Neighbours, Portland Basin, Wallender

[poliphilo]

Sam and her family have gone to Pakistan for six weeks. I'll miss them. 

We took Dot to Lidl yesterday afternoon- and then on to the Portland Basin Museum. It has rooms furnished in the quaint and primitive fashions of the early 20th century- the kitchen looked much like those I remember from the 50s- plus shops and a school room and the insides of a chapel with its organ endlessly wheezing out an evangelical tune. The light is low and spooky. Downstairs they have industrial machinery, including an example of the loom Ailz worked at in her brief career as a mill girl. The building was originally a warehouse (built in the 1830s to serve the Ashton canal). Step outside and you're on the wharf, looking at Canada geese and narrow boats. 

Kenneth Branagh's Wallender is two episodes into its third season. Last night he was in Riga having a very hard time. When people talk about American shows being so much better than their British counterparts I think of Wallender and am comforted.

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I watched Wallander as well, and found it very gripping. Whoever say that American drama is better than British is barking up the wrong tree.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's cyclical. With shows like the Wire the Americans did pull ahead of us, but I reckon we're getting level now- or even inching ahead.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, We've been beating ourselves up for years over our inability to produce shows "as good as" The Sopranos, The Wire or Mad Men.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I watched The Wire. It's pretty good. I decided I didn't fancy the other two. Gangsters and Ad-men are not my favourite sorts of people and I baulked at having to spend years in their company.

Dennis Potter was great.

[mommybird.livejournal.com]

I've been watching the UK Life on Mars and am struck by how much it reminds me of our Homicide: Life on the Street, which is set in my hometown. Both shows have a very strong connection to their time and place and an unsentimental approach to portraying police work.

I barely watch anything any more that isn't British tv, and I watch it streaming, at that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm very fond of Life on Mars.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I only get to see BBC shows on Public TV over here, but it looks to me like BBC has it all over American TV production. Better actors, better scripts, better everything. Even old movies are sometimes far better than our own.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We envy you shows like the Sopranos and Mad Men. We just don't have the resources to make things like that.

I was reading an article the other day that was saying American TV is rooted in cinema and British TV is rooted in theatre. I think that explains some of the differences.

We only get your very best shows and you only get our very best shows. You don't see our rubbish and we don't see yours.