The show will return to UK screens for two seasons from 2011. In a deal between ITV and the UKTV channel Watch, ITV will premiere season 4 in 2011 and Watch will premiere season 5 later that year. That is a lot of Primeval for one year and it will either sink the show or send its ratings into orbit.
Primeval remains the ITV’s main contender in the competition against Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Fabulous news then. The Sarah Jane Adventures returns to our screens on 15 October 2009. The one-time Doctor Who companion returns for a third season and will feature a visit from The Doctor himself! How exciting!!
It looks like there are will be six two-part adventures and thus twelve episodes:
Prisoners of the Judoon (15/16 October 2009)
The Mad Woman in the Attic (22/23 October 2009)
The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (29/30 October 2009)
The Riddle of Epsilon was written by Christine Morton-Shaw. I hadn't heard of her before but apparently she grew up in England and developed a love for old houses and the supernatural. The book is about thirteen-year-old Jess who has just moved to a grand old house on a mysterious island with her photographer father and portrait artist mother. Strange things begin to happen and it is up to Jess to solve the riddles of an ancient code in order to prevent a calamity.
This is a very rich novel with a historical background story interwoven with an ancient myth involving codes, artefacts and magic. These are expertly connected to Jess, her family and the inhabitants of the island and characters and storylines are quite developed without going into too much detail.
The book is full of illustrations of codes, maps and drawings as well as original poems and songs that are integral to the story. As a reader, you feel drawn in and challenged to try solve the puzzles before Jess does and so this is a thoroughly engaging book.
As the book draws to a close, there is breathtaking action and adventure against a backdrop of moody seas, hidden caves and stormy weather. The story races towards the end and I was really happy with how the story finished. So many books disappoint in the end with insipid and watered-down conclusions but I am happy to say this was not one of them! The final chapter features quite a twist and a time conundrum that will tie your brain up in knots trying to solve it.
This is a book aimed at the young adult audience and will interest both boys and girls in their teens. I'm not certain if it would be suitable for pre-teens because there is mention of drug and cigarette use and I don't think the book carries a clear enough anti-drug message for pre-teens to be able to derive the rather subtle message in the book that these things aren't really necessary to have fun and adventure.
Nevertheless, this is a really well-written book that has been carefully researched and I give it four-and-a-half stars out of five. I believe from Wikipedia that many fans of the book were really captivated by the book and are likening it to the Twilightverse books or the Harry Potter franchise but I didn't feel that level of obsession or involvement. Still, this is too good a book to just give it four stars so I'll settle for another half more.
Fantastic news! BBC's Merlin finally returns to BBC One at 6.40pm this Saturday, 19 September. This is the second season of the show starring Colin Morgan, Bradley James and Anthony Head (who played Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
Merlin has been one of my guilty pleasures since it first aired last year and there is a lot wrong with the series, not least of which is the virtual absence of magic and the portrayal of Guinevere as a common hand-maiden named Gwen.
Despite the flaws, there is something about this show that works, something about the dynamics between Merlin and Arthur that draws you in. The show never forces what will become one of the strongest partnerships of all time but you get to watch as Arthur gradually learns to trust and depend on Merlin.
One of my favourite parts of the show is Arthur’s father Uther Pendragon and his ridiculous ban on magic in all forms. I don’t really see the use in drawing parallels to the modern world and once again, Merlin doesn’t shove the moralising down your throat like Robin Hood used to. It is just this crazy and impossible fear of magic and your knowledge, as the viewer, that it is precisely that magic that will one day save the entire kingdom.
I really like Katie McGrath’s portrayal of Morgana and the hints that all will not be well with Morgana in the future. I wonder how long it will be before she turns bad, if indeed this production of the legend takes that path?
My least favourite character is Nimueh which is unsurprising given my dislike for anything and everything that Michelle Ryan does. I honestly believe that Ryan was largely responsible for the bus-wreck of a Doctor Who Easter special, Planet of the Dead. Not that I’d ever publicly admit to not liking anything Doctor Who-related.
Merlin features an amazing selection of guest stars this season including (from left to right) Sarah Parish, Charles Dance, Adrian Lester, Santiago Cabrera and Mackenzie Crook.
So, as long as I get to go make tea during Michelle Ryan’s scenes, it looks like it is going to be a fantastic season 2 and I am really excited!
Like last week's Music Monday post, this is another song that I have loved my whole life. It is a brilliantly haunting song that was released on The Beatles’ White Album in 1968. I’m not certain which is the better album but I would say that The White Album and Help! are my favourites.
I don’t know why this song haunts me so… it just gives me a feeling of someone standing on the outside looking in at the world. Everything carries on as normal but one thing, his heartache, remains the same. I’ll have to go listen to happy songs now to dispel the sadness!
I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it need sweeping
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don't know why nobody told you
how to unfold you love
I don't know how someone controlled you
they bought and sold you
I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
I don't know how you were diverted
you were perverted too
I don't know how you were inverted
no one alerted you
I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps
Oh, oh, oh
oh oh oh oh oh oh oh
oh oh, oh oh, oh oh
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah
This is one of those songs that I can’t remember ever not loving. I was probably exposed to it in the womb and have literally loved it all my life. Classical Gas is an instrumental piece of music that was released in 1968 on The Mason Williams Phonograph Record and later again on his album Handmade.
It is a common misconception that Eric Clapton composed and performed the song but according to the Wikipedia page, he never even recorded a version of the song. The confusion arose because Clapton performed in and was the music director of the soundtrack to the film The Story of Us which Classical Gas appeared on.
So enjoy this absolutely phenomenal piece of music.
ITV, are you trying to kill me??? I have plans for tonight so finding out at 2pm that The Fixer is starting again at 9pm tonight is Not Convenient!! In yet another paranoid move by ITV the channel has left it to the very last minute to let us know that the programme is returning tonight and the BBC is known to pull this type of trick too.
I have to give a huge shout out to the Square Eyes feature of the TV Today blog at The Stage. Without their tireless and consistently wonderful feature, I would never have known that The Fixer was starting tonight.
They had enough adverts during the X Factor over the past two weeks, could they not have managed one teeny, weeny little promo of this awesome and brilliant programme?
Panic stations aside, if like me you are missing The Fixer tonight, then you can catch them on ITV Player later in the week.
My TV addict colleague says that she saw one or two promos so I guess I just wasn’t watching at the right time. Still, The Fixer is so good they deserve billboards and bus advertisements.
