I was really saddened to hear of the death last week of Oliver Postgate, one of the most legendary figures in British animation. For anybody who grew up in this country in the seventies or eighties, the classic show that Postgate co-created with collaborator and friend Peter Firmin are likely one of their most treasured memories. They made just thirteen episodes of Bagpuss (old saggy cloth cat-puss) back in the seventies, yet they seemed to be permanently on TV at least into the late Eighties when I would have got the chance to see it. Years later it is regularly voted the most loved Children's programme in polls, and is still available on DVD and showing on satellite TV. If you don't know Postgate's work, or even if you do, you can see some of his finest moments here or here

Bagpuss has a really personal resonance with me, even to this day. Lovingly hand-made in a shed only a few miles form where I live, I even got a visit from the real Bagpuss at my primary school (sadly I can't remember if it was Postgate or Firmin who visited with him, seeing as I was just a nipper at the time). Today the original old Cloth cat has a permanent home at the local museum in my hometown. However the loss was felt all over the country by many different people, and I've heard tributes from as different sources as animator Nick Park and Screenwipe host Charlie Brooker. Rest in Piece Mr Postgate, you'll be sorely missed.

Dead Good.

As you may have guessed I am quite a fan of zombie movies, so when a new zombie flick comes out, I'll always at least give it a look. However I'm pretty sure that Dead Set is the first time that the undead have had their own TV series. Mind you, at four half-hour shows and and extended opener it's pretty much a slightly long movie cut into chunks. It's got a killer hook- zombies meet Big Brother, and is written by the hilarious Charlie Brooker, best known for his Screen Burn column in the Guardian Guide. However it's not a spoof, but a full blooded horror, albeit one with a strong satirical edge and excellent writing. It's proper scary and probably the most violent thing I've seen made for TV. The Big Brother angle is smart (the house being an ideal location for a traditional zombie siege) and being made by Channel 4 enabled it to use the actual Big Brother house, and feature cameos from the presenter and some former housemates. As a card-carrying Big Brother hater, the chance to see BB contestants eaten by Zombies was a chance not to be missed. I was even able to forgive the fact the zombies were the modern 'running' kind, so well was it pulled off. There's a cute and spunky female lead too I urge zombie and horror fans to check it out- you should be able to find it on e4's website- or it's coming out soon on DVD


Trailer here:

The two-part series finale of Doctor Who is always a guaranteed televisual treat, but this year they certainly seem to have outdone themselves. Some people have felt the current run took a while to pick up, but the last five or so shows have been steadily increasing in quality, culminating with episode 11, Turn Left, one of the smartest, best episodes ever (despite hardly featuring The Doctor himself). Last night's* episode 12 though was on a whole another level, ranking as about the best 45 minutes of TV I've seen so far this year. Brilliantly for fans it featured pretty much every contemporary character from the show's recent history (including characters from adult spin-off Torchwood) and showed a scale and ambition unheard of in British TV. Somewhere along the line the effects in Doctor Who have got good, and the effects shown last night rivalled a Hollywood blockbuster (and I never thought I'd say that). I'm still in shock however from the cliffhanger ending (which I won't spoil for anyone who wants to watch it but hasn't yet) which is either the best kept secret in sci-fi or possibly a spectacular cheat. I actually hope it's the latter, but i can't say why without going into spoiler territory. I can't wait for the resolution, but sadly I won't be around to watch it live next Saturday, so I'm going to have to wait even longer, dammit!

*this was the transmission date for UK only. It should be on the Sci-Fi Channel in the USA within the next few weeks I believe.

Strangely there's a campaign online to save Joss Whedon's new TV series Dollhouse. Nothing unusual there you might think, except that the show hasn't even aired yet. So the idea the show has fans in the first place might seem a little daft- how do they know if they like it? Basically to explain- Joss Whedon's last few shows- Buffy, Angel and the under appreciated Firefly got axed (as have many decent cult shows) by ratings-obsessed US network bosses, so some of Whedon's fans have assumed the worse and that the same thing will happen to his new show- and that it'll be worth saving- so some bright spark came up with the idea of starting the campaign preemptively- before a single episode has even aired. Now that's what you call a dedicated cult following!

Check out the trailer here (and it does look pretty awesome!)

