Sunday 27th April saw the 2014 BAFTA Television Craft Awards. With the ceremony hosted by Stephen Mangan, and with presenters including Arthur Darvill, Victoria Wood and Reece Shearsmith, it was a great celebration of all of the behind-the-scenes talent working in British television today. And it was proof of just how talented the industry in this country is, with no one show dominating the awards.
by Helen Langdon
Sunday 27th April saw the 2014 BAFTA Television Craft Awards. With the ceremony hosted by Stephen Mangan, and with presenters including Arthur Darvill, Victoria Wood and Reece Shearsmith, it was a great celebration of all of the behind-the-scenes talent working in British television today. And it was proof of just how talented the industry in this country is, with no one show dominating the awards. by Helen Langdon This Sunday 27th April sees the BAFTA Television Craft Awards, honouring those whose contributions often get overlooked when we talk about our favourite TV shows. With the Awards set to be hosted by Stephen Mangan at the Brewery in East London, let’s have a look at the nominees for this year. by Helen Langdon Probably the most successful attempt at bringing Shakespeare to the small screen in recent years was The Hollow Crown, if only because they took some of the history plays (no-one reads the history plays, not even English students, even if they’re studying them) and made popular films out of them. Part of that has to be down to the decision to film them not as plays, or in any way stagey, but instead to film them as straight period dramas. It’s something the BBC excels at, and allows what might be unfamiliar stories to take prominence, rather than any dramatic techniques. by Helen Langdon What time is it? Well, as of Monday, it’s Adventure Time again! Season Six is now underway, which means it’s the perfect time to tell you all about one of the hottest cartoons currently on air. by Helen Langdon Someone once said there are only a certain amount of stories in the world. At their most basic, stories can be reduced to one of eight basic structures. It’s the set dressing you place around those structures that make for original stories. But here’s the thing – sometimes those trappings get weirdly specific. Like the trope in TV of finding out that characters have been dead all along. Not shows like Reaper or Pushing Daisies, where the line is never blurred. Instead, these shows feel like the writers saw The Sixth Sense before planning out their plots. by Helen Langdon NBC’s new adaptation of Rosemary’s Baby promises to be both horrifying and thrilling, including far more of the details from Ira Levin’s original 1967 novel than Roman Polanski’s 1968 film. As opposed to Polanski’s enforced two-hour runtime, this miniseries is set to air over four hours in two episodes. by Helen Langdon Yesterday, the Arqiva BAFTA TV award nominations were announced. Across 23 categories, the programmes currently leading the competition are Southcliffe and The IT Crowd, with four nominations each. by Helen Langdon Sundays are going to be a lot less swashbuckling from here on out, at least until next year and series two of The Musketeers. The final episode saw resolution for most of the major season arcs, and the musketeers managed to ride off blithely into the sunset at the end of the episode. But, oh, they took a convoluted route to get there. by Helen Langdon Time travel is one of those tricky things. Because unless you have an in-universe explanation, such as alternate universes or acknowledging the pre-destination paradox, some pretentious pedant will pop up to complain that it’s not possible. But here’s the thing: time travel stories have been around for centuries, and that’s for a very simple reason. It’s such an interesting concept, the idea of being able to travel back and see past times, or see what the world has in store. Who wouldn’t want to know at least something about the future? Even with the moaners, time travel isn’t going away. In TV, there’s generally two types of time travel shows. Some series have it as a main plot device, as part and parcel of the whole premise. In other shows, time travel just happens for an episode (or twenty) and characters have to deal with being thrown out of their element. Here’s a selection of both types – not the best, but just a varied selection of why time travel plots remain so popular. |
TV Editor: Graham Osborne
TVReviews on the best TV has to offer, as well as retrospective looks at the shows of yesteryear we miss so much. Email: [email protected]
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