ITV1’s latest Saturday night endeavour, Rock Around the Block has been axed. Anyone else have a sense of déjà vu?

I don’t usually post tests like this but it’s too good an opportunity to promote The Smoking Room to pass up.

(Via.)

I watched the beginning of The Girl in the Cafe on Saturday night but quickly lost interest. Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald may as well have been playing their characters from State of Play, except Paul Abbott’s excellent script had been replaced by Richard Curtis’s lumbering dialogue, neither funny nor dramatic. It became pretty clear how the story would end:

• Civil servant Nighy explains to “normal person” Macdonald how poor poor people in Africa are
• World leaders refuse to suppot heroic Britain’s calls for more money for the poor people in Africa
• Macdonald tells world leaders that as a “normal person” who Nighy met in a cafe, she’d like them to think for once about the poor people in Africa
• They do.

There was no way I was staying around to see if the conclusion turned out as predicted, but fortunately Andrew Anthony from the Observer stuck with it:

Nighy played an adviser to the chancellor who falls awkwardly and chastely in love with a plain-speaking ingenue (Kelly Macdonald) whom he meets in a cafe. After he explains the iniquities of the global economy, she accompanies him to a G8 meeting in Iceland, where she takes the assembled heads of state to task and finally beds a nervous Nighy.

Monday

Stayed up into the early hours watching music videos. We sat through a mid-eighties compilation of Bucks Fizz promos – interspersed by “Miss Jay Aston” comments – before remembering that Brian Grant, director of The Long Game, had directed music videos. A Google search turned up loads of videos, many of which were on various videos and DVDs around the room. And so we sat up watching videos from artists ranging from Haircut 100 and Queen to Peter Gabriel and Spandau Ballet.

Up early to go into Westminster to run some errands at LibDem HQ. On my way back past the Houses of Parliament, I spotted a grey-haired man standing alone near the public entrance. It was Trevor Kavanagh, political editor of The Sun. One of my friends always seems to run into people like that. I would normally pass on by but she’s very good at striking up conversation. With this in mind, I decided to be more assertive and started a conversation.

We had a brief, pleasant conversation. He asked if I was a Sun reader and I admitted that I’m not. “Oh, you should read it. It’s very good.” We discussed some of the paper’s election coverage and I bit the bullet and mentioned that I’m a LibDem. “Ah,” he said, “I think we could have done more there actually.” I suggested that by “more” he meant “be even more negative about”. He nodded.

I glanced away and was surprised to recognise Channel 4 News‘s outgoing political editor Elinor Goodman walking towards us. I suppose in retrospect that right outside Parliament is as good a place as any to find political journalists, although she was meeting Trevor. She introduced herself and I went on my way.

Popped into Holborn to look up some probate records for my family history research before heading back to south London. We watched some excellent Victoria Wood episodes in the evening. More music videos later and the realisation that I can name the band members of very few of my favourite bands.

Tuesday

Train Eavesdropping III
On the way in to London in the morning, two yoofs (probably wearing hoodies) were sitting behind me on the train. They were the only people in the carriage talking and despite their street patois (if that’s the term) it was pretty clear they were discussing which guns they wanted (“a sniper’s gun would be cool”). I like to think this was nothing more than a laddish chat about weaponry, like middle-aged men talking idly down the pub. But it was still uneasy to overhear.

Back to the probate office and then round the corner and to a cafe with Dan. Then, following his directions, I headed off on foot to Kings Cross. A few moments later, I walked past the ITV News Channel’s Andrew Harvey.

Got home in time to watch a pretty unpleasant documentary about Agentha Fältskog on Channel 4.