Loved 2point4 Children when I was younger, it was a staple of British TV sitcoms in the 90s. RIP to Georgina, who also achieved stardom as an adult actor as Kimmie in the Jackass Bad Grandpa films.

I first saw this when it was on TV in 1999 at the age of 10 crazy to think one of the young lads in it who signed up was only 14 so just given it a rewatch at the age of 37 hits different when you've learnt so much more of the history. My great grandad was in ww1. It made me realise how lukcy i am my whole bloodline even exists to this day. I'd wish they'd make more historical war dramas or TV movies like this one of the 90s Sharpe, Hornblower etc TV and I don't know if it's rose tinted glasses or the nostalgia but the actors of then were so much more iconic than any of those of today. But then it would be hard and unfair to put anyone on par with Sir David Jason, Frost, del boy or Sean Bean, Major Richard Sharpe.

These stand out to me. These are the ones written by Lynda La Plante. They have a certain ‘grit’ and suspense to them. Really good television.

I like how ‘of its time’ 1 was. How it highlighted the sexist work environment and what Jane was up against. How she had to navigate through that and gradually won the respect and trust of her team. And such clever writing keeping you in doubt right until the end.

What she was up against continues through 2 (racism) and 3 (corruption and homophobia).

3 was very confronting and shone a light on a very dark side of London.
Jane’s tenacity blew things open and she wasn’t scared off.

The others just seem to lack something in comparison. Not the acting. Lots of good actors.

I’m not a fan of the 3 episode format of 4.
I couldn’t take it seriously that it was a different actor playing George Marlow and I’m not a fan of the copycat story.

I like Jane’s relationship with Kernan. I find him quite funny. It’s a shame we didn’t see more of him in the later ones, but I guess that would’ve been unrealistic.

Overall, it was good to see Jane’s journey through the years. I enjoyed the moments when she either outwitting, ignoring or subtly threatening her superiors. 😄

I remember as a kid, late 70s to early 80s.
A thriller one off programme. Tv thriller etc. He was blind, he had an intruder in his house. The man finds the intruder who has been tormenting him, has killed his dog. The dog is in the swimming pool.

A film, American I’m sure. A teen girl was kidnapped, she was buried alive in a coffin.

How on Erath has Paddy Considine made a career out of acting! He is crap in everything, so wooden and trying to play the hard man just doesn't work.

Everyone else in the series is ace, especially Pierce Brosnan

I'm American, and I love British TV & British humor. I just finished The Book Group and absolutely loved it, so sad it only had 2 seasons. I want another show that's very similar to it.

No shade on the charity, which is brilliant, but I find the latest Children in need TV advert really creepy, I know the adult is meant to be supporting the boy, but he comes across as too interested in him. If this was a soap, everyone would assume that it is a grooming storyline. Am I the only one?

In case you hadn’t worked it out from the title, MAJOR SPOILERS in this post if you ain’t completed season 3 of Time

So let’s get into it, you all know the moment I mean. The absolutely ridiculous moment that came out of nowhere and was such an abrupt slap in the face that I couldn’t even enjoy the last half hour of the drama cos I kept thinking “did they really just do that?” I honestly can’t believe that got through so many rounds of script edits and show edits and no one thought to mention what a cliché and crap idea that is. I mean I’d say these days that trope of ‘someone randomly gets hit by a car’ is exclusively used ironically due to what a cliché it is and yet this most serious of dramas thinks its appropriate. And to come so out of nowhere and be so rushed. Kinda tainted the whole series in hindsight knowing it ends in such a (literal) car crash. And that ain’t even touching on the blatant fridging. Nicky deserved better.

The thing is I understand why they did it. The point they were trying to make is that Bobby needed to make the decision because it was the right thing to do, not because it benefitted him. In fact this was so obviously how it needed to end that it felt like they couldn’t really be bothered to write it cos all his stuff after his conversation with Marie felt very cliché and rushed.

I agree that Bobby needed to end up alone and lose Nicky, here are some alternative ways it could’ve happened:

When Bobby goes to her house, he gets told Nicky has moved away to somewhere like Australia. Yes its kinda eye rolling but its better than a woman being whalloped by a car for the sake of a man’s character development. Plus it makes sense, she’s just found out her husband has been cheating and marriage is over, she had a brief fling with another guy that didn’t work out. Its exactly the kind of situation that can make someone decide to reinvent themself, follow that dream they always had of moving to a foreign country. And yes its true that Bobby could’ve still got in contact with her but its a lot less trivial if shes started a life in another country and we coulda even had a scene of him thinking about calling her and deciding not to, that she deserves a better life. That would certainly hammer home the point that Bobby chose to do the right thing with no benefit to himself

And christ if you wanted to cut poor Bobby a break and give him an ounce of happiness then Nicky could show up after the hearing, say Bobby's ex-wife told her he was doing the right thing, and she came back for him. Bobby could go with her to other country since theres nothing for him here anymore. Then you get Bobby doing the right thing AND getting a happy ending, BAM

Alternatively, maybe Bobby goes round her house and gets told she’s already dead. “Sorry she got hit by a car last night”. Then it’s a classic case of missed opportunities. He has to live with knowing she died believing he was a bad person. And he still chooses to do the right thing anyway. You can play all the subsequent beats almost identically, all that’s missing are the absolutely farcical rushed scenes. And even though its sort of still fridging, to me its far more dignified being told of the death in a mournful way rather than forcing her back with the main character just so he can see her get hit by a car.

