Pete Baran
6 December 2011
Christmas specials aren’t just the province of television. Every year all sorts of media throw Santa coated tat at us left, right and centre. All it takes is to go back to the Victorian age and there is Dickens knocking out a Christmas Carol, and other Christmas stories that no-one ever uses to theme their popular sketch show into some sort of loose limbed narrative arc.
Sketch shows are tough for Christmas specials because, well, there is nothing special about a set of sketches. You could do it so that all of the characters are doing something Christmassy, but that is still a bit scattershot. Luckily all sketch shows have at least one Scroogelike character for us to laugh at, and have other characters take them through their life in a Ghost of past, present and future way.
So who had a Ghost Of Christmas Past like this?
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Pete Baran in Do You See • No Comments
4 December 2011
Here on FT we love puns. We don’t mean to but we do. And behind today’s hastily arranged advent calendar window is probably the greatest pun to grace a TV Christmas Special ever. Even better than One Foot In The Algarve. Not necessarily that Christmassy, it blew away almost everything at Christmas on TV in 1985. I certainly remember the whole family huddled around the TV for this one, and it being really rather good, Indeed better than the standard episodes of the show.
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Pete Baran in Do You See • 3 Comments
2 December 2011
This one was repeated last year, and is a classic of its era, and I think we would all agree that sometimes it behooves a TV Christmas Special to ask tough questions about consumerism at a festive period. But what Christmas Special looks like this?
WHO MADE SUCH AN ADORABLE ROBIN?
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Pete Baran in FT • 4 Comments
1 December 2011
We love the 1st of December, when we get to go to FT to open the little Windows* that mark down the passage of time towards Christmas with a little nugget of something special. Something very special this year, namely an advent calendar of TV Christmas specials. TV Specials are, as if you didn’t know, often extended one off episodes of popular television shows which either take place at Christmas, have a Christmassy theme or – well don’t. Our rules are simple:
- Must be Christmassy
- Must not be part of regular series/season
This latter one is important as the BBC in particular have a habit of rolling the Christmas Special as the sixth episode of six if they are scheduling before Christmas. Many US sitcoms will have Christmas (and Thanksgiving, and Halloween) episodes, but just as part of the regular run.
Will we stick to these rules religiously. Maybe. While you ponder that, this is screenshot from today’s special, which despite what it looks like, really is a Christmas special. What’s that you say?
“I DON’T BELIEVE YOU?” more »
Pete Baran in Do You See • 1 Comment
12 September 2011
It feels a bit wrong, me being the one to write about Dexy’s. I have friends who are much much bigger fans, I have already written about the other Dexy’s track on this list – Come On Eileen. And for a very long time, until I picked up a cheap reissue CD of Searching For The Young Soul Rebels in 2002, Come On Eileen was one of the three things I knew about Dexy’s. The other two being Jocky Wilson Said and the Theme From Brush Strokes. Which for any band would be enough for at least a page in any half decent history of pop.
You see Robin, I’m just searching for the young soul rebels, and I cant find them anywhere. Where have you hidden them? more »
Pete Baran in New York London Paris Munich • 1 Comment
24 August 2011
53: The Box (DVD)
I missed The Box in the cinema, it being my year without film. It is the kind of film I would normally jump at, liking claustrophobic paranoid fantasies, films based on Twilight Zone episodes, Cameron Diaz, James Marsden and even not minding Richard Kelly*. And it starts promisingly enough, with a decent period scene setting and some nicely sympathetic leads. And then Frank Langella turns up at the door with the Box. The Box is a nice, cheap, period looking piece of technology – with its big red button under a dome. But the box isn’t the problem. The box and what it leads to may be as preposterous as anything thrown at us in Kelly’s other films but at least has a semblance of fun fantasy storytelling around it. The problem is Langella. Or at least his digital face.
Langella has played some of the greatest villains known to man. Insert Richard Nixon and Skeletor jokes here. more »
Pete Baran in Do You See • No Comments
Well it might as well be. Myself and Tim of this parish, and Meggean who is one person removed from the FT Collective (she is my old flatmate), were featured heavily on Radio 4′s Soul Music show this week – basically we get the last fifteen minutes. The subject was Wichita Lineman, and the show also features Jimmy Webb and Glenn Campbell (and some bloke who really likes Johnny Cash). We were tapped up by this FT article, so writing rubbish on the internet really does sometimes lead to talking rubbish on the radio.
You can listen again to it here, via the Radio 4 website.. Or its repeated on Saturday afternoon at 3.30pm.
Pete Baran in Lollards Podcast • 3 Comments
23 August 2011
51: Super 8 (Cinema)
Super 8 is an homage to Spielbergian kids fantasy films of the early eighties. Its more than that actually, its DNA is plainly on display. Its Mom (correct word in this context) is ET, its Dad is The Goonies. We have a gang of kids (Goonies) who discover something remarkable and alien (ET). And its interesting that the setting, and the characters hark back to a bucolic seeming small town America which I get the sense that JJ Abrams believes doesn’t quite exist any more. You get the sense the turning point was rap music (the music in Super 8 is all over the place, though follows the “if in doubt, use ELO” model). more »
Pete Baran in Do You See /FT • 6 Comments
15 August 2011
Clearly I am massively behind on this project, as is often the way with FT projects. But whilst there is usually something interesting to say about any film, sometimes there is not MUCH interesting to be said. So here is a stab at quickly trying to simultaneously cut my list shorter, and get to the heart of the matter with a lot of these films…
41. The Navigator (Cinema)
Minor Buster Keaton, which has some typically well staged physical humour and innovation. It does seem to be missing Good but it does seem to be missing a whole third act, though I didn’t see its deus ex submariner coming. To be more precise it is missing Act 2 Scenes 1 & 2, all of act three and would probably be considerably better without its somewhat racist (though not at the time of course) canibles. more »
Pete Baran in Do You See • 2 Comments
5 August 2011
Whilst the threat of a Double Dip Recession is nothing to make light of, there is at least one aspect fondly remembered from 2008. Like the gurningly beautiful twins on A-Level result day, there is only one way our online news sources know how to celebrate this. Pictures of bankers with heads in their hands. So all day (and feel free to send me links), I’ll be updating this post with just that.
3:08PM The markets are rallying. Like they did three summers ago. Still a long way to go, but I’ll probably leave you with this one from the Evening Standard for now. Early prices Special (there was nothing special about the early prices). If only we could zoom in to see what he is saying in that outlook window. I’d give you good money (which is worth NOTHING now) that it is SELL SELL SELL.
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Pete Baran in Do You See • 20 Comments
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