Endeavour - Season 5 (2018 Russell Lewis)

 Muse. Threat to steal Faberge egg. Is 'The Shadow' involved? 

Very funny visual joke (it's the calling card of 'The Shadow'.) What do we think? Is Trewlove interested in Morse? If she is, she's smart enough to know it isn't go to go anywhere. But new DC George Fancy (Lewis Peek) takes one...

Charlotte Hope is the professional prostitute who may be involved in murders. When she invites Morse in one rainy night we're shouting 'No..!' In fact it turns out to be a Riot Club-type story, involving unspeakable upper class cunts who feel they are above any law.

Morse is sharing digs with long-suffering Strange ('He's always been a prickly customer at the best of times') so they can individually save money to buy houses. He upsets Morse by putting his bottle of bitter in the fridge! (This lager vs. 'real beer' thing has been going on since Jakes.) And Joan is back in town... Do we get the feeling that now, if Morse opened up to her, she might...? No, I don't think so. Too much has happened.

Lewis is having more fun in Cartouche, which involves the world of cinema, past and present - Donald Sumpter is the aging horror film star. But criminal Edie Nero is once again involved and once again gets away with it.

In a funny side story, Morse 'accidentally' beds the daughter of Thursday's brother Phil Daniels. 

In Passenger, Morse uncovers a murder at a disused railway line, which may link to one similar from 1964. It's a brilliantly clever one. And more fun with place names - 'Gibbet End'. (There is a Gibbet Hill in Hindhead, where a sailor was murdered by three men whose bodies were then hanged there - it's mentioned in 'Nicholas Nickleby'.)

We meet the loathsome DI Ronnie Box, Simon Harrison, who has a go at Trewlove, then has the effrontery to confront Bright - who is incensed (good work here Anton) and kicks him off the case.

Colours. The murder of a photo model on an army base where Sam Thursday is stationed. How this works itself into a story about a horrendous left wing upper class bitch who revels in having met Hitler is a work of art - she's Caroline Goodall. Ian Pirie is memorable as Lt. Col Mad Jack McDuff. Race relations very much at the heart of this story, also permeates into the series as a whole. Though Quartet is very much a Cold War spy story, one of utter ingeniousness. Ellie Haddington, familiar to us from memorable turns in Endeavour, has a familiar role here. Richard Durden is the lecturer. Despite Special Branch muscling in on the case, Morse will not let it go, particularly when an arcane underground society come to his aid.

And it is odd - extremely odd - to be back at (my old) school in Icarus, where Morse is undercover - and so is Trewlove. ("I must get ready for bath.") Whilst clearly there's a strong reference to Unman, Wittering and Zigo going on here (turning into If...), we are also exploring that same vein of upper class arrogance and violence that we'd encountered in Muse: these are the over-privileged bastards and bullies who end up as The Rotter's Club.

Also, the Cromwell Ames - Eddie Nero conflict heats up with tragic consequences. David Jonsson good as Ames. Cowley is closing, but despite this, in the end, The Four Musketeers swear they will avenge George's murder.

"Drowning your sorrows?"
"Marinating them a bit."

The Mirror Crack'd (1980 Guy Hamilton)

A draggy, badly edited film with deliciously crazy performances by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and Kim Novak.

Filmed in Shoreham and the delightful looking Smarden, both in Kent.

The Duchess of Duke Street - Season 2 (1977)

We were delighted to learn that season 2 has another 16 episodes; less delighted that Louisa's long lost brother Martin Shaw turns up for a job and begins to disrupt the entire staff; her mum is also taking the piss, outstaying her welcome at the hotel. Writer Julia Jones.

Then is Jeremy Paul's story, two undergraduates conspire to set up Louisa with their college professor Freddie Jones - he falls for her. Julian Fellowes is one of them!

A chauffeur inherits a fortune - £30,000. Louisa and his employer's nephew try and turn him into a gentleman - we know it isn't going to work. He is Kevin McNally.

In an unusual on location episode, Louisa travels to Charlie's bleak country pile, finds she's uninterested in her own daughter, who's something of a wild one, and that Margaret (Joanna David) is wasting away - turns out anorexia is the culprit but they have no idea what they're dealing with; she dies. Interesting to have this subject matter arising in 1977 - good for them. Maggie Wadey is the writer. Ian Cuthbertson and Liz Smith co-star.

