Alas, It's Not That Funny Anymore

Over the past few months I’ve caught a couple of old episodes of “Alas Smith and Jones”, the 80’s comedy series brought to us by those “Not the 9 O’Clock News” legends Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones.

I loved these two back in the day, and the younger me was a massive fan of this show back then, so I jumped at the chance to re-live some happy childhood memories when one episode was shown on BBC Four, and another one recently on BBC Two. Sadly, I was quite disappointed.

It Wasn't Wrong to Mourn Bowie's Passing

Today, January 10th, 2021, marks the fifth anniversary of David Bowie’s passing. I’ve already written about the effect his life and death had on me and others in my Mix Tape post, but there was one aspect of what I saw around that time that always gets me thinking.

Remembering the Alphans

It was twenty years ago today, on September 13th, 1999, that the world suffered one of it’s most catastrophic disasters of all time, because it was on that day that our moon was blasted out of it’s own orbit.

In truth, the accident was entirely mankind’s fault. The governments of the world, for some stupid reason, had decided that the moon was the best place to store waste from it’s nuclear power stations. Out of place, out of mind, as the old saying goes. But this practice came back to bite them on their backsides when a massive nuclear explosion rocked the moon, sending it hurtling into deep space.

When Death Actually Means Something

There’s an unwritten law in the world of fantasy and science fiction these days, that if a character dies he or she will inevitably come back form the dead.

They’ve all done it, from Superman to the Bucky Barnes to Gwen Stacy to Jon Snow to Vince McMahon. I’ve lost count of the number of times this has happened. Which is why the death of Professor Martin Stein in DC’s Legends of Tomorrow television series was surprising, especially considering the show’s time travel premise.

RIP Sir Terry

A few years ago when I was on Seetec's work programme my advisor was a lady called Maggie-May Francis. She was by far the best advisor I'd ever had, a genuinely lovely lady who made the effort to get to know me as a person rather than as a job seeker. We became good friends, and I was genuinely sad when she left Seetec to move on to pastures new.

Our conversations would often stray into non-job seeking discussions, and she often spoke of her work as a singer (she's very good by the way). One of her gigs way back when saw her working as a backing singer for Terry Wogan on Children in Need.

Storage Hunters: A Guide for New Viewers

Over the past few months I've become very interested in a certain kind of reality television show. The premise for these shows is quite simple, people bid on abandoned storage lockers in an attempt to find a few valuable items so they can sell them for a tidy profit.

What is Wrong With British Television?

A topic started on the doyen of information that is the UK Fan Forum really got me thinking earlier today. The question was "What pissed you off about television?".

Is Big Brother Past It's Sell-By Date?

In the year 2000, Channel 4 introduced a revolutionary form of entertainment on an unsuspecting nation in the form of the reality game show, Big Brother.

Remembering Jon-Eric Hexum

Mention the name of Jon-Eric Hexum to anyone, and they probably won't know who the man is. He wasn't the best actor in the world, and probably wouldn't have won tons of awards for his work, but when he died in tragic circumstances in 1984, aged just 27, one of the most promising careers in Hollywood came to an end.

The Top 10 American Sitcoms

In response to Darryl Stewart's column last week, giving a North American view on British situation comedies (great column by the way Darryl), I thought I would offer an English view on American sitcoms. Like Darryl I am only including sitcoms, and not shows like Saturday Night Live, In Living Colour and Kids in the Hall. Great shows, but they don't fit the category.

Big Brother 2001

Week 4

Well, we have now entered week four in the Big Brother house. I had intended to write about what can only be called a phenom some time ago, but various circumstances kept getting in my way.

Celebrity Big Brother 2001

Comic Relief Day, Red Nose Day 2001, or whatever you like to call it, is now history. It broke the record for the most money raised by this event, and yours truly did his little bit.