8,152 posts
|
Post by alece10 on Jan 30, 2021 10:36:10 GMT
I have been thinking about last nights episode. Apart from the bonfire scene, a couple of things stuck out. Firstly, I thought the whole sequence where Ollie's character denies HIC was well done. I do realise that it as all editing, but the way it was done, with the group behind him, I thought was quite effective. Also when Ollie's character was under the pier with that guy and how he suddenly lost interest when he found out that Ollie was from London. Despite his resentment to his family it was also nice to see the softer side of the flamboyant black character (sorry, can't remember the characters name) Finally, the lecherous old man. We saw in Episode 1 how uncomfortable he made Colin feel and the fact that at the end he got his cuppupance for cottaging. Now whilst as the viewer we're happy, on the flip side, it comes down to Russell T Davies' writing and the acting, that makes you dislike the character. Kudos to whoever that actor was. Agree with your points above. At one point I thought the actor was a very overweight Colin Baker. |
|
2,261 posts
|
Post by richey on Jan 30, 2021 11:21:10 GMT
Watching weekly too, really don't think this is something I could watch in one go. As others have said above the bonfire scene at the end was very powerful and upsetting showing how the family wanted to wipe his life out completely. On a lighter note am I guessing right that this is filmed in Manchester and not London? The buildings have those distinctive red bricks you see in Manchester. Yes you're right, a lot of the locations are in Manchester. Lots of friends have already been posting pictures of themselves outside the Pink Palace. Some of the locations are listed here but may be considered spoilers if you've not seen every episode yet. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/manchester-filming-locations-used-channel-19674900 |
|
490 posts
|
Post by bimse on Jan 30, 2021 12:11:32 GMT
Watching weekly too, really don't think this is something I could watch in one go. As others have said above the bonfire scene at the end was very powerful and upsetting showing how the family wanted to wipe his life out completely. On a lighter note am I guessing right that this is filmed in Manchester and not London? The buildings have those distinctive red bricks you see in Manchester. Yes you're right, a lot of the locations are in Manchester. Lots of friends have already been posting pictures of themselves outside the Pink Palace. Some of the locations are listed here but may be considered spoilers if you've not seen every episode yet. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/manchester-filming-locations-used-channel-19674900And Richie’s parent’s house, supposed to be on the Isle of Wight, was in Norden, near Rochdale . |
|
8,152 posts
|
Post by alece10 on Jan 30, 2021 12:24:06 GMT
Was NY filmed there?
I love spotting film locations
|
|
|
|
Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 30, 2021 12:35:46 GMT
Most of NYC was CGI. Liverpool is often used for US cities so perhaps it was this time
|
|
119 posts
|
Post by SuperTrooper on Jan 30, 2021 12:43:37 GMT
the whole sequence where Ollie's character denies HIC was well done. I do realise that it as all editing, but the way it was done, with the group behind him, I thought was quite effective. Speaking to my husband about this scene last last night, I commented how apt it was for the current situation we're in and Jill's comment afterwards, something along the lines of " overthinking/ thinking yourself out of a situation" The panic and lack of information from Gloria's family, "should we be wearing rubber gloves?" and Jill getting rid of the mug, it brought back a memories of the general feeling at the time to not share drinks etc. Then, as now, misinformation and lack of information causes confusion. I have to say the street outside the flat did look like it could be Streatham/Brixton/SE London so the locations have been chosen well. Looking forward to the next episode. |
|
|
|
Post by marob on Jan 30, 2021 13:00:40 GMT
Watching weekly too, really don't think this is something I could watch in one go. As others have said above the bonfire scene at the end was very powerful and upsetting showing how the family wanted to wipe his life out completely. On a lighter note am I guessing right that this is filmed in Manchester and not London? The buildings have those distinctive red bricks you see in Manchester. Channel 4 have a thing at the end of all their own programmes that says generally where they were filmed, in this case they mostly filmed in Manchester. I had a look online last week when I thought New York looked familiar, and saw they used Liverpool (which is actually quite common, even used by Hollywood films.) Tried posting a link but couldn’t get the link to work. It shows here before and after CGI www.liverpoolfilmoffice.tv/made-in-film-liverpool/its-a-sin-channel-4/Also read that the Rhos on Sea front in North Wales was used for the Isle of Wight. |
|
2,408 posts
|
Post by theatreian on Jan 30, 2021 13:16:56 GMT
|
|
98 posts
|
Post by paddy72 on Jan 31, 2021 1:16:23 GMT
Finally gave in today and binged the whole series in one go as was getting frustrated with the first episodes being so dull. I kept thinking it’ll take off any second now. If I’m honest - and with a few exceptions - I found it all a bit blah. Most irritating were the sets, props and costumes which were 60s and 70s rather than the Memphis pop design inspired 80s. Characters didn’t ring true at all for me especially when more interesting figures pop in quickly and are then abandoned. Won’t go there regarding some earlier comments on this being a great history lesson for today. Best bits for me were all the soundtracks which managed to dig up some much loved but forgotten ‘Keep it Capital’ floor fillers. Every track was Abandonment. That was my 80’s. Never want it back.
