Time for off topic.  I’ve said all I want to, or anyone could read, about fiscal timing.

I am an obsessive user of the iPod, eternally grateful to leave behind those barbaric days of  mix tapes and minidiscs . As well as podcasts (Guardian, BBC comedy, that sort of sad middle-aged stuff), I am always looking for the Next Favourite Track, that wonderful uplifting moment when you realise you are going to love a 2-15 minute piece for ever. (except, of course, you won’t).

From my point of view, the trade-off is worth it if I listen to 10 pieces of rubbish for every hit.   I probably buy 10 tracks every other day, most of them classical, on the strictly impartial advice of the InterWeb and its Lists.  It is well worth ploughing through half of this for example to find that sublime slow movement from the Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto.

So I was deeply, sadly excited to see that the Times was adding to its 100 best books (for which read, novels) of the decade, and 100 films, with the 100 best albums of the Noughties.  This is seriously useful: posterity is a wonderful filter.  Thanks to posterity, most of us would not have heard of a mediocrity like Salieri (without that movie).  A lot of pointless ploughing through anonymous works is thereby saved.

But I don’t like the Times list.  Instant posterity is clearly nowhere near as reliable.   My first, most obnoxious reason, is this.  There are too many old people on it.   Here they are:

Neil Diamond Paul Simon Johnny Cash Paul Weller Paul McCartney David Bowie Brian Wilson Bob Dylan Madonna Bruce Springsteen Richard Hawley

Now, before you get cross (whoever YOU is), hear me out.  I loved some of the defining work of the people above.  I thought Dylan the equal of any other poet – until I read some other poetry.  But now I have to admit that I don’t like anything he has done since 1974.  And it’s because Pop is different from those other arts where the practitioner becomes better with age.  Shakespeare, clearly, got better.   His thoughts became more complex, his range of references wider, and so on.  So too can classical composers grow.  Beethoven’s last symphony is generally rated the best, as are his wonderful late string quartets. And in many professions – I would offer politics – I seriously doubt the ability of the early practitioner to make judgements as fine as in later life.

Now look at the history of pop.  Would anyone honestly have heard of Paul McCartney if he had started in 1985, with “Spies like Us”?  Or the Rolling Stones, with that dreadful song about rocks and a hard place?  No, of course no.  Ditto all the names up there.  Pop is overwhelmingly about adolescence.  Its lyrics, for what they are worth, are pathetically adolescent. When pop tries to be profound or clever, it is embarassing.  It is not meant for that.  It is meant to be overthetop, vainglorious, pretentious, and not worth 20 minutes of a university course.

The people who compiled the Times list clearly take it too seriously, because they want to to be so much more.  This is their life, after all.  Part of this need is a desire to think that pop talent exhibits some sort of continuity, an ability to mellow and deepen with age and experience – like the other great Arts.  But it obviously is not so.  Great pop bands mature incredibly quickly, and then suffer an embarassing long afterlife, an endless second-act-angst.  It’s like someone who makes everyone laugh once at a dinner party, and then launches into longer and windier anecdotes.  Get your coat.

Of course, they never get their coat.  The Arctic Monkey’s last album was full of painfully obscure and dark lyrics, lots of poetical preachiness: ‘a more experimental, darker sound and even bleaker subject matter.’.  Sorry, but that is not what got us buying those wonderful early songs, so honest and witty about chippy underachieving mid adolescence.   The same has happened to my favourite band, Gomez.

I don’t know much about the Times’ more obscure choices, at least 30 of which I had not heard of.  I can’t rate rap, and had always hoped Ali G or the Conchords would do for it what I had hoped Spinal Tap would do for heavy metal.  I am not pretending I have more knowledge than the Times’ experts.  This is their life after all.  But one thing that is certain is that their combination of obscure and old has pushed away some amazing bands:

• Noah and the Whale – just that first album
• Gomez
• Razorlight, again the first album, if only for the gloriously pretentious “in the City”
• The Fratellis, again the first album. Chelsea Dagger must have been the most used track on the telly
• Florence and the Machine
• Dirty Pretty Things, both albums.  Barat is clearly the genius of that combination.
• The Killers, for God’s Sake.  All three albums, but they clearly deserve some recognition for writing the best song of the decade. (scandalously used by David Cameron).
• Badly Drawn Boy – the first 3 albums at least deserved a place.  Like Nick Hornby I am affected by A Minor Incident.

I am sure I could go on.  So could you.  I would like to add one more.  It is easily my favourite album of the decade, from one of the best TV shows, and just about the only one I am (currently) sure I’ll still listen to in 10 years’ time.   Because pop is meant to be like that.