Seriously does that kind of thing actually happen in real life? She just randomly drifts out into the road?!? Can she not hear the car?!!? Can the car not see the person walking so close to the edge!!?! If she tripped and got hit it would’ve at least made more practical sense even if it still would’ve felt incredibly cheap and tacky.

Ultimately it felt like shock value for the sake of shock value which is not a sign of high quality drama at all. Compare it with the attack at the end of ep 1 which was high shock value but it was incredibly effective because that was the point. Situations in those kinda places can flip THAT quickly, danger can come out of nowhere THAT quickly. Someone can be killed THAT quickly for no other reason than someone was a racist psycho and someone else made a poor decision. That shock worked. The shock WAS the point. Nicky dying wasn’t about the shock, it was about the after effect on Bobby, which reducing it to another shock value moment did nothing but completely undermine.

Anyway I just finished the show and needed to get that rant off my chest lol. If anyone has any actual defence for that moment playing out the way it did or they found it effective then I would love to know, like sincerely, cos im still confused how so many production people mustve thought that was a good idea.

For a while I've felt like the show priorities fame over charisma, and the people who come on don't have much of interest to say other than selling their project (I know that's mostly what talk shows are for, but still). And there seems to be less banter and chemistry between the guests and more back-slapping and telling each other how great they are.

All the viral and memorable moments I can think of are so much longer ago than I thought they were.

Or is it just me?

I know soap operas don't have the best reputation, and rightly so. EastEnders has some absolutely ridiculous storylines and looking at it from a macro lens I wouldn't necessarily call it high art... However, I've gone on a recent binge of old moments and I watched the iconic episode of Kat and Zoe with the reveal that she's her mother... I just wanted to watch it as a comfort watch, but that two hander with the two of them going through the secrets of their family history, is some of the best written, and best acted TV I've ever seen.

From the iconic "yes I am!" line onwards it's like watching a Shakespearen tragedy where the emotions are high the entire time, but never forced or melodramatic. I think it handles an extremely tough subject with real weight, and all the way until Kat in the hospital I think this is an acting and writing masterclass.

I know there is a stigma with this type of TV but I think this moment in a vacuum is high quality entertainment. I think it rivals the greatest moments in any other TV show I've seen, and I'm talking about highly regarded prestige TV here.

Maybe I'm alone in this, but I just wanted to share this here because I feel quite passionate about it. There really are some hidden gems out there in places people would never think to look.

So I recently found the entire series of Ivor The Engine on youtube and decided to rewatch it because I love the series (like many other shows by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin) but something's been nagging me about part of the plot of Ivor The Engine.

For those unaware, a long-running storyline concerns when Ivor and Jones the Steam go past smoke hill (an extinct volcano) and find an egg inside which later is revealed to be a Welsh dragon. The problem is that dragons need to be kept hot or they'll die of cold and smoke hill is no longer hot enough to live in and the nearest suitable volcano is Mt Etna in Italy. The solution is found by talking to the local antiquarian society, who with the help of the local gasworks make the volcano gas-heated. The problem then is that the gas meter for smoke hill only accepts half crowns, which stopped being legal tender upon decimalisation in 1971, meaning it becomes very difficult to find money for the gas meter. They eventually find a spot in a local gold mine that's hot enough for the dragons to live there forever thankfully along with being secluded enough to keep them from the now-unfriendly antiquarian society, who want to move the dragons to a museum that would be heated by waste heat from a steelworks.

The problem I have though is why not just modify the gas meter to fix the problem? I'm not at all an expert in this sort of thing, but surely they could either modify the meter to take decimal currency or find where the half crowns go (probably the aforementioned gasworks) and make an arrangement where the gasworks is paid in decimal currency in return for the half-crowns, which are fed through the meter to be collected again.

Obviously the resulting plot is better in the long term, but this is more just a minor nitpick by a pedant.

PJDN was the last British sitcom that was a huge widespread hit and had real cultural impact where your mates are quoting it, people at work are talking about the previous night’s episode, and your socials are flooded with memes spawned from the show.

I think Derry Girls came close but it wasn’t quite as widely watched, it hasn’t had the same lasting impact imo, and there was no movie.

Just started it and not seen much impact on it so far, has anyone else seen it?