The Lemon Fool

Ive long been away from watching TV drama, but on suggestions form friends watched this last night.

Without expecting a Brice Willis explosion-a-minute spectaluar etc, is all new drama so... turgid ?


an hour to establish he is working for the gestapo, and is uncomfortable with that, and that two of his colleagues in the Met are resistance workers. And a run of the mill murder is of interest to nazi high Command.

Err... that's it. No cliff hanger epidode ending. No intrigue.

didds

Yes, I also found it rather disappointing. I couldn't decide whether the lead character was a `goody' or a `baddy', but that may have been because I could only make out about two thirds of what he was saying. He had an extremely irritating, rasping voice that may have been a not so subtle BBC warning about the dangers of smoking but made it impossible to hear him for part of the time. He certainly didn't speak with the clarity that one would have expected from an Oxford graduate in those days.

In fact the best bits were those in German, which were subtitled!

I also found the various threads in the story rather confusing, though again this wasn't helped by the fact that I probably missed key parts of the dialogue.

The reporter from the New York Times seemed such a ludicrous cliche of a femme fatale that I wondered for a while whether she was being played for laughs, though I'm sure she wasn't.

I'll give it another chance, but if I'm no more involved with it at the end of the next episode I'll abandon it, which will be a shame, as I enjoyed the book when I read it years ago, and I'd been looking forward to this.

Incidentally, I've often wondered whether the actors who appear to be smoking in these period dramas are actually doing so. They certainly seemed to be inhaling and exhaling as though they were actually smoking, but I can't see the BBC `elf and safety people being too happy about it.

I do a bit of am dram and learned that theatre (at least) is one legal exception to the working-area-smoking-ban thing. so presumably the same for screen art as well?

didds

didds wrote:I do a bit of am dram and learned that theatre (at least) is one legal exception to the working-area-smoking-ban thing.

Not in Scotland though.

Scott.

Must be getting old , I wonder if I can get subtitles for the English as well as the German.
Found the lead a bit clean cut and lantern jawed , awaiting more grime and ambiguity. Closer to downturn abbey and allo allo than great drama.

A guide to the Germans
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2WnyCjshNZc

Will see what next week turns up.

todthedog wrote:Must be getting old , I wonder if I can get subtitles for the English as well as the German.

Yes you can, more than one of the reviews I read said they had reverted to using English subtitles because it was unintelligible.

Scott.

Clitheroekid wrote:Incidentally, I've often wondered whether the actors who appear to be smoking in these period dramas are actually doing so. They certainly seemed to be inhaling and exhaling as though they were actually smoking, but I can't see the BBC `elf and safety people being too happy about it.

Yes, but I think I read something about it once, it's herbal tobacco.

Here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 59744.html

swill453 wrote:

didds wrote:I do a bit of am dram and learned that theatre (at least) is one legal exception to the working-area-smoking-ban thing.

Not in Scotland though.

Scott.

ah! cheers Scott!

didds

The BBC are investigating after complaints about the sound http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39038406

Scott.

I too enjoyed the book but thought that the show was dire. Actors no longer seem to enunciate clearly and whilst subtitles are useful I don't want to spend the whole episode reading what is being said. The other thing that struck me was their clothes, they looked so pristine and unworn which certainly wasn't the case at the time. A disappointment so we'll not bother with the rest of it.

R6

Just watched the 2nd episode and I would say it was much better than the first, and I heard every word!

The plot thickens and our hero is finding himself in a very tricky place in between the resistance and the SS.

John

redsturgeon wrote: The plot thickens and our hero is finding himself in a very tricky place in between the resistance and the SS.

The writers of Allo-Allo had the advantage of reading Len Deighton's novel, but you do get some parallels, this week with works of art.

I've not seen yet. I'm a Deighton fan but SS-GB isn't one of my favourites. Granada did Game,Set & Match years ago but it was only shown once - I think Len D had issues with some of the casting, although I remember it being pretty good

AleisterCrowley wrote:I've not seen yet. I'm a Deighton fan but SS-GB isn't one of my favourites. Granada did Game,Set & Match years ago but it was only shown once - I think Len D had issues with some of the casting, although I remember it being pretty good

1980's wasn't it? I've read all the Samson books, top notch. Found the SS-GB book boring, couldn't get past the first few pages.

1988 according to Wikipedia (crikey , heading for 30 yrs ago)
Yes, the Bernard Samson triple trilogy (plus one prequel) is brilliant. Apparently Tarantino was thinking of filming it - not sure what sort of job he'd make of it , hardly his sort of material.

Much better!

didds

Ship abandoned halfway through this weeks episode. OK the sound is better than episode 1. Grey men muttering in grey rooms, didn't think it possible to be bored by Nazi's, but to me a mess of a programme. Very smart clothes after a war. Dire, a real shame the idea had real promise.