a disintegrating marriage than an insight into a monumental moment in TV history.

The Fades (written by Jack Thorne), BBC Three

2011-09-23T10:20:00.000+01:00

A bit late, but here's a review of BBC Three's new fantasy/horror series, The Fades, that I wrote a couple of days ago for Orange.

I didn't get chance to mention it in the review, but one brave choice that I really appreciated as a writer was having Paul wet his bed.

It was just a small character detail, but one that you'd never expect to see in a teen hero and something that highlights the compassion and insight that runs through Jack Thorne's writing.

Award-winning writer Jack Thorne might not be a household name, but having come up through Shameless, Skins, Cast Offs and This is England '86 in recent years, he's a man whose time has very much come. His new show, The Fades, is a fantasy horror series that proves you don't need a big glossy production to come up with some very effective chills.

It stars Iain De Caestecker (Coronation Street) as Paul, an uncool 17-year-old whose life gets complicated when he stumbles across a secret war being waged between the living and the dead – or, more specifically, the Fades: the angry spirits of the dead who have been trapped on Earth.

The big problem is that one particularly nasty Fade is breaking back into the world of the living and has started to kill.

There's also a nice domestic element to the story, focussing on the friendship between Paul and his motor-mouth mate Mac (Daniel Kaluuya). As Paul tries to work out what's happening to him, Mac draws on his encyclopaedic knowledge of geek lore to comment humorously on what's going on.

The two leads get great support from a cracking cast: Johnnie Harris leads the way as Neil, a grizzled veteran of the supernatural war who becomes Paul's mentor, while This Life's Daniela Nardini provides sassy back-up as a sweary, gun-totting, magic-weaving vicar. It also looks good, with moody photography and the skilful use of modest special effects.

As you'd expect with this sort of thing, there's a lot of explanation to cram into the opening episode, and some of the “mythology” does seem a bit arbitrary and cobbled together. However, the insight into teenage life Thorne brought to his earlier work also shines through, as Paul negotiates some more of the usual tricky teenage territory.

The obvious question about The Fades would be whether it's going to follow its predecessor Being Human as BBC Three's next break-out hit. It might not have the immediate appeal of that flatshare/horror mash-up, now approaching its fourth series, but it's a classy and engaging bit of work that disguises very easily its low-budget digital channel origins.

The Body Farm (BBC)

2011-09-14T09:27:00.000+01:00

Here's a quick review of last night's The Body Farm I wrote for Orange.

Waking the Dead had enjoyed a pretty good innings when the BBC laid it to rest earlier this year. However, it didn't take long for Auntie to exhume its mouldering remains for this spin-off series. So, did it leave a good-looking corpse?

The Body Farm sees Tara Fitzgerald reprise her role as forensic scientist Dr Eve Lockhart, who runs a remote research facility where she studies the way corpses decompose.

However, the real world came a-knocking again in the form of grisly copper DI Hale (Keith Allen), who'd made a gruesome and puzzling discovery in a tower block – something only the body farm's boffins could decipher.

After a bit of poking about in the gore and a couple of false starts, the plot veered off into a Skins-lite tale of teen misbehaviour and jealousy.

Unfortunately, it eventually hung on the idea that a teenager would decide that the most effective way of disposing of two bodies in an abandoned building would be to use a bomb so carefully measured that it atomised its victims to a thin film of goo on the walls without damaging the building.

Another problem was the cast-iron po-faced lack of humour. I know the subject matter meant it was never going to be chuckles-a-plenty, but this sort of thing is generally seasoned with at least a dash of black humour to aid its digestion.

Tara Fitzgerald and Keith Allen both do “intense” very well, but here it was almost as if they cancelled each other out and flatlined the whole show. Meanwhile, the rest of the forensic team is sketchily drawn out at best: they just sound and act like TV characters we've seen a dozen times.

Like a lot of police dramas I've seen recently, the plot and characters seemed little more than pieces of a puzzle. And, in the end, The Body Farm had about as much emotional impact as a crossword.

My friend Janet

2011-09-09T12:16:00.002+01:00

Last month my beautiful friend Janet Ellis died of cancer, aged 45.

