Does anyone remember when Channel 4 was a politically and artistically radical station: Czech animations, French filth, hard-hitting investigative journalism, weird comedy? If so, you're clearly quite old, because now it just shows tat for brain-damaged 13-year olds at the behest of advertisers.
I liked Nightingales - a wonderful, odd sit-com. It's set in an office block (filmed in Birmingham), at night, and the characters are all security guards, so it's got all the ingredients for success: an enclosed space, an enclosed community and a degree of oddity, not least in the characterisation: losers, poseurs and a dead man. And Robert Lindsay, when he was famous for quality acting (like the landmark political thriller GBH, which you can watch here), not My Family.
Here's a clip:
i've been lurking on your blog for months reading it through google reader, but just had to say *thank you* for reminding me of just how good "nightingales" was. hopefully now they've let "absolutely" out of the vaults, they'll dig this out too. channel 4 was a wonderful channel to be growing up watching and then - pfft - they hit the late nineties and just went AWOL. sad really...
ReplyDeleteHi Crispy, and welcome.
ReplyDeleteI see one of your blogs is 'Irk the Purist'. Do I assume that's a Half Man Half Biscuit reference? If so, I salute you.
Crispy is Chris Browning, author of the rather wonderful humorous Victorian pastiche The Common Swings: read a Forbidden Planet review here:
ReplyDeletehttp://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/the-common-swings/
Oh yes, those were indeed the days. Who could forget the brilliance of Eurotrash - in fact I've still got a soft spot for cheesy Euro-pop which I'm sure is thanks to that programme.
ReplyDeleteAnd wasn't it Channel 4 which had that surreal animation with plasticine cats?
Everything now is so sanitised and corporate.
Nightingales DVD available on Amazon!
ReplyDeleteHurrah! And great name, Nobody…!
ReplyDeleteAh, Eurotrash… I also miss The Word.