Munster Express Online

Recognition

Every time I see Waterford actor, director, performer Andrew Holden in the Meteor TV advertisement, my heart gives a little leap, a touch of pride and recognition and it is that surge of the familiar that has ITV experts in a tisswas.

The last episodes of Heartbeat and possibly the last run of Taggart are bringing in very high audience ratings and the channel has no real alternative to offer. Just because they felt these shows had run their course, they find that the audience recognises the feel good factor and figures nearly as good as the soaps are the result. ‘Tis a problem.

Game On

BBC1 were quickly out of the traps following the huge success of the Robert Downey Jnr/Jude Law sexing up of Sherlock Holmes with their modern Sherlock, where Watson is a doctor invalided out from the war in Afghanistan who shares a flat in 221B Baker Street with a digital detective, the edgy if not crazy, Sherlock Holmes. This Holmes is a creation of Stephen Moffat, who controls Doctor Who these days, and is slightly kinky with an urge to take a riding crop to dead bodies. Holmes uses laptops and mobile phones and seems to manage to send quirky messages to lots of people at the same time.

The editing is too rapid and the plot gets lost in speed or perhaps the plot wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny. Moriarty is mentioned as a nemesis and maybe he is sending the mysterious texts that also pop up like sub-titles on the screen. Holmes isn’t a cocaine fiend anymore but over doses on nicotine patches.

Benedict Cumberbatch is a good Holmes, the game is on, and would have made a better Doctor Who. Martin Freeman is o.k. as Watson and the modern set style deductions are great fun. I think Peter Cushing would like this Sherlock.

At Sea

Better late than never, now that RTE1 have launched Skippers about the lives, dangers, trials and tribulations of Irish fishing boats. Since the BBC success with Trawlermen and such digital versions, it’s nice to see the work in an Irish context of recession. Quotas, falling prices, growing wind and waves and multi-racial crews working very hard at the mercy of nature and the markets.

As part of the six show series we will get to know the skippers and crew of four boats. Liam Cunningham’s narration is a big plus here as well.

Holy Kids

The title of this C4 series Amish: World’s Squarest Teenagers is probably unfair and untrue but this four parter is fun to watch as five American Amish teens come to a multi-cultural London to experience a dance, drink, drugs and murder culture that has more sensational content than culture shock. The Amish seem old-fashioned, grounded and a little dull, if full of inherited certainty, like as if they belonged to a controlling cult rather than a religion and of course the straight arrow boys drink beer at a rock festival and embarrass themselves and their disapproving sisters, but it was gentle Sunday night stuff.

Comedy

The Last of the Summer Wine is finally running dry as BBC1 show the last six episodes in one of the world’s longest- running sitcoms. Peter Sallis and Frank Thornton can only do indoor scenes and despite Russ Abbott as Hobbo, it is no longer funny, not even a nostalgic giggle but better than the BBC1’s new attempt at comedy – John Bishop’s Britain – he’s a Liverpudlian stand-up who seems to have ill-fitting false teeth, a naff smile and naff jokes. The blurb says he was once a semi-pro footballer and excuse me for saying the obvious about his TV comedy career. He was o.k. in small doses on Mock The Week and the scripted Have I Got News For You but his own series – no way!

Teen Diseases

C4 shocked the socks off many with its series, The Hospital, as it showed that at least £1 billion is spent by a hard-pressed NHS to try and stem the tide of STD’s – sexually transmitted diseases. For some, the relief might be that a fifteen year old girl might just be pregnant and not HIV positive. What a shocking thought, this series pulls no punches and it shows the careless to couldn’t care less attitude to such diseased. Some London teens saw Chlamydia or Gonorrhoea as a rite of passage and it could be cured with a pill or an injection.

The increased incidents of unprotected sex painted a ghastly vista as girls as young as fifteen said they had to have sex or the boy would dump them and they loved him so so much. A young girl diagnosed with HIV seemed feckless and just angry at why her – but wouldn’t start treatment and the health professionals couldn’t persuade her.

Camping

Watch out for The Great Outdoors on BBC4 as this little quirky ramblers and hikers club comedy has the potential to go some of the way to partly replacing Last of the Summer Wine. The blurb promised punch ups, lunches and stolen kisses and it delivered it with two ace leads. Mark Heap from Lark Rice to Candleford (the fussy postman) does irritation with annoyance and Ruth Jones from Gavin and Stacey is just all round funny and detailed. These BBC comedies do self-delusion and irritation with style. Of course, it’s not the only thing they do in tents.