She wasn't just my friend: she was also my sometime writing partner. She was a very experienced child-protection social worker, and she wanted to use her experiences as the basis for a drama series.

We talked about it extensively a few years ago, but then I got sidetracked by my MA. When I graduated in 2008 we got stuck into it properly, and eventually came up with the pilot for a series called Care and Control.

As a characteristically garrulous Yorkshire woman, Janet had a fantastic ear for language and dialogue and a keen observational eye; the raw material she came up with just sang off the page.

Having to see humanity at its absolute worst and pick up the pieces afterwards also gave her a sharp and instant sense of right and wrong, as well as a carapace of black humour that enabled her to deal with what she encountered.

We worked hard on several drafts of the script, which got to the later stages of the Red Planet Prize (second time round). However, while the people we sent it to were generally complementary about it, the social work setting seemed to put them off.

One writing acquaintance who has worked on the various BBC medical series said that the core of those shows is that the staff featured are heroes, and people just don't see social workers as heroes.

At the time I probably just shrugged and nodded, but since then I've become angrier and angrier about that perception.

Janet worked for around 20 years in some of London's most challenging boroughs. She had to walk into situations of almost unimaginable horror and make decisions that saved children's lives.

The notion that what she did wasn't “heroic” seems ridiculous.

After it seemed Care and Control wasn't getting anywhere, we decided to take a different tack and try a single drama to highlight how hostility to social workers is bleeding talent from the profession.

I'd even come up with the working title of The Sweet-Shop Girl: Janet once told someone at a party that she worked in a sweet shop, to prevent all the hassle that came with saying she was a social worker.

Sadly, Janet's condition deteriorated and we never managed to get beyond the vague planning stage. I'd love to be able to continue with the script, as a tribute to her, but without her cutting insight and wonderful powers of observation I could never do it justice.

Janet was a sharp, strong and stylish woman. She could be biting and judgemental occasionally, but she was also generous, loyal, cultured, committed, socially and politically engaged and never less than fascinating company.

She was also fiercely devoted to social work and child welfare, and said many times that if we made any money from Care and Control, she'd want to use it to fund training for those entering the profession.

As a social worker, Janet made hundreds of lives brighter and better. As a friend, she did the same for mine.

(On September 18^th a group of us are doing a five-mile Midnight Walk in support of St Christopher's Hospice in Sydenham, who looked after Janet and enabled her to spend her last few days at home, in the flat she loved.

Obviously it's not an astonishing feat of endurance, but if you'd like to support us – and the hospice, which receives no public funding – we'd be enormously grateful. We've got a donation page at www.justgiving.com/TeamJanet)

The Field of Blood (BBC One)

2011-08-30T10:46:00.002+01:00

Here's my Orange review of the first part of The Field of Blood, a very watchable thriller set around a Glasgow city paper newsroom in the early 1980s. It's written and directed by David Kane, based on a novel by Denise Mina.

I'm very surprised it didn't receive more promotion (having been broadcast in Scotland earlier in the year). It's definitely worth a look on iPlayer.

Set designers must make quite a few bob these days from recreating the murky world of the '70s and '80s – after Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes and Red Riding, we're now back to the smoky fug of an early '80s news room for The Field of Blood, a grim and gritty two-parter.

Adapted from a novel by Glaswegian crime writer Denise Mina, it revolves around Paddy Meehan (Jayd Johnson), an ambitious (female) copy boy on one of the city's newspapers who aspires to becoming a fully fledged journalist.

When her 10-year-old cousin is charged with the abduction and murder of a local toddler, she becomes determined to investigate the case further and prove his innocence, while demonstrating her talent to her hard-bitten editor (David Morrissey).

However, it doesn't take long for her ambition to crank up the tension with her clannish Catholic family, and her persistent questioning – while pretending to be trainee reporter Heather Allen (Alana Hood) – had some very serious consequences as the episode reached its grim climax.

Jayd Johnson, a familiar face in Scotland from the Glasgow soap River City, gives Paddy a lot of feist and heart as she struggles to balance her family relationships with her desire to break into the grizzly world of the newspapermen (although Jayd clearly isn't fat, as everybody claims Paddy is).

