Desperate finding the perfect Christmas present?

Look no further and bid on a “Taking the Flak” DVD which has been signed by Tira Shubart, co-creator, co-writer and co-producer of the show. Not only will you get a great DVD, you’ll also support a good cause:

This lot is being sold as part of Save the Rhino’s 15^th Birthday online auction; Hornucopia.  SAVE THE RHINO fundraises for the conservation of endangered species of rhinoceros by supporting community and education programmes in key wildlife habitats in Africa and Asia.

LINK TO AUCTION ON EBAY

Something positive following the downer that was the BBC’s axing of Taking the Flak.

I managed to find ZDF_neo, the German TV station which is showing “Taking the Flak” (“Reporter auf Kriegsfuss”), and from what I can tell, the dubbed version is really good, the voices match the characters, especially the ones of Joyful and Margareth. Nothing travels as badly as humour, but the jokes have been adapted in a way that actually works for a German-speaking audience. Some of the changes are strange, though. (Or very clever; depends on your point of view.)

Remember that one scene in “The Past is a Different Colony” with the beading soldiers? There’s a lady who whacks one soldier on the head when he points his gun at the BBC crew and confiscates the weapon. I can’t remember all of the dialogue, but if I remember correctly, Rory makes a comment that they could use someone like her in Ballymena (?). In German, it was “could use someone like her when we play poker in Belfast”…

The official German website calls Rory an “… alpha male who manages to talking his way out of even the most difficult situations”. Don’t tell David, he’d be shattered.

Damian O'Hare as Rory Wallace in "Taking the Flak" - Reporter auf Kriegsfuss

I feel to knackered to actually do this post any justice, but I’m forcing myself to do it anyway.  My sincerest apologies for any subsequent mistakes\crapness.

Generation Kill: Channel 4 (Recorded 18th Nov Watched 22nd Nov)

I run the risk of being the world’s worst TV reviewer, but I don’t really have a lot to say about this episode.  I only mention it at all as it was the final episode and it would be totally remiss of me not to at least say goodbye.

The final 15 minutes, including the The Wire-style montage, were incredibly moving and a fitting end to what has been a truly outstanding series.  I just hope that you were all watching.

The Greatest Ever 3D Moments: Channel 4 (R 22nd Nov W 23rd Nov)

Really?  These were really the greatest ever 3D moments?

This programme brought Channel 4’s week long gimmick-fest to a close and it brought the whole concept of 3D in to question.  Most of the clips shown were incredibly lame and the whole thing was utterly pointless.  Even the appearance of several notable “talking heads” specialists (who I actually like), including Andrew “Mitford Sisters” Collins, could do little to relieve the tedium.  Possibly the worst nostalgia/clips show ever.

In Treatment: Sky Arts 1 (R 23rd Nov W 23rd Nov)

The penultimate week of the season began with a shocking episode.  It was partly shocking because there was the surprise death of one of the major characters, but mainly because it was set entirely outside Paul’s office.  It was, however, based at a funeral, and although it was a bit depressing, because it seemed very real, you can’t really criticise because it was so well done.

If you don’t want to know who died, don’t read the bottom review.

Miranda: BBC2 (R 23rd Nov W 24th Nov)

This was actually episode 3 of the series and there’s a reason I haven’t mentioned it sooner.  It really annoys me when people slag off sitcoms that they’ve only seen about 5 minutes of, so I thought I’d watch a few episodes before I decided whether I’d pass judgement or not.  Luckily, I like it, so I’m free to comment.

It’s a very silly, mainstream, studio-based sitcom, and so takes a bit of getting used to.  Once you do get in to the swing of things, though, it is very funny.  It’s helped enormously by Miranda Hart being both funny and likeable.  She’s also not afraid to make a complete fool of herself, and takes a mean pratfall.  Don’t be afraid to like it.

Lie To Me: Sky One (R 17th & 19th Nov W 25th Nov)

I had two episodes of this to watch on my planner, so I thought I better watch one.  I was shocked when, a few minutes later, I decided to give up on it.  I realised that I’ve only been half watching the episodes this season (I’m usually online when I watch it), and I found I had no enthusiasm for it at all.  I did the sensible thing and deleted them, and the series link.  If only I had learned this lesson when I endured the whole first season of True Blood.