T.P McKenna is a famous actor who seduces maid Holly de Jong (not to be confused with Upstairs Downstairs maid Jacqueline Tong) and Louisa sacks her without reference - the kiss of death. I think actually Merriman was responsible as it was normally his job to take up the actor's evening brandy. After a brief and unsuccessful flirtation with prostitution, a kindly policeman takes her back to the hotel and 'encourages' Louisa to change her mind. John Hawkesworth wrote it.

Inevitably, the war comes. In an excellent later episode, 'Tea and a Wad', also written by Hawkesworth, we journey to Bourgogne (or some English dockyard) where Louisa opens up a disused cafe for the troops. This is all the Major's idea, and he proves useful when Mary discovers a young helper is in fact a deserter. But the main event is that Louisa and Charlie meet up again and she agrees to marry him - let's hope he survives the fucking war! (Most of his contemporaries are dead - he's already being described as 'Grandpa'.) Best scene - she goes to tear a strip out of the Adjutant-General (Edward Underdown) and it turns out to be an old mate!

Then Charlie returns... but has a head wound. 'Shadows', written by Jeremy Paul, concludes with end credits are completely silent - I think I would have gone with the sad variation of the theme but it's undeniably powerful. Geoffrey Bayldon is the artist.

Endeavour - Season 4 (2016 Russell Lewis)

 It's funny how on each successive jotting on this the detail grows - have a look at the last one to see.

The important information we are gleaning this time is, of course... what sandwich, what day?

Monday - Cheese and pickle
Tuesday - Luncheon Meat
Wednesday - not sure yet
Thursday - Ham and tomato
Friday - how Thursday quickly works out Endeavour is OK in Canticle - Corned beef.

Game. Plastic surgeon helps war burn victims. Shades of Sir Archibald McIndoe.

Canticle. The poor chap who's been ruined by Mrs. Pettybon aka Mary Whitehouse, for his 'The Interesting Times' School-boy issue is a thinly disguised reference to the Oz 'schoolkids' trial 1971, defended by John Mortimer.

In addition to injuries catalogued in the previous jotting, Morse is clonked on the head and then drugged with - well, not acid, in fact - Henbane, Mandrake and Jimson weed - 'effects are not dissimilar to LSD'. Of course it's still 1967- Joan has only just left - if it had been but a year later none of this would have seemed right.

I don't think this is particularly a reference to a sixties band - more likely a nod to Queen's 'I Want to Break Free' video

Lazaretto. It's sweet how often we observe Trewlove sat keeping Bright company in hospital. Featuring an early appearance from Celine Buckens.

Harvest. 'Your journey will end in death.. but not yours'. Sheila Hancock, Chris Coghill. Anti-nuclear feeling well caught.

Meanwhile Joan thinks the bank robbery was all her fault. That doesn't excuse her at least writing to her parents... But then... 'Marry me'. 'I don't want your pity'. He's a detective. He sees before we do she's pregnant.

Endeavour - Season 3 (2015 Russell Lewis)

Ride. 1967. Morse is out of prison but extremely pissed off at his treatment and the cover up of everything that has gone on at County and Blenheim Vale. And is as a result living reclusively at the lakeside 'dacha' of a rich college friend, and gets involved with the local blue bloods (interesting to see him in this and the swinging sixties worlds), particularly the enigmatic Bixby (David Oakes) - there's a strong flavour of 'The Great Gatsby'. Morse has a habit of falling for the wrong woman; here it's a case of befriending the wrong man, though it's quite sweet how quickly the two seem to bond; Shaun's very good in these scenes. With Jemima west, Ben Mansfield, Margaret Clunie, Hilton McCrae, Vincent Riotta (as Harry Rose, a reference to Harry Flowers in Performance?)

I realise that just like Joan is always 'Miss Thursday', Morse never calls Thursday anything but 'Sir'.

Bixby's house: Waddesdon Manor.

Did notice the student death shot as a reference to The Death of Chatterton, also featured here.

Arcadia. An artist blows up. A woman dies of food poisoning. There's Rhodesia sit-ins at the local supermarket, green shield stamps, and a hippie commune.