And while David Morrissey and his fellow TV heavyweight Peter Capaldi (as a burnt-out hack) weren't given too much to do, the rest of the cast fit the bill perfectly – especially Ford Kiernan as the drunken, lecherous reporter George McVie.

The Field of Blood was originally shown in Scotland back in May and seems to have been almost apologetically slipped into the national schedule. That's a shame, as it's a fast-moving and intriguing little mystery that deserved a bit more fanfare.

Page Eight (David Hare), BBC Two

2011-08-28T23:26:00.005+01:00

Here's a quick Orange review of tonight's upmarket spy drama Page Eight, written and directed by David Hare.

While Page Eight is a spy drama produced for the BBC, the similarities with Spooks end there. As you'd guess from a cast led by Bill Nighy and Michael Gambon, these spies, ahem, rock it old skool. However, after taking a while to warm up, David Hare's film eventually cranked up the tension in a satisfying way.

Nighy carried the piece as Johnny Worricker, a veteran MI5 officer who became drawn into a dangerous game when his boss and lifelong friend (Gambon) gave him a file revealing that the Government had been colluding secretly with the US to use intelligence gained via torture.

Meanwhile, Johnny's alluring neighbour Nancy Pierpan (Rachel Weisz) started to butt her way into his life. With Nancy being the daughter of an Arab activist and angry over the covered-up killing of her brother by Israeli soldiers, we were invited to wonder if she had a hidden agenda.

While Page Eight is obviously a classy cinematic production (the film premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival earlier this year), its big problem on TV was that we didn't really get a sense of what was at stake until half-way through, which is OK with a captive cinema audience but gave viewers at home too many opportunities to turn over.

And it would have been a shame if they had, because the last half-hour saw things slip nicely into place, with a series of revelations that gave the characters plenty to think about – even if the film's heart rate never quite reached the level required to make it a “thriller”.

Nighy was perfectly cast; it was his dry, suave charisma that kept us watching during the sluggish first half. Gambon was also good value while he was around, and other cast members such as Ewen Bremner (a gay agent and journalist) and Saskia Reeves (the combative home secretary) provided welcome boosts of energy.

In the end, Page Eight raised interesting questions about the way governments behave and the relationship between politics and public security – and the human touch provided by Nighy's performance made it an engaging drama.

The Man Who Crossed Hitler (BBC Two)

2011-08-22T09:47:00.004+01:00

Another quick review for Orange - The Man Who Crossed Hitler, last night's drama on BBC Two.

Last night's drama shone a little light on a remarkable but obscure moment in history. It depicted the occasion in 1931 when ambitious German lawyer Hans Litten called Adolf Hitler to the witness box in an attempt to scupper his rise to power.

However, that summary highlights the main problem with the film: we know, sadly, that Hitler wasn't ruined by his court appearance, so the biggest question in the drama was – for all Litten's moral courage – how glorious a failure his attempt was going to be.

Ed Stoppard was compelling as Litten, an audacious but not totally likeable Jewish lawyer in charge of prosecuting a group of Nazi “brownshirt” thugs who had murdered some Communist rivals.

Urged on by an eager colleague (Anton Lesser), he obtained an order for Hitler (Ian Hart) to appear before the court, in an attempt to link him to the violence and reveal his true nature in front of the public – and his wealthy supporters.

Face-to-face courtroom action is a rich source of drama, and the crackling tension between the two men powered the film. In a challenging role, the notoriously intense Hart gave a haunting impression of Hitler's madness, political opportunism and energy.

However, the main event was surrounded by some lumpy explanatory dialogue, and there was a slightly uneasy mix between the confrontation – based on the actual testimony given – and more speculative stuff, like Hitler ranting to himself in the toilet mirror.

Tragically, Litten's legal offensive came to nothing when the judge (Bill Paterson), fearful for his future under Hitler's impending rule, dismissed it. And, correspondingly, the drama rather fizzled out after that as well.

The revelation that Litten committed suicide in the Dachau concentration camp in 1938, after years of detention and torture, added to the sense of futility.

The chilling Holocaust Exhibition at London's Imperial War Museum ends with the famous quotation from Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Sadly, The Man Who Crossed Hitler highlighted that sometimes even the most courageous efforts aren't enough either.

