Hans Christian Andersen - My Life as a Fairytale (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)Kieren Bew and Emily Hamilton bring most of the emotional and acting highs to this delightful production.
The art direction and styling of this splendrous melding of Hans Christian Andersen and his memorable stories are unforgettable.
Bew brings a delightfully childlike and charmingly bubbly prescence that disarms one and allows us into the mind and true story of one of history's delightful creations.
I recommend this very highly. To those who cherish Andersen and those have not been spoiled by this present world of in-your-face theatrics and slam-bang storytelling. All is not happy in this tale. But that's life...as Hans readily admits.
The pace is free and easy. Buy it, make yourself a cup of tea and sit back. Enjoy.

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The Diary of a Nobody (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)Mr. Charles Pooter, the diary author in "THE DIARY OF A NOBODY", is a nobody, but he simply fails to notice. He is content with life, almost. He presents his diary in a verbal (in this DVD)format, speaking directly to the camera. He most enthusiastically orates about his common middle-class social and family events (the very ones he's written in the diary.) He feels assured the world will eventually enjoy his written diary--when published. Is he the Suburban Snob of 1892? Certainly it's perfected pompousness.
I can not imagine "THE DIARY OF A NOBODY" being as funny without hearing and seeing Pooter (Hugh Bonneville) presenting the diary in dialogue. It's strictly British humor, but at it's Victorian finest. Bonneville's ability to project emotion and expressions is near perfection. Hugh Bonneville can say as much with a lifted eyebrow, an eye roll, a gesture, or a voice change, as what is provided in the script.
In Pooter's written (spoken in this DVD version) accounts, he makes the occasional joke--usually unappreciated by others. A time or two Pooter laughs so hard at his own merriment that he resembles Red Skelton's famous moments of belly-laughing at his own humor.
Pooter loves his 'Home Sweet Home' which is near the rail tracks. He had just moved into the new rental as the diary began, April of 1891. The diary ends in May of 1892. The home is called The Laurels (even though it has no laurels growing, but Pooter and his wife, Carrie, might plant some). It is London, suburbia, Victorian, and the train traffic makes the house quake frequently. But Pooter adjusts. The many views of the 6 or 7 rooms, as well as Pooter's employment location, provides a complete, delightful look at London Victorian living in a middle-class dwelling. Furnished with period pieces and accents, right down to the tea cups and boot scrapper (which is a constant complaint). And the Christmas holiday tops off the Victorian aesthetics. WOW!
So what does Pooter write about? Lupin, the not-so-perfect son and his engagement with a not-so-perfect, older, fatter, uglier, Miss Daisy Mutlar. Spouse spats. His boss, Mr. Perkupp, and Pooter's downns and upps with Perkupp. Social engagements gone afoul or well. Costs, especially with drinks. Stocks, encouraged by his son. Bad lobsters. Friends, Cummings and Gowing, and their comings and goings. And that darn boot scrapper.
The DVD features explained that the term "Pooterism" (taking oneself too seriously) evolved from this work first published in a magazine (1888), then book in 1882 (still in print today), this film via BBC (2007), and now this DVD. The book was written by brothers, George & Weedon Grossmith, biography also in the bonus stuff.
Plus more, but no subtitles--BOOGER!
4 episodes totaling just shy of two hours. In the end my wife and I had enjoyed actor, Hugh Bonneville, as Charles Pooter so much, we finally ceased smiling and laughing. Why? It was over. Sad to see it end.
If you like the subtlety of British comedy, then you'll LOVE this CLASSIC British humor book brought to film/DVD. An astonishing one man show. Listen to Pooter's words, watch him, "For he's the jolly good fellow."

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The British comedy classic adapted by Emmy®-winner Andrew Davies
First published in 1892, The Diary of a Nobody has never been out of print, and Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited) proclaimed it "the funniest book in the world." As adapted by award-winning screenwriter Andrew Davies (Bleak House, Pride and Prejudice), this comic masterpiece leaps to life in all its quirky glory.
In a fantastic solo performance, Hugh Bonneville (Iris, Daniel Deronda) perfectly captures the small mind and large aspirations of Mr. Charles Pooter, a middle-aged, middle-class city clerk in late Victorian England who chronicles his daily domestic and social frustrations. Home improvements, petty humiliations, accidents involving an iron boot scraper, tiffs with his wife Carrie, pained encounters with their mildly rebellious son Lupin, visits from friends Mr. Cummings and Mr. Gowing: all are reported by the pompous Pooter in hilarious detail.
"I fail to see--because I do not happen to be a \'Somebody\'--why my diary should not be interesting," Mr. Pooter writes. No blogger ever said it better.
DVD FEATURES INCLUDE biography of authors George and Weedon Grossmith and Hugh Bonneville filmography.

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The Road from Coorain (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)I think this is a wonderful adaptation of a wonderful novel. The acting is superb. The cinematography exquisite. Juliet Stevenson and Tim Guinee are extraordinary. It is well worth your time.