But worst of all, there's Genevieve O'Reilly, a woman who just wants to get into Morse's knickers, who's disgustingly vile, and embarrasses him. (And, we feel, sets him up at one point.) In counterpoint, the most lovely and sharp new detective, Trewlove, turns up, played by Dakota Blue Richards, a Skins alumni who hasn't really been in anything since, is probably leading a real life. And things at Cowley have changed - Strange is now the DS and therefore Morse's boss.

Prey. Yes, don't want to repeat all the ideas I had from last time. For sure it's the Jaws episode, from the drunken dusk swim on and DeBryn - "This was no boating accident!" Well directed by Lawrence Gough. Shere Khan is a beautiful creature indeed. Funnily enough, all that original info about the tiger from D.M. Barcroft now seems to be missing - get Morse on the case.

And then the tense gang war / bank hold-up episode, Coda. Loved that last montage of Morse and all the different bits of Joan (if you see what I mean). Editor: Daniel Greenway.

"Drop it."

Thursday, already on suspension for beating up a suspect, almost kills the bad guy in cold blood. Great acting from Allam in these episodes.

And Morse's old Greats professor is dealing dodgy degrees (Mark Heap) - but all for the love of a woman (and gambling debts). His gay colleague says to Morse (of a pupil) "Alas, I fancy, a lover of oysters, for all my blandishments". This is apparently a reference to a scene in Spartacus concerning oysters and snails, and the possible insinuation of oysters being straight and snails gay - it all sounds a bit tenuous to me.

Talking of gambling debts, how come Morse is overdrawn at the bank because of monthly payments to bookies??

Morse gets pistol whipped in the face and threatened with death, after previously having to face down a tiger. He's also fallen through a floor in Nocturne, been badly beaten up in Trove and shot in Home. What with all that and the vile behaviour of various characters and the corruption that seems endemic in the force and elsewhere, it's no surprise that Morse turns into the John Thaw character of grumpiness and little patience that we know so well - something Lewis had in mind all along... of course.

Hadn't noticed Dexter in any of these.

Endeavour - Season 2 (2014 Russell Lewis)

A man 'falls' onto a car roof and the game's afoot, involving a College and a building project. Colin Dexter is observed at a meeting of dons. Already jumpy from the shooting, Morse is badly beaten up by London police. (He's now on too much whisky.) Jessie Buckley is a naughty student. Morse has a new neighbour, a nurse, Shvorne Marks. This is called Trove and also involves the theft of artefacts. 

Probably my favourite scene is where Morse summons Thursday, Bright and Jakes to the scene of the crime at 4 AM, and apologises to all of them for earlier being wrong, and also being insubordinate. ''What's the caper, getting us out of our kip at sparrow's?' enquires Jakes. Then as he explains, the guilty parties appear.

With Philip Martin Brown, Beth Goddard, Jonathan Coy, Pooky Quesnel, David Westhead, Liam Garrigan.

Morse is reading 'Germany Puts the Clock Back' by Edgar Ansel Mowrer, written in 1933 about the collapse of the Weimar republic and the rise of Hitler, and 'The Social Psychology of Industry' by J.A.C Brown, 1954.

Nocturne is the piece of Chopin playing at a girls' school mostly empty for the summer, populated by people like Nell Tiger Free, Anya-Taylor Joy and Lucy Boynton. Morse manages to also solve the original Victorian murders. 

The heraldry expert pronounces Morse's family motto as 'In deo non armis fido' which doesn't get translated but Morse thinks for a second and just says 'Hardly'. It means 'In God, not arms. I trust' but I love the way you either know it or like me you're interested enough to look it up. Who was it who said 'Always leave the audience something to do'? Ernst Lubitsch? Jean Renoir? Aaron Sorkin? It's like the earlier 'Hast seen the white whale?' Captain Ahab's cry to passing ships in 'Moby Dick'.

Of course this scene could also be a reference to a similarly jokey encounter between Bond and a herald in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'.

And the playfulness. 'Midwich' isn't a real village, but probably a reference to John Wyndham's 'The Midwich Cuckoos'. A don lending out spare London flat keys for his colleagues' 'entertainments' = The Apartment.

