"Read this and weep, Americans." Topic

You know how you complain about your 'documentary channels'.

Tonight on BBC is 'Stargazing live'. It is being presented by a pop star and a comedian, with a rock star as a guest.

Or to put it another way, a world famous astrophysist (Dr Brian Cox), a man with a degree in theoretical physics (Dara O'Briain), and a guest who also has a doctorate in Astrophysics (Brian May).

The other celebrity guest is David Baddiel. He isn't a scientist, but has a double first from Cambridge, and a PhD in English.

They are interviewing the people who put Curiosity on Mars, and have been in the US looking at the next Curiosity, as well as having the ESA Mars rover team, with their prototype, in the studio.

Enjoy 'Zombie Nazi Sharks' on the History Channel…

It's sad. Even History International doesn't show much History anymore. Just you wait though. Pawn Stars will cross the channel. Then where will your precious Dr. Brian Cox be!? Hmmm?

But tonight we have Justified on FX. All else pales in comparison…

world famous astrophysist (Dr Brian Cox)
theoretical physics (Dara O'Briain)
Astrophysics (Brian May).

Brians… or BRAINS!!!

I sense an invasion conspiracy

It's sad. Even History International doesn't show much History anymore. Just you wait though. Pawn Stars will cross the channel. Then where will your precious Dr. Brian Cox be!? Hmmm?

Sadly, it has already hit, along with all those other educational documentaries such as LA Ink and the one about the family of gun salesmen.

Erm…

What's on the other channels?

Bah, you can try to maintain how much better the BBC is to American Television, but the BBC gave us Big Brother and Pop Idol.

It's crimes can never be forgiven.

Yea, but WE have Honey Boo Boo.
I weep for us all.

no and no

neither big brother or pop idol are BBC shows.

we get that from our independent commercial tv channels.

last night, I saw one of the best documentaries I have seen, and it was on Ovation, and not the History Channel. I learnt so much about the Arthur Legend and his beginnings as a sub-roman british warlord, it was factual, dramatized, but not overly. ie no ladies of the lake or swords in stone.

It was the Celtic Legends, and it was on Arthur. If you want to look it up, a link with some details is shown below (IMDB was useless)

link

though you can get them on DVD

auction

and the one about the family of gun salesmen.

Wait till you get Duck Dynasty!
They make duck and other hunting calls, and it's really funny.

Dara O'Briain is fantastic, you should see his bit about the movie 2012, he goes of the deep end about the neutrinoes "heating up" he says, they might aswell have said the lantinoes are getting angry

Ah, Last Hussar don't be too smug – and enjoy it while you can….the BBC may soon lose the licence fee, have to rely on advertising and then. well, it'll be "Stargazing Live & Nude".

I'm sure the ladies will enjoy dreamy Brian Cox, but for myself I shudder at the unbounded cosmic horror that awaits us.

"Hillbilly Handfishing." Nuff said.

Hillbilly Handfishing? It sounds like a euphemism, like 'polishing the dolphin'.

I finaly looked up this "Honey Boo Boo" that you spoke of just the other day. A sure sign that the END has already come!

Think about this: someone had sex with her mother…

That isn't necessarily true.

We have pay tv and I think it is the most useless thing known to man….

It's okay, you can have the good documentaries.

We'll keep putting rovers on Mars.

Brian May is quite the renaissance man. Besides being the lead guitarist for Queen, he has a PhD in astrophysics and makes his own guitars. Nothing to weep about there.

We in the US have many more things over which to shed
tears than the state of our TV entertainment, as
deplorable as some of that is.

'Nuff said – the DH awaits…

What L:ast Hussar failed to mention is that this isn't being buried on the "documentary channel" at three in the morning; it's on BBC1 – the flagship channel – at prime time, three nights in a row.

There's also hundreds of open-air events connected with this; I'm off to one tonight in the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow. It'll be overcast, though.

Yes, I thought it was pretty good. It was closely followed by 'Trouble in Paradise' though, which perhaps isn't something to be so proud of:)

Yeah, we're stuck with Honey Boo Boo, Jersey Shore, and the Kardashians.

