A slightly sad episode today as we bid farewell to Alex, our favourite TV critic, but before he goes we chat Rebellion, Doctor Who and Not Dead Yet. It's worth pointing out that Alex and Steven have a barney over who the best Doctor Who was/is.
On the 'deep dive' Alex tells us about one of his favourites 'Riverdale', another great coming to the end of their run.
On 'back to the future' Steven takes us through The Big Lez Show, a niche one for sure but a big recommendation again.
On the 'deep dive' Alex tells us about one of his favourites 'Riverdale', another great coming to the end of their run.
On 'back to the future' Steven takes us through The Big Lez Show, a niche one for sure but a big recommendation again.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 Hello and welcome to ScreenBabble,
00:01 your guide to what to watch.
00:02 We'll be tuning into hours and hours of TV
00:04 so we can tell you what you need to be switching on
00:06 and what's to be avoided.
00:08 I'm your host, Kelly Crichton.
00:09 And once again this week, I'm joined by Alex Moreland
00:12 and Stephen Ross, our resident TV critics.
00:14 But today is tinged with sadness as Alex joins us
00:18 for this final episode of ScreenBabble.
00:20 As he's decided to take his exceptional TV knowledge
00:23 and critical eye to pastures new.
00:26 We're very sad to see him go, but listeners, we know it.
00:29 It won't be long before you hear from him again.
00:31 Thanks for joining us, Alex.
00:33 Thanks for having me.
00:34 Oh, don't forget, you can now also watch us
00:39 over on Freeview Channel 276 Shots, which is brought to you
00:43 by a network of journalists across the country
00:45 who are transforming stories at the heart of your community
00:48 into great TV.
00:49 You'll find true crime stories, football news and analysis,
00:51 plus coverage of lifestyle, TV, film and much more.
00:55 Just a little reminder, if you haven't tuned in before,
00:57 each week we'll be chatting about what we're watching,
01:00 as well as looking more closely at a new program
01:02 or something making the headlines in the deep dive.
01:04 This week, Alex talks to us about Riverdale,
01:07 another great run coming to an end.
01:09 Finally, we go back to the future to tell you about a program
01:12 that you may have missed when it first aired or streamed.
01:15 This week, Stephen tells us about the Big Les Show,
01:18 which I must admit I've completely missed.
01:20 But first, we like to talk about what everyone has been watching recently.
01:24 Stephen's here looking like he's about to join the Amish community.
01:27 I think it was a mourning outfit to start with, to be honest with you.
01:30 Stephen, what have you been watching?
01:33 Yeah, it was. It was like a sort of funerary
01:35 sort of vibe that I was going for.
01:38 It's appreciated.
01:39 I'm just going to wear the Oppenheimer hat one more time.
01:43 Yeah, I started watching Rebellion,
01:48 which is a sort of
01:51 historical drama series about the lead up to the Easter Rising.
01:56 Oh, in Ireland in 1916 on Netflix.
02:01 And yeah, I thought it was going to be really, really, really fun.
02:05 And I was going to do it as a back to the future thing.
02:07 But I gave up pretty quickly because.
02:10 Oh, was that bad?
02:11 It was just it wasn't bad, but it was really bloody boring.
02:16 OK. So focusing on Michael Collins and all.
02:20 It was more just a load of randoms,
02:24 just sort of having these long old chats.
02:27 And I just I really couldn't get invested into it.
02:30 It didn't. I mean, maybe it picks up.
02:32 Yeah, I didn't give it that much of a chance.
02:34 But yeah.
02:36 Where were you watching it? What channel is it on?
02:39 Netflix.
02:40 Oh, is it? Right. OK. I must have a look.
02:43 Because we know who the director is.
02:45 Barry Coyne.
02:48 Well, I say Cuyhen, but I think he pronounces it differently.
02:51 It's Cuyhen, maybe.
02:53 Yeah, well, he's in it.
02:55 But I think it was like 2016.
02:56 So it was sort of before he was he was big.
02:58 But yeah. Yeah.
03:00 Just a bit slow and a bit a bit dull getting started.
03:05 It might pick up.
03:05 I might go back to it and give it another chance.
03:07 Is it? Oh yeah, OK.
