Last night's TV
So, episode two of Maestro and quite, quite different from the feature-length, getting-to-know-you "Baton Camp" episode one, which turns out to have been something of a smokescreen. This was an hour long, in a concert hall and live! I hadn't seen this coming. Clive Anderson is now installed as quip-making on-camera host rather than affable point man and it's presented as a concert, with seven all-too-brief filmed inserts of the week's huffing and puffing between performances. I was worried that it would lose some of its appeal but actually, watching all seven amateur stick-wielders conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra, in full, with an audience, was still compelling. It's even less about their personalities now, and not at all about interaction - unless you count sitting in a box together, which I don't. This makes Maestro quite pure, as reality formats go. (There's far more backstage footage on Strictly Come Dancing, for instance.) I won't mention who got the least number of points or who was voted out by the orchestra on their keypads for this movie-and-TV-theme-themed round, but I enjoyed Sue Perkins' spirited effort the most and Bradley Walsh's the least (what a tragedy his face falls so naturally into that oafish grin when he's concentrating, and that he can't resist monkeying around when there's an audience in the room). I will definitely see this series through to the end, even though I can't quite believe I am simply watching some people conducting an orchestra for entertainment. I feel a little hoodwinked by the alluring narrative nature of the first show, which has now gone, replaced by awkward bowing and judgment, but it's too late, the hooks are in.
It was only half an hour long, but Being Maxine Carr on More4 was fascinating (I think it's already been on C4): a short film about women who have been attacked and victimised when wrongly identified as being Ian Huntley's ex-girlfriend since her release from prison. It goes without saying that none of them looked like Maxine Carr, but then again, Carr has apparently been given a "new identity", so frankly, any woman moving into a new area among vengeful, confused idiots with pack mentality is fair game. All it made me think was: what a lot of thick people there are in this country. (Nicci Gerrard, who reported on the trial of Huntley and Carr asked a pertinent question: why were they tried together? They weren't charged with the same crime, and yet they appeared in court at the same time.)
posted by Andrew Collins @ 12:32 PM
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12 Comments:
Entertaining show. Pity about Clive Anderson's fecking awful punning. 'Bit of a Blur' indeed!
Do you think the results are pre-determined to a degree? I am with you on the Bradley Wlash comments. But as far as the voting off goes - the wrong man went. The men are all outsiders to win with the exception of Goldie in my view, and my money is on a Jane Asher, Sue Perkins, Goldie final - although Katie Derham may still have a chance.
As for the Maxine Carr ruminations - I took one look at that pic and thought (shame on me) - Molly Ringwald. Pity Molly if she ups sticks from the States and moves to Blighty. Or maybe she could star in a film of Carr's experiences: Pretty In Clink?
Anna
I assume they were tried together because a jury would go into the second trial, whoever's it was, knowing the verdict of the first, which would potentially cloud or influence their judgement.
I really thought Maestro lost something in transferring to a live transmission. And can't we cut Walsh some slack? He's like Brian Conley, I find. Smarmy but inoffensive.
Well, okay, despite slating this show on WWM, I did watch the second episode out of curiosity. I suppose a large part of the appeal of these shows is how much the disarming process they're engaged in serves to lower people's guard and you get to see behind the public-persona mask. To this end, it appears conducting an orchestra is quite effective. But then I knew Bradley Walsh was a gurning twat already. Jane still seems very liekeable but incapable of losing her cool. Still think Alex James is an insufferable goon though.
And as you mentioned above, without judicious editing Clive Anderson is as irritating as he was on his chat show.
Commissioning editors considering re-hiring him will be reminded how throughout every interview all you could see in his eyes was the big word-association fruit machine that is his brain generating the next clever one-liner. He obviously hasn't changed.
Go on Goldie. You'll walk it my son.
Dont knock Molly Ringwald Anna.
Thanks to her the ginger baby count went up 300% in the
mid-80's.
On second thoughts ...
I'm not knocking The Ringwald, CM. I'm saying I saw that pic of Carr and thought it WAS Ringwald. And then I thought that could be dangerous for Rinwald if she ever came here to live - she might get lynched by other people who confuse her with Carr. And then I thought she could capitalise it by starring in a badly-punned film called Pretty in Clink - about Carr's time in prison, but referencing Pretty in Pink in the title. With me?
Anna (who is a little bit ginger, I thank you)
Agree with you on the format change Andrew, a disspaointemnt that it's all gone so Strictly Come Dancing, but still works.
Didn't like the way that they made the loser conduct the credits a la Joseph, that seemed a bit cheep.
This programme appears to be the bastard child of Never Mind the Full Stops and X Factor, with an audience too posh to boo the judges properly.
But agree it's compelling viewing. I'd put money on Perkins winning it. Her "Simpsons" was pure genius.
This is probably a bit off-topic, and I'm not normally one for mindless flattery, but did anyone see Andrew Collins on that "comics Britannia" programme on BBC Four a few days ago?
I really think he manages to come across well as a spoken head on TV. He's got this really great boyish enthusiasm for everything and you can't help empathise with what he's saying.
Its clear that he really is a fan of the subject matter he's talking about - be it comics or film or music - and this carries over when he's talking.
I particularly liked the points he was making about Ben Elton being a quasi-mentor figure in the mid 80s (obviously thats changed now), and how within lefty student circles of the 80s which both he and I inhabit being politically correct was a sort of orthodoxy and how naughty Viz seemed by comparison.
Oh and when he was talking about being in 2000AD you could see this teenage enthusiam well up within him. It was quite interesting to watch.
I've run your comment through the irony detector, Mike, and it seems you are being sincere, in which case I am sincerely grateful for your kind appraisal. I loved appearing on that programme. And what a joy it was to watch.
Recording cutting remarks, social commentary and the general dislike of Piers fucking Morgan - http://www.piersmoron.blogspot.com
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