#bbc montage

[insanityclause]

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Lukadru

Had to keep this one Loki.

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Kaya Cheshire

Them: How’s work been? Me: Pretty LOKI 🙈🫣🎬

This one’s been so hard to hide guys!

We worked with the phenomenal @twhiddleston for the opening ceremony of the Olympics with @bbcsport and it was absolutely incredible 🙏

One of the loveliest people we’ve ever met.

I love my job 🥹 @eurostar 👏

#saturday#bbc#eurostar#tomhiddleston#workworkworkworkwork

[eldritch-ambrosia]

“And it’s difficult to keep eye contact with them when they keep bowing! They keep their heads down like if they look at me I’ll smite them on the spot!” Merlin exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “It’s always been like that, even when I was a servant, they would act like I was some kind of… of-”

“God?” Arthur finished, amused by his companion’s ramblings. He was shaking his head, his face tinted crimson in a way Arthur found quite lovely, something he chose to pocket the moment it fell into his mind. Perhaps that was one of the reasons he loved to rile Merlin up so. “The most powerful sorcerer to walk the earth and you don’t expect people to treat you as such?”

“You don’t.”

He was right, of course. The only change to Arthur’s demeanor since Merlin had told him had been hesitance. Hesitance in their relationship, hesitance in Merlin’s magic, hesitance in the lies that had separated them. It hadn’t taken long for that hesitance to be thrown right out the tower window as Arthur finally saw Merlin for all he was, all he had always been. He hadn’t changed, not really, but to see Merlin open and honest with every part of himself, to confide in Arthur in ways he hadn’t before, hadn’t felt he could, had erased any doubt in the king’s mind.

“Well, I’ve seen you trip over your own feet. Kind of ruins any illusion of the ‘all powerful sorcerer’ the druids have made up in their minds.”

“And here I was thinking it was because you’re the King of Camelot.” Merlin said. 

“That could be part of it.” Arthur considered, tilting his head in thought. “I know what it’s like when everyone treats you like this untouchable being. Like the idea of power rather than a person who just so happens to have power and is doing the best they can with what they have.”

Merlin eyed him bemusedly, coming to a halt in the middle of the field. Arthur mimicked him, though he glanced ahead before fully turning to Merlin. They probably had about half a day’s walk before they would make it into the city and he didn’t see any place to rest, save for a small temple a bit farther off. 

“What?” Arthur asked finally.

The sorcerer paused, his eyes flicking down as if he was analyzing Arthur in a way he hadn’t before. Arthur didn’t squirm under anyone’s gaze, not since his father had passed, but the way Merlin was looking at him had him on edge, heat rushing to his ears.  

“I-” Merlin stopped, his nose scrunching, glancing to the sky. Arthur followed his gaze to the clouds above, just as water splashed down onto his forehead.

The rain fell suddenly, like a dam in the heavens bursting open to the earth below. They had only a few seconds of awareness of the weather before they were completely drenched, both making a run for it to the nearest source of cover, the clanging of droplets on armor and the gasps the sudden chill of the rain sent down their backs the only sound over the heavy rainfall.

~~

An excerpt from something I'm writing so they can kiss in the rain. (possibly spicy?)

[lenievi]

Looking at the Medal of Honour on his nightstand, Javert felt a hollow emptiness.

There was a time, once, when he could feel pride in his achievements.

Looking at the medal, he could think only of his failure to catch that man, of denied pleasure, of denied peace.

There was a time, once, when he dreamt of gaining respect and recognition. 

Now, the thoughts and memories of that man devoured him, haunted his waking hours and dreams, stole his sleep. And as long as that man evaded chains, Javert would never be free.

-

He should have never received the medal.

[margarita-life]

Doctor and River | YOU ARE ALWAYS HERE

link: https://youtu.be/vQv46v7bfGc

"...Happy ever after doesn't mean forever..."

#DoctorWho #RiverSong

[drdemonprince]

now i understand on an emotional level how it feels to really want to read a book and connect with an authors understanding of the world and to not be able to. a rare experience for an american english speaker who is spoiled with access and by being centered literally all of the time. obviously i understood intellectually the scope of this problem before all this but because i dont have empathy its still emotionally instructive to actually experience it myself

[kraniumet]

kiss with a fist florence&themachine on the "2006 period drama" soundtrack. hello thats the life on mars amv song

[bookwormcosplays]

Finally finished the Sherlock bbc show and for the most part I enjoyed myself. I think I want to cosplay Sherlock. But my gosh, season four was abominable. I went in knowing nothing besides the usual sherlock holmes stuff so I went in non-biased. I just actually thought season four was just not well written. I thought that by season three they were already losing it because drugs made them see a ghost dog. It started turning fantastical and nonsensical. So imagine me watching season 4. What a decline. They should've wrapped it up with season two in my personal opinion. But hey, I watched it! And it was semi enjoyable.