By taking pop too seriously, the Times have missed the point of it entirely.

Not everyone’s life has the level of excitement that fills my own. Not everyone can rub shoulders with captains of industry and stars of stage and screen. So I feel it only fair to share the sparkly wondrousness that blesses my daily existence for the benefit of people who don’t occasionally walk within 100 yards of someone vaguely famous.

1. Lily Cole. We’re becoming very close, even though we don’t talk much. At all, in fact. But we do see each other nearly every morning. I’ll be arriving at King’s Cross from Stevenage and she’ll be on her way to catch her train to university in Cambridge.

Hi Lily – if you happen to be Googling yourself.

Summer wardrobe.

It's amazing what a difference a hat makes.

2. Stephen Mangan from out of Green Wing and the Barclaycard adverts. Went to school in Hertfordshire, so we’d have had loads to talk about, but alas I didn’t have that nugget to hand when I walked past him on my way to Pret yesterday. Anyway, he’s my best mate now and needless to say, he thinks I’m HILARIOUS.

A better stalker than I snapped him with Kevin Spacey.

3. Kirsty Wark from out of Newsnight bumping into Jeremy Vine also out of Newsnight. In Carluccio’s. Not much to report here other than they were on separate tables having an informal chat with somebody and then they noticed each other. Small world, eh.

Newsnight's Wark.

Newsnight's Vine

Goodness, it’s better than OK! In nearly both senses of the word.

I hadn’t realized before but hulu does that amazon thing where they suggest other shows you might like based on whatever show you happen to be watching. Same way amazon does with books, although I have to say I often find amazon’s suggestions suspect, at least for my taste. Anyhoo… one of the suggestions associated with Green Wing, a show that I’m still watching obsessively, is Spaced,  a half-hour comedy. (Do the call them sit-coms in England?) And I figured, oy, why not give it a go, then.

[this is where the video of the first episode of Spaced via hulu.com would appear if I could just get it to work - dammit!]

Glad I did.

Spaced is about two twenty-something Londoners. Tim (Simon Pegg aka Shaun from Shaun of the Dead) and Daisy (Jessica Stevenson, who has a bit role in Shaun as Yvonne) who both suddenly find themselves in need of new lodgings and decide to pose a professional couple so that they can rent a nice flat, clearly an allusion to the 70s sit-com Three’s Company.

The show is chock-full of pop culture references, especially TV and movies. And, a la Scrubs, it employs fantasy sequences to great effect (or is it affect?). Also like Scrubs it is a single-camera show, but I don’t know how unique that is to British TV.

Other GenX-ieties  include: Tim is a skateboarding graphic artist who wants to work for a comic book company but is currently working part-time at a comic book shop; while Daisy is a journalist who is on the dole.

Simon Pegg does much of the writing and the director is Edgar Wright, who collaborated with Pegg to make Shaun of the Dead. Also, Nick Frost, who plays Shaun’s best friend Ed in the romantic-comedy-zombie flick plays Tim’s best friend, Mike, who is described as a “weapons expert.” Much of what appears in Shaun of the Dead was first portrayed in Spaced. Some of it practically verbatim.

Another treat for me is that the character of Brian, the quirky, twitchy, semi-reclusive artist who lives upstairs from Tim and Daisy, who is played by Mark Heap, the actor that portrays the wonderfully pompous Dr. Alan Staythem in Green Wing.  Clearly Heap has a talent for infusing his characters with all kind of interesting traits and foibles that make them a little creepy and endearing at the same time, no small accomplishment.

At this point I can’t say which show I like better. It’s difficult to decided. Green Wing has way more swearing and sexual references. But Spaced has loads more pop culture stuff. In the end it hardly matters. What I can say is that I’d like to own both shows on DVD. I think Spaced is available for Region 1 where as Green Wing still is not.

In any case, both shows are more than valid GenX vehicles. Spaced is about younger GenXers, of the kind featured in Douglas Coupland’s novel, Generation X. While Green Wing is about older GenXers who have matriculated into the workforce.

And both shows are funny and sarcastic and surreal and ultimately very touching and human.

This whole “where were they then?” idea requires a little bit more follow-through than I’d initially anticipated.  But I just stumbled on John Oliver as a used car salesman in the premiere of Green Wing, so there you go.

To think, this was 5 years after he was in the Footlights.  I’d better start holding out for my 30s now.

(Incidentally, the episode’s here.  Gratis Hulu. He’s in the first three minutes.)

I love the comedy-drama series Green Wing.

Rather than try and explain the plot, I’ve decided to simply link to Wikipedia entry for it.

Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Wing

And here are some samples of its humour:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/green-wing/4od#2921927

There’s a great box set of ALL of the episodes and extras available here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Wing-Complete-Collection-DVD/dp/B000T2MZ48/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1257207037&sr=1-1

It’s a fantastically funny series. If you like Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Flight of the Conchords, Black Books, The Comic Strip Presents…, Extras, The Office, then you’ll like Green Wing.

www.rjdent.com

I have been obsessively watching and re-watching this BBC tv show entitled Green Wing, which I stumbled across on hulu.com.

It is an absurdest send up of hospital-based soap operas. Kind of like a British version of Scrubs, covering much of the same ground, except without the Scrubs signature “fantasy sequences.” Green Wing’s absurd element are played off as real, which in some ways makes them even funnier. Both shows are adept at mixing affecting (or is it effecting?) drama with hilarious and often over-the-top humor. Scrubs has more pop-culture references but Green Wing clearly had more leeway with language — the F-bomb gets dropped regularly, plus words like cock and cunt and all those cool Brit curses, like bloody and bollocks etc. In any case, if you’re a fan of Scrubs you may enjoy Green Wing as well.

Green Wing ran for only two seasons, like The Office, with 9 episodes each season, the very last episode running and hour and half. And it was an award winning show apparently, that was much praised. Of course, had it been an American TV show it would have been extended several more season, probably until it got old and stale, even though actors would be making obscene amounts of money per episode. I kind of like this form of programing. It allows for more ideas to get developed, and keeps shows from getting stale and turning into little more than advertising delivery devices. Although, I can’t but wish that there was more to Green Wing. But then you know you’ve done some right when viewers want more. Good fiction is the same way.

Also like Scrubs, Green Wing is definitely a GenX show. I don’t know if the whole GenX thing is even a topic of interest over there in Britian, but just watch on episode and you’ll see what I mean.

The story-line follows Dr. Caroline Todd (the female, British version of the bumbling but lovable J.D from Scrubs) as she begins her new post at the hospital in question. But this show is rarely if ever about medicine or hospital work, unlike Scrubs, which actually strives to get the medical aspects correct. And Caroline quickly finds her affections toggling between Mac, the young talented surgeon with the a lion’s main of blonde hair, and Guy, the brash anesthestist, who can be equally charming and repuslive. The love story is credible if predictable. But what really makes the show is the cast of supporting characters, whose story lines are no less interesting, and often even more hilarious, especially the spastic Senior Cunsultant Radiologits, Dr. Alan Staythem. Mark Heap who plays the stuttering, sputtering, spastic Alan is incredible. And some of the sex scene played between him and the Joanna Claw character or some of the funniest I ever seen portrayed anywhere.

Much of my argument for Green Wing being a GenX show is instinctive. It just feels like one. It has an Xer sensibility. Particularly in that it is mainly about a group of friends, and not a family as most tradition sitcoms are. The humor is often of the caustic, sarcastig insulting variety, and contains an inherent underlying sense of affection for the object of the jibes.

I could not ascertain the creator Victoria Pile’s age but I’d be willing to guess that she falls within or very near the GenX age range. The actress who plays the main character, Dr. Caroline Todd, certainly is. Tamsin  Greig is 42, born in 1967, same as me. Also:

Julian-Rhind Tutt (great name btw) who plays Mac, was born in 1966

Stephan Mangan, who plays Guy, was born in 1972

Michelle Gomez, who plays Sue White, one of the most insanely hilarious portrayals of a clearly unstable person, was born in 1968

Etc.

If I could buy this show on DVD I would, but it isn’t availble (yet only I hope) on region 1 format, which the U.S. falls into. I’m hoping in the near future it will be.

]]> http://boleuzia.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/film-o-rama-16/ Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:25:13 +0000 guy http://boleuzia.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/film-o-rama-16/

De voorbije maand niet zo heel veel gezien, het waren drukke tijden. Naast die geweldige documentaire over Anvil ook dit:

