Comments for Tom de Castella http://www.tomdecastella.com Tom is a freelance journalist and writer. His areas of expertise include Zimbabwe, lidos, books, sport and social policy. Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:02:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 Comment on Liquid pleasure (New Statesman) by Chris G-H http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=41&cpage=1#comment-982 Chris G-H Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:02:33 +0000 http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=41#comment-982 Good on yer Tom - brings back old memories of the Repton pool and your father's length swimming. There were few who could match the explosive impact of your top board bombs. Good on yer Tom – brings back old memories of the Repton pool and your father’s length swimming.

There were few who could match the explosive impact of your top board bombs.

]]> Comment on Life goes on (Independent on Sunday) by tom http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6&cpage=1#comment-789 tom Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:00:25 +0000 http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6#comment-789 Sorry, I get so much spam on this site I haven't been able to filter out real comments from crap. The old episodes seem a long way away now after the crass, terrible This Life +10. In reply to your previous post, I didn't get round to writing the book up, I just did a lot of interviews that I might still do something with in the future. But at the moment I think the new episode has killed off any widespread enthusiasm for the show. Sorry, I get so much spam on this site I haven’t been able to filter out real comments from crap. The old episodes seem a long way away now after the crass, terrible This Life +10.

In reply to your previous post, I didn’t get round to writing the book up, I just did a lot of interviews that I might still do something with in the future. But at the moment I think the new episode has killed off any widespread enthusiasm for the show.

]]> Comment on Life goes on (Independent on Sunday) by eamo http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6&cpage=1#comment-317 eamo Thu, 09 Aug 2007 02:43:14 +0000 http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6#comment-317 Just realised that it's exactly a decade (give or take a day) to the day since the final episode of This Life was aired. Since then, has any single tv drama matched it for suspense, entertainment and pathos? From Egg breaking down in the toilet to Ferdy and Lenny's joint-physical and chemical ecstacy...not to mention the climactic scenes. An absoloute treasure... Oh, and *bump* for my last post in case you never saw it ;). Just realised that it’s exactly a decade (give or take a day) to the day since the final episode of This Life was aired. Since then, has any single tv drama matched it for suspense, entertainment and pathos? From Egg breaking down in the toilet to Ferdy and Lenny’s joint-physical and chemical ecstacy…not to mention the climactic scenes. An absoloute treasure…

Oh, and *bump* for my last post in case you never saw it ;) .

]]> Comment on Life goes on (Independent on Sunday) by eamo http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6&cpage=1#comment-10 eamo Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:59:14 +0000 http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6#comment-10 Wow, that's a pity. You must have had a great deal written by the time the plug was pulled. Any chance you could put the manuscripts up here ;)... probably not, but worth asking anyway! The final straw with This Life+10 for me was regard to the DVD release a couple of weeks ago. There are no extras whatsoever - just the 80 minute programme itself. Despite the many interviews the beeb had of the cast on their website (which people outside the UK, like me, couldn't watch and listen to due to some licensing laws) and the "alternative ending" Jenkins spilled to The Sun during it's promotion just before Christmas, they've not bothered putting any of this on the disc. Surely in this day and age one-off, feature-length programmes as well as standard movies rely more than ever on extra content to push sales of the DVDs - otherwise everyone would just pay a couple of quid to rent it from Chartbusters for the night. The belated 1st & 2nd seried DVD box-set from last year didn't contain a scrap of extras either but there was so much delight at the long-awaited existence of series 2 on DVD that it didn't matter so much (though out-takes and deleted scenes from the winters of '95 and '96 would have been brilliant...and i'm dangerously coming across as an obsessive fan...). Even the reunion episode had a 10 minute mini-doc afterwards. A real let-down by the Beeb and/or the production company and the final straw with regard to the whole ill-fated affair. Wow, that’s a pity. You must have had a great deal written by the time the plug was pulled. Any chance you could put the manuscripts up here ;) … probably not, but worth asking anyway!

The final straw with This Life+10 for me was regard to the DVD release a couple of weeks ago. There are no extras whatsoever – just the 80 minute programme itself. Despite the many interviews the beeb had of the cast on their website (which people outside the UK, like me, couldn’t watch and listen to due to some licensing laws) and the “alternative ending” Jenkins spilled to The Sun during it’s promotion just before Christmas, they’ve not bothered putting any of this on the disc. Surely in this day and age one-off, feature-length programmes as well as standard movies rely more than ever on extra content to push sales of the DVDs – otherwise everyone would just pay a couple of quid to rent it from Chartbusters for the night. The belated 1st & 2nd seried DVD box-set from last year didn’t contain a scrap of extras either but there was so much delight at the long-awaited existence of series 2 on DVD that it didn’t matter so much (though out-takes and deleted scenes from the winters of ‘95 and ‘96 would have been brilliant…and i’m dangerously coming across as an obsessive fan…). Even the reunion episode had a 10 minute mini-doc afterwards. A real let-down by the Beeb and/or the production company and the final straw with regard to the whole ill-fated affair.

]]> Comment on Life goes on (Independent on Sunday) by tom http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6&cpage=1#comment-7 tom Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:10:08 +0000 http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6#comment-7 No, I was researching my own book on This Life but the publisher pulled out. Other publishers were interested but there was too little time by this stage to get it out for Christmas so they decided against, and I've rather put it on the backburner now. I agree the new episode was awful - I did sense it might be when I first read the script and I hope that came through in my piece - the comment about the choice of writer and the melodramatic style. I don't buy the consensus of critics, though, that it was always going to be an anticlimax. I just think they should have either brought in a decent writer from series 2, or someone totally new who had liked the original. Stuffing it so self consciously with issues, contrivance and unconvincing conflict, as Amy Jenkins did, was never going to do justice to This Life. No, I was researching my own book on This Life but the publisher pulled out. Other publishers were interested but there was too little time by this stage to get it out for Christmas so they decided against, and I’ve rather put it on the backburner now. I agree the new episode was awful – I did sense it might be when I first read the script and I hope that came through in my piece – the comment about the choice of writer and the melodramatic style. I don’t buy the consensus of critics, though, that it was always going to be an anticlimax. I just think they should have either brought in a decent writer from series 2, or someone totally new who had liked the original. Stuffing it so self consciously with issues, contrivance and unconvincing conflict, as Amy Jenkins did, was never going to do justice to This Life.

]]> Comment on Life goes on (Independent on Sunday) by eamo http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6&cpage=1#comment-6 eamo Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:02:08 +0000 http://www.tomdecastella.com/?p=6#comment-6 <i>Having researched a book on This Life...</i> When I first read this article I thought this part inferred that you were working on a book about 'This Life'. However I'm presuming that it means you studied a book on the programme prior to meeting with the cast? In which case, what was this book? As a die-hard fan of the programme (though, like many, felt short-changed by the reunion episode) I know of two that were published after the original run's success in '97 - 'The Companion Guide To...' and a short (less than a couple of hundred pages I think) novelised summary of the 32 episodes. Was it one of these or something else? Having researched a book on This Life…

When I first read this article I thought this part inferred that you were working on a book about ‘This Life’. However I’m presuming that it means you studied a book on the programme prior to meeting with the cast? In which case, what was this book? As a die-hard fan of the programme (though, like many, felt short-changed by the reunion episode) I know of two that were published after the original run’s success in ‘97 – ‘The Companion Guide To…’ and a short (less than a couple of hundred pages I think) novelised summary of the 32 episodes.
Was it one of these or something else?

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