I've never been keen on the practice of remaking British shows for the US market (it's not like there's a language issue, well not much of one anyway). It might be fine to export formats like Pop Idol (yeah, sorry American Idol is kind of our fault) Who wants to be a millionaire?, or The Weakest Link, but remaking comedies of dramas rather than just showing the originals always seems as insult. Not only to the original show, but in the assumption American audiences can't accept something not homegrown- blatantly not true if you consider how many of the recent hit movie franchises- Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings, Pirates etc- have largely British casts and a distinctly Anglo flavour. The remake of The Office is the only success so far. Despite that, I'd remained curious about the US version of the wondrous Life On Mars, thinking that it might be enjoyable on it's own terms. Now I've seen the trailer though, and this has gone out the window. It looks quite frankly rubbish. Colm Meany as gene Hunt will never live up to the iconic performance of the original. And the guy playing Sam Tyler just looks bland. In the interest of fairness, I should wait til I've seen a full episode, but can't say I'm looking forward to it now.

If you've only discovered Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright through their awesome-tastic movies Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, you might have missed their earlier colaboration the slacker sitcom Spaced (created by Pegg and Jessica Hynes) that showed on British TV in the late nineties. Or like me, you might have discovered it at the time and followed their career ever since (sadly Hynes hasn't followed it up with anything worth talking about). Spaced has been back in the news recently though, when the news broke that a pilot for a US remake has been greenlit. And is to be directed by Charlies Angels helmer McG (shudder) .Pegg, Wright and Hynes have all spoken out against the project, (being dubbed 'McSpaced ') as they are not involved at all, and have not been consulted in any way. Which is frankly rude, but due to contractual factors, they are perfectly legally entitled to do. The project is blatantly cashing in on Pegg and Wright's movie success (poor Jessica Hynes is not even mentioned, depsite being an equal creator with Mr Pegg) without giving a penny to the creators. There's already a Facebook Group in protest, which you can join here! As thousand already have!

If you're even slightly interested in Japanese animation, or indeed cult cinema in general, chances are you have seen the classic 1988 movie Akira. The interweb is abuzz once again, as for about the third time plans are afoot to make a live-action Hollywood adaptation. This time however the plans are to turn the somewhat epic multiple-volume comic series that spawned the movie into two movies, one of which may hit screens as early as next year. Although in theory this sounds better than previous adaptations (one of which was to be helmed by Stephen Norrington, director of two of the worst films of all time Blade, and The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen) but it's still a bad idea. I've always been sceptical about attempts to bring this film to live action- the action will be moved from Neo Tokyo to 'New Manhattan', and rumours suggest Leonardo DiCaprio may play the lead Kaneda (note to casting directors: he's waaay too old to be playing a teenager). It's too early to get too worried though.As I said before, this is at least the third attempt to bring this adaptation to the big screen, so who's to say that this time will be any more successful? This is one of those projects which seems to be permanently stuck in development hell. Fingers crossed that it remains there.

This week, some 7 million viewers tuned into the Life on Mars follow up , Ashes to Ashes, and quite likely over the next week, thousands more will tune in via the BBC iPlayer. But in case you missed it, is it worth a watch? Can it ever live up to it's ace predecessor? Well... yes and possibly respectively. Although there's perhaps unavoidably a slightly forced feel to the concept itself- sending a female detective back to the 80's, rather than a male one to the 70's- it's a price worth paying to see the return of the iconic character Gene Hunt. Whatever the more snotty critics may say, I recommend it heartily! You're nicked, you slaaaaaaags!!

This week saw the end of the first season of Heroes on UK TV. And it was frickin' ace! It's been a long time since the BBC has given a US show such a prominent slot and such a large amount of publicity. It even made the front page of the Radio Times. God only knows how long we're going to have to wait to see the second season over here. The BBC have the exclusive rights to show season 2, so people without satellite won't have to wait until it's been shown on the Sci-Fi channel this time. The trouble is what with the US writers strike, it's likely to be some time before the season finishes in the States, and British broadcasters prefer to show series in one go. However, as Heroes is split into 'volumes', (and volume 2 has finished stateside) hopefully the Beeb won't make us wait too long. There's been some negative press surrounding the direction of volume 2, but personally I'm looking forward to [SPOILER WARNING, HIGHLIGHT TEXT TO READ] Hiro's adventures in Samurai-era Japan. I can't wait!

