Chuck Berry

[Guest]

Marvellous 2-hour documentary on Sky Arts, with contributions from just about everybody including lots of touching reminiscence from his wife of 69 years and his children, musical collaborators, Marshall Chess, and even his lawyer and his real estate manager. Much was explained, including the background to his brushes with the law. As well as much archive and recent footage we heard from the likes of Steve van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Gene Simmons and George Thorogood - who explains where the Duck Walk came from, (when I saw GT and the Destroyers supporting the Rolling Stones in 1982 at Slane, George came on stage doing the duck walk whilst belting out Move It On Over, in his snakeskin boots ), Jerry Lee Lewis. We heard from Taylor Hackford (Mr Mirren) at the time of the making of Hail Hail Rock'n'Roll. That excruciating footage with Keith Richards was there..... A fine couple of hours.

[Dave2002]

I note that it rang your bells.

Sounds good, though I don’t think we can get get Sky Arts ... without paying a lot more, that is.

[Richard Tarleton]

I note that it rang your bells.

Sounds good, though I don’t think we can get get Sky Arts ... without paying a lot more, that is.

I have a very standard package...no sport, no extra film channels....I got it originally (20 years ago) because our terrestrial signal was poor to non-existent, no cable round here, so satellite the only option. I've come to regard it as an excellent investment. It's a subscription service, like all the others these days. I almost didn't mention this programme, as anyone with Sky is probably aware of it, but it was so good it deserved flagging up, I thought.

[Dave2002]

I think we can get it via NowTV, and possibly I may have a voucher for that. How long do programmes stay on Sky Arts? "Live" only? 30 days? 6 months? Other?

I don't think it's in our BT package. I have been somewhat disappointed with the fragmentation and bundling of media services over the last few years. We have around half a dozen different hardware systems, and some allow some services, others - well others! Bundling means that some bundles have one or two "channels" one wants, but to get good coverage one has to have all of them. I do have a few friends who have just about gone that way - but we're too mean - and we're not so interested in sport to justify it.

One slight irritation is that we can't currently get Channel 4 as a live broadcast stream without using a satellite dish.

[Richard Tarleton]

Not sure but I think they're archived for a good while - certainly more than the Beeb's 30 days.

[Sir Velo]

I think we can get it via NowTV, and possibly I may have a voucher for that. How long do programmes stay on Sky Arts? "Live" only? 30 days? 6 months? Other?

Most are on for a year, some indefinitely. If you search you'll find a fine archive of ballets from Covent Garden, Kirov etc, symphonic repertoire (LSO etc) and other arts features, Currently we are enjoying the "National Treasures" series on private art collections. All included on the basic HD package.

[Braunschlag]

Dave 2002
You might already know this but BT doesn’t support Sky as a streaming service as far as I know (probably some long-running spat to do with BTs acquisition of the football, which they’ve now lost....).
I was desperate to watch Babylon Berlin and bought a NOWTV entertainment pass but that only worked on the laptop, which was ok. Subsequently I got a NOWTV stick from the tax dodgers which came with two months viewing.
I can now watch on the tv with no difficulty. I can recommend the stick, it’s particularly good with youtube on the tv.

[Braunschlag]

I should add that - although BT show Sky as a service it will only allow access to the Film sub. Anything else would need a stick for the tv or watch on your computer.

[Braunschlag]

That should have read ‘although BT show ‘NOWTV’ as a service’.

[Dave2002]

That should have read ‘although BT show ‘NOWTV’ as a service’.

Thanks for that. I do actually have several NowTV sticks and gadgets, and have on occasions subscribed. As mentioned, I may still have vouchers, and I might also watch out for offers on NowTV vouchers at the end of next month. I've lost track of how many NowTV gadgets I have. As you mention sometimes they can be obtained with vouchers for several months viewing. I need to check whether I have a NowTV HD gadget - though I should be able to watch via the HD Roku stick which I bought just over a year ago. It is sometimes cheaper to buy yet another gadget in order to get appropriate vouchers for use with NowTV.

Maybe I'll prepare a list of things to watch, and then get vouchers to cover (say) one or two months to catch up on such visual treats.

[Braunschlag]

You seem to have things comprehensively covered there! I do exactly the same, a month here or there if there’s something on. I borrow Netflix from my daughters sub and share NOWTV as a quid pro quo, works out very well.

[Dave2002]

You seem to have things comprehensively covered there! I do exactly the same, a month here or there if there’s something on. I borrow Netflix from my daughters sub and share NOWTV as a quid pro quo, works out very well.

Snap!