When We Were Young

I am a great fan of BBC iPlayer. It allows me to watch programmes that I may have missed or that I have enjoyed and want to watch again. Why would I want to watch something again so soon after it has been broadcast? Well, sometimes it's because I have been knitting while watching it and sometimes, particularly at the moment, it's because my concentration is so bad that I don't actually take in what the programme was about.

The channel that I am most likely to want to watch programmes from is BBC4. This channel, which is only available for those who watch in a digital format, has some absolutely wonderful programmes. Much of its output is in the form of documentaries. I like documentaries, probably because I like factual programmes more than those that are more entertainment. particularly when I am well. I have a real interest in science and history and there have been some wonderful programmes that fall into these categories over recent months. Having studied the history of science, the history of medicine, the history of technology and the history of religion, there have been some excellent programmes from the BBC covering these subjects and I am particularly enjoying Light Fantastic at the moment.

However, yesterday I watched a couple of programmes on iPlayer that were more to do with my childhood. The first was Skippy: Australia's First Superstar. I can't say that I was a fan of Skippy when it was shown on television, probably because I was a bit old to be in its target audience, but I have to say that it was interesting to listen to those who worked on the programme talk about how it changed their lives and, of course, the problems that they with the kangaroos that were used in the filming. There were some funny moments, such as being told that the emu had to be given a drink of whiskey before he appeared on the set in order to be a suitable set to stand still. There were also some clips from the series showing many of the unique Australian animals and seeing them brought back memories of the long holiday that my husband and I had there in 1996. We spent five and a half weeks travelling down the east coast from Cairns in the north to Melbourne, via Brisbane and Sydney and many places in between.

The second programme that I watched was the Time Shift programme about Oliver Postgate. I did grow up watching his wonderful little films. I remember Ivor the Engine in black and white (I was a bit old for it when it was made in colour but as it was usually on just before the early evening news I do remember seeing that too). My favourite was always Noggin the Nog. I'm not sure why, it just was. There were others too. The Clangers, those little pink knitted creatures who lived on the Moon, and the Pingwings, a family of knitted penguins, and, of course, Bagpuss, that saggy old cat that Emily loved. Again I was a bit old for Bagpuss, but as with all of Oliver Postgate's films, they tended to be slotted in between programmes and you were likely to catch them as you sat down to watch a programme that you were waiting for.

I think the thing that I remember most about the films was Oliver Postgate's voice. Hearing it again after all these years brought back many memories of childhood and made me realise just how good they were in comparison to the present day programmes for children with their cartoons full of violence and monsters and their associated merchandise that make our children constantly want the latest toys. We may have been much more naive then, but at least we were allowed to be children and to enjoy the simple things that were produced for us without the need for consumerism showing its face.

My Pet Hate

We all have pet hates; things that for us are intolerable. It could be a food item, it could be a type of clothing, it could be a television programme, it might be a person who we don't really know but for whom we develop a strong dislike. In my case it is an accent.

Yes, that's right, an accent; the way in which people from a particular part of the country speak. And the accent is ...

GEORDIE

Anyone who has known me for many years will see the irony of this pet hate. You see, my husband of more than 20 years was born at Wallsend, and lived the first 18 years of his life in the area of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. And always north of the Tyne, for that is where real Geordies come from (that's what he always used to tell me) not these southerners from Durham and South Shields who call themselves Geordies.

The Geordie accent can be very difficult to understand for those who do not come from the area. Understanding it has never been a problem for me so I can't give that as the reason for disliking it, but dislike it I do. Perhaps it is the sing-song quality to the accent that I don't like, but it is a fact that I will often turn off the television or radio if the person talking is a Geordie.

Just in case you are wondering why I have suddenly decided to tell you about my pet hate, it is tied in with something that I have been watching on BBC television over recent weeks and my annoyance about the way that programmes are shown, or perhaps it would be better to say the way they are repeated.

