FlashForward episode 1

FlashForward arrived on channel five last night accompanied with a lot of hype. What a relief that it turned out to be actually quite good. I won't dwell on the set-up for too long. Basically everyone on the planet blacks out and has a vision of what they will be doing on 29 April 2010. When they wake up they discover the planet is a disaster zone because, well, everyone blacked out.

I have to say that the nearly post-apocalyptic aftermath of the blackouts was well presented.

The show gets to ask the continually interesting time travel question: If you know what's going to happen can you change things, or does your foreknowledge actually make it happen.

Lots of British cast members are in this show. I counted Joseph Feinnes, Jack Davonport and Alex Kingston. Dominic Monaghan is supposed to be in the show later. And special mention for Sonja Wagler. She's not British but played Penny in Lost, who was British.



(Actually I got great enjoyment from saying "Penny!" every time she was on screen. I tried to say it in a Desmond accent but was largely unsuccessful. She was also in the Terminator TV show but sadly got killed off. It's nice to see Sonja get a new show.)

Oh, the new Mr Sulu is in this also.

One question that wasn't answered was why did the visions of the future not have people going, "huh, deja vu."

Oh, and at least one person did not black out! I bet it was Dominic Monaghan!

So until the remake of V comes along this will do nicely.

Emma in Radio Times plus actual broadcast date

I knew that Emma would be on our screens soon, but I had no idea it would be as early as next Sunday, 4 October 2009. I discovered this fact when I had a look at the new issue of the Radio Times today which has actress Romola Garai prominently displayed on the cover.

Below are the my inevitable scans. They are a bit big, mind.









What else can I tell you? It's comprised of four episodes. It's written by Sandy Welch who did such a fine job on Jane Eyre 3 years ago. Johnny Lee Miller is in it which is confusing as he was in the Mansfield Park movie a few years ago. Christina Cole is in it but is not listed in the cast list for the first episode. Michael Gambon is in it and he's always good value.

There was an interesting fact in the article: Wuthering Heights sat unaired for a couple of years because ITV has to pay a big chunk of the production costs when things are shown and they couldn't afford it! In fact the article looks at the likelihood (or otherwise) of seeing costume drams over the coming years. Small Island gets a mention too.

Oh, by the way, I've just realised that I started this blog thing about a year ago. Happy birthday to me.

Lara Pulver photo finds

Just found some nice photos of Lara Pulver at some events.

first of all here are some photos captioned "Actress Lara Pulver attends The Paley Center presents Inside Parade: The True Story That Inspired The Tony-Winning Musicalat The Paley Center for Media on September 21, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California."







And here are some from last year captioned "Lara Pulver arrives for the Laurence Olivier Awards 2008 at Grosvenor House on March 9, 2008 in London, England."

Small Island tie-in cover plus broadcast date

This week sees the publication of the Small Island tie-in edition and a cover has finally turned up online. As I hoped Ruth Wilson is on the cover. In fact the cover image mirrors the photo on the earlier editions but this time substitutes the actresses. So here's the cover:


The tie-in book was officially published on 17 September 2009 and Amazon UK seems to have the best price at the moment.


According to today's Times newspaper Small Island will be on the BBC in "early November". Also Jane Austen's Emma will be on in "early October".

Christina Cole in BBC's Emma

Huh. I didn't realise it had been so long since my last post. I guess I've had a lot on my mind...

Anyway, today I found this very high quality photo of Christina Cole in the upcoming BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. The photo was found on the shootastic site where there are many photos of the other cast members.