74. A bit more of the usual

VIEWING FOR TOTAL MORONS.

At first I thought it was a very bad taste April Fool's joke. Then I realized it is May and what I was hearing was no joke. Seems that the latest example of appalling reality television will be screened in Holland where a fatally ill Dutch woman in a Big Brother house is to decide which of her house companions should be given her kidneys when she dies.
Anybody who has read my blog will know just how much I detest reality television.
To my mind all the cheapjack producers and staff concerned with this particular version should be put down and their kidneys given to those in immediate need. At least they might then have done something worthwhile in their misbegotten lives.
I would like to think that even the voyeuristic goggle eyes of the average Big Brother watcher will shun it.
Somehow I doubt that, though.
But only total morons will watch it.

BANK HOLIDAY TELE.

Wouldn't be English without first mentioning the bank holiday weather. It was a soaking wet day here on Sunday but Baby Boo, now two years old, came here with his parents and brightened up our entire weekend. Takes half an hour to clear up after he's gone and we don't begrudge a minute of it.
Now to the tele.
Doctor Who (BBC1 - Saturday) was the first of a two part story finishing next Saturday. At the start of this adventure the Doctor has mysteriously become John Smith, a master at a public school in 1913. Body-snatching aliens, similar to those in the 1956 classic film Invasion of the Body Snatchers, have appeared on strange beams of light. They are searching for 'A time lord.' I have no idea how it will unravel but I shall be there next week to find out.
Lusitania: Murder on the Atlantic (BBC1 - Sunday) starred three of our most dependable actors: John Hannah, Kenneth Cranham and Michael Feast. Nothing has ever been proven, of course, but it seems mightily strange that one torpedo from a First World War U-boat sank such a vast ship as the Lusitania in under twenty minutes if that ship was not carrying anything other than innocent passengers and cargo. The Establishment whitewashed itself spotlessly clean of course. It seems Churchill took his customary clinical stance and wrote off the incident as probably of value to the allied cause. Well, greatest ever Englishman or not, he was just another bloody politician after all. This was an excellent programme.
Kingdom (ITV1 - Sunday) Last of this first series starring Stephen Fry. It will be back. Have to be. Cast and Sunday night casual viewability too good to lose.
Springwatch (BBC2 - Monday onward) Yep, it's ol' Bill Oddy and his co-presenter Kate Humble gently twittering on as fledgelings devour each other and long, long, long minutes are spent waiting for another non-appearance of those deuced unco-operative Badgers. The move is still on to get rid of Simon King, too. This time they've banished him to the Hebrides. It'll run for at least three weeks.
Celebrity Master Chef (BBC1 - Monday onward) It's back. Say no more.
New Tricks (BBC1 - Monday) The last of the series. Just as well, it was beginning the slippery slide towards soap. The writers really do need to find some fresh old cases before the well chosen cast returns.

AND FOOTBALL...

"Becks is back!" I shouted to the cat Shadow. "He's been chosen for the Brazil friendly!"
"When's that then?" he asked.
"Friday night I think."
"Well don't get too excited ," he said. "One Becks may not make a summer."