I have found that Sunday evenings have been packed with excellent programmes on BBC1 and BBc2 for the last four weeks, and I have been very grateful for BBC iPlayer which gives me the ability to watch these programmes again and to watch programmes that I couldn't watch when they were broadcast because of time clashes. The programmes in question have been South Pacific and The Incredible Human Journey on BBC2 and Inspector George Gently on BBC1.

I watch the BBC2 programmes when they are broadcast and then resort to BBC iPlayer for Inspector Gently. It is set in the north-east of England in the 1960s, and while most of the stories seem to relate to the Durham area or South Shields, the locals are referred to as Geordies. And while I will usually turn off the television or radio, as I have already said, at the merest hint of the accent, I have really enjoyed watching this series. Perhaps it was because it was tempered with Inspector Gently's London accent. I didn't see the first series of Inspector Gently (I'm not sure why, perhaps I just wasn't aware of it being on) but I have enjoyed watching the second series although I would have liked to have seen the first series because it would perhaps have explained a few things that I didn't understand about the two main characters. So I was very pleased to see that the programme that was going to be shown last night was from the first series, unfortunately it wasn't the first episode, but the second one.

Why on earth would the BBC put on the second episode of something without showing the first one, especially for something such as this series when it is likely that the first episode provided an introduction to the main characters? The answer is simple. There must be something big on next Sunday and they only wanted a filler programme for this week. And that is what it looks like for I see that the final for this year's 'Apprentice' is being shown next Sunday.

So I have had a taster of what had gone before, but only a taster, so I will have to add it to the items that I will be buying later from Amazon. I have to say that I have checked Amazon a couple of times just recently; originally in the hope of being able to buy some of the Inspector Gently books written by Alan Hunter, and latterly looking for the DVD. While I appreciate that these books will be somewhat dated now, I would have liked the opportunity to read at least some of the books, but few are available and then only in used copies. While I am not averse to buying used copies, the prices being charged for some were totally ridiculous.

So there you have it. A rambling post that started out with me talking about my pet hate, an accent, and finishes with me talking about an enjoyable television series that had most of the characters talking with that accent. Isn't life strange?

The One With Glasses And The One With Short, Fat, Hairy Legs

Trying to find things to improve my mood has meant that I have spent much of today looking at favourite DVDs or things that I have recorded over the last week or so.  One of the things that I recorded was the programme on BBC1 last night hosted by Paul Merton.  In this programme Merton looked at what made Morecambe and Wise such comedic geniuses, and it included input from present-day comedians, as well as those who appeared with Eric and Ernie in their highly regarded Christmas shows, and Eddie Braben, the man who wrote the scripts for their finest shows.

I was feeling very sorry for myself this morning when I woke.  I didn't have much energy or enthusiasm, and getting out of bed was going to require a great deal of willpower.  I made some breakfast and sat down to watch the aforementioned programme.  While much of the one hour of the programme's duration was wasted in idle chatter, the excerpts of Eric and Ernie that were shown were some of their finest.  And best of all as far as I was concerned, they showed some of the session with Andre Previn, which I consider to have been their finest perfomance ever, starting with the wordplay on the name Privett/Preview/Previn and then on to Grieg's Piano Concerto being played as only Eric Morecambe could.

For a short period of time this morning, I was laughing out loud. The sheer joy of watching these two men perform together as only they could meant that for a period this morning, depression seemed far away.  I'm still not feeling on top of the world, but just sitting here thinking about Eric and Ernie has helped to keep me going today.

We are so lucky that many of their finest performances are still in the archives and that these archives can be raided every now and again to allow us another laugh or two. 

Just Another Weekend

After a very difficult Thursday, and my normal Friday morning anxiety over my psychotherapy session, I have made it to the weekend.  As far as the TV companies are concerned the holiday period has started and we are being treated to lots of films, so I shall have to see what is coming up over the next few days and decide what I am going to watch and what I shall record for future consumption.

I don't have much to do over the next few days.  Monday morning will see me making a visit to see my GP.  It is just my normal monthly appointment so that he can see how I am and check my blood pressure and mood.  Then it will be a quick dash to the Post Office to post a small package by special delivery.  Tuesday I will get the last bits of shopping for Christmas.  I don't need very much, just some fresh fruit and vegetables, a bottle of wine to have with my Christmas dinner, and possibly a little treat for myself.

