Hauling Like A Brooligan

Stephen Gallagher

Category: television

  • Back to the Murder Rooms

    Is it Box Set or Boxed Set? One’s wrong but sounds right, the other’s right but… oh, never mind. The main thing is that the series of TV-feature length Murder Rooms mysteries produced by BBC Films is finally getting a widescreen DVD release in the UK. Created by David Pirie out of a two-hour special…

  • Chimera for Sale – Sold!

    A note via the website from Stefan – who says he recalls being scared witless by Chimera, as well he might since he was nine years old at the time – sent me to check out this item at movie collectables and memorabilia dealer The Prop Store. Here’s the text, to save you from squinting:…

  • Revisiting Robinson

    In a message via the contact page, Nancy wrote: My family and I have really enjoyed watching the Crusoe series but wish we knew how the story would have ended. Do you have any ideas how you would have reunited Robinson and Susannah? Well I do, and I did, although in series TV drama it’s…

  • Science and Sensation

    I love this. Under the headline, Experts Warn Over Humanising Apes, the Associated Press has put out a lengthy science piece which has been picked up by, among others, The Independent – in fact it’s being reprinted everywhere, from Pravda to The York Advertiser. It begins Action is needed now to prevent nightmarish “Planet Of…

  • Saturday Event

    On Saturday I’m giving a talk-with-clips about my TV career at the Lass O’Gowrie on Charles Street in Manchester, and as the day gets closer I’m growing convinced that no one is going to turn up. If you’ve an events diary or similar feature and might be interested in giving it a mention, feel free…

  • Paranoia and the Legacy of PKD

    The Gary Sinise movie based on Philip K Dick’s Impostor was a waste of the premise, but one of my earliest and most vivid TV memories is of a 1962 adaptation in ABC’s Out of this World anthology series (that’s the British ABC, the one that produced The Avengers, not the US network). (That’s the…

  • The Killing 2

    No spoilers, but thanks to a friend with connections I’ve been getting a sneak preview of Forbrydelsen II and it (probably wisely) doesn’t attempt to replicate the first season’s slow-burning emotional drive. It’s more of a mystery thriller, revolving around a deeply-buried secret in the recent past of a Danish military unit. Imagine if Michael…

  • ‘king Crimson

    I’ve been catching up with The Crimson Petal and the White and it’s an encouraging reminder of BBC2’s much better days, though I’m uneasy at the BBC’s current operating assumption that the only acceptable historical drama involves shagging or lesbians. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll happily watch either, but the feeling’s like that of reading…

  • Who Loves Ya

    To quote The Fast Show, this week I has mostly been watching Doctor Who. I hadn’t seen the show in at least a couple of years and, frankly, I took one look at Matt Smith in pre-publicity and thought WTF? He’s twelve! and so wasn’t too encouraged to visit again. The enthusiasm of friends did…

  • The Killing

    The Seattle-set US version of Danish superdrama The Killing begins its run on Sunday. I’m tempted to go overboard and say that the original is one of the best things I’ve seen on TV, ever. But then I’d start to sound like one of those people who go on and on about The Wire. And…