|
|
4,982 posts
|
Post by Someone in a tree on Jan 31, 2021 8:31:35 GMT
paddy72 wouldn't the set and props be from an earlier period as none of the character or family's have much cash?
|
|
4,155 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by kathryn on Jan 31, 2021 11:10:31 GMT
Uh, real suburban families did not live in Memphis Pop Design houses in the 80s.
High fashion and high concept design always takes a while to filter through into real life. There are no hard decade style cut-off points in reality - no-one chucks all their 1970s clothes and decor out in 1981 for the latest stuff.
Of course the 1980s looked like the 1970s for many real people.
There was a 1980s era fireplace in my front room when I moved into my flat in 2009!
|
|
98 posts
|
Post by paddy72 on Jan 31, 2021 12:02:14 GMT
Ford Populars (60s cars) were long gone even by the 70s. Victorian hospitals had been knocked down and replaced by 60s buildings like St Thomas’ and Guys and Gloucester Royal and countess other new NHS and private care hospitals. This was the era of ‘loads of money’ Thatcherism. Real people were living in Barrett houses, watching Brookside, Going Live and Dallas and shopping at Tesco, Next and Habitat. They really were chucking out all their 70s cloths and decor as for the first time they could afford to. Shopping and consumerism were rife as debt was easy and cheap. Even for poor people. We made tea in the mug, drank coffee from carafes and wore Calvins not big old 60s Great Universal catalogue store underpants. I could go on but you’ll get my point. Us real suburban families had more taste and talent that you give us credit for and the thrift, make and mend and get by life lived by the generation before was being shot to pieces by the hedonism of Thatchers children. And if you’re going to tell the story of AIDS that matters. Getting the story set in the right period context should show as its part of understanding what happened and why.
|
|
|
|
Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 31, 2021 12:39:21 GMT
The first two episodes (all that I have seen thus far) cover the period of 1980-83 or thereabouts.
Brookside didn't start until November 82. Harry Enfield didn't create 'loadsamoney' until a couple of years later.
The 1980s were not uniform. The most significant changes were not seen until after the 1983 landslide election.
Things were tough for many suburban and urban communities up and down the country. We didn't all become yuppies as soon as the 70s were over.
So from my recollection of those times, things in the first two episodes do feel pretty accurate in terms of the aesthetics, the costumes and set dressing.
I can't comment on the final 3 episodes until I have seen them. So perhaps things went wrong later on. But as a depiction of the first third of the 80s, episodes 1 and 2 are a pretty decent representation.
|
|
|
|
Post by marob on Jan 31, 2021 13:01:56 GMT
I rented a bunch of Russell T Davies’ old shows on DVD years ago, back before Lovefilm got bought and closed down by Amazon. I remember seeing a bit on one of them where he was talking about the production design and how he doesn’t like things to look too designed, saying people in real life accumulate things over many years, so stuff is kind of mismatched and not necessarily the latest trend. I think the example he used was mugs, i.e. you buy a set, you drop one or two, you buy some more, but you don’t fling out all the originals.
|
|
8,152 posts
|
Post by alece10 on Jan 31, 2021 15:31:19 GMT
I moved away from my parents home in 1977 to live in London and then spent the whole of the 80s living abroad.
When I returned to the UK in 1991 my parents home looked exactly the same as it had in the 70s.
