12 posts tagged “tv”

Life on Mars. British telly at it's best. Gene Hunt, the Gene Genie, a bastion of manhood, full of old time policing and memorable quotes.

When I first heard that Life on Mars was heading to the States, I thought, great, something British to share that they can delight in.

Then I heard it was being remade, like The Office was. I was disappointed. I know Americans seem to have a penchant for taking good tv shows and films from other countries and remaking them for the US market, but really, what is wrong with seeing a little bit of what the 70's was like for us? No Camberwick Green for them.

Then I heard Colm Meaney was playing Gene hunt and that they were keeping a lot of the original ideas in, and I thought, that can't be too bad.

Then, today, I saw the trailer for it.

Oh.My.Gawd.

It's not right.

The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the UK and is one of the largest in Europe. It was used in this ident for Channel 4.

 

I'm not a great one for watching sport on the television. I also have a telly with only 5 channels, which, if more than 3 work well enough to actually watch, is a miracle. Therefore, my weekend televisual choice can sometimes be nothing but sport... horse racing, football, rugby, tennis, darts, bowls, F1 etc., and you would think I would turn the tv set off, but no, I need some kind of background noise and will leave it on.

I especially hate leap years. The Olympics. Now I know that the competitors have trained really hard, in some cases most of their lives, but I find it all too much. With all the hoohah over Duane Chambers recently bringing the impending games into focus, suddenly every news programme seems to have something to do with the Olympics. It's going to be bad enough that it's going to take over my telly for a few weeks soon, without having it rammed down my throat now.

 

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Mind you, I'm also intensely proud when the Brits win medals - it's a dilemma I tells ya.

Do you ever find yourself getting into a new series on telly, only to have it cancelled on you because it's not deemed worthy of either a second series or even finishing what they started?

I've found over the years that there are two ways a show can go when I like it. It either takes off and gets too big, the story flailing and failing as the popularity grows and the writers take it too far or else it falls into the category of incredibly cool concept, shame the powers that be didn't agree.

Wonderfalls was one of the second sort. I found it by complete accident when flicking through KT's channels, but I loved it. He has the theme tune as his ring tone now - my phone isn't as posh, so I'm stuck with Captain Pugwash - I do love it though!

 

"I Wonder Why the Wonder Falls" by Andy Partridge

We're bobbing along in our barrel.
Some of us tip right over the edge.
But there's one thing really mystifying
It's got me laughing, now it's got me crying
All my life I'll be death defying
Till I know...

I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls
I wonder why the wonderfalls on me
I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls
With everything I touch and hear and see

We teeter along on our tightrope
Some of us trip and damage our heads
Popping pills is really stupefying,
Gets you crawling when you could be flying
All my life I guess that I'll be dying
Just to know...

I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls
I wonder why the wonderfalls on me
I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls
With everything I touch and hear and see

Don't you ever think about this life
And how strange it all can seem?
Only way to find the answers out
Is to wake up from its golden dream

But there's one thing really mystifying
It's got me laughing, now it's got me crying (ha-ha-ha-ha)
All my life I will be death defying
'Til I know, 'til I know, 'til I know (really really need to know!)

I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls
I wonder why the wonderfalls on me
I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls
With everything I touch and hear and see

I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls (I wonder why it falls)
I wonder why the wonderfalls on me (I wonder why it falls, I wonder why it falls, it falls on me)
I wonder wonder why the wonderfalls
With everything I touch and hear and see

See, I told you I was right about the wonder-wonder-wonder-wonder
Wonderful-ahh the wonderfalls
I've got to find out from where the wonderfalls

ITV have recently been showing Midsomer Murders in the weekday afternoons. I'd gotten quite addicted to the coming and goings of the residents and Chief Inspector Barnaby's passage through discovering just who was bumping off who with what and why.

In it's place now, with no offence meant to A.T. is The Alan Titchmarsh Show, followed by The Royal Today and then Wish You Were Here. Hardly any entertainment value in that lot for me at all. I want my Midsomer back... though I wouldn't want to live there.

Torchwood series 2 came in with a bang in Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang.

 

 

and DCI Gene Hunt will be back in just over a week's time.

 

Only one more episode of this season of Dr Who is left - but who will survive, the Doctor or the Master?

When KT and I were kids there was one thing that was guaranteed - Tom Baker's Doctor would wave his screwdriver, munch his jelly babies and with a joke and rather rambunctious laugh, would outwit the bad guys, the Master included.

