Very few new programmes that's for sure. If like me you have cable or satellite TV there is, in theory, loads of choice. In reality there are just lots of channels showing the same programmes over and over and over again. Sigh.
Still there were a couple of interesting programmes this week.
On Sunday 25th July 9:00pm BBC1 showed the first episode of Sherlock. Being co-written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, I was hopeful rather than confident I would enjoy this programme. I'm a big fan of Mark Gatiss' 'Lucifer Box' novels and Steven Moffat had written some of best revived Doctor Who episodes such as 'The Empty Child' and 'Blink'. I won't comment on the latter's take over of Doctor Who, which had long been ruined by Russell T Davies' sentimentality. One can only hope he eventually shakes that off. Thankfully Sherlock was free of any sentimental tosh.
I've never read any of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and can only reference Sherlock from ITV's series with Jeremy Brett. A series I loved and is frequently shown on ITV3. I was told by a friend who does know the books that when Sherlock and John Watson first meet, John was a military doctor who just had returned wounded from Afghanistan. And this is how we met Martin Freeman's John Watson. A man that has seen and experienced terrible things, as Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock rapidly deduces. 'Do you want to see more?' he asks; 'God, yes!' exclaims John and so begins their first adventure together.
The outlandish plot mattered little in this fast paced 21st century version of Sherlock Holmes. A serial killer under his own death sentence was beside the point. This is the story of two men looking for adventure and danger. For Sherlock his superior intellect means the boredom of ordinary everyday life terrifies him in a way that risking life and limb could never do. For John the return the civilian life is equally awful. Being Sherlock's partner will be anything but dull and John's sense of loyalty and indeed concern for this weird man who describes himself as a high functioning socio-path, quickly manifests when he shots the serial killer to prevent Sherlock going too far to prove his brilliance.
If Sherlock and John are fictional danger addicts Dan and Ian, the base jumpers featured in the Cutting Edge documentary 'The Men Who Jump off Buildings' shown on Channel 4 9:00pm Wednesday 28th July, are real life addicts. Anyone who's afraid of heights would find these men completely insane as they scale tall buildings and leap off. The voice over tells us that 1 in 6 base jumpers die participating in their 'sport'. Russian roulette without the gun.
The main focus of the documentary is Dan, a roofer by day, adrenalin junkie by night. Indeed he acts like a junkie, sneaking out of the house so that his girlfriend doesn't know he's going to get his fix. He admits in front of his girlfriend that sometimes as he is on the edge about to jump he wonders if this will be it, will he die. Yet he does it anyway.
If Sherlock and John are fictional danger addicts Dan and Ian, the base jumpers featured in the Cutting Edge documentary 'The Men Who Jump off Buildings' shown on Channel 4 9:00pm Wednesday 28th July, are real life addicts. Anyone who's afraid of heights would find these men completely insane as they scale tall buildings and leap off. The voice over tells us that 1 in 6 base jumpers die participating in their 'sport'. Russian roulette without the gun.
The main focus of the documentary is Dan, a roofer by day, adrenalin junkie by night. Indeed he acts like a junkie, sneaking out of the house so that his girlfriend doesn't know he's going to get his fix. He admits in front of his girlfriend that sometimes as he is on the edge about to jump he wonders if this will be it, will he die. Yet he does it anyway.
Ian, Dan's base jumping partner is not his first. Dan matter of factly talks about his previous partner who died and other friends he has lost. And after Ian was injured in a jump Dan finds another partner. Ian comes along too though. To assist with the planning. He comes across as a little more wary than Dan but part of his addiction is the planning which often involves breaking and entering and trespass. 'Like being a master criminal without actually doing a crime' he says.
Once recovered enough from his injuries Ian travels with Dan to the Alps to jump off cliffs. As they wear cameras during their jumps we are witness to the hideous accident that befalls him as his parachute becomes twisted and his hits the ground. Next scene he is in hospital with Dan cataloguing Ian's injuries with a kind of amused indifference that makes you glad he has found an outlet for his frankly psychotic tendencies that mean he's the only one at risk of death.
Dan says that he does base jumping to help him deal with his 'ordinary life. Sherlock would understand even if the rest of us cannot.
