Some highlights from my recent watching for you…
The Death of Bunny Munro
I’ve not read Nick Cave’s novel, but he was involved in its adaptation (on NOW/Sky Atlantic), and he turns up in the last episode of this absolutely superb short series.
Matt Smith plays the titular Bunny, a philandering travelling cosmetics salesman, who ignores his wife for having it off with his customers. He returns home from a trip to find she’s committed suicide, leaving him with Bunny Jr, their 9-year-old son. Raphael Mathé is simply heartbreaking as the encyclopedia-loving, blepharitis-suffering youngster, and as for Matt Smith… Well what can I say? – having watched it, I wouldn’t want anyone else to play Bunny – he is a revelation. When Jr’s maternal grandmother won’t take him at her daughter’s funeral, and with social services on their trail, Bunny and son take to the road – with inevitable consequences. This is gritty, heart-breaking, and still has a sense of humour. Telly of the highest quality indeed.
Amadeus
Also on NOW/Sky Atlantic, was this lavish British adaptation of Shaffer’s play with Will Sharpe as Mozart, Paul Bettany as Salieri and Gabrielle Creevy as Constanze. Although lacking the pace of the play and Milos Forman’s wonderful 1984 film, it was thoroughly enjoyable. Bettany was made to play Salieri and Will Sharpe was suitably frenetic as the young maestro.
Steal
This new 6-parter on Amazon Prime is a heist movie. Sophie Turner is Zara, Archie Madekwe is Luke – transaction facilitors (or something like that) at a pension fund HQ. One day armed raiders break in – and with just enough violence to prove they’re not to be fooled with, get Zara and Luke to place their deals to steal £4 billion! Jacob Fortune-Lloyd is too charming as DCI Kovac, I felt he belonged in an Agatha Christie mystery, but Turner as the mess that is Zara holds it all together. It was good, but forgettable.
Traitors Ireland
Now that was fun! Not as much fun as the UK civilian Traitors, but I loved Siobhan McSweeney as the host. Like Claudia in the UK, the stylists had a great time dressing her. Most of the missions were less challenging than the UK ones, but the Round Tables fair sizzled with accusations flying all over the place and one evening all the women ganged up on one of the others, who declared before revealing she was a faithful that they were such ‘mean girls’, which left some very sad faces. Having its home on BBC3, the language was fruity at times, and Slane Castle had been done up in similar style to Ardross Castle in Scotland.
Lord of the Flies
Jack Thorne’s adapation of Golding’s novel for the BBC was fabulous. Mostly filmed in Malaysia, the child actors were simply amazing, especially David McKenna who was Piggy. Lox Pratt who was Jack, (will play Draco Malfoy in the forthcoming TV Harry Potter series), was a tall blond angel who soon turns bad. Winston Sawyer as Ralph was given a backstory that wasn’t in the novel, I loved that in the first two episodes, the soundtrack built in bits from Benjamin Britten’s Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. If you’ve read the book, you’ll know how it ends, but i won’t say more, save that I really enjoyed it.
Other viewing: I was totally glued to much of the Winter Olympics, well, maybe not the speed skating, but if my knees were youthful, I would fancy taking up Curling – it’s so strategic. I also rewatched series 1 of The Night Manager in preparation for the second, which was brilliant, but couldn’t quite live up to Le Carré. Only the latest series of Silent Witness has disappointed. But the real highlight of recent viewing is…
Small Prophets
What a treat this was on BBC2. Pearce Quigley as lovelorn Michael was just brilliant and naturally Michael Palin as his father Brian was superb. But every single character in Mackenzie Crook’s latest work shone and the attention to detail in the sets was second to none.
A gentle comedy with its heart on its sleeve. If you loved Crook’s Detectorists, you’ll know what to expect, but with an added phantasmic element which I will not reveal. It was perfect TV.
What else would you recommend that I watch?