03:09 Is it very long? Like how many episodes?
03:11 No, it's only five episodes.
03:13 And then there's another season, which has maybe another five.
03:17 I'm not sure. OK.
03:19 If I can get through the first season.
03:21 I'm not familiar with it.
03:22 I must check it out.
03:23 It might have been like an RTE production that's come online, obviously over here.
03:26 Yeah, maybe.
03:27 And then I watched the other day at my local independent cinema.
03:31 I watched Some Like It Hot, which was really good.
03:34 Oh, brilliant.
03:35 The 1959 Marilyn Monroe film
03:38 about two musicians who have to sort of escape the mob in Chicago
03:44 because they witnessed a mob hit, which I think happened to be the St.
03:47 Valentine's Day massacre.
03:49 And then they go undercover as two female musicians in an all-woman band
03:54 and fall in love with Marilyn Monroe's character.
03:58 I feel like I've never seen the whole film.
04:00 I feel like I've seen parts of it many times.
04:03 Really? It's really, really good.
04:05 It's a bit dated at points, but then it's also like wildly progressive
04:09 in some ways, like it really does
04:12 openly look at like how women
04:15 were treated by pervy men.
04:18 OK. But only through the lens of...
04:21 Pervy men.
04:22 No, I'm joking.
04:24 Yeah, the fact that it's two men dressed as women that are experiencing
04:27 this harassment and they're like, oh, this is wrong
04:29 because it shouldn't be happening to us.
04:31 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:33 Yeah. So it's like expressing it, but at face value and not really being like...
04:36 Yeah, I think it sort of misses...
04:39 It's really self-aware, but also misses the point a little bit.
04:42 OK, OK. Different, different times.
04:45 Different times.
04:46 Yeah. Hollywood, you know.
04:48 Oh, I'm sure back then it was...
04:50 That was very progressive back then.
04:52 Never mind.
04:52 And also it's made in the 50s and set in the 20s.
04:55 OK. Yeah.
04:56 Yeah. OK. Oh, that was interesting.
04:58 Nice one. Nice one.
04:59 What about you, Alex?
05:00 What have you been watching or have you just been out
05:02 frolicking through the fields or what's been going on?
05:05 Yeah. Painting pottery?
05:07 Oh my God, yes. The pottery. Do you have the pottery?
05:09 It's still in a kiln.
05:10 But I'll show you a picture of it if you want.
05:13 Oh, please.
05:16 Was this some sort of group activity that you were on or did you just go yourself?
05:19 I didn't just do it on my own.
05:23 Well, you never know.
05:25 A cultured individual like yourself, you know,
05:28 you might just be picking up a new hobby now.
05:30 I've got time for it.
05:32 Can you see that?
05:33 Oh, nice!
05:35 Did you do that freehand in the painting as well?
05:40 Oh, Alex, well done.
05:41 I made sure to write my age on the bottom to make sure no one got confused.
05:45 (laughter)
05:47 Oh, I love it.
05:50 Maybe there's a new...
05:51 A new podcast.
05:53 A new pottery podcast.
05:56 Maybe there's a new sort of mixer there for you on the side
05:58 doing making and selling pottery.
06:00 Yeah, it'll keep me entertained.
06:02 Oh, that's just what I'm going to do it.
06:04 So have you been watching the great pottery throwdown?
06:06 Is that what you were going to tell us?
06:07 I'm keeping it all very separate.
06:11 I started watching this thing called Not Dead Yet,
06:13 which is on Disney Plus.
06:16 It is about an obituary writer who can see dead people.
06:19 It's OK.
06:22 Interesting.
06:22 It's sort of solid, I think.
06:25 I find everything else around it...
06:28 She's an obituary writer, she's a journalist.
06:31 It's going terribly. She's miserable.
06:33 I find all of that a lot more compelling than the actual
06:35 like seeing dead people stuff.
06:38 Who knows why?
06:40 I've also been... I watched some episodes of Doctor Who
06:43 because we've never spoken about that properly on here,
06:47 which is obviously a tragedy.
06:48 No. Your fave. One of your faves.
06:51 We'll miss.
06:53 So what's... Old, old ones or modern ones?
