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A place to discuss what's on TV that might be of interest to others. (exc. Top Gear, F1, for example - which have threads of their own)
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Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 9 Nov 13 at 17:22
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Something else for Thursday night (before Paranormal Activity):
www.radiotimes.com/episode/cmhbs7/the-dealership--01082013
"Let me be clear — there is absolutely nothing edifying about The Dealership. You won’t learn the secrets of the human heart and nothing about it will enrich your intellect. But it’s great fun, a good, old-fashioned docu-soap like Driving School and Airport, peopled with big “characters” who lark about against the rumpty-tumpty soundtrack music."
Thursday 9pm Ch 4
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Looks like the sort of place you'd run a mile from.
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I saw the trailer this morning, and yes, it does. Might be entertaining though, in the way those sort of programmes are, in small quantities anyway.
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>> Something else for Thursday night (before Paranormal Activity):
>> www.radiotimes.com/episode/cmhbs7/the-dealership--01082013
bump
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I just don't believe what I saw tonight (well I do but you know what I mean) - the three Essex women looking for a £13k Merc. The prospective buyer failed approval for HP on it....the salesmen then encouraged the sisters to take the loan out - that has huge implications and comes close to mis-selling - that must be unlawful.....??? Disgraceful behaviour...and the buyer heard to say "Well you must have luxuries - you can't take it with you can you" true enough you stupid woman your debts do die with you....I am shocked.
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Repeated at 1.50am on 4seven if y'all want to record it, like moi.
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Might be repercussions on their comments about people living in Devon?
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Oh I think that Devonites would be able to heap their own insults on them
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>> Might be repercussions on their comments about people living in Devon?
>>
If it had been said by someone with an ounce of intelligence there might be, but I'm afraid the utterings of a brain dead bimbo won't cause too much excitement. "You don't need a good car in Devon because there are fields n that, there are no fields n that round here, know what I mean?"
Stupid tart has probably never been further afield than Romford in her life.
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I'm a sci-fi nerd, I record most of the arf-decent stuff to watch at a later date, can't be having with all those ads!
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Might not be an easy question, Dog, but what would be your favouritest ever sci fi film, if you had to pick just one?
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Well, it's got to be The Day The Earth Stood Still I suppose, although I quite enjoyed Close Encounters and Independence Day, I enjoy all sci-fi films though really, even the bad ones.
I forgot War of the Worlds!!
(*_*)
Last edited by: Dog on Tue 13 Aug 13 at 20:08
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You wouldn't say that if you had the scifi channel. Some serious clunkers on there.
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This is another one, I love em, I'm almost in there with them, well, I am!
tinyurl.com/ljw2gqk
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The Day The Earth Caught Fire and 2001 Space Odessey for me - side serving of On the Beach.
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>>On the Beach
Yep! - that's another one of my faves.
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Day of the Trifids. Quatermass and the pit.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 13 Aug 13 at 21:34
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Stayed close to the original book
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Caught On The Beach recently. Great film but really depressing!
2001, 2010 are both good.
Silent Running is underrated.
What scifi books would you like to see made in to a film?
I would like to see:
Rama
The Forge of God
Some Stainless Steel Rat stories.
Now CGI is cheap enough for TV it would be good if some of the great short stories by Clarke, Asimov etc were filmed for 1 hour specials?
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>>What scifi books would you like to see made in to a film?
Ah well, that's an easy one for me ... www.sfsite.com/12b/ce118.htm
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At the moment they're showing Leeds v Sheffield Wednesday, and the Man Utd game is on this evening.
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www.radiotimes.com/news/2013-07-15/sneak-peek-first-great-western-train-series-on-channel-5
Train enthusiasts unite; a new documentary is set to showcase Britain’s stunning rail journeys and follow the travelling public and working staff on the railways.
:
... Daily life on a rail network is also not as easy as it appears, in the new series we meet a rapid response team that deals with fires, floods and fatalities, chefs trying to hand-cook three course meals for 50 people in a galley kitchen moving at 100mph and ticket inspectors encountering rowdy festival-goers on route to Glastonbury, trying to catch fare dodgers on the line and meeting a frightfully British bunch on route to the Henley Regatta.
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Tonight; updated Radio Times entry:
www.radiotimes.com/episode/cm9nq9/the-railway-first-great-western--series-1---episode-2
Ah - just realised I missed the first one last week. Anyone catch it?