In fact the spare room in my dad's bungalow still has some items that I had bought for my bedroom in the 70s like a MFI white bedside table, a white fur 3 legged stool and a standard lamp with the original pink bulb that still works.
So, no, not all peoples decor reflects the decade we are in.
|
|
2,760 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by n1david on Jan 31, 2021 15:51:09 GMT
"Loads of money" Thatcherism didn't reach many parts of the UK. There wasn't a lot of shopping at Next in the West of Scotland. The Glaswegian student flats I remember from the mid 80s were not all that different from the ones you'd have seen in the 60s. Yes, we could tell there were people making money somewhere and telling Sid and buying up council homes. But that certainly wasn't the case everywhere.
|
|
4,155 posts
Member is Online
|
Post by kathryn on Jan 31, 2021 17:53:51 GMT
I’m an 80s child and lived in surburbia - I promise you I know what I’m talking about. We moved into what is still my parents’ home in 1983.
My parents didn’t replace the original avocado bathroom suite until the early 2000s - when my Mum got a small inheritance. It just wasn’t a priority to replace, even though it was ugly - it functioned. They still have the replacement bathroom suite now.
The big TV hit in the 1990s was ‘Changing Rooms’ - the hit home improvement show that had a £500 budget per room and was all about inspiring people to make cheap but bold design changes. The idea that you would bother to change perfectly adequate furniture and fittings just because they fell out of fashion was completely alien to most working class people.
Edit: Habitat! I remember Habitat - we considered it posh in the 90s! I put a Habitat rug on my Christmas list the year I started uni - again, the early 2000s.
|
|
2,408 posts
|
Post by theatreian on Feb 2, 2021 12:38:10 GMT
|
|
4,982 posts
|
Post by Someone in a tree on Feb 2, 2021 13:12:59 GMT
Let's not forget that papers such as the Daily Fail have generated a lot of hatred the television series is about.
|
|
1,482 posts
|
Post by mkb on Feb 3, 2021 22:23:24 GMT
Let's not forget that papers such as the Daily Fail have generated a lot of hatred the television series is about. A lot of the hatred also came from the Murdoch press, yet two of the stars saw fit to promote the show with appearances on Murdoch radio, which I learned from their promotion of this radio station on their Twitter accounts. That's very disappointing, as someone who experienced the vitriol from the Murdoch media empire in the 80s and beyond. |
|
264 posts
|
Post by squidward on Feb 4, 2021 2:34:40 GMT
Just want to recommend that folks don’t stay up late to watch the last couple of episodes before going to bed - proved to be seriously disruptive to sleep! Can’t stop thinking about it. Some particularly brave writing choices that might prove controversial. Some flaws in the characterisation of the women characters. Looking forward to the rest of you seeing it so we can discuss it. I am hoping that Channel 4 has some kind of follow-up documentary to come about the reality of living with HIV/AIDS now. I loved almost everything about this series except for, what I thought, were rather underwritten female characters. Compared to the boys in the Pink Palace friend group, we learned very little about Jill’s life or backstory and Ritchie’s mum’s characterisation was rather one-note. The final episode wasn’t as affecting for me as the previous four. Some aspects didn’t have the rock solid ring of authenticity that eps 1-4 most certainly did.I thought the scene with Ruth Sheen was a hard to believe misstep and felt similarly about the final conversation between Jill and Ritchie’s mother. That said, it was great to see a drama of that quality on terrestrial TV ( a rarity these days) and if the BAFTAS still exist in the future, I’m sure it’ll deservedly sweep the board. |
|
1,483 posts
|
Post by steve10086 on Feb 4, 2021 18:35:07 GMT
I binged it all today, so maybe if I’d spaced it out week by week I’d have more emotion to invest, but... Colin’s death completely wrung me out, so there wasn’t much left for Richie I’m afraid |
|
2,408 posts
|
Post by theatreian on Feb 5, 2021 11:30:39 GMT
|
|
8,152 posts
|
Post by alece10 on Feb 5, 2021 22:09:37 GMT
Well that was the hardest episode so far to watch.
Callum Howells was superb in it.
|
|
4,203 posts
|
Post by anthony40 on Feb 5, 2021 22:12:43 GMT
No! Not Colin! He was my favourite character!
I loved his mother
That was a bit of a tough watch, wasn't it?
|
|
