BBC Showcase – Day one: Drama
It’s now down to business at the 2012 BBC Showcase and the opportunity to screen the best of the best when it comes to telly from the BBC. As we make the grueling 50 yard trek over bitter terrain from the hotel lobby to the screening booths for the 2012 BBC Showcase, it’s immediately clear to all delegates that we will be presented with an over-abundance of great television the next few days. Sunday was all-drama, all the time.
Sunday was supposed to end with a private screening with Michael Palin and his new series, Brazil with Michael Palin but it was delayed due to a train derailment from London to Liverpool. Life was almost good.
The first screening icon in the on-demand catalogue for Sherlock 2. Not sure I will be able to resist the temptation to watch before I leave here. This, however, is definitely not good. Here are a few examples of what telly watchers in the States could be seeing in the not-too-distant future on public television…
Call the Midwife
- Hailed as he most successful new drama on the BBC since 2001. Written by Heidi Thomas (Cranford, Upstairs Downstairs), the series, starring Jessica Raine, Jenny Agutter, MIranda Hart, Pam Ferris and Judy Parfitt, was adapted from the real-life memoirs of the late Jennifer Worth. Based on Worth’s work and life in the East End of London as a midwife in the 1950s, the series is visually stunning. It paints an amazing picture of a place and a time and an occupation that is relatively unfamiliar in the States. Miranda Hart (Miranda) is quite convincing in her first dramatic role even though she has massive difficulty in learning how to ride a bike, the mode of transportation for the midwives from Nonnatus House. The series currently has six episodes and has been commissioned for a second series beginning in 2013.
Scott and Bailey
- Second series just completed. A fresh take on crime drama. More of a serious Rizzoli & Isles starring Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp as two female detectives who try to balance both their personal and professional lives. It’s a really tight investigative crime drama series from co-creator, Sally Wainwright, also starring the brilliant Amelia Bullmore (State of Play, Ashes to Ashes). The key to the success of the series lies in the balance of both intellectually complex cases and emotionally draining personal lives.
Death in Paradise
- With Ben Miller, Sara Martins, Danny John-Jules and Lenora Crichlow, Death in Paradise is a comedy/drama that tells the story of a detective inspector from London who is assigned to investigate a murder on the paradise island of Saint-Marie in the Caribbean. That’s the drama part. The comedy occurs that D.I. Richard Poole neglected to say that he has a definite hatred of sun, sea and sand. Takes a bit to get going, but this one is one to stick with and watch the entire series.
Up Monday, comedy, comedy, comedy.