[pipeandashes]

alright we all want to see canon holmes/watson in a possible ritchie!holmes. but we left a game of shadows with mary alive. what if. what if the 3rd movie begins with watson at a headstone much like the empty hearse in bbc sherlock but then it's holmes picking up his hand and holding it instead of mary

[onceandfutureheartache]

thinking about merlin, the eternal gravedigger. putting everyone he has ever loved to that place of rest, never to join them. the amount of boats he’s burned, pyres he’s constructed, graves he’s dug. all with love and grief and tenderness, time and time and time again. those he knew, those he didn’t, all he could.

[queenkatescourt]

This is the montage aired on BBC on the day of Royal Wedding, April 29th, 2011 ❤️👑

[thoughtsthatgounnoticed]

Swept up in Expectations

As an anxious and curious person, I couldn’t help but check every now and then to see what the vibe was for P2 before watching it myself. After all the excitement during the wait between P1 and 2, nothing could have prepared me for the whiplash I felt reading disappointed and equally ecstatic posts from reactions to Eps 5 to 8.

Now that I’ve seen the episodes myself I’m trying to make sense of how I felt so I’m putting the figurative pen to paper and hope anyone as confused as I am can ruminate with me.

To put simply - I think we were all swept up in the excitement of Nic and Luke’s press tour (a whole other can of worms for some) and the many spoilers, speculations, and info from cast interviews during the wait between P1 and 2 that appeared to have been Polin positive. This energy then ballooned our expectations. I personally forgot that although Bridgerton is endearing and fun, it’s ultimately not a BBC or HBO production (I love Bridgerton but it’s no Pulitzer Prize winner in writing). So I think we expected more and are crashing from our collective highs.

Then there’s Polin and Penelope. As someone who didn’t personally enjoy S1 and 2 stories, S3 was going to be one I could truly enjoy and romanticize, and experience that Bridgerton brainrot everyone keeps taking about. Admittedly, it took me listening to some discourse and a second watch to truly appreciate P1. I’ve come away with so much love for Polin and their unfolding love story as well as Pen’s journey. The friends to lovers trope is beautiful, sweet, endearing, romantic, with a lot of history between two people. It had me singing along at the top of my lungs to Taylor Swift in the car even though it’s not my usual type of music. I was swooned and romanced.

But Part 2 was…. rough…. (Ramblings below)

At least after episode 5. It felt like I wasn’t watching the same season. I knew the weight of LW was going to put Penelope through the wringer before we can ultimately move on in peace. I expected the angst, it didn’t bother me, even if it meant seeing the worst of Colin’s anger temporarily.

I think what bothers me is the wasted potential of Polin’s season brought on by unnecessary side plots that could have given more time to Colin, Penelope and Eloise’s complex relationship and individual feelings. It was a season that absolutely needed to flesh out these characters alongside LW’s plot. Instead we got lengthy scenes of side characters with no payoff or stories that could have waited to be told next season. Polin felt like side characters in their own stories, their scenes so cruelly cut between other people’s dramas - I was swooning one second to wondering why we’ve jumped to sideplot A and B, then back to swooning over Polin again (their wedding dance for example 😭).

Then there’s the question of intimacy and how we would have loved to see more - probably brought on by a rumored missing montage. Instead after all the pain, the culmination of intimacy between Polin was the 5 second scene towards the end that looked like one of Anthony or Ben’s random brothel end-of-episode montage scenes in S1. I didn’t need plenty of intimacy scenes, I just wanted there to be growth in their intimacy evolving beyond what they had in Ep 5 and after all that drama.

Part 2 should have focused on how Colin, Penelope and Eloise came to terms with the LW revelation and the aching healing process it took to overcome that because the love they have for one another was stronger. I found myself thinking how in hell they could resolve all of this and it became progressively clear that the resolution was going to feel underwhelming and rushed. Especially, when the last episode alone had another wedding, Colin and Penelope still not communicating, and like 4-5 scenes of Ben and his mistress and their lover. We sat there in complete shock at how we kept going back to those scenes when the season had bigger fish to fry.

