Crimbo Limbo, part One: TV, Streaming and DVD's

Writing as someone who doesn't watch TV all year but who then gorges senselessly over the festive period when I'm at my mum and dad's house... now seems a good moment to write a slightly bemused take on the festive TV schedules.

Every year the critical reception that greets the festive TV announcements feels more and more brutal. I wonder sometimes if it's a two headed problem: On one hand, people want the opportunity to watch all of their personal checklist of festive favourites, from It's A Wonderful Life to The Muppet's Christmas Carol (and all points in-between...) but, on the other hand... They also want the opportunity to devour some new programmes and films that they can then add to that list. A few years ago we successfully added the DVD of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather to our personal family list but, having watched it to death for at least 4 years consecutively, we're currently having a break from it.

Regular, and increasingly desperate, daily study of the bumper edition Radio Times between Christmas Eve and the 28th December failed to turn up much that any of us felt like watching. It seemed like some channels were trying harder than others to be honest. BBC2 on (I think) Boxing Day had an afternoon/evening schedule which consisted entirely of Marilyn Monroe films and Tina Turner related programming. I mean, great if you like Monroe and Turner, but... weirdly un-festive.

As things turned out, we spent the evening of Christmas Eve (after much thought and deliberation) binge watching Belgravia on DVD, and stayed largely in period drama territory for much of the festive period. 

Belgravia is the sumptuous BBC adaptation of Julian Fellowes novel of the same name. Following the huge success of Downton Abbey, it's highly likely that Fellowes was basically given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted next, and that Belgravia was the result. 

This makes it sound like I didn't enjoy Belgravia, but I really did.

Never trust a man in a fancy waistcoat

Set in the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo and the end of the Peninsula Wars, Belgravia shares with its Edwardian/inter war period sibling the same servant/master/upstairs/downstairs structure and interest in the British class structure. In Belgravia, it would be fair to surmise that London gentrification is also a theme. In common with much 19th Century literature/TV dramas set in that period, there are certain character motifs that help it to feel comforting in a way it perhaps shouldn't be: The cad can be easily spotted by his elaborately embroidered waistcoats, for example. We also have two refreshingly independent spirited heroines, a number of conniving anti heroines, and a commanding but spiky duchess. Not to mention a graciously underplayed mother courtesy of Tamsin Greig and a man on the rise played by Phillip Glennister. 

After finishing Belgravia on Christmas Day, we found ourselves turning to Netflix and the second of the Enola Holmes films. Maybe it's the success of Sherlock that's done it, but there seems to have been a massive surge in new takes on Holmes in recent years, including new books and, now, these two films for Netflix. Who, if the runaway success of Wednesday is anything to go by, seem to be the streaming service for excellent teenage girl heroine's at the moment. Entirely concerned with the story of Sherlock and Mycroft's previously unmentioned younger sister, Enola, (played with irresistible charm by Millie Bobbie Brown) the films can't be regarded as canon, but that should in no way put anyone off watching them. Similarly, I haven't actually seen the first of the two films, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying the second one. 

The series is clearly aimed at a teenage/young adult audience, but it's sophisticated enough to work for adults as well. Marked by engaging central performances, particularly from Brown, Helena Bonham Carter (as Enola's eccentric suffragette mother) and Louis Partridge as Enola's friend and potential love interest, Tewkesbury. Threading historical fact with fiction, it's fast paced, with regular breaking of the fourth wall, and has ferociously energetic charm that makes it quite an exciting TV proposition. It's to be hoped that there will be further films.

Boxing Day had us tuning into BBC1 for The Repair Shop and Death In Paradise, both festive themed episodes of long running series. I have been sceptical about Death In Paradise for a while because - at face value - it always felt too much like a Midsummer Murders/Rosemary and Thyme/Bergerac type show. Having actually watched it now, I can see that I was largely wrong: It is at the quirkier end of crime drama, but it probably has more in common with a show like The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency than with Midsummer Murders. There's humour there, but it's balanced well with the crime elements and never feels ridiculous or inappropriate.  The Repair Shop, meanwhile, was gentle feel good TV at it's best.

On the 27th I figured out how to use iplayer on the smart TV and watched Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker from a few days earlier. It had a very 1950s fun aesthetic that gave the ballet a different kind of energy and vitality, meaning it bounced along quite nicely. The costumes were fantastic, as was the dancing and characterisation. There wasn't really any pointe work but I think it's part of Bourne's style to make things look effortless and easy, rather than laboured and difficult so that might have been why.

We watched The African Queen on DVD after that, which I could write about, but which I'd need to write a highly defensive and carefully phrased essay about purely on the basis that it's set in the colonial era in East Africa, which was then part of the German empire, at the start of World War I. And the film was made in 1951. Personally, I will watch and often take a lot from old films that were made in very different eras than today, but I can't always be bothered to do a full on dissection of the pros and cons. 

In-keeping with the World War I theme, we then finished off the 27th with the film 1917 on BBC1, which is probably about as un-festive as you can get really. It's an incredibly tense, riveting, and above all necessary watch. One that contrasted sharply with The African Queen, not only in pace but in terms of how far filming techniques and storytelling techniques have travelled since 1951. It has the same relentless, unforgiving, visceral quality to that Dunkirk did. Which we watched last Christmas.

Having also watched (the original) All Quiet On The Western Front and re-watched The Wipers Times this year, maybe it's time to compile a film guide to World War I? (Before anyone points it out, I know Dunkirk is set during World War II. The other films I've mentioned are all set in World War I though) Or does one already exist?

On which un-festive note, I shall end for now.

Tomorrow I intend to take a look at radio and podcasts over the festive period.

First image by Bryony Elena on Unsplash

Second image screen grab of Belgravia

Third image publicity still for Enola Holmes 2

Fourth image by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash