Recommend a TV programme
 

We have a thread for fillums so why not one for quality TV programmes?

Especially now that they way in which we view programmes has changed so much with the onset of BBCi Player and the like, internet download, and the various catch up TV options on satellite and cable. In the past if you missed a show that was it, but now if there is a goodun that someone recommends then you can watch it when you want.

Quite a few times I have been engrossed in a documentary and wanted to mention it here but felt it didn't quite deserve its own thread. Feel free to post it here.

Anyway, time will tell if it is a goer or not.

I will post a review in a bit as I am half way through sometink.

Monkey Thieves - Nat Geo Wild
Brilliant series - documentary about a gang of urban monkeys running wild in the town of Jaipur - India.
The narrator is Sean Pertwee - The monkeys all have names and are ranked within the gang. They get up to all sorts of wonderful stuff.
Would love to know how they filmed it.
Highly recommend it.

(Only thing is - not too sure when it is on)

Did anyone see the BBC TV play 'God on Trial'? That was fascinating. The plot takes place in Auschwitz with the inhabitants of a specific hut discussing whether God has broken the covenant with the Jews by allowing their persecution from the Nazi's. As the plot thickens, various members of the group get involved with their own opinions, some religious, some not, some feeling betrayd ans some viewing the holocaust as a test. The occupants decide to quite literally form a court, and thus put God on Trial.

It really was excellent and i'd advise anyone who is interested in this period of history to give it a watch.

True Stories - Another Perfect World
More4 23/06/09 10pm

Superb documentary about virtual worlds and how the real world interacts with them and vice versa.

Some great Japanese and Korean weirdness. Korea now has three TV channels dedicated to showing online game play. I just can't imagine tuning into watch someone else play a computer game. The contestants are huge stars with fan clubs in the hundred thousands. Companies have created stables of these players where they practice for 10 hours a day plus and compete once a week, earning about 150,00 euros p/a.

It also looks at whether the programmers who control these worlds are qualified to pass judgement on the real world and what makes a utopia.

S'good.

You can view it on 4OD here:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/a...fect-world/4od

Top gear, all day every day it still wouldn't bore me

Clarkson is my hero!

Figures

West Wing.

All 7 seasons.

Entourage - One of the funniest programs i've seen. It's well written, acted and has some great characters in it - Ari Gold is a legend!

Watching the Box set of Mad Men. Don't understand the hype tbh but I have only watched two episodes so far.:confused:

I have started to watch the Wire.

Think it is an excellent series.

Just finished Series 1.

It was hard to understand the language at first but by the 3rd episode I was well into it.

Think it is only second to The Sopranos of all that I have seen

Only Fools and Horses.

I know that it never off our screens, but I just can't resist watching it!:)

It's AMAZING

Yep best TV program of all time

"please, I can only answer 13 or 14 questions at once...":p

Dexter

Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe/Newswipe

Arrested Development

15 Storeys High

Flight of the Conchords

CJ is my heroine.

Nothing to recommend as i'm totally disinterested in TV at the moment but this is a great idea for a thread and i hope it doesn't die as i'd love a decent documentary to grab my attention. Well done lanepe :p

It's all a bit 90's

I liked the 90's

supernatural

just finished season 4 on itv2

wonderful escapist entertainment..

Prison Break

Summer Heights High

Inbetweeners - E4
The Wire - BBC2
Britains Greatest Machines with Chris Barrie - Nat Geo
Star Trek Next Generation - Virgin 1
Trans World Sport - Channel 4
FBI Files - Discovery

Dexter is a must and am enjoyin breaking bad rerun

On Season 3 of Battlestar. Love it, but ration it as it will run out all too quick :(

My Name Is Earl

Some good suggestions - I will suggest you all try the Larry Sanders Show if you haven't - never got a well-timed airing on terrestrial here did it. Every episode is on youtube and seemingly not going to be pulled, starting here.

you may chuckle, but he best TV i've seen since I was a laddy , and my fave tv prog back then was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, is Ice Road Truckers, simply awesome. Monkey and The Water Margin were huge fave's as well

Famous,rich and homeless

Martina Coles The Take

Lie To Me

The toff-nosed relative of Churchill had me in stitches - "it's a 15 acre car-park"!