Sway is the necktie murderer. That poster from Trove has been vandalised again, and I'd say it was a Jaws reference:

There's a sub-text story about relationships: Morse is seeing his new nurse girlfriend, Fred and Win have been married 25 years, but an old flame of Fred's (Cecile Paoli) from Italy reappears. In conversation, Morse's eyes flick to this stained glass window (it's in The Royal Standard of England pub in Forty Green, Beaconsfield):

I'd say it's Endeavour (left) and Thursday, wouldn't you?

In careful plotting, it's not who you think it is. Cast includes Gina Bramhill, Joe Bannister, Max Wrottesley (the Michael Caine type), Tim McMullan, Rob Jarvis.

Jakes is showing his customary affinity with gays, referring to the maritime navy as 'rum, bum and concertina'!

Morse quotes Rupert Brooke, 'The Soldier'.

Interestingly the slightly simple department store employee went to Blenheim Vale, a nice little seed for what's to come in -

Neverland, one of the most powerful stories of the entire series, which echoes right through to the very last episode. We pretty much begin to guess straight away that something's crooked in 'County', particularly in the form of senior officer Deare (James Wilby) and DI Chard (Vince Leigh) - when they try and kill Morse it's still a jaw-dropping moment.

A missing boy, played by young Louis Ashbourne Serkis, is very much at the heart of a story based on historical (sexual) abuse of young kids. Richard Dixon, Gordon Kennedy and even Sarah Beck Mather are all mixed up in no good.

'How clear, how lovely bright' by A.E. Houseman was originally quoted in the Inspector Morse film 'The Remorseful Day'

It's also stunningly well photographed by Rasmus Arrildt, who came to attention with episodes of Forbrydelsen / The Killing in 2007-12.

St George (Morse) Slaying the Dragon, apparently at the former Surrey County Hall, Kingston on Thames (now flats)... but I'm not sure

Interesting the back stories that are developing. Fred has had to relocate the family because of East End gangsters threatening the family. Morse's mother, a Quaker, does when he was young; his father is very unresponsive. Jakes has had a truly awful upbringing and start in life.

Little Dorrit (2008 Andrew Davies)

Of course it's Davies - the great adapter (he'd done Bleak House in 2005). But it's Dickens - you'd have to be an idiot to balls it up. (Actually, I say that glibly - I'm sure it's easy to get Dickens wrong.) This is an epic eight hour version, but is zips along just like the serialised version must have done. (There was a similarly starry 6 hour version in 1987, before then a couple of versions from the 1920s).

And what an incredible cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Claire Foy, Tom Courtenay, Judy Parfitt, Eddie Marsan, James Fleet, John Alderton, Bill Patterson, Alun Armstrong, Sue Johnston, Andy Serkis, Freema Agyeman, Maxine Peake, Russell Tovey, Emma Pierson, Ron Cook, Ruth Jones, Annette Crosbie. But Eve Myles is something of a scene stealer playing a woman who thinks she's only ten. Almost every part is played by someone recognisable like Darren Boyd or Robert Hardy. Also with Amanda Redman and Anton Lesser, Sebastian Armesto (foppish suitor), Alex Wyndham, Georgia King.

It's the usual Dickensian gallery of desolation, poverty, crushing bureaucracy (The Court of Circumlocution is almost Kafkaesque), idiots, well meaners, grafters and murderers. And - people falling in love. He's a genius!

1 - 5 directed by Dearbhla Walsh, 6 - 11 by Adam Smith (notably a director of Chemical Brothers videos) and 12 by Diarmuid Lawrence. James Merifield is the production designer.

My recent thinking on writing long form as like characters as chess pieces and how you move them around the board is very nicely illustrated here. Some times you move a piece you haven't moved for a while, had forgotten about. Sometimes, your pieces can change colour!

The awfulness of Dorrit senior is exposed when he becomes rich and insists everyone change their behaviour and never mention the past, putting it all on poor Amy, who is also lumbered with an overbearing governess in the shape of Pam Ferris.

Endeavour - Season 1 (2013 Russell Lewis)

Quite lovely to see these early films: Morse meeting Jim Strange, Anton Lesser coming in and not being impressed with Morse at all; meeting the Thursdays / Gwynn's trying to stop Morse being so polite right from the get-go; de Bryn clearly having a high regard for Morse; Jakes' jealousy.

