Well, the joke's on you, because I bought TWO! (The other is for my sister.)

Do I get a discount if I put the code DAVIDTOLDMETO in the box?

My French is dreadful, despite years of effort. But I've spent so long failing to learn French that my English is now peppered with French words and phrases that have become lodged in my brain. So my French isn't any better, and my English is worse.

And it was popular! I know, I know: only three channels, no competition and all that, but those programmes had big audiences, sold well overseas and the tie-in books shifted loads too. If people had really hated them or found them patronising or incomprehensible, they wouldn't have watched.

He never stopped trying: there's nothing lazy or "will this do?" about his work. It's just that his sense of what was worth making the effort for could be badly calibrated.

John Boorman really marched up and down the quality scale, didn't he?

Until you've been some sort of re-enactor from the age of black powder warfare, you really have no idea how much smoke those things produce. About 20 seconds after they start firing upwind of you, you can't see your own feet. (You don't notice, because your ears are ringing so much.)

Fun, though.

That's a good point - would a (very) short custodial sentence for (e.g.) doing over 40 in a 30 zone, with no exceptions, do more to reduce road deaths than longer sentences for drivers who kill?

The Battle of Vienna has entered the conversation en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_...

(I broadly think you're right, but there was at least one Ottoman leader who was not lazy and in an expansive mood).

Exactly this! "Is it canon?" is the wrong question. "It is good?" is more important. If you have a choice between sticking to canon/lore or making something fun/dramatic/challenging, go with the latter. It doesn't matter if it clashes with what a character said in an episode 20 years ago.

A lot of interesting stuff has been made by people who want to do Bond but don't have the rights (or the budget in some cases).