TV dreaming

I have bemoaned the death of local radio in the UK on this blog, but years ago we also used to have distinct ITV regions. They were proud to produce proper local programming (not just localish news) and some of the local idents became as memorable as any programme that followed them.  The businesses produced better quality television because there was competition.  We have lost all of that now. Nowadays, ITV programming is dumbed down for the masses and gone are the quality dramas and documentaries, with only a couple of exceptions.  Now, they just try and copy the BBC and usually fail.  If you took the the time of the viewing into account, you somehow you had a good idea of what you were going to see just by seeing the ITV logo and (in most cases) animation and few seconds of music.

        
ATV (which became Central) meant Crossroads was about start. TVS in the evenings indicated some good entertainment show. Tyne Tees would be some low budget rubbish and Border TV had only one programme I remember... Mr and Mrs. The weird music of HTV West usually led to some strange programme about farmers.
      

          
Before our local transmitter was changed in 1981, we received ITV from London.  The weekdays were Thames TV (with that awful logo and ident that people around the world associate with Benny Hill) and then, at 5.15 on a Friday evening LWT took over... the weekend started here!  I get a good feeling when I think back to those days... all based on a TV station logo.

          

             And when TVS came along in the early 80's, they acted like a big company despite not being one of the 'Big 5'. They worked hard to build a TV community in the south and made some great local and national programmes. So here is their ident...
          

The Smoking Room

I have managed to injure my leg yet again and have had an enforced break from running (well jogging) for the past 10 days.  To try and maintain some level of fitness, I have been spending the odd hour in the gym (the room I built at the end of the garage).

As I loath sitting on the exercise bike, I have to do something to pass the time and have been re-watching one of the best ever comedy series - The Smoking Room.

Set in a North London office, a few years ago when smoking was allowed indoors, it features 10 main characters who come in and out of the room. It is brilliantly written and it's such a shame that the writer, Brian Dooley hasn't written more comedy - the man is a genius.
  
If you see the DVD, which is bound to be cheap, buy it and enjoy!  Here's a clip where Robin comes out... after years of being in the closet:
  

The snuggie

I have to admit that I like watching infomercials.  Having come out and said it, I feel so much better now. I have never bought anything, from the Power Juicer to Super-dooper-stain removers, but I think that the adverts so bad that they are good.

Most I don't watch all the way through and one that is showing on UK television is so painful that I can only last a minute or so. It's really embarrassing, especially the bit at the one minute mark with the family around the camp fire and watching some sport game.  You can imagine the snuggie lasting around 1 second if it catches fire and the people around them at the game thinking "who are these ****ing weirdos?!?"

There is a great clip here, showing how relationships can suffer when women own a snuggie...

Tomorrow people

When I was very young, there was a children's programme on ITV called The Tomorrow People.  The start used to scare me - particularly the hand (at 21 seconds).  Considering we are talking 35+ years ago (oh God!), I can still remember it perfectly and was thinking about it the other day.  *shudder*

Bedlam

Pete and I watched the first episode of Bedlam last night on Sky Living.  It stars the multi-talented Will Young (sexually unsure nerd) and a fit looking Theo James (can see ghosts) who looks great with short hair.  It's a horror series about an ex-mental asylum with twenty-somethings.

It seems that the series will show Theo James shirtless as much as possible.  It works for me!

You may find it interesting to note that the word bedlam, meaning uproar and confusion, is derived from Bethlam Royal Hospital in southeast London.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The good:

I read this weekend that audiences are applauding at the end of The King's Speech in cinemas.  I've not seen the film yet, but I hear it's good.  Who would have thought that a movie about an over privileged stammerer who have such an effect.  I have only ever been to one film where the appreciative audience clapped at the end - that was in a small cinema in the Barbican Centre for The Simpsons Movie.  A deserved reaction I think.

The bad:

Bad guys are everywhere in a new series on a new channel - Boardwalk Empire on Sky Atlantic.  The first episode was directed by Martin Scorsese and was the most expensive pilot produced for television. I have seen two episodes and it looks good so far, but all programmes like this will be compared to The Sopranos which was brilliant. Sky have launched this channel based on HBO programming and it seems pretty slick so far.  The next season of Madmen will be on Sky Atlantic instead of BBC4, which is a shame as adverts just don't suit some programmes.

And the ugly:

Pete noticed today that Enrique Iglesias has released a new song and it is was on the front page of iTunes.  I own nothing by him, so why would I comment?  Well, the song I saw is called "Tonight I'm f***ing you".  We played a clip and you hear the line "Tonight I'm fucking you".  I find this pathetic. Enrique must have an ego that is out of control to want to do this.  Everybody uses the F word - that's not the issue here. The song is distasteful on so many levels - the swear word was obviously crowbarred into the song for publicity and it sounds like "I don't give a damn about you, tonight I am getting a shag" - just read the lyrics.  I assume there could be some Rohypnol involved so he can get his end away? Enrique should be ashamed of himself.  The radio version is called "Tonight I'm loving you" and the lyrics make far more sense that way.

