Be Excellent To Each Other

Gosh, I've not had this much fun since that time Lionel Blair pulled off an officer and a gentleman in under thirty seconds.

Barbican.

Robertson-Spassky Accord. Protocol Objection. Go back 4 spaces (if sustained).

Apropos protocol, I never play Barons Court as it always ends up as a flame war with some bespectacled fuckwit who insists it should be Baron's Court.

You know who you are.

And while I'm having a moan, shouldn't a mod split this out, it's not on TV, is it?

Wait, did you not play a station?

So the restriction table is completely open, and previous modifiers are void.

I'm that case, I'm going for Mornington Crescent.

<polite applause>

Sexy!

Associated-Rediffusion showed a few matches in its early days but couldn't afford the rights so the only coverage is on Radio 4.

*flat stare*

I have a letter here from a Mrs Trellis that says Warhead is a git.

......did you not play a station? Nobody like a smart-arse. My protocol objection is still on the table, and must be sustained or dismissed before normal play can resume. THEM'S THE ROOLZ.

I declare a void void.

Just dropping this here...



Just in case anyone wants to meet Victoria and her friends in the flesh so to speak.

In!

I can't even do the online version (although I kick ass in the "missing vowels round" on the TV, for some reason).

Yeah, I'm rubbish at it and also don't have an unfathomable obsession with Victoria Coren.

New for this year is being able to apply as a single contestant to be matched up with team mates.

Or Tindr for Nerds as one Twitter user put it.

Next!

Like the 'Countdown' conumdrum, it's one of those rounds that you either see instantly or just can't unfathom. I do best in that round too, and yell out the answer (the joys of living by oneself).

I'm usually pleased if I get a total of 5 points throughout the other rounds.

I think I'll pass on this round of auditions. The BeeX team should be called the 'Bill S Prestons', obviously.

The missing vowels round is easier at home than in the studio apparently. We get to see the clue about half a second before the contestants, so most of the time they are actually buzzing as soon as they see it...

Please stop.

No, I don't get it either.

Apart from the Jubbly Funbags.

She makes me feel better about my pregnant/post pregnant boobs. I always think her boobs are about the same size as mine since the baby, then I noticed that hers were about twice the size of her head and feel normal again.

Just remembered to say that there's a special two-part Mr Sexy coming to BBC next week.

That was supposed to say 'Luther'. I must have mis-typed.

Yes but you have previous when it comes to going against the grain with celebrity crushes.

This is probably more relevant to the men's rights thread but I'm not entering that nest of vipers. Anyway, Reggie Yates has a documentary tonight on BBC3 about the men's rights movement in the UK as part of his 'Extreme UK' series. Last week's episode about attitudes to homosexuality amongst minority groups was very interesting.

I've said before, but I love Reggie Yates. And how lovely was the young Muslim guy who stayed on at Derby pride? Genuinely warm and wonderful moment of TV, that was. Will check out this new episode over the next few nights, too.

Caught up with Mr Brooker's offering for 2015 over the Iplayer just now. Enjoyable as ever, and some superb moments, but at times felt like we were all going through the motions and watching as a civic duty.

Sherlock was a bit superb! And it seems I missed a series somewhere

I thought it was a proper mess.

I bid you good day, sir. Good day.

I think it was everything that Doctor Who has recently tried to be. It was a decently paced, witty, postmodern adventure, with fun twists and turns. The ending was a bit of a set up for a newer series, but there we are (it's all about the arcs, nowadays)

First half was fun, witty, well written, surprising and interesting. Second half was self indulgent rubbish that spoiled the whole premise.

I really wanted to enjoy it, but it was just trying too hard to be cute, and do it ended up a bit of a shambles. It was, as said already, really self-indulgent.

Of all the timeline dickery, I did like the metaphior of diving off the waterfall to represent dicing with the overdose and pulling yourself back from the brink, as it were.

Also, the pathologist science type girl dressed as a man was just craply done.

Yes.

Aye, it was all over the fucking place. Very disappointing stuff.

I'm probably being harsh because it was enjoyable enough, but compared to previous episodes of Sherlock it was pretty crap.

Despite the shortfalls of the episode I'm pretty sure we'd all have a go on the glass noisy thing, right?

Did anyone watch Deutschland 83 last night on Channel 4?
A German spy drama set in the early 80s and quite interesting, I thought.

It looks interesting. I've recorded both that one and 'War & Peace' to view when I get round to it.

Re 'Sherlock'.

Agree with most of the sentiments expressed here. I was enjoying the Victorian stuff (it felt like a loveable self-parody but got quite gripping) and really felt cheated by the dream explanation. I've read comments suggesting that

but that could have been done in a modern setting.

I've also recorded War and Peace though that might be a bit heavy going for me.

I reckon the BBC over-ordered fake moustaches.

I quite liked Sherlock, and thought it was no different from usual, really.

You didn't wonder where all the horses had come from, maybe?

Whut?

War & Peace. Pretty good, although I'm not keen on the way everyone has to be referred to by their full names, even when just in conversation with each other.

Endeavour. Yay! Still seems to have the habit of tying up the plot very quickly at the end, but I can forgive that.

You'll probably be thankful for that eventually.

When I was (even more) pretentious as a teenager I read War and Peace just so I could say I had. There were about 8 people all called Pierre, or Peter or Pietr, and loads of Anna, Anne, Ana (memory is hazy now) but it was bloody confusing.

This. I was a similiar pretentious teenager. Can't remember anything about it now, other than that the war bits were more interesting to teenage me than the soppy lovey-dovey peace bits.

The name issue is why I've always struggled with Doestovesky, especially when as well as referring to people by first name they also use the patronymic.

In One Hundred Years of Solitude Colonel Aureliano Buendía is the father of Aureliano José, and of seventeen sons each named Aureliano, by seventeen different women.

And in the dress uniform of a colonel in the Columbian army? A red shirt.

I got that in a set of classic 'must read' books a few years ago. It bored the arse off me and by about chapter 5 I just gave up on it. Same with Jack Kerouac's 'On the road.'

It's my second favourite book of all time.

It's full of magic.