Review: Spirited

We discovered Spirited hiding on Prime. It's an Australian genre series from 2010/11 and is a little 'inspired' (if that's a thing) by shows like Ghosts or The Ghost and Mrs Muir and so on.

The basic idea is that a dentist, Suzy Darling (Claudia Karvan), finds that she can see the ghost of a 1980s punk rock star called Henry Mallett (Matt King). The series is all about Henry trying to figure out how he died and why he's haunting the apartment block in which Suzy has her work and living place. Just giving a basic synopsis like this does somewhat demean the whole as it's a well written and very engaging series, with some black comedy mixed in, and some great characters who grow and change as the series progresses. There's Steve, Suzy's ex, who starts out being a right bar steward, sleeping with basically anyone who will have him - and a surprising number of women seem to want him!  But by the end he has his own moment of revelation and seems to change his ways.

Henry is a smashing character and Matt King plays him with aplomb ... all eighties punk sensibility and rage packed into a tall lanky man who can't work out where it all went wrong. Claudia Karvan is a superb foil for him and, as the only human who can see and hear him, starts to grow fond of her spectral friend.

There's lots of good ideas on show, some great performances, and a very well realised romance blossoming between the two leads - even though they can't actually touch each other.

Recommended viewing.

Review: The Art of Time Travel by Peter Mckinstry

This is more like it!  After a seemingly endless succession of 'in universe' factual photo books from BBC Books about Doctor Who, finally we get a proper behind the scenes look at the work of art department designer Peter Mckinstry.

Peter worked on Seasons 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the revived Doctor Who series as a concept artist and designer, and his work spans pretty much everything that you see on screen. There are a great many superb illustrations here depicting everything from Sonic Screwdrivers to watches through guns and gadgets, to giant spacecraft and aliens. There's (of course) redesigned Daleks and Cybermen and Sontarans and all manner of other things which Peter was commissioned to create for various other books and magazines, and accompanying them all is a commentary explaining the key points and thought processes that went into realising the ideas.

Alongside these there are Peter's emails and comments to Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat and their responses which give a great insight into how the ideas develop into reality for the screen.

I loved the book. It's big and chunky and full of colour, information and interest. The true behind the scenes elements have always been of more interest to me than 'in universe' continuity-type information and so this book is ideal! It's a fascinating insight into how a 'world' or 'alien' can be developed in Doctor Who and how every element is considered and thought through to give consistency to their race and culture, whether that be the jewellery they wear, the weaponry they carry, or even how they decorate their spacecraft or buildings.

The copy I was sent was a second printing, so maybe this has done really well to have been reprinted so fast ... or maybe they underestimated the print run it would need!  Either way it bodes well for more like this in the future.