In Girl Morse makes sure that the young epileptic lady gets her son back. in Fugue there's a great scene where Morse is recovering from a stabbing and lack of sleep and falls asleep at Thursday's and he gently lays his coat over him; when he awakes he's asked to join them for dinner. Gentlemen meeting in public toilets are 'chase me Charlies', apparently!

Rocket is the one filmed at the old Janssen-Cilag building in Saunderton.

Finally in Home Russell cleverly brings in Fred's back story and a nemesis from his Mile End days moves in, Clive Wood, Nick Court and Cynthia Riley. There's also been a murder or two. The Culprit is not one you'd expect at all, and Morse is shot.

Fargo - Season 4 (2020 Noah Hawley)

A custom has arisen between warring gangs in Kansas City that the sons from each family should be traded to preserve the peace. Ironically, they keep doing it although it doesn't work, as testified by Irish Ben Whishaw having been brought up in an Italian family. Come 1950 and the same thing goes when the Italians trade with the new black gangs trying to make a move. Whishaw seems to be looking after the rival's son well (himself having been in the same position).

The Irish are led by Jason Schwartzman and his younger brother Salvatore Esposito, who muscles in, and the blacks by Chris Rock and Glynn Turman (as 'Doctor Senator') (though Matthew Elam may be the bright one). Loved the left turn of Schwartzman's father seeming to be shot in the neck by kids.

Then we have E'myri Crutchfield, the precocious daughter of morticians Andrew Bird and Anji White, whose sister Karen Aldridge turns up with fellow con Kelsey Asbille.

Jessie Buckley is on brilliant form as a murderous nurse.

Timothy Olyphant is a very religious lawman who gets involved. And Jack Huston (grandson of John) is an OCD bent detective who we thought might be an unofficial descendant of Jack Lemmon.

Violet and Daisy (2011 Geoffrey Fletcher & scr)

I happened to see this on the shelf and thought 'What's this now?', took it out and saw Alexis Bledel - What?? Of course the first time round (2020) we hadn't seen Gilmore Girls or encountered her before. And it's rather good, an original written by the adapter of Precious, about two teenage hit girls (Saiorse Ronan the other) who find James Gandolfini difficult to kill.  Paul Cantelon's music gives it a sweet and sad feeling, and it's partly like a three-hander play, probably quite cheap to make. It's fun to see the normally placid Rory Gilmore as a murdering and foul-mouthed assassin.

'Jim' is great - Saoirse loved working with him. With Marianne Jean Baptiste and Danny Trejo.

Framed (2009 Andy de Emmony)

Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, writer of Sometimes Always Never, The Claim, Goodbye Christopher Robin, The Railway Man, Grow Your Own, Millions, Welcome to Sarajevo and before that Coronation Street and Brookside.

Because of a plumbing problem, National Gallery curator Trevor Eve has to relocate paintings to the WW2 hideout in Manod Quarry, Northern Wales - a now (well caught) depressed community peopled by eccentrics. Surely those huge lorries could have fuelled up at their petrol station and got them out of debt? (And had a few dozen coffees while they waited.)

Encounters spunky schoolteacher-type Eve Myles (had been in Little Dorrit the year before - must watch that again) and kid Samuel Morgan-Davies. Romantic situation dealt with realistically.

Er - where are all the site workers staying? I thought there was only one cottage? Also Van Gogh Sunflowers with no security? Anyway, carp off.

With Robert Pugh, Mark Haddon Jones, Nicola Reynolds, Mari Ann Bull, Nina Sosanya, Gwyneth Keyworth, Guy Henry, Matthew Aubrey.

Photographed by David Odd.

I like this scene because they're walking exactly in step with one another.

One too many montages to music (the kids cooking) but otherwise very enjoyable.

The Marlow Murder Club (2024 Robert Thorogood)

The epitome of cozy English murder. An independent naked-river-swimming architect (Samantha Bond, with a 'dodgy' past secret) gets involved when her neighbour is murdered; despite protestations of the police. ('This is Marlow - there aren't any murders here!') Teams up with dog-walker Jo Martin and vicar's wife (could you get any more middle class?) Cara Horgan. Natalie Dew leads the investigation which involves nasty blokes Daniel Lapine, Mark Frost etc. Plus Rita Tushingham, Rishi Nair. Lots of posh properties and interiors.