I know that Christmas isn't going to be a very special day for me; there won't be any presents or a traditional Christmas dinner, but I think that I can get through it okay.  I am treating this next week or so as just an ordinary period.  I am not thinking about it being Christmas; Thursday will be just like any other day which will just have some rather different television programmes to watch.  My viewing will include Doctor Who, and the new Wallace and Gromit offering.

I have spent the last few evenings working on the Shetland lace shawl, and after having decided to knit it in a different yarn it has progressed very well.  I have managed to finish the centre square with its rosebud pattern and have now picked up the stitches around the central panel and started to knit the border pattern. There are 92 rows to knit before I start the lacy edging; so far I have completed six rows.  Not many perhaps, but it is a start and fortunately although it looks very complicated when you look at the photographs of the finished pattern, it is actually quite an easy pattern to follow (it is knitted using a couple of charts to make it easier) and I am hoping that there will not be too many problems as the rows progress.

It will be time to pop my lunch in the microwave in a minute (home-made vegetable biryani) and then I can spend the afternoon knitting and half-watching a progression of films.  It may not be very exciting, but at least I can cope with it.

Size Is Everything ... Or Is It?

At one time, the best way to determine how long ago a contemporary film or television series was made was to look at the fashions. In the 60s the skirts got shorter, and the colours more garish; in the 70s the skirts got longer, much longer, the trouser bottoms got flared, and flared some more; the 80s saw the heyday of the punk, of safety pins, and make-up for all; the 90s ... well you get the idea.

It was while watching a programme on BBC Four last night about Juliet Bravo, the ground-breaking police drama that had a woman police inspector as its central character, that I realised that there is another device, in fact a couple of devices, that can firmly establish the vintage of television series, and particularly police dramas.

What are these devices? The police radio and the mobile phone, of course. Items that were the size of bricks, or that had to be permanently fixed in the car, rather than being a truly portable device, were there at first. Today, the devices are small and can double up as a portable computer for the truly computer literate, such as Sgt Hathaway, in the Inspector Morse spin-off, Lewis.

It just goes to prove that size isn't everything.

Playing Spot The Actor

When I'm feeling really depressed and I can't concentrate on anything I end up watching television. If there is anything worthwhile being broadcast at the time then I will watch that, if there isn't I will watch a DVD. Some things I can watch over and over again, while many things are only worth watching once, so my DVD collection tends to consist of favourite television series, some from long ago, and films of the same sort.

This afternoon I am watching Inspector Morse; I have the choice of viewing a DVD for I have the complete series, but I am actually watching it on television. The problem is that I can't help looking at the actors and trying to remember what else I have seen them in. This afternoon's episode has a very distinguished cast of actors, and it can be quite amusing to see them playing characters that you might not necessarily associate with them because they are more familiar in other things.

Geoffrey Palmer is probably most familiar to many of us for comedies such as As Time Goes By, Butterflies, and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Mr Palmer has endeared himself to us playing put-upon husbands, or slightly potty army officers, so to find him playing a character in whom it is difficult to find any redeeming features is somewhat disconcerting. Playing Geoffrey Palmer's wife in this episode of Morse is Barbara Leigh-Hunt. I think that she is a brilliant actress, but one of her finest performances must surely have been playing Mr Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the much acclaimed BBC television adaptation that also starred Colin Firth.

But it is not always the leading actors that catch your attention. I noticed a 'heavy' in today's Morse. He set fire to the home of one of the characters, and then went to the hospital where this character's mother is dying of cancer and speaks to her menacingly about what will happen to her son if he is not careful. The actor playing the 'heavy' looked familiar, and then I realised why. This thoroughly unsavoury character with obvious contempt for the law is the same actor who plays the Assistant Chief Constable in Wycliffe. It's funny really, because although the character he plays in Wycliffe is a policeman, and therefore supposed to be one of the 'good guys', he is still an unsavoury character who undoubtedly rose to this high position through trampling over others on his way up and gets no respect from his subordinates.