What Saturday's episode, The Sound Of Drums showed, wasn't good news for the Doctor. All the things that kept the fourth Doctor triumphant were visible from the Master. He made jokes that even had me laughing out loud, he appeared to outsmart the Doctor when he rewired the TARDIS to become an Paradox machine and aged him 100 odd years whilst wafting his Laser (who needs Sonic?) screwdriver about with abandon. To top it all, he shared a bag of Jelly Babies with wife Lucy as they waited for the whole she-bang to start - we can't wait for Saturday's finale.

BTW - I actually cheered when the American President got annihilated - I'm baaaad!

How many TVs do you have in your house?

Just the one and I only recently bought that one. Before then, we hadn't had a t.v. set for absolutely years. The girls kept getting homework where they had to watch this programme or that which was all to do with their curriculum and they were so excited when I went to buy this one.

I still regret buying it some days though, especially when I hear that H has switched it on as soon as she gets downstairs. I make her turn it off until they are completely ready for school.

I haven't really been on t'net a lot lately - to tell the truth, I haven't really been feeling bothered by it. I guess everyone goes through phases where they leave something alone for a while - for me, it was this.

Until last night.

We ended up watching the third episode of a television programme called "Never Did Me Any Harm" on Ch4 that made me think - right, I have to blog about this.

I quite liked the idea of a family going 'back in time', to live for a few weeks, in the style that one of their parents had to. This week, it was the turn of the McIver kids to experience the 70's via mum Cheryl's memories. Cheryl has five kids, four lads ranging from 3 to 17 and a daughter who I think was 14. Cheryl told the cameras that she fears for her children, that they don't know how to interact with people and that she didn't think they would be able to look after themselves when they leave home. To tell the truth, it was hardly surprising.

The family had six television sets (I have just bought my first one in six years!), six DVD players, 5 games consoles, 2 computers and various other gadgets and gizmos. With all this electronic fun in their bedrooms, why would the kids need to come out? A gaggle of brown coated men trouped into the family home to take away their luxuries and to make the house more like Cheryl remembered her childhood home. The most shocking moment for me here, was when the eldest lad, Johnny, started balling because the nasty men were taking away his tv set! The boys had to share a bedroom, Katie, the daughter was relegated to the box room and two bedrooms were locked shut. Their living room did get to have a television set, but it was too small for the kids' liking and Katie in particular complained bitterly about it. The washing machine was replaced with a twin tub and as Cheryl said they hadn't had a bathroom or indoor loo (in the 70's!), the kids were lined up in the kitchen where she told them they had to use the kitchen sink to wash their faces, armpits, feet and private bits.

From the initial interview, comments, from all of us, including the kids, that Cheryl's fears were her own doing were flowing. She'd allowed her kids to become slaves to their Game Cubes and televisions - they didn't have to do anything to contribute to the family wellbeing and she shells out £100 a week in pocket money between them! She'd decided that they all had jobs to do and set about it with gusto. No longer were the family to eat tv dinners in their own space - everyone had to join in with the preparation of oh-my-gosh real food. This was where we first noticed that Cheryl has a definate anti-favourite child. One was told to peel potatoes, another to peel carrots. The girl, an obvious favourite, was given the simple job of setting the table for dinner. Whilst the boys got on with their jobs, Katie disappeared. Dinner was nearing completion and the table wasn't set - so what did Cheryl do? The obvious answer would be to ask Katie again, to let her know that dinner was imminent and it would be great of she could do her, let's face it, very simple job. Cheryl didn't agree. She told Gareth, number two son, who had diligently attacked his carrots, to set the table. When he murmured that he'd done his job, that sorting the table wasn't his, she got quite angry with him. Shouldn't he do what was best for the family? Why should he not help? If he didn't do it, he could go to bed. Gareth decided that was a good option. Now, I don't agree with kids back chatting, but she had asked someone else to do that job. They were cooking a roast dinner, so she'd had at least a good 90 minutes to make sure her daugter did the table, but instead she'd beggered off. Was Katie punished? Did she go without her dinner as Gareth had? Not a hope - Katie sat at the table like a little princess, eating her roast dinner and obviously enjoying her carrots. Cow.

As the programme progressed, it was far too apparent that the kids hadn't got a clue about pretty much anything. Katie was shown how to sweep the stairs and yet still messed up. Johnny and his brother were asked to use the twin tub to do the laundry but thought that navy t-shirts with a white collar constituted as 'white' and also managed to put a red shirt into the mix. Cheryl wasn't best pleased with her pink washing.

