[rant] Just watched an advert for the NHS’s latest “Stop Smoking” campaign.  All very noble of course, but I it really wound me up.  The gist of the 30-second ad (do we call them “infomercials” now?) was basically to answer the question, “What are the real reasons for you to give up smoking”?  The answer to which was a sequence of 5 or 6 talking heads pieces from members of the public (or actors) talking to camera saying “I want to walk my daughter down the aisle”, “I want to see our grandchildren grow up”, “I want to see my son graduate”.  i.e. the only reasons worth living for

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: advert, NHS, smoking

Andrew Marr Oversees Our Modern History

I am not a frequent watcher of history programming, in fact, I struggle to recall the last time I sat down to watch any factual history programme. So, it was just a coincidence that I sat down on Monday evening and, while flicking through the EPG, I saw that Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain was about to start on BBC2. I can safely say I learned more about the history of Britain from watching this than I have from any other source. This first of five parts took us on an intriguing

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Andrew-Marr, bbc2, Britain, Churchill, Clement-Attlee, Factual, History, NHS, William-Beveridge, World-War-Two

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

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bbc2, Documentary, Factual, Gerry-Robinson, Hospital, NHS, Rotherham