Offside?! You sexist fools

In the news here in the UK, there is plenty of coverage about two football presenters on Sky Sports who have been reprimanded for making comments about a female assistant referee. The sexist views of Richard Keys (resigned) and Andy Gray (sacked) were caught off-air but were sufficiently offensive to upset the lady in question and most of the nation.  

I personally don't think that some playful sarcasm was the problem, it was more to do with their view that a female assistant referee wasn't up to the job.  They should be ashamed of themselves.

The idiots have been mentioned widely on the net and here are some of the funniest tweets (and I appreciate that some are sexist, but are mainly taking the mickey out of the presenters)...

Breaking News: Mel Gibson and Ron Atkinson to replace Andy Gray and Richard Keys for Chelsea v Bolton game tonight.

Keys and Gray suspended for tonight's game. How ironic that they should be suspended for spouting inane, cliched, ill-informed nonsense.

I heard a female Assistant Referee is going to explain the Equality Act to Andy Gray and Richard keys using condiments on the kitchen table.

Disappointed in Richard Keys and Andy Gray. In this day and age women in football should be given more respect, especially the attractive ones.

Richard Keys and Andy Gray suspended by Sky - will be spending tonight explaining the "caught offmic" rule to their wives.

Oh the irony of Richard Keys and Andy Gray getting done by The Mail on Sunday for moaning about political correctness gone mad.

Andy Gray and Richard Keys. Coming soon to Thursday night, Channel 5.

Who's standing in for keys and gray? Lots of choice at sky. There's him him him him him him him him him him and him. And claire tomlinson.

Now available to download: a new game in which Richard Keys and Andy Gray fend off furious women. It's called Angry Birds.

Bigotry: Noun. The tree Richard Keys and Andy Gray climbed down from.

Misfits

I have just finished watching the second series of Misfits on E4.  It's a brilliant programme that certainly crosses the line of decency quite a bit in terms of language, violence and sexual content.  Having considered this, I figure that this programme probably wouldn't have been made a decade ago - it would have been far too shocking.

I will really miss some of Nathan's lines, especially one from the last programme:

"When I lived in Ireland, if the priests weren't fiddling with you - you were one of the ugly kids"

As a tribute to the guys in the programme, here are some pictures...

Don't you want me?

Thanks to everyone who took part in 5 on the fifth at the weekend.  As always, there were some great pictures shared around the world.

On Sunday night, Pete and I went to St Albans to see the Human League.  Pete had been given free tickets, so we went to see some friends before driving through the freezing fog to the "arena".

If you havn't been to St Albans, I recommend it. I have been many times. It has some ancient buildings, including the Abbey and Roman ruins.  It also has some extremely old pubs - we visited one. It was a spooky night walking through the deserted streets in the fog.

Anyway... the gig was filled with 40 and 50 year olds.  The band came on at 9.15 and played loads of hits.  They looked great for their age, but Phil Oakey now has a shaved head rather than the crazy haircuts he once had and wore more makeup than the girls.  My only criticism is that the show was only 75 minutes long (compare that with Fleetwood Mac who played for well over 2 hours).

Over on Andrew's blog, he sometimes posts about iconic images (and what a wonderful idea it is).  Well, I am not out to copy Andrew, but I saw an image at the back of the stage last night that jumped out at me.  It reminded me of the happy days of my childhood.  Isn't it amazing that a few lines and colours can evoke an instant flow of memories.  For those living in the UK and above a certain age, you will know what this is...

Day 18 - A favourite television programme

This posting is part of the 30 day challenge...

I have a number of favourite TV programmes and would happily include many classic British comedies and series. I would have to choose The Simpsons in my top 3 I'm sure, but I have selected another American series to show 'excellence'... Frasier.

Frasier divides people, I believe because it has very strong characters that may not appeal to all. I have seen every episode from day one, multiple times and often watch a few episodes each week on Comedy Central.  American comedy can often by highly formulaic and cliched with a requirement to teach the audience something. Frasier broke that mould and didn't shy away from making highbrow jokes and also took some risks with storylines and even the script.  The are many occasions when Daphne uses very 'English' language and jokes.  What American viewer would have laughed when she commented on Bobby Charlton's hair?

It has some killer situations and lines, here are a few classics:

Daphne: Roz, is everything all right?
Roz: Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that my hair is huge and this dress is a joke.
Frasier: No, nonsense, Roz. You look divine.
Roz: No, I look like Divine.

