Jellybeansucker

My review is on the colour series as I've not yet watched the first two b&w series, but the fact that they were so popular they led to a successful public campaign not to end the show after Series 2 as originally planned, and long before the days of social media, means they must be good! I can say the next two series were extremely good, equating to one of the highest quality TV dramas I've ever watched.

The best episodes, and there are many excellent ones, are tightly written gems of intrigue that if you missed a minute of you might lose the plot, which turns and twists like a poisonous snake. It's very surprisingly hard hitting for a 50 year old show, it's made for adults and is all the better for it. This is of course a major reason why it's so popular with fans and so highly rated.

The casting and resulting acting is top notch, it made a star of Woodward here, whose star eventually and rightly shone in America, after a long career outside the A List. Callan's scruples and doubts are as enthralling as the Cold War plots of Red Files on Russian agents and his methods of dealing with them, sometimes coldly and ruthlessly, sometimes cleverly, and not strictly to orders.

Another highlight is the relationship he has with his colleagues, all of whom are in a strict hierarchy, one or two of which he dislikes far more than the targets he's asked to do a job on. The favourite for me is Cross who appears in most of the colour series, superbly played by Mower, a very under rated actor, who portrays his seething dislike of being under Callan, because he comes from a higher social class and in Military terms, where most of the agents are picked from, would have been an Officer to Callan's Corporal. Highly recommend others watch the repeats now showing on TV or get hold of the DVDs. IMO the most compelling espionage TV show of them all.

Despite the nice setting and acting and twisty plot, the fact he got away with a serial murder spree after so many close shaves and the fact Paltrow knew he did it made a travesty of the ending. Made the Police and the private eye look incompetent.

They could've done even more with the dual identity thing than they did, this was the best thing going for it. Letting the rings be found after he was so meticulous in everything else looked implausible. A curate's egg of a film looking for an Oscar.

Railway Modelling teams compete for the prestige of winning the competition. It's a long overdue addition to the increasingly popular hobbyists strand of TV and this show suits Channel 5's populist output. Filmed in a casual and fun way it's entertainment for model railway enthusiasts rather than instruction, although you can certainly pick up some tips if you watch carefully enough. It's a fun and interesting watch but my main quibble is the lack of time it spends focusing on each model. It's all a bit too cursory and fleeting for me personally, because you really want to see more of them in action. Still the finale of the show where the finished models actually get to run is well worth the wait.

Purists will possibly hate the way it focuses on adventurous themes for the models each week and in Series 1 probably the best team of modellers lost out by not wanting to lose that authentic realism most serious railway modellers are after. The focus is on adaption and all round modelling creativity which is fun but doesn't spend much time on the trains themselves or mention what type of loco or wagon or controller the team is using.

To be fair there have been good shows on TV that discuss this better and YouTube has plenty of technical videos for the how to make this work or construct that. So this fun and breezy show is not for technical nerds but is a general fun way of seeing varying types of railway models and the craft of making them. It certainly will inspire more people to take up the hobby and the model manufacturers will love it. Also timed well for Christmas present buying.