Recommended Television Programmes

[cloughie]

Is it time for Celebrity Mastermind to be pensioned off on the basis of the lack of celebrities who actually know anything - not a regular watcher, but on yesterday’s programme Ade Edmondson had already won before he started the gen knowledge round and ended up with more points than the total of the other three!

[LMcD]

Is it time for Celebrity Mastermind to be pensioned off on the basis of the lack of celebrities who actually know anything - not a regular watcher, but on yesterday’s programme Ade Edmondson had already won before he started the gen knowledge round and ended up with more points than the total of the other three!

Just out of interest ... had you previously heard of any of the other celebrities? I only ask because nowadays there seem to be so many of whom neither I nor the lady wife have heard.

[gradus]

I've just discovered the The Goes Wrong Show on BBC, now on iPlayer: six half hour episodes. In each playlet, multiple errors occur, from faulty or inadequate set design to missed cues, non-functioning props and fluffed lines. Television floor managers make inappropriate entries and technical staff are seen fixing problems when they should be out of sight. The actors play both the part in the play they are performing and that of the hapless participant - a beautifully handled duality. The physical disasters are the stuff of farce, but their ubiquity and frequency is managed with extraordinary facility. I can't remember laughing so continuously or so hard at a half hour programme in a very long time. Highly recommended.

Great recommendation, extremely funny and lost to me until your posting. Many thanks for brightening the day.

[cloughie]

Just out of interest ... had you previously heard of any of the other celebrities? I only ask because nowadays there seem to be so many of whom neither I nor the lady wife have heard.

Only one but that maybe shows more about me, my age and the things I watch on TV and my interests. However there does seem, via tv reality shows and similar, an increasing number of people whose celebrity credentials are highly questionable!

[kernelbogey]

Great recommendation, extremely funny and lost to me until your posting. Many thanks for brightening the day.

[Jonathan]

Another vote for the "Goes Wrong show" - if you can find it on iplayer, their "Peter Pan Goes Wrong" from Christmas 2016 is absolutely brilliant. We've also seen "The Play that Goes Wrong" and "The Play about a Bank Robbery" by the same cast live in the theatre in York and they are brilliant.

[ardcarp]

If you missed it first time around, Russia with Simon Reeve is being re-broadcast on BBC2.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b097l4s7

I admire the way he and his crew (and presumably the BBC) are prepared to go to politically sensitive places and ask uncomfortable questions. The programme seems to avoid the worst of BBC's presenter-led-format rules.

One wonders if SR will be a welcome future visitor to some places!

[LMcD]

The BBC doesn't seem too interested in promoting 'Moving On', series 11 of which has just concluded on BBC1 and now on iPlayer. The first episode was up to the usual standard, with an absorbing story line concerning individuals up against 'the system'. Wonderful acting.

[johncorrigan]

I really enjoyed the first series of 'Race Across the World' where five teams had to race across land from London to Singapore via a number of checkpoints on the way. They could only travel by road, rail or water and were given the price of their airfare to complete the journey. They also had no mobile phones, bank cards etc, but they could stop and earn money on the way.

Tonight we watched the first part of series 2 where five teams head from Mexico City to Ushuaia, Argentina, the most southerly City in the world. Episode 1 followed the newly released pairs as they tried to find their way out of Mexico City and head for the first checkpoint in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. A really good start to this series, though I would take issue with the narrator's opening remark that travel in the world has never been easier. Well worth a watch if you fancy a virtual trip outside the house.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000g6nt/race-across-the-world-series-2-episode-1

[ardcarp]

Three generations of our family, in chummy 'isolation', are binging on episodes of This Country, now on BBC3 via i-player. Not to everyone's taste perhaps, but to us hilarious...and poignant.

[LMcD]

Operation Crossbow - a fascinating BBC2 documentary about the Allies' efforts to thwart the Germans' missiles and rocket programme - shown on PBS America this last weekend. I'm not sure when it will be shown again, but it might be worth keeping an eye on the schedule. I've still to watch Cockleshell Heroes, which I also recorded.

[Bryn]

[QUOTE=LMcD;787035]Operation Crossbow - a fascinating BBC2 documentary about the Allies' efforts to thwart the Germans' missiles and rocket programme - shown on PBS America this last weekend. I'm not sure when it will be shown again, but it might be worth keeping an eye on the schedule. I've still to watch Cockleshell Heroes, which I also recorded.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1jdp5u

[LMcD]

[QUOTE=Bryn;787038]

Operation Crossbow - a fascinating BBC2 documentary about the Allies' efforts to thwart the Germans' missiles and rocket programme - shown on PBS America this last weekend. I'm not sure when it will be shown again, but it might be worth keeping an eye on the schedule. I've still to watch Cockleshell Heroes, which I also recorded.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1jdp5u

Thank you! I think the 'bec' confused me.

[jayne lee wilson]

Series 2......excellent as ever.... the History one very good indeed...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gp05

I love this guy...

[Sir Velo]

Currently watching the 2010 BBC series "The Country House Revealed" presented by the alarming Dan Cruickshank. Cruickshank has a televisual manner which makes Jonathan Meades seem positively withdrawn. Once one gets behind the almost pantomimic facial tics and Al Jolson-esque hand waving, there is no doubt a keen mind at work with some interesting observations on architecture through the ages. However, what a bizarre episode, the one on Clandeboye was. Having virtually dismissed the building as nondescript (thereby undermining the entire premise of the programme!) the episode was given over to a crazy apology for the lavishly spendthrift, appropriately named Lord Dufferin. Otherwise recommended for those looking for something a little more highbrow than the aptly named Pointless!