Having a Ripping Time

Nobody actually twirls a waxed moustache or ties a hapless heroine to the railway tracks, but in every other respect BBC 1's Ripper Street is just a Charlie Chaplin kick up the bum away from being a Mack Sennett comedy - with sound!

True, in last Sunday's episode, Paul McGann looked as though he desperately wanted to do some moustache twirling and, as the villain of the piece, he did get  his just desserts on a railway line - electrified in this case -  but the regular cast keep remarkably straight faces throughout. In Matthew Macfadyen's case, as the troubled Inspector Reid, I suspect it's simply the face he was born with. He has the sort of face that looks like it wants to be lugubrious when it grows up, but in the meantime will settle for being immobile.

Jerome Flynn continues his renaissance after his sterling work on Game of Thrones as Reid's trusty sidekick, Detective Sergeant Drake, a man whose preferred method of interrogation makes the Sweeney look like pacifists.

Whether it's the end of the pier melodrama, the violence or the mock Victorian dialogue that grabs you, the whole thing is quite superb and just the thing to liven up a Sunday evening's viewing. If you haven't given it a go yet, I can thoroughly recommend it.

Pass the Marmite

Some performers are just like Marmite (other brands of yeast based foodstuffs are also available). You either love them or you hate them.

Often there is no logical reason for your dislike. Everyone else thinks they are the best thing since sliced bread as you sit there pondering how such a talent free zone was ever allowed anywhere near a television studio.

Which brings me to Sarah Millican. As she begins her latest onslaught to become the Queen of TV comedy (never going to happen as long as there is a breath left in Miranda Hart's body) the question that comes readily to mind is: Why?

She seems nothing more than a real  life Mrs Merton but without Caroline Aherne's wit or knowing irony. A dumpy Northern lass with a squeaky voice whose idea of television charisma is to stare straight into the camera like a startled owl and recite her lines with little or no inflection as though she is reading them from an auto-cue for the very first time.

She attempts to liven things up by talking about slightly rude subjects and her guests play along gamely when she channels her inner Mrs Merton to ask pointed or embarrassing questions that a 'real' chat show host could not get away with.

And people laugh, as you might when your favourite Auntie does her party piece at Christmas after a few too many sherries. Hard to imagine Milllican surviving on the club circuit, quelling hecklers and dodging thrown pint pots. 

And yet, is there more here than meets the eye? Is this a cunningly crafted mask, honed to perfection and capable of turning aside the most virulent heckler whilst simultaneously winning the hearts and minds of the family audience?

Since she seems omni-present on the box at the moment there will be plenty of opportunity to investigate further. I will report back if a definitive talent sighting presents itself.

Laugh and the world laughs with you

Spike Milligan was the best thing about the New Yes Prime Minister which debuted on Gold this week. He wasn't actually in the show you understand, but I'm sure  the used the laughter track from one of his shows. Q9 I think it was.

Who'd have thought it...

Following on from my last post, it seems that Disney, who now own Lucas Films, have decided that the time is ripe for more Star Wars movies (were they not listening?). Expect Star Wars VII in 2015. No details yet as to whether any of the characters from previous films will be featured, but it should make for one heck of a theme park ride!

To Three, or not to Three, that is the question

As the world braces itself for more Hobbit-mania, the debate still rumbles on as to whether the source book is substantial enough to provide Director Peter Jackson with enough material for the three films he has promised.

It is, of course, a moot point, because in a Hollywood where franchise potential is King, Jackson would squeeze three films out of it if The Hobbit were originally written on the back of a postcard.

I do have to wonder why trilogies seem to be so popular where film makers are concerned. Personally, I blame George Lucas. When the first Star Wars films were released, it must have seemed like a publicists dream to say that they were the middle trilogy of three. I’d be willing to bet that Lucas had no ideas for, and no intention of ever making, any more, but, many years later, he succumbed to fan pressure and released the first trilogy. Since we had already seen the middle trilogy, we already knew how things would turn out, which meant they were little more than a colossal trailer for films we had already seen. Only in Hollywood, right? They may have made money, but garnered little critical acclaim and, surprisingly, no-one seems bothered about seeing the final trilogy. Sorry George.

Comic book adaptations should also try to escape the trilogy trap. The latest franchise to be re-booted is Spider-Man. Coming some years after the original trilogy, we have a new Peter Parker, (Andrew Garfield) replacing Toby Maguire. A good move, because Maguire never really convinced as the science geek turned super hero. And when the Spidey mask went on, stunt men and CGI became the real stars. Let’s hope that the next two efforts employ more stuntmen and less CGI since the effects in The Amazing Spider-Man looked too obviously computer generated. True, the film delves into Spidey’s lengthy history and delivers enough original detail in the shape of Peter’s first love Gwen Stacy, to keep the fan base happy, but fails to acknowledge the fact that anyone interested in seeing a Spider-Man movie already knows that Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and gained super powers. You don’t need to spend millions of dollars and half a movie telling us what we already know, that’s what opening credits are for surely. But then, that’s the trouble with trilogies. They end up being self- contained (George Lucas take note) and any attempt to re-boot them after a lengthy absence necessitates repetition which has the audience shouting: ‘Just get on with it will you!’ at the screen.

Anyone truly wishing to jump on the franchise bandwagon should takes notes from the master of such things. Twenty-three films down the line and after numerous changes of actors in the leading role, the James Bond films are going from strength the strength. No-one has ever offered an ‘origin’ for Bond and one has never been required. Bond simply ‘is’ and is likely to continue for a long time yet.