British TV Show Reviews "Q"

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QI (5/04)
Quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry with regular panelist Alan Davies (Jonathan Creek).  Fry asks the general knowledge questions but you lose points if you give the obvious (and usually wrong) answer.  And no matter how clever the panelists are, you can be sure Fry knows twice as much about any subject, all without the aid of any cue cards.

Queer As Folk (9/99)
This controversial Channel 4 mini-series about gay life in Manchester isn't for everybody, with much nudity and bad language. Writer Russell T. Davies (The Grand) gives us profiles of three characters: Stuart, a 29-year-old tramp going through life in a series of meaningless one-night stands; Nathan, a 15-year-old just coming out of the closet who is attracted to Stuart; and Vince, Stuart's mate, who is a sad middle-aged Doctor Who fan who hasn't scored in months. Some might claim Davies was resorting to stereotypes, but he knows his stuff (even his Doctor Who references are accurate - allegedly the BBC had hired him to do a revival of the series, although the project was shelved when a Hollywood movie version took precedence).

The Quest (3/03)
David Jason (Only Fools And Horses) stars in this ITV TV movie about three friends from the 1950s who meet again in the present day, along with flashbacks to their misadventure trip to the Lake District on dodgy motorcycles as randy young men.  Jason also came up with the idea and directed the movie, making the whole thing a bit of a vanity project, quite inoffensive but nothing new to add to the coming-of-age genre.

Quirke (8/14)
Gabriel Byrne stars as a coroner who moonlights as a detective trying to determine the cause of death of his subjects in this series of BBC TV movies set in Ireland. Quirke is the adopted son of a judge (Michael Gambon) and frequently butts heads with institutions of authority (the police, the church, his employers). His favorite niece is also secretly his daughter (she's not pleased when she finds out), and Gambon has secrets of his own regarding Quirke (spoilers if you saw the same plot twist on From There to Here which went out at nearly the same time).


Written and maintained by Ryan K. Johnson (rkj@eskimo.com).
August 27, 2014