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The Robinsons - Complete Series One (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)With its darkish humor, fine ensemble acting and atypical writing, this series deserves the chance to develop beyond a single season. For now, it's still a bit predictable and at times strains for a laugh, but it does manage to remain darkly funny over the course of each installment. The cast does a good job of portraying several familial archetypes -- especially Martin Freeman of "Tim" and "Arthur Dent" fame, again playing a worthy and charming loser who routinely finds himself on the wrong end of almost every situation.
To break out of the typical sitcom formula we also witness the myriad setbacks experienced by his more successful siblings. Setbacks they seem unable to recognize thanks to their ability to protect their egos with their professional accomplishments -- something Freeman's character has been stripped of. So what adds a little more shading here is the different ways in which these people respond to their own problems and the way they subsequently skew the view of their family members' problems. In short, no matter how strange their individual failings may be, anyone and everyone else is assumed to be even worse off.
There's a further twist as well -- albeit a somewhat gimmicky one. This pattern of failures and missed opportunities are given an inherited dimension by visiting a stream of odd and eccentric family failures down through the generations. At times these asides work well and play off the current storyline, and at other times they seem just stuck on to give the writers and audience alike a breather. When it works, it's funny. When it doesn't it offers a little twinge similar to the pain that some of those should-have-been-abandoned Python sketches pioneered.
While "The Robinsons" is yet some distance from reaching the polished and perfect pitch of "The Office", the present is above average television comedy, and the future potential remains high. Let's hope this loser wins in the end.

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The Robinsons are not related to any of the famous Robinsons: Edward G, Smokey or even Sugar Ray. No, they are a plain, run-of-the-mill family from Wimbledon, South London who have "done quite well". All of them, that is, except the youngest, Ed (Martin Freeman), (the black sheep of the family) who's 32, recently divorced after a disastrous marriage that lasted 5 ? months, doing a job that he hates and living in his aunt's flat in Bermondsey. What has gone wrong in his life? I mean, how difficult is it to find a girlfriend, a decent job, a good dry-cleaners and the meaning of life?

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Sergeant Cribb: The Horizontal Witness (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)Whether it involves brutal, bare-knuckle boxing, hip-swiveling walk races, Victorian houses of pleasure or English boarding schools for privileged boys, Detective Inspector Cribb is unfazed and unimpressed. Although polite, that includes his dealings with his betters.
Sergeant Cribb - Set Two includes six one-hour mysteries, two from the first season from 1980 and four from the second season from 1981. As originally broadcast, according to IMDb, the first season had eight shows and the second season had six.
Cribb, played by Alan Dobie, is a Scotland Yard detective in Victorian London. He's smart, and smart enough to defer to his superiors both in Scotland Yard and in society. He has a wry sense of humor. He'll probably never get promoted. He is very good at his job. He's aided by Detective Constable Thackery (William Simons), a steadfast but none too bright copper. His superior, Inspector Jowett (David Waller), is an elderly gent of the old school, comfortable with his club and highly deferential to royalty.
The mysteries in this set are for the most part clever with solutions that make sense. What makes them interesting, however, is the evocation of Victorian life. In set two we find ourselves in an elegant Victorian bawdy house, a nursery in Windsor Castle and an "old boy's" boarding school. The production values are high, from the details of Victorian working life to the well-tailored tails and gowns of wealthy Englishmen and their ladies at dinner.
One of the pleasures of British mystery series is the acting depth. Almost without exception the acting is first-rate, from the smallest parts of elderly gents and maids to the lead roles. David Waller, for instance, is the epitome of the older, well-fed, complacent English gentleman, stuffy, experienced, supportive of Cribb -- but not too supportive. Then watch his performance as Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1978). Same man, same physical appearance, but here he is a shrewd politician, not unsympathetic to Edward, and fully prepared to be ruthless in protecting what he sees as the integrity of the crown.
Sergeant Cribb is a well-produced, well acted entry into the category of British TV mysteries. The DVD color transfer is well done. The extras in set two include information about author Peter Lovesey and key actor filmographies.

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AS SEEN ON PBS MYSTERY!Unravelling the mysterious and lurid crimes of Victorian societyBased on the novels of prize-winning author Peter Lovesey and filled with lavish period detail and jaw-dropping plot twists, the adventures of Sergeant Cribb cast a spotlight on the dark underbelly of Victorian life.From the vulgar brothels of London’s fogbound streets to the respectable royal apartments of Windsor Castle, Sergeant Cribb maintains a level head and a wry sense of humour to unravel complex crimes in Queen Victoria’s England. A detective of Scotland Yard’s newly formed Criminal Investigation Department, Cribb receives little support for his efforts from his superiors. Wearing his trademark bowler hat and squeaky boots, Cribb relies on his own shrewdness and the plodding assistance of Constable Thackeray to expose the vile deeds of Victorian criminals. approx. 298 mins. col.Includes: The Horizontal Witness / Something Old, Something New / The Hand That Rocks the Cradle / The Last Trumpet / The Choir That Wouldn’t Sing / Murder Old Boy?

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