TIME TRAVEL ON A FRIDAY NIGHT

It’s Friday, the weather looks set to possibly behave in the manner we expect for the beginning of June and I intend to go home and relax before the start of the weekend.

And tonight I’m going to be incredibly traditional and sit in front of my television set.

Last year, UA client Ian Mortimer published a fascinating book called The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England. Being a history fiend I of course devoured it and loved the vivid evocation of 16th century life in Britain. The book was brilliant and unsurprisingly has made the transition from page to screen.

Tonight, at 9pm on BBC2, Ian explores the fact that, instead of the popular idea of all Elizabethans being courtiers in fine clothes living it up in lavish palaces, many people were horribly poor. He offers advice on how to survive on a wage of fourpence a day, and examines the realities of finding work, getting around, and living in a smoke-filled countryside hovel.

There’s a great extract on the BBC website where Ian talks about medicines which include worms, mercury and the powdered skull of a man killed in war. You can watch it HERE.

And don’t make any plans for the next couple of weeks as there are 2 more episodes to go, unless of course you want to be modern and watch it on iPlayer instead.

EPISODES SERIES 2

For all of you who loved series 1 of Episodes, the wait is over as series 2 starts tonight.

Starring Matt LeBlanc (as himself), Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig, Episodes followed husband and wife team Beverly and Sean, successful British writers with a dream to break into the US before it breaks them, by recreating their hit drama for American audiences with disastrous results.

Series 2, directed by Jim Field-Smith sees them back in the States, at the premiere of Pucks!, their original series changed out of all recognition and with a new title.

 

And the cast is awash with UA talent as well as Stephen Mangan including Scarlett Rose Patterson, Oliver Kieran Jones, Genevieve O’Reilly and Nigel Planer.

A Friday night romp full of slapstick and witty one-liners, it is just the thing to start the weekend off with a bang. You can watch it on BBC2 at 10pm.

INDIAN OCEAN – SIMON REEVE

Did anyone watch the first programme in Simon Reeve’s new 6-part series last night?

Simon is what I can only describe as an adventurer with a conscience, travelling the globe in search of thought-provoking stories and it is always great to see him on his occasional visits to the office when I listen increasingly wide-eyed, to his latest exploits.

His current series is epic in scale, and in his own words: Travelling around the Indian Ocean was an extreme and extraordinary adventure that took me from the horrors of Mogadishu to the beauty of the Maldives. I went to some of the most incredible places on the planet and got my feet onto picture-postcard beaches I previously only imagined in my dreams. But the journey wasn’t just about sunny beaches. I’m really keen for viewers to understand more about the lives of people who live around the Indian Ocean, so the team and I delved into stories of poverty, conflict, drugs, smuggling, and piracy. We filmed amazing sights and dark issues, along with wildlife, history, current affairs and culture. It was fascinating to explore this incredible region, on a journey that showed me there’s so much more to the Indian Ocean than just gorgeous holiday islands. The Indian Ocean is a vast, stunning and tantalising area of our world.

Some of his encounters are shocking, from political to ecological, in stark contrast to the backdrop of breathtakingly beautiful landscapes.

You can watch episode one on BBC i-player and see the first leg of Simon’s journey as it takes him from South Africa, through Mozambique, and on to the tropical island of Zanzibar.

Episode two is on BBC2 at 8pm next Sunday (29th April).

 

WHITE HEAT

With the horrible cold taking a firm grip on the country this week, I thought you might need an excuse to stay inside in the warm instead of battling what appears to be the return of winter.

What better way to ignore our weather than by tuning in to BBC2 on Thursday at 9pm for a brand new six part series.

White Heat follows the interwoven lives, loves and betrayals of seven friends whose relationships are forged in the white heat of the Sixties through to the present day, written by award-winning writer Paula Milne.

The characters reunite for the first time in 20 years at the house they once shared after one of the group dies and leaves the house to the others. As the story unravels through colourful flashbacks we learn who has died, and the reasons behind a major falling out among the former friends.

There’s a big ensemble cast including our very own David Gyasi, Andrew Simpson and Akshay Kumar.

Passionate, dangerous and compelling, the characters’ love stories and friendships are set against a forty year backdrop that takes us from Wilson to Thatcher, feminism to the Falklands, hedonism to HIV – exploring the personal and political journeys which shaped their destinies to make them the people they are today.

David Gyasi, who plays Jamaican law student Victor, says he asked his father, who emigrated from Ghana in 1966, about his experiences of racism after reading the script. At first I didn’t want to do the part because I saw Victor as weak because he never stands up to racism. In one scene Victor does nothing as a gang of white youths throw peanuts at him while he is sitting on a bus. I asked my father about it and we had a conversation we’d never had before. I had never thought about what he must have gone through when he came over here.

‘He said his number-one rule was to maintain his dignity. He didn’t fight back, but to stand up and walk away is also empowering. It makes you the bigger man and I never understood that until I went through it myself for this show.

