Joanna Kanska Movies
- 1991
This four-part British miniseries took place just after the fall of the Soviet Union. Going through Kremlin files, a team of Soviet bureaucrats discover that two KGB "sleepers," or secret agents, were assigned to England 20 years before, and had been there ever since. One of the sleepers was a shop steward in the North, the other an urban professional in London, and neither man had any desire to return to Moscow. The Kremlin dispatched an attractive female agent to retrieve the renegade duo, thereby setting the stage for a maddening procession of double-crosses, multi-pronged conspiracies, and other assorted mayhem perpetrated by both the "good" and the "bad" guys. As much a comedy as a thriller, Sleepers was broadcast over BBC2 in 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nigel Havers, Warren Clarke, (more)
Dexter King (Jeff Goldblum) is an actor who spends his nights on-stage in London's West End as a comedic punching bag for obnoxiously self-centered comedian Ron Anderson (Rowan Atkinson). He gets hit in the head with hammers, he trips, and he stands by dumbly as Anderson gets all the laughs. His home life is little different. His roommate, Carmen (Geraldine James), is a nymphomaniac, so he's always surprised by naked men parading through the kitchen in the morning. A chance meeting with lovely nurse Kate Lemon (Emma Thompson) and a tryout for the lead in a new Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish musical based on The Elephant Man (called, not surprisingly, "Elephant!") jolt Dexter from his torpor. Not that it makes him much less of a loser, which is the quality the show's producers are looking for. "You're a victim," they tell him. His attempts to seduce Kate are equally jarring. She asks him if he is a big believer in having sex on the first date. "Why, no," he tells her, trying to impress her with his sensitivity. Too bad, she replies -- she doesn't believe in getting serious with someone if they're sexually incompatible. Romance and showbiz go on, with the show a hit, though Dexter's romance hits a temporary snag: his backstage romance with a co-star (Kim Thomson) gets found out. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson, (more)
- 1986
Halfway between a sitcom and a dramedy, the British series A Very Peculiar Practice was the story of idealistic, newly divorced young doctor Stephen Decker (Peter Davison). Accepting a position with the Student Health Service of Lowlands University, Stephen tried to do his job to the best of his ability, and to pursue romance with a variety of toothsome young ladies, among them student-policewoman Lyn Turtle (Amanda Hillwood) and fellow doctor Greta Growtowska (Joanna Kanska). Unfortunately, Stephen was surrounded by eccentric, backbiting, and downright incompetent co-workers, including nutty vice-chancellor Ernest Hemingway (John Bird), hypersensitive lesbian Dr. Rose Marie (Barbara Flynn), vainglorious Dr. Bob Buzzard (David Troughton), and chronic drunkand Dr. Jock McCannon (Graham Crowden). An endless succession of bizarre events and surreal running gags paraded through the halls of Lowlands, especially after the college was taken over by corporate-invading American Jack B. Daniels (Michael J. Shannon). Debuting May 21, 1986, A Very Peculiar Practice ran for 14 50-minute episodes, the last of which aired on April 6, 1988. A 90-minute spin-off, A Very Polish Practice, was seen on September 6, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Davison, Graham Crowden, (more)
