MAGAZINE ANALYSIS - Heat Magazine

British TV Drama - THE HUSTLE

Season 2, Episode 6

The Hustle is a British TV Drama about con-artists getting back at society. The episode I watched was about Mickey's plan to steal the Crown Jewels whilst they are being moved from the tower of London. At first the group assume that Mickey is joking but Mickey asks them to trust him and so they agree to the intricate con. This is one of the biggest challenges that they have taken on. Mickey's believes that the group are good enough to pull it off. Ash poses as a cleaner so that the can get a job in the gallery where the diamond is going to be exhibited. After Ash examines a blueprint of the exhibition room he says that it is almost impossible to get near the diamond with the level of security, but Ash finds a way.

(From left to right) Ash, Albert, Mickey, Stacie and Danny  

Ash’s plan is to cut power for 30 seconds, use the blackout to re-route the CCTV and with all the alarms on the street going off, turn off all the motion detectors. The gang are ready but so are the police. Surrounding the gallery and desperate to catch Mickey and the gang in the act, the police lie in wait. The gang are one step ahead and when the police charge into the gallery they discover that the gang have disappeared, and so has the diamond. The team are caught by surprise when they arrive home later that night and the police are ready to take them into custody.

There is a low angle shot whilst Mickey is lowered down in a harness to get the jewel. This shows the intricacy of their operations because if Mickey drops he will activate the alarms. Danny is represented as the immature one of the narrative in the scene where he is playing the Mission Impossible theme tune. This also indicates how Danny is viewed by the rest of their group

REVIEW ON ABIGAIL'S PARTY

From http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/461315/

Originating as a Hampstead Theatre production and first broadcast as part of Play for Today (BBC, 1970-84), 'Abigail's Party' (tx. 1/11/1977) is Mike Leigh's best-known television work, and perhaps the most celebrated TV play of the 1970s, as important to Play for Today as Ken Loach's 'Cathy Come Home' (tx. 16/11/1966) was to The Wednesday Play (BBC, 1964-71). Its enduring popularity has seen it staged in countless theatrical productions around the world, including a 2003 revival in London's West End.

The action, presenting an appalling evening of domestic entertaining in suburbia, takes place entirely in a confined living room in the home of Beverly (Alison Steadman) and Laurence (Tim Stern). The party which provides the play's title remains off-screen, initially misleading the audience into thinking that the real action is happening elsewhere.

'Abigail's Party' is morbidly compelling. None of the characters seems to like each other; the relationships between the couples appear to be based on mutual irritation and all seem self-preoccupied. Nor are any of them particularly likeable, which allows a comic mood to prevail even when events darken - Laurence's death, for example, is more farcical than it is tragic.

The play is dominated by Alison Steadman's mesmerising performance as the overbearing hostess Beverly, one of television's most memorable characterisations. Beverly's sing-song delivery of clichéd phrases fails to disguise a truly monstrous individual - she taunts her husband, flirts with Tony (John Salthouse) and manipulates her other guests for her own gain; her forced attempts at hospitality are to be endured rather than enjoyed. Yet Beverly's awfulness is captivating; she is an archetype of the aspiring middle-class matriarch. Defined by a set of attitudes which don't fit together, she hides her lack of identity behind received ideas of taste. Her motivation remains unclear; she easily controls the others but they seem to give her little in return, except to fuel her misplaced sense of power and mastery.

While the play's dialogue, as Alan Bennett has noted, is "instantly real", the performances are determinedly not naturalistic. The play is self-consciously theatrical; from the confined set to the marked sense of audience - the guests both follow the action at Abigail's party and are onlookers to the spectacle provided by their hosts. Nevertheless, the characters, while exaggerated, are immediately recognisable, the social discomfort palpable. It is this instant and lasting sense of connection which ensures the play's continued impact.

MEDIA SKILLS AUDIT

My main strengths in Media are using the internet for many different purposes, working well in a team and I am highly confident in using Microsoft PowerPoint. I am also good at keeping records of my work, manipulating images and texts in Microsoft Publisher, indentifying different camera angles and recognising different types of genres in different narratives.

My main weaknesses are using online blogs, making my own music, I don’t have a high experience in taking digital photographs, I rarely listen to the radio and I rarely read magazines