Somers Town (no escape from the footy)

Somers Town
Originally uploaded by bltphoto

I was looking for something to watch on I-player as I needed a rest from the football. In the film section they had two Shane Meadows films "a home for Romeo brass" and his recent short "somers town". I'd missed the latter when it came out and this brief coincidental footy reminder aside it's a little gem. Starring the amazing Thomas Turgoose it's a simple tale of two odd ball foreign teenagers (polish & midlander!) wandering around London's Kings Cross.

It's only an hour long so too much explanation could be pointless but it's nicely shot, the acting is good especially Turgoose and as usual Meadows shames film makers with 100 times his budgets. So give it a go.

What no Doddy?

D'pool Nativity

It would be churlish to pour too much scorn on tonight's show performance. A few things spring to mind.

• Maybe the crowd would have sung along more if the works of Atomic Kitten where included!
• And why was Sonia oeuvre so cruelly omitted, tee hee!
• They could have turned off Eddie Yates mic when the singing started.
• Also isn't JC a pagan ,that's Julian Cope of course.

VFM

All the recent nonsense about the BBC , the names of cats, Liz Kershaw being in the news etc. Does bring up the value of the licence fee, it's £110 a year which seems a lot.. Contrast the cost however with certain podcasts, I use listen to Danny Bakers podcast but he wants to earn a shilling and has decided to charge. I haven't checked it out but it was going to be around £2 a week which for 5 x 50 min shows sounds good value (even with the toe curling David Kuo).
But it comes to a total of £104 a year (if Danny doesn't go on hoilday) that's without Match of the Day, the Today programme, the shipping forecast, gardeners world, comics Britannia, I'm sorry I haven't a clue, the freakzone, Nigella express, rick stein, newsnight, the occasional diverting foreign film , oh and Dr Who, Michael Palin, Claire Balding.......

Ps. Mr Baker always goes on about being free agent but it's interesting that only the BBC have ever found a format to truly display his undoubted talents, which he can now try to exploit via the web.

PPS. Bad luck for the Kershaws lately Liz in the doldrums, whilst Brother Andy seems to have gone off the rails in the Isle of Man.

Aunty's dual personality

BEEB dichotomy: On BBC4 two excellent concert films from Bruce and Ryan(don't call me Bryan) Adams meanwhile on 3 they are making jokes about Anne Franks in preparation for 3 hours of 2 pints of bloody lager. On 1 it Ace cocking ventura pet arseing detective and yet they showed "voice of the beehive "at 1am the other night when I was crying with tiredness. Why not show the good stuff all the time?

ps. just looked up the pic for this post and Ryan's been hanging out/dating Parker "a mighty wind" Posey there by guaranteeing his jammy Get status. I'd hate him if his songs weren't so great, lucky bugger.

Seven Ages of (c) rock the Beeb writes back

As well as whingeing about it here I also wrote to the BEEB about how rubbish the 7 Ages of Rock programme was. My only complaint about the reply is that this was the one programme a week I was meant to like. I am a big music fan (in every sense of the word!) with far too many Lps , singles,eps, cds, tapes ,flexidiscs, minidiscs, I subscribe to two monthly music mags, listen to music on the way to and from work and stand in fields of mud to trying to like the Klaxons. So the seven ages of rock should have been up my street don't you think? Ahh well at least I can console myself with talent shows, Fern Britton fawning over William and Harry and that godawful new Katherine tate knock off show on BBC3.
here's the Beebs reply, my original was a cut down version of my previous rant.
ps you will notice I praise as well as criticise (in my orginal letter I praised soul Britannia) I just want the BBC to get better.

Dear BLTP
Thank you for your e-mail regarding 'Seven Ages of Rock'.
While we try to provide a wide range of programmes across our radio and television output that will be of interest to every section of our audience, there will inevitably be times, hopefully rare, when what is on offer does not meet your own particular interests. Research shows us that in a typical week we do provide a substantial number of programmes which everyone can enjoy, but I am sorry that you have been disappointed with this particular programme.Please be assured that I have registered your comments on our Audience Log, which is used by producers and the makers of 'Seven Ages of Rock' in assessing feedback from viewers.In closing, may I thank you once again for taking the time to contact the BBC.Regards
John ClarkeBBC Information________________________________________Watch Saving Planet Earth from 24th JuneTogether we can help save the world's endangered wildlifeYou can donate to the new BBC Wildlife Fund at www.bbc.co.uk/savingplanetearth, or by calling 08705-100-700 Thank You