#televion

Happy 61st Birthday Dee Hepburn, born on November 7th, 1961 in Airdrie.

I think most of us will forever remember Dee as “Gregory’s Girl”,the object of desire for John Gordon Sinclair in the 80’s Scottish film, the fact that he ended up with, in my opinion, the far more attractive Claire Grogan in the end pleased me immensely! That’s not say Dee wasn’t lovely, I just had a thing for Wee Claire.

After training in acting and dancing, Dee had a part as a school girl in STV’s production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie where she was credited as Dory Hepburn. The role of Dorothy in Bill Forsyth classic. Gregory’s Girl won her the Variety Club actress of the year award in 1981 and it catapulted her into the limelight. 

Daee was later reportedly approached to be the female lead opposite Oliver Reed in Castaway, which was played by Amanda Donohoe, and was in line to star in Bolero. When she turned it down, the role went to Bo Derek. The actress said she turned down the chance to become a star because of the level of nudity and sexual content of roles she was offered after Gregory’s Girl.Dee went on to play the part of Isobel in the BBC Scotland drama series Maggie, which centred on the problems of adolescence in the early 80’s.  She admitted to turning down loads of offers saying 

"It was amazing how many roles I was offered that involved nudity and sex, and I don’t want to seem as if I’m taking the moral high-ground, but I didn’t want to sell myself in that way.” adding  “ I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything my parents wouldn’t have been proud of.”

Dee also took a stint presenting It’s a Knockout, and took the role of Ann-Marie Wade for three years in the soap opera, Crossroads. She retired from acting after Crossroads closed it’s doors in 1985, to bring up her children, she did however have a small role in the 1996 film ,The Bruce as Mary Bruce, younger sister of Robert the Bruce. 

You go back and watch the TNG episodes with Deanna Troi as the focus and you see a trend.  She’s the ship’s counselor.  She supposed to be in charge of the mental health of the ship’s crew and families.  One has to consider, though, that Troi isn’t the only one who happens to be a counselor on the ship.  That would be a lot to ask for one person to do.

But throughout TNG and into the TNG movies, Troi is rarely used for what she trained for.  There’s a couple of episodes pre-Jelico that she is actually being a ship’s counselor.  After Captain Jelico takes command of the Enterprise for that brief period, Troi gets her space suit (as Marina Sirtis put in in interviews later).

But Troi is never used for what she trained for until the sixth season of Star Trek Voyager.  In the episode Pathfinder, Troi counsels Reginald Barclay.  This continues in the episodes Lifeline (Troi actually comes to help Dr. Zimmerman and the Doctor), and again in Inside Man, where Troi helps Barclay uncover a Ferengi plot to obtain Seven of Nine’s nanoprobes.  Troi even gets to flex her muscles so to speak, as she interrogates a Dabo girl who posed as a teacher and dated Barclay to get close to the operation of the Pathfinder project.

I loved the character of Troi and one of my favourite episodes was Face of the Enemy when Troi is taken by Romulans, has her features altered to look Romulan and has to pose as a high ranking officer of the Tal Shiar.  All to make sure that Romulan defectors make it to the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Top Ten TV Shows of the Decade

And so it continues! My belated look back at the ten-year tenure that was the 2010s. This time I’m turning my apathetic eye towards the telly box.

(Sidenote: “My Apathetic Eye” would have been a great name for a mid-nineties grunge band)

For the last decade, a lot was written about how it was “Peak TV”. This was off the back of some truly classic shows which redefined the medium; by which I mean, critics started taking it a bit more seriously, various factors contributed to programmes looking a bit more cinematic, TVs got bigger so it all looked a bit prettier, and proper movie stars started acting in shows without fear of being blacklisted by Hollywood. I’d argue this all started more like twenty years ago with the likes of The West Wing and The Sopranos, but really it came of age as the DVD Box Set Revolution gave way to the Age of Streaming, and everybody wouldn’t shut up about Mad Men, Breaking Bad, or – eventually – Game of Thrones.

So, yeah, lots to talk about. As usual I’m being entirely arbitrary and saying that to qualify for this list a show has to have started its run in the 2010s; this rules out both Mad Men and Breaking Bad, right from the get-go. And – of course – there’s tons I’ve not seen, as per usual. I was a little bit concerned about filling the list with cartoons and kids’ programmes, but – hey – I worked almost exclusively in kids’ TV for about 14 years, and I have two kids of my own, and the whole “Best TV Ever” thing does really extend to children’s programming too. So I stand by all of this, with the usual caveats that it’s all my uneducated opinion.

So with no further ado, here is my Top Ten TeeVee Shows of the Twenty Tens.

The Good Place (2016-2020): hilarious, romantic, bittersweet, tragic, philosophical, fiercely intelligent, dystopian, utopian… it does take a couple of episodes to get going, but by the end, it’s literally paradise.

Hey Duggee! (2014-current): peak preschool, a colourful and educational little show for nippers that’s really funny for parents, filled with movie references and phenomenal folk tunes. Stick, stick, stick, stick, sticky-sticky-stick-stick!

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-current): arch, witty, intelligent, surreal, progressive, with great characters, set-pieces, and a delightful absurdist streak. Arguably the funniest show of the decade. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.

American Crime Story (2016-current): two (so far) really excellent series exploring true crimes of recent history, both very different but both very good; full of career-best turns, tension, procedure, and a smidgeon of horror.

Adventure Time (2010-2018): true, it’s another kids’ cartoon; but AT was a harbinger of the intelligent, serial-style of kids’ cartoons of this decade (Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc). Excellent art style, a rich mythology, bangin’ choons… and some true moments of deep, deep sadness, relatively rare in kids’ TV. Opened the door, it did.

Game of Thrones (2011-2019): whilst it can revel in misery and succumb to a goofiness reminiscent of an earlier age, the seriousness with which it treated its fantastical setting, combined with great characters, intricate plotting, and some stonking set-pieces.

Detectorists (2014-2017): what could be seen as a gentle comedy unravels over the course of the series into a delicate and delightful character study. Anchored by two beautiful performances, it’s a rich, melancholy, understated show that’s also bloody funny.

Stranger Things (2016-current): a Greatest Hits package of 80s nostalgia wrapped up in a piece of pure horror, Stranger Things might be a touch derivative, but at its best it’s a frantic, tense, visceral delight, full of great performances and the right amount of humour.

Teen Titans Go! (2013-current): yep, back on the kids’ channels. But taking a beloved series and turning it inside-out, TTG is a risky venture. It succeeds with oodles of DC fan service (how many kids’ shows feature Watchmen cameos?) and by just being flat-out hilarious most of the time.

Sherlock (2010-2017): its star waned slightly as the decade war on (and as its stars became, well, starrier), but at its peak Sherlock was the epitome of must-see TV. Full of visual trickery and inventive plotting, it was elevated beyond its gimmicky premise, and benefited from two superb actors cast at the perfect moment in their careers.