I’ve just finished watching BBC’s 3 part series, ‘Sherlock’ – a modern day telling of the classic Conan-Doyle adventure stories.  I will admit that I watched with some trepidation, I’d first heard about this programme a few weeks back and had heard it was written by some guy who “wrote for Dr. Who” - immediately I discounted it because I’m really not a fan of the Time Lord for many reasons; 1) I really don’t like the writing, 2) I don’t like the acting and 3) I’m not a child.

It is only after some research did I find that the creators are actually Steven Moffat and Mark Gatis. Moffat has written some Dr. Who stuff but wasn’t the writer I was thinking about, turns out he was responsible for the awesome teen TV series Press Gang and of course, Mark Gatis is one of the genial/deranged minds behind A League of Gentlemen.

My other reservation about this programme was that it was set in the present and not in the glorious darkness of 19th century London, this means Holmes and Watson are placed among a world of mobile phones, laptops and modern motor vehicles – as someone who has enjoyed the Conan-Doyle texts I thought this might diminish the adventure somewhat. It has been pointed out to me that period scenery is rather much more expensive than filming in the present and no one wants a heavy set based programme, especially when so much of the story is based in and around a busy Central London.

Some of the use of 21st Century items I found a little bit heavy, the pushing of Watson to write his ‘blog‘ made me cringe. The more than once referrals to Holmes’ website (www.thescienceofdeduction.co.uk), and an early scene showing a press conference all receiving text messages at the same time but writing the words ‘wrong’ next to each character in the audience also seemed somewhat unnecessary.

Holmes appears to have lost his deerstalker hat, which is a shame but more shamefully he appears to have lost his trademark pipe, for Holmes is now reliant on Nicotine patches; “It’s a three patch problem” he says. What I cannot be sure of is that the writers intended this to be the case or pressure was applied to not have the leading character smoke, even this I don’t understand because the broadcast time and some of the writing clearly shows this programme wasn’t aimed at Children or family viewing. It’s a three pipe/patch problem perhaps?

The programme started with a part dream/flashback of Watson, played by Martin Freeman. Martin Freeman to me and to many others will always be Tim from The Office, I loved him then and I love him now, he’s still Tim but he’s now an ex Army doctor with a limp. We later meet Holmes who is played wonderfully by Benedict Cumberbatch, someone I seem to recognise but can’t quite remember where from. Cumberbatch has the face, the posture and the attitude of the Holmes that I’d always imagined from reading the text or listening to audio books; he and Freeman certainly make a good team.

The story was well written, and well executed. Dialogue and timing was very good, if not a bit hammy at times – but Conan-Doyle never really shy’d away from the ham himself. Overall I think it was a success, the character development was good, the acting fine and the writing clever and funny, a good tribute to a great story.

I’m looking forward to part II.

The first part of Sherlock is available on BBC iplayer until 15th August 2010.

p.s. the music throughout also really reminded me of the Dexter opening theme.

Wikipedia; CelebAir is an upcoming reality TV series, which will see 11 celebrities doing the jobs of cabin crew and check-in attendants. The series is to be presented by Angellica Bell and will air from 2 September 2008 on ITV2.

PRWeb: Award winning leisure airline Monarch will be sharing its 40 years of aviation experience with a host of famous faces from Monday 14 July, as its sets about training a group of celebrities, who must measure up to Monarch’s standards and take on roles across the airline including cabin crew, check-in and ticket desk.

PRWeb: [Also] commenting on CelebAir, Zai Bennett, Controller of ITV2 said: “CelebAir promises to be a huge reality event this autumn on ITV2. It is an incredibly ambitious project on a scale not seen before in reality TV. This definitely isn’t a show for work-shy celebrities, we’re taking on a real plane, with real passengers with real holidays to go on – it promises to be an amazing trip.”

It starts tonight (Tuesday) on ITV2 at 9pm – you have till then to smash up every Television set you own – British TV is officially dead.

Update: For stavros;

Chico – ‘singer’ who reached the quarter-finals of the 2005 series of the talent show The X Factor. Got to No. 1 in the UK singles chart with the amazing ‘It’s Chico Time’.

Amy Lamé – is an American born, British radio and television presenter, comedian, model, club promoter, and writer. Is on the radio with Danny Baker and has appeared on Loose Women and Richard and Judy.

Lisa Maffia – British model, presenter, writer, songwriter, singer-songwriter, and musician who originally came to the public’s attention as the main female member of So Solid Crew.

Michelle Marsh – an English glamour model noted for her large, natural breasts.

Dan O’Connor – is some guy from Australian Idol and is no on Neighbours.

Johnny Shentall – his wikipedia article is the best – one line;  was a member of the British pop group Hear’say in 2002 having replaced Kym Ryder. He is also the husband of pop singer Lisa Scott-Lee.

Tonight on the telly was Richard and Judy’s Christmas Book Party featuring a lot of snotty nosed kids and R&J’s celebrity friends selling their books. God it was awful. I’m all for people reading more but seriously is reading Trinny and Susanna telling you what not to wear or how Gordon Ramsay’s dad was a twat really going to do much for the brain? hmmm

But to be fair it’s not just Christmas shit which is comforting the brain dead on a saturday night, oh no;

Strictly Come Dancing has been on the telly for 3 months so far and for some reason people keep watching it, god knows why. I tried to watch it all the way through today to see what all the fuss is about but it’s a no go.

