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For the uninitiated, Sapphire and Steel was a short lived UK television series which ran from July 1979 to July 1982.  There were only 6 seasons of the series in total and it is a great cult classic.  For an overview of the shows and the ideas around them, please see the first post in this series.

By design, the seasons and the episodes were not named.  They are known as “The Assignments” and run, naturally, from one through to 6.  The first of these was originally to be a chldren’s show and this can be seen by the fact that the supporting characters throughout the first set of episode are mostly children.

The story begins in a remote house.  The parents are reading nursery rhymes to their young daughter, Helen.  Downstairs, their son Rob is doing his homework.  The clocks in the house stop ticking and the parents disappear.  The children are alone in the house, after verifying that their parents have vanished, they call the local policeman.  Shortly afterwards, Sapphire and Steel arrive at the door.
Continue reading ‘Assignment One’ »

All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic, heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

These words opened every episode of the series.  Sapphire and Steel aired on, what was then, the third channel on UK television.  At the time there were only 3: BBC1, BBC2 and ITV.  Channel 4 was still a few years off and ITV was the newcomer to the UKTV scene.

Continue reading ‘Sapphire and Steel - UK TV Series’ »

The PC is becoming ever more ubiquitous - as well as games, you can receive radio channels, listen to various types of music, watch DVDs or other movie files, upload, download, share and do all sorts of other things. Television, though, has always seemed a little trickier - at the very least you need a TV card of some description.

We have a main TV in the house, but with 4 people and differing requirements, scheduling time to watch can be difficult. Especially when one half of the household only want to watch at particular times. Watching on the PC or laptop is, of course, possible. But because I don’t watch more than one or two hours per week, even the relatively low cost of TV tuners for the PC is more than I want to pay. The BBC iPlayer goes some way to resolving the problem, but maybe I want to watch the programme when it’s on rather than after it’s finished.

Zattoo solves that problem - for me. It’s a free to download program which uses peer to peer sharing to stream channels over the internet. Sign up, give far fewer details than most other services, download the program and install it and you’re good to go. It uses Adobe Flash to handle the viewing, but otherwise is pretty self contained. There are a number of channels available for it - in the UK this means the 5 terrestrial channels and a number of satellite/cable only channels, effectively all the Freeview ones.
Continue reading ‘Zattoo - Real TV On Your PC’ »

Dead Like Me is back on TV. Us UK types can catch it on the Sci-Fi channel. This is a very blackly funny show about the daily lives of a team of grim reapers. The team help certain people pass over to the other side.

The humour comes because they have to also live their daily lives - have jobs, love lives and so on. The deaths are often gruesome and always unexpected. And the stories are often touching.

The tales are largey told from the perspective of Georgia - a young woman killed when a toilet fell from the Mir Space Station and then recruited to reaperdom. They are all very cynical and dry and always funny. More info from Wikipedia and from a fan site.
Continue reading ‘Dead Like Me’ »

One of the dangers, for me, of reviewing a series of books is that I read so quickly that by the time I’m ready to write a review I have to review them all in one fell swoop. I won’t do that with The Dresden Files: firstly, because the way they are written demands a review per book to avoid spoilers and secondly because I’m going to make myself do it properly.

This is the debut novel in the series. Harry Dresden (Harry Copperfield Blackstone Dresden, conjure by it at your own risk) is the only wizard/private investigator in the Chicago area. He’s also the only wizard in the Yellow Pages. He is at constant risk of eviction, he’s under threat of death from his own side and he’s also managed to put himself in the way of a black magician, the Chicago police and a bunch of vampires. All that and a new drug hitting the streets which gives the addicts access to their third eye. Luckily, his friends have his back.

This is an excellent intro to the series, Butcher manages to give us backstory in small doses so that we can follow along without getting fed up. The characters are pretty well fleshed out and we understand and empathise with their motivations. Every action taken is logical within the constraints of the story and you find yourself waiting for the end with bated breath.
Continue reading ‘Storm Front (The Dresden Files Book One) - Jim Butcher’ »