So is this a case of type-casting, or is it a case of looks dictating the parts that are offered?

It's The Olympics. Hooray.

I see that The Junior Doctor is a fan of the Olympics. So am I. I have to be honest and say that I do not watch very much sport on television, but if there is a major games on I start to get glued to the box.

The last Olympics were not too much of a problem because Greece is only a couple of hours ahead of us, so I could rearrange my working hours a little if there was something that I particularly wanted to watch, although most of the best stuff was during the hours that I was at home anyway (or at the weekends). But with the time difference between here and Beijing being much greater it means that things are happening when I should be asleep, or when I should be getting up and doing whatever it is that I need to do during the day. It looks as though my sleeping pattern may be seriously disturbed for the next couple of weeks.

Cycling has never been a sport which attracted me in any way, after all a bicycle is just an object that gets you from Point A to Point B quicker than if you had to walk. However, when the Cycling World Championships were held in Manchester earlier this year, I was going through a bad period for sleep and consequently I became hooked on the late night programmes covering the event. As it happened, Team GB were absolute stars and wiped the floor with the other nations, winning almost every gold medal that they could. This meant that the cyclists from Great Britain were going to be a force to be reckoned with when it became time for the Olympics. Although some of the events in which we won medals in Manchester are not going to be be included in Beijing, our boys and girls are still favourites for most events. So I would like to wish then good luck and tell them that I will be shouting for them. Only please don't always leave it to the last possible second to take the lead because my poor old nerves can't stand it.

I have only once tried my hand at sailing, I was about 16 at the time, and I found it a very confusing thing to do. I think that this was partly due to the fact that I have enough problems being able to work out my right from my left, so when things suddenly became port and starboard, it was too much for me to cope with. I'm not counting my day spent cruising around Corfu in a yacht as part of my sailing adventures; I was very much a passenger on that occasion and spent much of my time indulging in beverages from the large supply in the cool boxes on board. Sailing must be difficult when it is very windy, but the almost calm conditions that faced our sailors this morning must make sailing almost impossible. How on earth do you get a boat to move when there doesn't even seem to be enough wind to mess up your hair?

Our rowers have also started their battle to win as many medals as possible. Team GB has had a good record in the rowing for a number of years and it seems that this year we may even have a stronger team than ever before. I expect that many of us rowing as a somewhat elitist sport, although it gained more support and probably more fans as a result of the exploits of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent. They have nine Olympic gold medals between them and that is more than we sometimes manage to get in a particular games. Food for thought, indeed.

Gymnastics and Judo have also started, although our fortunes have been somewhat mixed so far. But for me the games will be really underway, when first the swimming, and then the athletics, begin. But, one thing that has saddened me a little is that a nation, other than the host, can dictate when events will be held. I am sure that the television rights for the USA will bring in a great deal of money, but is it right that the way in which the swimming events have been timetabled should rely on when it is convenient for the Americans to watch. Instead of having the heats in the morning and finals in the evening (Beijing time) as would be the norm at major swimming events around the world, in order to fit in with American TV schedules the heats will be held in the evening and the finals in the morning Beijing time.

I sincerely hope that when the Olympic Games are held in London in four years time, which I hope I am able to enjoy, that we don't change the timings of things to suit another nation other than ourselves. Many of the sports that form part of the Olympic Games will not be shown in the US, they are really only interested in a few, so it is wrong that they should be able to affect the way in which things are timetabled, just because they are a large, rich nation. Why can't they get up in the early hours, or have a very late night, like the rest of us mortals? Just because they are the USA, and will probably win more medals than any other country (although China will be making a determined effort to see that this doesn't happen) doesn't mean that they have the right to dictate how things are run.

Ranting over; it's time to get a nap so that I can be fresh for when things get going again in the early hours of the morning! Oh, and lots of luck and best wishes to all our athletes, whatever their sport. If you just do your best, we will be proud of you all.