Quality viewing (Top Ten TV Programmes... Ever!)

Member Name: jacquelina

Product:	Top Ten TV Programmes... Ever!
Date:	19/02/02 (521 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: excellent programmes

Disadvantages: none

1 Queer as Folk

In case you were on another planet when it first hit our screens.. Queer as Folk followed the adventures and exploits of 3 gay 30-somethings in and around Manchesters gay village - sex god Stuart, his friend Vince (sweet and totally devoted to Stuart) and schoolboy Nathan (young and naive and totally besotted with Stuart).

This show caused an outrage when it was first shown, with scenes involving underage sex and intimate gay sexual activities. Amidst all the furore however, was a hugely enjoyable show, which made for exhilerating, powerful, moving and hilarious viewing, with characters you really liked and cared about, and some great disco tunes to boot!

Watched mainly by girls and gay men, like all of the best shows, this one didn't drag out. I believe only 2 series were made, and it went out with a bang.

Rude, lewd and very gewd.

2 Sex and the City

We all know the formula, four sassy thirty-something (well, three thirty something and one forty something) New York females and the trials and tribulations of their sex lives and relationships.

Marvel at what crime-of-fashion Carrie has committed from one week to the next (have you seen those mini-skirts with dead animal's on the back's she's taken to recently?!), cringe with embarrassment at the oh-too-true scenarios encountered with various odd men, and wonder just how much dirtier the general conversation between the girls can possibly get.

Recently SATC has explored more serious issues including bereavement, pregnancy and cancer. This seems to work okay and recent episodes have been quite moving, but I think the show works best when it's comedy oriented.

Once again, r, l and vg

3 Black Adder

This is one of the earliest comedies I remember watching, and Rowan Atkinson (with the possible exception of Bean - the Movie) remains one of my favourites.

Black Adder had such a fa
ntastic array of dim-witted characters, including the much-abused Baldrich (Tony Robinson) and the hilariously dumb one played by Hugh Laurie - the contrast of such stupidity with Blackadders intellectual superiority to those around was classic, and he was the King of withering sarcasm. His thinly-veiled disdain for his peers was highly amusing.

There were various series of Blackadder set in different periods of history. The last series was set in World War 1, and the last episode ever saw Edmund Blackadder leading his troops over the top - and finally a field of poppies, a very moving image I still remember clearly.

Blackadder, Blackadder, you horrid little man..

4 Cracker

How cool was Robbie Coltrane as Cracker???

Nicknamed Ftiz, Cracker was an overweight criminal psychologist who got inside the minds of some of the scariest characters to grace our screens. Who could forget Robert Carlyle as a psychotic Liverpool fan (did he really go on to play Hamish Macbeth??).

The storylines in Cracker were hardhitting (football violence), harrowing (the rape of Pen-whatsername and the subsequent suicide of her colleague), and sinister (the headmaster who with the help of his wife murdered his pupil-lover when she became pregnant).

As well as the murders and other violent crimes, Crackers home-life was a crumbling mess - his wife was having an affair, he drank and smoked in a way a middle-aged very overwight man should never do, and he had to fight a mutual attraction with Pen-whatsername at work.

Also starred that one off Royal Family as Cracker's boss, who he was constantly at loggerheads with.

Compulsive viewing.


5 Knowing me Knowing you with Alan Partridge



Comic Steve Coogan has the perfect face for comedy, and as slimy talk show host Alan Partridge he had the perfect mix of condesencion (Kliroy anyone?) and inflated self importance to make him a believable
talk show host in this p***-take of interview shows.

Alan was constantly making himself look foolish and getting into arguments with his guests, whilst treating his staff like dirt.
He paid for it in the end though, when we saw him desparately trying to revive his ailing career and living out of suitcases in hotels.


A-HA!


6 Countdown

Oh Richard Whitely, with your 'crazy' ties and witty puns - how come you haven't changed a bit in the last 25 years?(Countdown has been on Channel four since it was born, you know). Meanwhile smiley brainbox Carol Vord has taken over the world (though I must say that there has been more than one occassion when Carol has been unable to work out the numbers and I HAVE - who knows, maybes I'll be a contestant one day).

Countdown has to be the simplest quiz show known to man - and therein lies it's strength! Pick nine random letters, see who can make the longest word - pick six random numbers, generate a big random number, and try to make the big random number from't 6 others. Try to identify a 9 letter word that's had all it's letters jumbled up (that's an anagram to you ane me - but on Countdown, it becomes a conundrum) (if the scores of the two players are within 10 points of each other before the conundrum, it becomes a crucial countdown conundrum).

Exciting stuff.

7 This Life

6 thirty-something Lawyers sharing a flat somewhere in London. That's it. It wasn't a soap, it wasn't a comedy, it was just a quality drama (without ever needing to venture into the realms of the ridiculous).

With themes such as infidelity, gay 'coming-out', work stress, bereavement, drugs and general dissilusionment with life, there was something in it most of us could identify.

How much did we want Miles and Anna to get together? What was Milly doing with her slimy boss? And why couldn't Egg just pul
l his damn finger out! Some fine characters.

Again, This Life went out on a high note, with only 2 or 3 series having been made. It also had a unique camerawork that gave it the edge over other dramas.

This Life indeed.

8 SMTV

Saturday morning fodder.

Well come on, it knocks spots off Wac-a-day.

9 Ally Macbeal

I wasn't a fan of this when it first started but it has definitely grown on me. What with Cage's hooting nose, Fish's waddle fetish, Ling's bitchiness, Nell's iciness, Georgia's annoyingness, Elaines inventions.. and Ally herself. A more, well, diverse selection of characters you'd be hard pushed to find.

The court cases are unrealistic to the extreme, yet the firm always seems to win. Some say Ally has finally lost the plot, and I must admit that in the more recent episodes I've seen it seems to be relying too much on wierdness and eccentricity and forgetting about storylines. But you have to admit, that Ally McBeal was and is a unique programme.




10 Oh jeez, why do I always get stuck at number 10..

After trawling through many sitcoms, including Fawlty Towers and Some Mothers do 'av 'em, I decided to give a nod to our American cousins instead. No, I'm not talking Friends, I'm talking Roseanne.

Roseanne Barr, husband Dan, daughters Becky and Darlene and son DJ - the perfect example of a dysfunctional American family.
Roseanne shouted and was mean alot, Darlene sulked and was sarcastic alot, Becky was a bit of a bimbo and had strops alot, DJ was a little brat alot and Dan drank and was scared of his wife alot. And then there was neurotic cousin Jackie, her brash friend played by Sandra Bernhard, Roseannes mad old Bat of a mother, and various meat-head chump (whatever that is) friends of Dans, not forgetting the brave boyfriends of Darlene and Becky.

Roseanne was great at comedy but just as
good at serious issues - like when Jackie was when being beat up.

And how good was the theme tune?

(I also like Fresh Prince of Bel Air but that was a bit too cheesy).

Hope you enjoyed...

J

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