Off Topic TV, Entertainment and Arts thread

Prince Andrew for riding young fillies ?

 

FHB got it right - well done Ben Stokes

Helped England win the Cricket World Cup, and provided an innings of magic in the Ashes

 

Another amusing moment is watching Lewis Hamilton come second every year. He'll romp home if he starts paying his taxes in Britain.

 

Some magnificent TV over Xmas thanks to one of the niche channels showing The World at War

This magnificent series, made in 1973 and narrated by Lawrence Olivier, covers in over 20 hours all that happened in the run up to 1939 to its aftermath after 1945. What makes it all the more poignant is that when filmed in 1973 many of the key military players from all sides were still alive, and were interviewed for the programme, as well as civilians from many countries affected.

It’s magnificent TV - anybody interested in history should give it a watch.

 

The World At War is the definitive TV series on the subject.
Some really good interviews included in it as well from the early 1970's, talking to people who were there at the time - rank and file folk and some real top brass from both sides - and they were still young enough to recall it clearly.
Obviously that kind of material isn't ever going to be available again.

And it doesn't suffer from any of the political correctness which is strangling television now.
I've seen lots of similar programmes. WW2 in Colour is an interesting series too, though it lacks the in-depth detail of World At War.

The World At War is available as a DVD box set. Would thoroughly recommend it.
The set contains several 'bonus' or 'spin-off' episodes too, concentrating on specific events, which may not have been repeated on the satellite TV channels.

 

The World at War is a phenomenal TV show.

For anyone interested the The Great War YouTube channel followed World War One 100 years after the events in real time. Releasing a ten minute video each week of the events that happened that week 100 years ago. They've started doing the same thing with World War Two but 79 years later, so the channel will be releasing videos from now until 2024.

 

I know it's a movie (not TV) so slightly off-topic, but the other evening we had a power cut round our way.
Was told by the electric company it would not be fixed until about 1am. So I decided to go out and catch a movie.

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

Sorry JJ Abrams. You did your best, but it didn't work for me.
In fact none of the most recent three movies have been very good in my opinion. A few watchable moments, but no consistently good films.
Looking back, they probably should have left it alone after 1983 (Return of the Jedi).

I did enjoy the spin-off movie a few years ago - Rogue One.
That was better than anything else Disney have done with the main franchise.
Because of course it had Darth Vader in it (if only briefly).
None of the other villains ever came close to him.
The storyline too was decent, not too grand or complex. And no silly furry little animals.

Also Rogue One had a CGI version of Peter Cushing which wasn't bad. Didn't quite get his voice right but it was a good try.

 

I agree with all of this ^^^^^^

 

Just caught a few minutes of a nature programme on BBC1.
All well and good, just one observation;

When showing shots of penguins on the ice in Antarctica, is it always necessary to play quirky music?
These are amazing creatures who survive conditions that no other living thing can cope with.
They deserve a bit more respect.

 

Watching Dracula at the moment - unexpectedly good and even scary in places!

And my utter despair at the long term future of Doctor Who may have been misplaced.

I understood that ratings for the new ultra-PC Jodie Whittaker version were at all time high (since 2005 anyway).
This led me to conclude sadly that the once decent programme would just carry on in the same direction forever now.

However, I had been misled.
Ratings for the first ever JW episode over a year ago were very high, over 9 million.
But ratings fell to just 6 million during that series - and the New Year's Day episode attacted only 5 million, which fell by 10% even as the episode was on air.

The programme has totally lost its way.
Back in 2005 I thought Russell Davis did a half decent job of re-inventing the show.
But that bright start is a long time ago now.
Unfortunately, I fear the BBC would rather pull the plug on it again than steer it away from what it has become.

 

Gareth Malone trying to get a choir going at Aylesbury Young Offenders institution has just finished, the second half is on tomorrow. I thought it was terrific television. Fair play to Malone for persevering against all the odds, also to the prison staff who do a heroic job, and particularly to the few prisoners who were prepared to break away from the herd.
I guarantee it was better television than watching Arsenal win 1-0.

 

Yesterday's episode of Doctor Woke proves the series is now worse than it was in 1988 when Sylvester McCoy took over.

0% original, 100% formulaic, 100% cliched, 100% PC preachy.
Back in 1989 when the BBC cancelled the show, some fans thought the rights might be bought by ITV.

That would now be the only way this nice old programme could be saved now.
Sell it to a commercial channel which would make it entertaining again.
It has become nothing more than a BBC vehicle to brainwash kids into becoming little Corbynistas.

Last night's message - unless we all join Extinction Rebellion we're going to die, or turn into rubber suited monsters.
I'll take the rubber suit option thanks

Going to have to just give up watching it, which is a shame because I'm a life long fan, especially of the old format ('60's to '80's)

 

I gave up watching it for different reasons. It's no longer what I call proper science fiction. It became all about the science, and the special effects, whereas the original version had good plots and good characters, many of them ordinary people. The storyline would progress more slowly, giving the characters time to respond to the development of extraordinary circumstances. It was also much cheaper to make.

 

It's all done by numbers now. Tick boxes...

Cute character with stupidly quirky name (short woman in funny make-up) - tick.
Reference to disability, race, social care - tick
Oddball couple, usually dopey adult & smart kid - tick
Social media jargon - tick
Lovable old couple, at least one of whom is killed off - tick
Stressed out 'leader' (always a woman) - tick
Rubber suited monster - tick
Bad racist white man in every historical episode - tick
Preachy speech from Jodie at the end - tick tick tick tick tick.

There is now no variation whatsoever.
Every idea they are running with in this series has been done to death since 2005 - and much better than this re-hashed mess.

 

There used to be usually 6 episodes per storyline, changing that formula was the beginning of the end imo. I can't comment on the modern episodes because I stopped watching it for reasons stated, despite the fact that Peter Capaldi is a terrific actor.

 

The BBC going in hard on Wimmins football again this morning.

Worth pointing out that the big fixture in the Wimmins domestic game in Dec was Liverpool v Chelsea.

Paying attendance at the game ....540

 

Blue Planet … worst programme on TV at present … even worse than Love Island

 

Jeeezus can that horrid presenter of Blue Planet preach .. he really gets on my nerves!

 

It’s a shame that Attenborough has been captured by the climate change lobby in his dotage. The poor old buffer is 93 now.

@AllHellLetLoose

Have you heard that the BBC’s Blue Planet 3 is being presented by Greta Thunberg.

 

nope... I gather little Greta is on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list... there's a cruise missile with her name on it as we speak