Season 3 is the best. Thats the one on new caprica right?

They reshowed Monkey when my first children were newborns. I was happy to do the 1am feed, and watch an episode. :)

Deadwood is a must.

Dexter, Dexter and Dexter.

Am a great fan of HBO's output - Deadwood was good, Entourage is also very watchable but my all time fav has to be Oz - probably the best prison drama ever. Doesn't appear to be on any on demand service so am probably going to have to get the boxed set.

Dexter
Band of Brothers
House
InBetweeners

I know you can't control how a thread develops but I didn't want this to turn into lists of peoples top programmes despite the thread title. There are loads of 'best' list threads already.

More I was hoping that this would be a bit like the movie review thread where people can post comment, good or bad, on a particular programme that they had watched recently.

Anyway, as you were.

Lie to me
House
The Mentalist
NCIS
Dead Good Match

Sorry, one to miss "My Dog is a Weapon" or was it "My weapon is a dog". Apparantley the thugs today are now using pit bulls, staffs & mastifs as weapons. Anyone who loves dogs would be horrified at the way some of them are treated. Anyone who believes all young people in hoodies/baseball caps are gangsters would have their fears confirmed. Lovely scene of the presenter and a couple of his old mates walking round Croydon with their dogs intimidating the other pedestrians :(

you can find recommendations in the US tv thread too.

currently top of the viewing pops at chez paf is:

Nurse Jackie, the wonderful Edie Falco in a dark Showtime hospital comedy.

True Blood - HBO vampire lark with boobs

Reaper - Posessed soul comedy from the CW with Tyler Labine, sadly, now cancelled after 2 seasons

The kids really enjoy Legend of the Seeker, like robin Hood/Merlin, only not made by the BBC (ie they spent a few quid)

and if you can still find a copy, the pilot of Showtimes take on the BBC's 'Manchild', still my favourite comedy show of the last few years, really funny.

I saw the first episode of that Martina Cole thing the other night....absolute shite.

That's exactly what I was going to post.

You're talking piffle and poppycock Carter, The Take is very good. Heads through old TV sets is the only way to deal with some people. :D I think that bloke plays a complete psycho very well, he's fkin scary.

And Tim Roth is superb in Lie To Me.

Weeds is thoroughly good stuff, if anyone was considering giving it a look. Great characters, intelligently written and funny, and what's more it's apparently too dark and dry for the yanks, right up British people's street :p

New series has just started now, too.

Looked yesterday to see how much it is to buy the whole series. Saw the first season on sale in a shop yesterday secondhand for £6.50. May watch that before buying the whole lot.

Is it better than 24 though? :cool:

Another fan of Lie to Me, Tim Roth is fantastic in it!

MIAMI SWAT on SKY 1 & 2. - This is how OUR plod should deal with the scummy estates of Peckham,Lambeth etc.

NO MESSIN........ an Excellent Police series

Revealed - Jack the Ripper: Tabloid Killer

Investigating the role of The Star newspaper in creating the Jack the Ripper legend. I hate Kelvin McKenzie but there was some pretty convincing evidence that the famous Jack the Ripper letter was created by a journalist working for the Star with the full knowledge of the Editor.

The killer obviously existed but his public persona was very much engineered and actually totally fabricated by The Star which was the first tabloid newspaper.

http://demand.five.tv/Episode.aspx?e...me=C5144470001

The Story of Film: An Odyssey. Saturday evenings on More4 (and 4oD).

Utterly brilliant.

It should be, but Mark Cousins's dreary whine makes me want to hang myself. I might get the book though.

More importantly, there is a new Midsomer Murders on tonight featuring Warren Clarke and cider and everything.

The Sweedey?

Fringe

Blue Bloods

Six Feet Under. In fact the majority of stuff on HBO. And Dexter.

Seconded.

Also, enjoyed Torchwood last series.

and V.

Community

How has the programme fared since Bergerac left?

