Faces: KEELEY HAWES

Americans may have never heard of Keeley Hawes… well not yet anyhow, but I bet a lot of you have heard her voice. That is because my geeky Internet surfing friends, Keeley Hawes was/is the voice of the sexiest video game babe ever… Lara Croft (the babe from the Tomb Raider games).

Here in the UK though we know Keeley as the face of Boot’s No. 7 cosmetics as well as from her many television roles… but something tells me 2008 is going to be the year Keeley goes mainstream in the UK, and maybe even the year that Keeley goes Hollywood!

Yes I predict 2008 will be the year of the Keeley here in the UK. Sure she has made ripples in the past as Zoe Reynolds in the wonderful MI5 drama Spooks, but now thanks to Ashes to Ashes, the spin-off of the sci-fi cop drama Life on Mars, Keeley is making waves, and home-perming kits a must have medicine cabinet accessory again. Keeley even showed up during Cbeebies bedtime hour a couple of weeks ago to read the kiddies a bed time story (it was a wonderful tale about a girl who doesn’t like peas).

Later this year admirers of this stunning beauty from London town will get even more Keeley to watch, for Ms Hawes has been a very busy girl the past few months, doing work not only for television (Ashes to Ashes and Mutual Friends), as well as work for the big screen (The Bank Job and Flashbacks of a Fool)… not to mention another Tomb Raider game for my geeky video game loving friends.

UPDATE *8/Sep/2008*

Following on from her big screen adventures in The Bank Job and Flashbacks of a Fool earlier in the year, the gorgeous Keeley can now be seen in the BBC1 dramedy, Mutual Friends.

UPDATE 23/April/2009

Keeley is back on our screens and looking FANTASTIC in series 2 of the BBC sci-fi drama Ashes to Ashes now which began Monday.

Looking forward to… ASHES TO ASHES

Remeber the 1980s?

Big hair, leg warmers, electric music over-load and Britain’s last recession?

Remember Ashes to Ashes?

The wonderful spin-off from the wonder Life on Mars?

Well both are back on Monday (April 20) and I can’t wait! I can’t wait to see the lovely Keeley Hawes back on our screens, I can’t wait to see what trippy, weird storyline the writers have in store for us. Most of all though I can’t wait for those wonderful Gene Hunt moments… I love those the most!

more about “BBC – Ashes to Ashes – Home“, posted with vodpod

 

 

 

Top 5 TV Police Shows

#5 Miami Vice

It had a cool theme, and it is the only show I know of that made grown men wear pastels and take their socks off in the name of fashion. It was the definative ‘cool’ cop show of the 80s.

#4. Hill Street Blues

Ground breaking TV cop shows don’t come around very often, and Hill Street Blues remains as good today as any police show on the box.

#3 NYPD Blue

Like Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue broke ground on US TV, often causing the producers to get themselves in a bit of hot water, like they did when they showed Charlotte Ross’ naked bum.

#2 Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes

Gene Hunt is the greatest TV detective ever to grace the screen, even when they turned him into an animation!

#1 The Wire

You knew it had to be so, this cop drama is undoubtably one of the five greatest TV shows ever produced! Right from the opening scene of the first episode I knew this series was going to be special!

Children in Need… a bad night of telly!

Tomorrow night sees another Children in Need appeal on BBC1, and although the cause is a worthy one, the BBC provided entertainment for the night normally is not worthy of our viewing! And after a quick glance at the schedule for tomorrow night, it looks like this year’s show is not going to break the trend of tacky TV. In fact the only two highlights I can glimpse are the preview for the Doctor Who Christmas special, and the Ashes to Ashes meets Top Gear segment which will be aired sometime after 10:30 pm.

So bad is the Children in Need appeal’s television ‘extravaganza’ that even Outside the Box’s favourite journalist Caitlin Moran had a dig at it in her column in The Knowledge this week:

it’s Children in Need time again! That thing cynical adults are supposed to hate but, when they sit down to watch it — and see, for instance, the cast of Ashes To Ashes doing a “specially recorded scene” — they discover that, actually, they really do hate it. More than they remembered hating it last year.

Of course, the 2008 Children in Needdoes face more obstacles than usual — not least in respect to the post-credit crunch rise in food prices. The cost of filling a bathtub with baked beans will have almost doubled. No one’s going to be filling their Wellingtons with custard willy-nilly.

Those guys from Ashes To Ashes are really going to have to give it some jazz-hands.

