Thursday 19 August 2010

Torchwood: The New World...story news


The long-awaited, hugely-anticipated fourth season of Dr Who spin-off Torchwood commences filming in January 2011 (January!!) for UK transmission towards the end of next year (the end of next year!!) The ten-part series "The New World" is, as you probably know, a co-production between BBC Wales and the Starz network in the US (who, I'd imagine, are coughing up most of the dosh to make what's said to be a big, globe-trotting adventure). News is starting to seep through about the show's storyline so here's this just in from the Starz Network itself.

“When C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy, he finds himself unearthing a threat which challenges the entire human race. The answers seem to lie within an old, secret British institute, known only as Torchwood. But Torchwood was destroyed, years ago, and the keys to the institute are held by its only two survivors – former Police Officer Gwen Cooper, who has long since disappeared along with her husband and child, and the mysterious Captain Jack Harkness, a man whose history seems to stretch back centuries.

With Rex under attack from all sides, in both the US and the UK, he soon discovers there are forces at work within every level of society, determined to stop Torchwood’s return. As a chain of events across the world links together the most disparate and unlikely individuals – including a surgeon, a killer, senators and CEOs – a new Torchwood team takes shape. But this time, the threat is much closer to home, as they realize that their greatest enemy is mankind itself…”



Torchwood found its feet big style with last year's epic 'Children of Earth' five-nighter and, with the show having shrugged off its sci-fi superbase, its inappropiate sexual silliness and the genre excesses which tainted much of its first two series (fun as they often were) to become a proper gritty drama series 'The New World' looks set to move the show forward yet again. Me can't wait.

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Coming soon to DVD...get on board with The Double Deckers!!!



Stuff is unfeasibly excited...well, maybe excited's not quite the right word...to announce that November 1st sees the release of a personal TV guilty pleasure, a cheesy kid's TV show first broadcast in the UK in 1971, a show which came as an unusual diversion from my usual diet of Irwin Allen shows, Gerry Anderson extravagnanzas, Timeslip, Freewheelers and, inevitably, Dr Who. I'm talking about 'Here Come The Double Deckers', a musical/comedy series about a gang of kids whose den is an old London double decker bus (hence the name!) in a remarkably-clean junkyard in a studio set masquerading as London. Led by Scooper (Peter Firth...you know him as Harry Pierce, grizzled MI5 boss in 'Spooks' today) this motley group embarked on all sorts of wacky adventures across 17 episodes, every one of which was either punctuated by or climaxed with a song'n'dance number; the show even spawned an LP which remained wedged to Stuff's dansette for far too long. Anyway, this show may mean nothing to you but it's a bit special to me for all sorts of mad nostalgic reasons. If you vaguely remember it check out the title sequence clip below and if you've never heard of it and think it sounds like a pile of corny old toot then move along, there's nothing to see here for now...