Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

Poliakoff: genius or useless?

26 replies

bakedpotato · 28/02/2006 15:56

I'm undecided myself
In light of 'Gideon's Daughter' last Sunday and 'Friends and Crocodiles' a few weeks ago

OP posts:
Kathy1972 · 28/02/2006 15:59

Didn't watch either of recent ones, but:
The Lost Prince - genius
Shooting the Past - useless.

Bugsy2 · 28/02/2006 16:37

Really enjoyed Gideon's Daughter but haven't seen any others.
I thought it was very thought provoking.

moondog · 28/02/2006 16:40

fand c was shite,so didnt bother with gd. too simplistic

Bink · 28/02/2006 16:44

I couldn't really see what he was getting at in Gideon's Daughter, well apart from something non-earth-shattering about the rise of PR as a profession, and obviously there was a little germ of a not bad idea about the Dome having been so dreadful because the person originally in charge ran away. Frances Barber delivered her (unfortunately rather stagey) lines better towards the end than the beginning.

Didn't see Friends and Crocodiles.

Am reading Alan Bennett's plays, much preferable.

OldieMum · 28/02/2006 16:44

I decided not to watch Gideon's Daughter. I find that P's "I'm going to make sure that you get this point, even if I have to jump out of the TV and grab you by the throat" approach a bit wearisome. Even the presence of the wonderful Bill Nighy couldn't tempt me.

bluejelly · 28/02/2006 16:47

Loved GD, not that impressed by F and C
Think the man is generally more genius than useless though

Bink · 28/02/2006 16:49

hmm for "Frances Barber" please read "Miranda Richardson". It's those small mouths, of course.

Original poster
bakedpotato · 28/02/2006 16:49

The dialogue never sounds like real people talking
But I do like that he's trying to examine society and what it takes seriously, even if it is somehow embarrassing
Also his visual setpieces do stick in my head... the red chinese lanterns in F&C...
(Stroking chin and frowning into middle distance)

OP posts:
Original poster
bakedpotato · 28/02/2006 16:50

LOL at Bink
I started wondering if I'd got it wrong

OP posts:
snafu · 28/02/2006 17:02

Useless. I have enough well-dressed middle-class angst at home, don't need to watch it on telly.

Marina · 28/02/2006 17:07

Bink, I always get that pair mixed up! It isn't just me then.
Thought The Lost Prince was wonderful, but was so hacked off with SP after the non-event of Friends and Crocodiles that I watched Midsomer Murders instead...
City Sugar and some of his other earlier plays are really good. He used to be a genius but seems to have enrolled at the Middle-Aged Media Boy's School of Zero Effort, like many others before him :(

bossykate · 28/02/2006 17:09

useless, useless, useless

unicorn · 28/02/2006 17:18

I think he makes very pretty/visual telly.. but as for the themes - well he often leaves me baffled.

I don't think that is genius - surely if you have something to say you want everyone to understand it!?!

RTKangaMummy · 28/02/2006 17:19

Loved LOST PRINCE haevn't seen the others

Marina · 01/03/2006 09:26

No, Unicorn, only clever NW3 residents like SP should get it. The rest of us proles need to be bobbing along in the wake admiring without questioning too closely.
I have this problem with Mister Tom Stoppard too. I've always found him insubstantial, emperors' new clothesish and not even funny. Would love to plant a smacker on William Gaskell of all people for throwing a socialist hissy fit about the Royal Court scheduling Stoppard as part of their 50th birthday celebrations. Quite right too! Way to go Bill...

SheilaBlige · 01/03/2006 23:10

useless

anteater · 03/03/2006 13:03

Find his work has the same qualities as a good holiday read; visual, undemanding but with a lurvly aftertaste.

TV genius?
Shooting the past was excellent, LP and GD next.
FC; well produced coblers

NomDePlume · 03/03/2006 13:05

dull

Kathy1972 · 03/03/2006 14:11

No no anteater! Shooting the past was rubbish, cos stereotypical characters, completely implausible (photolibrary staff spending all day 'making connections' between pics - eh?).
:)

anteater · 03/03/2006 18:43

Kathy1972, think your trying too hard, this is after all just light mainstream TV.. sit back, switch off and enjoy!

Loved the musical score for SP as well!

Kathy1972 · 04/03/2006 09:55

But I loved his earlier stuff so much, when STP was crap I felt so betrayed (sob)....

Possibly I am taking this too seriously Wink

harpsichordcarrier · 04/03/2006 09:58

really? gosh
no contest
genius, second only to Dennis Potter
(I always get Miranda R and Frances B mixed up too)

RedZuleika · 04/03/2006 10:17

Haven't seen quite a bit of his stuff (missed a lot of the recent season of repeats), but those I have seen (Friends and Crocodiles, The Lost Prince, Gideon's Daughter, Perfect Strangers) have a certain haunting lyrical quality to them.

At the risk of sounding pretentious (surely not...), I'd say that they remind me of Chekhov. Although of course something actually happens in Poliakoff, whereas in Chekhov the emotional landscape has changed completely by the end, but very little has changed in concrete terms.

I'll go and make a cup of tea...

4blue1pink · 04/03/2006 10:19

mmm yes disappointing andi questione nighys acting

harpsichordcarrier · 04/03/2006 10:29

yes RZ they are a bit like Chekov. they have that quality
tragedy in the weft and weave of everyday life
(come and join me in pseud's corner, I have some lovely comfy beanbags)