Cucumber, Banana & Tofu: Episode 6

Wow. Every once in a while you get something that is genuinely great television and the latest episode of Cucumber is one of them. A dark and gripping drama.

When the episode started I was happy it would be focused on Lance. Then the words 'Lance Sullivan 1966-2015' appeared and a foreboding tone was set. As views saw the key moments of Lance's life, they knew that something was coming. The life itself was pretty fascinating, with Lance coming out to his family and his father eventually forgiving him. I liked that even when Lance's father died, it was still an issue for Lance.

Then we cut to the present, with Henry trying to get forgiveness from Lance. This was the first great conversation and great performances by Vincent Franklin and Cyril Nie.

The cringe worthy date with Dan turned into something really strange when the Sullivan lorry passed and the ghost of Hazel from Queer as Folk turned up and talked of the lost boys in the river. The episode started to feel like Turn Left from Doctor Who. Loved the directorial touch that Alice Troughton of Hazel standing in the dark and Lance turning to see Daniel bathed in street lights.

Back to Dan’s flat and Lance being hit on the head. The fact that they keep interspersing various flashes of Lance’s life with him Lance just sitting there, bleeding is horrific. His actual, dying, with clips and white noise seemed grim. His death is all the more horrific because we saw him as a well rounded person beforehand.

Last week’s episode saw things going downhill for Henry but that was nothing compared to what happened to Lance this week. And how will Henry react. Russell T Davies has said in interview that gay panic will play a part of the next two episodes so that should something to watch out for. This viewer is definitely waiting around to find out.

The only bad thing about a piece of television like Cucumber is that I couldn't bring myself to watch the Banana episode that followed it, written by Charlie Covell who also played the main character, Amy. When I did watch it it turned out to be a funny and sweet story.  I could certainly identify with some of Amy’s obsessive compulsions. It linked in quite interestingly with the main plot. It was not on par with Cucumber as a drama, but it was a necessary piece of light relief.

Tofu segued nicely with the return of Hazel by having an episode dedicated to looking at the effect of Queer as Folk which might sound a bit self indulgent but when the progranm has affected so many gay people it can only be expected. It was also funny hearing actors talk about performing in sex scenes.

In the end, both Banana and Tofu were eclipsed by Cucumber, which had so many brilliant moments packed into one episode. Nevertheless the other two shows had their moments. Cyril Nri has put in a great performance and will be missed, but at least his work has made an impact here.





RIP Leonard Nimoy

I was born into a world where Mr Spock had long been a part of popular culture. I never met Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek was on sporadic reruns on terrestrial channels. Nevertheless, I knew who Spock was, as did a great many non-fans who had never even watched Star Trek. That is how important the character was. When a character is such a big part of pop culture it can feel like the actor behind it will go on forever. Sadly that is never the case. Nevertheless,
he has left behind a great cultural legacy, not just with Star Trek but many of his other acting roles. His mark upon the world is felt so that even those who never met him will feel the importance and sadness of this event.

Cucumber, Banana & Tofu: Episode 5 & Screwdriver

Last week's Cucumber had a laid back feel so it was interesting to see things take a turn to the worse for Henry as his film work with Adam was discovered. Julie Hesmondhall's response to Henry was brilliant. I never really watched her in Coronation Street but she has certainly proved a good actor to cross over to this show. The last scene between Henry and Lance was also brilliant, with them not getting back together.

This week's episode of Banana dealt with a slightly less harrowing theme so it's not surprising it felt like a lesser episode. Having said that, I enjoyed it more than Sian's episode which ranks the lowest so far in my estimation. Luke Newberry already proved he was a good actor in In the Flesh and he continued it here as Josh, a student who returns to his hometown for his best friend, Sophie's, wedding day. This episode dealt with how people can drift away from each other. It's a theme that can resonate for many people, including myself.

Tofu was pretty funny, talking about the fantasies that people have. Some of them were pretty funny but then again most people probably have embarrassing fantasies. It was also funny to see the three men sketch again.

The three main shows were all pretty good but were best bit by far was this week's special, Screwdriver. If you though Julie Hesmondhall's performance in the main show was good then this tales that even further.

We're more than halfway through the shows now and it certainly looks like this is one of the best shows of the year.

Bond in Film: Skyfall

2012 marked two big moments in British culture: the London Olympics and the 50th anniversary of the James Bond film series. Bond had already made a humourous cameo in the Olympic opening ceremony, but would the new film be well received? Die Another Day had marked the 40th anniversary, and that was poorly received, so it was hoped that the producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, would put together something better for the 50th. And fortunately, they did.

The story pieced together plot aspects that were introduced in the Brosnan films but improved on them. You've got a rogue MI6 agent, as in GoldenEye who has a vendetta against M, like Elektra King in The World is Not Enough. You've also got a story which mirrors Die Another Day with aspects such as Bond being defeated, growing a beard in the interim and then having to rebuild himself from scratch. Unlike the previous effort though, this is more than just a first act gimmick. The whole film is about reconstructing Bond, as he meets new incarnations of old icons like Q and Miss Moneypenny, drives the Aston Martin DB5 and ventures back to his childhood home of Skyfall. Only when he picks up his father's old hunting rival does he begin to shoot well again. Then at the end he meets the new M and is truly Bond again.

Daniel Craig has been a great Bond from his first appearance, and he continues here. There's a lot more humour in this film and he does as well as Sean Connery in combining the wit with violence.