06:56 Recent-ish. Peter Cawley and Jenna Coleman, who are,
06:59 as far as I'm concerned, the best ever to do it.
07:02 Oh, yeah.
07:06 That's controversial in the Doctor Who community.
07:09 It's not controversial in my bit of it,
07:11 which is the bit where we all have the correct opinions.
07:14 But if you've got like a Doctor Who WhatsApp group,
07:19 it's bigger than that.
07:20 But yeah, yeah, no, they are.
07:23 They're the best ever to do it, as far as I'm concerned.
07:25 I've got my... That sounds ridiculous.
07:28 What do you think, Stephen? Who's your favourite?
07:30 Oh, that's actually insane that Jenna Coleman is the best.
07:35 I mean, obviously it would be Dairy Tenant.
07:39 Called very closely by Christopher Eccleston.
07:41 Both excellent as well.
07:45 I feel Stephen's a little bit shocked here.
07:46 He's kind of lost for words, Alex.
07:48 I knew that Alex was a big Doctor Who fan, but
07:50 I'm surprised that then off the back of that, he's decided to add his home.
07:55 Yeah, genuinely.
07:56 Pete, Alden, Jenna Coleman. No question. The best.
07:59 The mummy on the R&A Express must have been, you know, a life-changing moment.
08:03 No, all of them. Earlier than that.
08:05 They're all... I mean, I love all of it.
08:07 There's none of it that I don't like.
08:09 And I will even tell myself that the Jodie Whisker and Chris Chibnall ones
08:13 were sort of passable, but they're the best.
08:17 Oh. What about the new ones?
08:20 When is that out? Has that started yet?
08:22 David Tennant back for a couple and then Shruti Gatwar from probably March.
08:27 Well, maybe we should get you back for...
08:29 If you're willing to come on Unpaid, Alex, we can get you back to do a special preview.
08:34 It should be around the time of our one year anniversary.
08:37 It'll be episode 50 of Screen Babble, I think, because I sat and worked it out.
08:41 Oh, yeah.
08:43 Oh, there you go.
08:44 Well, if you're willing to work for free, then let's do it.
08:47 I'm always willing to work for free.
08:50 Get you back on as a guest.
08:52 Have you ever been to one of those like Comic-Con type things?
08:56 Meet any of the Doctor Who's or anything like that?
08:58 I did. I did a Comic-Con here for us in my capacity as press a couple of months ago.
09:04 Oh, yeah. It was great.
09:05 So I was just taking pictures of Daleks and things.
09:07 No, no real work done, if I'm being honest.
09:10 But that's fine.
09:11 All right. Well, I'll show up to some people.
09:14 Yeah. Yeah.
09:16 So so have you met some of the actual Doctor Who's then on those?
09:20 A few years ago, professionally.
09:25 He was very nice.
09:27 Yeah. How do you feel about that?
09:30 Sorry to go off on a bit of a tangent now, but how do you feel about the
09:33 meeting your heroes?
09:35 It feels like a risk, but it hasn't gone poorly so far.
09:39 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
09:42 OK, interesting.
09:43 I've met a few famous people over the years, and I would say 50/50,
09:46 like some of them are rude and not nice.
09:49 And some of them are lovely.
09:50 So maybe you can tell us about on here or.
09:53 Yeah. What's your biggest name?
09:55 Oh, the biggest name I met, Bob Geldof.
09:58 I think I met. He was lovely.
10:00 He was lovely. Very nice.
10:02 Although he was like it was breakfast time and I'm sure he was a bit tired,
10:05 but he was very nice.
10:06 And who else have I met?
10:10 I'm trying to think big names now.
10:11 I've met lots of BBC listers or D-Listers.
10:14 Because in five years, you'll be telling the people you used to work with.
10:17 And Stephen Rocks. I know, imagine that.
10:19 And I'm trying to think now, because, you know, I would have spent
10:25 summers working on the fringe and stuff in Edinburgh.
10:27 So I would have met like comedians that are quite big and things like that.
10:30 But I'm trying to think of really like A-Lister people.
10:32 Well, Michael Fassbender, he was lovely.
10:35 And Barry Gilpin's cousin.
10:39 I think I met somebody recently enough.
