Paddington 2 PICK OF THE WEEK
Ghosts TVNZ 1, 9:15pm Thursday
Actors being in more than one TV show in their careers shouldn’t be that much of a big deal, I know. But spotting someone you recognise from another show you watched, in a new show you’re watching? Name a single more satisfying, simple and nerdy pleasure.
If you’ve spent a bit of time around the British comedy traps during the past few years, the BBC sitcom Ghosts should deliver an absolute carnival of familiar faces.
The series follows a collection of spirits from various points in history, all living under the roof of a crumbling country mansion. When the last remaining resident finally slips away, the property is inherited by her distant relative and her husband who, as luck would have it, are house-hunting when they get the call.
How to stop this very alive young couple moving in and ruining their home? “We could try haunting,” suggests one of the ghosts. “Robin can do that thing with the lights.”
The ghosts include Gerard and Simon — both of Mark’s love rivals for Dobby in Peep Show —asa jolly scoutmaster and a Shakespearean romantic poet. There’s one of the villainous detectorists Simon and Garfunkel from Detectorists asa disgraced former MP. There’s Katy Wix from the current season of Taskmaster as a burnt-at-the-stake witch and Lolly Adefope, the best friend in Shrill ,asa Georgian noblewoman.
And that’s not even the half of it. The core of the ensemble cast all met while filming the popular
Horrible Histories series 10 or so years ago. Ghosts shares a similar energy with its high joke rate and enthusiastic sense of fun. It’s not aimed at kids, as Horrible Histories was, but it’ll appeal to them anyway, in much the same way Horrible Histories appealed to adults.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Netflix When Hugh Grant told Vanity Fair that Paddington 2 was his greatest film the other month you could either agree or disagree. If you agreed it meant you’d seen Paddington 2 already, if you disagreed it meant you hadn’t. Now the children’s movie about a bear getting sent to prison is available on Netflix, so for anyone who still thinks Hugh Grant’s best movie was Four Weddings or Notting Hill or even Love Actually, you absolute freak, there’s still time to change your mind. Paddington 2 is nothing less than an instant classic.
PODCAST OF THE WEEK Mogul
The story of 2 Live Crew is one of the great stories in the history of popular music. If you don’t believe me go and watch the first episode of season two of Hip Hop Evolution on Netflix, which tells the short version of the story of how the group pioneered Miami Bass, then got arrested after a gig and charged with obscenity because the courts deemed their lyrics simply too rude. The subsequent court case became an important precedent for music and free speech which, for better or for worse, would open the door for popular rappers like Eminem to freely rap death threats to his ex-wife.
Anyway, once you watch that hectic 20 or so minutes of Hip Hop Evolution you’ll be desperate for a full-length, in-depth podcast version of the 2 Live Crew story as told by those who lived it. Luckily, this is exactly what the second season of Mogul is. This is a podcast with a higher than usual amount of both swearing and bass, host Brandon Jenkins warns at the start, advising us to listen on good speakers (guess a UE Boom will have to do at a pinch). From the minute he puts you in the room at their raucous, sweaty, chestrattling live show, you know it’s going to be a good time.