I am enjoying the Paralympics very much but the whole experience of watching it on TV is marred by the coverage on Channel 4. Not only are some of the commentators second rate but the ad breaks drive me mad. The one redeeming element of the C4 coverage is The Last Leg which is very, very funny indeed.
I just happened to be in London during the Paralympic Games. The atmosphere in the capital was fantastic.
I am very happy. I watched the Brownlee brothers win a gold and bronze in the triathlon (a completely bonkers event) for Team GB this morning, then we won some gold medals in the dressage (so elegant), then Laura Trott and Chris Hoy won golds in the cycling.
It makes a huge difference to have real medal contenders to support but I’ve also enjoyed watching other events where team GB aren’t involved. I was enthralled by the balance beam event even though GB wasn’t represented in the final. It’s simply astounding what these people can do. It’s such a privilege to watch the best in the world compete against each other right here in Britain. Awe-inspiring.
I wasn’t just indifferent to the Olympics during the build up to it, I actually felt quite negative about it. I didn’t have any faith that it would be any good. Then I watched the opening ceremony (after the event as I was working at the time) and was completely blown away.
Olympics Day 8: British athletics' gold medal winners. Taken from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/
Yesterday was one of the best Saturdays I can remember. Great Britain had it’s best Olympic day for over a hundred years. I’m not much of a sports fan but I was incredibly happy. Fantastic day.
Today we’ve had Ben Ainslie winning a gold medal and making British Olympic history and Andy Murray has beaten Roger Federer to get gold, with his defeat to Federer in the Wimbledon final just 4 weeks ago seemingly forgotten. What a proud weekend for the British!
I watched all four episodes of The Take over two evenings as it was available in HD on Virgin On Demand. It’s the story of two cousins who are a part of the East End’s criminal network and their girlfriends.
The plot spans 10 years from 1984. I especially loved watching the fashions, hairstyles, decor, music etc change through the decade. There is a lot of violence and bad language but it doesn’t feel gratuitous. It all felt a bit like Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrels, but without the humour. The main character, Freddie Jackson, is a criminal psychopath and most of the shocking behaviour comes from him. Tom Hardy, who plays him, is incredibly menacing, though I couldn’t take him 100% seriously as he had what I think of as a comedy cockney accent. Still, I liked The Take a lot. It’s very stylish and, while the plot is very slightly ridiculous, it’s a cracking story.
This is a decent read, addictive as claimed on the jacket, and kept me guessing. Unlike how I felt about Case Histories (the first book in the Jackson Brodie series) I was satisfied with how all the endings were tied up. I felt that some parts of the plot were a little cliched though, the prime example of which was the powerful businessman employing a dominatrix. But I do love how KA brings her characters to life by devoting long passages to their thoughts which I get lost in. I think that’s the best aspect of her writing. A special mention has to go to the bit where someone has to explain to his brother that there has been mix-up and he is not dead as previously reported. I cried with laughter. Twice.
The TV series of the Jackson Brodie novels is called Case Histories and is currently being shown on BBC HD. I thought I would read the books before watching their dramatisations. The books Case Histories, One Good Turn and When Will There Be Good News? have each been made into two part dramatisations. I thought the Case Histories episodes looked good (pretty scenes of Edinburgh, good looking cast and mostly decent casting) but the translation to screen didn’t work for me; it all felt very disjointed. I watched only the second part of One Good Turn (annoyingly I mistakenly deleted the recording of the first part) and felt the same. I’m now debating whether I should try watching When Will There Be Good News? before reading the book, to see whether I’ll enjoy the programmes more if I don’t know anything about the plot beforehand.
(23rd in 2012)
I’ve been watching The Tube on BBC2 on the recommendation of my uni friends. The programme has been fascinating. I think it’s clear to any tube user that there is a high level of organisation required but I didn’t realise quite how much goes on behind the scenes.
I don’t mind using the tube but at peak times it’s not fun. I’m always surprised at how impatient people are. Last time I was in London my ticket didn’t open the barrier so I had to turn around to go to another barrier manned by staff. The girl behind me let out the most pained sigh. She’d been delayed a maximum of 5 seconds. The programme confirms that people have this attitude. Travellers don’t care about other people, not even when someone is injured. They just want to get to where they want to go. I guess this is the downside to London’s buzz of millions of people: it’s just not possible to feel connected to each other.
I’m so glad that this is back for a second series. Tonight’s episode was wonderful: a horrible argument complete with threats of divorce, followed by making up over a false tooth fashioned out of a garlic clove.
So glad that this is back for a second series. It’s sweet, funny and very moving.
I’ve enjoyed this series so far. I liked this dog in particular:
Also in this episode, during the cooperating elephants feature, there was a song that I recognised. It drove me mad trying to remember what it was. Finally something stirred in my brain: it was something to do with an Apple advertisement. Much later I realised it was from the ipad2 video. Bloody Apple, finding yet another way to drive me mad. Anyway, this is the song:
After seeing The Nutcracker at the Hippodrome and watching Black Swan I decided to watch some ballets. Yesterday afternoon, on the hitherto untouched Sky Arts channel, I watched Swan Lake. It was beautiful and incredibly romantic. I’d never seen any version of it before. This one was Anthony Dowell’s production at the Royal Opera House.
I also watched Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Cinderella on BBC’s iPlayer which I enjoyed but it lacked the drama and romance of Swan Lake. It had more humour than drama, which was enjoyable enough. I didn’t like Prokoviev’s score which seemed discordant in comparison to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Overall, Cinderella was entertaining but Swan Lake was breathtaking.