Mon
Oct
13
Sunday viewing:
NASCAR and Formula 1: lots of motorsport!
Cracking Up: devastating personal account by Alaistair Campbell (former Number 10 press secretary) of his nervous breakdown in the 1980s. Really troubling, really revealing, impossible not to admire someone for being willing to bare their soul like that.
Stephen Fry in America: decent enough travelogue of the 50 states of the US, but each little vigenette is over just as it’s getting interesting.
Ireland to Sydney By Any Means Necessary: another travelogue, and one that flashes past so quickly from location to location it makes no pretense of even bothginer with vigenettes. But likeable in a blokish sort of way, and some memorable locales.
Sun
Oct
12
Documentary night last night:
The American Future - a History: nothing particularly new to anyone who knows their United States (Depression, Dustbowl, the expansion west, the Hoover Dam) but Schama knits it into a very relevant narrative connected to climate change, oil, and the current elections.
Watching the Russians: Stella Rimmington is not exactly the most natural front-of-TV presenter, but the history of UK/Russian relations made for an interesting and informative programme, although stinting on the most recent developments (Litvenyenko, etc.)
The Story of Maths: the pesenter irritated me somewhat (“My name is Marcus du Sautoy, and I’m … a mathematician!”) and the CGI was embarrassingly low rent. The tone was also uneven, going from very dumbed down maths one minute to offhandd remarks that would have lost 90% of the audience the next.
Mark Lawson meets John Le Carré: surely David Cornwall is one of th emost genuinely interesting people working as a writer today, with his real life intelligence service connections. An old school man of integrity, who also has fascinating tales to tell about his books and the process of writing.
Never Mind the Buzzcocks: okay, so spot the odd one out! Not a usual thing I watch, but this had guest captain Stephen Fry and the show seemed determined to raise itself to a whole new level to be worthy. And it was a cracker.
Sat
Oct
11
Spooks Season 6
Hadn’t meant to buy this. Or rather, meant to wait until it comes down form the £40 RRP in 2-3 months time and goes on sale for Christmas.
But turns out that Woolworths are selling it for almost half price anyway, so it seemed almost rude not to take advantage.
Not sure this season was all that good to be honest - the one long storyline got a little complex and wearing, and made it veer dangerously too close to 24 territory. But it just about worked and the additon of Gemma Jones was a masterstroke.
… no posts in weeks. Must do better.
Which is not the same thing as saying that I will do better, you understand!
Tue
Sep
16
Tonight: Dexter. One of the best shows on TV.
And CSI: Miami, one of the worst, but good for cleansing the brain of all intelligent thought.
Last night’s ‘President Hollywood’ on BBC4 was good, not least for the multiple clips of ‘The West Wing’ - still one of the best shows on TV ever.
- GP2 spring race and F1 Grand Prix
- NASCAR
That’s it, no ‘regular’ shows.
Sat
Sep
13
Lovely tribute evening to Humphrey Lyttelton, including the filming of the final I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue at the Lowry Centre’s Lyric Theatre in Salford.
Genuinely sad to lose him:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ddwcy
