has anyone been watching The Tower on BBC1?

[Aitch]

i really think it's the single best programme on tv at the moment.

anyone else?

Yes, I have. Aitch. I think it is brilliant - so well judged, beautifully filmed - adn with a proper Social Message.

I jhave been slightly surprised that your colleagues in TV crit world have not been raving about it (ornot that I have seen)... And bah to the Beeb for shunting about hte schedules.

Wotched the first one and a little tear escaped for me.

i have raved, firepile... i have raved. typed away with splashy tears.

it's like Proper Television, isn't it? i bet mark thompson'll be on newsnight again to say they're all actors. that child, chantelle, she's so lovely. they've been so lucky/clever with the casting.

oh yes - on and off.

The little girl on the last episode who was upset at not seeing her dad, and then her mum and aunt dunked her in a cold bath For A Laugh

no. when's it on?

So glad that you have, Aitch - I have also raved - although to the rather more limited audience of my exhausted-and-going-to-sleep-in-front-of-the-telly DP.

Missed Thompson on Newsnight, but isn't this just the kind of thing that's likely to go as they make fewer programmes?

Agree with you re: casting - just briliant work to allow them to speak in their own voices and reflect their own lives. EG PR girls seem so vacant - utterly unaware of the lives going on around them...

the episode that VVV's talking about has just finished in scotland, expat. they keep shifting it around the schedules, i think. it's well worth seeking out, though, i think you'd love it.
it was awful, that thign with the bath, wasn't it? i'd seen it last week on dvd so had to avert my eyes this time. her sobbing her heart out... and then later the sister predicting that she'll get knocked up and leave school. but on the other hand they're a close family, which has its benefits.

some of it is sheer poetry. next week's one covers the time of the 7/7 bombings and Saima and Usman get married. i cried again. i spend the hour blubbing at this programm, basically.

I saw bits - was wonderful - why was it on so late and so erratically scheduled?

Would have loved to see more.

Oh yes, she cried when her mum was talking about the key to marriage (love, respect etc).

have just checked with listings and it's on on mon in england, tues in NI and wed in Scotland... best thing on tv in years and being treated like shite. schedulers are eejits.