The Silver Screen Oasis

This week in the UK David Jason's last ever A Touch Of Frost was shown. I won't tell you what it's about, but it's worth a watch. There is alsoa great cast. Phyiliss Logan, who played Ian McShane's leading lady in Lovejoy, is brought in as a serious love interest for Frost. The late Irish actor Cyril Cusack's daughter Niamh Cusack, playes the wife of a gangland boss and Jaye Griifiths from Bugs, plays a shady lawyer.

However, Foyle has been given a reprive and is back on our screens at the weekend. The war is over, Foyle, played by Michael Kitchen is keen to retire and his aldy driver Sam is earning a living as an artists model. It's known that Honeysuckle Weeks is keen to reprise her role of SAm in a 60s sequel, maybe that'll be the next step

Good news about "Foyle." My wife has really enjoyed these to the point where she wants them all moved up the Netflix list. The war angle has been a fascinating addition to the normal police drama. Michael Kitchen has been good and I love the way he has such an understated manner whether he is being funny/sarcastic or giving someone a good talking to.

I have not watched "Frost." With watching "Foyle," "Midsomer Murders" and "Morse" (and a bit of "inspector Lewis" now and then) I have about all I can handle for now. And I know there are many more than even that series.

Frost is maybe similiar to Morse in the sense it's a whodunit, bit IMO it's grimmer in tone, dealing the violence in a working class setting IMO in the 90s John Thaw and David Jason were Britain's best two tv actors. Thaw', of course, played his other great cop creation, Jack Regan in The Sweeney. He also did the -moderately successful sit-com Home To Roost, about a middle-aged dad and his troublesome teenage son. Jason, however, starred in what many people consider the best sit-com Britain has ever produced Only Fools And Horses

I'm away to watch Touched By Frost, a lookback at the history of the show, with interviews with cast members

The three post-V-E Day episodes of Foyle will be shown on PBS in May. My wife and I are looking forward to them. She likes "Foyle's War" more than I do. I like some of the episodes (in particular the one about the guy who played chess with Foyle who turned out to be a murderer) better than others (the one about the black market in petrol. That one seemed like a history lesson disguised as a mystery.)

David Jason said that he wanted to play a dectective and that Morse inspired him into the genre. Jason himself read several detective stories, finding Frost was the only one that inspired him. In the pilot Frost played an unhappilly married man, whose wife was dying of cancer. After she died Frost had a short term affair with her nurse, only for his job to break them up. This was the begining of Frost short term relationships wliith women, who came second to his job. As Jason said, we couldn't marry Frost off, because it would just become Midsomer Murders, where Barnaby goes home to his wife. However, in the very last episode Frost walked off into the sunset with Phyliss Logan.

PS. Does nobody in America know of the Scot's cop show Taggart.

I've not heard of "Taggert." I don't see where I can rent it either.

What we get usually comes through out public television networks. They have been showing "Morse" and "Inspector Lewis" and "Foyle" lately. "Lynley" used to be on once in awhile. I've noticed that Sean Bean's "Sharpe" series has started up again (though unrelated to police dramas it is a nice surprise.)

Chris

The actor who played Linley, Nathaniel Parker, was recently in an accalimed war-time drama series Land Girls, playing an unhappily married Lord, who falls in love with one of the Land Girls working on his Estate

I found this link on Taggart

Taggart Fan Club Home Page
A site dedicated to the Scottish TV crime drama Taggart. Find information on all the episodes ever made, learn more about the cast and characters, buy DVDs and videos and meet ...

www.taggart-fanclub.co.uk · Cached page

My wife and I watched the first of the new "foyle's War" episodes last night. It dealt with the forced repatriation of Soviet POWs after WWII.

It was okay. Again, more of a history lesson than a mystery, but Michael Kitchen had two great scenes as he took down people who were snooty with him. And it is great to see Honeysuckle Weeks again in anything.

I really enjoyed the second episode of "Foyle's War" last night, about the murder of a British woman in love with a black GI. There was real emotional depth to this one. It didn't feel like a history lesson. Also, the mystery element was well done. Everyone was guilty of something.

I really enjoyed "The Blue Geranium," the Miss Marple PBS showed last night.

It was based on a short story instead of a novel, and given the tight time format "Mystery' has now (maybe 80 minutes total) I think fleshing out a short story is the way to go. The cast was terrific. It was nice to see one of the actresses from "Gosford Park" in the show last night.

Without a "Foyle's War" to watch my bride selected an "Inspector Lynley" film to see. I've not seen one before but found it reminded me more of a "Midsomer Murder." Overall we enjoyed it but found it a little hard to keep up on. This was mostly due to some Scottish accents and various sound levels in the dialog.

She's for giving another a go. I figure you have to watch three or four before you get a real handle on a series.

I watched the new David Suchet "Murder on the Orient Express" last night.

To my surprise, I really liked it. The station had technical problems during the middle of the broadcast, but the last 20 minutes, when Poirot has solved the case and has to determine what to do, was masterfully handled. In fact, it was handled better than in the Lumet movie, where Poirot simply agrees that the Widmark character was a jerk and had to die and lets everyone celebrate his death.

Here, Poirot agonized over what to do, let the murderers agonize over what they had done, and then made his decision. (It helped that the Yugoslav police who showed up were dressed in fascist-style uniforms. I don't know if that was historically accurate or not, but it was right for the scene. It gave the impression that if Poirot had said the passengers were guilty, the police would have shot them on the spot.)

Very well done.

I started the Poirot last night, but was interrupted several times, so it's waiting on the DVR for me. Just from the few scattered minutes I did get to see, it looked like the Poirot figure has been 'fleshed out' so to speak. Much more human, you actually see him fretting instead of just being "right" and moving on to the next crime. I'm really looking forward to this one.

Finishing the original end of "Foyle's War" called "All Clear" I was struck by how the news of the end of the war was handled. As the cast stood around the radio listening to Churchill there weren't cheers or shouts of joy. There were gentle tears and relief. (The party came later.)

It really touched me. Their sacrifice of every aspect of life and sometimes life itself could now be relaxed. Their fear of German invasion and bombings and the general upset of their lives could be put away. Now they could go back to work, they could get sugar, they could go places, they could turn on the lights.

Maybe since it was supposed to be the last episode the tears were less an act than their goodbye to each other but those few seconds made for powerful television.