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

I watch a lot less TV than I used to. I'm assuming that it's because tv shows are more rubbish - reality TV is an absolute pile of steaming mouse turds if you ask me - rather than me being just picky and grumpy. I prefer the word - discerning.

I'm only 20 and I think most television aimed at 18-30 year olds is poo. I do not wish to watch anyone stranded on an island or in a house for several weeks, nor do I enjoy watching people moan and argue about the strenuous nature of being paid an appearance fee for doing all.

Bring back [spooks], I say.

I honestly hate 'reality' TV. But I think people will watch anything when they come home from working hard/putting their feet up after looking after the kids/doing the house chores/shopping. And who can blame them? The last thing you want to do is search high and low for a decent programme. It's part of the 'passivity' of watching TV that's so relaxing. I think programmers take advantage of this. That's why they get away with cheaply-made 'celebrity' tat.

I think that it's true, that lots of stuff *is* rubbish.

However, every now and again, thanks to the ridiculous amount of digital channels, I see some of the television of the past. And it was horrible! 'On The Buses' - mind you, I remember hating that even at the time.

The worst is when something you remember as being good has suffered the ravages of time ('The Adventures of Lucky Jim').

I must say I'm a bit sick of realty television too - though even then something comes along that I like. I found myself glued to 'Dancing on Ice' on Saturday! (Foxy was robbed etc).

>>>I'm a bit sick of realty television too

When you say 'realty' television, I take it you're referring to the preponderance of property programmes we currently witness in the listings?

HR!

Ah - a bit of investigation reveals who this Derek is:

Derek - 'Hi, I'm Derek, by the way. I'll be drifting in and out helping on h2g2, a most marvellous site.'

I assume HR is short for Human Resources, and Derek is therefore a Human Resource.

This is almost as fun as realty TV.

I can retrospectively edit my posts, you know!

And yours, for that matter!

I am human and occasionally resourceful but that's about it.

"I can retrospectively edit my posts, you know! And yours, for that matter!"

So if I ever write anything silly, I'll just say you retrospectively edited it to make me look foolish.

Actually that's not a bad idea is it? And then I'll blame Nighthoover, and everyone's happy.

Ok, I'll let you know straight away the next time I post something really rather silly and rambling and which is a bit too run-on-ish for my liking. Like that sentence there.

I have to admit to liking all those property programmes. I'm now rethinking the whole 'reality tv' comment. I like some - like the 'what sort of disgusting mess do you live/work/prepare food for sale in?'-type programmes, but it's when they make real people the only point of the show that I hate it - BB, Wife Swap, naughty little sods, etc that they get so bad.

Let's have some professionals in the shows please! I don't pay my licence fee to watch what I could see for free by peeping into my neighbours windows!

There is a huge tendency to view tv with rose tinted glasses that see nostalgia as a benchmark for quality. For all the fact that we are swamped with reality (and indeed realty ) tv, we lose sight of just how many more hours of tv there are now.

Looking back to the relatively recent past, tv was only three channels that broadcast a maximum of 12-16 hours a day. It didn't start until mid-day (except in the school holidays and then you wish it hadn't bothered), shut down for two hours every afternoon and broadcasting after 1.00 o'clock in the morning was just a sign of decadence.

And yet they *still* found time to schedule Bless this House, On the Buses, George and Mildred, Two's Company, Robins Nest, that really bad sitcom with Lewis Collins in, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, the really bad It Ain't Half Hot Mum rip off set in the RAF during National Service, Harry in' Worth, Bullseye, The Golden Shot, Celebrity Squares, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Pebble Mill at One, Nationwide, Daktari, Flipper, Skippy (and probably Dippy Dipper as well ), Champion the Wonder Horse, White Horses, The Flashing Blade (did that *ever* end?), Heidi, Pippi Longstocking, Magpie, The Streets of San Francisco, endless Tarzan movie repeats as well as Falcon Crest, that awful thing on Saturday nights that seemed to always have Keith Harris on and a whole host of other dross that has been lost to posterity (and deservedly so).

Not to mention two of the three sides having six hours of sport on a saturday (which didn't include *any* live football but did have Dicky Davis and his amazing badger haircut as well as endless rugby league with Eddie Waring and 'professional wrestling'.) And during the summer you had one of the two channels showing endless cricket unless it was wimbledon in which case two of the three showed endless tennis for a in' fortnight.

The dross to quality ratio is probably much better now, actually - you just have a lot more channels to choose from.

Why, when asked 'is modern television rubbish?' have most people seemed to hear 'is reality TV rubbish?' I agree, most of it is but with all the channels to choose from you are not forced to watch reality TV. I think the general standard is ever improving, with shows such as 'Top Gear', quiz shows such as 'Mock the week' and 'QI' and even some goos new sitcoms like 'Not going out'.

Oh dear, I'm not going to be popular with Auntie Beeb shortly then.

What is the purpose behind BBC 3, BBC 4 and why the need for 2 digital kids channels? Just think what it costs to run those channels let alone all the extra digital radio channels aimed at 'specific' groups.

Is there a need for this? The content is similar to what is available on the usual BBC1,BBC2 channels.
Example, why have a 'parliament channel' then have so many politic shows on the other channels repeating what the parliament channel have broadcast all week?

I think you have an excellent news channel in News 24, beats Sky news into a cocked hat frankly but news on BBC1 is being made to look very 'tabloid', having presenters stood up reading headlines at the start of the show. ITV do this regular and frankly it's an awful way of presenting news. I'd rather see them sat on a sofa frankly than this new 'style'. Keep the presenters at the desk!!

Course if you got shot BBC3 and 4 then there would be spare cash for hootoo and other online services which is the way things are going, like it or not as they say.

I dislike and avoid reality television, house and garden make-over programmes, cookery programmes but seldom complain about them as I merely use the off button and understand that others enjoy them.

However, I enjoy reruns of old TV series, but don't look at them through rose tinted specs as some are terrible and make me shudder. I thoroughly enjoy most of the modern offerings and dramas, which are enjoyable and then there's all the fantabuloso sci-fi stuff on offer. When I was growing up, I quite possibly would have killed to have been able to watch a dedicated sci-fi channel.

Of course now you can watch all of these old things constantly on ITV2...there are some things they never dare show though, such as 'Mind Your Language' as they'd probably be too much of a shock to the system.

ITV4 is the new Bravo. Remember when Bravo was a cult TV channel, instead of Nuts on TV?

ITV4 seems to show all the programmes Bravo did back in the 90s. Is there anyone left alive who hasn't seen every episode of Randall & Hopkirk and The Champions at least 4 times?

I don't think ITV fancies the complaint figures it would get from showing Mind Your Language, to be honest.

Then on course there's Love Thy Neighbour and On the Busses, both of which I think are available to buy on DVD!

They're what I call a perfect example of corny and non PC broadcasting!