Television Tab

That's not who I was thinking of, but it prompted me to do a little digging and I found who I meant.


Tony Mason

Ah yes, the CBB 'racism' row, where Jade didn't say anything racist. Not a Beeb show though, but I agree that was probably the when the odd complaint/non story became national news, no, scratch that, obssession.

I wouldn't mind if these people were upset or offended if it wasn't that they are prompted to do so. Much like the Diana hysteria, it starts off with the genuine (whether you agree with or not, at least it's real) but then snowballs into all those looking to be offended or those who have an axe to grind. It ends up being a competition. That's when I have a problem with it. That, and the organised complaints, as with the Springer Opera showing.

Ah yes, Tony Mason! He was a rally co-driver of some repute, I think, and sported a fantastic comb-over.

I dunno where you live but I was actually in London when Diana got buried - we'd arranged to go down and see some friends before it all happened - and I really got my eyes opened to the theory of mass hysteria. Firstly, I've never seen London so quiet - some bars were even shut! Then there was my mate's girlfriend who didn't stop crying the whole time we were there.

Maybe the ex-Mrs T had pinched her hand cream but I'd say she was enveloped in the National Gloom.

One of the few times we were glad to be living in Birmingham, in fact.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Dead Set -

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Have you watched them all in one go, Iro?

Nah, they were playing on local free-to-air station SBS over the past few weeks in original five-part format. The last episode was last night, so yeah. Wasn't a bad show, didn't think it was too great though. Definitely showcased the potential for zombie TV shows.

Caught that a few months ago myself. Not bad, I'd say that's a pretty fair rating.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

I don't know if you know anything about Charlie Brooker (the writer of Dead Set) here's a podcast he did about the programme.



Also, on one of his Screenwipe programmes about budget constraints, he talks about scenes he'd written for Dead Set and how they ended up simply because the production didn't have enough money.

For those who don't know about Charle Brooker, go to youtube, type in charlie brookers screenwipe, go to S1EP1 and enjoy.

As I often do, after mentioning Mr Brooker's brilliant programme, I went and watch some on youtube. As this is the Television Tab, I thought you might like to take a look at the industry.

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*Some of the language used in this might be offensive and it's definately NSFW)

I finished Carnivale this week. It's a fairly complex and odd show. In the end it didn't go where I had hoped. To me it seemed primed to continue. I'd have liked to see where it went next.

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Bleacheddecay

Just watched the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" episode of "Moonlighting".

Do Ho's ho? Do ding's dong?

Charlie Brooker is pure heroic

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I've been working my way through The Shield, and I'm going to start season 2 tonight.

Carnivale getting cancelled really disappointed me because I saw so much potential there. The original plans were for 6+ seasons, or something, which were always optimistic given the eccentric feel of the show but I just loved that dust bowl Depression weirdness.

Beavis and Butt-head

Season 4 - Episode 64: 'Trouble Urinating'
Beavis and Butt-head forget how to urinate.

Season 4 - Episode 81: 'Right On'
Beavis and Butt-head appear on The Gus Baker Show and ruin both the show and Gus's grassroots presidential campaign in the process.

Stephen Fry: The Secret Diary of The Manic Depressive

I'm slowly working my way through the mountain of stuff on my PVR to free up some disk space and came across this yesterday. It's gripping stuff, actually.

I'd never realised that Fry's bipolar disorder was so serious (though small .. erm .. fry compaired to some of the people he interviews), the same with Tony Slattery.

Slattery (who once took the ex-Mrs T out for a meal, uninteresting fact fans!) was a guy who just seemed to disappear from TV in the early 90s. Little did I know that it was the result of his manic depression allied to cocaine and alcohol binges which he took to counteract his mood swings, as did Fry.

It's perhaps just the coincidence of Stephen being attracted to minds as quick and lively as his own but everyone he talks to who is also bipolar seems to be a high-flyer with moments bordering on genius, such as the young woman who wrote a novel at 14, the brilliant student doctor or the ex-Captain of the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Oh yeah, and Richard Dreyfuss. I'd always thought that his very public mania was solely the result of proscribed ... er ... medication.

Fascinating stuff.



Looking forward to the follow-up where Stephen buys and works on a farm full of milking-cows - The Secret Dairy of The .. sorry.

Just finished watching Charlie Brooker's Review of 2009, which I mention (and loved) for the following quotes:

"The noted artist, poet, musician and pallid, sweating cadavar "Pete" Peter Doughty threw his doors open to an intrepid MTV crew..." "This is like a corpse show you around the scene of its own murder."

On Piers Morgan: "He looks like something a police frogman might encounter at the bottom of a haunted lake."

Describing Tourchwood as "A Welsh X-Files", commenting on its subtle homosexual subtext before fading out the voiceover just in time to hear; "Aye, aye gay boy. He says you're taking it up the arse."

And on Captain Harkness: "Harkness is a man of mystery, you can't tell what he's thinking just by looking at his face, no matter how hard John Barrowman tries."

On Total Wipeout: "It's a bit like waterboarding, in as much as it's got water in it and I'm bored."

I know it wasn't something he said, but Peaches Geldolf, trying to sound deep/intelligent, talking about the Hadron Collider: "It's, like, this thing in Texas or somewhere, where they're trying to create a black hole in space."

The "Come on, come on!" bit over the verdict scene in the Gary Glitter bit.

His fun system for remembering which is Ant and which is Dec: "Ant is the one I'd want to deck... After I'd decked Dec, of course."

On Paul McCartney's appearance and performance of Baby You Can Drive My Car on The X Factor. Over the sound something akin to a metalic whine: "And, in case you're wondering what that sound is, it's John Lennon spinning in his grave at 1,000 rpm."