It was too good to be true - they then made another two series.

Marlow resident Thorogood based it on his own novel.

Fargo - Season 3 (2017 Noah Hawley)

You may recall that in Season 2 there are references to Sisyphean tasks involving pushing a rock up a hill which always rolls back down again - Patrick Wilson uses it in reference to daily life being married. It's funny then that the priceless stamp that Ewan McGregor wants back from brother Ewan McGregor is that design.

It's 2010. (Although before that, it's 1980s Germany - which - I mean - what the - ) To get the stamp, probation officer McGregor sends an idiot to retrieve it who gets totally the wrong house and kills an old man, who happens to be the step-father of local cop Carrie Coon. And that old man is also a former sci-fi writer - leading to an unexpected and delightful cartoon involving an android.

Meanwhile very bad guy David Thewlis moves in on business of the more prosperous McGregor and his partner Michael Stuhlbarg. Thewlis is a horrible character, much worse than Billy Bob Thornton's - repellent. Also he has a way of telling everyone little stories which may or may not be relevant. So he's a bit of a difficult one to swallow (though admittedly a great performance). Shea Whigham is annoying as a senior cop who just will not listen.

Once again a small family unit is at the heart of the story. And the cop finds an ally in eager colleague Olivia Sandoval. And we begin to side with the lesser Stussy and his ballsy and mercenary girlfriend Mary Elizabeth Winstead, particularly after she's badly beaten up.

Loved the box that turns itself off! And the 'Peter and the Wolf' episode. The whole sequence from the attack on the prison bus and how Winstead just happens to be chained up with the great deaf guy from Season 1, Russell Harvard, is fabulous. Loved that you think Goran Bogdan (the Yuri Gurka from the opening) has been shot in the head, but it's only his bear head. Then ending up in a deserted bowling alley, the Ray Wise character (what is he - some kind of Jewish angel?) and the kitten... and then we never see Bogdan again.

Um. So, Thewlis most off-putting. Winstead doesn't make it, which is a shame. (Loved the dissolves in this highway scene. Regis Kimble is the editor; Keith Gordon directed.) Nor does nice McGregor, which he doesn't really deserve. And the very ending, the cliffhanger, does Thewlis get away with it all? I mean, I like it, but we're left in a rather unsatisfying wrap-up.

Who is Noah Hawley anyhow? He's also a novelist and singer (frequently teaming with Jeff Russo). screenwriter and producer, starting with Bones (2005-8) on which he was story editor. There's other writers on this one.

What did Minnesotans think of it all? You sense they were a bit offended by the accents, which have been exaggerated, and that they are made out to be a bit thick. Liz Himelstein was the dialect coach who worked on the original film and then helped Juno Temple at least.

A Word on The Waltons (1972 - 1981)

We stumbled across these on Great TV and found them to be good easy watching with an occasional quite grown-up storyline - racism (more than once), mistrust of foreigners, drug abuse, the menopause, death. The fact that they're shown out of order is quite puzzling, thus we've had Pearl Harbor and WWII announced, then we're back in mid 1941.

Some of the storylines, especially those involving young John Boy and his struggles in dealing with new college people, have been quite moving; his falling in love with a visiting poet, ending in a beautifully word-free scene at a railway station; little black kid wanting John Sr to adopt him.

I have to say though that the writers on Season 7 (1978 vintage) went a little insane. Jim-Bob gets religion, suddenly knows loads of Bible quotations! Corabeth goes mad, turns out is an alcoholic. But in the most insane episode, Elizabeth starts seeing ghostly things - the ending, with her and her mates terrified by the piano playing itself etc is laugh out loud hilarious.

I think we came in around Season 3 of 9 of 24 episodes each.

Have to credit: Michael Learned (Olivia), Ralph Waite (John), Richard Thomas (John Boy), Will Geer (Zebulon), Ellen Corby (Esther; who returned to the show after her stroke), Judy Norton (Mary Ellen), John Walmsley (Jason), Mary Beth McDonough (Erin), Eric Scott (Ben), David W. Harper (Jim Bob), Kami Kotler (Elizabeth). And Joe Conley and Ronnie Claire Edwards (Ike and Corabeth), Mary Jackson and Helen Kleeb (the Baldwin sisters and keepers of 'The Recipe'!), Lynn Hamilton (Verdie).

