[Will Hunt]

The punchline at the end is just incredible.

"Ugandan real estate, Jude Muzoora, made no comment on the allegations but requested payment for this participation".

[TobyD]

I know its been on before,  but The Night Manager is great and on iplayer at the moment. 

[Fultonius]

We love a good documentary. Anyone got any recommendations? History, nature, science, politics...anything really!

[Falling Down]

This one is ace. A short doc on world champion stone skimmers https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hzs6 competing in Wales and Scotland. Delightfully eccentric and familiarly obsessive.

[Falling Down]

This one is good too.  Don’t be put off by the title, it’s a really interesting look at celebrity culture, social media and the intersection with politics etc. Me and W have been watching over the last few days.

Celebrity: A 21st-Century Story, Series 1: Episode 1: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qsjz via @bbciplayer

[SA Chris]

Death to 2020 on Netflix. Some funny bits, some crap, some serious.

[SA Chris]

Staged on BBC iPlayer, one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

Series 2 just starts.

Also Gone Fishing Xmas Special is a good watch, some touching moments.

[spidermonkey09]

Started watching Hoop Dreams on iPlayer last night. Saw enough to know it was ace. Think Last Dance crossed with The Wire; a bit of basketball and an insight into US social issues.

[andy_e]

Staged on BBC iPlayer, one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

Series 2 just starts.

Also Gone Fishing Xmas Special is a good watch, some touching moments.

I was pleasantly surprised by series one, thought it might be a bit shit but it had me in stitches! Didn't know they were doing a second series, awesome.

Enjoyed Gone Fishing too!

[seankenny]

We love a good documentary. Anyone got any recommendations? History, nature, science, politics...anything really!

Did you see "Cheer" on Netflix? It's about cheerleading in the States, it's not ra-ra-ra'ing but teenage girls doing very highball stunts - there are tears and many thuds where you're glad the camera didn't catch the moment of impact. I thought I'd have no interest in the subject whatsoever but it was fascinating.

[mrjonathanr]

I really don’t know where to put this- much like the show’s creator I guess. New Danish kids TV programme, about a man with unusual anatomy. For 4-8 yr olds, apparently??


Think it is causing some controversy.

[tomtom]

Here's the write up: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/john-dillermand-denmark-launches-childrens-tv-show-man-giant-penis

[Oldmanmatt]

Death to 2020 on Netflix. Some funny bits, some crap, some serious.

Actually, this gets funnier the further into 2021 we go, as it becomes more ironic and less exaggerated...

[tommytwotone]

This one is good too.  Don’t be put off by the title, it’s a really interesting look at celebrity culture, social media and the intersection with politics etc. Me and W have been watching over the last few days.

Celebrity: A 21st-Century Story, Series 1: Episode 1: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qsjz via @bbciplayer

Watched that over New Year, thought it was excellent.

Just finished The Serpent on BBC, which got average write-ups but I thought was good. Engaging, and really tense in places.

[Will Hunt]

This one is ace. A short doc on world champion stone skimmers https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hzs6 competing in Wales and Scotland. Delightfully eccentric and familiarly obsessive.

I enjoyed these nutters. Thank you.

[Falling Down]

Glad you enjoyed it.

@TTT - yeah we watched The Serpent too. I thought it was really good.

[SA Chris]

I love how good they are at getting every detail pretty accurate for the time. The flicker boards at the airport made me quite nostalgic.

[galpinos]

Does The Serpent get better after Episode 1? It was visually beautiful but I felt there there was no suspense and struggled to engage with the characters.

[Plattsy]

And does it stop with the time hopping? I don't mind a bit of jumping around but episode 1 was chock full of it.

[mr chaz]

And does it stop with the time hopping? I don't mind a bit of jumping around but episode 1 was chock full of it.

We're only on Ep 2 now but if anything its got worse.

[tommytwotone]

Does The Serpent get better after Episode 1? It was visually beautiful but I felt there there was no suspense and struggled to engage with the characters.

It develops. One particular storyline is very tense.

The time hopping is annoying, does continue but you do get used to it.

[Falling Down]

The time hopping is ridiculous but you kind of get used to it.  "Is it two months before the previous bit which was then months after the day before?". Still good though.

[slab_happy]

We love a good documentary. Anyone got any recommendations? History, nature, science, politics...anything really!

-- Watergate (BBC 1994), four hours long, one of the best bits of documentary-making I've ever seen.

Totally gripping  and you can watch it like a thriller. They hit some sort of sweet spot in time where most of the people involved were still alive, but enough time had passed that they were willing to be honest about a lot of things, and it's jaw-dropping. There's a point about half an hour in when everyone I've made watch it goes WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, NO REALLY WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. It's great.

[Yossarian]

I have recently been bingeing Yellowstone. My interested was initially piqued when I saw it mentioned on the other channel, with a couple of people describing it as total trash and entirely populated by unlikeable sociopaths. I surmised (correctly as it turned out) that this probably meant that I would find it brilliant in nearly every respect. Great actors - Kelly Reilly is perhaps the best, Kevin Costner is quite badass, Danny Huston is good in everything he’s in, isn’t he? Wes Bentley’s hair makes him look a bit like he’s a Lego man. Sweeping Utah-masquerading-as-Montana landscapes, lots of horse riding, shiny guns, shit kicking, and constantly good music (which has resulted in near-constant country rotation at home). Highly recommended.

[duncan]

I’m afraid I’m mostly with JB on Mountain and was also counting myself lucky I hasn’t paid to see it*.

The climbing sections were  all recycled from other films as far as I could tell, starting as it meant to continue with Honnold soloing. Impressive of course but probably rather familiar if you’re here.

It wanted to have its cake and eat it with the now-compulsory dig at guided trips up Everest and over-caffeinated sugary drink company TV, only to include extended sequences of the latter.

One of the big selling points on the poster was the specially recorded sound track. And what did they specially record? Vivaldi’s Four bloody Seasons, presumably because there are only 187** existing recordings and the world desperately needs the 188th. It sounded over-blown through a neutral home hi-fi, I hate to think what it would sound like through a cinema set-up.

Non-climbers might like it.

*Fortunately it's on iplayer and you can decide whether we're astute critics or grumpy old curmudgeons.

**probably an underestimate

Back on the telly last night. Lots of pretty pictures and I’m a terrible snob when it comes to classical music so just ignore my comments about Vivaldi (unless you’re also a snob).