Y'all, however, have the House of Lords.

It was closely followed by 'Trouble in Paradise' though, which perhaps isn't something to be so proud of:)

Yup, the BBC is responsible for a lot of garbage as well as great programming. Sadly for every "star gazing" there is a "sun, sand & suspicious parents" (in which parents follow their children to club 18-30 holidays to see if they are having sex), a "don't tell the bride" (where a boyfriend plans a wedding that is exactly what his wife-to-be doesn't want, but it all turns out ok in the end) and….

|Now, I love the BBC (no adverts – that's just the greatest thing especially during films) but the ratio is probably no better than 10 really terrible shows to 1 good one.

With the widespread adoption of set top recorders, I wonder how long TV advertising is going to last.

We generally just skip through them.

Part of the problem is that it has to put on some high ratings stuff, or certain sections of the press whine.

nvdoyle – I did say the ESA rover was on the show.

We've got QI, you don't – US execs think its too high brow for their audience. They said it, not me!

"and the one about the family of gun salesmen."

One???

I don't watch the flipping things and I could probably name THREE shows like that…

"What's on the other channels?"

BBC1: "Africa", Attenbrough looks at the unique and constantly changing landscape of east Africa. Flick over to it… mountains and fog.

BBC3 is showing a depressing sounding documentary about poor teenagers living on a tenner a day. I turn over to have a look and… chavs mooching around outside court celebrating one of them being bailed and planning a drinking sesh. That sounds like "Growing up Criminal", but apparently I'm just an evil tory.

BBC4 is a drama about spies in Poland.

And erm.

ITV: "Midsomer Murders". I can't be bothered to find out what it's about. It's a drama. About murders. This is why no-one watches IVT any more.

C4: A reality show about pregnancies.

C5: Celebrity Big Brother[1]

The 3 headline Sky channels have "Glee", "Bones", "Blue Bloods"[2]

[1] Was anyone else under the impression this was supposed to have finished?

[2] I'm quite fond of that actually.

C4 finished with Big Brother – so C5, always on the lookout for a top notch franchise that will win them kudos with the viewers snapped it up pretty smartish.

I rather enjoyed the 'Midsomer Murders' series. Actually
bought a couple DVDs of them.

We do have a theoretical physicist on tv-his name is Sheldon and he sits on the left side of the couch.

I've also watched two excellent WW2 documentaries this week ('Tankies' and 'Battle for Malta') where they didn't promise shocking revelations (which turn out to be mundane things that everybody already knows and are in any case, simply the wrong conclusions), what's coming up and what you saw earlier EVERY FIVE ING MINUTES!

And the presenters actually knew what they were talking about!

You might want to give PBS' NOVA a try. It has yet to succumb. Nature is a pretty good science show, too.

Meh…

Al Murray – aka The Pub Landlord – is surprisingly knowledgable on WW2. Woman at work was praising his 'Road to Berlin' series, and I have a Pub Landlord book where he takes 3 pages out of the comedy to wax lyrical about the Spitfire.

IIRC Al Murray is a Oxbridge history graduate and speaks fluent German….

It doesn't surprise me, but it is in total contrast with his stage persona.

Yes, I thought it was pretty good. It was closely followed by 'Trouble in Paradise' though, which perhaps isn't something to be so proud of:)

That's 'Death in Paradise' and some day all Detective Sargents will look like Sara Martins!

Al Murray – aka The Pub Landlord – is surprisingly knowledgable on WW2. Woman at work was praising his 'Road to Berlin' series

Quite rightly, it was very enjoyable!

You know how you complain about your 'documentary channels'.

Hussar you seem to think that our commentaries on bad tv is anything like annoyance. It's more like "hey how's it going" or "what's the weather like". If we paid any mind to what's really on TV we'd probably do something rash and not watch it; and not ask for more:

link

Remember, the water may protect you from continental invasion but it can't stop the airwaves.

More on the future of the BBC :

link

(it's a parody – but only just)