10:40 Oh, no, I don't actually know her.
10:42 I just well, I know her.
10:44 I know her girlfriend's cousin or something like that.
10:47 Yeah, exactly.
10:48 And yeah, come back to me.
10:50 I'll have a think about it.
10:52 But yeah, there was one particular Irish singer,
10:55 songwriter that you won't know that I met, and he was so incredibly rude.
10:58 He was really rude.
10:59 That was not nice.
11:01 And it's kind of tinged my view of his music since then.
11:03 Because I was like, he's such an asshole.
11:04 But any shall remain nameless.
11:07 He's not that famous.
11:08 He's quite big in Ireland, but not over here.
11:10 And OK, right.
11:12 I met JK Rowling. She was quite nice.
11:15 Well, in person, she was quite nice.
11:20 It was quite a long time ago before any of the modern issues,
11:23 because we call it and right.
11:25 OK, yes, the modern.
11:27 Yeah, well, modern moderns. Yes, exactly.
11:29 OK, so right. What have I been watching?
11:32 I started a couple of things.
11:33 I started Yellowstone,
11:35 which at the moment I feel like is a sort of a first couple episodes
11:38 or just like a dump of information.
11:41 And it's all a bit like, well,
11:44 I've been reassured that it gets better in the second series.
11:47 You know, I feel like they're trying to make you understand the family
11:50 really quickly.
11:52 And it's actually kind of annoying.
11:55 So we'll see how that goes.
11:57 Although nice to see Kevin Costner on screen like he's he's an enjoyable actor
12:02 and. Painkiller, which we talked about,
12:07 which is interesting, actually, because it is all the characters
12:13 or a lot of the characters are in the.
12:14 The what's it called?
12:18 Dope sick. Yeah.
12:20 But it's told in a slightly different fashion, and it's
12:23 it's a bit more maybe flippant or something than the than dope sick, you know.
12:28 But it's interesting to see it being told in a different way, you know.
12:32 And there's some good, good performances, I think.
12:36 So enjoying that.
12:38 And yeah, so didn't watch an awful lot this week.
12:43 I'm continuing with a henpocalypse and and just like that and things like that
12:47 that are on at the moment and only murders in the building.
12:50 So my little half hour fillers.
12:52 But yeah. So yeah, nothing major to report on.
12:54 I didn't even watch the World Cup final. Isn't that terrible?
12:58 I was tied up with kids entertainment.
13:01 So did you watch it?
13:02 It was. Yeah. Yeah.
13:04 Commiserations, commiserations.
13:06 It was still good to get there, I guess.
13:08 But yeah, shame they didn't make it all the way.
13:10 OK, cool. Right. Well, moving along, it is time to go to the deep dive
13:14 with Sir Alex Moreland one last time.
13:16 Alex talked to us about Riverdale in advance of its series finale
13:21 of its final series.
13:22 The last ever episode finale finale hours away. Yeah.
13:26 I'm I'm actually pretty behind on it, so I'm not not caught up at all.
13:31 But it is it's a program I'm very fond of
13:35 and and have been very fond of since since the beginning
13:38 in watching it.
13:41 So since it started every almost every week, not quite because I'm behind.
13:45 But yeah, so it is a program I like a lot.
13:50 I don't know that I'd say it's one of my favorites necessarily,
13:53 but it is a show that probably more than any other that I will defend
13:58 quite quite ardently, I suppose.
14:01 Do you find it like I have shows that I find are just my kind of comfort
14:05 watches, like they're not the best TV, but they're just easy to watch.
14:08 Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of that.
14:11 But I think I genuinely do believe it is really properly, really good.
14:15 But it has unfairly, undeservedly.
14:20 It has a reputation for not being very good.
14:22 And that is because all of the people who just don't
14:26 don't have the vision to understand it, to understand the level, the level
14:30 of it's different.
14:32 Genuinely, they are all completely wrong.
14:35 And I think in fairness, a lot of that is
14:41 myself and the people who don't get it would probably describe it
14:44 with the same words, just in a very different tone of voice.
14:49 Because I because it is it is nonsense, it is pure, just undiluted nonsense.
14:54 And that's such a good thing.
14:56 It's so, so good.