(Repost) Glorious 39/Q&A with Stephen Poliakoff

2011-08-17T09:10:00.002+01:00

Sunday night was a goodie for films on BBC: as well as Mid-August Lunch and Fish Tank, we also had Stephen Poliakoff's Glorious 39 (which is still available on iPlayer until 10.59 on Sunday 21st)

When the film came out we saw it at the BFI, followed by a Q&A with the writer/director, so I thought it might be worth reposting that:

This is a bit after the event (Blame it on St Ives), but the other week we saw Stephen Poliakoff’s Glorious 39 at the BFI, followed by a Q&A with the writer/director, as well as cast members Romola Garai and Bill Nighy.

(I’ve since lost the notebook in which I was furiously scribbling during the Q&A, so unfortunately I’ll have to rely on my addled memory for what was said.)

Glorious 39 is Poliakoff’s first film for the cinema in more than a decade. He said he hadn’t planned to stay away that long, but enjoyed the creative control he was given while working in TV. Since the success of recent work like Gideon’s Daughter, he’s been waiting for the right story to come along for his return to cinema.

The film is an atmospheric thriller set around an upper-class family – headed by MP Alexander Keyes (Nighy) – on the eve of World War II. Anne (Garai), the family’s adopted daughter, finds her life threatened when she stumbles upon what seems to be a conspiracy by pro-appeasement activists to prevent Britain being drawn into the war.

However, the mystery deepens when Poliakoff raises the possibility that Anne could be an ‘unreliable narrator’ and imagining the whole thing. The events of the film are seen almost entirely from her perspective, which takes on a nightmarish quality that suggests she could be suffering from paranoia.

A few things in the script don’t quite add up, but it’s a complex and cinematically rewarding film. It’s more than a little Hitchcockian in the way it draws an ‘innocent’ into a world of danger they struggle to comprehend. While there aren’t many thrills and spills, the atmosphere and imagery are effective and the outcome remains uncertain to the very end.

Afterwards, Poliakoff spoke about how he came up with the Keyes family’s story to embody the vital struggle that was taking place in political circles as war approached. Even though we know the appeasers failed, he sought to create tension by dropping us into history and making us identify with a character at the heart of the mystery who doesn’t know how it’s going to turn out.

He also uses the theme of being betrayed by one’s family to reflect what happened to those who were suddenly persecuted by the Nazis in communities where they had previously felt secure. Throughout the film, imagery evocative of the Holocaust raises the spectre of what is about to happen across Europe.

Naturally, Poliakoff’s Jewish heritage makes this an even more vital theme; he claimed that most people remain unaware of how close the UK came to reaching an agreement with Germany that would almost certainly have led to the creation of a Vichy-style government in the UK and the eventual application of the Nazis’ murderous agenda.

From a screenwriting point of view, Anne also offers a useful lesson in how you can give your characters aspects that allow you to explore the theme of your script in a dramatic but natural way. She is seen throughout as something of an outsider; as well as being adopted, she’s also a film actress – a less-than-respectable profession that marks her out as the black sheep of the seemingly upright family. This makes her increasingly vulnerable when it seems the rest of the family is closing ranks against her.

In terms of structure, Poliakoff also stressed the importance of the present-day framing section that bookends the film. He included it to remind the viewer that this vital moment in our history occurred within living memory. He also wanted to draw a link to the 1930s as a living period, rather than the cosy fictional ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ world that drama set in the period often defaults into.

I’d never really engaged with Poliakoff’s work before, so I can’t judge Glorious 39 in the light of what came before it. However, despite a few glitches and a slightly bum-numbing running time (129 minutes), I enjoyed it as a fairly engrossing if slow-moving thriller - thanks in no small part to Romola Garai's performance.

Interview with Stephen Poliakoff (Writers and Artists)
Preview of Glorious 39, focusing mostly on production (Screendaily)
Set visit (4-min video, BBC)
Cast and crew interviews (6-min video, BBC)

The Borgias (Sky 1)

2011-08-16T09:45:00.001+01:00

A little after the event, here's a quick review of The Borgias I wrote for Orange.

