Be Excellent To Each Other

Round 1 five-pointer tonight! This is going to be a good week!

I said that too, but I'd never have buzzed if I was in the studio.

I got ‘Goitre’ on University Challenge!

Does it hurt?

Is it because of "Tangled"?

Haven't seen this one yet, but I got a 5 point last week

Being this good? No.

No.

I got this one in one as well, but like Russ, might not have done it on one clue, definitely on two though!

I accidentally started watching 'The Secret History of Writing' on BBC4 last night and, as usual with these things, I was totally hooked after about 5 mins.

I suppose it's pretty obvious that the invention of writing was one of the great leaps forward for mankind, but I hadn't really realised how far behind we were in Europe compared to the Islamic world until the invention of the printing press, nor that the west overtook the east in book production at this point because Arabic cursive writing couldn't be reproduced on a printing press.

Highly recommended.

I forgot to mention. Right at the beginning of the programme the caligrapher who joint presents it makes a writing implement out of a bit of a Coke can taped to the end of a pencil. This implement can produce a line as fine as a thread of cotton, or about half an inch wide, or anywhere in between. It's hard to describe, but great to watch.

This sounds great. Will pop it on the ‘to be watched’ list.

BBC 4:Black Classical Music - a forgotten history

Suzy Klein and Lenny Henry present an overview of black composers who, by not conforming to the stereotype of white, dead, and usually German, seldom appear in the repertoire and concert programme. Some interesting stories and the excerpts are fantastic. Definitely going to start digging for recordings! It's just a shame that it's not accompanied by a fuller performance of some or all of the music featured.

I'll deffo have to give that a coat of looking at.

+1 to perception?

Or maybe -1, because you're only paying attention to the coat.

FAO MaliA:

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme ... ode-guide/

Welcome return of "Taskmaster" now on 4 so I can finally enjoy 1080 lines of it.. Several laugh-out loud moments, especially the vanishing challenge. Nice range of participants too. Daisy May Cooper is absolutely lovely, and Johnny Vegas is surprisingly endearing.

BBC 4: Inside Museums

Another charming wander-round-empty-museums series. Of the two I've seen, Cerys Mathews gives us a personal tour of St Fagan's but doesn't really go into too much detail whilst Emma Dabiri gives an excellent discussion of travel paintings in the Ulster Museum and what they tell us about how people saw the world in the past. Making it more of an essay within the confines of half an hour makes it a much stronger programme as a result. It also contains a stunning 19th century view of the Giant's Causeway.

Whilst these programmes are borne out of necessity, I do hope it's something that continues - wandering round museums with a guide works really well on TV.

Watch roadkill on iplayer. Hugh Laurie was really good in it. Was an enjoyable 4 parter.

Jem and I watched "Staged" on iPlayer on Saturday.

Utterly fantastic in every way.

Did anyone watch The Trump Show on BBC 2?  It was a three part series, last part last night, although it’s on iPlayer as well. Both fascinating and frightening account of his election and time as POTUS, reminding us of some of the crap he’s got away with and how he managed it, despite a lot of people on his staff knowing that a lot of it is wrong, or batshit crazy.

What appalled me most was that his impeachment should have been successful. Everyone knew he broke the law, and his press chief openly admitted it on several occasions, and you could see on the faces of many in the senate that they were uneasy when he was acquitted.

In fact there were many occasions when the expressions of his staff gave away that all was not well.

I may have to watch the whole thing again, to remind me of the huge number of events and executive orders that should have been red flags at the time.

We now break for a public service message:

https://twitter.com/VictoriaCoren/statu ... 1025762304

From tonight, Quizzy Monday gets broken up and Only Connect moves to 7.30pm for six weeks. Please RT! I don't know why @BBCTwo does this sort of thing, but historically when we get moved around, half our audience end up missing it. Please help spread the word.

— Victoria Coren Mitchell (@VictoriaCoren) November 9, 2020

So glad that His Dark Materials is back. Ruth Wilson's Mrs Coulter was as deliciously evil as ever, and Cittagaze is just as I imagined it.

I was looking to see where that was filmed, expecting somewhere Mediterranean. It's a set in Wales!

Not had chance to watch it, but looking forward to it.

Despite being a thinly veiled version of The Shopping Channel, Amazon Prime's "Oh Cook" with James May is quietly entertaining.

BBC 4:Storyville - Pepe the Frog

Feature-length documentary on a famous frog and its creator's troubles as it gets adopted by the far-right, including an in-depth look at the culture of 4chan. The artist, Matt Furie, comes across as charmingly naive and bewildered by it all. The discussions of 4chan and influencers and all the jazz made feel me very old and out of touch. It's one of those documentaries that captures and attempts to explain a piece of recent history and society, and as the Trump era creeps to its end helps in a way to understand how we got here. I don't think the inclusion of an actual wizard added anything to the story or argument, however.

I finished off my evening's Iplayer viewing with another episode of Canada's Drag Race which surprisingly feels so much better by not actually featuring Ru Paul.

We love the main drag race (and the UK series) but couldn't get on with the Canadian version.

Watched ‘The Queen’ Gambit’.

I was hooked from the first episode. Really well written, and the lead actress is just brilliant.

Never knew chess could be so exciting

I've only seen the UK one so perhaps it's a bit of an unfair comparison but without Ru the other regular judges are far more prominent and engaging with audience and contestants alike. Of course, the BBC would want to show off bagging a big name as much as possible, even one sent to the depths of BBC iii .

It seems they've set our reality in Inspector Morse's Oxford. That passage leads to the Turf, not the Observatory. And how deflated I felt when:



Ruth Wilson knocking Mrs Coulter out of the park, again.

And:

Are we including Streaming TV in here?

If so, anyone with access to Apple TV+ should watch Ted Lasso.
It’s quite sweary but so good natured without being sickly.

Watched the remaining two episodes of this at the weekend. The Scottish one is ok, but the standout episode is the final one, covering the life and work of early 17th Century female artist Artemisia Gentileschi Her fascinating life story is covered allegorically in her paintings. Worth watching.

We caught up yesterday. Mrs Coulter is on of my fav villains, wither her angry ginger monkey.

FEEX

We’re watching Season 4 of The Crown. Gillian Anderson is Margaret Thatcher. I bet that’d cause confusion in the loins of a few people on here.