Film and TV

Hi Debbie, hope you are doing ok. I'm confused as to whether you have now got a TV licence? You need one to watch iPlayer or to watch or record live TV, but you don't need one to watch other "catch up" services like ITVX or All4, which are free if you can tolerate adverts or £3.99 (All4) or £5.99 (ITVX) per month if you don't want them.

I don't have a TV licence and I like watching series on All4 such as Come Dine with me, and recently watched the series "Patience" about the autistic young woman who helped solve crimes. I find ITVX is good for movies and I've recently watched Get Shorty, Enders Game, Entrapment, Bedazzled & Serenity. Currently they also have The Other Guys and Johnny English available both of which I've watched in the past and enjoyed. And if you fancy seeing our favourite musician David Bowie, Labyrinth is also on there!

Happy viewing! (from the member formally known as Pixiefox)

Thank you 

Some good suggestions.

Morse and MM I watched decades ago

I'm sorry about your sight.

When my problem was just myopia the kindle made a big difference.

I hope that yours can be helped.

I don't do much reading because of my own sight related stuff going on so I don't have any suggestions there sorry about that. But I do like watching films and TV. Have you given Midsomer Murders a go? That's not very graphic and it's got some humour at times as well. If you haven't watched it I definitely would consider trying it.

Other detective shows I like is Magnum PI, Death in Paradise, Endeavour, Inspector Morse and I love Boon. All of these are murder detective shows and they are not overly graphic. Sorry if there's any here you don't like but give them a try if you haven't seen any, I think they are all good fun watches.

I hope this is of some use to you.

I will look up those authors.

Thank you 

I read and watched (retrospectively) WH.

In fact I think it's the only series I have watched in the last 2 decades +.

I can't listen to much as I suspect I have auditory processing disorder.

I love the RG stories too.

Many thank yous.

You could try Patience, there's been a couple of threads on this programe, it features an ASC person in a lead role. You might also enjoy The Turkish Detective, based on the Ikman novels by Barbara Nadel.

I like watching things like Great British Bake Off, Great Bristish Pottery Throwdown, Goggle Box and Gardeners World.

I really enjoyed Wolf Hall.

Do you iisten to audio books? Some of my favourite authors are Louise Penny, Elly Griffiths, Dr Ruth Galloway mysteries and Phil Rickmans Merrily Watkins books.

White_Dragon said:

My interests in films are more historical type

What do you like?

I've read quite a lot of historic novels - both written at the time, and retrospectively.

One of my favourite book series was the Shardlake one by the late C J Sansom.

Fair enough, you might find death in paradise a bit too gentle too :) My interests in films are more historical type stuff really or Sci fi/fantasy things. I'm not familiar with the programmes you mention so not entirely sure what would be of interest

Thank you.

MM is aeons old and I watched a few episodes - it's a bit too gentle for me.

I will look up DIP.

Hi Debbie, not sure where to start to be honest, if you are looking for crime/detective type programmes that are relatively easy going you could try death in paradise or maybe midsommer murders, both are relatively easy going/not too serious programmes. There's loads of episodes to go at there maybe?

So, just to reiterate, it would be nice if people also shared what they enjoy watching, not just recommendations.

I think a general interest thread would be nice to have again, something not too serious, to relax with.

I just took the link.

Looks very interesting.

Thank you.

Unknown said:

The sorts of films I used to watch weren't usually mainstream - eg. Paris, Texas; Betty Blue; The Double Life of Veronique; the Three Colours Trilogy.

I recently signed up to a trial offer (which sadly now doesn't seem to be available) with MUBI, which could be of interest.

They describe themselves as "A place to discover ambitious films by visionary filmmakers. From iconic directors to emerging auteurs. All carefully chosen by our curators." :

MUBI

Thank you.

Thank you for those recommendations - the main thing I dislike is violence so I had to give up on Jo Nesbo books.

At the moment I think I have what's available on Freeview + BBCi Player + ITV something or other but I can watch films on a DVD player.

SpikeyMark said:

Why not get a DVD player and buy those comforting films?

I have one thank you and DVDs of my favourite films which are obviously not current.

What do you watch?

Unknown said:

We (ie since then) have a household TV but I've never figured out even how to turn it on.

I would ask someone who uses it to show you the basics - power on/off, volume control, finding the menus to choose a channel etc.

Most TVs have a main TV menu where you can choose any ubscription services that have been setup on it (Netfix, Apple TC, Amazon, Disney HBO etc), freeview (which includes all the old terrestrial channels and other free variants), iPlayer or other inputs (DVD player etc).

This can be a lot to take in so take time to practice with it.

What you can actually watch will depend on what subscriptions you have. I found Freeview to be very limited and in the past have used subscriptions like Netflix a lot (especially during Covid).

These days I have patchy interent access so any streaming services are a bit limited for me so I tend to download episodes / films form peer-to-peer networking and watch them at my leisure. I don't suggest anyone else do such a naughty thing but for me it is one of the few ways I can keep relatively up to date with the shows I prefer to watch.

Unknown said:

The novels I like most and read most of are detective, thrillers, murder mysteries.

I don't know if you have seen the series Dexter (about a serial killer working in a crime lab) - this was good and there is an origins spin off called Dexter Original Sin out now that also looks promising.

The Rookie is quite entertaining, following an older police cadet, starting over after a life altering incident and the issues / experiences he encounters as a rookie in the police force.

White Lotus is a murder mystery serie based around a chain of luxury resort hotels and is a great observation of human character, especially amongst the priveledged and has some great twists.

I hope some of these are on your subscription services.

Why not get a DVD player and buy those comforting films? I don't think there was a student in the late 80s who didn't like Betty Blue