14:58 OK, so tell us, tell us the premise of the whole thing.
15:02 Started out as it's these sort of four teenagers.
15:06 They are in their kind of nondescript
15:11 American town, nondescript time, sort of vaguely 1950s.
15:15 Nobody knows.
15:17 And one of their classmates is murdered.
15:19 And and that kind of sends sends them reeling.
15:23 They're like, oh, God, what do we do?
15:24 This changes everything.
15:25 It is meant to be vaguely like Twin Peaks esque.
15:32 Well, that's that's how they like to describe it at the time.
15:34 It very quickly sort of turned into just, yeah, just just pure nonsense.
15:42 Like the first version is kind of grounded ish.
15:45 As it goes on, it gets into like part of the mafia.
15:49 There's aliens, there's curses, there's time travel.
15:54 One of them, one of them can control bees.
15:57 I watched I watched a couple of episodes last night and like spoilers,
16:02 obviously, for anyone who is still keeping up with it.
16:04 You've got one of the main characters is is sort of struggling
16:08 with profound hearing loss, and it's very, very affecting all of that.
16:12 Another one of them has superpowers now.
16:15 Another one of them is sort of struggling with,
16:20 on the one hand, grief at her father dying
16:22 an assassination she called because she arranged it.
16:26 And at the same time, her mother's reality TV shows
16:31 intruding on that and on her life.
16:33 And she's like, oh, God, what do I how do I deal with this?
16:35 While my mom's Real Housewives episode is filming all around me.
16:38 It is it is nonsense.
16:41 It's so stupid.
16:42 And they all talk in the most like.
16:45 Ridiculous way, they'll say things like that
16:51 septuagenarian saboteur has been caught crimson handed and they all.
16:55 It's so ridiculous, but they're so good at delivering those lines.
17:01 No, no one else is is just like pitch perfect.
17:05 But I so good.
17:07 And you get people saying, like, oh, it's not as good as euphoria.
17:11 Fool's wrong. Euphoria is terrible.
17:13 Euphoria is awful.
17:15 Alex, is it like would you would you describe it as a cult following
17:20 than the Riverdale has? Because I'm aware of it.
17:23 I've never watched it, but I'm aware of it, you know.
17:25 So that says that kind of says a lot to an extent that people know of it.
17:30 You know, so yeah.
17:31 So where can people actually watch it then?
17:33 It is all on Netflix and they can they can find all hundred
17:38 and something episodes there and they can they should they should watch it
17:42 and get a whole new.
17:44 And so in terms of the in terms of the finale now, are you building up to
17:48 something? Is there are you expecting something to be resolved or like what?
17:52 Is there anticipation around the finale or is it just going to Peter?
17:55 I think or so when I kind of fell off it around their
18:01 their special hundredth celebratory episode, which was OK.
18:06 And I won't get into it too much, but it was it was nonsense in its own way,
18:09 even compared to the rest of it.
18:12 And I imagine that the finale will be will be much the same.
18:16 It will there will be nothing else like it on television,
18:19 which is which is most of why I enjoy it, because like I watch
18:24 I watch so much of everything.
18:27 I can never tell what is going to happen on Riverdale or what will
18:30 what I will be confronted with on Riverdale.
18:33 And that is why I love it.
18:35 I'm intrigued, even if only to watch one episode to see if
18:38 you're right.
18:38 Take out like a musical episode or like episode 100 or something.
18:42 It's so.
18:43 Oh, I do love I do love programs that just like throw in an odd musical episode.
18:48 Here there are they do a musical episode every series
18:50 in their final series, which I do know they did.
18:54 So previously they do like like Heathers, the musical blah, blah, blah,
18:59 like the actual musicals for their final series.
19:01 They are doing Riverdale, the musical where they're all playing themselves,
19:06 playing themselves, playing a musical version of itself.
19:09 And that's that's perfect to me.
19:12 Very self-aware then.
19:14 Yeah.
19:16 OK, cool.
19:17 I think that is probably one of the strongest recommendations
19:20 you've ever given us on the Deep Dive, Alex.
19:22 So thank you very much.
19:23 Excited about that.
19:25 OK, Stephen, the big Les, back to the future.
19:29 Talk to us.
