Some small-print disclaimers first, relating to product description. The Children Who Fought Hitler, to start with, a title that conjures up images of human waves of boy-soldiers, running through the rubble-filled streets of Berlin to see who can get to the bunker first and take out Adolf with a Sten gun.
Let's say -- just hypothetically -- that I'd been pondering for several months what a new novel should be about, because I want to keep writing these things, now I've started. And let's say -- entirely speculatively -- that I'd actually refined and defined a slew of "signature specifications" to the extent that I was able to start writing the new book, suddenly, last week. Let's call it The...
Now don't get me wrong, nobody plumps up a cushion higher than i do for a BBC4 rockumentary but we really should be issued with some sort of interactive QI-siren kit for when the following inevtitable cliches appear from the mouths of musicians - 1. "Nobody had ever seen/heard anything like it before" YES. THEY. HAD. In fact in all probability they'd seen/heard The Beatles do it. 2. "I...
My dream last night was interrupted by advertising! I was dreaming contentedly away in what I hoped was a respectably BBC4 fashion when up pops a commercial for some bubblegum. Bubblegum made by Alice Cooper (or at least it was branded as such). I know advertising must be pretty cheap at the moment, but why is Alice Cooper targeting me? As a man in the 35-to-a-million age bracket who doesn't like bubblegum...
A friend alerted me to the fact that, while I was away recently in the US, BBC Four screened a programme about Robespierre and the French Revolution that focused, in particular, on the Reign of Terror. I watched it with...
I really should take notes, because I keep forgetting things. It didn't help that our block of flats lost all TV reception for the weekend, which really knackered my attempts to watch the Francis Bacon evening on BBC4: Mad Men – Finally caught up. All brilliant of course Community – Another doozey. Will you ever look at Batman the same? 30 Rock – interesting, but not very funny Dexter...
1) BBC4 to become BBC1. It should be on 24 hours a day, and just be more of the same. All the daytime stuff and indeed the night-time stuff is pointless, it just drags us down. I blame The One Show for the current economic climate, banking and big business was doing fine before it, [...]
They are not everyone's cup of tea, but I have always liked them, even though half the time I was scared of them but fascinated at the same time. I'm talking about the blokes in the photo, the German super electronic geniuses known collectively as Kraftwerk. I first discovered them in the early 80s, by that time they had been going for a number of years, but there was something fresh and interesting...
Lemsip, Stevie Nicks/Mac, Graphics, Ralph Steadman, Hunter S Thompson, Lady Gaga, BBC Four, list making, a large knife and smoking are the ultimate companions for me whilst I'm home alone. Just having too much fun all the time. I have some ridiculously horrible cold this week which makes me feel gross and my head feel constantly cotton wool filled. However apart from physical ailments I am, please...
TV The digital switchover has began last night in the north-west of England with the switching off of the analogue stream/broadcast of BBC Two. For a lot of you this won’t be newsworthy news – it’s already happened in Wales and the South West and elsewhere. But it still feels like an event worth noting anyway. Perhaps I shouldn’t be too maudlin about the loss of one particular...
Saturday 9.15pm Festival of Remembrance BBC1 10.35pm JLS Revealed ITV2 - Documentary following 2008 X Factor runners-up JLS on their rollercoaster ride from TV fame to success as a group in their own right. Sunday 9.00pm The Children Who Fought Hitler BBC4 - Documentary telling the story of a heroic battle fought by the children of the British Memorial School to help liberate Europe from the Nazis....
If you've been inspired by BBC Four's current series 'Art Deco Icons' and want to get the look for your own home, you may be interested in Canning and Sheridan's Golden Age collection which includes the Central cabinet, featured above....
One of my new favourite TV shows is BBC4’s It’s Only A Theory, where experts chat about their (often surprising) theories. Presenters Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter, along with a weekly guest, review the theory with a good mix of comedy and honest discussion. It’s a bit like Dave Gorman’s Genius, but with genuine [...]
Latest Oasis News With stopcryingyo (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
"My current new favourite German band of all time. Proper tour bus music. Spiritual!!" That was how Noel described the band Neu! this time last year. Oasis are big fans of Neu! and you can hear their influence on songs such as 'Falling Down' which Noel described as "3 chords, 1 note - Krautpop!!" So it was nice to read today on The Quietus that Michael Rother - legendary guitarist...