Banged Up Abroad
Man V Food

My favourites at the moment include:

Dexter (New series just started.)
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Boardwalk Empire (New series just started.)
Walking Dead (New series starting very soon.)
Spooks
Modern Family

Edge of Darkness (the TV original)
Twin Peaks
The Changes

Mad Men
The West Wing
Band of Brothers
Boardwalk Empire
I'm Alan Partridge
Teachers
Nighty Night
Phone Shop
Peep Show

Wilfred.

Modern Family

Idiot Abroad 2 is beginning to come good.

Dudgeon is even better than Bergerac, if you can imagine such a thing. Also his wife is quite would-able.

Outnumbered

Fades
The black guy is going to be a top tv actor for years to come

Yeah I just came back to suggest it, first two were okay but last week's was bloody excellent

German Exchange student: "I heard animal noises last night"

"That'll be the foxes or the young couple next door"

Getting the fck rid of Joyce & ****** Cully was always going to be win. Agree about the wife, haven't made my mind up about the dog.

^

Didn't like it at first, but when you watch it, makes you laugh.

I'll add my name down for Only Fools in terms of classic programmes. It's always the last resort. Ah, there's naff all else on, stick Only Fools on the TV :lux:

This thread's been dormant for a while, so though I'd revive it rather than start another.

A couple of things I've watched on the Channel 4 player recently that I'd heartily recommend.


'Tony's Revenge'.

French crime drama that is at times brutal, sometimes very funny, and quite moving. Really enjoyed this much more than most of the Scandi stuff. Well done, you cheese eating surrender monkeys.

http://img.over-blog.com/550x366/1/5...cs-france2.jpg


'Invisibles'.

Quirky comedy fantasy drama set in Prague, which looks absolutely gorgeous throughout. Revolves around the struggle of a man to come to terms with being a member of the 'water nation', a population of people who can breath water and are at odds with their own history, the church and the police. Most original thing I've seen in a while.

http://img.ct24.cz/cache/616x411/art...jpg?1365063722



The plus for me was that both series are relatively short, so I didn't have to commit to months of viewing. Tightens up the writing as well.

I LOVED Summer Heights High

Everyone's seen catastrophe by now, yes?

yes

Spotless on Netflix. Very enjoyable. Made for French TV - the two main characters are French - but in English as it is set in London. Decent crime dramedy.

Preacher on Amazon / AMC.

Outcast on UK Fox.

Fargo - both seasons. Fantastic television. Two seasons are largely unrelated too so can be watched independently of each other. Up there with the likes of True Detective, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad etc.

BBC2 - Exodus - Our Journey To Europe - The Guardian says `devastating and breathtaking` and they are right.

Anyone watch 'Chewing Gum'? Great cast and superb writing. Very funny.

https://www.comedy.co.uk/images/libr...g_gum_cast.jpg

Trapped the Icelandic drama was excellent, but has probably already been mentioned.

Versailles
The Enfield Haunting

Never heard of it.

Murder In Successville by a distance

One one episode in but impressed.

Quite possibly the best recent comedy.

Generation Kill is an oldy but very good.

Wentworth and Rake

Two hidden Aussie gems

Person of interest on Netflix very enjoyable

One of my favourite ever. Really worth watching.

Misfits - an oldie but a goodie

And if not just stop after the end of Season 1 which is excellent.

And then watch VEEP.

Bloodline on Netflix. Excellent series starring Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek and Ben Mendehlson.

Been on 5 for ages. Got bored after series 3, which is a shame as its a very likable show.

The Americans on ITV encore

plus the usual Sky Atlantic fare, Banshee, Ray Donovan.

Liked it a lot, but it got canned early the ending felt rushed (it was).

I'm enjoying Outcast at the moment, and I really recommend the Italian drama Gomorra which was on Sky Atlantic.

Didn't realise it got canned. How did it end? Did someone turn the power switch off? Did Ben from Lost start walking normally at the end as a homage to The Usual Suspects?

I'm not going to say. :)

Excellent book too.

Anyone watching Preacher on AMC? Episode 6 is some of the best TV to be found outside of a Tarantino film ��.