The only thing worth watching was Eastender’s ‘Ruby’ outfit getting smaller and smaller every week but alas she’s just been voted off. Booo Hisss

I watched a bit of X-Factor tonight too, there is this one girl who has an amazing voice and should win the contest hands down although I fear for her career after the show – as previous winners have bombed in the past.

I’m off to watch more shit telly now, I’ll keep you informed.

UPDATE: The rest of Saturday nights TV was pretty shit to be honest. I watched a bit of 100 top Childrens TV which was recorded about 5 years ago, watched Danny Williams get his nose broken by Audley Harrison and then QI. All in all, a very dissapointing telly viewing session.

I’m sat at my desk now waiting and watching for the launch of a space shuttle, I love watching the launch stuff – it has the most noise and excitment. Just imagine how you’d be feeling right now if you were inside that shuttle waiting for a ton of explosives to ignite and send you to the heavens above at something like 17,000 miles per hour. I’d be shitting it.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Cindy Sheehan said she will be part of the live audience during the president’s State of the Union speech to congress Tuesday.

Bay Area Congresswoman Lynn Woosley gave anti-war activist a gallery pass late Tuesday, just hours before the planned State of the Union speech. Sheehan was in Washington to protest the president during his national address, but then came word she was invited to see the speech live.

A spokesman for Sheehan says she decided to accept the invitation two hours prior to the speech. The spokesman also said that Sheehan will be respectful and listen to the address because she is a guest of a member of congress.

Well, she wont have chance cause she’s just been arrested according to CNN.

“Let us never forget the sacrifices of America’s military families.” (applause) — George W. Bush, State of the Union, Jan. 31, 2006

Land of the Free, god bless America huh? Still, it’s not like we’d do that sort of thing is it?

P.S. The State of the union is no way near as good as the Queens Speech!

P.P.S Jesus, it’s like watching a celebrity big brother, non stop applause for some air head that’s done absolulty fuck all good for his country. What a joke.

P.P.P.S Oh here we go. Not even a minute in and he’s talking about defeating those who hate freedom. Now he’s just mentioned 911…….Oh and WMD’s, wondered how long that would be.

I think I have to turn this prick off now or I’m going to smash the telly.

OH YES HE JUST MENTIONED IRAN.

“We’re the nation who saved Europe” – thats it…..good night.

It’s not often I get hooked to a TV programme, certainly not a High Gloss American one but Lost really has me gripped. It’s about a group of people on a plane from Sydney to LA which crashes on a seemingly desert island. Most of the people on the plane die but 40 off people survive with nothing more than scratches. It’s quite unusual for a TV programme to have more than about 5 main characters but Lost focus’s on about 10 or 12. Each episode they try to find a way to get off the island, stay alive or try and work out the Island’s mysterious secret but it also gives us chance to meet the characters with flash backs

I started watching this on Channel 4 but the ad breaks we’re really disruptive, no sooner did you get into the story it would break (pretty much every ten minutes) – I found a place to download them (sorry Channel 4, you’re fault) with the ad breaks cut out.

The series is difficult to explain but it’s kinda like Robinson Crusoe crossed with Eerie Indiana and Twin Peaks – the great thing is it seems both the writers and certainly the cast don’t know what’s going on either, they only record each episode three weeks before it goes to air. You can see the uncertainly in the actors faces.

All the way thorough the series you learn more, but nothing really makes sense – 25 episodes later I’m still non the wiser. Is there a monster on the island, are they in purgatory, will they ever make it alive?

Season two starts in 2 weeks in the States. I hope I can get hold of it somehow.

I watched Last Night of the Proms last night – the highlight of which being the massive rendition of Rule Britannia, made even better by live pictures and sound from Hyde Park, Cardiff, Glasgow, Belfast and Manchester. We’re generally not that patriotic and most of us hate the flag waving Americans but the Last night seems to invoke real pride into people.

It brings me on to the brilliant song Jerusalem – a feat of historical genius: Blake’s words, Parry’s music and Elgar‘s arrangement. The song that was created to raise spirits during the Great War is still probably one of the most widely sung in England.

The worst thing about the proms is the ‘national anthem’ sung right at the end. After all this patriotism, ‘isn’t Britain great’ sort of stuff. We end up singing a piss poor song about a woman who ended up Queen cause her uncle couldn’t cope! Which brings me onto the programme that followed on BBC FOUR: Jerusalem
- An Anthem for England. People like David Mellor and Billy Bragg talk about why it should be the English National Anthem, Keith Allen talked about how he used a Black Gospel and all Gay Choirs in his Fat Les video to piss off the BNP and National Front and Various Clergy men talked about why the Church has banned the song from many parish services.

The last part about Churches is interesting, Jerusalem is thought of as a Hymn by many but when you break it down it’s really not. Schools we’re publicly encouraged to sing it, The WI took it as their anthem but the Church of England doesn’t like Blake’s words…….and Blake didn’t like the Church – He once said that Churches were the synagogues of Satan. He was a spiritual person but hated organised religion, some people think that his questions in the poem were metaphors for many things – I guess we’ll never know.

I for one think it’s an amazing, emotional tune and is really worthy of being the English National Anthem – Billy Blag made a really good point that the poem isn’t about what England IS, but what England COULD BE. Spritiual or not, I love it.

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land