Sounds good doesn’t it? Have a look at the trailer HERE and set a reminder for Thursday night at 9pm.

 

 

KATE HUMBLE – ORBIT

Did you know that right now you are hurtling around the sun at 64,000 miles an hour? And in the next year you will travel 584 million miles to end up back where you started?

I was always useless at science when I was at school, but as I’ve grown older it has become more and more fascinating.

I was therefore delighted when Rosemary Scoular told me that her client Kate Humble was going to present a series all about the sun this year. And we don’t have to wait any longer as the first episode of Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey goes out next Sunday at 9pm on BBC2.

Kate is joined by Dr Helen Czerski and the two of them follow the Earth’s voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, to witness the astonishing consequences this journey has for us all.

The first episode covers the period from July to the winter solstice in December. Whilst Helen leaps from an aeroplane, Kate briefly becomes the fastest driver in the world to demonstrate the consequences of the orbit on Earth’s inhabitants.

The team have followed the sun’s journey for a whole orbit – a single year. We can see how gigantic forces like the tilt of the Earth and its spin determine our climate and influence the life cycle of every living thing on the planet. We will discover how the special characteristics of our journey around the sun create the seasons, power the most spectacular weather on the planet, and even dictate how we live our lives.

There’s a brilliant blog you can have a look at HERE.

If these two intelligent, inspirational women had been on my screens when I was 14, maybe my career path would have been very different. As it is I will be glued to the television and determined not to miss a minute!

DAWN FRENCH – ROGER AND VAL

I’m planning your Wednesday night for you.

This current batch of wintry weather is the perfect excuse to embrace any latent misanthropy you may be harbouring in order to lock the door, close the curtains, turn off the phone and turn on that television because the incomparable Dawn French is on our screens again.

Series two of Roger and Val Have Just Got In kicks off on Wednesday at 10pm on BBC2. Dawn stars with Alfred Molina in this narrative comedy drama which follows the couple’s first thirty minutes after they walk in through the door at the end of the day.

Home for Roger and Val Stevenson, on the surface at least, is a sanctuary of warmth, security and what can best be described as organised chaos. (Have a look at some clips from series one here.)

Accompanied by copious amounts of tea, the couple concentrate on the issues of the day, from re-hanging the curtains to gearing up to cleaning out the “big drawer”.

However, despite their solidarity and love for each other, is their united front against the rest of the outside world quite as solid as it seems?

You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

 

SIMON REEVE – WORLD TRAVELLER

I enjoyed yesterday, Rosemary Scoular introduced me to her client Simon Reeve.

Simon has been to almost every country in the world, and calling him a travel presenter doesn’t come close to describing his work. His background in investigative writing gives added depth to his travel documentaries and we are given a rich mix of current affairs and travelogues in every programme.

His series include Equator, Tropic of Capricorn (described by the Daily Mail as 5 Stars…a series that will go down as one of the high points of the television year…brilliant…hugely enjoyable…eye-opening…amazing sights…a fascinating, illuminating journey), Explore and Tropic of Cancer (watch a clip here).

I for one will be watching Simon’s new 6 part series for BBC2 which will be on our screens in a couple of months (he’ll be off for a month shortly to finish filming the last episode).

Indian Ocean is an extraordinary adventure taking Simon to 16 countries, as he braves the horrors of Mogadishu in Somalia, perhaps the most dangerous place on the planet, and travels on to the beautiful Maldives, Mauritius and the Seychelles.

On his journey Simon encounters pirates, dives with sharks, patrols with Dutch Special Forces, goes underwater spear-fishing, dines in an underwater restaurant, stumbles into a seedy drug-den, visits a 5-star seaside palace housing thousands of refugees, meets a Yorkshireman on his Seychelles island paradise, and has close encounters with the amazing wildlife of the Indian Ocean, including lemurs, penguins, dolphins, elephants and dozens of manta rays.

Sounds amazing doesn’t it? And I have to admit that having met Simon in the flesh, I think he will definitely be giving Dr Brian Cox a run for his money.

ART FOR HEROES

The Culture Show on BBC2 has a timely programme tomorrow as Armistice Day is on Sunday.

Our client Tim Samuels presents a piece about the use of art therapy to help rehabilitate ex-servicemen suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Tim meets veterans of recent British conflicts in the Falklands, the Persian Gulf and Northern Ireland, who reveal their personal battle with PTSD as a result of their military career.

For some, the symptoms can go undiagnosed for years, causing terrible problems in their personal lives.

Art therapy seems to have a real power to heal. Sadly, most of the work is only available through charity-funded projects like those offered by Combat Stress.

I found the programme profoundly moving. Tim’s sympathetic interview style allowed his subjects to talk about their experiences in an open and honest way.

You can watch a couple of clips on BBC2′s website and the Culture Show goes out tomorrow on BBC2 at 7pm.