Living On The Edge
“I’ve got 10,000 horse power and possibly the biggest accident you’ve ever seen in your life” - Richard Hammond, a few minutes before the biggest accident I’ve ever seen in my life.
It is quite something to have a show about cars watched by 100 million people worldwide, but that is what the BBC have on their hands in Top Gear. It is also quite something to have a show about cars that goes up in the schedules against
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Stating The Bleedin’ Obvious
Can Gerry Robinson Fix The NHS? On the basis of this show, somebody can, surely. This fantastic documentary shown on three consecutive nights last week posed some excellent questions to the powers-that-be, to the extent that the show itself made the news. Now, I have to confess (and viewers of my TV Viewing diary will know already) that I have only watched episode “1″ so far, but “2″ and “3″ are on the Sky Planner and waiting for a suitable evening and a stiff drink for
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Suzi and Jason Give The Lowdown
The rather lovely Gadget Show drew to a close this week with a Christmas Special that highlighted the must-have gifts for the affluent this Christmas. I have to confess that I almost always end up wanting most of things they review on this programme, despite not having any inkling of my desires prior to seeing the lovely, shiny technology presented to me. It might be the personalities and enthisiasm of the presenters that causes my gadget radar to spring into life in this way.
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Join Me, Yes Man…. Horizon?
Horizon has been a staple of the BBC2 diet for many years, popping up every series with a sombre and sincere, while at the same time, engaging series of documentaries on contemporary science-related topics. However, for the first time ever the show has been given its very own presenter in the form of ex-Dave-Gorman-sidekick turned self-made, comedy writer/ presenter, Danny Wallace. If you have been fortunate enough to read either of Danny’s books, “Join Me” or “Yes Man” you
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Stephen Fry And Sister Discuss His Condition
It takes some quite remarkable courage to not only delve deep into your own personality and history, and then cast a critical eye over how an ailment like manic depression has affected you, but to undergo this soul-searching in front of a camera and give the populace that insight too is quite some feat. I had little to no knowledge of bipolar dissorder before this two-part Stephen Fry documentary, The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive, aired a few weeks ago but I felt that I
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Follow The Leader
The conference season is well and truly upon us. The LibDems passed us by with a barely footnote on the news last week but over the last few days I did manage to catch a bit of the Labour party get together in Manchester. Now, say what you like about Tony Blair, and I’m sure you will, but he can give a bloody good speech when he wants to, and the juxtaposition of his final talk to conference as PM, next to Gordon Brown (the previous day) giving his last speech to conference as Chancellor must’ve left the assembled masses wondering just what they’d done by forcing Mr Blair out. Admittedly the Brown speech was somewhat overshadowed by Cherie’s “Liar” jibe, which must count as the best example of “pot” and “kettle” arguing over “blackness” that I’ve read about for ages. I was hoping for some shocking denoument to the PM’s speech, some kind of “…and so I quit!” message to drive the assembled media off to their collective laptops to ccompletly rewrite the next day’s headlines and give the party (un)faithful a parting shot worthy of a footnote in history, but instead, the beautifully paced valediction ended with a wierd sense of uncertainty.
The thing that gets to me about all this is the fact that it’s tucked away on the daytime schedules with barely anyone watching. This stuff is important and would be beneficial for it to be seen by more of the populace, but instead we find prime-time occupied by the soaps and celebrity wife swap, and what news coverage there is gets distilled down to a few soundbites and the comments of those who should know better. There’s an epidemic of voter apathy and a young population who don’t care about these real issues and policies, so why don’t we get regular State of the Nation addresses, and candidate debates shown where and when everyone can see them and particpate? Television sets must sit in 99% of this county’s homes, why do they hardly ever get used sensibly to fulfill the “educate” and “inform” parts of its manifesto? It’s the Tory’s up and, with them ahead in the polls, it will be interesting to see if you can spot the difference.
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Kevin wishes the weekend would hurry up and get here already.
Prepping for a system upgrade. Wish me luck!
This feels way too late for a school night
Kevin Pietersen quits as England captain. Madness!!! http://tinyurl.com/96v2yv
Kevin is wondering what the hell is happening at the ECB.
It was looking bleak at half-time 0-1 but 20 minutes later we're 4-1 up. Funny old game.
I've finally spent some money in the sales... Recession, what recession?
Kevin has undecked the halls.
Matt Smith is Who. Matt Smith is Who ..... erm... Who is Matt Smith? http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1741002/
I'm more excited than a 38 year-old should be about the announcement of the new Doctor Who tomorrow, BBC1, 5:35pm. Be there. Or be elsewhere
Starbucks again... Their cinnamon swirl is a culinary marvel.
Wondering how to spend the final hours of 2008
