I was out on Tuesday night at the very wonderful Liars’ League - an event which I will almost certainly write about at another time. So I missed the opening episode of BBC’s new flagship drama series, Bonekickers. Fortunately I remembered to set the video before I went out, and tonight we all sat down to watch it. Wow. Not since The Borgias have I ever seen quite such a masterclass of terrible writing and ham acting from people who really should know better. It would take far too long to list everything that was wrong with it, and in any case I wouldn’t want to spoil your enjoyment. But if you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend that you do so. It really is something quite special – savour it while you can. Here’s the iPlayer link.
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Totally agree, Jon. I only wish I had been at the ‘Liar’s League’ to see some quality entertainment. Regrettably, I was back in time to catch this expensive rubbish first time around. And – understandably – you don’t bother to mention the numerous glaring technical errors and liberties taken.
Should sell well in the States, though. (Who said that? Stand up that man!)
It is a show about (and I use the word loosely) archaeologists called “Bonekickers”. What did you expect?
Oh, I dunno. I think my train of thought went something like, well it’s got Hugh Bonneville and Adrian Lester in it, and they can act, can’t they? (Yes, I know it also had Michael I’m-hopping-backwards-for-Juliet-Stevenson Moloney as well, but I don’t think he’s a regular, so he doesn’t count.) And it’s done by the Life on Mars people, and that was all right, wasn’t it?
I really don’t mind a bit of hokum, provided that it’s done well (Waking the Dead, for example, gets better the more daft the plots get – I particularly enjoyed the fantastically redundant Navajo Indian tent reconstruction in the last series). But I’ve never heard quite so much clunky exposition, wooden characterisation and unrealistic dialog for quite some time as there was in this one.
It was absolute tosh – poorly written, poorly acted and with ‘historical fact’ that was actually incorrect. Don’t start me on the Templers – I studied them long and hard for my first attempt at novel writing (before Dan Brown and twice as bad). Suffice to say, I shan’t waste my time by watching anymore.