Although the show attempted to delve into Colin’s journey post revelation, the process of overcoming his sadness/jealousy was not fleshed out satisfactorily. I’m not saying it isn’t there (the very quick scenes of him looking through Penelope’s letters, listening to her speech at the end, his speech to Cressida, interactions with Kanthony/Eloise etc) but it lacked…something. Maybe it needed just a beat longer, a few more words, a bit more time. I don’t need it to drag, I just needed more within the depth of the scenes. Funnily, some of the side plot scenes lasted longer, which was so evil. Colin deserved a concise arc like Penelope’s. I hope Luke Newton’s back wasn’t hurting from carrying all the weight of Colin’s journey through his delivery and face acting because the writers were not giving him much to work with.

And so, the ending of the season felt odd. On one hand I was happy Polin got their happy ending and in theory their progression made sense, but on the other I felt like the show did a disservice by not taking us carefully and deliberately on that progression journey we wonderfully started in S1 and 2. I will always have ep 1-5 to look back on fondly and I was teary eyed when Colin delivered his ep 8 love speech to Pen. It felt like a glimpse of what we could’ve had and what they did have in P1. However, there’s this feeling of anti-climax that is so palpable given how impactful the press tour was. Am I still walking away from this season loving Polin and enjoying the scenes we did get of them? YES. Am I satisfied with it? NO.

This is 70% an emotional rant that may subside once the excitement dies down. I have thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s input and analysis and may have just been swept up in expectations.

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today - May 22nd, 1989, 'The Miracle" album released in the UK.

This album was originally titled “The Invisible Men”, as a riposte to their critics and because it appeared nearly three years after 'A Kind Of Magic' album (1986)

Reached no 1, on chart for 32 weeks, achieved Platinum status

🔸Queen's thirteenth studio album was recorded at Olympic and Townhouse Studios in London, and Mountain studios in Montreux, between January 1988 and January 1989. It was produced by the band with David Richards, who also engineered the sessions with the help of various assistants. Having spent considerable time with the band on both Queen various solo ventures, Richards was now a permanent fixture on sessions and would remain so through to the final songs Freddie recorded in 1991.

For the very first time on a Queen album, all the songs (and subsequent single B-sides) were credited as written by the band collectively, regardless of the actual author.

The striking cover artwork for the album was based on a concept conceived by Queen and represents the unity of the band; a seamless merging of four people becoming one. This was, after all, during the period when the Queen members were pulling together closely beneath a veil of secrecy in dealing with Freddie's deteriorating illness. Indeed, there was the very real likelihood during these sessions that Freddie would not be around to complete the work. The band closed ranks like never before to focus on the work ahead and in order that nothing deterred them from their course. The four faces morphed into one on the cover, captures this feeling and remains today one of Queen’s most admired and universally recognised images. The startling back cover took the idea a step further, with a seamless regimented montage of just the band's eyes.

Although there were rumors that a tour would be announced following the release of the album, sadly, for reasons that are now obvious, this was not to be. In May 1989 the band recorded a special interview for BBC Radio One in which Freddie explained to Mike Read that it was he who didn't want to tour. “We've been there and done that”, he said, and now the time had come for Queen to break the relentless 'album, tour, album, tour' routine.

Freddie went so far as to say that at his age he didn't feel he should be running around a stage in a leotard any more.

To continue on 👇

http://www.queenonline.com/music

Pic: Queen, Press shot from the Miracle photo shoot.

Shot at Olympic Studios in barns

📸 Photographer © Simon Fowler

[backmarkerr]

Sebastian Vettel | BBC One montage | 2010

[circe-and-the-wolf]

Can’t get enough of the Department Q books. Normally this genre isn’t my thing (too much of a scaredy cat) but the link with MG was too tempting and now I’m hooked. Difficult, awful subject matter but Carl Mørck is such a comedic and compelling character that I can’t help but read on. Great writing and translating, in my opinion.

I’m currently on Book 3. Made myself a silly bookmark; I know MG’s photo isn’t right AT ALL (from the glimpses we’ve had of filming) but hopefully there’ll soon be some promos from the show and I can make a better one🤞

📷 photos (edited into a montage) from Netflix, The Times and BBC Drama

[invisibleicewands]

Michael Sheen: Prince Andrew, Port Talbot and why I quit Hollywood

When Michael Sheen had an idea for a dystopian TV series based in his home town of Port Talbot, in which riots erupt when the steel works close, he had no idea said works would actually close — a month before the show came to air. “Devastating,” he says, simply, of last month’s decision by Tata Steel to shut the plant’s two blast furnaces and put 2,800 jobs at risk.

“Those furnaces are part of our psyche,” he says. “When the Queen died we talked about how psychologically massive it was for the country because people couldn’t imagine life without her. The steel works are like that for Port Talbot.”