Frasier: How can we possibly use sex to get what we want? Sex *is* what we want!

Niles: Her lips said 'no'... but her eyes said 'read my lips'

Frasier: You know the expression "Living well is the best revenge"?
Niles: Wonderful expression. I just don't know how true it is, you don't see it turning up in a lot of opera plots. "Ludwig, maddened by the poisoning of his entire family, wreaked vengeance on Gunther in the third act by living well."

- Niles is aghast at having to play Martin's 'boyfriend'
Niles: They think the best I can do is an old man with a cane!

Any finally, for those who may have wondered what a plan of Frasier's apartment looks like, wonder no more...

One swallow

Pete and I rarely watch ITV. It's dumb-down television and there is little worth watching it seems. However, Pete suggested that we watch a drama called Downton Abbey a few nights ago.

Despite being written by a great writer and actor Julian Fellowes, the story was rather obvious and laboured to me.  It's yet another drama based on the times when the 'big houses' had layers of servants and the upper class acted like they were far superior to those that cleaned for them.

So we were wondering why we were watching the programme when out of nowhere came a gay scene. A cute servant, played by the cute Rob James-Collier and the Duke played by sweet Charlie Cox (from the excellent Stardust) kissed passionately.  What a pleasant surprise!

The best part was when the Duke was trying to say that the time they spent together was just a fling, with the line "one swallow doesn’t make a summer".  Very tongue in cheek I think. 

But in true ITV fashion, the scene moved on too fast and within a minute there was blackmail and the two hated each other!  I will keep an eye out to see whether there is some more boy on boy action in future episodes.

By the way, Pete and I saw Charlie Cox in a Pinter play a while back - he's a great actor.

Him & Her

We watched the new comedy from BBC3 called ‘Him and Her’ the other night (recorded on the Sky Player) and we managed a whole 7 minutes before switching it off.

It had started well but when a comedy resorts to severe toilet ‘humour’ so early to get a laugh, you know it’s going to struggle. Toilet humour appears to be used when the writer doesn’t know where to go. It is lazy writing.

I was disappointed to witness an actress on the toilet, complete with sound effects. I feel sorry that she was expected to do that and cant quite believe that a comedy writer and production team thought that it was acceptable on television, let alone funny.  I like comedy and I like shocking comedy that surprises me. The opening scene of ‘Him & Her’ however, was amateurish and a complete turn off.

I pity Russell Tovey for getting involved as he is a great actor.  BBC comedy can be outstanding, this one wasn't for me.

Let me end by saying that I'm not one of those stupid idiotic moaners that say that "the BBC is wasting my licence fee and I wont pay it blah blah blah".  The BBC excels at producing top end TV and radio and you cant like everything that they do... no-one can.

Homer rules

Clearing out some photos I found this image.  Although Bart is seen as the main character in The Simpsons, we all know that it's Homer that is the best character on television.

Classic artwork that was my screensaver for a while...

Don't forget that the next "5 on the fifth" is a few days away. Just take 5 random pictures of something that happens to you on the 5th of September (or the days leading up to it) or perhaps go for my suggested theme. This month, the theme is The Blues.

You can join the 5 on the fifth Facebook page here.

Gay Corrie

Years ago I used to watch the Soaps, but for a decade or more I've had no interest.  I watch Eastenders perhaps twice a year and never see the awful Hollyoaks (where the kids seem to have lots of money but will die before they leave college).  The longest running of the Soaps is Coronation Street of course - the little street where everyone goes to the pub for lunch every day and every evening and then complain that they have no money.

It was the last of the Soaps to introduce a gay character and the odd time I've seen him, I have cringed at how embarrassing the character is and been annoyed at how little thought the Coronation Street producers have invested into a quality gay storyline.

Actor Anthony Cotton plays Sean Tully and it surprised me that a gay man playing a gay man is happy to act the part of the worst stereotype I've seen on TV.  It seems that the writers referred to the TV from the 1970's for their inspiration.

The character is overtly camp, which helps to make him a letter less threatening for the viewing public I suppose.  He rarely makes a comment about men or gay lifestyle, you don't see a serious long term relationship develop (like others on The Street), by far the majority of his friends are women and he works on a sewing machine in a clothing factory!  The writers of Soaps are often a little lazy with storylines, but at least you can appreciate the care they take when building a character.  In this case, I see nothing but corner cutting and the need to use stereotypes to avoid having to do some serious thinking.  It's strange, because the Todd gay storyline from a few years back was imaginative and had real drama... without the camp overtones.

There are gay men around who are camp, but none who seem to exhibit all of the worst stereotypes the Corrie individual has.  This situation does nothing to help people see gay men and women as just everyday people.

