4 posts tagged “bbc”

Odd, my recent posts don't seem to be showing up on my main page.

Thoughts on last night's Torchwood and Fear of Fanny.

ETA: Oh, and now they are.

*thumps Vox*

I was determined to watch Fear of Fanny even though the BBC schedulers were making it really hard for me, so I stayed up last night and caught the repeat.

I'm glad I did because it was fabulous. Fanny Craddock was clearly an extremely difficult - at times positively monstrous - person, yet this was a very sympathetic portrayal, not just of her but of the people closest to her. All the characters are deftly sketched; we come to see Fanny as a person terrified of abandonment but unable to stop pushing people away. Her partner Johnnie obviously adores her (and Mark Gatiss was so sweet in this role), but when he's dying in hospital she just can't bring herself to be with him.

I liked it a lot.

John Barrowman talks about making the upcoming Doctor Who spinoff-series Torchwood:

"We were having lunch and suddenly this very recognisable alien walked by and the child [the son of a crew member] just freaked out. He screamed and his dad grabbed his hand and said, 'You'll be fine – you're with me'. But the kid shouted: 'No! You can't do anything – I have to be with Jack!'
 

"He literally ran over, grabbed onto my leg and wouldn't let go. And the poor old alien was only going outside to have a cup of coffee and a fag!"

Of course, the above quote has nothing to do with why I'm looking forward to this series, it just made me giggle.

Well, having seen the first episode I still think the answer is "no", but I'll reserve final judgement until I've watched episode 2, which the panelists on Newsnight Review last week all agreed was much better than episode 1.

However I will say this: why is it that nobody on the internet can spell Marian? Seriously, not just on hastily-written message board comments, but in reviews by actual journalists, I keep seeing it spelled Marion. Which is a boy's name. Do they know something I don't?

Hmm.

*Ponders the adventures of Robin Hood and his gay lover Marion*