Speaking of Ludditism… I made the mistake last night of watching a programme on the BBC about the MMR jab. It began as an apparently sensible documentary about vaccination but descended into stupidity. We had the presenter being given reams of paper saying that MMR was safe. He said he still wasn’t sure, blamed the Government for not being able to convince him, and then went on to demand that politicans be more equivocal. He noted that the media had worried people with little evidence before taking out magazine ads and putting up posters asking the public to raise concerns about MMR. I switched channels but went back to see if he’d decided to get his daughter the jab after all, and was faced with a thoroughly pointless stunt projecting a campaign slogan on the House of Parliament. Editorialising, incoherent rubbish.
The next show I watched was When Blue Peter Became ABBA. Another error, but another programme that started promisingly. Quickly though it became apparent that Zoe Ball’s chosen presenting style for this was “snide”. Cue sarcastic comments about the four ex-Blue Peter presenters’ admittedly poor attempts to sing, and various digs at the band they were “paying tribute to”. Topped off with a surprisingly successful finale – helped, as far as I could tell, by backing instruments that concealed the band’s weaknesses – and I wanted to throw something at the TV.
Which I almost did when I was then shown an ad for Spoons, a new sitcom starring Rob Rouse of The Top 100 Ugliest Comedians fame. (#1 indeed.) The usual response to Christian Voice types who complain about TV is the off button.
Reader, I used it.
Here’s a TV recommendation for digital viewers: an American show based on The Apprentice. Instead of Donald Trump, this Fox version features billionaire N. Paul Todd and his company IOCOR.
Except there is no N. Paul Todd, and no IOCOR – they are fictional, invented to string along a bunch of apprentice-wannabes who are set stupid sales tasks and happily absorb nonsensical management techniques. It was mostly schadenfreude but I laughed like a drain, not least when Todd impressed them by taking them round his mansion (hired for the day) and showing them the pride of his art collection: the original Excalibur.
The whole thing looks like a cheap knock-off of The Apprentice and Rebel Billionaire. One of the contestants even comments, “Donald Trump or Richard Branson wouldn’t make us do this.”
It’s all very silly but good fun (so far) for a lazy afternoon – although unsuccessul in the US where it was axed before finishing its run. Tune in to E4 at 16.05 on Sunday.
PS: This post was not intended to offend The Magic Numbers.
Some top notch telly last night. After Mastermind on BBC Two came BBC Four’s Britpop Night, interrupted briefly for The Smoking Room on BBC Three and rounded off by the premiere of the new Franz Ferdinand video on Channel 4.
The Britpop Story was interesting and full of nice clips (although some were lifted from Britpop Now which followed). However, having defined Britpop as pretty much Blur-like music, it seemed odd that Oasis could fit under the same banner when they agreed that their music had different forms and themes. The likes of Menswear and Sleeper really have very little in common with Oasis bar some guitars and a drumkit.
The real disappointment of the otherwise very good Britpop Story was the end. We hit 1997 and John Harris pretty much said “Then Labour swept to power and Diana died and that was the end of Britpop” – followed by a clip of Oasis performing Lyla, the intervening eight years completely ignored. Having carefully charted the rise of Britpop and its influences, there was no real discussion about its decline.
I watched half an hour of Britpop Now which brought back plenty of happy memories and was full of top tunes, as well as Echobelly. TOTP2-style captions also filled us in on the post-Britpop lives of the bands – more of which on the BBC News site.
Needless to say, The Smoking Room was as understatedly brilliant as ever. After that, I switched back to BBC Four and Live Forever. Supposedly about Britpop, the title hints correctly that this documentary was dominated by Oasis. Noel is entertaining and on the mark: he understandably derides Be Here Now but can’t fathom why anyone would have (What’s the Story) Morning Glory but not own Definitely Maybe. (For the record, I do – but only because the former was a present.) There are some revealing interviews with Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker, but whereas the night’s other two programmes covered a breadth of Britpop, this is too focussed on Oasis to tell the wider story.
Having only heard it once, I’m not yet humming the new Franz Ferdinand single, Do You Want To, but the video was amusing – the band prancing about in front of spoof modern art. I was a bit concerned that in the video Alex Kapranos resembled Nicol Stephen but I’ll blame that rather odd comparison on tiredness…
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