Alice in Tellyland and other bits as well...
particularly Martin Short and Gene Wilder. The only weak point is the ever present Whoopie Goldberg. Is there some sort of law about including Whoopie in every show broadcast these days, if so I beg for it to be repealed.
Now that I've discovered the Hallmark Alice I'm going to have to catch up with the other Hallmark productions I'd previously dismissed as being typical network tripe, hopefully the likes of Merlin (which I saw a bit of when it was first broadcast) and The Odyssey will be just as good. Speaking of movies, and we are really, aren't we, the latest UKTV series to spawn a big screen feature is Harry Enfield & Chums. No, it's not a wide screen sketch-fest a la Python's And Now For Something Completely Different, but, a starring vehicle for the awkward teenage duo of Kevin and Perry in Kevin and Perry Go Large. Now, I haven't seen the film, but it seems a shame they chose these particular characters for a big screen whirl. Enfield and Co. have created so many inspired characters and these awkward teens are frankly middle ground stuff. That said, the reviews were okay and the movie's made it's share of lolly in the UK, so, it can't be all that bad, especially considering the vast talents leading the way in Enfield and Kathy Burke.
Kathy Burke has defiantly been making her mark recently with a string of top notch turns in such films as the harrowing Gary Oldman-helmed Nil By Mouth and the Oscar-snubbed Elizabeth (which was eschewed in favour of the vastly inferior, although enjoyable, Shakespeare in Love, which featured its own troupe of telly vets including the wily Martin Clunes (Men Behaving Badly). Originally pigeonholed as a kitchen sink drama queen, Burke has proved herself a phenomenally capable actress in whatever medium she chooses.
While I doubt Kevin and Perry will see much of a stateside release, we are getting coop full of familiar voices in Dreamworks/Aardman's Chicken Run. Timothy Spall (whose turn in Nice Day at the Office still ranks as an all-time fave of mine), Miranda Richardson (again), AbFab's Julia Sawalha, and Jane Horrocks (AbFab / Little Voice) are among the talent lending their vocal cords to this feature film premiere from Nick Park, the man behind Wallace and Grommit. I'm defiantly going to make time to check this out at my local bijou ASAP.
One last thing while we're still in the vicinity of cinema - If anyone knows
of a source for a NTSC versions of Morcambe and Wise's films The
Intelligence Men, That Riviera Touch and The Magnificent
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