The first recording today is a repeat of the final episode of Primeval series one. I looked at that on its first showing.
Media Centre Description: Cutter and the team are faced with their deadliest threat yet – a quick, ruthless predator with seemingly supernatural powers. When they discover the beast’s lair and its offspring, they realise that drastic action must taken to prevent further attacks. The team travel back in time through the re-opened anomaly in the Forest of Dean, and as Cutter finds his loyalties torn between Claudia and Helen, it seems that their adventure will have devastating and far-reaching consequences.
Recorded from ITV1 on Saturday 12th January 2008 13:43
The next recording is the first episode of series 2 of Primeval. It opens with an anomaly opening behind a lane in a bowling alley.
After the shock ending of the last series, Cutter is having trouble coping with the realisation that somehow, his whole reality has been changed by their visit to the past, and many things have changed, but the one that’s most shocking is that nobody knows who Claudia Brown is, despite them working with her throughout the previous series.
Meanwhile, in the shopping mall where the bowling alley was, two security guards are attacked by dinosaurs.
Cutter goes back to the Anomaly Research Centre – The ARC – for the first time, although everyone else has been there for ages. This is a really clever way to explain the revamp of all the repeating locations and sets.
He meets Oliver Leek, who is in the position that Claudia Brown was before the world changed.
They check the equipment for going after the dinosaurs in the mall. Connor asks why he can’t have a gun. “How many animals have you tranquilized?” “I’ve played darts.”
Connor gets a slushy from a machine in the mall, and a raptor creeps up on him. Abby starts the metal shutters closing at the end of a walkway, and Connor has to slide under to evade the raptor. He lies there clutching his head. “Oh! Hate that.” “What?” “Brain freeze from the slushie.”
A cleaner causes some fake tension before they realise what the noises are.
This mall is giving all sorts of interesting locations for the attacks. Stephen and Cutter find a raptor in a Quasar centre. As Stephen is holding it off, Cutter tries to shoot it with a tranquilizer, but the gun jams. Stephen is suspicious that maybe Cutter didn’t fire because he’s jealous about Stephen and Helen sleeping together.
Abby, Connor and the cleaner go to a locker room. Conner finally persuades Abby to give him the gun, and then does a whole Action Hero bit checking all the lockers. “Connor, you’re ridiculous.”
The cleaner opens one of the lockers, and a much smaller dinosaur leaps out and attacks him. He’s lying there, bleeding quite badly, but neither Abby nor Connor even check to see how bad the bleeding is, let alone try to staunch it.
The little raptor is under a bench.
Connor takes a shot, but misses, and hits Abby in the leg instead. She collapses on the floor.
Connor’s second shot hits.
Cutter and Stephen find another raptor. Stephen shoots it, but it’s still heading for Cutter, and only collapses at the last minute.
Connor arrives, with Abby unconscious on a trolley. They head back to the lockers. The raptor is still there, but the badly injured cleaner has gone. “I don’t get it. He was right there. He was in a really bad way.” “Well, he must have recovered and got himself out.”
They use the small raptor to try to lure the other raptor to them. They’re caught off guard when the big raptor just eats the little one. Then Abby wakes up and the big ne starts chasing them, and appears to shrug off the tranquilizer darts.
The raptor goes down to the car park. Cutter and Stephen follow, and borrow bikes from the young lads doing some racing there. They drive the bokes around trying to lure the raptor back into the mall.
They production team are having so much fun with this location.
Connor even gets to save the day by firing the final dart that puts the raptor down.
Before they dispose of the raptors, Cutter takes Connor to the radio department. They tune the radios to a certain frequency where there’s a particular form of interference. Cutter thinks this is caused by the anomaly, and thinks it can be used to detect them early.
Cutter takes the raptors back through the anomaly, and looks like he’s going to stay there when Stephen follows him through to bring him back.
The anomaly is closing, they run to get through it. Stephen is grabbed by the foot by one of the raptors, as Cutter tries to pull him through.
The anomaly closes, cutting off the head of the raptor.
Back at the ARC, James Lester (Ben Miller again) introduces the team to their newest recruit, Jenny Lewis, a PR expert hired to deal with the press and publicity caused by the anomalies. Cutter is amazed, as she is a doppelganger of the missing Claudia Brown. This show is bonkers, and I love it.
Media Centre Description: Cutter grapples with Claudia Brown’s disappearance while trying to re-capture a ferocious Jurassic era Utahraptor on the loose in a shopping mall. He and Stephen confront the creature in a laser games arcade, but his gun jams and the raptor escapes. The deepening rift of suspicion between the two men is worse than ever.
Recorded from ITV1 on Saturday 12th January 2008 18:58
The next recording starts with that Mad Men Promo again. It’s clearer than ever why I was totally put off this show by the rather self important promo.
Then, there’s a repeat of Darcey Bussell’s Ten Best Ballet Moments which we saw over Christmas.
Media Centre Description: Darcey Bussell, recently retired from the Royal Ballet, introduces and demonstrates some of her favourite ballet moments with dancers Roberto Bolle and Jonathan Cope. Featuring some of her own performances and archive highlights, with music ranging from Scott Joplin to Tchaikovsky. The ballets include Giselle, The Nutcracker and a classic performance by Margot Fonteyn in Swan Lake.
