This is the first episode of the classic series The Secret Life of Machines, in three parts. Tim Hunkin & Rex Garrod give us the history of the machines we encounter in everyday life and explain how they work.

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The ABC has completed the Phoenix/Janus collection on dvd with the release of the second series of Janus on dvd this week. A few years ago I was very disappointed when I decided to watch these series again and found that they weren’t available, so great that they are all out now. Once again I’ll use the occasion to recommend them. I can’t think of any Australian drama series that I’ve liked better. I think they should appeal to fans of The Wire, as the approach is somewhat similar (and rather groundbreaking when they were first aired), though admittedly on a rather more modest scale. Each series follows a single police investigation (in the case of Phoenix) or court trial (Janus) over 12 or so episodes. They took a much more realist approach to any other series around at the time (early to mid 90’s), for a start they were set in a real city (Melbourne) which was very recognisable, and many events were loosely based on real life events (not uncommon now with the likes of Underbelly, but not common then). In the same way that the Wire shifts focus each series, there was a shift from following the police investigations in Phoenix, to the legal process in Janus, with one character being the link between the otherwise largely independent series. It will certainly look rather low budget compared to the Wire, though aside from that comparison it stands up very well. It is really worth seeing if you haven’t already (and if you have you’re probably already getting the dvds).

I used to regularly complain that the ABC series Phoenix wasn’t available on dvd, until ABC released it last year. Of course, as soon as it came out I started worrying about whether they would release the second series and the follow-up series Janus. No need for worry, they’ve looked after the fans by continuing the releases without too much delay, with Phoenix out earlier this year, and now Janus following without too much delay at all. According to the ABC shop website Janus will be available on the 1st of October. Anyone who watched Phoenix will definitely want to continue with Janus.It is not a direct sequel as such, the only direct link is through one cast member from Phoenix (Simon Westaway as Peter ‘Noddy’ Faithful) who continues on, but it is follows a similar format to Phoenix in following one story over an entire season and overall has a very similar style. This time a criminal investigation is followed from the point of view of the courts rather than the police. Definitely recommended. In fact even if you haven’t seen both series of Phoenix you could easily start on this without realising you’d missed anything, the story is completely independent.

The second series of Phoenix is out today (at least in my local ABC shop). I used to sometimes complain about Phoenix not being available until the first series finally turned up a while back, I was worried that it might not have had enough promotion to get anough sales for the second series to be released as well, but looks like it was OK. I don’t remember too much about series 2 but from what I recall it follows a similar format with a single police investigation being followed across the course of the whole season, a sort of approach that has been a big hit with many people in recent years with The Wire. Now it’s time to cross fingers and hope for a dvd release of the follow up series, Janus, which was also excellent.

According to the Ezydvd site, series 1 of the early 90’s ABC police drama Phoenix will be released on dvd on October 2nd. I would assume that the second series, and hopefully the follow up series Janus will follow. This is fantastic news, this is one of the best Australian TV shows ever. Fans of one of the best recent shows from the US, The Wire, in particular are recommended to check it out as the format, with each series following one particular case.

I have previously blogged about my frustration at not being able to get this on dvd.

UPDATE – this is now on the ABC shop site as well.

Tonight I watched Dr Who for the first time in a few weeks. The return of Martha was interesting, nice to see some more aliens brought back from the old series (though didn’t the Sontarans used to be bigger?) and the clone in the green goo was done well … but is it just me or are all of the alien invasion episodes getting a bit samey?

Also they backed themselves into a corner a bit by having these massive plots involving the whole world in danger pretty early on in the new series so they are stuck with nowhere to go if they want to up the ante. It seems to be that in the old series quite often these alien invasion plots were thwarted before anyone much had a chance to notice, except perhaps in one particular location, but in the new series every one seems to bring yet another global emergency – after numerous incidents like this it begins to lose it’s impact a bit.

to Australian TV that is. The second series begins on the ABC on Thursday 14th. Details on the ABC site. I very much enjoyed the first series, about a policeman who finds himself in 1973, and have been looking forward to the second series. It stars John Simm, who has been in lots of great things (Cracker, The Lakes, State of Play), and also was recently rather good as the latest incarnation of The Master in Dr Who.

Something else to watch out for next week on the ABC is That Mitchell and Webb Look , a sketch comedy by Robert Webb & David Mitchell, who also star in Peep Show. Also Webb Mitchell was in the Inventor of the Year episode of Look Around You as the inventor of the sex change machine, and Mitchell Webb was great as a clueless bank employee in People Like Us. Olivia Colman (Pam Bachelor from Look Around You) appears regularly too.
Here’s a few of their sketches.
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