Foyle’s War

Christpher Foyle(Michael Kitchen) is a Detective Chief Superintendant in Hastings, Sussex, England during World War Two. As such he fights against crime that frequently takes advantage of the war-time condition such as pilfering, the black market, profiteering and murder. Foyle is assisted by Detective Sergeant Paul Milner(Anthony Howell) and a driver named Samantha Stuart(Honeysuckle Weeks).

I really enjoy Foyle’s War. It must be quite a challenge to make films about the past when it comes to sets, props, wardrobe and slang used at the time(or banter for you Monty Python fans). I am impressed by the job these folks have done making season after season always maintaining a high level of attention to details even when it comes to the background of shots, especially when shooting outdoors. That is representative of the overall quality of Foyle’s War.

The Official Foyle’s War Fan Site

Cast includes: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell

Available on: Hulu Plus, Google Play, Yidio, Netflix

Doc Martin (TV Series)

Doc Martin Ellingham(Martin Clunes) is a General Practitioner doctor with a practice in the Cornish village of Portwenn. He is quite a good doctor in most respects, but is ill tempered, rude, lacking in social graces and to top it off can’t stand the sight of blood! Yet inside…perhaps deep inside there is a caring and brave person. The villagers of Portwenn and environs offer Dr. Martin quite a variety of challenges.

Doc Martin is good clean family fun. The show has loads of humor and well acted characters you may identify with especially if you live or have lived in a small community. Sets are wonderful, camera work is superb, and scripts well done and fun. This is a show I have used after a difficult day to improve my attitude, watching grumpy Doc Martin seems to take the grumpy out of me. Have fun.

Cast includes: Martin Clunes, Caroline Catz, Ian McNeice, Joe Absolom, Selina Cadell, Jessica Ransom, Annabelle Apsion, Stephanie Cole, Katherine Parkinson, Louise Jameson, Eileen Atkins

Doc Martin fan site click here!

Available on: Hulu, Netflix, ITV

Red Dwarf

Craig Charles plays David Lister who gets lost in space and time with a computer generated holographic companion, Arnold Rimmer played by Chris Barrie and a cat that has evolved into a biped played by Danny John-Jules and later in the series a robot named Kryten played by Robert Llewellyn. In their efforts to get back to Earth they have all manner of hilarious obstacles.

Laughing as I watch Red Dwarf is the one of the easiest abdominal workouts I ever do and I have been laughing for over 20 years(absolutely incredible abs!). The characters personalities clash with outrageously funny results. Truly, our heroes are not the most intellectual of crews but they seem to flounder through challenges in their own way…blundering and panicking seem to be their first actions followed by applying truly remarkable problem solving skills(though I’m not sure what the remark would be!).

Importantly though, they don’t swear, there is no nudity, and no overtly adult subject matter. This is good clean fun family safe, kid safe, clean fun…well cleanish as Lister is a slob and they use the swear word ‘smeg’ a lot!

Cast includes: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn, Chloë Annett, Norman Lovett, Hattie Hayridge

Available on: Amazon, Google Play, ShareTV, Netflix

Hit & Miss

Hit and Miss a British television show about a transsexual woman assassin named Mia. She finds out she has an 11-year-old child from a previous relationship before she began MTF (male-to-female) transition, and his mother is dying of cancer. Upon receiving the notification Mia goes to the smallholding where her son and two other siblings live. She finds out she is too late and the mother has died. She is then left to decide what her next course of action is.

The series is well done. What was a surprise was how well they incorporated the unique challenges transsexuals face. The acting is very well done. The plot is well thought out. I expected a big deal to be made about the gender identity issues, but it really didn’t. I enjoyed the series and would recommend it.

Cast includes: Chloë Sevigny, Peter Wight, Jonas Armstrong, Vincent Regan, Ben Crompton, Karla Crome, Reece Noi, Jorden Bennie, Roma Christensen

Available on: Netflix.

Get Santa

Get Santa is a brand new British Christmas movie from Warner Brothers. Santa is testing a new sleigh when he hits wire and is thrown out and knocked out, his sleigh crashes and his confused reindeer get free in the city. Very soon the police have Santa locked up and the reindeer penned up. The only people who can save Christmas are a young boy and his ex-con father…

Broadchurch Season 1

Detective Ellie Miller(Olivia Coleman) returns from vacationing to the town of Broadchurch expecting to move directly into a promised promotion just to find that her promised promotion has been given to a detective from out of town named Alec Hardy(David Tennent). Soon after meeting they respond to the suspicious death of an 11 year old boy on a beach below a cliff. The childs’ death is soon found to be murder and the whole town and the media, local and national, get involved in the investigation.