Book Review: A Very Courageous Decision - The Inside Story of Yes Minister, by Graham McCann
McCann is clearly carving out a niche in writing about the "Golden Age" of British sitcoms - this and his book on Dad's Army are only two out of many ( Read more... )

An interlude in the Sibelius cycle on Sunday afternoon was the Sherlock Holmes Prom. The seats were quite full, but the arena had plenty of space (and in fact although I was about half way back, only about 10% of the Prommers stayed for the evening concert, in which I got to the second row). There were a few fans wearing deerstalkers, but I managed ( Read more... )

Book Review: Smiley's People, by John le Carré
The final part of the trilogy is the shortest, and it probably doesn't make much sense unless you have read at least Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I very vaguely remember the original broadcasting of the BBC adaptation (and I didn't have a clue what was going on); I've since watched the DVD, and I ( Read more... )

Book Review: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John Le CarréIt is several years (possibly almost 20) since I last read this book; certainly I haven't read it since I saw the 2011 film and probably not since I watched the BBC adaptation either. As a long-term project I've been reading the Smiley novels in chronological order. I know the story by now ( Read more... )

Book Review: Dad's Army - The Story of a Classic Television Show, by Graham McCannThe first chapter, reasonably enough, reviews in brief what actually happened between 1940 and 1943, in terms of the Local Defence Volunteers (which Churchill renamed to Home Guard a few months later). The rest of the book jumps to 1967, when Jimmy Perry got his idea ( Read more... )

Well, according to some information, we were due to lose BBC2 today, and we'd have to retune the Freeview box. Although the overlay that's been appearing sporadically on Channel 4 suggests nothing happens until April ( Read more... )

Sometimes the TV is an ideal medium for just sitting back and not taking things too seriously. Obviously, Channel 5's Top 10 Carry-on moments last night was not taking things too seriously, but I was pleased to see Carry-On Up The Khyber taking the top spot.

Then I decided to hop over to Endeavour. I didn't expect it to be all that good, and I ( Read more... )

Well, I have to admit I didn't have an awful lot of enthusiasm for this ahead of time, but on the whole I did enjoy the series. ( Spoilers )

Just a quick note to observe a couple of TV programmes which have been of interest. Firstly, BBC4's The Beauty of Maps (of which, it turns out in that way BBC4 have of scheduling programmes, I am now missing the second episode ... thank goodness for iPlayer). The first programme focused on Hereford's Mappa Mundi and its interest not only as a map, ( Read more... )

Also providing entertainment over the past few weeks has been BBC4's Lost Kingdoms of Africa. It was especially impressive to get a film crew to Great Zimbabwe, which was probably the highlight of the series, though uitlander will probably shudder at the mention of the name Wynne-Jones in one of the programmes ( Read more... )