Sheen’s show — The Way — was never meant to be this serious. The BBC1 three-parter is directed by Sheen, was written by James Graham and has the montage king Adam Curtis on board as an executive producer. The plot revolves around a family who, when the steel works are closed by foreign investors, galvanise the town into a revolt that leads to the Welsh border being shut. Polemical, yes, but it has a lightness of touch. “A mix of sitcom and war film,” Sheen says, beaming.

But that was then. Now it has become the most febrile TV show since, well, Mr Bates vs the Post Office. “We wanted to get this out quickly,” Sheen says. With heavy surveillance, police clamping down on protesters and nods to Westminster abandoning parts of the country, the series could be thought of as a tad political. “The concern was if it was too close to an election the BBC would get nervous.”

I meet Sheen in London, where he is ensconced in the National Theatre rehearsing for his forthcoming starring role in Nye, a “fantasia” play based on the life of the NHS founder, Labour’s Aneurin “Nye” Bevan. He is dressed down, with stubble and messy hair, and is a terrific raconteur, with a lot to discuss. As well as The Way and Nye, this year the actor will also transform himself into Prince Andrew for a BBC adaptation of the Emily Maitlis Newsnight interview.

Sheen has played a rum bunch, from David Frost to Tony Blair and Chris Tarrant. And we will get to Bevan and Andrew, but first Wales, where Sheen, 55, was born in 1969 and, after a stint in Los Angeles, returned to a few years ago. He has settled outside Port Talbot with his partner, Anna Lundberg, a 30-year-old actress, and their two children. Sheen’s parents still live in the area, so the move was partly for family, but mostly to be a figurehead. The actor has been investing in local arts, charities and more, putting his money where his mouth is to such an extent that there is a mural of his face up on Forge Road.

“It’s home,” Sheen says, shrugging, when I ask why he abandoned his A-list life for southwest Wales. “I feel a deep connection to it.” The seed was sown in 2011 when he played Jesus in Port Talbot in an epic three-day staging of the Passion, starring many locals who were struggling with job cuts and the rising cost of living in their town. “Once you become aware of difficulties in the area you come from you don’t have to do anything,” he says, with a wry smile. “You can live somewhere else, visit family at Christmas and turn a blind eye to injustice. It doesn’t make you a bad person, but I’d seen something I couldn’t unsee. I had to apply myself, and I might not have the impact I’d like, but the one thing that I can say is that I’m doing stuff. I know I am — I’m paying for it!”

The Way is his latest idea to boost the area. The show, which was shot in Port Talbot last year, employed residents in front of and behind the camera. The extras in a scene in which fictional steel workers discuss possible strike action came from the works themselves. How strange they will feel watching it now. The director shakes his head. “It felt very present and crackling.”

One line in the show feels especially crucial: “The British don’t revolt, they grumble.” How revolutionary does Sheen think Britain is? “It happens in flare-ups,” he reasons. “You could say Brexit was a form of it and there is something in us that is frustrated and wants to vent. But these flare-ups get cracked down, so the idea of properly organised revolution is hard to imagine. Yet the more anger there is, the more fear about the cost of living crisis. Well, something’s got to give.”

I mention the Brecon Beacons. “Ah, yes, Bannau Brycheiniog,” Sheen says with a flourish. Last year he spearheaded the celebration of the renaming of the national park to Welsh, which led some to ponder whether Sheen might go further in the name of Welsh nationalism. Owen Williams, a member of the independence campaigners YesCymru, described him to me as “Nye Bevan via Che Guevara” and added that the actor might one day be head of state in an independent Wales.

Sheen bursts out laughing. “Right!” he booms. “Well, for a long time [the head of state] was either me or Huw Edwards, so I suppose that’s changed.” He laughs again. “Gosh. I don’t know what to say.” Has he, though, become a sort of icon for an independent Wales? “I’ve never actually spoken about independence,” he says. “The only thing I’ve said is that it’s worth a conversation. Talking about independence is a catalyst for other issues that need to be talked about. Shutting that conversation down is of no value at all. People say Wales couldn’t survive economically. Well, why not? And is that good? Is that a good reason to stay in the union?”

On a roll, he talks about how you can’t travel from north to south Wales by train without going into England because the rail network was set up to move stuff out of Wales, not round it. He mentions the collapse of local journalism and funding cuts to National Theatre Wales, and says these are the conversations he wants to have — but where in Wales are they taking place?

