by stephen » 16 Sep 2014, 12:12
I watched & enjoyed it also. Must admit, I don't think that the programme makers did too bad a job regarding guitars that were contemporary to that period, even though their actual match to the characters was probably not accurate. Good to see that someone had taken a bit of interest in sourcing period-correct guitars, though. Not always the case when these packages are put together.
Realistically, I suppose what we saw last night was about the best effort we could hope for, unless a real guitar anorak-type wielded the power on the production side. As I say, I've seen a lot worse.....
As a Liverpudlian, my main disappointment was with the general locations..............definitely not shot in Liverpool as far as I could make out. Having said that, the Matthew Street/Cavern scenes weren't bad at all and the layout of the club was depicted much as I remembered it some 50 years ago. Even down to the little alcove where you could buy a coke & a hot dog! I can still recall the rotting fruit smell that pervaded the warehouses in Matthew Street as you queued up for admission to the lunchtime sessions. Looking back all those years, I shudder a bit when I think about The Cavern. God knows what would have happened if there had ever been a fire. How on earth anyone would have got out quickly.
Dave's right about Cilla being the cloakroom girl at the club. Can't recall whether it was her actually working there that provided the opportunity for her to get up and do guest spots with the groups. Maybe the time-line will be shown in the next instalment.
I'm a great fan of Sheridan Smith and think she's a real rising star. First became aware of her as a gold-digging, Scouser 'tart' in an early 'Benidorm' series and then she really impressed as Ronnie Biggs' wife in the TV series about his life on the run. From what I've seen in this first 'Cilla', the role has added even more to her stock as an actress. Even singing all the songs 'live' herself! Reminded me of that other excellent actress, Jane Horrocks in that delightful 1998 film, 'Little Voice'.
It was good to see a portrayal of one of my favourite Merseybeat groups, The Big 3 last night. The blue bass certainly looked like a Futurama. Mind you, when I saw them in the club around '63/64 Johnny Gustaffson was playing a pale blue Fender Precision.
Also last night, killing time whilst waiting for the start of a film, I happened across a re-run of that Beatles '50th Anniversary-since-appearing-on-the-Ed-Sullivan-Show' tribute/thing. I'd caught the second half of it the first time around, but last night managed to see the first 15 minutes or so. If you could avoid watching when the cameras settled on the melted-plasticene features & coiffed hair of Sir Paul mugging it up when he thought he was on, the performances I saw were excellent. They ran some Beatles clips whilst their music was playing and I was convinced it was the Fab Four performing. It wasn't until the camera panned down to the stage, that you saw it was Maroon Five doing the honours. Their singer certainly did the music credit. Good ole' Joe Walsh did the lead guitar parts for George's 'Something', faultlessly. I managed to catch Stevie Wonder's version of 'We can work it out' (always liked that one!) before switching channels.
For once, not a bad night's TV...............and I managed to stay awake!
Stephen.
Last edited by stephen on 16 Sep 2014, 14:07, edited 1 time in total.