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12月20日 'Tis The Season To Watch Telly
12月14日 Westlife Advert: A Real Faff
And here's 10 things I'd rather do than watch it again: 1. Fill in a tax return 12月11日 Flippin' 'Eck Tucker!UPDATE: This entry was written before the BBC announced that Grange Hill would be axed. While looking for one thing, I found another (it's always the way). Shut away for years and years were the TV scrapbooks I started back in secondary school. There was my name, scrawled on the front alongside a big picture of the logo of The Jam (the grafitti-styled one from their first album In The City). I also scribbled The Beat and UB40 (this was back when they were good) in black felt tip. But the raison être of the scrapbooks was to document my TV viewing. I cut out all the programmes I watched from the TV and Radio Times and newspapers (I was obsessed with Cheers (as detailed in this previous blog entry) so that featured heavily. A very nice lady at BBC Worldwide sent me the boxsets and I spent the entire weekend watching them. If you're the kind of person that lives for DVD extras, you won't find much here. In addition, there are no subtitles which cuts out a huge chunk of the hearing impaired market (how did that happen BBC?). The other point to note is that due to contractual reasons, certain music edits have been made; par for the course with DVD releases of shows from a certain era, I'm afraid (incidentally, if you know exactly what's been cut, please get in touch as my memory is not what it was). Other than that, it's all here - all those fab memories unleashed again. Watching with older eyes, it's easy to see why Tucker Jenkins became such a phenomenon. A brilliantly-rounded character, he was magnificently played by the young Todd Carty who will probably never better that role (EastEnders' Mark Fowler doesn't compare and don't get me started on PC Kent in The Bill). A bona fide natural, Todd Carty acted everyone else off the screen. The writing is only occasionally clunky (come on, it was kids TV in the 1970s), but overall scripts and storylines are first-class and some scenarios still strike a chord. It's soooo strange to hear antiquated and/or non-PC race terms again on TV: 'coloured girl', 'golly', 'n*g n*g', 'half-caste' etc. Did I mention that I'm glad those words weren't cut out? That was the reality back then for hundreds of thousands of kids like me. It's the innocence that's the real eye-opener: kids nicking dinner money and rival school blazers when nowadays, they're shooting and stabbing each other. From the golden age of UK kids TV, Grange Hill is excellent entertainment and if you do nothing else this Christmas, buy these fantastic boxsets. Altogether now: "Leave it aaht!" "Leg it, Bullet's coming!" "Nutjob!" "Flippin' 'eck Tucker!" MSN's Grange Hill special - articles, features and galleries Get The DVDs!
Grange Hill sites Today I am mostly hatin' - That Post Office broadband advert featuring Westlife makes me want to take a hammer to my TV. I'd rather slam my tongue in a door than see it again - less painful. MSN Editor Coops 12月3日 November MailbagRegular readers of this blog will know that the first entry of the new month is about looking back. I've perused all the feedback and mail sent in during November. Here's what you've been saying...
I'm no fan of premium rate quiz shows as this blog entry illustrates. MSN user Michael wrote in to agree with my take on things: "If there is any justice in Britain, then these shows should be stringently monitored. The rise of these scams should be tackled by your GP - The Gameshow Police! And I'm serious!" Thanks for writing in Michael. My hope is that the string of TV phone-in/vote-in blunders and premium rate scandals that have become public knowledged has deterred people from calling in. Let's have proper TV shows back in the red eye slot, not this money quiz rubbish.
My blog entry Gorilla + Phil Collins Does Not = Chocolate prompted a huge response. Now I may be in the minority (then again, I might be in the majority), but I still don't get the connection between a gorilla playing drums to In The Air Tonight and Cadbury's Dairy Milk. Lazy advertising if you ask me. Anyway, loads of people responded and one user wrote me with the following: "The editing is spot on...but also the most disappointing advert ever. The sheer power of energy emerging from the combination of such an emotionally powerful tune, the physical strength of a gorilla (albeit not real) and such a powerful instrument justifies a worthwhile cause which definitely is NOT Cadbury's chocolate. I was expecting a Save The Children or World Peace campaign (weren't we all? MSN Editor Coops). Although wasted on a Cadburys advert, as a visual peice, I would like to shake the hand of the person who generated this idea. Sheer Genius!!!"
MSN user Ann wrote in to say: "I really enjoyed reading your article on TV outbursts as it was amusing." Thank you Ann, I'm glad it tickled your funny bone. Tom Cruise jumping the couch on Oprah's show will take some beating as far as I'm concerned. Have you seen it? It's disturbing with a capital D... I have received more negative comments about our new TV Listings service. Complaints centre around the speed, the look and feel and results returned from searches. I feel your pain - believe me. However, we are determined to iron out the teething problems and ask that you bear with us while we do so. Finally, I'll give the last word to MSN user Greg: "Hello Coops, just read your article, I must admit I'm not a great fan of I'm a celebrity. Would you agree that a better show would be 'I'm a politician, get me out of here'? Warm regards." Greg - that is genius. Absolutely genius! Thanks for all your comments and messages guys. Keep them coming in. That's it for this month as far as the mailbag is concerned.
MSN Editor Coops |
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