(I have NOW/Sky Atlantic, Netflix, Apple, Amazon Prime + terrestrial)
I thought the film Amadeus (one of my favourites) didn’t need a remake, so sm pleasantly surprised by your positive review. Bunny sounds quite compelling.
It wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d anticipated. Bettany dials it in, Sharpe, although totally different to Tom Hulse, did have a spark in his eyes which helped. The ageing makeup for Constanza at the end was pants though. However, the music made up for everything that was a bit cheesy.
Bunny was just brilliant, although a friend hated the first 10 mins so much she didn’t watch the rest. She missed a fantastic piece of storytelling with fab performances. It didn’t shy away from the casual misogyny of the early noughties, while showing how trapped Bunny was in the prison of his own making.
I adored Small Prophets. Thought it was beautiful television. I am a huge fan of Amadeus the film so am not that bothered about this new adaptation, although Will Sharpe is always an interesting actor
Beautiful is a good word for Small Prophets … and it said ‘to be continued’ – yippee!
I know! I was delighted to see that.
I agree about Small Prophets . . .
I generally like Will Sharp as an actor, but Amadeus for me was a series that didn’t need to be made. And as a show that claimed to ‘showcase’ more of Mozart’s music, most of it was confined to short excerpts or as background to action or dialogue. Frankly, gorgeous though it was to look at, it’s several hours we could have spent more usefully elsewhere. Sorry, this is a classically trained musician speaking!
However, the final caption for Small Prophets (‘To be continued… ‘) made up for our sadness as this series ended; Crook does it again! I’ve only watched most of the first episode of Lord of the Flies but I liked the casting of Piggy, the Jack Thorne script, and, yes, the inclusion of the Britten (and also Messaien’s exquisite ‘Quartet for the End of Time’, one of the first LPs I ever got) – I’m spacing these episodes out to savour them more.
We’ve watched virtually all the Brenda Blethyn vehicle Vera episodes now on ITVX, and we’ve enjoyed those; it’s been interesting to see what’s often available on the terrestrial TV apps as well the big streaming giants.
I’m classically trained too but didn’t mind the snatches of Mozart – I didn’t expect anything more, so could enjoy it for what it was. As for LotF, I may be classically trained and have played the Britten interludes in orchestra, but I’m not familiar with the Messaien! 😀
Coo, I hadn’t twigged you were a classical musician too, *and* played the Sea Interludes too, I’m so envious! Even as an occasional orchestral pianist there’s nothing like being in the midst of that collective undertaking, is there?
Do look up the background to the MessIen quartet: composed for cello, piano, clarinet, and violin, it was composed and first performed in 1941 in a POW camp in a part of Silesia controlled by the Nazis. It adds a layer of poignancy to the actual music.
Yes – I played violin and piano. I loved orchestra, and led a couple of the Croydon Youth ones. I was a fiddle for hire during uni hols for a while, but my biggest achievement was being invited by my former Youth orchestra director to play in a well-known London amateur orchestra under a young Simon Rattle – we did Mahler 5 – I was back desk of the second violins, but it was wonderful.
I think I prefer the original Shetland (stopped watching it now) to Vera. But half the time ITVX won’t load up for me, so I forget it’s there.
Actually, I think we have been recording it from ITV3, so we >> through the ads!
Haven’t got into Shetland, though I remember Scottish complaints that there were too many different Scots accents for such a relatively small area, though I suppose the same could be said for a series set in Northumberland and around Newcastle!
Your taste perfectly matches mine, bar the Steal. I think I shall use you as my recommendation engine from now on. Both Lord of the Flies and Small Prophets were already on my radar, now I have to persuade my husband to watch. He bailed on The Detectorists, but I watched the first series when he was away and absolutely adored it. Also, I didn’t know I needed to see a shirtless Matt Smith 😂
Thank you! <3 Matt Smith was soooo good in that series. I love that he still does challenging drama in between the big hitting stuff.