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No. But it looks like you could watch it on DEMAND 5:
www.channel5.com/shows/the-railway-first-great-western
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Did anyone watch this film? .. I watched it this evening, a most unusual film and I'm glad I recorded it.
www.imdb.com/title/tt1712502/
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Surprised you didn't seek out the Korean original given your moniker.
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I will now, having read about it on IMDb, I do like a film that makes me think, and I was even thinking about Wang when I got up this morning.
:}
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1955 b/w film with Jack Warner + Thora Hird + Gordon Jackson + Lionel Jeffries
www.radiotimes.com/film/k4z7s/the-quatermass-xperiment
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Not sure whether I've seen that or not - might record it.
However I do remember watching 'Quatermass and the Pit' as a kid, and finding it genuinely scary. Don't know if that crops up on TV these days?
BTW saw sci-fi blockbuster Elysium last night on the big screen, by the same bloke who did District 9. Amazing effects and big star in leading role (Matt Damon), but too much 'action' for my tastes (like recent Star Trek); preferred District 9.
Still think Oblivion (another sci-fi) is the best film I've seen recently.
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>>Not sure whether I've seen that or not
I'll record it, even though I've seen it more than twice before :)
I watched the trailer for Elysium www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIBtePb-dGY looks good.
I would smarten my self up and go to see the film at the local 'picture house' but, I'm used to going to see, what I consider to be special films, over at Leicester Sq. in lunden - on the BIG screen, as these ere multi-screen cinemas just don't do it for me, maybe there's a BIG screen picture house in Plymouth, 40 miles away :(
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>> Still think Oblivion (another sci-fi) is the best film I've seen recently.
>>
I rented this at the weekend. We were so confused halfway through it that I had to pause it and look up the plot on the internets. I also had dreadful trouble making out the dialogue, particularly Morgan Freeman's lines.
Quite enjoyed it in the end, but it's not one I'll be rushing to see again.
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'' I also had dreadful trouble making out the dialogue, particularly Morgan Freeman's lines.''
In a way i'm rather pleased to read that, thought we must both be going mutton jeff, yet i know my hearing is still very keen from regular full medicals at work.
Not this film as we haven't yet seen it, but where they are available we now turn the subtitles on so we can make head or tail of the plot on lots of films now, especially American production line stuff, they mumble and half grunt the dialogue and the soundtracks drown it out no matter how you try and balance it out.
Might as well get the Russian version for all that can be understood that isn't profanities.
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I have had my hearing checked out, no problems with it. Unless I'm trying to listen to garbled, mumbled American-accented/dialected Hollywod movies. Increasing the volume doesn't help, it's simply unintelligible. There was a particularly irritating part in Oblivion, where Freeman starts explaining some crucial plot elements to Cruise, that's when I swore out loud, re-wound it three times, turned it up, sat between my speakers, gave up, pressed pause and reached for an internet device to google the plot. Gah.
I don't know if Sky Movies/Sky Store (for it is that service we use) has a subtitles option. I think I'd better find out and join you.
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>> >> Still think Oblivion (another sci-fi) is the best film I've seen recently.
>>
>> I rented this at the weekend. We were so confused halfway through it that I
>> had to pause it and look up the plot on the internets.
Oh dear, I hope you are joking.
It is a good film, but I struggle to see how anybody could be so confused by the plot that they would need such assistance.
Pretty simple stuff for the mass market.
Last edited by: SteelSpark on Mon 2 Sep 13 at 14:24
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SS, I've known for a very long time that you are a sparkling intellect, one significantly brighter in the firmament of minds than I.
I am grateful for this latest reminder.
Fortunately for me, the temporary failure to understand the occasional daft, contrived and thoroughly unlikely Hollywood movie plot due to its garbled and incomprehensible dialogue is not a problem which has held me back noticeably in life. I am pleased for you that such hurdles do not present themselves in your life and congratulate you. You have admirable lugholes.
It is a weakness which I am grateful did not manifest itself in me when taking the 19th and 20th Century Russian Literature elements of my degree. Particularly as there is no requirement to listen to recordings of Morgan Freeman butchering Raskolnikov's lines.
:-)
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>> It is a weakness which I am grateful did not manifest itself in me when
>> taking the 19th and 20th Century Russian Literature elements of my degree.
Is that supposed to convince people that you are intelligent? :)
>> Particularly as there
>> is no requirement to listen to recordings of Morgan Freeman butchering Raskolnikov's lines.
Ah I thought you might backpedal. You initially said that you, and your viewing partner(s), didn't understand the plot and also that you found Freeman's dialogue hard to follow, not that the dialogue was the only problem.
