The only part of this series I remember from childhood is the gratuitous cruelty of the jaguar's death in this episode, which was worse than I remembered. Not something I'd want kids watching.
Reviews
17 Reviews
A rare DNF for me
19 October 2020
I managed half an hour of this before giving up in boredom and irritation. Connie the screaming schoolteacher was completely unconvincing, the villagers were just dull, creepy and unlikable instead of being bizarre and unlikable in the usual Midsomer fashion, and Barnaby and Jones hardly put in an appearance to start with. What a waste of time.
Awful
18 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I'm surprised I bothered watching more after this. The misogyny was rampant. Victim was not a Nice Woman, therefore we should feel sorry for her Poor Henpecked Husband who so understandably beat her head in. Acting was good, story horrible. I didn't much like Ellie at the time - she was written to be unsympathetic - but the more one learns about police, in the UK or anywhere else (cough *USA* cough), the more one sees she was absolutely right about them.
Asking too much suspension of disbelief
15 July 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The conversion-therapy sect I could take - there are far too many such. The vengeful lover I could take - after what those characters had been through, not surprising. But the casting of that character was ridiculous, total fantasy. And getting Hathaway involved sexually? Nope, nope, nope, doesn't work at all.
Ghost Story
(1981)
The book deserved so much better
22 May 2020
Ghost Story is a long, complicated, and terrifying novel. This film removed all the elements that made it memorable. I saw it when it came out and wasn't remotely impressed, and haven't watched it again. Normally I watch films or read books many times, as I did with the novel. The acting is meh, everything else weak, and the terrifying antagonists replaced with a bog-standard ghost and rotting-corpse effects. Isn't that what they call a jump scare now? Nothing like the buildup of apprehension and even dread in the book. Granted a film will inevitably abridge a book, but why even attempt to film novels that are so unsuitable for it? Save yourself the bother, read the novel instead.
Jones on top form again
7 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Other reviewers have given good clear synopses of the story. I very much enjoyed Jones's role here - I was worried he was getting too close to someone who might (in the way of these shows) turn out to be the murderer, but happily it wasn't so. I also enjoyed his taking time to listen to Cully's concerns about her wedding. I found that subplot less fun than many, mostly because Simon seemed to have reverted to age 19 with his concern being far more about going on a gig with his band than with his wedding and honeymoon. I spent a fair bit of time saying "Dump him" but of course it all turned out peachy. My favourite part of that subplot was Jones and Barnaby's attempted break-and-enter, and of the main plot, his winding up of the snobbish creeps in the Fitzroy household. It was fun seeing Troy again, albeit briefly, too. I still can't fathom how he ever made inspector!
Slow and dull and creepy in the wrong way
5 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Not the worst episode of the season - I managed to get through it, unlike The Axeman Cometh - but oh, it was weak. There was a huge plot hole right at the end regarding when Lord Holm's memory lapses are supposed to have begun; he wasn't on the drug causing them at the time. Doesn't help that he was a repellent character, a typical case of a man sliming after a woman at least twenty years his junior being presented as sympathetic or humorous - ugh, ugh, ugh. The background of the initial crime was wildly improbable and repellent. The idea of a camera obscura being placed in a village and anyone being able to use it to watch people was a bit eyebrow-raising; less like security cameras than open slather for spying. Even the joke at the end was weird - I hope Barnaby wasn't suggesting turning up on Cully and Simon's honeymoon!
Alarmingly accurate twenty years after it was set
25 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
In 2001 and a bit, Tim hands over the business to his son, Bill Brooke-Taylor. There's some business about the second generation Goodies having been triplets, and their mother, Raquel Welch (!!!) having named them after their fathers, with the inevitable mix-up - hence Tim Garden and Graeme Oddie. The bulk of the story is about how modern society is bored witless because nothing is forbidden, and the Goodies #2 try to fix it by reintroducing something genuinely boring - the ancient game of cricket.
I always got a chuckle from this as a kid, when it first aired, from the generational characters and costumes, and the Acme Power Boots (if only they were real!). What strikes me now is how painfully accurate a prediction it was in many ways, not least how eerily Tim resembles Trump in the first scenes!
I always got a chuckle from this as a kid, when it first aired, from the generational characters and costumes, and the Acme Power Boots (if only they were real!). What strikes me now is how painfully accurate a prediction it was in many ways, not least how eerily Tim resembles Trump in the first scenes!