Even with my limited grasp of Renaissance history, it seems obvious the dark doings of the notorious Borgia family should make good telly. Add to that the talents of writer/director Neil Jordan (Mona Lisa, The Crying Game), and we had to be on to a winner. Didn't we?

Well, for anyone expecting a glossy hurricane of sex and violence, the first episode of this nine-parter might have come as a bit of a shock. Instead of bloody excesses, we had the clandestine pigeon-based politicking required to make sure that family patriarch Rodrigo (Jeremy Irons) was elected as pope.

With a ponderous pace and distinct lack of humour, the opening hour definitely dragged until very close to the end, when Rodrigo’s son and lieutenant Cesare (Francois Arnaud) foiled an assassination attempt and hired the would-be murderer (the excellent Sean Harris) to work for the Borgias instead.

After that tentative start, things got a bit more debauched in episode two, as a rival cardinal attempted to depose Rodrigo for his affair with a new mistress (Lotte Verbeek).

Here we began to see the kind of intrigue many might have been hoping for, as Rodrigo manipulated the law and Cesare took an altogether more direct approach to protect the family’s position.

The cast was an interesting mix of new and familiar faces: as you'd expect, old smoothie Irons oozes louche decadence as the head of the family, while our own Holliday Grainger might be on the verge of a breakthrough as his notorious daughter Lucrezia.

The drama was also beautifully shot, as you'd expect from a film-maker of Jordan's experience, although the Hungarian locations didn't really seem to do justice to how splendid you'd imagine Rome to have looked in those days.

The US channel Showtime co-produced The Borgias as a follow-up to The Tudors, so we should know the mix of history and dramatic licence we're in for. And while the series might have historians spitting out their claret, the developing intrigue in these first two episodes makes it look like another keeper from Sky Atlantic.

(Repost) 15 August 1968: The day I won the lottery

2011-08-15T09:49:00.000+01:00

(I posted the original version of this last year, but given the date I think it seemed totally appropriate to post it again.)

The queen and I don't have much in common, but we do both celebrate two 'birthdays'. Forty-three years ago today, my mum and dad, John and Rita, collected three-month-old me from the Home for Catholic Friendless Children in Liverpool.

Obviously not everyone has had such a happy experience, but being adopted was a priceless gift to me. While a lot of parents seemed to treat their kids as an inconvenience, knowing how many hurdles my parents had to jump to get me made me realise just how wanted I was.

Something that always gets on my nerves in TV drama is when people become traumatised when they discover they were adopted. They always start blubbing about how they don't know who they are and how the relationship with the people they called 'mum' and 'dad' was nothing but a lie.

My mum and dad handled it differently – I can't remember being told I was adopted, but I never didn't know. And instead of feeling 'different', I felt 'special'.

I always understood what having me meant to my parents, and got great pleasure at the pride they took from my achievements. In everything I did, I wanted to repay them.

Sadly my mum and dad both died when I was in my early 20s, but a day never goes by when I don't think about the chance in life they gave me.

And on August 15th every year, I raise my glass to John and Rita and the day I won life's lottery.

The Salt of Life (Gianni Di Gregorio)

2011-08-10T12:27:00.009+01:00

(Edit: We went to see The Salt of Life yesterday, at the very comfortable Picturehouse in Greenwich. It was as enjoyable as I'd hoped, with some beautiful subtle touches that reflect perfectly the male outlook on life.

The atmosphere of the film was very similar to Mid-August Lunch, and many of the same cast members shone again - especially the marvellous Valeria de Franciscis as his mother.

My only reservation would be that the ending wasn't totally satisfactory, although the little montage that ends the film, to Here Comes Your Man by (the) Pixies, was an absolute joy.

In addition, Mid-August Lunch was on BBC Four last night - so it'll be available on iPlayer until, hmm, let's think, 12:54am on Wednesday 24 August.)

----------------------------------------------------

A couple of years ago we were lucky enough to see Gianni Di Gregorio's lovely film Mid-August Lunch, which won the Satyajit Ray Award. I blogged about it here.

