Month: March 2005

  • Ed Reardon

    You’ve got two more days to catch episode one of the repeated series Ed Reardon’s Week, currently going out in the much friendlier 6.30pm slot. Don’t miss it!

  • Dr Who Recommissioned

    Dr Who’s already got a second series (free reg. reqd.) and a Christmas special. I’d suggest that Mediaguardian’s spin on Ecclestone and Piper not returning is a fuss about nothing since, as the article says, there’ll have been options for at least one more series written into their contracts at the outset. [UPDATE] Erm. It…

  • 60% Digital

    Ofcom have today reported that digital TV has reached nearly 60% penetration. In the last quarter: Sky has grown by around 2.5% Freeview’s grown by 17.3% Cable’s gown by 0.5% Pretty obviously, Freeview’s driving this forward. And there’s still not a real free-to-view satellite option since there’s no way of getting cards to watch ITV,…

  • Penguin Lost

    Penguin Lost is the sequel to Death and the Penguin and third of Andrey Kurkov’s translated works following The Case of the General’s Thumb. We rejoin Viktor, who has returned from the Antarctic where he fled in place of Misha the penguin at the end of the first novel. Things have changed, and he starts…

  • Snobs

    Snobs, by Julian Fellowes, is a story set in a world that I’ve not entered in contemporary fiction. Think the world of Jeeves and Wooster. Think the world of those people you’ve never heard of in the diary columns of Associated Newspapers’ publications. Think of the nonentities whose marriages are afforded lavage multi-page coverage in…

  • Vending Machine Chips

    Picture yourself. You’re two thirds of the way through a journey in deepest, darkest north Norfolk. You’re tired. The train leaving London was packed solid due to the fact that it’s the first train out of London that allows Saver tickets. So when you arrive at Norwich station and see a chip vending machine, you…

  • Digital Carmarthenshire

    Just caught the BBC Ten O’Clock news report on two Welsh villages going 100% digital from midnight tonight. All is well and good, with barely a single dissenting voice. But I scanned the setups pictured in the report and they all seemed suspiciously simple. We saw TVs with two digital boxes under the screens. So…

  • Nebulous

    One of the things that I did manage during my epic journey (below) was a chance to listen to the rest of Nebulous, a comedy science fiction series that aired on Radio 4 earlier this year. I really enjoyed it, and hope that it gets a CD release because I could listen to it a…

  • Southwold

    Back in 1979, we went on a family holiday to the little Suffolk village of Walberswick. This was only our second holiday away. Until then we’d only visited our grandparents in Sheringham on the North Norfolk coast. Since Walberswick was only a little further down the coast from our usual summer haunt it should have…

  • Controlling Science

    The BBC World Service has just begaun a new series, Controlling Science, examining ways in which 11 Sept has changed the way science works. The first episode, broadcast this week, examined the way the US has become much stricter on Visas to the point at which foreign students no longer want to study there, and…

  • Yes We Have No Bananas

    One of my biggest bugbears is the poor quality of supermarket bananas, and how the inferior “dollar” bananas we do get are doing no end of harm to people who farm small-holdings in the Caribbean. This long piece from Observer Food Monthly goes through the whole thing in detail and is well worth a read.…

  • The Shadow Of The Wind

    If you happen to buy The Shadow Of The Wind, there is one really important thing to do before you start reading it – peel off the Richard & Judy Bookclub sticker on the cover (You’ll probably also want to peel off the ‘3 for 2’ sticker that will almost certainly also adorn the front…