Judi Dench's M has been a constant part of the Bond films over the last two decades and it was good to see her getting a proper role, even if it was a prelude to the character;s death. She deserved a cool death. Her replacement, Gareth Malorie, played by Ralph Fiennes, is certainly one to look out for.

Raoul Da Silva was a great villain, and well played, although he owed a little to Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight in the moments where he intentionally got captured and then broke free and also the moment where he disguised himself as a police officer. Nevertheless, he was well played and good.

With the story focusing on Bond, M and Silva, there was less time spent on the young female love interest for Bond. We do get Eve Moneypenny, a welcome addition to Bond. Unlike Caroline Bliss, she feels genuinely useful. Sevrin was also an interesting character, who initially looks like she's going to be an Onatopp style femme fatale, but then turns out to be a fearful victim.

Ralph Fiennes made a good M. A character who appears to be a bureaucrat but can clearly hold his own in a gunfight. It's the first time we've met an M before he became M. Ben Wishaw was also a good choice for the role of Q. John Cleese was great before, but in the age of computer nerds it was a sensible idea to make the character younger and geekier.

Sam Mendes does a great job in giving the film striking visuals from the misty moors of Scotland, the dark neon nights of China. The moment of Bond running away from the burning house, skies orange, is great. It is absolutely right that he should be returning for Spectre after all the work he did to make this work. The soundtrack by Thomas Newman is also good. As much as I like David Arnold, some of his Bond scores could sound a little familiar, so it was the right time for a different feel.

Overall Skyfall was a good celebration of 50 years of Bond on screen. Later this year we will get to see if Spectre can live up to its predecessor.

9/10

Cucumber, Banana & Tofu Episode 4

It was date night on Cucumber and each one was interesting to watch. It was good to see Henry going into the reasons for his fear of sex and the last line of the episode suggests that things are not quite settled for him.

This week's Banana was the best of the bunch so far. It dealt with the contemporary theme of online stalking. I liked that the situation wasn't easily resolved. The video remains online and Helen will still have to deal with the consequences of everybody she knows having seen it, but at least there is some consolation for her in knowing she has some support from a loving family.

This episode of Tofu was all about coming out and was fairly interesting to watch.

So far I'm enjoying the smaller, more intimate Banana to Cucumber, but they are both very good shows.

Spider-Man to appear in the MCU

Good news for Spider-Man fans as Marvel and Sony decide to co-produce the next films featuring him.

The big question is whether Andrew Garfield will be staying on. It would be good if he could as he and Emma Stone were the best things about the Amazing Spider-Man films. Garfield was certainly better than Toby Maguire at any rate.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s, Spider-Man and the X-Men were the most popular Marvel superheroes while Iron-Man and Hulk were second best. Since the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe their places have swapped over, with Iron Man and Captain America gaining popularity. Now it could be time for Spider-Man to rise again. Hopefully Marvel and Sony will be able to work together well enough for this to work. The Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon series has already done a good job of showing how Spider-Man could fit into the MCU so it'll be interesting to see what happens on film.

Cucumber, Banana & Tofu: Episode 3

Cucumber is developing pretty well. It was good to find out a bit more about Freddie, and his background with the teacher Gregory, which helped to make Freddie appear more sympathetic character. Henry resorted to filming his nephew in order to get some money and we find out more about how he feels when he compares his own fear of being seen to be gay with the modern generation's fearlessness. In many ways he is not unlike the Gregory character. Lance's relationship with Daniel is developing. It'll be interesting to see where these relationships go in the future.

Banana focused on the relationship between the uptight Sian and more relaxed Violet. Sian's journey across the episode felt a little predictable but the episode was generally fun to watch. There were quite a few funny moments such as the shoe transaction at the beginning, the fruit curling and Violet's plan for the perfect murder.

Tofu took an interesting direction in doing a show about not having sex. It's interesting to see how the show is covering the whole spectrum of sex.

In the world of archives - Fire at Institute in Moscow

The big news story in the world of archives at the moment is the fire that occurred at the Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences in Moscow last Friday. The institute holds over 10 million documents and only a small portion of the records had been digitised.

This kind of news is always devastating for archivists and academics. The fire at the National Library of Wales in 2014 was a big concern but fortunately a large portion of documents were saved. With the Russian institute we don't yet know how much is lost and how much is recoverable, although the director, Yuri Pivovarov has said that he doesn't think their Slavic text collection has been affected. I don't know what Emergency Plan the Institute had in place, but let's hope its effective for salvaging what remains.

TV Watch: Cucumber, Banana & Tofu Episode 2

Russell T Davies' Cucumber/Banana/Tofu shows appear to be going well so far. His move away from Sci-Fi has definitely been a good one.

The second episode of Cucumber sees Henry's life getting worse. While he gets to move in with his younger crushes, now everyone knows he is a virgin and he loses his job. The side story about the plagiarism, which felt slightly tacked on last week, makes more sense now we can see the trouble it is causing for Henry. It very much feels like Henry and Lance are going through mid-life crisises. Henry's obsession with Freddie is evidently very much echoes the RTD unrequieted love interest in the style of Henriette from Casanova or Stuart from Queer as Folk. Lance may also have a hard time with Daniel.

This week's Banana focuses on Scotty and I find myself preferring this show to Cucumber. It's a more intimate drama. It was an interesting story about stalking.

Tofu is fun and lightweight. Not really much to talk about. Overall all three were fun to watch. Two episodes in and going well so far.