GOOD TV

[Tripps]

I have confess I didn't watch it all, but I think I vaguely remember there was a version which opened with his motor bike crash in Dorset? I think it happened near the site of the Tank Museum at Bovingdon. He was an oddball OK. Didn't he join the RAF under a different name, as an ordinary aircraftman?


Well I never

[PanBiker]

I knew it was in there somewhere.

[Stanley]

You solved a mystery for me Ian. I too thought it had ended early, suddenly it was an interview with O'toole. I thought I must have gone to sleep.
David, try reading his book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It's a good read and explains a lot about Middle Eastern politics since. He thought the government betrayed the desert Arabs and that's why he sank out of sight.....

[Big Kev]

Fool Me Once, the adaptation of the Harlan Coben novel, on Netflix. Watched 2 of the 8 episodes and it's good so far.

[Gloria]

Watching the first of Mr Bates v The Post Office, itv on catch-up, it’s really good, you have to feel for these people

[Stanley]

ITV have locked me out of catch up otherwise I'd be watching it. It's a terrible story and isn't over yet. A prime case where executives should have been 'cuffed and charged with fraud.

[PanBiker]

The ITV catchup was taken off our Humax box quite a while ago. I downloaded ITVx on to my phone and stream it from there. I can cast it to the TV as I have a chromecast adaptor shoved into one of the HDMI ports. Have you that facility, which may be built in to your TV Stanley? If so it's an easy fix as I know you have a smart phone.

[Big Kev]

Stanley did buy a Firestick to get the channels that are no longer available on Humax boxes and older smart TVs. Due to a location anomaly, with his Amazon account, it thinks he's in the USA (the Firestick is reading a Northfield, Minnesota zip code from the account). There is a relatively simple fix for this which just involves creating a second TalkTalk email account, then registering for a new Amazon account (with the secondary TalkTalk email) ensuring a BB18 postcode is used. This will then give Stanley access to ITVX, 4on demand and lots of other free streaming channels.

Thunderbird will recognise both TalkTalk addresses without issue. The inbox folder structure can be easily updated to include a subfolder for the secondary Amazon specific email address.

[Tripps]

There is a relatively simple fix for this which just involves creating a second TalkTalk email account, then registering for a new Amazon account (with the secondary TalkTalk email) ensuring a BB18 postcode is used. This will then give Stanley access to ITVX, 4on demand and lots of other free streaming channels. Thunderbird will recognise both TalkTalk addresses without issue. The inbox folder structure can be easily updated to include a subfolder for the secondary Amazon specific email address.

All quite straightforward. One man's 'relatively simple' is another man's nightmare.

[Big Kev]

There is a relatively simple fix for this which just involves creating a second TalkTalk email account, then registering for a new Amazon account (with the secondary TalkTalk email) ensuring a BB18 postcode is used. This will then give Stanley access to ITVX, 4on demand and lots of other free streaming channels. Thunderbird will recognise both TalkTalk addresses without issue. The inbox folder structure can be easily updated to include a subfolder for the secondary Amazon specific email address.

All quite straightforward. One man's 'relatively simple' is another man's nightmare.

He won't have to do it himself

[Stanley]

Thank You David! Exactly my thoughts and I chucked the Firestick into the back of the drawer and wrote off the £45 I had spent. Apart from the location issue there was also the fact that to use the device I had to change the source of the signal. I refuse to complicate my life like that. (I have a similar issue looming in medical matters.....)
Why should we have to get so complicated in order to live? It's a bit like supermarkets, instead of the customer sitting in a chair in front of the counter and giving their order to a counter-hand who did all the running about for you, we have to pick our own items and if we are daft enough, check them out as well. Meanwhile the people who had jobs and dignity in their lives are chucked out on to the scrap heap. The same thing happened with automation and now is happening with AI and people are simply allowing it to happen. (Go and read 'The Time Machine' by H G Wells!)
Rant over.....
Back to the piste! As usual, once I had the repair shop repeat out of the way I went and browsed Youtube.

