GOOD TV

[Stanley]

I love these glimpses into an ill-spent youth.....

[Tripps]

I love these glimpses into an ill-spent youth.....

Ill spent ? - in the service of Queen and country I'll have you know.

It's late - Primitivo late. . .

I'm watching boxing on channel 5. Footballers are dying with dementia after a career of heading a football, and the rules may soon be changed - especially for kids.

The aim in boxing is to inflict head injuries as heavily as possible on your opponent. Just saw a memorable knockout. Seems to be past its sell by date I'd say?

[Stanley]

I noted the hour David and wondered what was grabbing your attention. I think you're right about boxing, I've always thought so in fact ever since they made me take my glasses off at grammar school in the gym, put gloves on me and told me to hit another boy. I couldn't see the point in it and I think they realised I was never going to be any good at 'The Manly Art'.
I was watching old British Transport Films on Youtube.

[Tizer]

I strongly recommend watching last Sunday's `Sky at Night'. It's a special on `The State of Astronomy' over the last ten years and looking at the future. I've put some details and a link in the Science topic: Sky at Night

I hope you've all been watching Lucy Worsley's `Royal History's Biggest Fibs' and especially the last episode on the Russian Revolution. Fibs

[Big Kev]

Tyson Fury and Russell Kane, guests on ITV's Jonathan Ross Chat Show, discussing men's mental health. Well worth a watch on catch up.

[Tripps]

Did Tyson Fury turn up for the BBC sports personality? I just watched the result - the rest of it is too cringeworthy. Pleasantly surprised to see that the jockey Hollie Doyle was 'in the threes'.

Bit of a hero (ine) of mine as she competes against (and beats) men on absolutely equal terms. I can't think of any physical type sport where that happens. I don't think darts counts. The old school said it could never happen: but it has.

I had a brief chat with her partner Tom Marquand last summer. He's a good sort too.

[Stanley]

'The Old School' gets it wrong so often David.....
Every time someone mentions motor racing champions I think of THIS man. I think Lewis would have appreciated him as well. All we ever saw was news film clips but that was enough. Fancy being able to watch a full race in HD!

[Big Kev]

Did Tyson Fury turn up for the BBC sports personality?

He said he wasn't going to, he'd also asked the BBC to remove him from 'the list'. I didn't watch it so don't know

[plaques]

I hope you've all been watching Lucy Worsley's `Royal History's Biggest Fibs' and especially the last episode on the Russian Revolution. Fibs

Actually nothing new in her programme its all well documented in several books on the 'revolution'. As always they use the November date as the starting point of the revolution when in truth it really started 5 years before that. Worsley's introduction of Rasputin as a main feature was only a side issue compared with the feudal system of virtual slavery that the majority of the Russians lived under. Not quite fake news but a rather biased view of what went on.

[Tripps]

Did Tyson Fury turn up for the BBC sports personality?

He said he wasn't going to he'd also asked the BBC to remove him from 'the list'. I didn't watch it so don't know

I've been unable to find the answer - no mention in the press that I can see. The BBC post match report just says he was a short listed candidate. The Telegraph (behind a paywall) say that his attempt to derail the competition has failed. I don't think he tried at all to derail it - just didn't want to take part. He even took legal action when the BBC refused to take him off the list of candidates. They didn't - so it will be interesting to see where that goes. Looks like 'fake news' and a spin op for the BBC.

I'd describe it as an act of 'self othering'. Travelling folk do it all the time.

Maybe President Trump has a point.

It was all done on Zoom anyway, so he didn't have to attend in person. I'm just curious whether someone can defy the BBC. Seems not. The fact that the overpaid Gary Lineker was presenting, and I've just had to start paying the TV Licence fee again was a factor for me not watching - and there was a good snooker match on elsewhere.


I

[Big Kev]

Royal Opera All Star Gala blasting out on the 5.1. It's a bit ''Opera's Greatest Hits' on BBC4. I must stop joining in the bits I know

[Stanley]

Why? Nowt like a singalong Kev!

[Big Kev]

Why? Nowt like a singalong Kev!

Not with a voice like mine

[Stanley]

[Gloria]

Watched a fact based drama last night on ch4, Hidden Figures, it was about three block women at the start of the space race, highly recommended, well worth a watch.

[PanBiker]

Hidden Figures, I watched it on Netflix a while back and mentioned it in here. Took them a while to recognise the potential.

[Gloria]

Hidden Figures, I watched it on Netflix a while back and mentioned it in here. Took them a while to recognise the potential.

Missed reading that Ian.

[PanBiker]

I watched Hidden Figures the other day which chronicles the story of three African American young women, Two who were mathematicians and one an engineer. They worked at Langley as "computers" in the late 50's and were pivotal but hidden figures in the Space Race. Set against the backdrop of the racial segregation at the time. NASA eventually realised that they were actually indispensable. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. Katherine was a brilliant mathematician, Dorothy self taught herself to program the first IBM computer at NASA and Mary was the first African American woman to go to an all white college to get the mechanics degree she needed to join the NASA program. They all eventually rose to senior roles within NASA and worked right through the early Mercury and Gemini and Apollo programs and the later Space Shuttle program.

It was back in October Gloria.

[Gloria]

Black Narcissus last night on BBC1, interesting, second part tonight, final part tomorrow night.

[Gloria]

Watched all three Black Narcissus, not sure what to make of it, certainly different.

[Stanley]

I watched episode 1 last night. Will try episode 2 tonight.

[Stanley]

I watched both of the last two episodes Gloria. I have to agree with you. I'm sure Rumer Goden had some extremely deep meanings in her mind when she wrote it but I'm afraid they escaped me.....

[plaques]

Watched Tizer's recommended 'Goes wrong show', not a fan of slapstick but the sideways glance that Mary gave when she said " but I'm a virgin" was worth the extra half hour. ( 3+ minutes into the show)

[Stanley]

Gloria, I went digging and found this which may help with understanding of Black Narcissus. Or not, as the case mey be!
"A family connection links this new three-part mini-series to the older film: its producer Andrew Macdonald is the grandson of Emeric Pressburger. The emergence of a new version of this story at this point in history is otherwise rather confounding. Not only is the stature of the Powell/Pressburger version such that any new adaptation is doomed to unflattering comparison, but the primary themes of Black Narcissus – ego versus duty; desire versus responsibility; what God wants of us compared with what we want for ourselves – seem not so much merely archaic as barely comprehensible to a generation for which it is the expression and fulfilment of individual desires, not their suppression, that stands as sacrosanct. Only the theme of the doomed colonial escapade seems directly pertinent to the current cultural moment – but here, too, Godden is distinctly problematic, being both unavoidably condescending towards ‘natives’, and elegiac and ironic rather than morally decisive about imperialism."

[PanBiker]

From the start it was clear there was something not quite right about Sister Ruth. The number of times they showed the immense drop from the bell platform it was clear that either she or the "Superior Sister" were going off the top. That's about all I can say about it.

The Serpent last night was a good opener but you have to have your wits about you as it's a time jumper between scenes. Will give it another go, that bloke is a nasty one.