BBC Suggestions

[laffite]

My intention was to include anything British. Your PS was right. It was for people to suggest other British productions for me (or anyone) to watch. Happy to have it here unless you find something you think more suited for it.

I won't look further. This one will be fine. Thanks.

[TikiSoo]

Fellow board member Masha mentioned a BBC show in passing, COUPLING. I trust her judgement & sought it out. It may be a bit dated, but it basically revolves around a quirky group of friends in their late 20's looking for love. Not all episodes are uploaded on free streaming service, but plenty to enjoy the few seasons offered. Super clever writing, great cast and is one of the only shows that made us both laugh out loud, sometimes to tears.

My recommendation is BBC's GHOSTS, but I particularly love this fantasy/comedy genre.
While the US version is OK, the British one has far better, clever writing and well, Britain can show bum & other fun punctuations to the story the US can't. The charactors are hilarious, from varied time periods with reasons they are stuck in the mansion and can't "suck off" meaning go to the next stage of afterlife. This was developed & written by a small comedy troupe, so they are all great at creating their charactor's personalities & situations.

I savored all three seasons and been waiting for Season 4 to be released. I so love the charactors I made a screen painting for Halloween of Lady Button-it was fun seeing joggers point to her as they went by-obviously recognizing her.

[EP Millstone]

The Criterion Channel's January lineup includes 8 TV movies made by Mike Leigh for the BBC in the 1970s and 1980s . . .

I watched Abigail's Party and The Kiss of Death.

I've seen less than a handful of Mike Leigh's movies, and have not been captivated by his brand of "slice-of-life," "realist" cinema, which I find tedious. But reading The Criterion Channel synopsis of Abigail's Party piqued my interest (I love ensemble pieces), so I took a look at it, and I'm glad that I did.

Abigail's Party is cut from the same hair shirt as Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Two married couples (plus one odd divorcée out in Leigh's play) gather together for a lively party (not Abigail's) involving food, drink, music, dance, character assassination, and mariticide.

I was surprised to subsequently learn that this 1977 BBC One Play for Today was entirely improvised. Improvisation is Leigh's stylistic technique. Considering that "stunt," the performances of the small cast were, IMO, remarkable. Sexy Alison Steadman (then Mrs. Mike Leigh), as the British equivalent of "Martha" in Albee's play, captured my gaze -- rivaled (for me, for strictly fetishistic reasons) by towering, statuesque Harriet Reynolds as the shy, unassertive divorcée. Striking (in a peculiar way) Janine Duvitski also riveted my attention because I instantly recognized her face (which, to me, resembles the mug on Minnie Woolsey AKA "Koo-Koo the Bird Girl") from Dracula (1979).

Although I was less thrilled by The Kiss of Death -- which, for me, evinced the telltale tedium of a Mike Leigh film -- I do not regret having invested my time watching it.

Synopsis: A socially challenged undertaker's assistant meets a randy dolly bird, with whom he eventually engages in the titular snog.

There's more to the plot -- such as it is -- than I summarized, but not much more. A typical description of Leigh's works is that they are "character driven." I don't have anything against "character-driven" movies . . . as long as I find the characters interesting. Watching movies about quotidian characters -- "everyday people" -- and their mundane lives is, for me, not exciting entertainment. In such cases, I focus on the performances of the actors, instead of on the characters. I'm inclined to think that the two principal performers, David Threlfall and Kay Adshead, probably did the best that they could with Leigh's almost one-dimensional protagonists. Threlfall's role, IMO, was more challenging because his giggling, gormless numpty is, to me, a frustrating, unappealing, rather annoying character. I found Adshead's exaggerated bit of "business" -- repeatedly flipping her hair -- distracting. I could not help but wonder if the actress developed whiplash during the production.

I haven't decided whether I shall watch all of the movies in the Mike Leigh at the BBC showcase or not. But, I definitely intend to give Nuts in May a look.

[txfilmfan]

The Criterion Channel's January lineup includes 8 TV movies made by Mike Leigh for the BBC in the 1970s and 1980s . . .

