Watching …
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.