Learned and Waite were both theatre actors; she won three Emmys on the show, but ultimately got bored, felt there wasn't enough for her to do, and quit. She went on to star in early eighties show Nurse. We most recently saw John Boy - sorry, Thomas - in Ozark.

Dolly Parton double bill: Unlikely Angel (1996 Michael Switzer) / 9 to 5 (1980 Colin Higgins & co-scr)

Dolly Rebecca Parton died yesterday aged 80, creating a tsunami of fan worship and a frenzy of media recaps. It sounds like she was a beautiful person with a particular interest in child literacy.

We celebrated her life with a TV movie made by God's own PR company. In order to get her wings in heaven, Dolly must reunite a dysfunctional family, which she of course does, with the occasional help of angel Roddy McDowall. It may not be the best film ever but the ending, in which now winged Dolly flies off to heaven, couldn't be more fitting.

I was wondering what the cartoon was.

The earlier film is much more fun, from its title song, written of course and performed by Dolly. She's one of three alienated women who join forces against evil boss Dabney Coleman. Actually the plot's rather silly. Lily Tomlin thinks she's poisoned him by accident; with the help of Dolly and Jane Fonda they steal the wrong body. He's alive and going to get the police on them so they have to kidnap him and hold him prisoner in his own house. Higgins wrote it with original author Patricia Resnick.

Sterling Hayden, Henry Jones and Elizabeth Wilson co-star. Edited by Groundhog Day's Pembroke J Herring. (Yes, Mr. Herring - we do notice when you speed things up.)

Fargo - Season 2 (2015 Noah Hawley)

Starts out with youngest brother Kieran Culkin keen to get into the electric typewriter business. Goes to a diner to put pressure on a judge and ends up killing her and two others. Then he's run over by Kirsten Dunst (obsessed in becoming 'self-actualized') and rather then stop and tell the police, she takes him home, where later butcher Jesse Plemons finds him and has to kill him. It's 1979, by the way. Native American Indians, UFOs and Ronald Reagan all play a part.

Investigating are Patrick Wilson and father-in-law Ted Danson; Cristin Milioti the latter's daughter. (We know her from Modern Love, Death to 2020 / 2021 and Palm Springs.) And from out of town, Keir O'Donnell.

Culkin is part of crime family headed by Jean Smart; with volatile sons Jeffrey Donovan (Changeling, Sicario) and unruly daughter Rachel Keller,  Angus Sampson and his son Allan Dobrescu. Zahn McClarnon as the Native Indian.

And after them, Kansas City mafia unit headed by a rather cool Bokeem Woodbine, with Adam Arkin negotiating.

Elizabeth Marvel is the familiar face at the hair salon. Nick Offerman the pissed lawyer.

Stand-out scenes: Kansas City gang attacked in the woods. The finger of the corpse that has dropped on the butcher's floor. Dunst managing to better three killers in her magazine-piled garage. A tense John Ford-like stand-off at the gaol. Plemons attacked in the butcher's. Dunst getting lost in WW2 film while Donovan escapes, then hangs Plemons, then McClarnon's intervention.

And leading us to Season 1 is an inspirational leap.

It's a dizzy delight. And once again, the quotation of the original music in the last episode is a lovely tribute.

Creative though it is, I don't think the split screen adds anything.

Great production design by Warren A Young. 

Fargo - Season 1 (2014 Noah Hawley)

A beautiful riff on the original set in the same snowy environs of North Dakota and Minnesota.

Martin Freeman you feel works really hard at getting his accents just right. He and Billy Bob Thornton really stand out, acting-wise, but all the other parts are played well too - Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Keith Carradine, Adam Goldberg and Russell Harvard (the muscle), Oliver Platt.

It's 2006. In Platt's flashback, we think he finds the bag of cash that was hidden and never found from the original film - quite a stroke of genius. Then in delirious plotting, he returns, in some bargain with God, to rebury the money, only to have his son die in a car crash, the result of frozen fish dropping from the skies!

Standout scenes include the shoot out in the blizzard, and Thornton's visit to the Organisation in Fargo, where the camera tracks his progress from the outside of the building and we hear the audio of the chaos he brings; meanwhile the two FBI surveillance guys miss the whole thing!