• Green Wing, Season 1 (2004). Ok, geen film, maar een serie. Hier heb ik me geweldig mee geamuseerd, af te leiden aan de ongecontroleerde lachsalvo’s. (****1/2)
• Pelle Erobreren (Bille August, 1987). Hier beter bekend als Pelle de veroveraar. Sterk en grauw naturalistisch drama dat aan de haal ging met de hoofdprijs in Cannes. Zowel Max Von Sydow (vader) als Pelle Hvenegaard (zoon) zijn ijzersterk, al kabbelt de film nu en dan maar wat aan en had er zeker een half uur af gemogen. (***1/2)
• The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955). ‘t is een gemakkelijk uitspraak, “het origineel was beter”, al kon ik bij het bekijken van deze film zelfs geen enkele reden bedenken waarom je dit in godsnaam zou willen overdoen. Zelfs als je de Coen Brothers bent. Dit is een film die perfect is zoals hij is: charmant, kleurrijk, carnavalesk, met een geweldige Alec Guinness en een heel hedendaagse feel. (****1/2)
• The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008). Mooi uitgangspunt (The Trees Strike Back), maar frustrerend flauw uitgewerkt, met duffe dialogen en gedrogeerd acteerwerk. Een paar goeie momenten in een saaie bedoening. Unbreakable blijft ’s mans beste. (*1/2)
• W. (Oliver Stone, 2008). Lof voor Josh Brolins geweldige vertolking. Er zijn momenten dat je echt zou kunnen denken dat het de echte Dubya is die je ziet/hoort. Voor de rest wel een opvallend klassieke biopic, net als Milk bvb, die nergens meeslepend genoeg is om de film écht overtuigend te maken. (***1/2)
• Into The Wild (Sean Penn, 2007). Net als bij Grizzly Man had ik de helft van de tijd zin om die snaak uit de tv te trekken en een pak rammel te geven – dus dat toontje van heldenverering (voor een ander misschien terecht) was wel wat irritant. Klassiek puberrebellieverhaal: jongeman breekt met familie en leven om rond te reizen en uiteindelijk te belanden in Alaska. Heel mooie beelden, geduldig tempo en een hoofdrolspeler die zich vrij goed van z’n taak kwijt. (***1/2)
• Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997). Ooit in de cinema gezien. Of beter: ondergaan. Tweede visie was eerder frustrerend.De look en de muziek (de score is ook een pak beter dan de songs) lijken intussen al hopeloos verouderd en dat spelen met waarheid, verbeelding, psychologie en absurditeit wordt misschien net iets te grotesk aangepakt om écht te kunnen meeslepen. Niettemin een speciaaltje, vooral door het stilistische vertoon en de dierlijke seksualiteit van Patricia Arquette. (***1/2)
• The Short Films Of David Lynch (2002). DVD met zes kortfilms, gemaakt tussen de late 60s en 1996. De eerste twee zijn animaties gemaakt tijdens zijn studentenperiode: hectisch en absurd, en ook al met hyperenerverende muziek. The Amputee is pervers, The Grandmother volledig over the top, The Cowboy & The Frenchman eerder flauw (en veel te lang) en het laatste stuk is een vingeroefening van 55 seconden. Boeiend voor de liefhebbers/fans, maar zeker geen must. (***)
• Whale Rider (Niki Caro, 2002). Een film die past in de zondagnamiddagtraditie van vroeger. Aangenaam verrast door deze Nieuw-Zeelandse prent over traditie en mythes met een magisch kantje. Mooie beelden, goed geacteerd en ontroerend. Een bescheiden pareltje. (****)
• Ook gezien: de eerste 3 afleveringen van Hung (Season 1). ‘t Is HBO, dus het ziet er goed uit en bevat prima acteerwerk, maar het stijgt nooit echt boven de goeie middelmaat uit, waardoor Weeds de betere HBO comedy blijft. (***)

NP: Part Chimp - Thriller

Gisteren naar de free jazz/improv van het Herb Robertson Macroquarktet gaan kijken in De Werf (Brugge). Ongetwijfeld een te hoog plinkeplonke-gehalte voor de fans van het traditionele werk, maar de grilligheid werd gelukkig gecompenseerd door humor, zelfrelativering en mooie interactie. Zonder dat had het misschien te dicht bij de Britse free improv gezeten die me doorgaans net iets té abstract is. Verslagje hier

Ter plekke ook nog wat gepalaverd met enkele sleutelsupporters van de free jazz in België (de ene door een gerenommeerde blog, de andere door een online shop gespecialiseerd in de muziek). ‘t Is een kleine wereldje, maar de passie is groot.

Volgende week: Pere Ubu (dinsdag), William Elliott Whitmore (vrijdag) en Kinky Friedman (Bill Clintons favoriete schrijver! Zondag! In Eeklo!). En ook nog gaan werken, als ‘t even kan. En lezen. Doodverf van Van der Heijden momenteel. Vreemd boek: herkauwt grote lappen uit De Tandeloze Tijd (overbodig voor de fans), maar onthult te weing voor nieuwkomers. Gelukkig is er die expansieve taalrijkheid.

Nog steeds aan het kijken naar het eerste seizoen van Green Wing. Ik kan me niet herinneren hoe lang het geleden is dat ik nog zo hard gelachen heb met een komische serie. Van de makers van het over het paard getilde Smack The Pony. Die laatste serie vond ik allesbehalve de moeite, de reden waarom ik de Green Wing-boot zo lang heb afgehouden. Onterecht dus.

