The loony lantern

Having set the torrents this morning for the latest episodes of House and Heroes - presumably the season finale of the latter, being episode 22 – I have the dawning realisation that we are entering that fallow period for telly: summer. Those other US series we follow have either ended or are in their two or three episodes of the current season.

In the past the summer’s viewing was catered for by one or both incarnations of Stargate, which ran cheerfully out of step with the majority of US programming, which assumes (not unreasonably) that viewing figures will be higher in the dark months. Well, both SG-1 and Atlantis have been consigned to television history and I have not heard anything yet about proposed transmission slots for the forthcoming Stargate Universe, if indeed any have been announced.

Amongst the home-grown entertainments, Dr Who is on sabbatical until next year, other than the Easter special and presumably another at the end of August and next Christmas. That I think is pretty much all there is: practically nothing. There is Primeval, but that only runs for six or seven episodes a year and it’s hardly high level entertainment.

The DVDs are going to take a hammering over the summer then. We do have two seasons of 24 to watch, several episodes of Cadfael and, if I can convince Furtle to watch them before reading the (out of print) books, a few episodes of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

And there is Frasier.

The loony lantern

Having set the torrents this morning for the latest episodes of House and Heroes - presumably the season finale of the latter, being episode 22 – I have the dawning realisation that we are entering that fallow period for telly: summer. Those other US series we follow have either ended or are in their two or three episodes of the current season.

In the past the summer’s viewing was catered for by one or both incarnations of Stargate, which ran cheerfully out of step with the majority of US programming, which assumes (not unreasonably) that viewing figures will be higher in the dark months. Well, both SG-1 and Atlantis have been consigned to television history and I have not heard anything yet about proposed transmission slots for the forthcoming Stargate Universe, if indeed any have been announced.

Amongst the home-grown entertainments, Dr Who is on sabbatical until next year, other than the Easter special and presumably another at the end of August and next Christmas. That I think is pretty much all there is: practically nothing. There is Primeval, but that only runs for six or seven episodes a year and it’s hardly high level entertainment.

The DVDs are going to take a hammering over the summer then. We do have two seasons of 24 to watch, several episodes of Cadfael and, if I can convince Furtle to watch them before reading the (out of print) books, a few episodes of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

And there is Frasier.