GOOD TV

[Stanley]

Too late for me..... I shall sample it on catch up Wendy....

[Wendyf]

Too late for me too, we have recorded it to watch again. It is a very gentle comedy, nothing earth shattering but it leaves you feeling refreshed!

[Stanley]

I liked the Detectorists but would hate suicide headaches.... As I keep saying I am a lucky man!
Started watching the Rochdale teenagers but had to ditch it, too appalling for me!

[Stanley]

I forced myself to watch the first episode of Three Girls and followed with the second instalment last night. A harrowing watch but necessary I think. I was working in Rochdale during the earlier abuse cases in the 1980s and got a glimpse of what was going on then. It's a story of our time but no less acceptable for that. Those poor girls.....

[Nolic]

Comrade, it is harrowing but I think a reasonable portrayal of what youngsters go through in these situation. Rochdale police and social services should hang their heads for the way in which the treated these young girls. I know the woman who went in to try to sort the mess of children's services out after the trials. She barely lasted 3 months and the job was too much for her. Nolic

[Stanley]

I agree Comrade. I was close to some of the participants in the abuse storm in Rochdale in the late 80s and caught a glimpse of the fall out 20 years earlier. I watched the last episode last night and it was good. I note that the Council gave Sarah the bullet afterwards.... The bastards! Worth remembering that at the same time they were all turning a blind eye to Cyril and other known abuse.

[Stanley]

Sarah was on North West Tonight at 22:30 last night and obviously still under stress from her experiences.

[Stanley]

The interview with President May by Andrew Neill wasn't 'good' but very enlightening. She was like a speak your weight machine.....

[Stanley]

I was struck last night by the fact that Manchester obliterated everything else even the new drama on BBC1. Totally different attitude in WW2. Then it was report the news but keep calm and carry on. There is such a thing as the 'oxygen of publicity'.

[Tripps]

The Detectorists.

I'll give them another chance.

I think I finally 'got it'. Can't explain it but I quite enjoyed tonight's episode.

[Stanley]

Good! I haven't quite managed it yet.... I am hoping to find that Fearless gets as good as The Loch promises to be...... You have to work at these things or is it just that I am older and find it hard to suspend disbelief.

[Tripps]

is it just that I am older and find it hard to suspend disbelief.

I find it impossible to do so.
My late onset Aspergers prevents me from watching most 'dramas' on TV. I don't see the characters - just actors, usually chosen to fit some imagined demographic spread.

[Tizer]

I don't like TV drama and that always makes me think of Terry Pratchett's Discworld skeletal character `Death' who arrives on his white horse (`Binky') and with his iridescent scythe whenever anyone dies. He always speaks in upper case letters. Somehow he just can't manage to understand humans and their behaviour. Whenever the humans start getting aggressive or emotional he says "OH, DRAMA".

[Stanley]

I didn't know that David. Never heard of that before but I can see how it works. As I often say, I am so lucky!
I tried the new Poldark last night but gave up after half an hour, I can only stand so much of dark brooding and archetypal villains.....
Enjoyed Horizon on the cyber attack but would have liked to have seen some more on who was culpable in that they neglected their systems.

[Stanley]

I see that on Sunday night at 21:00 BBC are screening a programme on Boris v. Theresa, the story of the fight for the Leadership of the Tory Party. Looks as though it could be interesting.....
HIGNY was good last night!

[Stanley]

'Fearless' on ITV is holding up nicely......

[Stanley]

Hilary Mantel's Reith Lectures on R4 are fascinating and well worth listening to on iPlayer. One more to go next Tuesday.

[Stanley]

Hilary Mantel this morning on R4. Worth a listen!
The Loch and Fearless are proving to be good value as long as you are up to date with them. Both complicated plots.....

[Stanley]

Not a lot on the box but I found out that 'Mark Steel visits' is on Youtube and so I watched, or rather listened to a couple of them. They are always funny and very well researched.

[Stanley]

Nothing attracted me last night so I simply watched Alec Guinness in Smiley's People', the BBC series first screened in 1982. Still a good watch......

[PanBiker]

I watched "Dunkirk the New Evidence" last night. A documentary on the new records on the action that have now been released. The RAF was widely perceived at the time for not supporting the withdrawal. Contrary to this perception the logs and record now released show that they were full engaged inland halting the advance of the ground troops. They were slated for not taking on the Luftwaffe over the beaches but if they had not committed to the German advance the beaches would have been overrun and all our lads taken prisoner, probably a game over situation. The BEF to France was a good proportion of our ground troops, the rest were sent North to defend the Atlantic shipping lanes by occupying Iceland. The RAF lost 600 aircraft keeping the Germans off the beach. Still slated by the troops as they could not see this action. Six weeks later the Battle of Britain started and they were immortalised as "The Few", the records show they were ever so.

[Stanley]

Good point Ian and not many know about it.
Caught up on the Loch last night and will do Fearless tonight. I am engaged by both of them, complicated plots, you have to work at it!

[PanBiker]

Yes, none of this is in the history books as the records were classified and locked until recently. It was actually Goring who suggested to Hitler that he could finish the job with aircraft alone by bombing and strafing. Hitler agreed, probably more to save his panzer divisions than anything else. The RAF chucked everything they had at both the Luftwaffe and opportunistic targets on the ground. I have to watch it again to get the figures exactly right but the trade off in aircraft losses was immensely in our favour. It was either 600 / 1200 or 800 /1400. The BEF still got hammered on the beach and the Mole but imagine what it would have been like if the fly boys hadn't been in the thick of it.

If you contrast this with the opening scenes of "The Battle of Britain" the history the screenwriters were working from had the RAF abandoning their airfields and burning aircraft. No doubt there would be some destruction of "lame ducks" but it does not tell the whole story as we now know.

The documentary features a particular Spitfire pilot who was eventually shot down as a result of a single bullet through a cooling pipe. Too low to bale, he belly flopped his aircraft into the mud and made his way to the lines of waiting men on the beach to wait his turn for a boat. A beach marshall scooped him up and told him to ditch his RAF uniform as there was such hatred for the RAF he feared for his safety. The aircraft eventually sank into the mud after trophy robbing by the Germans. What was left of the MKI Spitfire was excavated and recovered a few years ago and is now fully restored and flies regularly. It is painted up in exactly the same camouflage and bears it's original registration number.

[Stanley]

Quite right Ian from my reading. One of the advantages we have now is hindsight and a distancing from the propaganda of the war years when we were massaged to raise morale. This influence has waned and we now have the modern records to fall back on and we get a clearer and much different story. Look at the guff we were fed about Monty and then read the modern well informed history and you get a slightly different story. A good example in WW1 was the Gallipoli campaign and the forcing of the Dardenelles. It was portrayed as Churchill's wild gamble and damaged his political career but if you read the history it was actually a bold strategy that could have succeeded had it not been sabotaged by opposing interests and incompetency in the Admiralty and Army.

[plaques]

if you read the history it was actually a bold strategy that could have succeeded had it not been sabotaged by opposing interests and incompetency in the Admiralty and Army.

I'm sorry Stanley I totally disagree with this statement. I've just returned a book based on the actual campaign and letters/ reports written by soldiers some of whom were lucky enough to survive. Besides being run by ex-retired Generals who were still using the fighting techniques of the Boer War killing thousands of troops for no purpose whatsoever, it diverted much needed troops and supplies away from the Western Front. Eventually, with the whole campaign going nowhere and winter setting, up to this point the Cabinet were more concerned with saving face rather than saving lives, the Cabinet including our Mr Churchill realized the complete nonsense and waste of life and retreated completely. I think Churchill was responsible for the biggest military blunder in WW1.