It's hard to believe that South Park celebrates 10 years on screen this year. Who would have thought that the crude and foul-mouthed antics of Stan, Kenny, Kyle and Cartman would still be on air a decade after it started? It's had a particularly odd history here in the UK, where it originally had a coveted Friday night prime time spot on one of the big terrestial channels and became a bit of a cultural phenomenon. The merchandise was massive and the nation was flooded by 1o year olds (who shouldn't have been watching) wearing the T-shirts and shouting "Oh My God! They Killed Kenny!". The conservative press had a field day about this latest filth from a Foreign Land (worse than that, America even) that was corrupting our youth. That didn't stop it launching a Number 1 Single and Movie though. However the novelty wore off - possibly due to a dip in quality from the second series on, but I've never been brave enough to go back and check... Ans so it's time slot got later and later and these days it's not on terrestial TV at all, and has found a new home on satellite and cable. However those in the know will tell you that it long ago got over it's quality dip, got back on form and is in fact is better than ever. It still knows how to cause a fuss (witness the contreversy over the Tom Cruise episode) and the incredibly juvenile humour disguises the fact that it's actually one of the Smartest satires on TV- albeit one that primarily works through the medium of toilet humour. So if you're one of those who gave up on it years ago. why not give it another try? Bet you'll be glad you did...

Regular readers will know about my feelings regarding 24 and the disappointment that was season six. For the benefit of the rest of you, basically all you need to know is- I love 24, but season six was just pants. Up until now i would have described my feelings regarding the revamped season 7 we've been promised as 'cautiously optimistic'. Well the trailer for season 7 had surfaced here in the UK (for some reason we got the exclusive) and has found it's way on to the net (for example here. just in case it's been taken down, you can do a quick search on Youtube for 24 season 7). Now having seen said preview, despite my best attempts to be cynical- I now can't wait to see it! It looks terribly exciting! Man, I hope Jack Bauer doesn't let me down! However I'll have to wait a wee bit longer still- it's been delayed due to the US writers strike. This will ensure it can run uninterrupted, so fingers crossed it'll be worth the wait!

This week I got round to seeing Death Proof- Quentin Tarantino's half of the would-be double-bill Grindhouse. Infamously, after it tanked at the box-office stateside, it was cruelly torn apart and released separately outside of the US (and on DVD in America), provoking a lot of complaining from cinephiles across the world, put out that they missed out n the chance to see the full deal because the American audience didn't seem to get it. However in some ways I was only too happy to watch QT's half on it's own- partly because I personally prefer Tarantino to Robert Rodriguez (director of the other half), but partly because if these films exist in extended full cuts then that's the way I want to see them first. And so, on impulse I resorted to importing the US DVD, while it was still playing on the big screen over here.

And I'm glad I did. It's another great flick from the King Of Nerds, and really quite and unusual concoction that stands up perfectly well on it's own. The car chases are exhilarating and it's very funny. The little quirks in the editing and filming techniques (designed to emulate old style exploitation cinema) is the icing on the cake. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, this is really worth a watch. Having now seen the trailer for RR's Grindhouse feature Planet Terror, I'm going to have to buy that now too. It looks like a riot, and it's a zombie movie, so I don't really think I have a choice....

Pretty high up the list of 'things that I never thought I'd see' would be a Hollywood re-make of the Japanese cult movie Battle Royale. However while checking out some trailers online earlier, I saw a list of 'Future Films'- and there, to my surprise sat the US version of that very film. Surely this had to be a joke?

But there's no doubt, It's listed on IMDB as in development and everything! On closer investigation I learned that work on the remake had been cast into doubt by the tragic real-life events at Virgina Tech. For the uninitiated, the plot sees a class of 15 year old high-school kids, dumped on an island, given weapons and told to kill each other dead, as some kind of far-out way of dealing with juvenile delinquency. You might wonder why they don't just refuse but if they don't cooperate (or try to escape) they have the explosive collars they've all been fitted with detonated. It sounds pretty sick, but it's actually a pretty smart movie that actually manages to actually provide a fairly accurate portrayal of teenagers (apart from all the killing). Considering the touchy nature of the subject, the original movie's never actually been released in America- what chance does a remake stand of getting past the development stage- unless it's so watered down so as to be unrecognisable. Not that that would be any great surprise, given the 'quality' of earlier Hollywood remakes of Japanese flicks.

But ignoring all that if you get the chance, check out the original but whatver you do give the sequel a miss- it's so bad the original director died halfway through production, just to get out of it....

All Children of the 80's it's time to rejoice! The single greatest cartoon series from the 1980's is to be finally released on DVD. Yep, comeFebruary 2008 (in the UK- US release, coming later), Fabulous Films will be releasing the Mysterious Cities Of Gold! Hooray!! For the unitiated MCOG was a Japanese/French Co-production about a young boy called Esteban who searched for the titular Cities in South America. Shown on the BBC in the UK (and Nickelodeon in the States) but unavailable since, the series has taken on an almost mythical quality and has become something of a Holy Grail of retro cartoons. And it had a awesomely catchy theme tune Basically It's the Citizen Kane of 80's cartoons.