19:29 The big Les show sort of sounds a bit similar thematically to Riverdale.
19:34 It's it's it's kind of nonsense.
19:36 It started off as some well, it started and ended as some guy on his laptop
19:41 making a TV show on Microsoft Paint.
19:45 So he basically every frame is made on paint and then he edits it through like
19:49 Adobe made the first series on his school issued Australian computer.
19:55 Really? Wow. That's amazing.
19:58 In 2012. So the episodes, the first season of between like two
20:02 and three minutes long.
20:04 So you can watch it in, you know, a good half hour, 40 minutes.
20:07 And it follows big Les.
20:10 A we quickly discover he's a humanoid alien
20:14 who lives in the Australian town, Browntown,
20:17 and has these various adventures with his friends.
20:20 I see Sasquatch, his son, Quentin, adopted son.
20:27 He doesn't get on very well with his neighbor.
20:29 There's a postman with a Clarence with a potato like head
20:33 who is quite well-meaning, but not well treated.
20:37 And the sort of big set pieces and the best episodes.
20:44 This also has a cult following, as you might imagine, from a show
20:47 that's been made on Microsoft Paint.
20:48 Yeah. The sort of set pieces are
20:51 big fights between big Les and his friends and the tumors
20:57 which are these big yellow.
20:59 Like nightmarish Homer Simpson type mutant creatures
21:04 that try to take over and kill everyone in Browntown.
21:09 There were four seasons made in total,
21:14 plus a few like special hour long episodes,
21:19 about 230 million views.
21:22 All told, was first created across the channel.
21:25 That's amazing.
21:27 Popular, considering it's like an Australian production,
21:29 it clearly found, I mean, what's the population of Australia?
21:32 About six million, something like that.
21:34 So, yeah, it gets a bit surreal.
21:38 The main themes are essentially big Les and Sassy the Sasquatch
21:43 taking a lot of drugs and then getting into
21:47 problems based on the obscene amounts of illicit substances
21:55 they've just ingested.
21:57 OK.
21:58 I feel like we're talking to a corner of our audience here
22:01 with this one, potentially.
22:03 So just to be clear with everybody, this is animation.
22:06 It is a bit off the wall, but you can access it on YouTube.
22:10 It's all on YouTube.
22:11 And also, yeah, it's not a massive commitment
22:15 because you can probably smash it all in a couple of hours.
22:17 Yeah, you can watch, like I watched the first three seasons over two days.
22:24 And it's funny.
22:25 It's very good.
22:26 Yeah.
22:27 It's very funny.
22:28 There's some very funny, I was actually howling at certain bits of it.
22:32 It is quite that select type of humor, I guess.
22:36 That surrealist.
22:38 Yeah.
22:42 Random.
22:43 It's hard to explain, but I think it's quite easy to get into.
22:47 It's very crude Aussie humor, I guess, is the best way to explain it.
22:52 And there was a few spin-offs made as well,
22:53 the Mike Nolan show and Sassy the Sasquatch.
22:56 Not seeing them, so I can't speak to the quality of those.
23:00 OK, all right. Very random.
23:04 Very random.
23:04 I think today is a it's it's maybe not a day for the standard
23:09 linear drama type viewers, but they can learn something.
23:13 You know what?
23:14 Thank you so much, Stephen, for letting us know about the Big Les show.
23:18 Maybe maybe we'll do something less niche next week.
23:21 We'll see. Right.
23:23 Thanks for joining us this week.
23:24 Do look out for Friday morning's Screen Babble weekend watch,
23:27 which will preview what to watch over the weekend and beyond.
23:29 If you've any suggestions for what TV we need to get into our lives,
23:32 drop us a line via our social media.
23:34 You'll find us on Twitter at National World TV and other platforms
23:37 as National World.
23:39 We'd love for you to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast
23:41 so we can reach as many TV lovers as possible.
23:43 We'll be back next week with more Screen Babble,
23:45 although it will never be the same without our Alex.
23:48 Thank you, Alex. You'll always be our favorite.
23:50 Thank you. Thank you both as well.
23:52 Thanks.
23:53 And.
23:53 And.
23:54 And.
23:55 (upbeat music)
23:58 (upbeat music)