GOOD TV

[Gloria]

Thursday BBC2 9pm

[Tripps]

I watched the 'all new' Vera last night. I enjoyed it - especially as I lived in the north East for a couple of years, I guessed the closing scene was at Seaton Sluice, and so it was. I still can't work out why I lived nearby and never visited the place, or even how I knew where it was, never having been there. It just looked like it was a 'sluice', and I remembered there was one nearby.

The plot was understandable and mercifully free from complications and flashbacks etc, but becoming formulaic, and it's almost a 'spoiler' when they make Naz Ahmad a prime suspect - I know it is inconceivable that he could be the murderer, so we can rule him out immediately. It's also a shade of odds on, that the culprit will be the wealthy middle aged local man.

[Wendyf]

We enjoyed it too. Good, old-fashioned detective drama without gratuitous sex or violence. Ann Cleves writes well, I thoroughly enjoyed reading both the Vera & Shetland novels.
Who is Naz Ahmad?

[Stanley]

Thanks Gloria.....

[Gloria]

Is it just me who struggles with drama on tv nowadays? Silent witness has been difficult to listen to in parts, especially when they are speaking quietly I haven't a clue what they are saying, it just sounds like secret whispers, and the plot kept losing me.

[Wendyf]

I settled down prepared to watch it on Monday but got fed up after about 20 minutes, it's all so unreal! I enjoy watching Julian Rhind Tutt in anything but even that didn't keep me watching.

[Tripps]

Is it just me who struggles with drama on tv nowadays? Silent witness has been difficult to listen to in parts, especially when they are speaking quietly I haven't a clue what they are saying, it just sounds like secret whispers, and the plot kept losing me.

That's good - not just me then. I've almost totally given up on 'drama'. Didn't even try 'Silent Witness'. Looks that that was a shrewd move.

[Tizer]

Like Tripps, I deal with TV drama by not watching it. A bit like my approach to social media.

[Stanley]

I agree with all of you. I started watching Silent Wetness [I'm not correcting that typo....] and gave up after five minutes, all the disadvantages you detail. Glad it's not simply me and bad hearing! TV is the only time I have a problem!

[Gloria]

Interesting programme again.

[Tizer]

Poor sound quality is becoming more common on the radio as well as on TV. I notice they're also broadcasting poor quality phone conversations - one particularly bad example is the Making History programme. Back in the 1950s we had poor landline phone quality, then it got much better unless you were phoning abroad. Then phoning abroad became as good as phoning next door. Then it all went to pot with the advent of the mobile phone. That got a bit better but then along came Skype and we were back to the 1950s. Now it's almost as if the broadcasters seek out poor lines to make it sound `more real'.

[PanBiker]

The main problem here is the size of the speakers. In slimline TV's there is not a lot of room for the speakers, the amplifiers to run them have increased in quality but is let down with the nasty little speakers they drive. Addition of a "sound bar" or decent sized external speakers would help here. Same applies to portable audio such as mobiles and MP3 players, a mobiles built in speaker is very small and the output of these devices is really only good for listening on headphones or earpieces.

[Gloria]

I don't find the overall sound quality poor, it's just some of the drama programmes, and mainly BBC.

[Stanley]

Tiz is dead right about the quality of outside lines particularly in news broadcasts and that applies to the best sound systems, not just TVs. They are also very unreliable, there are far more drop-outs in the middle of a report than there used to be.
I enjoyed the TV on Thursday and the House was good again, it held my attention!

[Stanley]

I went into iPlayer last night and watched all three episodes of the programme on Lady Jane Grey. I was impressed by it and confess that until I watched this I was vague about her story. Very good research and interpretation. They were scary times but what the story illustrates is that even in feudal times, government can only function well if it has the support of the common people. Some things don't change and there could be some lessons in this account that our present administration should take note of!

[Stanley]

I watched episode 4 of Macmafia on iPlayer last night. I've found it's best to do it this way early in the evening rather than near my bedtime! I'm not saying I understand it but I think I'm grasping some elements of the incredibly complicated plot. On others I am completely in the dark.
I saw a review in PE this week which said that originally they had asked John le Carre to do a sequel to the Night Manager but for whatever reason he refused and Macmafia is the reserve option. All I can say is that Night Manager 2 it isn't!

[Gloria]

McMafia has not been getting good reviews, the viewing numbers are down from five and a half million in the first episode, to two million in the last one. Too many subtitles, complicated plots and mumbled words being the main culprits.

[Stanley]

I agree! I have invested time in it so I'll keep watching it but riveting it isn't....

[Gloria]

I keep thinking it will improve Stanley, so will keep at it.
A House Through Time is on tonight bbc2 9pm.

[Stanley]

I watched it Gloria.... I'm enjoying it! It just goes to show what great human stories you can find in 'dusty archives'. I'd love to know how the dock worker managed to put a property empire together!

[Gloria]

I think it's brilliant Stanley, and the presenter does an excellent job. I find it very attention grabbing, it keeps your interest all the way through.

[Wendyf]

It was very good again, tempting to try something similar for a history society project!

[Stanley]

I agree with both of you.

[Gloria]

It was very good again, tempting to try something similar for a history society project!

Could be an interesting project Wendy. I would think the programme went through a lot of houses before they found a "good one". It might keep your History Society busy for quite a few years.

[Wendyf]

That's what discussed yesterday Gloria, and four of us had different ideas about how to go about it! In the end we decided to ask if any of our members would like their house to be the subject of an investigation and to pick the most likely!
You could just look at the buildings themselves, but it's really the people who lived there that are interesting!