The Knowledge
Repeated on BBC4 as part of “Cab Night” and now nearly 30 years old ; I saw this when it was first shown on Thames in 1979. Everyone did. I think it appealed at the time because it played to my nerdy 13 year old fantasies of having to learn over 15,000 streets and thousands [...]
Newsnight Scotland 08/05/08
For the most forensic coverage of the political story of the week then iPlayer (as does Sky) gives English/Welsh viewers nightly access to the excellent Newsnight Scotland. Presented by the under-rated Gordon Brewer (surely a down south promotion is due) this episode has lots of shots in Holyrood of a very glum Wendy Alexander and [...]
Briefings - David Attenborough
Probably as out of step these days as you could be and with several BBC Directors looking on in the front row this is a sober and welcome reminder of Reithian/Carleton Green values from the BBC’s longest serving employee (1952 and counting)
This lecture from David Attenborough and commissioned by the BBC as part of Ofcom’s [...]
The Slammer, Episode 1
Britains Got Talent meets Pheonix Nights. Second series of BAFTA winning CBBC variety/comedy programme set inside a “mock” prison starring John Thompson and Ted Robbins. Ventriloquists, acrobats, illusionists with ridiculous names that make the kids gasp and a lot of jokes about Peter Andre and Shayne Ward. Should be in prime time.
Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me
Rather like Morecambe and Wise (after their first BBC series) and Bruce Forsyth (before he got the Generation Game gig in 1971) its hard to imagine Frankie Howerd as ever being on his showbiz uppers. In the early sixties though, despairing of his closet homosexuality and lack of work he was thinking of packing it [...]
The Curse of Steptoe
Taking its cue from the 2002 C4 documentary; When Steptoe met Son and buying completely into the notion that Brambell and Corbett were as trapped/typecast and tragic on screen as off, this BBC4 biopic was a great hour of misery. Corbett never ever managing to fulfill his promising pre steptoe career as a talented stage [...]
Gavin and Stacey - Season 2, Episode 1
Well this is effectively a modern “Bob and Thelma” following the same classic UK sitcom wedding arc. Smiffy and Gavin (and Bryn) explore male friendship just as effectively as Bob and Terry. James Corden and Ruth Jones get all the best lines, probably because they wrote them. However, jokes about badminton lessons, the Elm Lodge [...]
Budget 2008: Statement by the Chancellor
Its hardly Alistair Cooke or AJP Taylor but the rarity of a full 5 minutes of prime time TV being filled with a middle aged man simply talking straight to camera with *nothing* else, had me reeling slightly. There’s a strange graphic of the red box opening and closing this annual tradition but the simplicity [...]
This Week
Only mentioned because in some crazed tribute to Modern Review; the guest list for this weeks show is Jade Goody, Martin Amis and Simon Mayo. Goody, who does a fair stab at holding her own with Andrew Neil, is trying to convince us that binge drinking is very very bad. Amis, for some reason is [...]
The Cult of The Onedin Line
Its hard to believe they are the same man; those two images of the late Peter Gilmore as either the cheeky young hospital portal eying up Nurse Barbara Windsor in the Carry On Films but also as Captain James Onedin SHOUTING his way through the seventies. THAT theme tune (Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian) was [...]
