Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah, there were a few articles with him talking about his experience with the onset of Parkinson’s, maybe last year? (Who knows, time is a ridiculous concept now). He had quite mild symptoms and was managing them well when the articles came out, but we’d sort of noticed something was amiss in his delivery in the previous season, so I wondered if there was a link.

But honestly, Paxman has always had an on-screen ‘attitude’ and that’s been part of his UC persona, so I don’t think you rushed to judge at all, as it seems (and could very much be) a continuation/evolving of that and how he feels still presenting it.

My presenter pick would be Sandi Toksvig. But I’d just do away with everyone else and let her take over presenting the entirety of the BBC, so…

If she weren’t already tied up with QI, I think she’d be perfect.

If that was impossible I’d get Moira Stewart.

I'm enjoying Toksvig's QI far more than Fry version. His aloofness got waring quickly. Shame the sirens are no longer the threat they once were.

I think you're bulling me up a bit too much, there and certainly not on a buzzer as I often "know" the answer, but take time to recall their name. I really struggle with the UC questions too, so stick with Craster imo

I had an opportunity to go and attempt to qualify for Oxford Brookes uni challenge team, which I never did. I really wish I had, now.

<Me, Bobby, Vision and Kris look at our Beex quiz trophy>

I'd change my name so the mystery voice would yell "Sexy Kern" every time I buzzed.

I think I saw this show. Was it a dream?

If so, it was a very good one.

Oh, same. I live him, and he’s rightly a national treasure, but it all got very one-note, and there was nothing drawing me to new series. Scandi Sandi can come and live with me any day. She’s perfect.

I'll be the other team.

Unfortunately, they couldn't make it, and you ended up with MaliA and myp.

It didn't go well.

<Team B is gonna fuck you up gangster style looks pointedly at the buzzer>

Mr Dave will be my mascot.

Two time quiz winner right here!

Couldn't have done it without you all.

Wait what

I hope everyone's been watching Hollington Drive on ITV. If so, you couldn't have failed to notice Mrs Squirt's first small screen appearance in the standout role of "Woman in Cafe"!

Ooooh! Missed it sorry.

*Googles Mrs Squirt in Cafe*

Recommended by Markg (and now by me) The North Water - Grim as fuck in every way, brilliant. Fantastic Empire Strikes Back homage scene for all you sci-fi fans too.

Honestly, I don't think the show is that great. They've gone a bit Broadchurchy but it's all too slow and some of the story is pretty daft.

I’ve been on the cusp of watching that for a week or three now, but I wondered if it was maybe very similar to The Terror? If so, is it still worth watching anyway?

Haha, sorry, I quoted the Wrong Post. That was supposed to be in reply to Zardoz’s post about the North Water.

Wondering if @kern or anyone else got the penultimate question right in round 2 on Only Connect tonight?



My son and I worked it out on clue 1, but got the year wrong (out by 2), he was kicking himself as he loves his Royal histories,

I thought it was a tough round this week on the whole, although I did get the one that Victoria was ranting over no one getting it (but only after the 3rd clue)

Only on the third clue! Did pretty poorly last night.

BBC 2: Four Hours at the Capitol

Very harrowing documentary on the January 6th insurrection. Heavy use of footage from a variety of sources, all carefully cut together so at times you see the same incident from several different angles. The scene really did look like a war of attrition at times with two large masses pushing against each other.

It leaves the question open of how much was planned and how much was opportunism.

And how much was mob behaviour? Law abiding people can behave very differently when attending peaceful protests that descend into rioting, kicked off by one violent incident, or just the rumour of heavy handed responses by the authorities. It only takes a couple of hot headed protesters to start it off and then it’s impossible to control.

When some of those protesters got into the Capitol, you could see that they didn’t know what to do next. They were waiting for a lead from someone that never came, and some of them just wandered around aimlessly, or tagged on behind others like the Proud Boys who just wanted to keep going until they’d taken control of the building.