It’s hard to say what went wrong with the show, and I’m not actually sure that it has got any worse.  I think that the gimmick probably only had a limited shelf life before it wore off and became effectively another police procedural.

In Treatment: Sky Arts 1 (R 24th Nov W 25th Nov)

I couldn’t help but comment after seeing this episode, so I could praise the performance of Glynn Turman (Mayor Royce in The Wire) as Alex’s father.  It’s the day following Alex’s funeral (following a plane-based accident) and he wants to confront Paul as to his son’s state of mind.  He also brings the value of Paul’s profession in to question and it gave the episode an interesting dynamic.

Alex Sr. seemed to be relatively calm on the surface, but his grief was all too apparent.  It was an incredible, subtle performance by any standards, let alone for a ‘guest star’.  There were times when he seemed frighteningly similar to Alex, especially in the way he made some of his points to Paul, and I don’t know how much of that was due to skill or to a happy coincidence.  The performance culminated in a heartbreaking collapse, towards the end, and was some of the finest acting I’ve seen on TV.  I hope that Turman got some kind of award for it.

We got to see the other side of the man who Alex Jr. painted as a bit of a monster, and why he behaved the way he did.  An exceptional episode of a generally brilliant series.

The BBC has decided not to produce a second series of “Taking the Flak”.

This just in from the Official Taking the Flak Facebook:

“(…) Hello Flak fans…sad news I’m afraid…the BBC has decided that there will not be a Series Two of Flak. Too bad as we loved making Flak and had exciting plans for the next set of adventures for our intrepid team. (…)”

Major disappointment and grumpiness here and elsewhere!

Thanks a lot to everybody who worked so hard to give us “Taking the Flak”; it was a neat series with unusual, lovable characters and great potential.

If you’d like to leave a “thank you” note to those involved with the production, you can do so on their Facebook.

"I think they are fans - they have torches and pitchforks and sixpacks of cider."

Did anyone catch Horizon on BBC2 on Tuesday (with Alan Davies) with “How Long Is a Piece of String?” program? Talk about popular science!

Armando Iaunucci is a largely unknown figure, who has played a considerable part in shaping modern British satire.  His greatest hits include the spoof news show The Day Today, Norwich’s most prolific chat show host Alan Partridge and most recently, the naughties answer to Yes Minister, The Thick of It.

Having discovered The Thick Of It only recently, I feel suitably embarrassed at my prior ignorance: this is satire sharper than a newly sharpened pointy thing. In the country that conceived New Labour, ‘Spin’ and the blurring of boundaries between politics and big media, the programme will seem all too familiar to anyone who was old enough to vote in 1997.  The show perfectly captures the absurdity of civil servants who are more concerned with controlling the flow of information to the press, than running the country with any semblance of competency.

There are few characters, but this does not detract from the farce: in fact, it emphasises the notion that these individuals are exceptionally isolated from the real world.  Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) is a not so subtle homage to Alastair Campbell: a Scot who can turn the air blue with a few deftly crafted F-Bombs. His tirades are so fierce and relentless, that I simply can’t get enough.

Of the minister’s advisors, Glen is by far my favourite, an old gentleman in the truest sense of the word: befuddled by technology and with dry wit so bizarre I often have to double check his utterances.  Glen would not look out of place in Are you Being Served?

There are some serious messages between the gags and professional attacks, which perhaps don’t sit well with a public who are currently enjoying the opportunity to vilify their elected representatives.  First and foremost Politics is something of a vocation: it is not unheard of parliamentary debates to go until the early hours of the morning; MPs have to live a duality of constituency and parliamentary life, whilst contending with the strain this puts on family relationships; the press feel everything is fair game, including the intimate details of family, lovers and spouses.  When watching the Thick Of It, it is hard not to feel sympathy for the minister at the helm of the Department of Social Affairs as they tumble from one calamity to the next.  If I had a better understanding of Shakespeare, maybe this would be time for an observation about tragedy and comedy?

Series 3 of The Thick of It is currently showing on BBC 2 at 22:20 pm on Saturdays, or you can catch it on iPlayer.

Edie Falco als Nurse Jackie

Bij ons is ze al te zien op FoxLife, maar begin volgend jaar is Nurse Jackie ook te zien op BBC2 en BBC4. Edie Falco (bekend van de Sopranos) speelt in die serie een verpleegkundige met een geheel eigen wil en een zwak voor receptgeneesmiddelen. De BBC heeft deze serie aangekocht van CBS Studios International.

