Christmas Review #7 of 12
This past New Year celebration was one of those events where the best laid plans just didn’t come to fruition. We were planning on heading out to a local drinking establishment for an evening of posh frocks, tuxedos and too much bubbly but the excesses of the previous weeks and a fairly horrendous weather forecast led us to a last minute change of heart. The Other Viewer and I battoned down the hatches, cracked open a few bottles of vino and had a night in front of the box. Very nice it was too, if a little antisocial.
Next year I swear we are going to see the first edition of “The Greatest 50 TV Shows That Feature Lists Of The Greatest 50 Things”… it’ll be a sure-fire hit. Is there a term for these infuriating concoctions: “Listeria TV”? They’re easy to criticise, of course: requiring little money and less effort. Send half the dogs-boddies to run off to the vault and dust down some old clips while the other half get to interview some vaguely well-known people for the “talking heads” shots. The office IT geek can edit it together on his Mac and Bob’s-Your-Uncle, 3-and-a-half hours of primetime TV. They do serve a purpose at this time of year though, and let us wallow for a while in nostalgia. The best example I’ve seen lately, which led to many “They don’t make ‘em like that any more” comments, was the 40 Greatest Only Fools and Horses Moments (I’m sure they could have found 50 if they’d tried a little harder!).
Anyway, as the midnight hour drew closer we switched over to watch the 14th (and our 1st) installment of Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. What a great show it was too, with a multitude of musical guests performing and an array of stars sat around in a relaxed club atmosphere it was the perfect way to see out the year. A highlights for me were Seasick Steve and his three string guitar, The Kooks with their infectious “She Moves In Her Own Way” and Adrian Edmondson’s rather marvellous, big band rendition of “Anarchy In The UK”. There may have been staying-in-guilt but I’m definately going to record the Hootenanny next year if not see in the New Year to it.
Tags: Adrian-Edmondson, bbc2, General, Hootenanny, Jools-Holland, Later-with, New-Year, Only-Fools-And-Horses, Seasick-Steve, The-Kooks
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