Then that audacious single track from Hanks in speed trap car through the woods to a road and another vehicle also driven by Hanks the mailman, and it's a year later. And things have somewhat moved on in the romance department as Tolman is now heavily pregnant and Hanks' daughter Joey King has a lovely new grandfather. Freeman is the cocky Salesman of the Year and when he confronts Thornton in a Vegas hotel he stupidly won't leave it alone and drops himself and his unfortunate new wife Susan Park into danger. Perhaps the only slightly unsatisfying moment is where Hanks finally traps Thornton and just executes him - it would have been more satisfying if the bad guy had been armed, for example.

But overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable and creative experience.

Jordan Peele, FBI Agent Budge, later directed Get Out.

In that final family scene, composer James Russo does, I think, reference Carter Burwell's original score in a lovely tribute.

Ted Lasso - Season 4 (2026 Sudeikis / Hunt / Kelly)

Of course Ted will go back to Richmond to train the girls' team. Of course he will take his son with him.

The way he gets his young supermarket colleague to stop stealing cigarettes is inspired indeed.

Will Tanya Reynolds stay on as assistant coach? Of course she will! (We know her from Sex Ed, Emma., Fanny Lye Deliver'd, The Other Bennet Sister). Will Roy and Keeley get back together? Of course they fucking will!

Bollocks of 2026

It's sadly early to start this list (5 January) but unfortunately we have a contender already, Hunting Wives, some crap about a woman who finds herself in the gun packing heart of Texas Republicanism. The title indicates how crap it will be.

Can You Keep a Secret? Dawn French, Mark Heap 'comedy'.

The Lady. True story of Fergie's dresser-turned-murderer. Just wasn't engaging.

The Fortune. Terribly written crap with Eleanor Tomlinson, set in Hartlepool. She inherits from someone she doesn't know and behaves implausibly from the off. Channel 5 bollocks.

Benidorm is Murder. Retired detective John Hannah solves murders. More Channel 5 bollocks. Embarrassing.

Little Disasters. Was put off by the opening seconds, Diane Kruger's look to camera and the portentous voiceover.

Death Valley. Timothy Spall actor turned detective thing. Not exactly bollocks, but life's too short for unfunny guff.

My Brilliant Career. When annoying Australian lead actress goes into a weird dance to modern pop music in 1900 we just through 'eeoo'.

The Undeclared Wat - season 2. Not bollocks, just boring.

The Murder Line (2025 Graeme Stewart)

Despite its low 5.6 IMDB rating we enjoyed The Murder Line much more than The Undeclared War. For one thing it moves along at a brisk pace with a sort-of Coenish tone, beginning when two crooks manage to get through the US-Canada border despite having a conscious body in their boot; when they open it he shoots and kills both of them then escapes. He is Hamza Haq (good). Then introduce a cop, Stephen Amell and a border patrol cop Tamara Podemski - who dislike each other from the get-go. One of the victims is, like the escaper. an old college buddy of Amell. The plot (with flashbacks) begins to thicken, like a good marmalade.

In tandem a naughty scamp Katia Edith Wood finds her BF has overdosed on drugs and needs someone to complete a drugs deal; enlists the help of innocent comic dealer Jeremy Watson. They end up pushing a man out of a window, which is funny (you had to be there), and are then forced together.

This is writing characters as chess pieces. And how they all move around each other on the board. Because then we also meet Minnie Driver, who's clearly into some very dodgy activity, and I would guess enjoying her performance, and her refreshingly British cohort Thomas Craig. I like the way she single-handedly manages to bump off all the rival drug gang in the show's blood-soaked finale.

I was very amused to see Amell's wife Anna Douglas fight off Craig by firing a nail gun at him four times. I found that hilarious. But was then a bit disappointed he only had one nail in him, in his face. It looked like she'd shot him in the bum. So that was a bit disappointing.

It could be open for a second series.. I'd be tempted to leave it there.

It's also known as 'The Border Line', same as the title tune. I think that's the better title. It was filmed in and around the 1000 islands of Gananoque, Ontario.

Also with Christopher Heyerdahl (police chief) and Kate Corbett ('Blondie').