Trimmings

What the hell is this?

Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings (link for clip)

I never would've stumbled upon this if it weren't for the casting of Alan Rickman, Richard E. Grant, Pete Postlethwaite, and Hugh Laurie...

Building Foundations

A new approach to BBC? Perhaps after seeing the excellent King's Speech I've been itching to see other well done period dramas.

Similar to the modern reboot of Sherlock, BBC has been testing the waters with only a few 90 minute episodes. I loved Gosford Park, and recently discovered Upstairs, Downstairs (Trailer), the remake of the incredibly popular series in the 70s. Starring Eileen Aikins, Keeley Hawes, Ed Stoppard, Anne Reid, Clair Foy, Adrian Scarborough, ARt Malik, Ellie Kendrick, and Nico Mirallegro.

A few other shows that have escaped my notice.

2008: Little Dorrit

2008: Merlin (Reminds me of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in Gormenghast)

2011: Downton Abbey

Created by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) starring Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern etc...

A Traitor's life

Stumbling upon the unknown is always such a satisfaction. With upcoming movies such as Agent ZigZag and ITV's Foyle's War, here's a BBC series I have found called Cambridge Spies that tell's the other side of the story. It's probably old news to everyone across the pond but this is the first I've heard of it over here. Starring Tom Hollander, Toby Stephens, Rupert Penry-Jones, and Samual West.

"This is the story of the most notorious double agents in the history of spying. Four very British traitors". - Episode 1 opening

The Cambridge Five

Based on "The Cambridge Five" (also known as Cambridge Four, probably quite a few more members...), a group of spies who leaked information to the Soviet Union during World War II. Kim Philby (cryptonym: Stanley), Donald Duart Maclean (cryptonym: Homer), Guy Burgess (cryptonym: Hicks), Anthony Blunt (cryptonym: Johnson) composed the main four individuals. The fifth member has been identified by Oleg Gordievsky as John Cairncross (cryptonym: Liszt). Many of them were strategically positioned, Philby was a British Intelligence officer in Washington D.C., Burgess was the secretary of the British Foreign Minister of State, Maclean was the Secretary at the British Embassy of the Combined Policy Committee on Atomic Development, and Blunt joined MI5, the British Secret Service.

A good start to wet the whistle...

Episode 1 part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Episode 2 part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6