"We were so confused halfway through it that I had to pause it and look up the plot on the internets. I also had dreadful trouble making out the dialogue"
Oh, and I don't claim to have a sparkling intellect...just that I can follow the relatively simple plot of a mass market Hollywood movie in real time...
Maybe you're better when you can read something over a few times... ;)
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Ah, the poorly placed "also". Righto.
I'll be more careful with my exactitude in future. Thanks again for pointing out where I can improve.
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>>Thanks again for pointing out where I can improve.
Ooo, ooo, can I have a go as well please?
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I'd be amazed if you didn't.
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More seriously I've got Oblivion to watch, and was waiting for the right moment. I might not bother now since my hearing is a bit fuzzy at the best of times and mumbled dialogue is a nightmare.
I like to watch films, but I really don't like putting any effort into them.
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I don't remember a specific problem hearing the lines at the cinema, but without the benefit of a rewind facility I probably would have let it go and hoped to catch up later (which I think I did, but if you quizzed me you'd probably find I didn't).
We have started turning on subtitles for some stuff on TV recently - I think that dreary and ultimately unsatisfying ITV (or Ch4?) drama Southcliffe was one example. Then we were watching something else with subtitles and The Pretenders' 'Brass in Pocket' started playing. Because it was sufficiently relevant to the plot, the lyrics were displayed, and I suddenly realised what Chrissie Hynde had been singing for the past 33 years :)
Last edited by: Focusless on Mon 2 Sep 13 at 15:39
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>> I suddenly realised
>> what Chrissie Hynde had been singing for the past 33 years :)
>>
Ha ha, I remember as a nipper thinking the Three Degrees were singing "Bicycle hot". Weird, I thought. But ho hum. Years later it dawned that they were in fact singing "My simple heart".
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YzW1nMB9fk
0.33 seconds.
"Young girl with eyes like potatoes".
It would be funnier if I hadn't puzzled over the lyric for years and only found out what it really is fairly recently.
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>> I like to watch films, but I really don't like putting any effort into them.
Couldn't agree more.
Don't be too put off. There's something important in the film called the "Tet". I must have missed this gem of information in the early stages when I was opening my Pringles or skulling my Bordeaux, or the good lady was regaling me with some vital but now forgotten information relating to soft furnishings or diets. Then, when Freemen starts burbling on and talks about the "Tet", I hadn't the foggiest what he was saying, hence confusion with the plot and dialogue.
Don't be put off on the strength of one half-drunk, half concentrating crisp muncher.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 3 Sep 13 at 01:28
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>>Don't be put off on the strength of one half-drunk, half concentrating crisp muncher.
Strangely that is exactly the most appropriate level of competence that I should listen to.
For me films are relaxation and escapism. I don't want realism, I don't want unsatisfying endings, I do want to be able to refill my wine or get some munchies without losing the plot.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 3 Sep 13 at 01:28
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>> Then, when Freemen starts burbling on and talks about the "Tet",
Er... did he definitely say that? :)
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Give me modern schlock any day, decent special effects, colour for the bloodsplashes and none of that ghastly wimpish post-war British stiff-upper-lip morality, just straightforward immorality and extreme violence, fairly convincingly staged.
Quatermass wasn't science fiction, it was low-grade fantasy, and the Quatermass films, like much of British commercial cinema output at the time, were clunking, leaden, boring garbage. Like the books they were based on... day of the goddam triffids indeed... awful excrement.
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"Computers and the Internet have made it really easy to rant. It's made everyone overly opinionated".
~Scott Weiland.
:)
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>> ~Scott Weiland.
Who he? Some sort of internet celeb I'll be bound...
:o}
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>>Who he? Some sort of internet celeb I'll be bound...
I have no idea Sire, but ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Weiland
:}
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Well suck egg mule... a rock singer noted for using a megaphone on stage, substance abuse and several arrests...
Doesn't sound so bad after all.
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Monday, BBC 1, 9:00pm.
Around 35 minutes in, plod seem to be undertaken on a motorway slip road and take umbrage by the perpetrator who then accelerates to 75MPH!!!
I thought the official line was to discourage people who block lanes (which these BIBs appeared to be guilty).
You'll see me soon on a TV screen!
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>> I thought the official line was to discourage people who block lanes (which these BIBs
>> appeared to be guilty).
Sounds to me like they're following the Highway Code. Drivers joining from the slip need to give way, not vice versa. That isn't an example of lane blocking.
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My memory banks tell me that some time in the past I've been told that the broken double lines across the exit from the slip are ' legally ' a ' Give Way ' indication.