Gradually over the past couple of years, most of the classic cartoons from the era such as Dogtanion, Ulysses 31 and Count Duckula have been released on DVD, but the 80's cartoon connoisseur has been asking, just when will MCOG be joining them? So you could say I'm pretty excited. Not very much is known about the release details (such as if it will be a boxset, or available separately) but it doesn't really matter, I'll be getting it anyway!

Meanwhile, those of you who like their animation a bit newer, shinier and more adult might want to check out the trailer for the feature-length return of Futurama. To quote the Professor - Good News Everyone!

I can't believe Prison Break is starting it's third series already. How time flies! Of course the third series is coming to the UK much quicker than the earlier series (Sky One are showing it just a week behind the US premier- we had to wait about six months before they were shown on Channel 5) meaning it's not long since the second series finished up over here. But more pointedly I'm quite surprised it's made it to a third series at all. If any show ever lent itself to a one series run this is it.

I enjoyed the first series. It was gripping and addictive (although completely ludicrous) but I got bored part way through the second series. To be honest I think they struggled to keep things interesting after they (hope this isn't too much of a spoiler for you) BROKE out of PRISON and the show's reason d'etre kind of vanished. That said the new series promises to put them in a different prison (which presumably they will try to BREAK OUT OF) so maybe it's time I gave it another chance. Maybe....

Meanwhile latest word from the new series of 24 is that it will see the return of a major character who I was fairly sure was very dead. I won't spoil it for you (If you really want to know click here) but no matter- if it helps them avoid a repeat of the goldawful lows of series 6
then they can bring back Nina Myers as a zombie for all I care (actually, that would be awesome).

If you're in the US and have access to the channel BBC America, then apparently this weekend is your first chance to tune in to ace British sci-fi Torchwood. Knowledge of it's parent show Doctor Who is not essential (although apparently it shows Stateside on the the sci-fi channel, so check it out if you can) although fans of that show will get extra out of it. American mags TV Guide and Variety have given it the thumbs up too. Basically think of a more serious, more sweary version of Men In Black meets Buffy and you'll not be too far off. It's very silly (in a good way) but it can actually do dark and adult surprisingly well too. Which when you consider it's a spin-off of a family orientated show, is all the more remarkable. Consult your local TV guides for airtime and details!

Incidentally for those of us in the UK, coincidentally the show just started a repeat run on BBC3, so if you missed out, now's your chance!

It may have finished a while back, but ace retro-pyscho-cop-show Life On Mars continues to make the entertainment news. Firstly comes the news that the David E Kelley US remake is storming ahead, but the original stars of the British version have sensibly turned down offers to reprise their roles with American accents. In fact Sam Tyler actor John Simm took the opportunity to criticise the trend for American remakes. It is particularly redundant remaking show that were already in English to begin with. Still, if it makes it past the pilot it will be interesting to see what it turns out like. Back on this side of the pond, the follow up series has begun shooting (which surprised me, as I considered it merely a rumour until a couple of weeks ago). Ashes to Ashes will feature a female cop this time sent from the present back to the 1980's but will feature many of the characters from the original including the now legendary Gene Hunt. I have no idea how it'll turn out but I'm hopeful and anyway it stars Keeley Hawes from Spooks who is gorgeous, which is always a plus!

(By the way if you have no idea what I'm talking about you should buy the series 1 boxset right away. You'll thank me for it)

Mainstream UK audiences finally get the chance to see latest US smash Heroes when in premiers on BBC 2 at 9 pm Wednesday. It's a long old time since there was a big Cult US show on the Beeb, (since they lost 24 to Sky) so the times about right. In fact so confident are the BBC in their new acquisition that they've already got the first-look rights to series 2- poaching it from the Sci-Fi Channel. The good thing is that they seem determined to treat it right and are showing it in a high-profile and appropriate slot, and are giving it a big push. Fans of US TV might not have been too keen on the way BBC2 have treated such shows in the past (Buffy put in a 6pm slot, cut to ribbons because it's y'know..for kids) but hopefully they've learnt their lesson. And of course, cause it's on the BBC it's showing without ads. Personally it gives me the chance to finally see how it turns out- my DVD recorder broke with about 5 episodes on it, scuppering my chance to catch the whole run on Sci-fi. Anyway check it out, it started off pretty well (and by all account gets even better) and it's certainly worth a look-see!