De plaat van Shrinebuilder is anders dan verwacht (iets wat ik nog niet krijg uitgelegd), de nieuwe Om heeft precies weinig toe te voegen aan zijn voorgangers (dat lijkt ook niet de bedoeling) en hetzelfde geldt een beetje voor Black Cobra, niettemin nog steeds het meest verpletterende lawaaiduo van de planeet.

Aankoop van het jaar is nog steeds de Live In Vilnius 2LP van het David S. Ware Quartet.

NP: Om – God Is Good

I’m really disappointed at what’s on television this Autumn. Because there isn’t much. Where have all the good shows gone?

The new shows starting this autumn are far and between on Finnish TV. The only one I could get excited about was Mentalist and even that isn’t very original, though it’s been very popular over in the US. Simon Baker is okay, but he is more or less another Charlie Crews. Life is taking a break over here and instead we get Desperate Housewives which I abandoned already after two seasons.

I was looking forward to Harper’s Island but that show is such a load of tosh I can’t believe it. I’ve seen three episodes but can’t care enough about the characters to continue long. Maybe I should just let it be.

All I have to watch is CSI, Bones and Mentalist, and that’s not much. Of course there are always reruns of shows like Simpsons, but that’s not much of a consolation. I even have to wait a couple more months for Prison Break’s final season, though that definitely isn’ as good as it was in its first season. The following seasons have mostly had the sole attraction of Wentworth Miller who surely is pleasant to look at.

Where is the second season of Pushing Daisies? Or Breaking Bad. Or IT Crowd. Flight of the Conchords? I want Lost back, as well. So many great shows that will not get air time on the Finnish TV. Because apparently we need another season of Big Brother, Who wants to be a Top Model or a Fashion Designer or an Idol who’ll fade to obscurity by the time the credits roll. TV is shite at the moment and I’m pissed.

At least our National Broadcasting Company renewed its contract with HBO so we’ll get True Blood and Pacific, though not until next year. For the mean time I have to raid my DVD shelf and that of my roommate’s. I just recently bought Green Wing box set and she all of the three seasons of Arrested Development so I’m set for a while. And I still haven’t started watching Deadwood which I bought a couple of months ago and I’m still viewing the third season of the Wire. Those will keep me satisfied for a little while. It seems that if I want to watch good television, I have to buy the DVDs and that doesn’t seem right, does it?

They finally added the second season of Green Wing to hulu! Sweet. I have to say, the Lord of the Flies, descent into chaos that takes place in the HR office is one of my favorites.

Sometimes I create things and they turn out fabulously. Such as these berry tarts! Served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, MMMMmmmm so good.  Puff pastry is one of my favorite things ever.

However sometimes I create things and something goes a miss. I tired my hand a making at Chowder using left over shrimp from last night. Everything was going swimmingly, I added the cream to the veggie stock and the put the shrimp in to the pot.  On goes the lid and after simmering for 20 mins I check it to find that the cream had curdled.  Slowly I started to put two and two together, cream + citrus marinated shrimp = curdled chowder.

“Criminals always get caught in the end, don’t you watch TV?”

On a happier note, I’ve been watching season two of Green Wing. Green Wing is an amazingly funny British sitcom about a hospital. Although its a show about medical professionals and hospital administrators there’s no actual medical plot line.  Most of the time I am squirming and squealing with laughter.

Alright now, time for school.

The first cut is the deepest.

spielt die Musik, als Grete das erste Mal bei einer Operation das Messer ansetzen darf. Wenigstens kommt die Musik aus dem Ghettoblaster im Operationssaal, das kann man mit etwas gutem Willen noch witzig finden. (Obwohl das in Green Wing viel viel viel viel witziger ist.) Das ist dann aber auch schon das Witzniveau von Doctor’s Diary auf RTL. Viel besser wird’s nicht.

Dabei hat Bora Dagtekin als Autor von Türkisch für Anfänger schon gezeigt, dass er es besser kann. Während Türkisch für Anfänger seinen Witz aus der Figurenkonstellation bezieht – eine Deutsche heiratet einen Deutschtürken, die pubertierenden Kindern können sich nicht entscheiden, ob sie sich lieben oder hassen – geht es bei Doctor’s Diary um eine Frau, die zwischen, gähn, zwei Männern steht. Einer ein, gähn, Macho, einer, supergähn, supersensibel. Und außerdem hat sie sich gerade, kurz vor der Hochzeit, von ihrem Mann getrennt, weil der sie betrogen hat. Deshalb wird es nichts mit der gemeinsamen Praxis, sie muss wieder bei ihren Eltern einziehen, ihr Vater ist gleichzeitig ihr Chef in dem Krankenhaus, in dem sie jetzt arbeitet etc. pp. Hat irgendwer jemals gedacht, das könnte lustig werden?. Warum aber auch das Niveau der Schauspieler teilweise kaum an GZSZ rankommt, warum alles ständig erklärt wird und nicht Geschichten erzählt werden, ist mir unklar. Und die Idee, dass das Tagebuch der Hauptfigur den Rahmen jeder Folge bildet, ist auch nicht neu, sondern schon mal viel besser umgesetzt – auch bei RTL.

