Oscar Wilde wasn't it? There was a typewriter at the end of whatever it was he was climbing down. Banksy is always good value.
I watched the Dave Allen stand-up compilation on BBC, and there was not a single religious joke. It was advertised as having his routine where he sat on a chair with a glass of whisky and a fag, but none of that. If it was censored out it seems a bit silly. I was listening to the great Ian Dury on Spotify and noticed him saying "Two fat persons click click click". Surely that was originally "Two fat ladies"? I'm sure PL will confirm this as another silly piece of censoreship.
I always thought it was "parsons". I have different versions of the song and will check this later. We will never again see Dave Allen at his best on TV...
I was watching Panorama this evening, about racism in the Church of England. I didn't disagree with most of it, but I was taken aback by one rather jarring quote from a black commentator; "Congregations are mostly white and mostly elderly. And quite frankly they won't be around 10 or 20 years from now..." He was explaining how there are many more young black people who would be interested in coming to church (than young white people) and this would happen if there was less perceived racism. But it struck me his comment about white, elderly congregations was pretty insensitive. And that is without the implication that those congregations are part of the racism problem within the C of E.
Much as I like the woke leftie BBC, they don't usually do investigative journalism very well. The investigation into the Post Office scandal being the exception.
Terrific interview with David Hockney on the Woke Leftie Andrew Marr show. Well worth sitting through a load of obfuscation from the politicians. At the age of 83, still smoking away, he's opening 2 new exhibitions in London and Paris, of Spring in Normandy. His advice to anyone who wants to go abroad but can't was to go out for a walk and look at nature very closely, really concentrate, because it's beautiful. Even an artistic Philistine like me can see that beauty in his paintings.
I caught that interview. And the colours of those 'spring' paintings, very luxurious. Kind of reminded me of the way Van Gogh used vivid colours.
OK... Annoying adverts time. 1. Adverts that make glib references to the pandemic. I bloody hate that. 2. Adverts for cleaning up the environment, that show cute kids picking up rubbish in breathtaking rural or coastal surroundings. 99% of rubbish blows around urban and suburban sh*tholes - but these never appear on adverts set in TV land. 3. That Halifax advert with the bloke about to have his dog put down & the Oasis song. That really annoys me.
All adverts on commercial radio are annoying because they play them every 15 minutes. Same ones on different channels.
Not having #Butterfield copy and paste ability, I recommend looking on YouTube for A little girl gives a coin to a street musician and gets the best surprise in return.
Personally I don't think any churches matter much. If anything matters it's the message. I was raised Anglican, but I consider myself agnostic now. My thinking is usually along Humanist lines. I also believe in freedom of religious belief, though naturally I prefer moderation and tolerance over all forms of extremism. My old dad really enjoyed watching Father Ted - just about the only comedy made since Dad's Army that he liked. I enjoy it too.
Religion is the biggest cause of conflict, suffering and death that the world has known. I detest all of the religions that I know equally, for the division and disharmony that they cause, apart perhaps from the Sikh religion that generally teaches tolerance of others, rather than slavish worship of an individual entity. I have no fear for what may happen if I am wrong and a God does exist, as if that is the case, I believe that no God would require any form of worship or strict adherence to the religious rituals that so many supposedly God fearing folk seem to demand. Good deeds, kindness to all living things and living your life by honourable personal standards would be all that any God would want and I would be happy to present myself on that basis.
Religions are ways of understanding life and providing a guide for living. In that way, faith in religion is little different from faith in science. Both religion and science have been abused and corrupted to cause terrible conflict and suffering. Since religions have been around for far longer than modern science though, more mud has stuck to religions. We all know about the persecutions, holy wars and genocide perpetrated in the name of religions down the centuries. But science has been twisted too, to give us eugenics and the industrialisation of genocide during WW2. We would not abandon science and return to the dark ages because of the evil done in its name. Because science has also saved countless lives and hugely improved the quality of our lives. Similarly, I don't believe we should abandon religion because of the evil done in its name. Religions are for millions of people a huge source of comfort at many times in their lives. As you say @Ubedizzy good deeds, kindness and honourable personal standards are what matters. I think we can all behave that way if we wish to, whether we believe in God or not. PS: I know this is off-topic here in the TV & entertainment thread. If we wish to continue discussing this (as it's a big subject of course), I'll be happy to create a separate thread for it and move these messages to that thread.