Pillars of the Earth - Ridley Scott mini series

[Ghost]

Channel 4 - Saturday - 9pm - Trailers look good but we'll see

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/ ... television

http://www.the-pillars-of-the-earth.tv/

[Sir Thomas Hylton]

Certainly going to be setting the Sky+ for this one.

[Brendan C]

Have not read the book, but know the period it is set in - Stephen and Matilda - very well.

To be honest, after seeing the trailer, some of the kit looks absolutely horrendous

Brendan C

[Sir Thomas Hylton]

Well judging by some of the kit in the recent Ridley Scott Robin Hood film was also fairly atrocious, so no real change there.

Just so long as the story is entertaining & they don't totally massacre the history of the period for the sake of the storyline.

Either way, it wont stop me watching it.

[Fox]

Just so long as the story is entertaining & they don't totally massacre the history of the period for the sake of the storyline.

Either way, it wont stop me watching it.

I feel a bit the same, but....

To be honest, after seeing the trailer, some of the kit looks absolutely horrendous

And that's the problem; and may render it unwatchable in our house.
Herself was starting to twitch just seeing a very short trailer; for the sake of beautiful, enourmous TV I may have to choose not to put it in a position were objects are likely to be thrown at it.

We'll give the first episode a go....

[Marcus Woodhouse]

You could always watch a re-run of Haven on Syfy instead. Totally spot on 21st century kit on show all round.

[Ghost]

You could always watch a re-run of Haven on Syfy instead. Totally spot on 21st century kit on show all round.

............was there, fell asleep after 10 mins

[Allan Harley]

Books are entertaining, if mini-series conversion any good will get more people interested

[Fox]

Books are entertaining, if mini-series conversion any good will get more people interested

...which is good.

Although if it's really popular I'll spend the next ten years talking to MoPs who think they know about history because they watched Pillars of the Earth.

So as long as it's better than Braveheart we're on a net sum gain.

[Marcus Woodhouse]

Him's the nub, I enjoy Braveheart and Patriot as entertainment (not at all because the cheating, stealing English baggits get a good shoeing) but then you get a load of daft numpty's thinking it's for real and using to justify all kinds of anti-sais stuff (I mean just say they are a curse on good Irish boys placed upon us by the devil and be done with it) and B***cks like so.
I cannot understand why people get up in the air over Robin Hood and Merlin, unless its terrible acting, dialogue in which case fair play.
Films like U571 or Saving Private Ryan bug me because they go out of there way to present a distorted view of history (and Saving Private Ryan offends my soldierly sensibilities). As did King Arthur and Kingdom of Heaven which made awfully big claims on telling true stories and being huge on authenticity when they were clearly not bothered with it at all.
Funny thing is I would most likely enjoyed both of those films if they had just been sold as outright action movies.

[Brendan C]

To be honest, I think the kit in 'Kingdom of Heaven' was probably the best I've seen to date for the 12th century. There were bits and pieces that were off, but overall, I was astonished at how good it looked. The reworking of the story of Balian was aggravating (Russel Crowe should have had that role - he was the right age for a start), along with how certain principal characters were written (Sybilla was a prime example).

These things do annoy, particularly when you yourself know it's wrong, but sometimes you get instances where something you think was made up for the film turns out to have actually happened (Balian's mass knighting during the siege of Jerusalem).

Films and TV programmes do generate interest in the specific periods, that's no doubt, but there also seems to be a good deal of disappointment shown by MOPs when they are presented by the facts, which contradicte what they have seen on the screen. I thin reenactors are going to be in this particular spot at shows for the foreseeable future.

Brendan C

[Fox]

That could have been worse.

I quite enjoyed it.

I could've have spent a lot of time listing what was wrong; but I just relaxed and let it happen.

I shall continue watching.

[Marcus Woodhouse]

Its gotta be better then the planned movie version of Deadliest Warrior!

[Fox]

Its gotta be better then the planned movie version of Deadliest Warrior!

Tell me that you are not sh!tting me!

That is awesome; I am going to laugh my @rse off.

[Phil the Grips]

Nope- DW:the film is in production. Series 3 too- it has elephants!

[Fox]

Awesome!

Lads Night in: alcohol, in various formats, a flamable ball of some sort, a metal waste paper basket, armour, gaffer tape and a copy of Deadliest Warrior: the motion picture on DVD.

[Redders]

Round yours for the DVD release then?

[Marcus Woodhouse]

The film script has been around for ages, it needed to be turned into "TV docudrama" though for it to become a reality.

[Marcus Woodhouse]

Well I am glad that's over.