Fazzinchi

Gary and Alan Preside.

The early evening TV schedules are packed to bursting with football at the moment.  Not surprising given that the biennial soccer festival that is either the World Cup or, in this case, the Euro Championships are here.  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that none of the home nations have qualified and, unlike the last time such a thing occurred, we can’t even pretend to Irish to give us a team to follow.  So, we (more…)

Remember When England Could Win Matches?

When Mladen Petric fired home Croatia’s winner and broke the hearts of every England fan on Wednesday night, I was reminded of an old sketch from the Mary Whitehouse Experience… [adopting a John Motson-style voice] “D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R-F-O-R-E-N-G-L-A-N-D…. and that could spell disaster for England!”. On a global scale, when watching news footage from cyclone-hit Bangladesh or the unfolding political tensions in Pakistan or the quashing of freedom in Burma, it’s easy to argue about the fact that this was, after all, only a football match. (more…)

Another View

The recent England football internationals gave me another excuse, as if one were needed, to head down to the local pub for an afternoon of beer and shouting at the television.  There was a noticable lack of interest in the match against Israel as proved by the usual masses of fans, draped in St George’s Crosses and replica kits, being largely absent (”part-time supporters”, what would you do with ‘em, eh?).  Despite that, the on pitch performance was pretty good.  Steve McLaren (more…)

Broad Shoulders

Way back in the dark ages, over two years ago if you’re counting, the very first post on Fazzinchi.co.uk was not about Doctor Who, sci-fi, or the latest American import show. It was, in fact, about cricket. My sports-related blogging has been somewhat lacking of late but what better time to resurrect the past-time? The big sporting question of the weekend is choosing what to watch at 5pm on Saturday afternoon. On ITV, the English rugby team are begining the defence of their (more…)

274 Years To Go

Week 34 presented me with an opportunity to watch a new installment of an old favourite of mine as I dusted off the copy of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales that I had brought back with me from my recent (and much mentioned) holiday to the States. My expectations were low (a straight to DVD movie, years after the original series had finished, did not bode well) but, you’ll be pleased to hear, expectations were exceeded… but only just. A full review will follow soon. The rest of the week (more…)

Smithster and Gavster

Week 20, and I must confess that it is proving quite a challenge to keep my viewing diary up-to-date. You may have noticed, faithful reader, that I am not here every day to update the lists of the shows that I’ve been watching. It is a fact that I shall attempt to rectify since it’s not like I’m ever away from a computer but it’s a fact nonetheless. So, when it comes to trying to recall the programmes that I have been watching over the last four or five days I find myself (more…)