So, for Sheen, the discussion is about thinking of Wales as independent in identity, not necessarily as an independent state? “As a living entity,” he says, is how he wants people to think about his country. “It’s much more, for me, about exploring what that cultural identity of now is, rather than it being all about the past,” he says. “We had a great rugby team in the 1970s, but it’s not the 1970s anymore and, yes, male-voice choirs make us cry, but there are few left. Mines aren’t there either. All the things that are part of the cultural identity of Wales are to do with the past and, for me, it’s much more about exploring what is alive about Welsh identity now.”

You could easily forget that Sheen is an actor. He calls himself a “not for profit” thesp, meaning he funds social projects, from addiction to disability sports. “I juggle things more,” he says. “Also I have young kids again and I don’t want to be away much.”

Sheen has an empathetic face, a knack of making the difficult feel personable. And there are two big roles incoming — a relief to fans.

Which leads us to Prince Andrew. “Of course it does.” This year he plays the troubled duke in A Very Royal Scandal — a retelling of the Emily Maitlis fiasco with Ruth Wilson as the interviewer. Does the show go to Pizza Express in Woking? “No,” Sheen says, grinning. Why play the prince? He thinks about this a lot. “Inevitably you bring humanity to a character — that’s certainly what I try to do.” He pauses. “I don’t want people to say, ‘It was Sheen who got everybody behind Andrew again.’ But I also don’t want to do a hatchet job.”

So what is he trying to do? “Well, it is a story about privilege really,” he says. “And how easy it is for privilege to exploit. We’ve found a way of keeping the ambiguity, because, legally, you can’t show stuff that you cannot prove, but whether guilty or not, his privilege is a major factor in whatever exploitation was going on. Beyond the specifics of Andrew and Epstein, no matter who you are, privilege has the potential to exploit someone. For Andrew, it’s: ‘This girl is being brought to me and I don’t really care where she comes from, or how old she is, this is just what happens for people like me.’”

It must have been odd having the prince and Bevan — the worst and best of our ruling classes — in his head at the same time. What, if anything, links the men? “What is power and what can you do with it?” Sheen muses, which seems to speak to his position in Port Talbot too. Nye at the National portrays the Welsh politician on his deathbed, in an NHS hospital, moving through his memories while doped up on meds. Sheen wants the audience to think: “Is there a Bevan in politics now and, if not, why not?”

Which takes us back to The Way. At the start one rioter yells about wanting to “change everything” — he means politically, sociologically. However, assuming that changing everything is not possible, what is the one thing Sheen would change? “Something practical? Not ‘I want world peace’. I would create a people’s chamber as another branch of government — like the Lords, there’d be a House of People, representing their community. Our political system has become restrictive and nonrepresentational, so something to open that up would be good.”

The actor is a thousand miles from his old Hollywood life. “It’d take a lot for me to work in America again — my life is elsewhere.” It is in Port Talbot instead. “The last man on the battlefield” is how one MP describes the steel works in The Way, and Sheen is unsure what happens when that last man goes. “Some people say it’s to do with net zero aims,” he says about the closure. “Others blame Brexit. But, ultimately, the people of Port Talbot have been let down — and there is no easy answer about what comes next.”

[doctor-wonder]

Saw the newest episode of Doctor Who (73 Yards) last night on a whim when I got home from work and holy shit I am going feral with how good this series has been so far. I love weekly releases too I hate binge culture with a passion but since the show is still running on BBC they're essentially forced to keep doing weekly episodes. Anyways spoilers for new episode because I need to rant about it:

I've never seen such an effective and eerie mix of DW and such a supernatural, creepypasta-esque theme. I mentioned this to my long-suffering boyfriend right as I was watching it but it feels like an episode ripped right out of the Magnus Archives and that's so fucking cool.

I had heard that the Doctor was gone in this episode but I was still really impressed with both how they made it happen and how quickly into the episode it happens. The story just... Starts up with jo delay and immediately becomes terrifying. The hints of what's to come when the hiker meets Ruby and ends up running, the misdirection in the pub where RTD got to play on anti-Welsh sentiment that he's seen people experience and also put more questions than answers in our heads, it's such a perfect intro.

And then seeing Ruby lose people, get rejected from places and we never ever get to know what the woman following her is saying, but we just see and feel the absolute grief of the aftermath. Fuck, they brought back UNIT and built up our hope of them being Ruby's eventual saviours just to have the same thing happen again. I definitely said out loud "Girl who waited, eat your heart out" (obviously that's a different situation and I love Amy Pond but still I love the comparison)

Gods then the tension of the scene on the football field where her plan finally comes to fruition, I genuinely thought she might get shot then and there and the episode would go in some other random direction, but I'm so glad it didn't go that way. It's an RTD montage at its finest, and I was floored by it all the way through.