Even gay Eastenders actor John Partridge has said that he doesn't want to come across as a stereotype and although there will be aspects of that I'm sure, it's refreshing to hear his opinion.
 
I miss the shock and eventual admiration that Queer Of Folk invoked all those years ago.  Maybe I'm just showing my age now.  Having said all this, John Inman in All You Being Served was so over the top, that it was funny!

Here endith Lost (no spoilers)

Lost has ended after 6 years and I am still trying to get my head around the ending. It was no surprise that it will take another viewing! A few questions were answered, but don't expect everything to make sense at the end.

For the first time I can recall, the finale was shown at exactly the same time as the US airing. Though I was not going to start viewing at 5am as I had to leave the house for work at about 6am (a rarity in itself), so we recorded it on the Sky box and watched last night. There were a couple of technical problems at first, but they were soon sorted.

I heard the news recently that Flashforward has been cancelled, so we cant just transfer to that weird TV programme.

Today is the day we finish packing and head off to the first hotel of the holiday. We are staying near Heathrow and fly out tomorrow morning. I do have to work today, but also have to clean the house in readiness for the house-sitter, despite secretly hoping that they would clean for us!

Compare the adverts

Remember I had a rant recently about a couple of rubbish adverts on TV? Well, I thought I would balance it up with a couple of adverts for competing companies that I think are cleverly memorable. I appreciate that some people may not like the adverts as they can be annoying, but I defy you not to remember the companies after seeing them.

The first is for "Go Compare", the insurance and things comparison site. The Opera singer (who is actually a real Opera singer) singing Go Compare to the tune of Over There gets in your head.



The second is "Compare The Market", another comparison website. It features Aleksandr Orlov the Meerkat complaining that people are visiting his "Compare the Meerkat" site by mistake. Compare the Meerkat has entered the English vocabulary and I've heard people say, "I am going to the supermeerkat" and "simples", Aleksandr's sort-of-catchphrase. They even have some outtakes here!



Both ad's are using humour very well to achieve their aim. This is proven to work well in the UK as opposed of being sold to. Just look at the most memorable adverts and many will be either humourous or epic (like the Guinness ones).

Glee

Am I the only gay man in the world who doesn't like Glee?

Am I the only gay man that thinks it should appeal only to 13 year old girls?

Am I the only gay man who feels the "music" is poor and extremely twee?

Am I the only gay man that sees the characters are 2D stereotypes?

Am I the only gay man who questions why the footballing jock has a tattoo aged 16 and looks 26?
- well at least he (Cory Monteith) is sexy.

Am I the only gay man that finds it a bit embarrasing to watch?

Obviously I am!

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Still posting everyday this month!

Pete and I watched Slumdog Millionaire last week on DVD and this clip is inspired by that film. Without wanting to spoil it, I cant decide whether I like this guy or not! The clip is from the US version of Who wants to be a millionaire...

The final Lost series

Tomorrow sees the return of Lost for the sixth, and final series. I have watched since the pilot aired on Channel 4 in 2004 and as the last series was so complicated, Pete and I watched the whole thing twice!

I have blogged about Lost before and I appreciate that it can be very weird and even silly, but it's gripping stuff! The producers tell us that they will provide answers to the many many questions. They better keep to their word or else! There are a few cute actors in the series, but Dr Jack (Matthew Fox) is tops.

The producers also worked on Flashforward that has failed to capture the interest that Lost did, but it's still worth catching (it's on Channel 5 in the UK).

Tomorrow is my 5 on the fifth monthly posting - I hope you will take part. This month, the theme is... City Life.

Misfits

I've been watching a new comedy drama on E4 called Misfits. It's highly original and is definitely adult entertainment:

Misfits follows five outsiders on community service who get struck by a flash storm and lumbered with special powers. Hard as nails Kelly can suddenly hear people’s thoughts, shamed sporting hero Curtis discovers he has the ability to turn back time when he regrets something, and party girl Alisha can send people into a sexual frenzy when they touch her skin. Even painfully shy Simon can make himself invisible when he feels he’s being ignored, which makes it all the more hard to swallow for smart aleck Nathan, who seems to have been unaffected, much to his dismay. Unlike their more conventional counterparts, our misfits don’t swap their ankle tags and mobile phones for capes and tights. Instead, they discover what a pain in the arse life can be when you’re stuck with a super power you didn’t want.

The guy who plays Nathan has the cutest eyes and accent (he's played by Robert Sheehan who is a great actor). His character is super sarcastic and he managed to get a care home volunteer into bed. He had the best line of the episode after some premature action and orgasmic facial expressions, by asking his lady friend: "what is wrong with my cum face!?".

OK, the premise is silly, but the programme is funny and surprisingly dark. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, especially if Nathan gets naked again and would recommend catching up on previous episodes on 4OD.