Janice Hadlow, Controller, BBC Two: “It’s great to be able to bring one of the best quality, intelligent US comedies featuring actors of the very highest calibre to a discerning British audience.”

Toen Nurse Jackie voor het eerst in Amerika op de buis verscheen was het direct de meest succesvolle nieuwe serie, en werd al na één aflevering besloten om een tweede serie te maken. Bij FoxLife is in Nederland momenteel Series 1 te zien.

Nurse Jackie is een co-productie van Showtime Networks Inc en Lionsgate.

You can apply to join the Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta over at the Battlefield Bad Company 2 website You just need to fill out the very simple form and you are in for a chance to get a PS3 beta key.

The beta starts 19th November.

Vandaag heeft BBC 2 zijn 2010 winter en lente programmering gepresenteerd. Janice Hadlow, baas van BBC 2, vat het zo samen: “We’ve got a great line-up for the new year. From major series on Britain’s past and present and the wider world including the solar system to a remarkable film tracking Obama’s election campaign, drama set in the Eighties and smart new comedy, BBC Two will be offering rewarding television across all genres.”

Wat kunnen we onder andere verwachten. Er zullen programma’s worden uitgezonden omtrent Barrack Obama’s eerste jaar en het lammerseizoen “Lambing Live”. Er komt een “Elvis Night”, en er wordt teruggekeken naar de eerste tien jaar van deze eeuw in “the Noughties”.

Brian Cox (foto: BBC)

Wetenschap zal in 2010 bij de gehele BBC een belangrijke rol spelen, met op BBC2 onder andere de series “Seven Wonders of the Solar System” met Brian Cox, en “Science Stories” met Michael Mosley. In “Digital Revolutions” zien we welke invloed het internet in de laatste 20 jaar op ons leven heeft gehad.

Simon Reeve (foto:BBC)

Simon Reeve gaat weer op pad, ditmaal langs “the Tropic of Cancer”. Zijn meest ambitieuze trip tot nu toe brengt hem onder andere in de Sahara en op Hawaii. In het natuurprogramma “the Great Rift” wordt the Great Rift Valley en bijbehorende fauna onder de loop genomen.

(foto:BBC)

Wat is BBC2 zonder comedy, en er komt een nieuwe comedy met Dawn French “Roger & Vall Have Just Got In”, over een stel en het eerste half uur nadat ze thuis komen van hun werk. Er komt ook een nieuwe comedy quiz “the Bubble”, met drie bekende gasten en gepresenteerd door David Mitchell.

De hele presentatie is hier te bekijken.

The Restaurant – BBC2

Seriously, where the fuck do they get these clowns from? Take the two women last week, who Raymond banished from the programme early, after they made fools of themselves in the kitchen, when they couldn’t open a tin of coconut milk and then struggled with cracking open a coconut! Fuck me, if you can’t open a tin what chance have you got at running a restaurant?

What about the mother & son combo who Raymond dispatched with haste also in the first week. He asked them about a name and theme for their rezzy, they both turned and looked at each other, then started grinning and didn’t say a thing. What the fuck were they thinking? Here they were on TV with Raymond fucking Blanc, here was there big chance to achieve their dream and they said fuck all and blew it. I was laughing my bollocks off at the their parting shot of mother and son consoling each other as they trotted back to middle England with their Daily-Mail-tail between their legs – It’s piss easy throwing a dinner party for your husbands golf club friends but throw these people into common sense, working environments like a kitchen and they (apple) crumble.

These might seem like harsh words coming from a lazy work-shy cunt like me, sat here, glued to the couch, but how hard is it to run a restaurant? First off you need decent food, so a good chef is essential. Then you must have a friendly, clean and comfortable place to enjoy the food. And lastly – as we discovered in tonight’s programme – you must get your food out on time and not make people wait over an hour for a fucking pizza.

