TL:DR It's brilliant, watch it!

One of the highlights of the past couple of months has been Chinese 'historical' costume drama Nirvana in Fire. I saw this mentioned online a year or so ago and thought that one day I should get round to it, and occasionally saw it again, and when I reached the end of season 3 of Black Sails and had re-watched the ( Read more... )

Only two hours on email this morning, but it's a start. I then had my now customary lunchtime slump into exhaustion and spent the afternoon on the sofa, tidying my sewing box (in dire need of it) and watching the first two episodes of Nirvana in Fire. Very much scene-setting so far, and an awful lot of backstory/characters I am struggling to take ( Read more... )

Though first, a low ( hoisting of the black and yellow flag. )

Sunday evening was surely a historic moment in the television career of Rhinopithecus roxellana. Not only did it get a star part in the latest BBC Natural History unit production, but then one that had broken away from the chilly wilderness for an acting career got a key role in His Dark Materials.

Seven Worlds, One Planet is very much Sunday ( Read more... )

New TV version of the first book, Northern Lights on BBC1 at 8 o'clock. I might be recording it for tomorrow on account of I seem to have some bug that is making me ridiculously tired, but the trailer looks great. Here it is.

Here's the trailer:

Click to view

Now, just as long as they can make the daemons as convincing as the stage version did ( Read more... )

The Good Omens TV series is released on Friday ( Read more... )

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears
I come to rec this programme, and to praise it.

I need to make an important announcement: Netflix TV programme, now also just started on E4, The Good Place is a sitcom. I repeat, The Good Place is a sitcom, a series of 22 minute comic episodes about a bunch of people in an amusing situation. Starring ( Read more... )

Early October: the next level German course does not run. I resolve to continue to work and to keep up the previous year's German ( Read more... )

Truly, what Versailles needed to give it that extra touch of sophistication was the arrival of the man in the iron mask ( Read more... )

This is basically a 90 minute advert for organ donation, NHS funding, medical research and immigration. It's absolutely terrific, mixing the 'human' story with the scientific. It follows a number of patients waiting for heart transplants, with interviews with them and for the nurses and doctors caring for them. It is extremely moving; sometimes ( Read more... )