Recommended Television Programmes

[Sir Velo]

"Cycle Around Japan" on NHK World HD. Superb scenery, interesting feature on local traditions and crafts. Each week, an intrepid rider cycles around 400k in terrain which can only be described as challenging!

[oddoneout]

Watched this last night

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hqth

The title gave a clue to the tiresome presentation(children's story time breathy voice, irrelevant "background" music adding to the lack of clarity, and twee text) and the first few minutes almost had me reaching for the offswitch, but I persisted and as a result managed to extract some memorable bits, among them:
Core samples from under a glacier included lumps of moss 1500 years old that started growing again once back in the lab.
Icelandic moss killed by pollution(Gaussian plume) from geothermal energy industry activities (who knew it wasn't that benign?) being addressed with a poultice of chopped up moss and fermented milk.
So much explanation left out though in favour of pretty shots, presumably in the mistaken belief that science is to be avoided as much as possible lest it deter viewers, so the amount of padding and jumping around from subject to subject was wearisome. The nod to moss in Japanese culture was equally unenlightening.

[smittims]

Yes, it's a pity we can't have informative programmes about science, considering how vital it is at the present time, without it being made 'entertaining'. I remember Adam Hart-Davis saying that when he was asked ro do another series of his programme he said 'Can I do it without the silly hats and coats this time?' They insisted the silly clothes were essential.

[LMcD]

Let's hope that 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office' which begins on ITV1 tonight, helps speed up the process of restoring justice to the victims of the Horizon scandal.

[oddoneout]

Let's hope that 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office' which begins on ITV1 tonight, helps speed up the process of restoring justice to the victims of the Horizon scandal.

I'm always in two minds about dramatisations of real life events, but will watch this in the hope it is done well.
There was a recent headline about the compensation pot being cut, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-67784706 which didn't sound good, but a bit of searching came up with this where that decision is covered, along with a great deal of other relevant material.

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/LLN-2023-0051/LLN-2023-0051.pdf

As is inevitable, the progress and outcomes are hampered by the length of time involved, and nothing can ever compensate those who have lost so much, even life.

[Dave2002]

Yes, it's a pity we can't have informative programmes about science, considering how vital it is at the present time, without it being made 'entertaining'. I remember Adam Hart-Davis saying that when he was asked ro do another series of his programme he said 'Can I do it without the silly hats and coats this time?' They insisted the silly clothes were essential.

Mention Science in the most of the UK and it's as if one has let off a smell!

Not only do many people claim not to know anything about science, but they also seem proud of that. No wonder this country is in a mess.

For "intelligent "activities - or at least some which require mental effort - most people seem to resort to bridge or watching Only Connect!

[Dave2002]

Let's hope that 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office' which begins on ITV1 tonight, helps speed up the process of restoring justice to the victims of the Horizon scandal.

The high up people in the PO should be prosecuted and put in jail. It won't happen ... of course.

[LMcD]

The high up people in the PO should be prosecuted and put in jail. It won't happen ... of course.

Yes, they should, and no, they won't. Nobody ever seems to be found responsible for anything these days.

[Serial_Apologist]

Mention Science in the most of the UK and it's as if one has let off a smell!

Not only do many people claim not to know anything about science, but they also seem proud of that. No wonder this country is in a mess.

For "intelligent "activities - or at least some which require mental effort - most people seem to resort to bridge or watching Only Connect!

I myself was not taught science at school, back in the early 60s. After going through O Levels we were faced with a choice: "science" or "arts" subjects: the former referring to physics and chemistry. One had two days to decide! I wrote to my Dad; he replied the next day - such was the efficiency of the postal service back then - saying that to study science you needed to be good at Maths, which I, unfortunately, wasn't, therefore I should plump for arts. In the early 1990s, in my late 40s, I did a 3-year HND in Landscape & Amenity Management, which involved a lot of science, mostly botany, soil science and ecology, which I found I'd mucked up on out of amateur interest - in radical political circles there had been much scepticism about science in the wake of the nuclear arms race, drug uses in mental health and animal experimentation. I joined Year 4 of the Horticulture Degree course and landing myself a BsC! Today, tending to favour provable hypothesis and evidence-based truths over the claims of all religious faiths leads me to admiration for the scientific principle that holds all truths provisional and open to further investigation. The latter would seem a much-needed antidote to the abundance of religious revivals in the broadly Judaeo-Christian lineage which have become a prime source of division with the ostensible demise of critical political theory and its replacement by so-called "identity politics".

[LMcD]

[QUOTE=Serial_Apologist;n1295238]

I myself was not taught science at school, back in the early 60s. After going through O Levels we were faced with a choice: "science" or "arts" subjects: the former referring to physics and chemistry.

I was faced with the same choice, and from age 14 onwards progressively dropped physics, chemistry, art, music, geography and history so that I could increasingly concentrate on languages.

[johncorrigan]

The high up people in the PO should be prosecuted and put in jail. It won't happen ... of course.

Also their union representatives who did nothing to protect the interests of the victims assuming them guilty. It's a travesty all round. Not sure I will watch the TV dramatisation. Nick Wallis' excellent coverage for Radio 4 sufficed for me.

[LMcD]

Also their union representatives who did nothing to protect the interests of the victims assuming them guilty. It's a travesty all round. Not sure I will watch the TV dramatisation. Nick Wallis' excellent coverage for Radio 4 sufficed for me.

Toby Jones is always worth watching, as is Monica Dolan!

[Jonathan]

We've been catching up with Lucy Worsley's latest series on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Fascinating and well worth a watch.

[oddoneout]

The high up people in the PO should be prosecuted and put in jail. It won't happen ... of course.

This doesn't help matters in my view

The Post Office is a limited company owned entirely by the government and overseen by the Department for Business and Trade

. when it comes to those responsible being properly held to account. Lack of integrity and competence at the top doesn't make for good management.
I did watch although I found it hard going. The Guardian reviewer described it well

...but the first episode is hard to sit through. The injustice is so grave, and so obvious, that it slowly ties a knot in your stomach and pulls it tighter, and tighter still, becoming ever more sickening as more victims are wrongly accused.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/jan/01/mr-bates-vs-the-post-office-review-toby-jones-is-perfect-in-a-devastating-tale-of-a-national-scandal

I think that knowing, even when it becomes apparent that the fault is not with the people but with the organisation, how long it will be before any sort of official recognition and action will even start adds to the tension. This is after all about real people(even if some liberties are taken in the dramatisation), it's not a TV drama series where nasty things aren't real.

[smittims]

Older viewers may be interested to see that TalkingPicturesTV (Freeview Channel 82 in the UK) are showing The Brothers, an early '70s family saga , and Dixon of Dock Green, which of course goes back further. I don't know how much of it has survived on DVD, and I'm not sure how credible it wil be nowadays. I do recall that, when Police TV dramas were getting more sensational in the 1970s, Police officers themselves said repeatedly that Dixon was closer to depicting real policing.