Lara Pulver photo from Sherlock

Nice high quality photo of her Pulverness that I found floating around the interweb.

http://hatimoon.tumblr.com/post/14460239440/lindcherry-lara-pulver-in-sherlock-a-scandal-in

What to watch on TV this Christmas

Here's a few things that I will be watching on TV this Christmas.

On Christmas Day there is of course Doctor Who on BBC1 at 7pm. I expect there will be lots of running around and a soppy ending. Flying sharks will be unlikely this year. That's so 2010.

Later that evening there is a two-hour special of Downton Abbey. If there isn't anything better on I expect I'll give it a go while eating After Eights and Terrys Chocolate Orange segments.

(I'm still a bit miffed that they killed off the nice Miss Swire in the last episode. The poor thing had doomed written all over her the moment she turned up with Wet Matthew.)

Anyway. Back on the BBC from Tuesday 27 December to Thursday 29 December we have a new adaptation of Charles Dickens Great Expectations. Do we need another one so soon since the last one in 1999? Maybe not, but we're getting one and I'll be watching. Gillian Anderson (returning to Dickens after 2005's Bleak House) plays Miss Haversham. But here's a photo of Vanessa Kirby as Estella, mainly because she looks prettttyyyy.

Finally on New Years Day we can look forward to the return of Sherlock and the long awaited event that is Lara Pulver as Irene Adler. I expect I'll have something to write about that.

Two Missing Doctor Who Episodes Found

During the summer I found myself getting into classic Doctor Who and in the process purchased numerous Target novels, video tapes and DVDs. Along the way I got an appreciation for just how frustrating it is that so many 1960s episodes are missing due to the BBCs policy of junking film copies and wiping video tapes.

Therefore I spotted what was some unexpected good news online this morning, namely the discovery of two more missing episodes of 1960s Doctor Who. It had been a number of years since an episode was discovered and the count of missing episodes now stands at 106.

The episodes discovered were from the William Hartnell story Galaxy Four and the Patrick Troughton story The Underwater Menace. Hopefully this will inspire film buffs to double-check their attics for episodes from The Power of the Daleks or The Wheel in Space!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16136521

Lara Pulver photos from Sherlock

The BBC has released a couple of photos of Lara Pulver as Irene Adler from the forthcoming second series of Sherlock.

The new episodes are due in the new year, but just to confuse things the new Sherlock Holmes movie is also imminent.

The Killing II vs PanAm

So what to watch on Saturday night?

On BBC4 we have the followup to critically acclaimed The Killing. Nordic angst, grisly murder, chunky jumpers, frowning. And a double-bill no less.

On BBC2 we have fluffy frothy pretty but empty Pan Am, Mad Men lite as it were. It's got pretty air hostesses in the 1960s wearing fetching blue uniforms. And a double-bill no less.

For the first night of The Killing I decided that it would get my vote. Bring on the murder and the frowning. I thought the first episode was pretty good. But half-way through the second one I found myself stuck in a political meeting and with a shock I realised I was bored. So I gave up on The Killing half-way through episode 2.

Then this weekend I decided to pick up with episode 3, get back in the game. Bring on the jumpers and the angst! Very quickly thereafter I found myself in another political meeting and I realised I was bored. I quickly turned over to BBC2 to watch Pan Am. Yes, it was fluffy and frothy and empty, but in a pleasant way. The girls were pretty and looked good in their blue uniforms. There was even some sort of spy plot involving Goran from ER.

So until there is a director's cut of The Killing with all the political meetings removed my vote will be with Pan Am.

Kelly Sotherton: I don't want to get to 60 and think 'if only'

Another Kelly Sotherton article has appeared, this time in The Guardian. Hence me buying the paper during my lunch-break.

The British Olympian was told she would never compete again, slipped into depression and lost her funding, but now she has ambitions at London 2012 as well as Strictly Come Dancing.

Kelly Sotherton is taking nothing for granted but is planning to live off her savings and train through the winter at Birmingham's high performance centre.

"It's rubbish, really," Kelly Sotherton says, laughing defiantly at the fact that, last Sunday, she turned 35. Seven weeks since returning to training for the heptathlon, the gruelling multi-event discipline in which she once fractured her spine in between winning bronze medals at the Olympic Games and the world championships, Sotherton shrugs. "They're really cruel in athletics. As soon as you reach 35 they put a 'V' next to your name. V for veteran. Honestly.

You can read the whole article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/14/kelly-sotherton-london-2012-olympics?newsfeed=true

Rebecca Hall in Radio Times

I discovered that Rebecca Hall is in the new issue of the Radio Times so I bought a copy and scanned the pages.

The fact that Christina Ricci was on the cover in a 1960s air hostess uniform might have had something to do with me picking up the magazine in the first place...