Didn't work for me at all
23 April 2020
I lasted half an hour and gave up from sheer boredom. I've had enough of the cliched Old Rockers, whether played seriously (Lewis) or mockingly (New Tricks, this). Drunks and stoners sitting around complaining about their lack of money, or laughing at other people, just had me wishing whoever was going to commit the murder(s) would get on with it. The only good moments were Barnaby doing air-guitar, and in a later scene Jones, when Barnaby asked "How old do you think I am??" replying "I don't know, I've done speed dating, not carbon dating."
Prospecting in the Wild West Country
14 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
One of my favourite episodes from when the Goodies aired at 6pm every weekday in the 70s. The lads are broke again, largely because Graeme has spent all their cash buying prospecting equipment. They head off to Cornwall seeking gold, but instead hit a rich vein of Cornish cream, sparking a cream rush and making the village of Pennenink a boom town. Trouble is, Graeme slips straight into greedy-mine-owner-exploiting-the-workers mode and registers the claim for himself. Then Tim and Bill strike strawberry jam and scones and refuse to be bought out. The scene is set for a gambling challenge at the OK Tea Rooms (using toast instead of cards) and when Graeme's caught cheating, the climactic duel ...
The show had its inevitable slow bits in the middle - the prospecting scenes went a bit long - but this is one of those that ends on a high; the gambling and duel scenes are hilarious. Thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again, even in the sad context of Tim Brooke-Taylor's death. Many happy memories of the show overall, and this was one of the best episodes, IMO.
The show had its inevitable slow bits in the middle - the prospecting scenes went a bit long - but this is one of those that ends on a high; the gambling and duel scenes are hilarious. Thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again, even in the sad context of Tim Brooke-Taylor's death. Many happy memories of the show overall, and this was one of the best episodes, IMO.
Ted and Alice
(2002)
Funny, bizarre, tragic and scary by turns
12 April 2020
How to describe this? Aliens who are outcasts from their people because they are sexually dimorphic, like humans, come to Earth looking for love. Some end up in the village where Alice (Dawn French) lives, one in particular, Ted (Stephen Tompkinson). Unfortunately for them there are alien hunters around, led by the appalling Stan (David Troughton) and his sidekick, the slightly gormless Shane (David Walliams). Then there's Alice's ghastly fiancé, the strange villagers, the dangers ...
I'm very glad I recorded this when it aired here; it's so hard to describe but so worth repeat viewings. All the cast are wonderful, whether they're playing characters you want to cheer or ones you want to belt over the head.
I'm very glad I recorded this when it aired here; it's so hard to describe but so worth repeat viewings. All the cast are wonderful, whether they're playing characters you want to cheer or ones you want to belt over the head.
Jones was the only worthwhile part of this
29 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
He fits right in, is smart and likeable (more so than Scott, imo). But the story? Bizarre and pointless trotting out of Iris and Dennis Rainbird from Killings at Badgers Drift, as Iris's sister Ursula and her son Alastair, who is even creepier than his cousin Dennis - worse, and goes unpunished. All too common in real life, but who wants that transferred to Midsomer? And Simon Callow, as blanche-2 pointed out years ago, was wildly miscast as the village Lothario, even more than his earlier outing as an academic version in the Morse episode The Wolvercote Tongue. The story dragged, too - yet another festival, not even a nod at what the real Oak Apple Day is (Restoration Day, 29 May), too much faffing around, belated revenge from someone whose own actions caused the first death anyway. The most entertaining thing was placing all the familiar faces from other shows, mostly Foyle's War. I'd give this one a miss, tbh.
The Knowledge
(1979 TV Movie)
Brilliant then and now
21 March 2020
The saga of a group of no-hopers trying to do The Knowledge to become London black cab drivers is witty, poignant and hilarious. I did the trip from Manor House Station to Gibson Square when I visited London a few years after this came out, just because. Never mind if you're not a Londoner or even English - I'm not, and that didn't hurt my understanding or enjoyment of the play at all.
Bit slow, but the motive was all too believable
21 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The much-admired Michael Bannerman has retired and handed his pub, The Maid in Splendour, over to his son Stephen and daughter-in-law Lorna. One of the employees, Jamie Cruickshank, is shot dead in the nearby woods, and shortly afterward Stephen is shot, evidently by someone he knew. There doesn't seem to be an obvious motive for Jamie's murder, although Stephen was in the running for Least Popular Man in the village (Midsomer Worthy in this case - do these Midsomer villages have new inhabitants all the time, or do they all just have very short memories? You'd think they'd all be permanently traumatised by all the murders in their midst.)
I didn't think this was one of the stronger episodes. The motive - sexual obsession - is all too common, although it's usually the woman who's the object of the obsession who is murdered. So the end, with the aged murderer declaring his "love" for a girl young enough to be his granddaughter (and daughter of a woman he'd been having an affair with for years, which adds an even nastier, almost incestuous touch) and trying to blackmail her with a suicide threat, was extremely creepy, but sadly not in the least implausible.