Anyone know ?
Ted
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No, they are roads of an equal priority merging. The actual signs are the key here - if there is a triangular warning sign with a lopsided Y (best I can describe it) they are of equal priority.
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>> My memory banks tell me that some time in the past I've been told that
>> the broken double lines across the exit from the slip are ' legally ' a
>> ' Give Way ' indication.
>> Anyone know ?
>> Ted
Highway code rule 259:
Joining the motorway. When you join the motorway you will normally approach it from a road on the left (a slip road) or from an adjoining motorway. You should
give priority to traffic already on the motorway
www.gov.uk/motorways-253-to-273/joining-the-motorway-259
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Yes, that's what the dotted line at the bottom of the sliproad means.
But cars on the motorway already should try to adjust their speed up or down to let the joining car in, provided it is doing its best to merge at the speed of traffic already on the motorway. If it's hesitating or bumbling, life's too short. It can damn well wait until there's a big enough gap.
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>> . If it's hesitating or bumbling, life's too
>> short. It can damn well wait until there's a big enough gap.
>>
especially if the driver is turning round looking behind them for somebody to 'flash them in' whilst obliviousy of the growing gap in ahead of them they could easily accelerate into - this is why we need an antonym to 'Sherlock', but for the time being I'll stick with numpty or SJLB
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>>SJLB
Wossat? Googled it, but I'm still non the wiser.
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>> SlackJawedLameBrain :-)
Actually merging with motorway traffic is one of the things new drivers find most difficult. The problem isn't intellectual - it's easy to understand that speeds have to be more or less harmonised to make the manoeuvre possible - but one of simple courage: this is a situation where the joining car has to signal firmly, spot a gap or potential gap and go for it. He or she who hesitates at the bottom of the slip road is definitively screwed.
If the worst comes to the worst the hard shoulder serves as a temporary escape road. Someone will make a gap even if the car in front of them has behaved thuggishly. The problem for new drivers is to summon up the faith that someone will let them in. They have been taught to some extent to view other traffic as adversarial and potentially hostile, and it takes quite a while to understand fully that progress is a shared project and no one wants to cause unnecessary delays... and even longer to learn to distinguish between 'reasonable drivers' and the small minority of SJLBs or 'fast mimsers' who pose such a risk to us all.
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>>>merging with motorway traffic is one of the things new drivers find most difficult.
Spot on AC. It's what eldest daughter failed her test on 8wks ago, thankfully she passed OK at second attempt 3wks ago.
Obviously not a true motorway on a test but one of the many junctions on/off the city dual carriageway parkways near here.
Problem is test was taken in a gutless Citroen C1 and on the ramps where you climb to join the parkway it is near impossible to achieve joining speed in a slow car before the taper runs out. As far as the test goes there is a lot of luck in traffic being light and an obvious long gap appearing at the right time.
The Alfa is never a problem as it will exceed the speed of motorway traffic on even the shortest slip.... as long as the available gap is 18ft+ we can make it.
As an aside I tried to get her insured on the Alfa so I could start teaching her to drive properly now the test is behind her but they won't quote until she's 21.
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Fenlander, the Parkways you mention are steep and it is also renowned as one of the worst areas in the country for people seemingly no knowing how to join a main carriageway.
Some years ago we tried approaching the local driving schools to see if they were concentrating on that part of the driving lessons enough, but as usual they saw it as criticism and didn't want to co-operate.
It isn't the fault of the trainee but the fault of the instructors, after all they will never have a better chance to emulate the motorway slip road scenario for a trainee but never take it.
Hope this makes her feel a bit better!
Pat
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I assume you are talking about the on/off ramps to the peterborough parkways.
I offer you one in that area that is a really really frightening beast.
tinyurl.com/orqm3vj
A47 onto Southbound A1.
The slip road is about 7 feet wide, and 150 yards long. You have to sling shot round the tight LH bend and be doing 70 MPH by the time you hit the bottom, hug the concrete barrier on your left and then be prepared to slot in among the 60 mph trucks in the 3 seconds before your lane runs out. if you dont make you have to stop before you get catapulted up the bank. Stop and you never even get out again. I tell you Buzzards and Kites live in the trees to pick the bones of the skeletal remains of those who never made it out, and died of starvation before they could get to the Stibbington diner.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 13 Sep 13 at 16:39
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Joining the A1 northbound in a fully freighted artic is a nightmare on that one.
Too tight to maintain too much speed and too short and narrow on the joining slip.
