Category: Life: TV and Movies

I’ve just been speaking to my GESF (Green-Eyed Southern Friend) again – we’ve spoken quite a number of times this week in fact, but due to some potential confusion over what was said earlier in the week I decided not to write anything down as I might have been thinking the wrong thing and “jumping the gun”.

Anyway, as we were finishing the conversation, I promised that I’d send her the link to the Naked Quidditch Match, but she complained that she had no idea what Quidditch was as she hadn’t read any of the Harry Potter books as she thought it was just a blatant rip-off of Jill Murphy‘s “Worst Witch” books (and film and, more recently, the TV series).

That then started me thinking which films (that I haven’t already got) I would really like to see again. Ok, it’s now getting a little bit late for Christmas and some of them are “really oldies” or didn’t “take off” in a big way – but this is my blog and I wanna blog about these so there 🙂 I’ll just do two for tonight and two another night…

So: Why do I want to see “The Worst Witch” and “The Asphyx”?

I’ve just spent a number of lazy hours watching TV and eating whilst idly channel “surfing”. During that time, I noticed the the ‘slightly adult’ Men And Motors channel from Granada Sky Broadcasting seems to give a stereotypical impression of part of the population. Basically, Granada (the TV station that brings you Coronation Street) is based “up” in Manchester – and the “Men And Motors” shows seem to just have “northern lasses” on the programmes (the Manchurian and Liverpudlian accents tends to be quite distinctive, but some of the girls actually state they are from the North and North West – whether it’s a “cost saving measure” to save the camera crew travelling around the country, I don’t know). The only thing is, most of the shows on M+M appear to me to be about strippers and their work.

Yep, you’ve guessed it – it seems to give the impression that only “northern lasses” strip (and the majority of them are actually blonde – but on most you can tell they are bottle-blondes). Oh, and it’s doesn’t really help the “stereotypical impression” about “Scousers” being a bit lacking in the intelligence department either when some of the women being interviewed (this instance from a catwalk show or similar) come up with remarks such as “It’s not just about the look, it’s about the whole package – the walk, the look. It’s about the package”. In other words, “judge me and my fellow women by the way we look and walk only”.

Oh – and girls, I’ll hate to disappoint you, but some blokes do find large breasts a big turn-off!

Sorry for the slight rant, but I dislike “stereotypes” being reinforced – but Men And Motors just seems to want to reinforce the “Northern Blonde Bimbo Who’s Willing To Take Her Clothes Off As Soon As You Ask” stereotype a bit too much. And if it wasn’t for NTL: forcing me to “take” ‘Men and Motors’ as a cable TV channel then I wouldn’t have this to rant about (NTL show “Granada Plus” [an enjoyable channel showing old re-runs] between 6am and 11pm, when it then “switches over” to Men and Motors).

(Disclaimer: I’m actually from the Midlands and as far as I know, I have no relations in or from the Northern part of England – so you can’t say I’m “defending” the Scousers because I am one – as I’m not! A! Now just calm down, calm down!)

Friday night’s (repeated last night) episode of Have I Got News For You was the best yet since Angus Deayton was “forced to leave” after “tabloid revelations” about his personal life. Whilst I must admit I feel that people’s personal life should be personal (unless _they_ decide parts of it should be public) and whilst I think what was revealed about his personal life wasn’t too horrific (ok, he _did_ have an affair which is bad – but working in the “media business” and taking cocaine: hardly front-page news is it?) it did make his position on the show a bit “uncomfortable” as it did seem to be more about “take the mickey out of the host” rather than “take the mickey out of the news” (which is what the show is about IMHO). Admittedly, he was _in_ the news, but you cannot have a satirical news quiz that it mainly about satirical jokes at the participants expense.

For exactly that reason, I felt it was such a bad idea to have Anne Robinson (of The Weakest Link and Watchdog fame) hosting it. Paul and Ian just took p–s out of her background with Robert Maxwell. However, I felt that this week’s host John Sergeant was practically ideal for the role – only thing I didn’t like was his voice was a little bit too deep or slow for my liking (I’m still trying to figure out exactly what it was that made his voice sound “off”, but…). Personally, I wouldn’t mind John becoming the show’s new permanent host.

Oh, and I think it was also the first time I heard reference to a certain magazine. Basically John (hosting the show) said to Ian (one of the team captains if you didn’t know) – “Let’s try and keep things accurate shall we?” and Paul retorted with “You do realise you are talking to the editor of Private Eye?”. (a certain Ian Hislop is the editor of that ‘esteemed organ’ and, yep, I am a subscriber).

And I also caught Wobble and Bob on MTV last night – be warned that all the TV guides and teletext say that it’s on at 21:55 – but it isn’t. Since the show is only around 1minute long, but the guides are setup for 5 minute intervals, it’s more like 21.58 – when I settled down to watch the very first episode “Pie!” I did get worried that they had cancelled/moved it, but it came on just before Jackass (and I’ve already seen “Jackass – The Movie“, but a review of that will be coming after the long promised Harry Potter one…)

Wow! It seems Weeble and Bob (that I blogged about on the 16th) have made it to the “small screen”! Yep, MTV:UK are showing it as 5 minute shows late at night as Wobble and Bob! Why the name change? Because Hasbro own the trademark to the name “Weeble(s)” (an “egg-shaped” toy that rocks back and forth, just like a certain cartoon character that’s now on TV).

See also: TV: Wobble and Bob II.

“OMG!” Was my response when I saw the following news headline on BBC News: Public ‘play God’ in game show.

Fortunately/unfortunately (depending on your viewpoint), it’s not quite a dramatic as it sounds. It’s not a way to raise/save money for the NHS: (the viewing public don’t get to say ‘Turn off the life-support machine”, “Yes – give that person a life saving operation”), but just to give their opinion on peoples lifestyles for a Channel 4 gameshow called ‘Without Prejudice’ (hosted by Liza Tarbuck).