the courier
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TV culture
@CourierTV thecourieronline.co.uk/tv
Monday 11 December 2017
Festive Picks to watch this Christmas Day Still wondering what to watch on Christmas while you rest your festive food-baby? Don’t you worry, we’ve got it covered! The Great Christmas Bake Off Doctor Who
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ven a Scrooge like me has a Christmas weakness, and this year, it’s The Great Christmas Bake Off. Nothing screams festive more than baking enough mince pies and Christmas puddings to feed a small army, all under Paul Hollywood’s watchful (and hungry) eye. We can only hope that he turns up dressed as a stern Santa Claus to bring some more festive cheer to the tent.
bakers face yummy yuletide challenges at some point in December. Let’s also hope we see hosts Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig modelling some whacky Christmas jumpers – Noel in a festive jumper is all I need for a perfect Christmas!
Charlotte Boulton
ATTENTION MARY BERRY FANS!
This Christmas the BBC will be airing not one but two festive special featuring the nation’s favourite grandma, Mary Berry. Mary Berry’s Christmas Party will air at 8.30pm on the 18th (BBC1) and will be a Christmas extravaganza. Even more exciting though, Mary will reunite with original Bake Off hosts Mel and Sue for Mary, Mel and Sue’s Big Christmas Thank You which will air on Christmas Eve at 7pm (BBC1). Paul who?
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octor Who looks to be returning with a bang for its Christmas special this year. Starring not only Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor and Pearl Mackie as companion Bill Potts, but also David Bradley as the First Doctor (originally played by the late William Hartnell) and Mark Gatiss as the World War I soldier known only as ‘The Captain’ (previously seen as Professor Lazarus in ‘The Lazarus Experiment’), the episode is titled ‘Twice Upon a Time’ and follows the two Doctors, Bill and The Captain as they try and escape from an alien threat pursuing them in a frozen moment in time.
This will be Capaldi’s last appearance as the Twelfth Doctor Gatiss has described the episode as “a Christmas episode without being overtly Christmassy - it’s very happy-sad”, and a released clip from the epi-
Image: Petr Kratochvil (Public Domain Pictures)
sode shows not only Capaldi and Bradley realising their predicament and relationship as fellow incarnations of ‘The Doctor’, but also the all-important ‘it’s-bigger-on-the-inside’ reaction of The Captain upon entering the TARDIS.
Gatiss has described the episode as “a Christmas episode without being overtly Christmassy With plenty of humour, horror, laughter and – of course – running, this Christmas episode looks to be a real treat for Doctor Who fans. For Capaldi, this will be his last appearance as the Twelfth Doctor, but upon his regeneration in this episode, Jodie Whittaker will be ready and waiting to take us all on brand-new adventures in time and space in 2018. Georgina Howlett
The show features some favourites from previous series which is a huge highlight for me. Selasi, Val, Benjamina and Rav from series 7, the last shown on the BBC, are returning to take on the tent one more time. Previous bakers Paul, Beca, Rob, and Sandy are also going to be putting their Christmas crackers to the test.
Noel in a festive jumper is all I need for a perfect Christmas! As if that wasn’t exciting enough, the special will have two episodes to indulge in as we tuck into our chocolates over the holidays! The dates haven’t yet been confirmed, but we will certainly see the
Image: YouTube, ROverhate (pixabay)
Image: YouTube
Devils, Demons & Derry: Our 2018 Spotlight Your friendly neighbourhood TV Editors share the new programmes they are most excited for in the new year The Witcher - Jacob Clarke Castle Rock - Joel Leaver Good Omens - Alex Moore Honourable Mentions
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think there’s one show we should all be looking forward to in 2018, and that Netflix’s adaptation of the novel turned video game series, The Witcher. To be honest I don’t think I need to say much more than that, this announcement really speaks for itself on how awesome an idea this is, but I’ve got to fill the word limit so I’ll continue.