Pat
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Ah yes - those short uphill slip roads with poor visibility... there's one a bit like that a few miles from here joining the A27 towards Brighton. Means heavy throttle and high revs in the gears when driving e.g. a Skoda Estelle... but anything ordinarily lumbering will need to pick up its skirts and make a bit of clamour.
One reason why I can't help yearning for a snorting V8 monster. You don't often need all its capabilities, but you do need some of them occasionally.
Of course a nice Alfa, even a diesel, would be almost as good I'm sure... Ever noticed any torque steer with it under heavy foot Fenlander?
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Pat her instructor was on the assertive side of average encouraging her to roll on quickly and a gap will appear.
But as daughter and I agreed in her practice driving with me if the inside lane of the parkway was packed and running at 55-60mph... and there was too much traffic in the outer lane for anyone to move over and let you in... well you're stuffed trying to join.
Yes I know that one Zero. A bit less wall of death but still another nasty one a little further south if you join the A1 from Alwalton village. By the time you have rounded the curve from the village 30 limit you have about 250ft to get out before the slip becomes a footpath.
goo.gl/maps/nQq4j
AC the Alfa has no torque steer that you'd notice. Funny as I had a similarly powered Saab 99 Turbo with FWD that was affected.
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>> the Alfa has no torque steer that you'd notice. Funny as I had a similarly powered Saab 99 Turbo with FWD that was affected.
It's quite common in rapid FWD cars, but pleasing to hear that Alfa Romeo have dealt with it properly. I don't remember my Renault 18 having it either.
The worst I can remember was in an early, very rough and stark 6 cylinder petrol Nissan Patrol, stuck in 4wd. That would leap a whole lane to the right under any sort of acceleration if you didn't wrestle with it.
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>>SlackJawedLameBrain :-)
I call 'em 'mouth breathers'.
Last edited by: bathtub tom on Fri 13 Sep 13 at 17:47
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With Steve McQueen and Dustbin Hoffman, nem mind about blimmin sci-fi THIS is my favourite film.
www.radiotimes.com/film/mt5x6/papillon
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THIS might be worth recording and saving for a rainy day (like tomorrow)
www.radiotimes.com/film/7y86/i-am-legend
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Shown 9/9 CH4 IIRC.
Caught up with this after I'd recorded it earlier this week.
What a wonderful drama. Shows there's still talent out there.
Depicts what happens in this country if the national grid goes down for a few days.
I particularly liked the kid's line "mum says we can eat as much ice-cream as we like".
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Yon dancing competition has just started on the telly again. Sometimes I wish I was a secret drinker or something. I reckon I could do pretty much anything I wanted however outrageous that was for the next hour or so without being questioned. Boringly enough though I'll most probably just go for my usual evening swim. Wish I had something more subversive to do...
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 28 Sep 13 at 19:24
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I've got a reason to get on the computer now every evening when the "daily" updates are on BBC2 I can use that as a reason to logon and catch-up with the news online.
That daily evening program is almost a reason to work overtime for free. Winkleman and Ball, Jeez !!!
Last edited by: gmac on Sat 28 Sep 13 at 19:41
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I've just cooked the dinner, eggs, chips (my chips) peas, mushrooms, and tomatoes, it took me from 7pm 'til 8.15pm.
;)
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I guess it takes a long time walking around ones estate collecting all the raw ingredients ;-)
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Yes it does, but you soon learn to differentiate between the smokers and the eaters ;)
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Strictly (not that strictly) for died-in-the-wall sci fi fans of the 1st kind:
www.radiotimes.com/film/kmjvt/x-the-unknown
www.imdb.com/title/tt0049967/
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Looks good:
www.radiotimes.com/episode/cpzxjk/cold-war-hot-jets--08112013
In the first of a two-part documentary, historian and author James Holland examines how the jet became a lucrative export and a powerful piece of military hardware during the Cold War, and looks at how selling to the wrong buyer could alter the balance of power.
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A TV version of empire of the clouds? Hopefully that was a very good book, burst open a few myths, interesting at the same time. I'll give this a watch.
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Recorded for late night viewing!
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Yeah, I'm going to have to watch it on iPlayer.
There's another BBC plane-based 2 part documentary that's been on at least a couple of times and is worth catching next time it crops up - 'Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies'
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m81f5
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watched it. Its ok, nothing really new shown or revealed.
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>> nothing really new shown or revealed.
I wasn't aware British pilots were flying U2s prior to Gary Powers.
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The (used car) Dealership - Focusless
