Watched the first episode of this series on Sunday night. Stephen Fry is a most entertaining and agreeable travel companion and his journey through the New England states was both enjoyable and informative. My one teeny tiny gripe is that each activity, interview or other item along the way was so short. I know the modern trend in all TV from dramas to documentaries is to keep things moving along at a rate, assuming an audience with the attention span of a gnat. But when the content is so interesting and the pictures so great, I would have liked him to dwell a little longer on each exploit. The interview with Sting in New York, for example, was so short it was hardly worth bothering.

Knowing that Stephen is such a technophile (he’s doing some great twitters on his current trip to Kenya), I was expecting to see a page on the BBC site with clips not seen in the broadcast. Haven’t found anything yet.

A minor criticism. Nothing to get upset about. I will be watching next Sunday.

Overstating things a little, perhaps, but I find ‘Mark Lawson Talks to …’ on BBC4 a most refreshing departure from what has become the standard talk show format. The title says it all really. Does what it says on the can, as they say. No fuss, no gimmicks, no audience even - just two people, in a studio - talking.

Whereas most talk show interviews are considered long or ‘in-depth’ if they last longer than ten minutes, Lawson has an hour with his subject so the conversation can be allowed to develop. While conversing at such length may be beyond many of our modern celebrities, most, if not all of Lawson’s interviewees have performed well. They appear relaxed and articulate. The programme does not fall into the trap of giving people an opportunity to ‘plug’ their latest product, and this further adds to the relaxed atmosphere. Often, as in the case of Lawson’s latest guest, Melvyn Bragg, the discussion covers a whole career, whole life even.

The Bragg interview (repeated Friday October 3rd, 2.45 am! Set the Sky+) was particularly intense as he described particularly painful periods of his life - his difficulty in accepting the return of his father after the war, his teenage depression, the suicide of his first wife. Echoes of previous discussion programmes such as the famous Face to Face (ickledot is too young to remember the original broadcasts of this series) perhaps, but here the interviewee has freedom to reveal their innermost thought or not.

Mark Lawson has often criticised those who look upon television of the sixties and seventies as being a golden era, his implication being that there are programmes of quality (whatever that is) around today. His brand of ‘talk-show’ amply illustrates his point. Hope it sticks around for a while to come.

When I first encountered Charlie Boorman, it was in his first televised travel adventure Long Way Round. In this he and his better known chum Ewan MacGregor motorcycled their way westwards, circumnavigating the planet. It was far better than I had expected as although the pair were accompanied by a well-equipped support team, the challenge was undoubtedly genuine and there were moments of real danger. Similarly the follow-up Long Way Down, a trip from London to Cape Town, was most enjoyable.

So I was quite looking forward to seeing Boorman’s latest effort, sans MacGregor, By Any Means. The challenge of this trip to Sydney, as the title suggests, is to get there on as many different forms of transport as possible.

I’m afraid I managed only ten minutes. I could stand Charlie’s grinning face and bulging eyes not a second longer. I’m not sure whether his presentation style has changed or the lack of a partner has made the difference. He now appears as a cross between a modern-day Bertie Wooster and Paul Whitehouse’s ‘Brilliant!’ character from the Fast Show.

A couple of days ago the BBC got their swimming pundit and Bronze medal winner Steve Parry to venture out into the crowds in Tiananmen Square and report on proceedings. Unfortunately, he was accompanied by a life-sized cut out of Michael Phelps which had been in their studio throughout the games. What fun ensued as an increasing number of people began gathering round him, mistaking him for Phelps, we were told. I suppose it was a mildly amusing snippet of video to run in between events.

By today, networks throughout the world must have been running low on new angles to cover on the Olympics, particularly as most events were over and only there was only the closing ceremony to come. So there was the BBC reporting on Parry’s adventure once more, only this time with the added twist that the story had been picked up by one of the American networks and Parry was being interviewed by what looked like a morning show anchor team. For some reason they were trying to get him to put on an American baseball cap, presumably to see if he actually looked like Phelps.

Talk about the media covering itself. BBC runs the story. American channel picks it up. BBC reports on American channel. Where will it end?

Tags: television

Last comment on this programme. It doesn’t deserve more. As one comment said on the BBC site, the very fact that it’s on 3 is in itself a kind of quality warning. Anyway, I watched the recorded second episode last night, originally shown on Sunday in a double bill with the opener.
It took a bit of a sinister turn. When the goodies start doing violence, torture and being first to shoot people, I worry. A negative influence on the young? Probably not. I doubt that many of the young will be watching it. Too busy out enjoying themselves.