Image: BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe
This world, created by Andrzej Sapkowski, has a fantasy, medieval setting and follows the pursuits of monster hunter “Witcher” Geralt of Rivia, and the trials and tribulations of his mutant life encountering political tirades, revolutions, deceptive sorceresses and incredible monsters. The mythological turned fantasy setting was turned into an incredibly popular and critically acclaimed video game series by CD Project Red, winning numerous awards for its design, graphics, characters and plot, so with the right actors and budget it’s hard to so how this could go badly for Netflix.
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The number of GOTY awards won by The Witcher 3, making it the most awarded game ever made.
I’m looking forward to the time and effort Netflix puts into their versions of Nilfgaard, Temeria, Redania and many other notable places in that universe. It’s got to be better than Amazon’s revival of The Lord of the Rings at least...
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f there’s one show I’m looking forward to most for 2018 it’d be Castle Rock. Based on the fictional town featured within several Stephen King novels, the show looks set to intertwine a number of his most notable works and characters into one series. Not much has been revealed so far but a press release stated that it “combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.” Sounds pretty cool right? Though so did The Mist (2017), but I’m hopeful. A trailer released for Castle Rock suggested there’ll be references made to the likes of Misery, The Green Mile and The Shining, as well as Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption - all great King novels. Perhaps most exciting though is the announced casting of Sissy Spacek and Bill Skarsgård. Spacek’s breakout role was the lead in the 1976 movie adaption of the King novel, Carrie, whilst Skarsgård played Pennywise in the recent It (2017) movie, yet another King classic. It’s been confirmed that Skarsgård isn’t portraying Pennywise, sadly, though It references will occur, thankfully, but Spacek’s role remains a mystery. J.J Abrams is executive producing, so hopefully his involvement, the meta-casting of Spacek and Skarsgård, as well as the wider King references can help ensure Castle Rock is more It (2017) than The Mist (2017).
Image: YouTube
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o-authored by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, the 1990 darkly hilarious bestselling novel follows Aziraphale and Crowley, Heaven and Hell’s representatives on Earth tasked with overlooking the Antichrist through his childhood. Unfortunately for them, a maternity ward mix-up means they have the wrong 11 year old – cue a desperate attempt to prevent the apocalypse. Pratchett’s trusted friend and assistant Rob Wilkins has revealed that the author would have been ‘over the moon’ with the casting of Michael Sheen as the angel Aziraphale and David Tennant as the demon Crowley. The six-part series is currently under development by Amazon Studios and has been scripted by none other than Gaiman himself, who apparently agreed to the adaptation only after receiving a posthumous letter from Pratchett, granting him permission to go ahead without him. Gaiman has recently enjoyed screen time with the adaptions of American Gods and Lucifer, whilst feature film versions of Pratchett’s Mort and The Wee Free Men, of his renowned Discworld series, have recently been announced (but they are movies so I’m not allowed to talk about them…). After the latter’s death in 2015 following a stubborn battle with a rare form of Alzheimer’s, it’s such a shame that the late (and eternally great) author won’t be around to watch them himself. Image: CHRIS DRUMM (Flickr)
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Doctor Who season 11 / The Good Place season 2 part 2 / Confederate / Mega City One / Making a Murderer season 2
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American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace / The Haunting of Hill House / 9 - 1 - 1 / The Romanoffs / Feud: Charles and Diana
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Tremors / The Walking Dead S8 part 2 / The Witcher (even if Jacob stole it!) / Stranger Things season 3 / Walking Giants (Attenborough on Dinosaurs)
As this is our final issue of 2017, we’d just to thank all the writers who have contributed so far. There’s been some fantastic articles we’ve been able to publish in the past few issues and we look forward to what’s to come from you talented bunch in 2018. Also, we’d like to thank our senior editors for all their help and patience. We may have started with poor execution and basic Photoshop skills, but we’re pretty good now! Merry Xmas & a Happy New Year everyone!
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