All of the sport in the world seemed to be happening this weekend. But, if like me you only have basic cable then the only spot that you could feast upon was the snooker. Snooker when placed alongside the plethora of steak and caviar on offer this weekend definitely looks like the Iceland own brand party pack of vol-au-vents that the cheap skate brought to the dinner party as their ‘pot luck.’
So bereft of sporting options, the rain lashing down outside and with no one to visit the cinema with I settled down to see what the BBC iplayer had to offer.
QI is the programme which in my opinion sparks more pub debate than any other programme. Though it can be tedious to listen to someone regurgitate verbatim some interesting fact or anecdote they saw on the show to be that fella is never dull. QI is without a doubt my favourite long running TV show. The show started humble and without any fan-fayre and over the years it has changed nothing. This further endears the programme to those who were fans from the start and the new fans who can watch the incessant feed on Dave. Flicking between Dave and Dave + 1 to observe Stephen Fry’s yo-yo weight is worth a laugh once before you realise that one should never laugh at Stephen Fry only with him. The anti-intellectualism of many of the channels means that QI is a programme that could only have been conceived for the BBC. Watch it here http://goo.gl/lUvO3
Next on my bedroom TV marathon was Episodes. Episodes is a new sit-com starring Matt Le Blanc (yes him from Joey and a little watched spin off called Chums), Stephan Mangan (I most recently watched him in a version of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently) and Tamsin Greig (You know the one who was in Black Books). The eclectic cast isn’t even the most interesting thing about this project that honour falls to the distribution. The show is being shown in both America and the UK at the same time.
The show follows an award winning British husband and wife writing team who have their show commissioned ‘to be made for an American audience’ with the kind of consequences that often come about when such a thing is attempted. I’m going to hold off making a judgement about this one until we are a little further down the line but the transatlantic mix of cast and humour gives the show a really interesting dynamic and I have high hopes. Watch it here http://goo.gl/lnSLe.
Human Planet is yet another fantastic BBC natural world documentary but with us knuckle dragging humans as the subject matter. The show really is amazing in both its visuals and the stories that it tells. As has become the tradition with BBC documentaries there is a little ten minute documentary extra at the end which only serves to add further colour to the show. Get yourself a cup of coffee turn up the speakers and watch in awe http://goo.gl/y7OVG
Now over to ITV where, after the horrors of ‘Take Me Out’ Dinner Date has come into my sphere of awareness, doing so in the manner of an ill kept fart on a crowded public bus in the height of summer. It really is a stinker with gender politics taken straight from the 60’s, the 1860’s. I am now going to describe the premise of the show, no jokes, no exaggerations just the premise. The review will then end and you can draw your own conclusion whist I go and research the history of feminism just to check that I hadn’t imagined the whole thing. So, a young man (usually of the nicely mannered rugby playing meat head variety) is presented with five menus which have been prepared by five hopeful ladies. The man, we will call him Harry, then picks three of the menus to be cooked for him by the hopeful ladies (at their houses) in a blind date style. After Harry has been cooked for and cleaned up after by all three of the dates he then gets to choose his favourite to take out to a restaurant. The ladies also rate the man out of three after he has attended their date but this doesn’t have any effect on anything other than to allow the programme makers to claim that the opinions of female participants were taken into account.
No comments:
Post a Comment