Journal Entries
Greatest TV ever?
Posted Aug 28, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3184529.stm
Radio Times' selection of the greatest TV ever. Hmm. Well, there's all the usual suspects there - Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers, Steptoe & Son. And since it's compiled by Alison Graham, obviously there's the usual puffing up of Eastenders and Corrie. But there're some odd choices.
I'm Alan Partridge is in, but The Day Today is not. Or Brass Eye for that matter.
The League of Gentlemen is in there. Now, I like League of Gentlemen, but I'm not sure it's that great. Clever, but never as funny as it ought to be. And where's Reggie Perrin?
Edge of Darkness is there, which is obviously as it should be. I'd also have included A Very British Coup.
But the biggest gap in the list really shows up the prejudices of Ms Graham (which are clear to anyone who reads her columns). Where's the SF and Fantasy? No Quatermass. No Star Trek. No Star Cops. (OK, I'm probably pushing that one.)
But no Doctor Who? A programme that lasted for 26 years and still fuels many spin-offs. That practically everyone has heard of, even those who never watched it.
And no Buffy? The greatest TV show in the last few years.
Still, at least she included 'Caught On A Train' Eh? Phew!
Discuss this Journal entry [21]
Latest reply: Aug 28, 2003
BBC to open its archives
Posted Aug 24, 2003
This is really interesting:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3177479.stm
The BBC are planning to open up their entire archive (excluding, presumably, the vast amount of stuff they junked in the '70s as all Doctor Who fans know and lament).
"The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes"
I can't imagine how they're going to do it - the entire BBC archive would be colossal, so I doubt it would every be all online - more likely there would be a large amount of near-line storage, with robots loading digital tape, and for the more obscure stuff, you'd probably have to put in a special request, for which you might need to wait for a few days.
However they do it, it'll be an impressive feat, just from the infrastructure side.
But from the creative side, it's fabulous. With access to all the archive, you could research and make your own documentaries. Or, if you'd prefer, you could re-edit Eastenders so that they aren't so miserable all the time (admittedly, you'd probably end up with 30-second long episodes, but it's still an improvement).
Doctor Who fans can now, legitimately, start recreating all the lost Hartnell and Troughton stories based on the existing soundtracks.
I doubt all this is going to happen very soon - it sounds more like a ten-year project at least, but I'm certainly looking forward to it. At the very least, I can fill the gaps in my Micro Live collection.
Discuss this Journal entry [26]
Latest reply: Aug 24, 2003
It's a Boy!
Posted Jul 7, 2003
David Michael Alexander was born today, 10:44am, by caesarian section. He is 8lb and 1/2oz.
Both mother and baby are doing fine.
Sorry for the brevity of the post, but I'm just making a flying visit home to pick up the car and some things for mother and baby.
Discuss this Journal entry [78]
Latest reply: Jul 7, 2003
Bernadette's in Labour
Posted Jul 6, 2003
See here: F552?thread=293129
No need for any collective breath-holding though - at this stage with Isobel there was another 10 hours or so before she arrived, although naturally we're both hoping for a much faster delivery.
I'll post to Bernadette's thread with any more news.
Discuss this Journal entry [49]
Latest reply: Jul 6, 2003
Cool h2g2 search toy
Posted Jul 3, 2003
For those of you who use the Mozilla Firebird browser, Sean (U7) has concocted a custom h2g2 search bar for it.
http://solle.net/mycroft/
It's really cool, and if I get any time in the near future I'll add some tags to the XSLT so that it'll work as a sidebar as well.
Discuss this Journal entry [32]
Latest reply: Jul 3, 2003
Jim Lynn
Researcher U6
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."