Anyway, it was a very nice surprise to get an email from the Barbican Cinema saying that his new film, The Salt of Life, will be on from the end of the week. Here's the blurb and a trailer:

Following on from his charming debut feature Mid-August Lunch , Italy’s answer to Woody Allen returns with this wonderfully poignant comedy. Writer–director Gianni Di Gregorio orchestrates and stars as a retired man entering his autumn years. Concerned about his diminished lust for life, he craves more passion, but after a period of reflection he understands that chasing women is perhaps a young man's game after all.

After co-writing 2008’s revered Gomorrah , a gruesome exposé of the Neopolitan underworld, Di Gregorio proves himself as a charismatic auteur with his second gentle and witty ode to growing old. The Salt of Life is a fresh taste of Italian cinema that’s sure to delight audiences.

'Writer/director Gianni Di Gregorio flaunts his chops on both sides of the camera with his follow-up to Mid-August Lunch. Salty, charming stuff.' - Empire

'A poignant comedy, charming and melancholy' - Total Film

BAFTA/BFI Screenwriters' Lecture Series (September)

2011-08-09T09:59:00.002+01:00

NB. The site (http://tiny.cc/p23ov) says 'public tickets on sale soon', but by clicking through the booking link for Charlie Kaufman I was able to buy a couple.

Some of the world's finest screenwriters explore the art and craft of storytelling through their own words

"Without great scripts, films are nothing. born from a desire to celebrate the art of screenwriting and acknowledge its primacy in film, the inaugural 2010 Screenwriters' Lecture Series had a huge cultural impact. With the aim of making this the greatest celebration of screenwriting in the world, BAFTA and BFI are proud to announce an extraordinary line-up of speakers for our second year, featuring many of cinema's major screenwriting voices."

Jeremy Brock, Screenwriter and Founder of the Lecture Series

Tue 13 Sep, BAFTA: William Nicholson (Shadowlands, Gladiator)
Fri 16 Sep:, BAFTA: Moira Buffini (Tamara Drewe)
Tue 20 Sep, BFI: John Logan (The Aviator, Any Given Sunday)
Mon 26 Sep, BFI: Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel)
Tue 27 Sep, BAFTA: Frank Cottrell Boyce (Welcome to Sarajevo, Hilary and Jackie, 24-Hour Party People)
Thu 29 Sep, BFI: Paul Laverty (numerous collaborations with Ken Loach)
Fri 30 Sep, BFI: Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine... etc)

Trollied (Sky 1): a sitcom with a bit of heart

2011-08-04T22:55:00.000+01:00

Here's a quick review of tonight's Trollied I wrote for Orange.

As a grizzled veteran of the North-West value supermarket scene, part of me was looking forward to Trollied, Sky 1’s new sitcom. Meanwhile, another part was dreading it, fearing something like When the Whistle Blows, the awful comedy-within-a-comedy in Extras. So, how did it turn out?

I’m happy to say the opening double bill fared well, even if the comedy never reached a higher gear than “gentle” and a couple of gags got flogged to death.

With a quality ensemble cast, including Jane Horrocks (above) and Mark Addy (The Full Monty, Game of Thrones), it flitted at first from character to character a bit like a sketch show, before beginning to hint that there was a bit more going on beneath the surface.

For instance, throughout the first episode we saw butcher Kieran (Nick Blood) and checkout girl Katie (Chanel Cresswell) bickering and flirting away like a long-term couple, before learning at the end that he’s got a horrible waspish girlfriend and clearly doesn’t realise how deep Katie’s feelings for him really are - a bit Tim-and-Dawn, but very nicely handled.

And while interim manager Julie (Horrocks) started out as a prickly and ambitious jobsworth, we later got a sense of the desperation inside her, as she poured passive aggressive hostility upon the woman whose maternity leave she’s covering. Like a lot of the best sitcom characters, you can almost smell the sadness coming off her.

However, I think what pleased me more than anything else about Trollied was the fact it was a bit more respectful than most comedy depictions of people who do real jobs. It captured nicely the banter that gets you through a tedious work day, and had a bit of generosity and heart that made a very welcome addition.

Sky might not have had much of a reputation down the years for its original programming, but Trollied came as a very pleasant surprise and suggests that some of its other upcoming comedy series, like Mount Pleasant (starring Sally Lindsay) and Starlings (with Matt 'Super Hans' King), could be worth a look.