Überraschend ist nur, dass die Serie teilweise so gelobt wird. Das kann nur am allgemein schlechten Niveau deutscher Fernsehserien liegen. Ich tippe mal, dass das Niveau von Doctor’s Diary das Ergebnis davon ist, dass Produzenten, Redakteuer etc. aus den Ideen des Autors etwas massenkompatibles machen wollten. Da haben sie sich dann den Arzt zum Vorbild genommen, der Grete in der ersten Folge Blut abnimmt:

Sie: Das war jetzt aber irgendwie netter als sonst.

Er:  Das Geheimnis ist: tief, aber nicht zu tief.

Mal sehen, ob die zweite Staffel besser war.

En oväntad och fnissig serie ” The Green Wing”.

I did! I baked cakes! It was totally on a whim too, I was just kinda bored and had to rummage about in the cupboard for ingredients but I just about had what I needed. Except butter. For that I had to use I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. Not sure quite how that will work out, but hey, at least it’s healthier. All 140g of it.

Mmmm... Chocolate I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Cakes

The icing is red because I felt like it. And it’s all kind of gooey because I was too impatient to wait for the cakes to cool before putting it on.

All this after I spent a good couple of hours cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. Clever.

I’ve just watched Blake’s Junction 7. A short movie in which the Blake’s 7 gang stop in the middle of a rainy night at the Newport Pagnell Services of the M1. In their Volvo. Towing their Caravan. Surreal is an understatement.

I got the impression that it was just one big excuse for the ridiculously funny Mark Heap, awkward but cute Martin Freeman, PG tips drinking Johnny Vegas and some other people I kind of recognised to get together and do something daft. Not forgetting the wonderful and – very ballsy – Mackenzie Crook who took the part of Servalan and was quite frankly terriflyingly awesome in it. I shall have nightmares about it. Sexually confusing nightmares.

Other awesome telly this weekend included the only program I tune into the actual TV signal for, Top Gear. Over the last few weeks I’ve been rather proud of myself for apparently having the same taste in music as the guy who picks the music for the show.

There was some of the Trellis music from another of my favourite shows, Green Wing, which they still use snippets of from time to time, and is a soundtrack that resides in the top listened to playlist on my iPod. There was Justice – a French electronic band who are my new true music love – specifically a freaking awesome track called Genesis which was featured on a Top Gear film in the same week in which I’d played it as loud as I could bear on the stereo of my car.

Then last week during a spot on some new supercar I recognised the hypnotic melody of Parks on Fire by Trifonic. This track was a totally random discovery via my favourite music streaming site, thesixtyone.com. After a few accidental listens of it I fell in love with it and its crazy dreamlike music video, and proceeded to completely over-play it for a week. Then bam, it was on Top Gear. Haha -what an amusing coincidence!

This week it got a bit scary though. For no good reason other than he’s a moody little bastard sometimes, Vince has spent most of this week listening to the Dark Knight soundtrack. Music which has turned a lot of normal everyday things into dramatic adventures in which I keep expecting a caped man in black to smash through my window to help me with. Indeed this afternoon, as I spent my two hours washing all the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, I was treated to the weird combination of the Dark Knight soundtrack, and Battlefield 1943 sound effects.

Tonight, whilst Jeremy Clarkson played British Bulldog in a Mitzubishi Evo against the Army in their tanks on another battlefield, I heard the distinct ‘impending doom’ melody from that very movie. Colour me freaked-the-fuck-out.

This week I will be listening to only Yackity Sacks and Enya in an attempt to make the guy who picks the music actually make some decisions of his own. Either that, or it will be an interesting episode.

Actually, as a kid, that Enya track used to scare me

Today’s Horoscope: You are being buffeted about by the winds of fate today and it doesn’t seem as if your actions or reactions have a lot of impact on what happens next. Relevance: Nonsense! My music listening actions and reactions directly impact Top Gear. I am hugely influential. Also wasn’t windy today at all – does the horoscope man work part time on the BBC News 5-day Weather Forecast?

