Stephen Fry article - Spooks / Doctor Who

[Tea Lady]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun...doctor-who

Link to a speech made by Stephen Fry last night. Brief mention of Spooks and Doctor Who.

[A Cousin]

Very interesting. Thanks TeaLady.

TV programming is an issue over here too. In the US we are so commercialized, I have noticed the (blessed) lack of "product placement" in UK shows. I forget which episode of Spooks I was watching in late S7, but someone was sitting on a park bench drinking a bottle of water and I noticed that the label had been removed. That would never happen over here! Programming comes down to who is willing to pay for it and who is willing to watch it.

As for the seat belt and driving while using a mobile phone issue, it would seem that the old debate between creatives and management is alive a well. Creatives want reality and truth, management want numbers and accountability. This is a debate that will never be resolved, I fear. All that can be done is to balance them.

I would disagree that Dr Who is a children's show though. It crosses demographics, IMO. My 9 year old loves it but is a little afraid of it. My 6 year is not afraid of it but doesn't understand most of it. My 4 year old just goes to bed.

[JHyde]

He also mentioned back just before the UK general election, referring to how a new government might be formed.

Methinks Mr Fry has Spooks on the brain??!! Maybe he WAS filming for Spooks a few weeks back that was all very hush hush.

The article is a good and sound read.

[Aria]

Thanks for posting, TL. Makes you wonder who the Spooks actor is?

[JHyde]

It's probably HN. He worked with her for 3 years on Kingdom, after all.

[Tea Lady]

(16-06-2010 02:24 PM)JHyde Wrote:  It's probably HN. He worked with her for 3 years on Kingdom, after all.

HN

Series 8 Spoiler: show

was certainly not wearing a seatbelt in the reversing car chase scene in 8.6.

[JHyde]

Yeah but she might have done in other scenes in other seasons! Not to mention, maybe they shot it both ways and intelligence prevailed.

(I'm shaking my head at the fact that I'm speculating about this at all. Between seasons, it is obvious....)

[picard1109]

Mr Fry is, as usual, spot on. Most TV is the visual equivalent of lithium and I wish they'd stop worrying about the present day equivalents of Mary Whitehouse and treat their audiences like adults.

Slightly tangential to that: one of my pet gripes with most modern TV shows, including Spooks, is that no one seems to smoke. That really isn't realistic. Only Ashes to Ashes bucked the trend and probably only because it was set in the'80s and therefore wasn't supposed to be 'real'.

[JHyde]

Yeah there were laws passed about that almost ten years ago, I think - I also find it irritating.

I am sure there was someone on one of the Spooks commentaries in an early season bemoaning the loss of cigs, both as a prop piece for actors and also for the affect they have, looks wise. I'm almost positive it was Spooks, but it might have been Life on Mars. Maybe both.

I actually think American TV drama is the best by a long shot right now. There are maybe 6 outstanding dramas running right now (or about to start or have just finished for the year).

HN said something very similar last year in an interview, about the Americans hitting their stride right now with really good dramas. She pretty much watches all the same stuff I do!

[Tea Lady]

I know what you guys are saying about American drama, but in general, I kind of find US shows unrealistic in some ways compared to British dramas. For example, most shows I have seen in recent years do not contain swearing, nudity, and certainly not sex scenes. Now I'm not saying having those things in a show makes it better, I'm just saying it makes them more realistic, which is where the Brit shows that are shown in the evenings in the UK do, from Spooks to Luther.