TV

Sometimes the BBC can make a good drama out of a crisis

At a time when the BBC is promising less original drama and more repeats, as well as selling off their spiritual home, I'm slightly heartened by the return of Spooks.

It might be another spy/cop/military drama, but it manages to twist things enough to be original, with interesting plot ideas. The actors are good, and they do a credible job of manipulating London to appear consistent with the plot. Can we have more, not less please BBC? If not, it'll be HBO everyone turns to...

Of course, noone can do it illegally any more because FACT have jumped on the chap responsible for the TV Links website. Which simply listed a range of programmes in a way that made finding them a little less hassle. So that's piracy stopped then? Or does it just take five minutes longer to trawl Youtube/Daily Motion etc for the links? With a few friends you can have a local TV Links of your own in an hour.

Obviously I'm not in any way promoting or facilitating breaking laws on copyright, as that would obviously be very, very bad. Even if it's because a show isn't broadcast any more, or you missed it, or you aren't going to subscribe to cable/satellite for a TV series you haven't sampled. Or because in ten years time, the entertainment industry might actually embrace the internet, rather than persecuting its enthusiasts

TV

RRR-NSFW (the 'R's are for 'really')

Ricky Gervais has always been a classy performer without a single pr blip in his acclaimed career. But recently, after a suicide-bomb of a comedy performance at the Diana Memorial Concert, the media snapped up the chance to criticise. (Such as here, here, and especially here.)

Gervais found an opportunity to turn these criticisms into a comedy set-up, and in his signature is-he-acting-or-not half-character, he pretended to try his best to ignore the recent media attacks on him and instead promote the next feature-length episode of Extras (coming this Christmas). His sidekick Stephen Merchant's character, however, continuously pushed the right buttons in brining out the brutal, and side-splittingly hilarious honesty in Gervais' half-character.


Ironically enough, the result is some of the funniest comedy Gervais and Merchant have ever, ever done.

Enjoy.

Rob.

FINAL WARNING: This clip contains an abundance of potty mouthes.