Can't wait for Newswipe to start.

I'm very much missing an adult-oriented cartoon called 12 oz. Mouse.



Sick, twisted...it was the perfect complement to another freaky toon favorite of mine:



(Youtube blocks these where I live.)

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"The dog is the god of frolic." ~ Beecher

"Exit, pursued by a bear." ~

For those of us on this side of the Atlantic, Christmas telly? What did you think?

Highlights for me were the last episode of Gavin & Stacey which, in an all too rare occurance, was one of the best episodes out of the entire three series' and showed just about all the reasons I love the programme. Unfortunately, they did use "Suddenly" for the wedding music, which has completely put the kibosh on my friend using it at her wedding later this year. She's now threatening to use "Especially For You" but I'm going to have a word with her, as that's just not good enough.

A sparse Christmas line up (for me) was also helped by the, long awaited, return to form of Top Gear. IMO, the Bolivia Special was up there with the best Top Gear has produced. Not quite the Zimbabwe or Polar trips (IMO) but the best thing since the Vietnam special and a lot better than anything they've done this year.

As someone who loves stand-up comedy, it's been great to have a few episodes of Live At The Apollo to enjoy. As well as showings of Dara O'Briain and Sean Lock doing their thing. Even the Russell Howard live show was quite good.

I usually watch the Christmas special of The Good Life at this time of year, but it was nice not to have to dig out the episode this year.

Nice to see all the previous episodes of The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year too. This years was ok. Not the best, but they can't all be the best.

Does anyone know if the Christmas Outnumbered was a one off or is there another series coming up? That's probably the funniest and best written comedy we have atm.

Now, for those programmes that let me down or, in the case of one of them, I was just unfortunate enough to suffer.

The Christmas edition of QI, and it pains me to say this, was pretty poor stuff. I'm sure there were plenty of people who loved it, but the "Graham Osmand in the loft" bit went on for way too long for me. I was left bored, cringing and just waiting for it to be over. A bit like a trip to the dentist. For me, there was far too much of that sort of thing and not enough entertainment or infomation. There again, I wasn't exactly inspired by the line-up. David Tennant (who at least has the excuse of not being a comedian), Bill Bailey and Lee Mack. Throw in Alan Davies (obviously) and the fact it was a special and I suppose that it was too much to ask for a good episode.

I'm not a fan of Victoria Wood for two reasons. One, I have a penis and, two, I don't depend on her to give me work, so usually I wouldn't have even seen this. However, I spent Christmas Eve with a good friend of mine and she is a fan (not having a penis and all) and asked if I wouldn't mind. It was too early to leave and, let's face it, it was only an hour. Or so I thought. What I didn't know was that Victoria Wood has discovered how to manipulate time, thus she was able to fit a three hour programme in the one hour slot. I think that someone should tell Stephen Hawking. I'm sure he'd be interested in how she's able to do this.

I'm old fashioned. I'm an child of the 80's and, therefore, Christmas tv isn't really Christmas tv without World's Stongest Man. However, unless it can find its way back onto BBC (please God) or even Five again, I think it may be just about done here. Bravo have done a horrible job. Now, I do realise that, if I didn't have satellite I wouldn't even be able to see it, so I do thank them for that, but really. If you're not going to do it properly then leave it for someone who will. I'd even pay a month's subscription to ESPN to get it over Christmas done properly.

I like the Three Men... programmes. Each one has given diminishing returns, as far as I'm concerned, but I accept that and go along with it. However, Three Men Go To Ireland was just poor. Really, really poor. For me, the whole point is that they're on a boat. On a boat annoying each other and being snippy about nothing and teasing each other. Along with that, you get the usual travel info and pretty scenery. It's nice, but not boring. For some reason, I even like that I they annoy me from time to time (especially Rory) but this was so sedate, mindful of not offending. Even the prospect of teasing was almost too much for the programme to take. If you're going to do the 'boys being naughty' type of thing, ala Top Gear, then you've got to let them actually risk offending.

I can remember a friend telling me, years ago, that the reason I didn't appreciate Victoria Wood was because I wasn't from West Lancs. Make of that what you will...

Didn't think that Top Gear special was that great, actually, and easily the worst of their Adventures. The main problem for me was the editing - It was pretty obvious that they'd cut out a huge amount. Listening to the director's commentaries on a couple of the previous Specials I realise that the crew have 100s of hours to fashion down into a 60 minute show but none of them were as stilted and obvious as this. That said, the high altitude stuff was great and May's increasing frustration at being crashed into by Hammond at every stop was timely. "It wasn't funny three series ago."

I saw only a few minutes of Two Smug Oxbridge Graduates and a Tall Paddy Patronise Folk. The combination of Griff Rhys Jones and turkey leftovers doesn't sit well with me.

To be honest, the only things that I enjoyed about this year's Christmas schedule were the repeats of Great Railway Journeys on BBC2 in the mornings.

Yeah, I know - Scrooge McDuck.

Lately I've been alternating between every series of Blackadder (but mainly the first and most medieval series) and the contents of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 set I picked up the other day. Either way, good stuff.

I still haven't gotten around to cracking open The Wire, though.

There may be something to that. There was one joke in particular that only worked because of the accent. I even said at the time, if that'd been a 70's comedian making the same joke because of the way a Chinese or Indian person spoke the Guardian readers would be flooding the BBC with complaints.

As for Top Gear, I must say that I was despondent after the first 10-15 minutes when they were still on the barge/raft and was desperately hoping that it'd pick up. Fortunately, for me anyway, it did.