h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm sure at least some of you will have seen the fantastic film '24 Hour Party People' - charting the career of Manchester-based pop svengali and local news presenter Anthony H. Wilson and his involvement with Joy Division and, later, the Happy Mondays. So as well as him running Factory Records and setting up the Hacienda, we see some of the rubbish local news stories he's forced to work on, like an item about a dwarf washing an elephant at Chester Zoo.

One of the best lines for me in the film is the following exchange, after he comes back from the Chester Zoo story and complains to his producer:
Wilson: Look, I'm a serious f***ing journalist, I went to Cambridge University, and I want to work on some proper stories.
Producer: How about a feature on t'North-West's tallest man?
Wilson (walking off, over his shoulder: F*** off!

Regular readers of my journal might remember just over a year ago, when I spent three months working on sport for the local news in Yorkshire, the previous most Wilson-like moment of my career. I arranged for the Chuckle Brothers (Children's entertainers and celebrity Rotherham United fans) to appear live from Millmoor on BBC Look North to preview that night's FA Cup Replay against Northampton - winners at home to Manchester United.

Well, last Thursday, I topped it. The job I do at the moment involves working with all the BBC Nations and Regions and seeing what sport stories they're working on and arranging for the pictures to be fed down to TV Centre in London for News 24 and the National News.

So. I had to call the Edinburgh office and arrange for some pictures to be sent down to London.

Of a new-born pygmy hippo at Edinburgh Zoo that the staff there had named after Ellen McArthur.

I ask you.

What a classic!

Paul and Barry were pretty much regulars on BBC Look North, as I remember. I think they gained the honorific of 'expert panellists' on all matter Rotherham.

B

Suddenly I'm remembering that piranhas/pyjames gag of theirs that you told me about

I remember you finding it very amusing, but I can't remember the gag itself...

B

F90026?thread=430002

Now look, I'm a serious ing sports journalist, and I went to the University of London, and... er...

Has anyone heard the one about the Chuckle brothers sitting in a pub with their dog?

Hmmmmm... actually, I'd better not tell it - this seems to be a pro-chuckle forum...

To me -

To you.

Watch it with the Rotherham references you lot!