The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

Based on the International best selling books by Alexander McCall Smith, the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency has come to the small screen in a joint venture between two television giants BBC and HBO. What a wonderful collaboration this is!

The series, shot on location in Africa, was delayed after the unfortunate deaths of film director Anthony Minghella (who co-wrote / directed the two-hour premiere) and filmmaker Sydney Pollack, who was an executive producer. The series was continued by Richard Curtis (he of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” fame and all round British writing genius). In addition, powerhouse brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein are executive producers. How could it fail? Well, when you convert any book for the screen large or small – easily. Avid readers of the book will find that the show is a jumbled mixture of the books but remains faithful to the dialogue and spirit of the characters.

The tales of Precious Ramotswe (played by Grammy award-winning singer Jill Scott), are portrayed in the same way the books do – they are inspiring, often funny, always honest and life affirming. It’s been a while since I found myself looking forward to Sunday nights (when the show airs on HBO). Now if I could just learn to roll my r’s that way.

Why do soaps have a slipperily grip on us?

Thanks to the wonder of the internet I have recently become re-addicted to the British soap Eastenders despite living 5000 miles away. For those of you who have not had the pleasure, Eastenders is a gritty soap which focuses on the lives of the residents of Albert Square a fictional area in the East End of London.

I say re-addicted because I hadn’t watched Eastenders regularly in about nine years. What made me tune back in after such a long time away? I don’t think it was a burning desire to learn what has been going on in the characters lives – more a longing for the familiarity of every day London and a daily tune-out from my own life.

Anyone who has regularly watched a soap will tell you that the plots are so slow moving – stretched out over weeks and months that you can easily pick up what is going on. And yet I don’t think I would start watching one of the many other UK soaps that I never watched in the UK. It had to be one I already had watched – storylines I could easily sink back into.

Of course if you can’t figure out who married who and is secretly related to who – then there is always homework whiz Wikipedia. It’s very simple when you think about it. Wiki the longest running member of the soap (soap name not actor name) and viola – everyone in the soap past and present is bound to have had some kind of interaction with that character which wiki has picked up. God Bless you Dot Cotton.

I don’t think I could ever get into an American soap, now that Dallas and Dynasty are long gone. These days the acting is terrible, the storylines beyond riduclous and it’s no wonder ratings for US soaps are falling. It’s a shame as in Soap’s hey-day of the 1980s, Dynasty and Dallas dominated the ratings here and back home.

The biggest difference between soaps from the UK and USA is that actors look very different. American soap actors look like people who were too short to become models and didn’t want to go into porn. British soap actors, well, can kind of act. Maybe it’s because they look like every day people you’d see on any street in any British town. Maybe worse.

And surely there in lies the fundemental difference between American and British soaps. While both soaps are a route to escapism for half an hour – British soaps are an escape from your life because the characters lives are more depressing than yours. American soaps are an escape from your life because the characters lives are way more fantastical and glamorous.

Have American audiences moved away from watching soaps because they all have day jobs? Both Dynasty and Dallas were shown during prime time. All American soaps are now shown during the 9-5 hours – if you aren’t watching them because you are at work, how can you be talking about them around the water cooler on your break?

Surely the shared memories of soap moments are also what attracts people to them. I remember several British tabloid newspapers reporting on the mystery of Who Shot J.R Ewing? And who doesn’t remember when Kerry Mangel got shot protesting a duck hunt on Australian soap Neighbours? Frank Butcher accidently running down Tiffany on Eastenders, Richard Hillman tried to kill Gail and her family by driving their car into the canal on Coronation Street? It’s that shared, almost historical moments that makes a good soap – great.

And so I’ll leave you with a couple of my favourite moments from two great soaps. I recall watching both of them quite vividly – the Eastenders one aired after months and months of dragging out of the Sharon / Phil and Grant love triangle that had the nation gripped. The Dynasty one was the big end of season cliff hanger which became the most talked-about episode of any TV series during the calendar year of 1985 (with a viewership of sixty million).

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

One of the great things about American cable television is if you miss a episode – the chances of them repeating it or even airing a marathon is pretty high. Thank God otherwise I would have never been able to catch the first season of the brilliant Leverage. Sure there is a few cheeky jokes here and there but Leverage, is an A Team for the modern age.

There is Parker the flexible and quirky cat burglar, Elliot the muscle, Hardison the computer expert, Sophie the con-artist all kept in hand by Nate played by Timothy Hutton – the brains who has banded together a bunch of criminals to right the wrongs of Corporate America against the average joe.

Cheesy as it sounds the show isn’t actually that cheesy – the characters are familiar yet played very well by an entire cast who can act. Sadly often not a standard requirement these days. The plots do tend to wrap up nicely by the end of the show but who wants to see Corporate America win anyway? We get enough of that in real life.

If you like Bones then you will probably like Leverage – sassy dialogue and plenty of action. Set your DVR now.

Too Many Shows, Such Little Time.

My name is Clare and I am a television addict.

This blog is an excuse to watch television and dribble on about it. Maybe if you are lucky some of the drivel will make sense, maybe even be of some use.

The problem with being a television addict is that you are constantly bombard with new shows that you should be watching. With 500+ channels including all the ones we don’t actually fork out for but are still wantonly churning out hit shows that can be caught on DVD / online somewhere.. well, there just isn’t enough time.

Perhaps television critics like music critics should stick to one genre?! I’ll take made for television movies based on some archeological / mythical story with a poor man’s Indiana Jones lead and sassy female side kick, and all the detective dramas please. If I didn’t live with someone else my DVR would be a shameless listing of Bones, CSI (I am a purest and only watch Vegas), Leverage and The Mummy / the Librarian movie reruns. 

Being a television addict up until more recently has been bit of a hush hush addiction. Not something you’d want to admit to at a dinner party. However growing up in Britain and subsequently moving to America seven years ago – I have noticed that there is a snobbery in American television that there isn’t in British. British stars are as happy on the small screen as they are on the big – sure the bucks might not be as big but the quality often is the same. Television finally became more ’socially’ acceptable with shows like Sopranos, Weeds, Dexter, CSI etc. Being a television actor in America should no longer be seen as simply a stepping stone to movies – someone pass that memo along to Katherine Heigl.

The idea that television cannot be educational, entertaining, or even as rewarding as reading a book or watching a movie is nothing but snobbery. Class snobbery is bad but frankly television snobbery is the bottom of the barrel.

And so that is my mantle, my task, my gauntlet - to bring to your attention some of the best and worst of American / British television. Anyone can write a review but how do you know you trust the reviewers opinion?! Well, call it divine intervention that I was named after the patron saint of television for a reason!  I look forward to sharing my views with you.