Bingeworthy TV
Slow Horses (AppleTV+) is back for series 4 – what more can I say – it’s the best thing on any TV platform! Initially centring around River’s father played by a wonderful Jonathan Pryce, with all our favourite disgraced spies back led by Jackson Lamb, the action is never far away. Gary Oldman is pure genius as their spymaster with Kristin Scott Thomas in MI5 HQ to run the show.
Ripley (Netflix) – I finally got around to watching the beautifully shot in monochrome, but cerebrally slow series starring Andrew Scott as schemer Ripley with Johnny Flynn as his mark Dickie Greenleaf. All the way through, given the state of my knees these days, I couldn’t help thinking about the stairs in that Italian town. It picked up in pace though after the first couple of episodes.
Bad Monkey (AppleTV+) – Vince Vaughn is perfect as the wisecracking suspended cop Detective Yancy on the search for social justice after an arm is ‘hooked’ by a tourist on a fishing trip. He teams up with pathologist Rose (Natalie Martinez) to solve the mystery in which too many are getting murdered. Adapted from the Carl Hiassen novel, it’s funny and thrilling and features Rob Delaney as you’ve never seen him before!
KAOS (Netflix) – This is the second-best thing on TV at the moment. Imagine a modern take on all the ancient Greek myths. Got that? Now cast Jeff Goldblum as a seriously deranged tennis and pyjama-loving Zeus, and Janet McTeer as his imperious wife Hera, and give them the wonderful water gardens of the Villa d’Este in Tivoli outside Rome (I’ve been) as their spectacular setting for Mount Olympus. Add in the stories of Orpheus and Eurydice and Ariadne and the Minotaur, liberally stir with Poseidon, Dionysus, Hades, Persephone and not forgetting our narrator Prometheus (Stephen Dillane) and we have 8 wonderful episodes of mayhem!
Summer of Sport: Wimbledon, documentaries on Daley Thompson and Linford Christie, the Olympics. Fabulous! There was no need to watch Homes Under the Hammer and Bargain Hunt with all that lot going on.
Big Screen on the LIttle Screen
The Man in the Hat – 2020 – (Prime) – Ciarán Hinds on a road trip in rural France – virtually dialogue-free and simply gorgeous French countryside. He is nursing a drink and a portrait of an unknown woman, when he spots after some black-suited guys dump what he assumes is a body in the sea and they spot him. A chase begins through the French countryside as their paths repeatedly cross in funny ways. He meets many people along the way, including the ‘damp man’ (Stephen Dillane, again) whom he helps. It was simply delightful!
The Outfit – 2022 – (Prime) Noir set in the gangster era with Mark Rylance as an English cutter who owns a tailor shop used as a meeting place by the gangsters that buy his suits, Johnny Flynn plays one of them. Lovely twist in the tail.
The Menu – 2022 – (Disney+) Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy with Nicholas Hoult and others. A dark comedy-horror film about an exclusive restaurant on a private island, where the chef (Fiennes) is preparing a different kind of banquet! Bizarre but compulsive.
The Instigators – 2024 (AppleTV+) Matt Damon and Casy Affleck in an OK crime caper. A rare case of just ‘OK-ness’ from Apple.
Confess, Fletch – 2022 – (Netflix) Jon Hamm is investigative journalist Fletch in a comic art theft murder mystery. Great fun. Nice support from Kyle MacLachlan amongst others and a neat cameo from Mad Men colleague John Slattery. Good fun.
The Bookshop Band – put my first encounter with the band – and a lovely opportunity to meet up with Rebecca and her husband Chris (she blogged about it here). I’m a convert!
Susie Dent – in conversation with Katie Tyler from Radio Oxford, the day before publication of Susie’s first novel, Guilty by Definition, which I’ve now read and will review soon. A fun and educational event – I learned some new words that evening, including: ‘Confelicity’ – a much-underused word meaning delight in someone else’s happiness; the opposite of Schadenfreude, and ‘Apricity’ – the warmth of the sun in winter.
What did you watch over the summer – your recommendations are welcome.