Ended up watching Long Way Round ‘live’. I’ve really come to like this repeated series. At first I was somewhat sceptical, feeling that such a high profile film star could go thrugh true adventure and danger a la Ted Simon. But the pictures don’t lie, and last night’s episode showed our two heroes and their support team in some hard and arduous scrrapes.

Then I watched the Spooks spin-off (recorded). Had the production values of the original although there was something about some of the chase scenes that looked wrong. Don’t know whether it was the youthful cast or the futuristic setting, but it somehow lacked that feeling of seriousness and danger, despite quite a high death count. Overall a bit like Threads meets the Double Deckers.

So, might have a look at Britain From The Air on iPlayer tonight.

Every now and again something pops up to remind me I am no longer young. Not old, mind you, but certainly long past the first (or second) bloom of youth. Like sometimes when I’m going out and I think ‘Seeing as it’s warm and I’ll only have trouser pockets, shall I bother taking the mobile?’ And then I think ‘Stupid. It’s a mobile. That’s what it’s for. If you don’t take it out with you, there’s no point having it.’ For someone younger, the mobile is a part of their being. They wouldn’t venture as far as the next room without their mobile, let alone the vast outdoors.

A similar thing has happened just now with the TV schedules. At nine o’clock tonight there’s Britain From the Air on Beeb One, the repeat of Long Way Round on Two (which I’ve been watching, having missed it the first time round) and a new Spooks spin-off on Three. My first reaction was one of disappointment at having to miss at least one of these. Split second later remembered the Sky+ thing but that only records one programme while another is being watched (I think). Then I remembered the iPlayer. If I’m bothered enough to remember, I can watch the third one through the iPlayer!

I suppose the point I’m making is that having grown up in the days when the only opportunity to see a programme was at the time of broadcast, it is still something of a novelty to realise we are now in the new age of viewing on demand. OK, I know the video’s been around for many years, and I’ve owned several. But I have never reached the point of taking the recording facility for granted. And I still feel more comfortable watching a show when it is put out - always have the nagging feeling that if I watch it later, I could be missing something more interesting.

The second series (I refuse to say season - footballers and cricketers and dogs have seasons) of Mad Men must have begun in the big country to the West. After giving the first lot of programmes a thumbs down a few weeks ago, I was reminded I had forgotten to mention how much my views had changed by the last episode. It really grew on me. A man called Dave Winer seems to think that the first of the new series was very good.

ickledot was saddened by the news of this great journalist’s death last night. His reports and documentaries were always insightful, intelligent, thought-provoking and often moving.
A number of years ago, ickledot was delighted to receive a personal handwritten reply from Mr Wheeler after he had written to commend a programme which reassessed the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. It had described how supporters of Johnson’s successor, Richard Nixon, had deliberately caused the peace negotiations to end the Vietnan conflict to stutter through the last months of his presidency. Thus Nixon, not Johnson, would be seen as the successful peacemaker. In his reply, Mr Wheeler was kind enough to clarify a number of questions ickledot had raised regarding these events.
Many would not have bothered to take the time and trouble to do this. His personal postcard even included his home address, as if indicating a welcome of further correspondence. It reflected the fact that he truly cared about the issues he reported. He will be sorely missed.

I continue to persevere with this series, mainly because it was hyped so much as the one that America was going wild over and was written by the creator of the Sopranos. It certainly looked wonderful in the first episode. Clearly a huge amount of dosh has been spent getting the look of an early sixties ad agency just right. Trouble is, after half a dozen or so episodes, nothing in particular has happened. Over and again we have been reminded that ad men in those days drank and smoked a lot, treated women abominably and almost without exception cheated on their wives while maintaining an air of supreme respectability.

Maybe the Americans needed a strong reminder that their so called golden Eisenhower era was not as idyllic as they remembered, but for me it's a bit of a yawn.

Tags: television BBC

Tonight ickledot watched the last of four dramas on BBC4 named The Curse of Comedy. All were absorbing but for me the best was probably last week's piece about Hughie Green, starring Trevor Eve. His portrayal was superb, even though initially he seemed rather unlike Green. Perhaps also, as Green was not actually a comedian, there was no requirement for humour.

This was where, for me, the other three suffered. They weren't funny, at any point. Now I know what you're thinking. They were dramas, not comedies. True, but the writers and producers should have worked harder to make us laugh at some point so they could illustrate why these characters were so popular. Or were they assuming an audience of over 50s who could all remember the originals?

Tags: television BBC