25 replies to this topic

[Lynette]

Interesting series I think - like the good old days when they used to put plays on the telly. I've enjoyed them all so far.

[Poly]

Theatre related programmes on tv and radio, May 7th to 13th
http://theatre.revst...o-may-7-13.html

[Reich]

I watched http://www.bbc.co.uk...oter_Episode_1/

and found it interesting. I like the chap’s down to earth approach and the passion that the dancers show

[xanderl]

^{Channel 4 on Tuesday 21st at 22:00 (or possibly 22:30, can't remember), has "Toast of London", a pilot for a new sitcom about a West End actor, Stephen Toast, played by Matt Berry of the IT Crowd. It's written by Matt Berry and Arthur Matthews.}

[Epicoene]

TV for theatre fans is a bit of a contradiction in terms.

I thought the recent supporting documentaries for the BBC History Plays season (for example with Derek Jacobi and Trevor Nunn) were really poor.

One show I can warmly recommend if you want a good laugh is "Inside The Actor's Studio", not sure if they show it somewhere on Sky but you can see it in its full glory in USA - its basic premise is that any words uttered by an actor on any topic at all should be treated with the same reverence and respect as was afforded to Moses when he came back with the tablets. For fawning sycophancy it is matchless.

[mallardo]

Indeed, Inside The Actor's Studio is a parody of itself thanks to the "fawning" pretentiousness of its lugubrious host, James Lipton.  A few years back Saturday Night Live did a send-up of it with Will Ferrell, complete with sculpted goatee, doing Lipton to perfection.  I heartily recommend it if you can find it on some old DVD collection of their shows.

[xanderl]

xanderl, on 17 August 2012 - 08:13 AM, said:

^{Channel 4 on Tuesday 21st at 22:00 (or possibly 22:30, can't remember), has "Toast of London", a pilot for a new sitcom about a West End actor, Stephen Toast, played by Matt Berry of the IT Crowd. It's written by Matt Berry and Arthur Matthews.}

... and it was pretty terrible!

[Epicoene]

mallardo, on 21 August 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

Indeed, Inside The Actor's Studio is a parody of itself thanks to the "fawning" pretentiousness of its lugubrious host, James Lipton.  A few years back Saturday Night Live did a send-up of it with Will Ferrell, complete with sculpted goatee, doing Lipton to perfection.  I heartily recommend it if you can find it on some old DVD collection of their shows.

Yes, the Ferrell parody was perfect, right down to the gigantic stack of (unused) prompt cards Lipton arms himself with (you can find the clip on YouTube I think). I think the Lipton show is still going, I saw an excellent one fairly recently with Antony Hopkins peddling his CD of songs, or was it his paintings ? One of his secondary activities that his wife tells him he is a genius at anyway, Lipton was in awe at such wide-ranging talent.

[richard2711]

I do like Inside the Actors' Studio. I particularly loved the Daniel Radcliffe episode. I hadn't been that much of a fan up until I saw that, and now I think he's great!

[The Glenbuck Laird]

Epicoene, on 21 August 2012 - 02:10 PM, said:

TV for theatre fans is a bit of a contradiction in terms.

Depends how you look at it. My stage love of Olivia Colman now means I will watch everything that I see she is performing in.

Do the two genres cross over? Yeah for me in many ways they do