As a big cheerleading fan of the iPlayer, I’m glad to see that other channels are gradually trending towards some of the innovative work the BBC have done.

Channel 4 upgraded their on-demand service a while back, and now it is all good to work on both PC and Mac, has online streaming instead of just a desktop application, and is generally a lot better.

I have only found a couple of things on the schedule there I would want to watch, and they are coming to the end of a series, so I can’t start watching them now. However, I will be keeping an eye on it, and it does mean I can look at all the sections of the TV Guide, rather than just the Beeb.

What Channel 4 have done which flies in the face of the BBC’s rights issues, is offer lots of classic comedy and drama in their entirety. For example, all four series of Teachers are available and the awesome Green Wing, and my god, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

There are adverts on the player, naturally, but this has never really bothered me. If you’re getting free online streaming of a show, sitting through an advert or two isn’t entirely unreasonable. (Please note, this attitude may change if I start using the service regularly and get fed up.)

I have been working on a piece about British comedy, but I’m struggling to get my thoughts organised. There are a few “acts” I’d like to focus on and these include:

•    Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant (and Karl Pilkington)
•    The Likely Lads
•    Graham Linehan and his crew
•    Green Wing

While they obviously are all comedy-related, I’m not sure I can connect them into one piece. I don’t know if it’s worth breaking them into “genres” (tv, sketch, writing, etc). I think it’s probably better to focus on what I want to say about each to see if that provides a link to tie them together.

I’m not going to lie: I think British comedy deserves some good analysis but my main connection with it is simply that it helps me when I’m struggling to get through.

In the meantime, enjoy.

MONKEY NEWS

Oh, Karl. “They did a thing, like they do.” Love the monkey when he puts the spacecraft into reverse.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE LIKELY LADS

My heart belongs to Terry Collier.

THE IT CROWD

Watch Richard Ayoade’s leg action. Priceless.

GREEN WING

Believe it or not, it does all make sense. The clips suffer though from the lack of the brilliant original soundtrack.

I love Green Wing. If I had to rank the British comedies, bearing in mind that they’re not particularly available in my neck of the woods, it would be something like this:

1. Green Wing
2. Spaced
3. Black Books
4. Big Train
5. Hyperdrive
6. Feel the Force/Hardware
7. That Mitchell and Webb Look (sorry, Peep Show)
8. Man Stroke Woman
9. The Thin Blue Line
10. Absolutely Fabulous/Clatterford/My Hero/The Mighty Boosh/Look Around You

But Spaced is a very close second. And Monty Python is in a whole other realm. So I am very stoked to see Hulu streaming Green Wing (at least Season 1). Hopefully they’ll add season 2 since the only episode I haven’t managed to see is of course the finale. Any scene with Sue White is beyond absurd and the one bit with the office staff taking the Hogwarts test is excellent as well. Even though I don’t believe in Harry Potter.

In my fictional boyband, I’m the one in the middle of the song who starts talking in a disproportionally low voice: “Girl, I’ve loved you so long…”

Why do I keep getting Sir Allen Stanford and Dr Alan Statham confused? I suppose I should be thankful Alan Sugar didn’t get involved somehow. That would have been too much to bear.

Once again, copied from Jenny, coz she finds all the cool memes

1. Name a TV show series in which you have seen every episode at least twice:
Maybe Friends, but I every now and then I catch an episode that I’m not sure if I’ve seen before, so maybe not at least twice. I think possibly Sailor Moon, actually lol. They used to replay that constantly when I was little (although only the first season, we never got anything more than that in NZ).

2. Name a show you can’t miss:
Anything I’ve decided to watch, really. At the moment, Bones and Grey’s Anatomy. When The L Word comes back on, I’m there. And that’s kind of it right now. I enjoy Desperate Housewives, but if I miss an ep I’m not overly upset. Ditto Shortland St and Coronation Street. I’m trying not to start watching any new shows, since a couple I’ve loved since forever are finishing, and I can cut down on the amount of telly I watch!

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to watch a show:
I can think of a few, but Tamsin Greig stands out. She has a good history, with Green Wing and Black Books, so I’d expect something equally awesome from her.

4. Name an actor who would make you less likely to watch a show:
I assume we’re talking TV actors here. I can’t really think of one actually.

5. Name a show you can, and do, quote from:
Green Wing. It usually causes people to give me strange looks, so I don’t do it very often

6. Name a show you like that no one else enjoys:
No one else? Oh I know one that I love, but that hardly anyone else has ever seen (apart from dad, although he kind of loved it). Jandals Away. Totally bizarre, totally politically incorrect, filmed in half live-action, half Barbie dolls standing in for characters. Evil genius was called Ma’a Fa’a. And it was a kids’ show. Hilarious. Oh and Korero Mai. Everyone’s like ‘wtf it’s awful’. I’m learning the language, people!