Tonight’s clowns were Janet and Sean Duffy who made a Pizza Express come to a complete stand still when they fed hardly any customers. Instead they plied them with booze until the proper rezzy manager had to step in and comment that the place was turning into some kind of bar. This was when Sean stepped up and gave an apologetic speech to the hungry mob and promised them all a free bouquet of flowers from his florist shop – that supplies the likes of Angelina Joley, in case you missed it. There’s not a crocus in hell’s chance that you’ll get anything free off this fella believe me. I got on him in the first episode and commented to Sybil that I knew him. When I worked in a hotel many moons ago, this fella owned a florist shop in Bloomsbury that we used to use, when hotel guests ordered flowers. The trick was; the head concierge would give you 20 quid for a bouquet, you would then go to the florist shop and order a bouquet for 15 quid, pocketing the fiver profit. He grassed us up one time when Ahmed a new recruit porter foolishly asked for a receipt for 20 quid (we had our own book of blank receipts that one of the porters had lifted from his shop one time), he smelled a rat and phoned the head concierge up. We stopped using him after that and started using a sound fella who ran a flower stall down at Seven Dials in Covent Garden, who gave us as many blank receipts as we wanted and would always try and bulk up your bouquet to make it look expensive.

With three couples down already and six left, the going gets a lot tougher next week, when the couples are given the keys to their rezzy. My money’s on the two young lads from Kent – they seem level headed, one of them can at least cook and they have some common sense. Favourites to go are JJ Goodman & James – two complete bell wipes who run a cocktail bar in London and who I’d gladly mow down with an Uzi and not feel one ounce of remorse.

Missed Maxwell’s killer performance on Later with Jools Holland last week?

You can still catch the full show on the BBC iPlayer here: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iPlayer

Or … you could check out both songs Cold and Pretty Wings below:

Amazing, right?

Hello dear readers,

not just a pumpkin!

Here we are almost at the witching hour of Halloween (ok, so for some of us the witching hour has already come and gone and it is now 1st November……whatever!!!    Wherever you are I hope you joined in the fun and got some real great treats.

As for us here in the UK and for our Americans cousins on the other side of the water, midnight is on the way and our trick or treating is yet to come.

And as it approaches do you ever stop to wonder about the what, why or how of Halloween.   Personally I love the idea, I also love the US of A for introducing us to the idea.   Any excuse for a bit of fun is good with me

I decided to do a bit of research this year, not having stopped to answer the above questions myself in the past and this is what I found:

Wikipedia:

Halloween (also spelled Hallowe’en) is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31.    It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints.    It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones.

The colours black and orange have become associated with the celebrations, perhaps because of the darkness of night and the colour of fire or of pumpkins, and maybe because of the vivid contrast this presents for merchandising. Another association is with the jack-o’-lantern (named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, called ignis fatuus or jack-o’-lantern).   Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.”

I am totally into things that go bump in the night, scary movies, ghost stories, haunted castles, being scared witless and having fun watching other people being scared witless;  so this type of event is right up my alley.

I was watching ‘Autumn Watch‘ on BBC2 last night and they showed Simon in Abney-Park Hackney Cemetery wandering about at night, which is so cool.  Abney-Park became the first non-denominational Victorian Cemetery.

so if you are into being scared witless, ghosts, and things that go bump in the night why not venture into your local cemetery tonight, the UK certainly has plenty of really ancient graveyards that should fulfil your wildest nightmares then drop by later and leave us a comment on what you got up to!

My thanks to our American cousins for introducing us to this marvellous event.   HAPPY HALLOWEEN

If you can receive German TV channels, there’s something to look forward to:

On Sunday, 1 November, “Taking the Flak” will premier on “ZDF_neo”, Germany.

The pilot is scheduled for Sunday, 1 November, 2009, 9.55pm (21.55h); the following episodes will be shown on Thursdays, 10.30pm. The German title of the show will be “Taking the Flak – Reporter auf Kriegsfuss.”

There seems to be quite some interest in the series, if the hit numbers for the German version of the website are anything to go by.

Doon Mackichan and Damian O'Hare in "Taking the Flak"

I’m not entirely happy with this post but I’m sick of tinkering with it and my tea is nearly ready.  Here are some of the programmes that I’ve been watching this week.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: More 4 (Recorded 22nd Oct Watched 24th Oct)

The second episode of the new series had too many hilarious moments to mention.  The opening saw Larry have a fight with an unopenable blister pack.  This sounds incredibly cliched but LD gave his attack on the packet such manic frenzy that I thought he might actually hurt himself.

The next thing that I laughed out loud at was the line: ‘You DO have cancer…but how does that affect your driving?’  It probably doesn’t sound funny out of context, but I’m sure anyone who saw the episode will be laughing at the thought of it.  It’s also the kind of line that you’d only find on Curb.