The Fades, written by Jack Thorne: preview at BFI

2011-08-04T12:59:00.004+01:00

Exciting! I just got an email from the BFI announcing a late addition to their September programme...

TV Preview: The Fades + Q&A
Mon 12 Sept 18:20 NFT3

From award winning writer Jack Thorne (This Is England '86, Skins, The Scouting Book For Boys, Cast Offs) comes The Fades.

Paul (Iain De Caestecker - River City, Coronation Street) is haunted by apocalyptic dreams. Worse still, he is starting to see the Fades – the spirits of the dead – all around him but they can't be smelt, heard or touched.

Now an embittered and vengeful Fade has found a way to break the barrier between the dead and the living. But the most terrifying twist is yet to come - the fate of humanity rests in the hands of the two friends who already have enough trouble getting through a day, let alone saving the world…

Joining us on stage for the panel and Q&A will be cast members Iain De Caestecker, Daniel Kaluuya; producer Caroline Skinner and writer Jack Thorne. Also attending (work permitting) Tom Ellis, Lily Loveless, Claire Rushbrook and Johnny Harris.

Book now at bfi.org.uk/southbank
Call 020 7928 3232 (11:30-20:30)
Tickets £13, concs £9.75 (BFI Members pay £1.50 less)

Daniel Kitson: It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later (extra dates)

2011-08-03T14:06:00.003+01:00

I've sung the praises of comedian/storyteller Daniel Kitson on here more than once, and the recently announced run of his latest show - It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later - at the Lyttleton Theatre (National Theatre, London) sold out sharpish.

However, he's announced a few more performances at the same venue in December:

Monday 19 - Thursday 22 December at 8.30pm
Wednesday 21 - Thursday 22 Dec at 11am

Tickets for all shows will go on sale at 9.30am on Saturday 20 August. They'll be £12 and limited to four per booking, apparently.

Here's the (slightly opaque) blurb from the NT:

This is a show about every single one of us, the past in our pockets, the future in our hearts and us, ourselves, very much stuck, trapped forever, in the tiny eternal moment between the two.

Originally performed at 10am throughout the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe to sold-out audiences of drowsy but delighted devotees and restaged here for the first time at the opposite end of the day. This is without doubt Kitson's most ambitious, heartbreaking and human show to date.

And it's funny. Very funny.

And here's what I've written about him before:

September 2009: Daniel Kitson: Genius at Work
June 2010: Daniel Kitson: 66A Church Road

Circalit writing competition (Deadline: 10 September)

2011-08-01T13:30:00.001+01:00

This has been posted extensively elsewhere, but just in case anyone is using this blog as their sole source of screenwriting info...

Get your Short Film Script Produced by an Award Winning Director

Circalit Announces Free Short Film Competition

Award winning London director, Gabriel Bisset-Smith, will produce the winning script of a new screenwriting competition at Circalit . Bisset-Smith is best known as a writer on Channel 4's ‘Skins’ and as the director/writer of the short film Thrush , which won the Tenderpixel Audience Award at Rushes Soho Shorts, the Vimeo Best Narrative Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Disposable Film Festival. The competition is free to enter, and Bisset-Smith will choose one script to turn into a film in the unique style of ‘Thrush’. The public can also read and vote for their favourite entries at www.circalit.com/projects/competitions/gabriel/toprated .

Bisset-Smith commented, " As a writer it's often incredibly difficult to get anyone to take your script seriously, so I'm glad I can offer this opportunity for a talented writer to take that leap from writing to production. The quality of scripts on Circalit is generally very high so I'm excited to read through the entries and I look forward to getting started on producing one."

The deadline for entries is 10th September 2011. Scripts should be no more than 5 pages in length. For more information please visit www.circalit.com/projects/competitions/gabriel/ .

