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

The remake is rubbish.

One review I saw got it spot on:

~When people are grieving, they often stay quiet. But that doesnt look so good on the telly, so the actors have to emote.~

In the original, it was the parents who made it. And Lund. And Troels...

And especially...That Jumper.

Another vote for Edge of Darkness here. I had a very similar experience to Twiggster - I got my other half to sit down and watch one episode - 0230 in the morning we finished watching it. Sheer class. Great Atmosphere, a plot that demands you may absolute attention, and yet the whole thing is so well put together that it's no hardship to concentrate for 6 hours.

Bringing back Play For Today would be a radical move. Work by up-and-coming writers, performed live.

For some reason I remember one with Michael Hordern as a man whod been persuaded to visit a psychiatrist. It ended with him having persuaded the psychiatrist to sit under his desk and try to catch mice with a biscuit tied to a string.

I can't remember who played the psychiatrist, but it *might* have been Denholm Elliott.

It was Denholm Elliott:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929529/

Jaysus! I impress myself.

I used to drink in the same pub as Denholm Elliott occasionally. The Laurel Tree - well-known gay pub in Camden.

"They worry more about wobbly camerawork and thumping soundtrack than scientific content."

Don't forget the requirement for lots of helicopter shots and at least one of the presenter standing still in the middle of a speeded up shot of something only tenuously related to the subject of the documentary.

I love those shots where the guy is doing a piece to camera, but when the camera zooms right out out, he's in a crowded marketplace in Vietnam or wherever and everyone around him is pointedly trying to ignore this jerk who's talking to himself in a funny language.

Well. indeed. Does Brian Cox really *have* to stand on top of a glacier to tell us about the moons of Uranus?

Bring the AJP Taylor style, I say. Unscripted monologues to camera. And always finishing bang on time.

That said...it was fun to see Rageh Omar in Mecca this week. Hed been talking about how all the hajjis wear simple clothing of two pieces of cloth. But then later you saw a lad pushing his grans wheelchair round the Ka'aba dressed in a Man U shirt.

It isn't new, but I was watching a whole load of old clips on YooToob.

The Day Today is a masterpeice.

FB

Facts x Importance = News!

The Day Today: NEWSFELCH.

Hilariously, I tried to hyphenate that word and the smut filter wouldn't let me.

I remember the Mary Whitehouse experience suggesting that they were allowed to say that word on air because the act it describes was so out there, so off-the-scale, that it constituted swearing on a frequency so high Mary Whitehouse couldn't hear it.

Anyone watch the 4 part drama series 'The Shadow Line', which was on recently to do with the confusion between the police and the criminal underworld?

Ultimately the shadow line is about whether we are all potentially corruptible in all the many convoluted ways. Hot stuff and rather apposite at present. It was very very dark.

The convolutions and complications were brilliant..and the power struggles. Similar to 'The Tudors' in some ways.

In as similar vein...were there any follow-ups to The Long Firm? I dont think so, but the other two books (by Jake Arnott) were rather good.

I've gotta admit, I found The Shadow Line painfully slow and gave up halfway through part one. Seems to be a common problem in modern TV programming that it's either too slow to engage me, or too fast for me to think we're getting the best out of the plot.

I thought of something today ... not sure why

... but I have very fond memories of It's A Knockout.

DH rates Edge of Darkness very highly, too, but I couldn't get into it. Blake's Seven, on the other hand ...

David Attenborough, definitely. *He* should have a state funeral.

The Weather. The BBC weather forecast is by far the best. The Atlantic pressure chart is one of the highlights of my day.

Mol (back off to her sad little life)

I think its rather that Ms Guthmunsdottir has been using samples of David Attenborough in her current Biophilia stage show.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jul/03/bjork-biophilia-manchester-festival-review

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