Haven’t watched the Race thing, but heard an excellent comment on it in Gogglebox, one of my favourite TV programmes, along the lines of ‘so you spend months getting stressed out running everywhere, for the chance of £20k. Might as well just go to work’. I recommend Hans Rosling’s ‘Factfulness’ as an easy but illuminating read. On one level it’s about how on almost every measure (except the environment) the world is much better (though he is at pains to point out this doesn’t mean it’s good) than we imagine it is - poverty, health, education, population growth etc all statistically the reverse of what the vast majority of us, even the most expert and educated, believe. More interestingly, for me, he also identifies why we tend to assume the worst about everything and works through ways to avoid this. Ben Elton is on some talk show on the wireless now. He’s been involved in some classic comedy and also some dire crap. I’ve never warmed to him and from every contribution he makes on this show it’s become clear to me why. Almost every utterance he makes is a didactic shouted challenge, even if he’s talking about something really banal, and has a chip the size of Uranus on his shoulder, smothered in poorly disguised self pity.
A House in Time looking at a place in Newcastle starts tonight. The one in Liverpool was excellent. Any one else watching Line of Duty? I am, because the wife loves it. I think Jed Mercurio is just taking the piss now, some of the writing was laughable “You’ve crossed the line, you’ve gone rogue” had me in fits of giggles.
Yes, I'll be watching A House In Time on catch-up. Really enjoyed the first one. I agree about the clunky writing in Line of Duty, too. 'Have the family been informed?' 'Yes, they're rallying round'
Plot is full of holes too - for instance, after the hijack last night they lost the vehicle....but any high level transfer these days (even a Securicor van) is fitted with a GPS tracker, and a force that has already had one hijacking would surely employ top-cover and have helicopter support? If you're going for gritty drama, at least get the realism right.....this series seems to have dumbed down a bit for me.
Lost it in the last series for me when the copper played by Thandie Newton has sepsis and an arm amputated, but left the hospital the same day. This quasi realism which is completely unrealistic is pretty irritating. That’s why I prefer stuff like the completely, and deliberately, unrealistic Killing Eve. But Line of Duty is fun too. Stayed up too late last night with some port watching Unforgiven. Now that is a great, great film.
I’m not reading the stuff on LoD. I’m ashamed to admit that I’d never heard of it before, so I’m binge-watching from series 1 onwards now. Very enjoyable. Just watching the concluding episode of series 2 as I write this.
It is enjoyable. Remember everything as it’s all relevant for later series. Rather bewilderingly for someone like me who has probably seen about 40% of it. The daughter, home from Uni, is also binge watching from the beginning.
Season 2 of Killing Eve has just started aring in the US, so imagine it will be over here soon if you don't have access to it on a streaming service. On a similar vein, I'm enjoying Hanna on Amazon. Unforgiven has one of my favourite lines of all time, when Clint enters the saloon with guns out, shoots the place up, then and says to the survivors "Anybody who doesn't want to be dead, better leave out the back" - brilliant.
I mentioned it before, but the latest series of ‘24 hours in police custody’ is turning into the best series of the year for me. The latest episode features a burglary on a surgeons property involving the theft of a quarter of a million pounds worth of antiques and the ensuing police investigation. I won’t go into the details but the events take a fascinating turn and is totally enthralling. Goes to show some coppers do really good work, unlike the ones who Stan had to deal with.
In fairness, my uncle Ernie had lung cancer and a massive coronary and still left hospital the same day. Mind you, it was in a coffin.
WTF indeed. When the face of the shot 'bent bastard' copper was revealed, I didn't have a clue. I think you're right, they're all 'bent bastards'.
After life on Netflix is very good Film I watch a lot time and time again is Interstellar I really like it GOT is back any good? Anyone?
Never seen After Life, or a single episode of Game of Thrones. Which could well be my loss, though I think I’ve seen enough Ricky Gervais (occasionally brilliant, but my tolerance of the humour of embarrassment gets ever lower). Interstellar is one of my least favourite Nolan films, all cod science, no character. Good visuals though. Ian McEwan gets an entire episode of Start the Week with Andrew Marr to himself on the wireless. Again, I haven’t read a single one of his books, not sure why, and haven’t consciously seen any of the multiple films that have been made from his work. Listening to him talk not sure I will bother, his latest output seems to be a go a sci fi, he’s not selling it to me. Again, probably my loss. Anyone familiar with his stuff who can convince me to have a go, any recommendations?
I've read four of McEwan's books, Atonement, On Chesil Beach, Amsterdam and Saturday. Of these I would recommend Saturday. Although he undoubtedly writes beautifully you do get to the point where you think what's the point and you get to the end of his story and think to yourself ' What was that all about?' I read all four books when they were published and can't remember much about three of them. Saturday has resonated with me and I can still recall passages from it now despite reading it when it came out, 2005 I think. That's when it was set anyway. I might even read it again. If you fancy giving it a go I'll post my copy to you.
Here's a great interview with Gervais with James O'Brien, he really thinks his material through. He's looking ten years down the line to try and see if his material is historically acceptable. I don't agree with all that he says but I do think he is well worth a listen ... https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/podcast...twitter-trolls-have-made-money-ricky-gervais/
