Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
To infinity and beyond
SPACE FORCE THE WORLD’S MOST SCENIC RAILWAY JOURNEYS
Netflix
TALK about reaching for the stars, Netflix has thrown everything imaginable at this American space satire.
It boasts a co-creator team of Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, responsible for the US version of The Office, and an all-star cast including Carell, Lisa Kudrow, John Malkovich, Jane Lynch and even the late Fred Willard.
The sets are stunning, everything
Channel 5, 8pm
All you really need to know about this programme is that it is narrated by Bill Nighy, a man whose voice is one of TV’S most soothing – second only to Joanna Lumley’s.
He talks us through epic train journeys as we meet the people who travel, work and live along the spectacular rail routes.
This time it’s all aboard the 200-mile Ligne des Cevennes route through a beautiful area of unspoilt feels glossy and expensive, and it has all the build-up of the next big comedy Netflix wants us to rave on about.
It’s a brilliant premise, neatly satirising President Trump’s actual Space Force.
Carell plays General Mark R Naird, a highly decorated pilot who dreams of running the Air Force, but he’s hardly chuffed when instead he’s tasked with leading the newly formed sixth branch of the US Armed Forces.
He and his Space Force are a bit
France. From Nimes, it travels northwards through the Massif Central to France’s volcanic heart.
Passengers weren’t originally the priority for the train line, which was an economical way of bringing wine and coal to Paris in the North and Nimes in the South.
The stunning route travels across three historic viaducts, plunges deep underground to explore the area’s hidden wildlife, delves into the longdeparted coal industry and follows in the footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson before reaching the great Puy de Dome and a collection of 80 dormant volcanoes. of a joke – some of the best scenes are in the White House Chief of Staff ’s Gold Room, where the likes of Lynch as the Navy’s top admiral and Noah Emmerich as obnoxious Air Force boss
Kick Grabaston mock him mercilessly.
Malkovich gives a stand-out performance as Naird’s head scientist Dr Mallory, while Kudrow as Naird’s wife is brilliantly distraught when she and their daughter are forced to move to the remote space base in Colorado.
Naird, however, is only concerned with the President’s instruction: “Boots on the moon by 2024.”
You never see the POTUS, by the way, but we hear he’s prone to tweeting.
This needs a couple of episodes to really take off, but with a stellar team behind it, it’s worth jumping on board.