Next came LD’s joy at the prospect of being the toxic part of a toxic relationship, which was a joy to  behold.  This led to a scene in a doctor’s office in which Larry was being purposefully obnoxious and I could barely recover between hilarious moments; I couldn’t stop laughing.

Anyway, I’d better stop now or I’ll end up transcribing the whole episode.  One of the funniest TV shows I’ve seen in years.

Russell Howard’s Good News: BBC 3 (R 22nd Oct W 24th Oct)

It might be more apt if this was called Russell Howard’s News Burp,  not that you should read that as a criticism.  It was a pretty funny look back at the week’s news and the jokes came  thick and fast, so you could soon recover if there was one you didn’t like.  I don’t have a lot more to say on it, I mainly just wanted to make my smug TV Burp comparison.

Design for Life: BBC2 (R 19th Oct W 25th Oct)

It seems to be weeks and weeks since I last watched this, but in reality it can only be 13 days at the most.  Anyway…

It was the final episode and there are jut two contestants left: Ilsa, with her flamingo sculpture walking aid, and Mike, with his magnetic cutlery.  Over the weeks, neither has had an easy ride from Starck; Mike was even eliminated at one point and was only saved by the protestations of Ilsa and another of the students.  They both seemed to really knuckle down in the last few weeks and they both finally managed to impress Starck.  The result was very close, but Ilsa just pipped Mike at the post.

To be honest, I don’t know how much we’ve really learnt about design over the weeks but that doesn’t really matter.  The important part is that Starck emerged as a great television personality.  He’s a genuinely world renowned designer but he’s also irritable,  harsh, demanding, strange and funny.  When it came to announcing the overall winner he produced the traditional envelope and pulled out…another envelope.  He then revealed that the second envelope was empty and he said:  ’It’s not surprising.  I just asked for two envelopes.’

You can’t quite imagine Alan Sugar pulling a practical joke at the climax of The Apprentice.

Life: ITV3 (R 23rd Oct W 27th Oct)

It was the last ever episode of the police drama and we saw yet another shift in tone as it turned in to an all-out action flick.  The lovely Dani Reese had been kidnapped by the evil Roman Nebekov, and Charlie and his Crew (pun intended) pulled out all the stops to save her.  This was the resolution to the conspiracy that ran through the whole series and that had led Crews to be falsely imprisoned for murder.  It was satisfying that they managed to tie up all the loose ends.  Kind of.  I can’t help but think that I mustn’t have been paying attention at some point during the season as I wasn’t entirely clear on all the details of what had happened.  I got the gist though.

The ending was nicely done as Crews dealt with being kidnapped by Nebekov in the most simple, almost zen-like, way imaginable.  I can imagine that some people might think it was a bit of a cop out, but I think it was a great way for the show to end (I won’t say what it was, just in case you haven’t seen it yet).  We also ended with the bond between Crews and the usually slightly antagonistic Reese being made made explicit in a touching but subtle way.

All in all, I’ve enjoyed the series for what it was, but it’s not going to leave a gaping hole in my life.

Peep Show: Channel 4 (R 23rd Oct W 28th Oct)

Yet another final episode as the sixth series of one of my favourite sitcoms came to an end.  I thought I’d better mention it as its one of my favourite shows, but, weirdly, I was a bit underwhelmed by the episode.  I don’t know if it’s because I was tired, and not really in the mood, or if it was genuinely under par.

Jeremy had to deal with his lesbian lover’s impending wedding (not to him), and Mark lied about passing his driving test, in order to placate Sophie.  It sounds like a classic Peep Show plot, but, somehow, it all seemed a bit flat.  That’s not to say that it wasn’t funny, because it was.  I just wish I could have given it a more enthusiastic send off.

Just a reminder that Maxwell is performing on Later Live tonight on BBC2 at 10pm, with the full show this Friday Oct 30th at 11.35pm.

More info and iPlayer link at: http://bbc.co.uk/later

We hear it’s going to off the hook! Can’t wait to hear how BlackSummers’Night sounds live…

Jarvis Cocker, you know you know him(ok, this is a rather stupid sentence… I love it!). He’s that guy with those big glasses (nowadays), ex-Pulp leadsinger, now solo.. Ah well, if you never heard of him, check out his solo debut that’s nice or some Pulp stuff.

