GOOD TELE, INNIT?
I have been watching Ben Fogle's Extreme - climb every mountain, ford every stream -Dreams. Might have given it a miss on the grounds that it is the dreaded reality television. [I am still strongly opposed to the use of the general public as entertainers.] But Ben is the sort of bloke who expects nobody to do what he won't do himself, so that makes it half bearable even to an old grouch like me.
I will never understand the logic behind the choice of certain team members of course, (well...it's good tele, innit?) but there is a feel good conclusion to the proceedings each week which appeals to those fans of Ben Fogle who just have to have an a-a-a-a-a-ah ending.
Afraid I tend to snort impatiently when the compulsory attention seekers whinge on.
Cannot help but be aware that there is a crew with a bloody great camera tackling the same desert - forest - mountain - river - swamp and doing it without sound or dramatics.
Daunting? Tell them about it.
Still, my Leader is a fan, so a-a-a-a-ah.
MARPLE UNVEILED.
That didn't take long.
The next Miss Marple on television will be Julia McKenzie.
Well, she'll be a fine successor to Geraldine McEwan and I feel slightly smug that she was one of my choices for the role. Oh, all right, one of my ten names. I reckon as a soothsayer that has to put me on a par with Professor Sybil Trelawney (see Emma Thompson via J.K. Rowling). Anyway, I very much look forward to the new series and wish Ms McKenzie all the theatrical breaking of legs in the world.
ROWAN PUTS HIS OAR IN.
As a choirboy in wartime Britain I attended matins and evensong every Sunday without fail. Swinging the lead was not encouraged: swinging the thurible was.
But I quickly lost patience with dogma and have long held the view that nobody should believe anything without question.
Now Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has (somewhat in keeping with a sainted predecessor, Thomas Becket) put his oar into turbulent waters. It is his view that the adoption of certain aspects of sharia law is unavoidable in the U.K.
He must be thankful that this is not the 12th century or four knights would have been on their way to visit him.
As it is there have been rumblings from certain establishment mouthpieces who should know better but never do: there have been hysterical calls for his resignation from the office boy press: and there has been the usual sanctimonious posturing about the need for him to apologise.
Why?
I have no idea whether he is right or wrong and I am not about to believe him without question.
But he, like me, is a citizen of a country where there is supposed to be freedom of speech within the law.
I cannot see that he has broken any law.
LARK RISE TO CANDLEFORD (BBC1).
Not quite Cranford, perhaps, but this Sunday night excursion into the land of oo-ar and la-di-da accents has all the right ingredients.
There is a wise and decent postmistress, Dorcas Lane, played by Julia Sawalha, a wise and decent squire, Sir Timothy Midwinter, played by Ben Miles and a splendid cast of oo-ar and la-di-da actors including the ever reliable Liz Smith and dear ol' Karl Johnson. There is also Dawn French as a constantly abandoned wife and mother (a boozy version of her Jam and Jerusalem character).
The main character, Laura Timmins, thought to be based on herself by author Flora Thompson (1876 - 1947), is faultlessly played by Olivia Hallinan.
My Leader and I like it.
THE PALACE (ITV 1).
Here we have newly crowned King Richard IV (Rupert Evans) struggling to find his way through the morass of intrigue, resentment and stupidity that surrounds him: most of it engendered by his own family. No change there, then.
It is watchable, too, particularly if you are one of those who gives any credence to the weird conspiracy theories currently being aired by Mr. Mohamed al-Fayed in the lawcourts. (I think they are just the sad, impossible to prove, honest beliefs of a bereaved father - and I am no fan of self-important Prince Philip.)
But as a television series The Palace is no West Wing or Dallas.
It's simply tripe with tiaras.
And yeah, my Leader and I like it.
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