The family go to a family villa in Spain three times a year. Cheryl used to go to Blackpool for a few days, so they all went there. They weren't allowed to use the car, which would have meant a journey of 45 minutes, but had to get a bus to the train station and two separate trains. At one point, Cheryl was moaning about how busy the train was as the narrator explained what was going on. When the voice over started to say that the family had been travelling for ... I expected by the ragged expressions that they'd been on the move for half the day... an hour and half, announced the narrator... We all looked at each other in amazement that they all looked so frazzled from such a short journey - getting between where we used to live and here was a half hour walk to the train station, over an hour to London, 2-3 tube trains depending on strikes, sometimes with a bit of a huge walk in between and another train to Ipswich, which takes around an hour, plus another to Felixstowe if KT couldn't collect us from the station. This regularly took us between 4-5 hours, with us once travelling for almost 9 hours due to delays, rearranged routes etc and not once did the kids get bothered. Many a time we'd be squashed in against a train door for an hour or more, and yet, when you have even a little bit of intelligence between you, you can make up all kinds of games and activities. To top it all, she made the boys all wear indentical shirts, trousers and jumpers and poor, poor Katie a shirt and a skirt on the trip to the beach. As they hunched down in a horse drawn carraige, Cheryl said everyone was looking at them because they looked like royalty - pull the other one, Love.

 I guess what this is blog all about, is that I know this family is very much the norm these days from seeing how other people are with their families. It really does annoy the heck out of me. My children have always been included in the household tasks and have learnt the life skills they will need when they finally leave home for good. From an early age, jobs have included making the table, hoovering, doing the washing up and dusting - there as so many simple chores that even the nippers can join in with. All of my kids have been shown how to change a light bulb, a plug, check the oil in KT's van, how the petrol pumps work, how to check air pressure in tyres. They aren't old enough to do most of those, but they know the principle and the things they can do, they are allowed to do under supervision. All of them can prepare a meal, they can all bake biscuits, cakes and muffins. They know how to sort out the laundry, how to use a washing machine, how to safely use the tumble dryers at the launderette, how to shake and fold clothes so there is minimum ironing required (displays of this often get older people asking will they do theirs and comments of how well they do it). They've helped with small repairs, with putting up pictures, fixing up curtains and putting together furniture. They know how to make their beds, something which I learnt last year when they went on a residential trip, most of their peers hadn't got a clue about. Most of the time we eat together and 99% of the time it's at the table. We have certain television programmes we all sit down to watch, together, like a proper unit.

Monday evening, the twins went out to the garden and decided to give it it's first spruce of the year - out came the push mower and J quite happily attacked the grass whilst H dragged up some new weeds. What it comes down to, is that a little common sense and actually caring whether your kids are sitting in their bedrooms zoning out whilst playing some shoot 'em up or chatting to someone in a possibly unsavoury manner, goes a long way. The children, although they will occasionally moan about being asked to wash up, do a fabulous job of helping out and really seem to enjoy the jobs they do. I'm proud of them, and certain that they'll be able to cope with almost anything once they are out in the real world.

In order to get the girls up and doing their chores I got rid of the Disney Channel and Lizzie Maguire making candles and started scrolling through for something you can listen to for background as you work. What I found was the first part of a Crown Court case, so I put that on. H wanted to know if the programme was a real court drama and I said that no, it wasn't, but the jury were members of the public. She watched as a lawyer started to examine someone.

H   - Is he real?
Me - No, I mean he's a real person, H, but he's an actor.

She watched as the person in the stand came on.

H -  Is he real?
Me - No, H, he's an actor too.
H -  But is he real?
Me - Yes, he's real, but he's playing a part.
H -   So it's real?
Me - No, H, it's not real, it's a story and all the people except the jury are actors.

...

H - So is the story real?
M - I don't know, I think it's just a story acted out.
H - So is that man (she was pointing at the judge) real?
Me - H, they are all real people, it's just that they are acting out a story.
H - But are they real?

At this point raucous laughter eminated from the bedroom, where KT had been listening to the exchanges between us.

H went into the bedroom and KT explained that only the jury, the twelve people sat down together were not actors. She seemed to get it. 

I thought we had it sorted, but just now, H, whilst gazing at the screen, pointed at the guy giving evidence and asked... so is he an actor?

I said yes.

Another moment's pause and she asked if the guy playing the defence laywer was a real lawyer...

H is so dippy, you can't help but love her.

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A sidenote to this, J has been listening away to the 'evidence' onscreen and after saying nothing for ages, just said - I want the judge to declare it all poppycock. I'm so proud of my kiddoes!