GOOD TV

[Stanley]

That's OK P. We all have our own views. I think that even you will agree that the standard of military and naval planning was abysmal and a contributing factor was Douglas Haig's delay in releasing troops.
By accident I found some good interviews with Dennis Skinner on Youtube and a speech he made in Parliament protesting against the curtailment of PM's Questions. Well worth seeking out.....

[Stanley]

The penultimate episode of Fearless on ITV was good last night and the Loch is living up to expectations as well.

[Stanley]

I watched the final episodes of 'The Loch' and 'Fearless' last night. Both of them good drama and plot.

[Stanley]

I'm getting interested in 'in The Dark' on BBC1. Another dire murder mystery!

[Tripps]

If you find that your enjoyment of TV programmes is impaired by a 'Big Brother' type running commentary during the show - as happened to me during The Detectorists recently - do not think you're going crazy. Look on your remote, for a button marked 'AD' and press it. I found that it stands for Audio Description - handy if you can't see the screen, but infuriating when you can. Forgive me if everyone knows this except me.

[Stanley]

One of the few glitches I have never fallen for David. Pure luck I expect!

[Tizer]

Have you seen the Chris Packham programme on wildife in suburban back gardens. Terrific photography and backed up by a team from the Natural History Museum. None of the silly gizmos used by so many TV producers nowadays - just darn good TV based on excellent technical expertise!

[Stanley]

No, I'll look for it......

[Stanley]

There was nothing to attract me on TV last night but I dialled 'clockwork' into Youtube and watched some wonderful films about watch and clock making..... Mind boggling ingenuity and the tiniest engineering you have ever seen!

[Tizer]

No, I'll look for it......

Here it is on iPlayer... LINK
The British back garden is a familiar setting, but underneath the peonies and petunias is a much wilder hidden world, a miniature Serengeti, with beauty and brutality in equal measure. In this documentary, Chris Packham and a team of wildlife experts spend an entire year exploring every inch of a series of interlinked back gardens in Welwyn Garden City. They want to answer a fundamental question: how much wildlife lives beyond our back doors? How good for wildlife is the great British garden?

Through all four seasons, Chris reveals a stranger side to some of our more familiar garden residents. In summer he meets a very modern family of foxes - with a single dad in charge - and finds that a single fox litter can have up to five different fathers. In winter he shows that a robin's red breast is actually war paint. And finally, in spring he finds a boiling ball of frisky frogs in a once-in-a-year mating frenzy.

The secret lives of the gardens' smallest residents are even weirder. The team finds male crickets that bribe females with food during sex, spiders that change colour to help catch prey, and life-and-death battles going on under our noses in the compost heap.

So how many different species call our gardens home? How well do our gardens support wildlife? By the end of the year, with the help of a crack team from London's Natural History Museum and some of the country's top naturalists, Chris will find out. He'll also discover which type of garden attracts the most wildlife. The results are not what you might expect... You'll never look at your garden in quite the same way again.

[Stanley]

Mine is home to slugs!

[Stanley]

I may have a look at 'Top of the Lake' but I have an idea it is yet another gruesome crime drama. I want to be entertained! Why do I find old episodes of 'All Creatures Great and Small' enjoyable?

[Stanley]

I tried it..... too much bloody angst for me!

[Stanley]

Nothing attracted me on the TV for most of the evening but I stumbled across THIS. I haven't see any of Brian's stuff before but it's interesting, he runs some very big machines. This one,'The worst day ever in the shop' is well worth a watch. He's an untidy little bugger but knows what he is doing.

[Bruff]

‘…….during The Detectorists recently..’

I have just caught up with this programme the past week, as it’s passed me by. It is really funny. And beautifully filmed too.

Richard Broughton

[Wendyf]

‘…….during The Detectorists recently..’

I have just caught up with this programme the past week, as it’s passed me by. It is really funny. And beautifully filmed too.

Richard Broughton

We are enjoying it just as much, if not more, the second time around.

[Stanley]

I must have missed something, I shall have another look at it!

[Tripps]

Don't miss 'W1A on BBC at 10.00 pm tonight. Another series, and successor to '2012'. From the way the Beeb is performing these days, it's hard to tell if it's satire or a 'fly on the wall'. Hope they've kept the standard up.

"That's all good then"

[Stanley]

I tried Rellik again last night..... too much angst and too many flash backs.....
I've chucked the towel in with Dr Foster. Strike is half watchable.

[PanBiker]

I tried Rellik again last night..... too much angst and too many flash backs.....

And flash forwards! I attempted to watch it again also but I am no wiser about the plot, it's just too hard to keep up. If I want a crazy puzzle I can by a book of them.

[Tripps]

I gave up on 'drama' quite a while ago. I don't get on with time shifting, and never understand the plot, so I don't watch them. I understand that Midsummer Murders is very popular in Scandinavian countries. Perhaps they need something they can follow too.

[Sue]

Midsummer Murders is on every afternoon in France as inspecter Barnaby, dubbed of course

[Stanley]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! Watched a good BBC4 film on Gertrude Bell and really enjoyed it. Loads of archival film and photos.... The consequences of what was done then still echo through the Middle East.... There was even footage of the RAF bombing the villages to force them to pay taxes but they didn't mention the machine-gunning....

[Stanley]

You can't say I am not a trier! I gave Rellik another go last night but it is such a jumble of flash backs and unexplained events that I have decided it isn't worth the effort! It's dire.....

[Tripps]

Note that Andrew Neil is still AWOL from Daily Politics. He has quit Sunday Politics, but apart from reading that he is 'negotiating his contract with the BBC' I can't find out why he is missing. It's a shame - as in my opinion, he is the outstanding interviewer on any TV station at the moment.

Mystery still seems to surround the disappearance of Tim Wonnacott from Bargain Hunt. Once again, in my opinion he was the outstanding presenter. Some vague references to him being a 'bully'.