TV Episodes You Have Just Watched

Post Reply New Topic

Pearl 1 - Fred 0

Dying Day (1979)

Another episode from the 'Armchair Thriller' series. Ian McKellen stars as an ultra-obsessive and rather insignificant man who is convinced that someone is planning to kill him on 28 February. No-one believes him, but he turns out to have been right, though he never realized who was behind the whole plot, which works out in a way he had never expected.

This story is very similar to those featured in the contemporaneous 'Tales of the Unexpected' TV series by Roald Dahl, and would have made a good episode of that. The trouble is that as an 'Armchair Thriller' episode it's just too long (at 100 minutes) with the result that it lacks pace and has too much filler material. I think this applies to most episodes of this series.

Doom Patrol.

Finish season 5 of , and now have to wait for season 6 on DVD from Netflix.

Meanwhile, I watched episode 1 of season 1 again, picking up several points I missed or did not recall when mentioned. One was later a there is a police sketch of a highlander, resembling Jamie, and I could not remember where that came from. In episode 1, Frank, returning to the hotel where he and his wife are staying, sees the highlander from the back, looking up a Claire. When Frank approaches him, the highlander turns to walk away, but instead of brushing past Frank, he vanishes. Ooo. Spooky mysterious... I remember feeling that way the first time I saw it as well. I still wonder about it.

The aging makeup is nicely done in the later seasons. Streaks of gray hair, but not too obvious, just stray strands. In fact all the aging makeup is very subtle. Nice job make up artists. Jamie wears reading glasses. Nice job wardrobe.

Fear Of God (1979)

The last episode of 'Armchair Thriller' from the boxset. A rather seedy journalist investigates the apparent suicide of a young woman who fell to her death from the roof of the dilapidated building in which he lives. There's a bit more to it of course, as she had been a member of a right-wing religious cult which is seeking to control the minds of British youth by means of sound waves embedded in music.

It's not by any means the worst of this rather indifferent series, but it's still a bit of a desultory mishmash of a would be political crime thriller, downbeat comedy and Doctor Who type sci-fi elements. The two Special Branch officers, who were clearly meant to resemble Bodie and Doyle from The Professionals, amused me somewhat.

A Crime To Remember.

Now my son has offered to watch the entire Six Feet Under if I watch LOTR.

I don't think I can do it.

Christmas special of Detectorists is starting in an hour. One of the best British telly shows in years.

I just finished a series of episode of Dr. Who. Basically off of the episodes with River Song.

Season 4, Episode 8 - Silence in the Library
Season 4, Episode 9 - Forest of the Dead
Season 5, Episode 4 - The Time of Angels
Season 5, Episode 5 - Flesh and Stone
Season 5, Episode 12 - The Pandorica Opens
Season 5, Episode 13 - The Big Bang
Season 6, Episode 1 - The Impossible Astronaut
Season 6, Episode 2 - Day of the Moon
Season 6, Episode 7 - A Good Man Goes to War
Season 6, Episode 8 - Let's Kill Hitler
Season 6, Episode 12 - Closing Time
Season 6, Episode 13 - The Wedding of River Song
Season 7, Episode 5 - The Angels Take Manhattan
Season 7, Episode 14 - The Name of the Doctor
Season 9, Episode 13 - The Husbands of River Song - Peter Capaldi was hilarious.

I started it yesterday.

Old episodes from the History Channel focusing on conspiracy theories. These were:

'TWA Flight 800' (a 747 which blew up near Long Island in 1996).

'Majestic Twelve' (an alleged USA government cover up of events occurring near Roswell in the late 1940s)

'Area 51' (centering on Bob Lazar's version of what was going on at the top secret military base in Nevada in the late 1980s)


Can't help being fascinated by this kind of stuff, even if that makes me a conspiracy theorist of sorts myself, lol.

More conspiracy theory stuff from the History Channel. This time it's Pearl Harbour, ie was FDR a nortyboy in deliberately withholding intelligence reports that the Japanese were about to launch an attack, and leaving the commanders in Hawaii powerless to prevent it?

Two episodes of Archive 81 and two of Derry Girls.

Season 1 of Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor. It brought back memories how exciting it was when it first aired. So many details I'd forgotten about.

Jackie Tyler is still one of the most annoying characters on television I've seen. Not the most annoying, just one of the most annoying. I cannot at the moment think who the other annoying characters are, but she cannot be the most annoying. She must share that distinction with someone. Maybe that could be a new thread.

Peep Show and The Royle Family

Two episodes of Return of the Likely Lads from 1973-74

The Likely Lads was a mid-1960s BBC sitcom based in Newcastle in North-East England, starring James Bolam and Rodney Bewes as two working class Geordies in their early 20s. I was too young to remember the original episodes, but vaguely recall the 1970s sequel. It was broadcast in colour, unlike the earlier series, and it's interesting as a social document, not to mention the fact that I find it genuinely funny even in 2022. I can imagine many Millennials and Gen Z people watching this with blank, uncomprehending expressions on their faces though, lol.