[Tripps]

I'm watching The 39 Steps - the 1935 version directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Described by Orson Welles as a "masterpiece. I've seen several versions, Kenneth Moore, Robert Powell, and as a result bought the book which was published in 1915 - "It's forty miles to Inverary - you'll be there in two hours"

It's plot is very different from any of the three films. All watchable though, and it is fiction. . .

[Stanley]

I saw it and booked it in for catch-up if I can remember!
It's the truest version to the book I think.
The book was one of a genre popular at the time which were voicing suspicions of Germany. See Erskine Childers' 'Riddle of the Sands' for the classic example.

[Gloria]

Watched the last Mr Bates v The Post Office last night, will catch up with the Real Story, which followed the news some other time. It’s hard to believe what went on, and is still having repercussions. Those poor people’s lives completely ruined.

[Tripps]

I watched the last part of Mr Bates, and the true life version which followed it. ITV are making a big production of it all, and quite rightly so. They did a good job of casting. Let's hope they don't just let it drop now.

I have a particular interest as my wife's parents had a Post office. and it was a thankless diffcult way to live. (The wedding was on a Wednesday as that was early closing ) All the accounting however was done with pen and paper - not even a calculator! True - when I urged them to get one Gran said - " it wouldn't help - he'd only press the wrong keys" Everything had to be balanced every evening and some late nights followed until it was all correct.

I am aware of three post mistresses locally who appeared in court, and were convicted on accounting charges. I thought two of them odd at the time but never imagined the real cause.

This may be fanciful and forgive me, but I see faint parallels with the Covid thing. The powers that be saw that they had done the wrong thing, but rather than admit it - and be seen in a bad light, and perhaps lose their privileged, well paid, high status positions, decided to bluff it out and play dirty. Paula Vennells is/was an Anglican priest, and " is no longer listed as a member of the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group on which she had previously served."

The length of time it all took is a scandal. Why were there no whistle blowers from Fujitsu by the people changing the "unchangeable data" on a daily basis.

[Gloria]

Tripps, there was only the young guy who came forward and he was very reluctant. Perhaps this programme will now bring more to say what was being done.

[Stanley]

Here's the report in this week's Private Eye. The victims are still being badly served, the perpetrators are not suffering any sanctions. This is how society works these days, one law for the rich and another for the poor is an old saying but it was never more true!
I watched 39 Steps and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. John Laurie and Peggy Ashcroft......
(Mind you I was reminded once more of the strange and miraculous way Hannay was translated from the wilds of Scotland to the streets of London.....)

[MickBrett]

This looks promising

https://thetvdb.com/series/the-gallows-pole

[Stanley]

I have an idea I looked at it Mick but decided not to bother. I haven't gone back to Vigil yet!
I think the reason I rejected it was because there were too many historical inaccuracies.

[Tripps]

Well -the BBC were serious when they said they would stop transmitting in Standard Definition on Freesat today. I have no BBC channels at all now. No snooker! I did buy an HD box , but couldn't understand it so sent it back.
Best try again with the box.

PS Second thought - new bigger screen TV with built in HD seems a better option?

[Big Kev]

I did read they were switching them off, my old Humax boxes both coped with the channel move around a few months ago. I keep getting emails, from Freesat, to upgrade to one of their own branded 4k boxes. I have resisted as the old boxes are working OK
My Firestick has 4k output which isn't used as I only have a 1080p TV.

[Tripps]

Can you translate that into English please?

[Stanley]

All I know is that my old Humax box and TV are working fine but no ITV catch up.
As for good TV.....
Oh David! You missed a great match! Ronnie won the first four frames. (best of 11 frames) After the four frame interval Ding came back and won 3 frames on the trot second two with single visit and last with a 147 break. Then Ronnie took control and won with two of his best frames ever. I can't remember a better snooker match. Go out and buy a new set immediately and catch it on replay!

[Stanley]

Judd Trump managed to beat Kyren Wilson with the last ball of the match when they were both level after a lacklustre performance from both of them.....

[Gloria]

Silent Witness two parter on Monday and Tuesday of this week was excellent. There’s some good dramas on tv of late.