Midwich Cuckoos - Sky Max & Now - Starts Thursday 2nd June

DaisyDreamDaisyDream Posts: 334
Forum Member
Saw advert for this sci-fi series with Keeley Hawes and Max Beesley based on the John Wyndham novel.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/keeley-hawes-midwich-cuckoos-featurette-exclusive-newsupdate/

Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea but staring Keeley and Max, I’ve set a series link so happy to see how it plays out.
«13456

Comments

  • sussex_seagirlsussex_seagirl Posts: 1,302
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    It wouldn't necessarily be my kind of thing normally, but I'll give it a go. Anything with Keeley in is usually good.
  • i_love_tvi_love_tv Posts: 5,314
    Forum Member
    If they are making it in to a series & not a 90 minute movie I suspect they'll be a lot of talk & not much action thus maybe boring the viewers, just my take on things.
  • ShrikeShrike Posts: 16,592
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    i_love_tv wrote: »
    If they are making it in to a series & not a 90 minute movie I suspect they'll be a lot of talk & not much action thus maybe boring the viewers, just my take on things.

    The original novel was much like that as I recall, good read though.
  • philoolaphiloola Posts: 3,106
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Love Wyndham but can't see this being much cop.

    Keeley Hawes is usually good.

    Max Beesley isn't.
  • gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,508
    Forum Member
    edited 23/05/22 - 22:20 #6
    Cue comments on here about the children having dark hair and brown eyes. :/
  • Evil GeniusEvil Genius Posts: 8,762
    Forum Member
    Shrike wrote: »
    i_love_tv wrote: »
    If they are making it in to a series & not a 90 minute movie I suspect they'll be a lot of talk & not much action thus maybe boring the viewers, just my take on things.

    The original novel was much like that as I recall, good read though.

    God the book was the most boring book I have ever read. Mounds of exposition AFTER the fact. Usually when the two main male characters were smoking pipes and standing in front of the fireplace.

    And I liked a lot of Wyndhams books.
  • Dennis CDennis C Posts: 1,707
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    edited 24/05/22 - 18:27 #8
    John Wyndham saw the potential in heroes fighting evil mutants who want to rule the world, long before Marvel Comics did!
  • The HemulenThe Hemulen Posts: 694
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    I've watched the first couple of episodes and it's pretty good from what I've seen so far.
  • Clarkie66Clarkie66 Posts: 5,890
    Forum Member
    The 70s version freaked me out as a child. I couldn't remember the name of it but will never forget the scary kids and the wall coming down and this is it .
  • wildneonsinswildneonsins Posts: 2,435
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Clarkie66 wrote: »
    The 70s version freaked me out as a child. I couldn't remember the name of it but will never forget the scary kids and the wall coming down and this is it .

    Sounds like Village Of The Dammed from 1960
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_of_the_Damned_(1960_film)
  • Matt35Matt35 Posts: 29,802
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Watched ep1 this morning. Thought it was interesting. Was a bit stupid when they decided to send in an helicopter when they know there were power issues. Will watch the rest of the series though.
  • Vexille1Vexille1 Posts: 990
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    I'll watch but sci fi books in general and Wyndham's in particular have not been adapted well recently - the BBC's excrutiating Day of the Triffids (the one with Dougray Scott and Joley Richardson) was appalling. 7 eps sounds too long, there was no governement conspiracy in the book as far as I recall and I will be interested if they have the guts to do the ending.
  • fenlanderfenlander Posts: 2,197
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Interesting preview on DenOfGeek.
  • Vexille1Vexille1 Posts: 990
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Well, that was.... Messy. Amusing to see the old 'plane crash behind a row of trees' gag alive and well in 2022, and to see Keeley Hawes back in her manor of Marylebone (she was born there and her dad was a cabbie there). I presume they made Midwich a town rather than a village to justfy the casting but sadly the characters were all cliches and not especially well acted. They overdid the 'happening' too, it wasn't necessary and along with the military made it more like the BBC's Invasion Earth from 30 years ago.
  • ZumbaZebraZumbaZebra Posts: 1,571
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Zellaby was a bloke in the book. Typical! Who cares a monkey's?
  • caromax48caromax48 Posts: 11
    Forum Member
    One of my favourite science fiction novels and I enjoyed the film Village Of The Damned-but this adaptation was, in my opinion, awful. I gave up after about 10 minutes.
  • nemesisisnemesisis Posts: 6,158
    Forum Member
    Matt35 wrote: »
    Watched ep1 this morning. Thought it was interesting. Was a bit stupid when they decided to send in an helicopter when they know there were power issues. Will watch the rest of the series though.