About Gabriel Bisset-Smith
Gabriel Bisset-Smith is a an award winning writer/director/actor from London. He's had plays produced at the Hampstead Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Theatre 503, Old Vic and BBC Radio Four. He's been on attachment at the Soho Theatre, Royal Court and developed new work at New York’'s Public Theatre. He’s been a regular story contributor on Channel Four’s ‘Skins’ and directed music videos for Golden Silvers. His short film ‘Thrush’ won the Tenderpixel Audience Award at Rushes Soho Shorts, the Vimeo Best Narrative Award and the Grand Jury Prize at the Disposable Film Festival . He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and, as an actor, has worked for the RSC, The Royal Court, Young Vic, York Theatre Royal, Lyric Hammersmith, Old Vic New Voices and The Bill. He's also been nominated for an Off West End most promising playwright award and is one half of the comedy double act GUILT&SHAME. Gabriel currently has a feature film in development with Shine Pictures.

About Circalit
Circalit is a platform which connects writers with industry professionals. Circalit enables writers to showcase their writing to industry professionals in a copyright secure environment. Writers can receive professional and peer feedback on their projects, manage their fanbase, build a network of industry contacts, and enter free writing competitions. Film producers, publishers, literary agents and other industry professionals use Circalit to receive updates on the hottest new unproduced and unpublished scripts and access market data on those projects. Circalit’s aim is to unearth new literary talent.

Martin Skidmore, RIP

2011-07-28T09:37:00.006+01:00

Last night I heard the very sad news that Martin Skidmore had died from cancer at the age of 52. I never met or even communicated directly with Martin, but I've got a lot to thank him for.

Among his many interests and areas of expertise, he used to edit a comics fanzine called FA (previously Fantasy Advertiser).

I discovered FA in 1985, just as I was getting into comics. I'd picked up a few Marvel and DC titles from the paper stall at my local bus station, and when I got a Saturday job I eventually found my way to the Odyssey 7 comic shop in Manchester.

On one of my first visits I discovered FA, which, like all zines in those days, was a real labour of love, typed up and laid out by hand.

It was packed with news, reviews, interviews and lively debate, and it opened my eyes to a whole universe of comics and a way of thinking about them critically that has enriched my life immeasurably over the past 20-odd years and continues to do so.

With the availability of online resources these days, it's important to pause for a second and think how vital fanzines like FA were in those days: for me they were my only way of plugging into a world about which I had a voracious curiosity. I used to read and re-read every page until I virtually knew the features and interviews off by heart.

Last year, when FA popped up again online, I meant to contact Martin to thank him for the part the original 'zine had played in my life and to offer to write some reviews.

Sadly I got sidetracked and never wrote that email - something I seriously regret now.

Martin had a wide range of interests outside comics, as outlined here in Tom Ewing's touching tribute, but whenever a comic or graphic novel moves or thrills me, I'll trace my whole journey through the medium back to Martin and his 'zine.

RIP, and condolences and gratitude to those who knew him personally and helped him through his illness.

Torchwood: a bit of a rethink

2011-07-22T12:27:00.004+01:00

When I reviewed the first episode of Torchwood: Miracle Day last week, I think I got a bit carried away out of sheer relief that it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I did have a few reservations that didn't find their way into my review, though.

For instance, while the action sequence on the beach was suitably spectacular, it didn't really belong: I was waiting for it to be over so we could get on with the story.

I also had my doubts that the fiercely protective Gwen would carry her baby through the middle of a firefight, no matter how 'cool' an image it created.

And I wasn't really paying a lot of attention whenever the American characters were on screen: those bits just seemed like generic filler and I was waiting to get back to the UK characters.

Anyway, any doubts that were lurking in my mind were pushed to the fore during last night's episode 2, a lot of which left me cringing.

Probably the worst of it was the protracted scene on the plane where they conveniently cobbled together an antidote for the poison that Clearly Sinister Asian-American CIA Agent administered to Captain Jack.

There was also a classic exchange between Captain Jack and Agent Tracy Jordan that went along the lines of:

Captain Jack: Slovenian men used to take arsenic in the 1800s for their complexion.

Agent: I know - I read about it.

No you didn't.

And let's not even start on yer one walking round the airport with her head on backwards without anyone apparently batting an eyelid.

It now looks like the series has definitely taken a big step backwards from the high point of Children of Earth. I'll probably give it one or two more episodes to see if the Big Idea develops in a more intriguing way, but I'm not expecting great things.

Oh well. At least Entourage is back next week.