So my advice to all of you who feel it is your civic duty to watch Children in Need just because it supports a worthy cause, is save your time, watch something else and donate some money to the cause instead. The money will help children, and the lack of tacky BBC programming will make you feel as though you didn’t get robbed for your donation!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE SOME MONEY TO CHILDREN IN NEED

CLICK HERE TO BID ON SOME GREAT CHILDREN IN NEED ITEMS IN THE BBC AUCTION

Review: The Rules of Modern Policing

I know what you are thinking… “a book? Isn’t this a television site?” Well yes, but I received this from my missus for my birthday, and it is (fictionally) written by DCI Gene Hunt from Life on Mars, and Ashes to Ashes fame, so I thought I would share.

Book Synopsis (from Amazon.co.uk);

‘Don’t move! You’re surrounded by armed bastards!’ Viewers of “Life on Mars” could be forgiven for thinking that the police force of the 1970s lived by the maxim ‘The rules are: there are no rules’, yet it turns out that this was not the case. A fascinating historical document has now emerged which shows that there were indeed rules and in 1973 they were recorded on paper by none other than DCI Gene Hunt himself. Divided into ten sections, “The Rules of Modern Policing – 1973 Edition” covers everything from interrogating suspects and undercover operations to driving and dress code. Several of the rules are illustrated with diagrams, and photographs of DCI Hunt himself illustrating the more physical parts of the job: how to hit suspects so you don’t leave a mark; how to signal the importance of your arrival by crashing into inanimate objects (cardboard boxes are a perfect example here – lots of noise; no damage to your motor); how to roll over the bonnet of your cortina without making a dick of yourself. Completing the book is an invaluable glossary of police terms, covering everything from blag to lag, and nonce to ponce. An essential reference work for fans of “Life of Mars”, “The Rules of Modern Policing” offers a unique insight to seventies’ law enforcement that will make you laugh until you cry like the wet little turd you are.

So if you are a fan of Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, the wisdom of Gene Hunt or just 1970’s style police work, this is a must read for you! It is available from Amazon, and all good book shops.

More Bowie songs on the box

Now that Ashes to Ashes has come to an end, and I am in full withdrawal, me and the guys at work have come up with some more David Bowie songs the Beeb might want to look at making into Life on Mars spin-offs.

Jean Genie or as we like to call it Gene Genie. – Gene Hunt gets drunk, he falls and bumps his head to find he has woken up in a crap 1960s television series. There he is forced to live in a whisky bottle on a naval base with J.R. Ewing who is an “astronaut BASTARD!”

Changes - Gene gets shot in the bollocks and wakes up during the nineties as a “pillow biting puff”. He spends the rest of the series chasing “heterosexual BASTARDS!”

Heroes- (yes I know there is already a show called Heroes) Gene falls down an elevator shaft chasing after a granny who owes £40 in parking fines. He awakes in the future where he teams up with Batman, Spiderman and Superman (that four-eyed BASTARD) and spends the rest of his days chasing scumbag BASTARDS (especially that Joker, he is so happy he must be gay!)

We came up with some others but they were not too good. If any of you have an idea post it in the comments and I will put up a page of the top ten.

More great Ashes to Ashes writing

As you can tell I LOVED Ashes to Ashes, and mostly it was because of the slick, witty writing, and the stuff that came out of Gene Hunt’s mouth. He is the most politically incorrect character on television, and I found every bit of his dialogue fantastic! Last night’s episode was no different. Gene Hunt was on top form, and there were two bits that I found particularly interesting.

The first was near the beginning of the episode about nine minutes in when the desk sergeant announces that Lord Scarman is coming to pay a visit. Do you think this was put in because Ken Livingstone is running for Mayor of London currently… could the BBC be campaigning against him???

“You gonna love this gov”

“Which means I won’t… what is it?”

“Someone… wants to make a station visit”

“It’s not that new hugging bastard from the GLC again is it?”

“Not Livingstone… worse”

“Worse then Red Ken… not possible!”

Later in the episode there is another golden Gene moment when Gene Hunt predicts the future of London (sort of) and makes a Churchill like speech.

“Is that right… you can take this home in your Harrod’s pipe and smoke it… in 20 years time, when the streets are awash with filth, and you’re too frightened to come out of your Belsize Park house after dark, don’t come running to me mate! I’ll be in Alicante, oiled up, skin sizzling in the mid-day sun like a burnt sausage!”

“If you’re finished…”

“No not quite… you can despise us, you can disown us, you can even try and close us down, but you will never break us, because we are police officers, we are brothers, we are UN-BLOODY-BREAKABLE!”

You can see Gene’s Churchill moment and see other great Gene quotes on the BBC website at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/ashestoashes/quotes/