This month I have decided to journey back in time to some of the golden oldies of UK and US television<\/p>\n
Amazon Prime<\/strong> Jewel in The Crown<\/strong> Netflix<\/strong> More recent series that have caught my eye on Netflix All 4<\/strong> And Finally.<\/strong> \u201cSophia Loren, 86, returns to the screen after a decade to play a Holocaust survivor who raises the children of prostitutes. There is not a single false note in Loren\u2019s magnificent performance. Just sit back and behold.\u201d Peter Travers ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This month I have decided to journey back in time to some of the golden oldies of UK and US television Amazon Prime Twin Peaks During Lockdown 1 we decided, as a family, to watch all 48 episodes of David Lynch\u2019s classic. It was a revelation not only for how entertaining it was, but I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-5370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts","category-reviews","tag-nic-jeune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5729,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370\/revisions\/5729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTwin Peaks<\/strong>
\nDuring Lockdown 1 we decided, as a family, to watch all 48 episodes of David Lynch\u2019s classic. It was a revelation not only for how entertaining it was, but I realised, I had forgotten so much of the plot and the strange obsessions of the director and his co-writer Mark Frost. F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper is one of the most enjoyable and inspiring characters in television history. His simple passions and quirky behaviour was a welcomed sight in our living rooms every week during the shows very short run in the late 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s. \u201cTwin Peaks\u201d started out on fire, gaining exposure during the pilot\u2019s multiple airings. The mystery of Laura Palmer\u2019s murderer practically invented conversations at the water cooler.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere\u2019s nothing we can do,\u201d says one character at the end. \u201cAfter 300 years of India, we\u2019ve made this whole damned, bloody, senseless mess.\u201d
\nThe actors are all excellent, but Tim Piggott Smith as Ronald Merrick is quite extraordinary, a character who is both disturbing and strangely pitiable.
\n\u201cSaturated in gin fizz and repressed emotion, The Jewel in the Crown sits alongside Brideshead Revisited as the high-water mark of 1980s British TV. Understated and hugely poignant, its 14 episodes trace the decline of the British Raj\u201d
\nAlexandra Coghlan, The Guardian .<\/p>\n
\nThe Thick of It<\/strong>
\n24 episodes worth of satire on the lack of competence of British politicians! Peter Capaldi\u2019s character Malcolm Tucker has all the best lines peppered with many expletives.<\/p>\n
\nCall My Agent<\/strong>
\nA French series where in every episode a famous French star plays themselves as a client of the agency. Endlessly entertaining melodramatic French farce set in Paris.
\nEmily in Paris<\/strong>
\nThis is Paris through the eyes of a young American on her first ever visit. The series creator is Darren Star who created Sex and The City. Emily\u2019s main adversary Sylvie Grateau is played by Phillipine Leroy-Beaulieu who is also a key player in Call My Agent. However, opinions are divided on this series:
\n\u201cNone of the same praise can be levelled toward Star\u2019s newest effort, \u201cEmily in Paris.\u201d All of the criticisms that have previously been levelled at Star are actually valid when it comes to the Netflix series, which is so devoid of narrative tension that it barely qualifies as entertainment.\u201d Roxana Hadadi Roger Ebert.com
\n\u201cYes, Emily In Paris is unrealistic. But when it comes to escapist TV, reality is overrated\u201d
\nHadley Freeman. The Guardian.<\/p>\n
\nThe West Wing<\/strong>
\nIf like me, you were glued to the US election there are 155 episodes about the presidency of Josiah \u201cJed\u201d Bartlett, a Democrat. Created by Aaron Sorkin one of the great storytellers of US television, The West Wing won 26 Emmy\u2019s including Outstanding Drama Series which it won four consecutive times from 2000-2003.
\n\u201cat heart The West Wing was a civic romance in love with democracy, and it didn\u2019t care who knew it.\u201d Time Magazine rated it one of the best series of all time.<\/p>\n
\nNetflix premieres a film starring Sophia Loren. One of the great stars of Cinema. Winner of an Oscar in 1962 (\u201cLa ciociara\u201d), nominated for another Oscar in 1965 (\u201cMatrimonio all\u2019italiana\u201d) and now 56 years later is tipped to be nominated for The Life Ahead (La vita davanti a s\u00e9)<\/p>\n