I watched Abigail's Party and The Kiss of Death.

I've seen less than a handful of Mike Leigh's movies, and have not been captivated by his brand of "slice-of-life," "realist" cinema, which I find tedious. But reading The Criterion Channel synopsis of Abigail's Party piqued my interest (I love ensemble pieces), so I took a look at it, and I'm glad that I did.

Abigail's Party is cut from the same hair shirt as Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Two married couples (plus one odd divorcée out in Leigh's play) gather together for a lively party (not Abigail's) involving food, drink, music, dance, character assassination, and mariticide.

I was surprised to subsequently learn that this 1977 BBC One Play for Today was entirely improvised. Improvisation is Leigh's stylistic technique. Considering that "stunt," the performances of the small cast were, IMO, remarkable. Sexy Alison Steadman (then Mrs. Mike Leigh), as the British equivalent of "Martha" in Albee's play, captured my gaze -- rivaled (for me, for strictly fetishistic reasons) by towering, statuesque Harriet Reynolds as the shy, unassertive divorcée. Striking (in a peculiar way) Janine Duvitski also riveted my attention because I instantly recognized her face (which, to me, resembles the mug on Minnie Woolsey AKA "Koo-Koo the Bird Girl") from Dracula (1979).

Although I was less thrilled by The Kiss of Death -- which, for me, evinced the telltale tedium of a Mike Leigh film -- I do not regret having invested my time watching it.

Synopsis: A socially challenged undertaker's assistant meets a randy dolly bird, with whom he eventually engages in the titular snog.

There's more to the plot -- such as it is -- than I summarized, but not much more. A typical description of Leigh's works is that they are "character driven." I don't have anything against "character-driven" movies . . . as long as I find the characters interesting. Watching movies about quotidian characters -- "everyday people" -- and their mundane lives is, for me, not exciting entertainment. In such cases, I focus on the performances of the actors, instead of on the characters. I'm inclined to think that the two principal performers, David Threlfall and Kay Adshead, probably did the best that they could with Leigh's almost one-dimensional protagonists. Threlfall's role, IMO, was more challenging because his giggling, gormless numpty is, to me, a frustrating, unappealing, rather annoying character. I found Adshead's exaggerated bit of "business" -- repeatedly flipping her hair -- distracting. I could not help but wonder if the actress developed whiplash during the production.

I haven't decided whether I shall watch all of the movies in the Mike Leigh at the BBC showcase or not. But, I definitely intend to give Nuts in May a look.

I've watched three so far. The two you mentioned, plus his first one, Hard Labour. It's an interesting slice of working life in early 1970s Britain, and I recommend it. Ms. Steadman is also in that film, and has a similar, but smaller role, in that she plays a rather domineering spouse. Liz Smith (probably best known in the US for playing the dotty parishioner with dubious culinary skills in The Vicar of Dibley), plays the central character, who works as a housekeeper for the grand sum of 30p/hour. It also features Ben Kingsley in a minor role.

Ms. Steadman was pregnant at the time they taped Abigail's Party. I recognized Janine Duvitski from her turn in the sitcom Waiting for God. I don't think the TV version was improvised. The TV version is based on a stage play (with most of the same cast) and my understanding is that they developed the stage play through improvisation. The TV play got very good ratings because there was literally nothing else on most British televisions at the time. ITV was affected by a strike, so it was dark across the country, and BBC2 was apparently having transmission problems in many areas due to storms. Not sure why BBC1 wasn't likewise affected, as the TV transmitters for any given UK region generally share transmitter towers. Those three channels would have been the only choices unless you lived in Northern Ireland where you might pick up RTE from down south.

For some reason, the two filmed plays I've seen thus far have very low dialogue volume levels. I'm not sure if it's because they were filmed outside a studio or because of the equipment being used, but I had to turn the volume up very high just to hear. Both of the filmed episodes I watched were filmed on 16mm, which was pretty much the standard for filmed British television productions at the time. It lends even more grit and grime to the surroundings. Gotta love those brick outhouses...