    Agree
  • lloys-strachanlloys-strachan Posts: 1,952
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Loved the film “Village of the Damned” but this is awful.
    Dreadfully slow and some really bad acting.
    Downloaded all eps when it was released but after sitting through three episodes, I’ve delegated the rest.
  • Vanguard22Vanguard22 Posts: 2,329
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Vexille1 wrote: »
    I'll watch but sci fi books in general and Wyndham's in particular have not been adapted well recently - the BBC's excrutiating Day of the Triffids (the one with Dougray Scott and Joley Richardson) was appalling. 7 eps sounds too long, there was no governement conspiracy in the book as far as I recall and I will be interested if they have the guts to do the ending.

    Huge fan of Wyndham. Day of the Triffids, the Kraken Wakes and the Chrysalids stand up as true greats of the British sci-fi genre, but no they don't take to modern TV adaptations, which almost entirely miss the prevailing nuclear and cold war paranoia of the post-war years which Wyndham satirises, usually by having a stiff-upper lip Brit as unlikely hero. This one is pretty hopeless for anyone who hopes for them preserving the essence of this, no matter what crass modern fads are stuck on it.

    I'll stick it out but so far it's more like Stepford Wives than anything remotely authentic.
  • fenlanderfenlander Posts: 2,197
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Yeah, there are some sad omissions, too. How could the writers have left out Colonel Zellaby's musings on the church's 'depressingly mechanistic attitude of mind' towards the institution of marriage, or even the memorable scene where Reverend Leebody is attempting to listen to 'a Third Programme disquisition on the Pre-Sophoclean Conception of the Oedipus Complex'? (Makes me think of Melvyn Bragg's Thursday morning sessions on Radio 4.)

    Seriously, the book is remarkably turgid in places, more so even than earlier sci-fi works like 'The War of the Worlds'. At times, though, some modern relevance can be found in passages intended in a quite different context, such as:
    'The true fruit of this century has little interest in coming to living-terms with innovations; it just greedily grabs them all as they come along. Only when it encounters something really big does it become aware of a social problem at all, and then, rather than make concessions, it yammers for the impossibly easy way out, uninvention, suppression – as in the matter of The Bomb.'

    As for the helicopter... In the book they flew at a safe height and lowered ferrets in cages on a rope to discover the extent and shape of the anomaly. Now that was a good idea, but I imagine current sensibilities re. cruelty to ferrets would make it unacceptable in a modern version. So glad the horse wasn't hurt when it fell over...

    The recent BBC attempt at 'The War of the Worlds' was an attempt at an in-period TV version and it failed dismally. I can't imagine that an in-period version of 'The Midwich Cuckoos' would be any more successful. For me, it remains to be seen whether the re-imagining will prove relevant or perhaps just entertaining.

  • VerenceVerence Posts: 104,578
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭✭
    fenlander wrote: »
    The recent BBC attempt at 'The War of the Worlds' was an attempt at an in-period TV version and it failed dismally. I can't imagine that an in-period version of 'The Midwich Cuckoos' would be any more successful. For me, it remains to be seen whether the re-imagining will prove relevant or perhaps just entertaining.

    The idea of doing an in-period version of WOTW was a good idea but they mucked about with the plot too much
  • Trapped1969Trapped1969 Posts: 1,933
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    edited 04/06/22 - 18:49 #23
    Watching it now, there are some really bad wigs on the child "actors".It is not that bad so will stick with it........for now
  • Dub2Dub2 Posts: 2,866
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    The scariest part of the original film for me were the weird blonde children with the scary eyes. That was literally the most memorable part of the story and they dumped it for no reason.
  • P+3P+3 Posts: 12,386
    Forum Member
    ✭✭
    Clarkie66 wrote: »
    The 70s version freaked me out as a child. I couldn't remember the name of it but will never forget the scary kids and the wall coming down and this is it .

    Sounds like Village Of The Dammed from 1960
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_of_the_Damned_(1960_film)

    Same as........and ALL women of child bearing age find themselves pregnant whether they want to be ..................or not!!!!! B)o:)
  • HouseStarkHouseStark Posts: 2,494
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Seen ep1. Really good. Enjoying this.
Sign In or Register to comment.