Recorded from BBC FOUR on Saturday 12th January 2008 20:58
BBC Genome: BBC FOUR Saturday 12th January 2008 21:00
After this, there’s a David Attenborough promo for iPlayer, and a trail for Pop On Trial: The 60s. Then the recording stops with the start of a film, Fateless.
The next recording starts with the end of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? where Peter Kay and “Patrick” McGuinness have managed to get to £1000.
Then, an episode of Thank God You’re Here, in which Paul Merton presents an improvised show in which star guests have to hold their own in various scenarios when they’ve no idea what’s going to happen.
It’s presented by Paul Merton. “It’s about pretending you know what’s going on even when you’re completely out of your depth. A bit like Boris Johnson.”
There’s four celebrities, competing for this lovely trophy.
Ben Miller (yes, there’s the third programme this week for him) has to cope with s Star Trek-style scene.
I think that’s Rufus Jones.
Fern Britton has to pretend to me a spirit medium, and she’s brilliant.
Australian Hamish Blake has a problem when his wife finds out about his other wives.
John Thomson has to be interviewed as a politician.
Paul Merton has his own scene, where he’s playing James Bond.
Then there’s a sketch where they all take part.
Here’s the whole episode.
Media Centre Description: Paul Merton hosts this improvisational comedy show in which star guests must rely on their wits after they are thrust into a set-up which they know nothing about. Today’s guests are Fern Britton, Ben Miller, John Thomson, and up-and–coming Australian comic, Hamish Blake.
Recorded from ITV1 on Saturday 12th January 2008 21:03
After this, the recording stops after the start of Shaun of the Dead.
The final recording today starts with the end of Match of the Day.
There’s a trail for Radio One.
Then, we have a movie (running slightly later than advertised). It’s Stargate, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s bit SF film that paved the way for Independence Day.
Unfortunately, my recording cuts the end off, although it does have most of the movie.
James Spader plays a linguist who we first meet giving a lecture on how the ancient Egyptians can’t possibly have built the pyramids. He’s brought to a secret government project to translate various hieroglyphics.
He’s brought there by Viveca Lindfors, head of the project, who, as a small child, was with her father when he discovered the stones with the writing on them that Spader has to study.
Kurt Russell plays Colonel Jack O’Neill, who we first meet still mourning the death of his young son, who accidentally shot himself. He’s reactivated by the army to take over Lindfors’ project.
When Spader manages to translate all the symbols, they show him what it’s all for – a mechanism which was excavated from Egypt years ago, which they’ve been trying to decipher. It’s the Stargate of the title.
Using Spader’s symbols, they’re able to activate it. I do like the effects here.
O’Neill takes a team through, and Spader goes with them because they need to repeat the process on the other side. They find a planet with very Egyptian looking architecture.
The people there are living as slaves. Their leader is Erick Avari.
They’ve being enslaved by aliens, who return in their big Pyramid ship.
The Aliens are led by Jaye Davidson, who was Oscar nominated for his role as Dil in The Crying Game.
It’s all quite a lot of fun, although my favourite aspect of the film, by quite a long way, is David Arnold’s superb score, which really does help to pep up the action, like when all looks lost for our heroes near the end, when all the local people, who had been fearful of their masters up until now, come over the hills to help them.
They finally defeat Ra by sending the nuclear bomb they’d intended to use to destroy the stargate in case of danger to Earth up to his ship instead. Complete with the obligatory planar blast wave that’s now almost compulsory.
This is a lot of fun, but I do notice a slight pattern in some of his movies. There’s this, which is basically Ancient Astronauts/Chariots of the Gods. Then there’s 2012, which is “Mayans predicted the end of the world” and Anonymous which is “Shakespeare didn’t really write his plays”. There’s definitely a through-line of loony belief systems. I’m looking forward to his epic disaster movie set on a Flat Earth.
Media Centre Description: Rousing sci-fi adventure about a time portal that provides a gateway into an alternate universe. A crack team of military explorers, including a bumbling Egyptologist, embark on a galaxy-jumping quest to discover what lies beyond the ‘stargate’. Differences within the group pale into insignificance as the team confront the challenges before them.
Recorded from BBC ONE on Saturday 12th January 2008 23:33
BBC Genome: BBC ONE Saturday 12th January 2008 23:35
Here’s the ad breaks from Thank God You’re Here.
Neither episode of Primeval had any adverts, as they were both edited recordings.
Adverts:
- trail: Sandbanks
- SMA Progress
- Imodium Plus
- Seven Seas JointCare
- trail: Trial & Retribution
- DiscoverAmerica.com
- Sweeney Todd in cinemas
- Nat West
- Vaseline
- Skoda Fabia
- Listerine
- More Than
- trail: Du£l
- Scottish Widows
- Mail on Sunday
- Harveys
- Carcraft
- Night Nurse
- Walk Hard The Dewey Cox Story in cinemas
- Walker’s Crisps – Gary Lineker
- trail: Kingdom
- Volvo
- Sunday Express
- Nicorette
- Strepsils
- Abbey
- Cheestrings
- Carling
- Nicorette
- trail: Sandbanks
- trail: The Palace
- Boots Opticians
- Land of Leather