spooks hunted in Autumn

Early in the year I re-watched some of the Spooks series, which had run its course and finished after its ninth (?) series. We joked at the time about whether they'd need to come up with a privatised version next and 'lo' it appears to be so.

It looks as if the initial premise of the new series will be an agent Samantha being hunted a la Jason Bourne - with a dash of Homeland surveillance.

An observation about Spooks was it's London-centric nature and I think the new series starts here, although the private enterprise spin of should make it easier to move to other locations.

We shall see - although it's slightly worrying that it is already being advertised as an Autumn show. I like to think we are still in Summer.

Five Days

I've just watched the first episode of the week long drama strip called "Five Days". There's some of the coincidences that this type of drama requires to create the storyline, but is does seem to have the potential to be good.

I enjoyed the three-parter "West Riding", which I think played out over three weeks, but with my own schedule I suspect I watched it over three days. Sometimes the compressed format can work well and in a story where you have to look at what is happening in the background of the shots that can be quite interesting.

I'm hoping the remaining parts stay with new action rather than become overly involved with retracing steps and flashback sequences. With something over a few nights it is easier to keep the story progressing because is should still be reasonably fresh in the memory. By contrast the little formulaic programs in four parts over an hour with breaks and then a recap at the start of each subsection drive me nuts.

In Five Days there are already several different story trails being set up beyond the obvious pair and it will be interesting to see how many develop, whether they throw in a few curves and how many of the plot-lines get knitted together.

I'll need to hit record on Sky though because I'm bound to miss at least one episode and then need to catch up.

quick fix sky reception after snow storm

There seem to be two methods, which are dish height dependent.

(1) lower dish. Hit it with a broomstick to dislodge ice and snow.
(2) higher dish. Throw a football at it to dislodge ice and snow.

I have used both methods successfully, although I expect they are frowned upon by Sky.

* I know the picture is of a barbecue. The Sky dish picture was a bit too blurry

survivors

I watched the first episode of Survivors late night on TV Replay. It occurred to me that that much of the weekend schedule is made of modernised replays, with even this series scripted from a 1970s drama of the same name, updated for cellphones and the interweb.

Survivors is about an apocalyptic pandemic flu virus and the stories of a few with immunity. I'm guessing that the first episode has tracked the old storyline, albeit with modern numberplates. I also speculate the scale of deserted motorways and lensbabied citiscapes would have been difficult in the 70's version.

There is a BBC look to the production which also reminds me of some Doctor Who episodes. All the more interesting when the rumoured new Doctor Who turned up part way through, driving a Land Rover. And then at the end of the episode a secret location where the men in white coats look mysterious with lots of flashing lights.

It will be interesting to see if this can recreate some of the 'shared experience' viewing from the days of only four channels. I shall continue to view.