Frankie Boyle's New World Order

I find it had to believe that this is still being commissioned. I know that no subjects are off-limits and that his humour is often offensive or in poor taste, but nothing on tonight's show gave me a smile, never mind a laugh. The format, including some guests celebs for the whole show and wheeling on others to comment on particular subjects just seems messy. The laughter of his guests sounded forced and their contributions were of a similar quality to his.

You missed my finest quiz yet, loser.

LEICESTER SQUARE

Is that Stuart Ashens there today? I saw him say it was coming up soon. Fantastic for him. He’s one of the good guys.

(The finest bit. Not qualified to comment elsewhere.)

The "wait, what" was more querying the fact that Mimi is under the impression that I'm around 146 years old

I know you’re not really. I think you may be born the same year as me. Or Grim is. Or you both are? Can’t remember.

Anyway, I know you’re a vampire and so age at a different rate. You look a mere 19 years of age, you trickster.

Reasonable conclusions

We watched this tonight. It’s really harrowing, perhaps mostly in the imagining of what would face happened if they’d managed to interrupt the vote in the count, suspend the election and keep Trump in office. What changes in the world would there be today, even if they’d only managed to keep it held for a few weeks?

Anyway, I’m not versed enough on US law to know the ins and outs of what was (is) possible, but the whole thing made me tense.

There was one guy, thoigh, that just flat annoyed me. The one who was telling us of how he needed to spread the truth, that 800,000 US children are kidnapped, raped and murdered every year. I just had the impression he thought it was all just a bit of a lark.

I looked it up and there are about 70m children in the US. If 800k children disappeared each year, you’d have a 1/5 chance of being kidnapped and murdered by your 18th birthday.

I’m sure that there are many that believe that 800,000 children are killed by these apparent media and political elite secret societies each year, but I didn’t believe that guy was one of them, and that annoyed me more than if I thought he was just delusional.

Over 2000 children every day! Someone should stop that happening.

BBC 2: Universe

A 20 minute show stretched out to a full hour, presumably to demonstrate how vast and empty the universe is.

Visually it's stunning and Brian Cox's voice is so soothing they might be pitching for the ASMR market but beneath all that there's very little here. I perked up in the final 10 minutes with scientists talking about their big sun probe but that was too little, too late.

I find Brian Cox’s voice the opposite of soothing, to the point that I usually watch anything with him in on mute, with subtitles.

Brian Cox sounds like Salad Fingers. Trufax

Paxman has definitely been perkier on University Challenge recently, so I think he got my note.

Did abysmally on Only Connect, other than Missing Vowels (obv.).

Last night's Taskmaster:

Also, I wasn't attracted to Morgana at all before taskmaster, but now...

Started watching Sally4Ever on NowTV yesterday. It's a couple of years old but completely passed me by.

It's Julia Davies doing what Julia Davies does best - making painfully funny, and generally painful to watch, comedy.

Scores highly on the Craster scale, including a nipple being inserted into an arse.

Do watch.

Five pointer on the sequences round on last night's Only Connect!
Giphy "i am awesome":
https://media4.giphy.com/media/WsEyXaONfWeX8YgWIB/giphy-loop.mp4

I didn't have a clue on that one but, I watched last week's and last night's episode back-to-back yesterday with my son.

We got three 5 pointers in total.

The first one was a team grab, then my son got one, and I got one in last night's epsiode.

Five points in the second music round on only connect.

Channel 4: Empire State of Mind

I really enjoyed Sathnam Sanghera's Empireland earlier in the year, and this his two-part TV series covering much the same argument that Britain has one hell of an imperial hangover.
A good use of archive footage and his own personal experiences, and impressive that he has the courage to talk to, and challenge, UKIPpy types.

Disney+ (is this UK, I think it is)

Hawkeye, it is a lovely season so far. I love his humour, and just how awesome he is.

Disney is an American company, so I would say it goes in the US TV thread, where Davpaz and I have both commented on it.

But is available in the UK... it is a crossover

Surely all the TV you’re watching is available in the U.K..