Media

For the moment, this will exclude writing and the theatre, which will be found against Lit. And some musicians can be found under People (eg Tom Lehrer, Jake Thakray). Although Madness end up here for some reason along with others..

BBC
The Beeb has been under attack quite a bit over the last few years, not least by the spawn of Murdoch.  I happen to believe it is doing OK - however, it does appear to have been doing a lot of surrendering at the top recently.  It needs defending.

TV
I've only included this link for its gratuitous mention of The Fast Show.
On Top Gear (and Last of the Summer Wine and The Goodies)

Doctor Who
The BBC are wonderful for their breadth, which does mean that the corporation does sometimes feed off itself a little embarrassingly.  For years we took the boys to the Young Person's Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.  But in 2008 it had a Doctor Who theme - which I found disappointing.

Altogether, the relaunch of Dr Who from 2005 was a huge success, without a doubt.  It also threw up a very unlikely star at the end.   Now they are ramping up in all sorts of ways for the new show, eg with this R4 piece.  As a result of this I think I found an error in one of the IMDb records of the series. 

The Matt Smith Doctor was OK-ish; the stories were more complicated (in terms of timey-wimey-ness, I mean).  Here is my take on the penultimate episode set partly under Stonehenge.

I've also noticed Dr Who seeping into other discussions.  A Weeping Angel here, a Cyber-reference there, a consideration of his -ism-ship. Or is it only me?

Python et al
This 'Tour' post on Doune Castle is only inluded here because of the Monty Python reference; and this is just an excuse to use a famous sketch. 

A few weeks later a consideration of cheese prompted this challenge beginning with a soft French cheese from Dulwich, and several more from the supermarket the following week..  Followed by Cheshire, Red Leicester, Edam, Wensleydale, and then a status report. 

BBC Radio 4
Some Radio 4 series are wonderful, although not always so - this was a less successful version of Shadowlands and this was a disappointing book about the channel; doubtless  questions remain.

But it still does great stuff:-

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (ISIHAC)
There are several musings related to Clue and, specifically, Chairman Humph. And his thoughts.  His death - long with that of several others - was remembered as part of my 2008 Review of the Year.  That also touched upon the losses of Geoffrey Perkins of R4 fame, and Oliver Postgate, amongst others.  When the series returned with Stephen Fry as the host I was not impressed - mind you he'd also been annoying in other ways..

The Now Show
Which we went to see being recorded.  'Course when we went they broadcast it at the right time.

HitchHiker
I always thought the original Radio series were the only canonical version of the story.  So I was interested to hear of the Colfer-authored sequel - it disappointed for reasons that were not to do with the writing.  Despite that, many phrases from the original remain as part of our collective consciousness.

Non-BBC Telly
A brief nod to The Prisoner

The Guardian
I've read this paper for 30-odd years young whipper-snapper. It's OK, if a little right-wing.

It is fun, usually, when the paper mentions the area of Nunhead although we didn't enjoy this piece.

The Guardian has some really great writers of course, of whom Nancy is the best. However,  it isn't always wonderful and it sometimes makes mistakes (here about ISIHAC).  Of course the Guardian is also the home of the era's greatest cartoonist (mentioned here alongside Gregory's Girl).

Crossword
One of the joys of the paper is the cryptic crossword.  For example I celebrated the one on April Fool's Day 2009.  The great setter, though, is Arucaria, who has been challenging  Guardian readers for a humungous amount of time.  At one point there was a spate of letters about whether the crosswords were getting easier.  I would submit not.

This was a crossword that seemed to have shadows - multiple alternate versions.  While this one was unabashedly political and this had a Star Wars theme.

During 2009, Albie Fiore, one-time Taupi died.

Sometimes, I think I reveal too much about the crossword.

I enjoyed this mildly political one from Arucaria just after the May 2010 elections, although on Fiftensquared it restarted the debate about 'are they getting easier'.  It also prompted my choice of Poem of the Week that week.   The experts really did like this one on famous Guardian Setters past and present, and this marvellous puzzle by Brendan, where pretty much every answer and clue had a mathematical reference.

(Note for those who are interested, Fifteensquared also provide an archive of pretty much all of the crosswords I discuss, with answers).

Film
A few of us went to see Watchmen - not, perhaps, as good as the comic book.  But in some ways this spoof was.

The Star Trek reboot was far more successful (here discussed along with Dr Who, Red Dwarf and other shows).

I've also been thinking about how much we can remember about the films we've seen.  This was the first idea, about Kind Hearts and Coronets. I also had a similar feeling about The Mouse That Roared (here discussed with The Archers and Gregory's Girl, quite bizarrely). And the answer to this quiz question is one of those three.

The loss of Ian Carmichael made me think fondly of School For Soundrels in the same light, while the death of Lionel Jeffries made me think not only of Chitty, Chitty, Bang! Bang! and The Railway Children but also The Wrong Arm of the Law and particularly Two-Way Stretch. 

Music
Several thoughts touch upon Madness and their album The Liberty of Norton Folgate, which I got for my birthday.  I listened to it a lot in Spain and the title track eventually became a poem of the week.

And Flanders and Swann get a mention too...
...along with some real punk and  comic punk from the 70s (which almost became a poem of the week).

Internet
On using YouTube as a search engine.
Nunhead on YouTube
Why not to blog.
A Symposium on mobile technologies and the academy.  Later, I found it quite unsettling - although I was encouraged to reconsider what a True Technocrat was..
Google logos are often fun, but this Pac-Man one was over the top.

Tapestry
Media should always include tapestry.