7. Name a TV show which you’ve been known to sing the theme song:
Sailor Moon, Captain Planet, Charmed, Dawson’s Creek, Tru Calling, Popular, Scrubs, Full House. The list goes on. Like Jenny, I have an iTunes playlist of TV themes lol.

8. Name a show you would recommend everyone to watch:
Green Wing. You have not lived until you have witnessed Sue White in action. Or Jandals Away (see #6)

9. Name TV series you own:
McLeod’s Daughters s1-4
Green Wing s1
Sailor Moon (a couple of videos given to me by a friend lol)
Dawson’s Creek s1
The L Word s1&2

10. Name an actor who launched his/her entertainment career in another medium, but has surprised you with his/her acting choices in television:
Billie Piper. She’s surprised me with her acting choices outside of television too, but I have recently discovered Doctor Who. I am trying not to get hooked

11. What is your favourite episode of your favourite series?
Well, it’s sort of bittersweet, but it’s the episode of McLeod’s Daughters where Claire and Alex finally get together. It’s always tinged with sadness for me though, coz I know she dies like 3 episodes later.

12. Name a show you keep meaning to watch, but you just haven’t gotten around to yet:
Doctor Who, House. I know they’re on, and I know they’re cool, but I work nights and somehow I feel worse about watching tv when I’ve recorded it and am watching it the next day than when I’m just mindlessly in the lounge when it’s on.

13. Ever quit watching a show because it was so bad?
No. I have some weird skewed sense of loyalty that means I can’t give up on a show until it’s over. Case in point: McLeod’s Daughters. It stopped being awesome a while ago (it’s not that bad, but it’s not as good as it once was), and I’m several episodes behind on the HD, but I will watch them eventually, because I’ve been there since the beginning and I have to see it through till the end!

14. Name a show that’s made you cry multiple times:
Everything. I’m such a wuss these days. McLeod’s would have to be the worst though. Last time I watched my s1 DVDs I cried at least once every episode. Crying with laughter, Green Wing. And the Vicar of Dibley.

15. What do you eat when you watch TV?
Umm usually dinner lol. Maybe some fruit or chips or chocolate. That’s regular nighttime viewing. If it’s a planned session, especially with friends, there will be popcorn, lollies, biscuits, the works.

16. How often do you watch TV?
Too often. As I said, I’m trying to cut back, but I usually end up watching mindless crap even if there’s nothing on that I really want to watch (like the God channel at 2am).

17. What’s the last TV show you watched?
Coronation Street. I marvel at Michelle’s perfect hair.

18. What’s your favourite/preferred genre of TV?
Umm drama/science. I guess. And British comedy. No one does funny like the Brits.

19. What was the first TV show you were obsessed with?
I would say Sailor Moon. Actually maybe Full House. We used to get fish and chips on the night it was on and I would always pester my parents to be home by 6 so I could watch it.

20. What TV show do you wish you never watched?
Umm… Medium. It wasn’t bad, but in the end I couldn’t stand the fact that it was based on somebody who tricks people for a living (and probably makes money out of the show). Also the Family Guy. I just don’t see the appeal.

21. What’s the weirdest show you enjoyed?
See #8

22. What TV show scared you the most?
I actually can’t think of a scary tv show.

23. What is the funniest TV show you have ever watched?
Green Wing.

24. What show was cancelled too early?
Green Wing. (can you feel the bitterness?)

Those who know me also know that there are too many examples of this… and at the drop of a hat, or the drop of another glass of wine, I will tell you about many of them.

The hypothesis is simple:

Redheaded males only get cast in roles as either

a) mentally unhinged – either evil or misguided or geek-freak-beyond-belief or

b) the lovable dispensable friendly sidekick might as well go around with a sign on their head saying “going to die, or going to get kidnapped and saved by the <brown/blond/black haired> hero”

So, today saw two examples:

1. Proper Clever at Liverpool’s Playhouse. Adam Gillen did a marvellous job as Matthew – the geek freak, probably gay, definitely a bit odd. I wonder, is there a reason why casting pictures are always in black and white? is there? hmm?

2. Julian Rhind-Tutt in Merlin today.  A nice performance, as one would expect from the mop-headed one (one of the best current proponents of the ginger magic on our screens). Green Wing was masterful and he did a lot for the cause. But in this case his magician was, yes, you guessed, a psychotic revenge-seeking madman. Nice.

Mop-head magician

while I’m about it

3. The Wii. You cannot make your wii mii have red hair? Trust me, I have tried.

More anon, no doubt.

Notice, no red