Anyway, Jarvis is the latest addition to the BBC 6 Music cast. I don’t listen to BBC 6, simply because I doubt if I’m able to find it here (in Holland), plus I’m not a fan of listening to the radio on my computer (I guess that’s just something personal).

Mr. Cocker has previously guest-presented on the radio (BBC 6 and sisters sation BBC Radio 2). He will take over the Sunday afternoon slot, which was previously home to ‘The Office’ writer/comedian Stephen Merchant. He’ll be on from 3:30 till 5:30 pm, starting to air on January 10 next year.

Jarvis told Steve Lamacq: ‘I’m very much looking forward to it. I think Sunday afternoons have got a special atmosphere, and I will be doing something that I think is appropriate to that — or maybe inappropriate, I don’t know! It is my intention to fill these hours with as much dodgy opinion, crackpot theories, hare-brained schemes and beautiful, beautiful music as is humanly possible. I can’t wait to get going.I am going to put the boringness back into Sunday. That’s my mission.’ Well, that sounds like something good.

Brilliant news, MAXWELL will be performing on Later with Jules Holland this coming Tuesday Oct 27th (and subsequent show Friday Oct 30th)!

A red-hot prelude  for the shows, right?

Not to be missed!

Lets be honest, I’m a man who dislikes Gordon Smith yet to be fair, Gordon Smith dislikes me..or more importantly, Gordon Smith dislikes people like me. It sums up the crazy world of Scottish football that one of the heid bummers at the SFA can hold the post after referring to fans of a certain team as “they people” whilst using “we” to describe his feelings about another club (aye, Celtic and Rangers in case you were hard of thinking).

Virtually, every decision the clown has had to make, he has called it wrong and embarrassed himself to a greater degree every time. Of course, for a man with no shame, which has seemingly passed onto his offspring too, this embarrassment doesn’t affect him at all.

However, I think he has lobbied the right decision in opening up the rights to play for a national team if you have been in the schooling system for 5 years. Scotland has seen a number of asylum seekers come to the country, many with young families and no doubt a lot of the youngsters will feel an affinity with Scotland. They can retain their birth and bloodline link to their own nation(s) but you know something, they’ll probably have a much greater degree of patriotism than me so who would I be to say they shouldn’t be allowed to play for the Scotch.

I had made my opinion but it’s always good to have it endorsed or confirmed by others and a quick look at Craig Burley’s opinion on the matter proved it. Simply put, Burley is a ballbag and if he says black, put your money on white. Painting himself out to be the new Andy Gray where everything is worth moaning about, nothing is worth praising highly and throwing in a few catchphrases can now make a media career.

There are plenty of rumours about the end of Burleys time in Glasgow but I’m not one to deal in rumours….so here are some random words which may be able to be re-assembled into some order or maybe not.

job in Archaos Hand-

employee Fellow pregnant made

Take from that what you will…

So….getting some new blood with hunger and determination may be exactly what the Scottish national team needs to kickstart it back into life but after having got one decision right, the SFA aren’t due to get another one until the year 2525….if man is still alive. I’ve already used that track so let’s choose one from the only SFA you can trust!

It is fair enough to say that Sunday’s blog saw me in a bit of a downward trajectory, it ain’t easy being green, so aye, a link to you know who again, I really need to get a new writing muse:

Aye aye, her from the Times

“Even more amazing than all that is that on the internet — it doesn’t matter if you’re as ugly as a pan of germs. Online, you’re as attractive as your thoughts and your ability to express them. Or, often — to be strictly truthful — your ability to link to pictures of cats doing amusing things such as sitting in a Barbie car or falling off a wall.”

Haha, sums it up rather well and maybe at times Im a bit too harsh on myself for too long, unfortunately my words are unable to make myself seem any prettier but what the heck, they don’t make it any worse…..I think!

Never mind that though, a decent game of football was had, I’m developing great skill in bringing cattenaccio to the five a sides at the Pleasance but that’s maybe not what the natural footballers are looking for. I started terribly but I soon found my passing range and did my usual bumbling in the bumblebees at the back.

That and the night was rounded off on a great point by BBC4 repeating In The Thick of It: Rise of The Nutters as a prelude to the new series starting this weekend on BBC2.

“Mammy”