The action was a bit lacking, and the dialogue hard to follow in the pub scenes, getting drowned out by background noise. The "look out, someone is about to be murdered" musical theme was over-used, including a couple of times as a red herring. Scott was being a twit a fair bit of the time if not on a Troy level, but it was amusing seeing Barnaby giving him grief for it. The sniping about Lorna not wasting any time with the renovation irritated me a bit - it had already been planned before Stephen's death, and given she probably knew he was being unfaithful, why should she put on a grieving widow act? There was also a chunk of dialogue put in with the explanation of Stephen's death that did not happen as it was shown before. That's cheating; if we had heard the whole conversation the murderer's identity would have been known. He made one comment that wasn't answered, and was shot - not at all the way the recreation showed it.
It's one of those episodes to re-watch only if you've managed to forget the story since last time.
I didn't think this was one of the stronger episodes. The motive - sexual obsession - is all too common, although it's usually the woman who's the object of the obsession who is murdered. So the end, with the aged murderer declaring his "love" for a girl young enough to be his granddaughter (and daughter of a woman he'd been having an affair with for years, which adds an even nastier, almost incestuous touch) and trying to blackmail her with a suicide threat, was extremely creepy, but sadly not in the least implausible.
The action was a bit lacking, and the dialogue hard to follow in the pub scenes, getting drowned out by background noise. The "look out, someone is about to be murdered" musical theme was over-used, including a couple of times as a red herring. Scott was being a twit a fair bit of the time if not on a Troy level, but it was amusing seeing Barnaby giving him grief for it. The sniping about Lorna not wasting any time with the renovation irritated me a bit - it had already been planned before Stephen's death, and given she probably knew he was being unfaithful, why should she put on a grieving widow act? There was also a chunk of dialogue put in with the explanation of Stephen's death that did not happen as it was shown before. That's cheating; if we had heard the whole conversation the murderer's identity would have been known. He made one comment that wasn't answered, and was shot - not at all the way the recreation showed it.
It's one of those episodes to re-watch only if you've managed to forget the story since last time.
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
(2012–2015)
Travesty of fun novels
10 March 2020
I've enjoyed the Phryne Fisher novels for years, even when they make my eyes roll with their implausibility and insertion of 2000ish politics. But this? Absolute rubbish. For a start, casting a 40something to play 28 year old Phryne Fisher, is painful. So is the nonsense about a murdered sister, the disappearance of Jane, Ruth, Lin Chung and the Butlers, and the pushing of Jack Robinson - happily married in the books and with NO interest in any other woman - as a source of UST. And that permanent worried frown the actor goes in for make him look like an idiot, not the man so bland one can forget his face within minutes of leaving him. A great big AVOID on this.
Fine acting in Troy's farewell
6 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
For all it's not one of my favourite episodes, this is a good one. The element that puts me off is animal cruelty. However that adds to the victims being classic "sitting up and begging for it" Midsomer types, the ones you're just waiting to see be done away with, whoever kills them and whatever the motive is.
As most other reviewers have said long since, the outstanding part of this episode is David Bradley as Tom, in one of the few sympathetic roles I've seen him play (quite a contrast to Argus Filch in Harry Potter or Rogue Riderhood in Our Mutual Friend). I only question his character's age; he seems too old for the character's implied age, going by earlier events.
I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing Troy elevated to inspector (though goodness knows how he managed it) and suddenly acquiring the art of Authoritarian Sarcasm as practiced by his boss all these years. Cherie Lunghi was stuck in an all-too-common role for her, the flirty sarcastic middle-aged-ish woman. She's a good actress but these roles do seem typecast (see also Hornblower, New Tricks).
There were the usual odd connections and not-really-related storylines, but this is Midsomer, that goes with the territory.
As most other reviewers have said long since, the outstanding part of this episode is David Bradley as Tom, in one of the few sympathetic roles I've seen him play (quite a contrast to Argus Filch in Harry Potter or Rogue Riderhood in Our Mutual Friend). I only question his character's age; he seems too old for the character's implied age, going by earlier events.
I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing Troy elevated to inspector (though goodness knows how he managed it) and suddenly acquiring the art of Authoritarian Sarcasm as practiced by his boss all these years. Cherie Lunghi was stuck in an all-too-common role for her, the flirty sarcastic middle-aged-ish woman. She's a good actress but these roles do seem typecast (see also Hornblower, New Tricks).
There were the usual odd connections and not-really-related storylines, but this is Midsomer, that goes with the territory.
Tell Your Friends