GOOD TV

[Tripps]

Did you watch the Council Meeting David?

Yes indeed. There were actually two separate meetings - one to confirm the new Chief Executive, and one longer, to approve the budget. The Oldham Chronicle letter was not mentioned at either. I've tried to get a copy of it but can only find it in pieces of PDF which does not copy easily.

What happens to the letter now is unknown. There is enough in it to sink half the Labour Party, so they will protect against that.

Raja Miah sounded a bit fed up and (I think ) hinted that he might join the Reform Party. That would be a mistake. I'd say he would be diluted to oblivion - especially as the party seems to have collapsed overnight. All quite predictable.

Ian - that confirms what we all knew about the Question Time audience.

***********

PS Posted here for the sake of continuity-

This is interesting Editor of Oldham Chronicle refused entry to Council budget setting meeting.

I'll stop this now - any member interested has enough sources to follow the hideously complicated situation for themselves. The more I look, the less I am convinced that I know the truth about it all. I do know however that when a Council official humiliates and bullies the editor of the local newepaper of record - established in the town for 170 odd years - then something is gravely amiss. I can't see how this matter can be hidden for the longer term.

PPS
Neil Wilby is a long time critic of Raja Miah, (perhaps justifiably so) and "throws shade" over him in this, and many other articles. I've been dying to get that phrase in somwhere for ages.


PPS - The plot thickens, I wondered why the Tory Leader was amongst the 'apologies for absence'.
I now see that Tory Leader on the Council and one other resign the whip and become Independent Councillors

[Stanley]

Thanks for trying David! It sounds like justification for me not following the matter as assiduously as you!
I like 'Throws shade'.
As for TV, I find I am watching Pointless. Should I be worried?

[Tripps]

I like 'Throws shade

We use "throw some light on the subject", but it has taken the Americans to point out the natural follow up.

I find I am watching Pointless. Should I be worried?

I'd say so - seek treatment promptly. The only day time TV programmes worth watching are The Chase, and Judge Judy.

[PanBiker]

WE gave up on pointless a couple of years ago and are avid Chaser followers at tea time.

[Tripps]

Crufts final night. Seems to come round about every four momths.
Some very strange looking dogs- and even stranger owners.

PS The whippet won.

It's a bitch, but that word is no longer allowed when dog related- just when used by by rappers.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report.
A whippet from Venice in Italy has been named best in show at the 2025 Crufts dog show in Birmingham. Four-year-old Miuccia beat more than 18,000 dogs from around the world to claim the top award on Sunday at the NEC. "It's really a dream come true," said her handler Giovanni Liguori. "I am truly overwhelmed. Miuccia performed her best". It is the first time a dog from Italy has won best in show, which comes with a trophy and small cash prize of reportedly £200.
I like whippets.....
I shall return to getting my intellectual stimulus from Motorway Cops.....

[Tripps]

The long awaited chess programme has been on for about 15 minutes. I'm about to switch it off.
It has been given the BBC 'wokenising' treatment and the result is awful. I would say that someone who knew nothing about chess would learn little, and be unlikely to watch again, and someone who knew a bit about it all will still be laughing. I'm off back to Chess Fight Night from Moscow. We've watched little Alice Junker progress from child prodigy to All Russia Blitz Champion forr her age group over the last year or so.

PS The Guardian seeme to agree, and have done a better job than I did in conveying the sheer awfulness of the offering. I hadn't caught the full wokeness of the thing . The joint presenter was there by dint of being in "Traitors" - or perhaps there was another reason? One of the players started playing when he had stage four cancer, now in remission, and one when he was in prison. They had no clue what their target audience was - and failed to find it.

[Stanley]

That sounds like a big disappointment David and I'm sorry to hear it. I know how much you were looking forward to it.
I tripped over a 90 minute German made documentary on the North Sea (The commentary was in English) and it was brilliant and beautifully filmed. YouTube really does deliver the goods at times.

[Tripps]

That sounds like a big disappointment David

Not in the least - I had already worked out that the programme was impossible to make a success of, and had no hiigh expectations. It merely confirms my prejudices against the BBC.

[Whyperion]

The long awaited chess programme has been on for about 15 minutes. I'm about to switch it off.
It has been given the BBC 'wokenising' treatment and the result is awful. I would say that someone who knew nothing about chess would learn little, and be unlikely to watch again, and someone who knew a bit about it all will still be laughing. I'm off back to Chess Fight Night from Moscow. We've watched little Alice Junker progress from child prodigy to All Russia Blitz Champion forr her age group over the last year or so.

PS The Guardian seeme to agree, and have done a better job than I did in conveying the sheer awfulness of the offering. I hadn't caught the full wokeness of the thing . The joint presenter was there by dint of being in "Traitors" - or perhaps there was another reason? One of the players started playing when he had stage four cancer, now in remission, and one when he was in prison. They had no clue what their target audience was - and failed to find it.

Mum Liked it , telling me when I got back that "only connect" wasnt on. Mum is deaf and watches the subtitles, which might explain things. When she said "The Chessmasters" or whatever I though that was an only connect team

[Stanley]

I'm glad to hear that David.
Last night the main element of my TV was a programme about the Kamchatka Peninsula, Siberia. I'm glad I don't have to live there!

[Tripps]

I've come across "The Master Game" from 1981 on BBC. This was the series which caused my lifelong interest in chess, and was the first time I'd understood what was going on.

Fascinating to compare it with the ridiculous programme last Monday night. The contestants were chosen not for their ethnicity, skin colour criminal record, or medical status - just because they were world class chess players, who were prepared to explain their moves in the game. They somehow managed without Sue Perkins' double entendres, and the "balcony of delight". It's a shame they could not have found room for a lady player though.

Watch it if you wish. The Master Game Final 1981.

Minor claim to fame - I once came down from the car park at the Grafton Shopping Centre in Cambridge, in the same lift as Bill Hartston.

[Stanley]

I liked that post even though chess has no attraction for me. I think it's the way you write.... things like the claim to fame....

[Gloria]

Has anyone been watching Protection on itv, it had that many twists and turns, and cannot really explain the ending. But I think they totally missed it with this one.

[Stanley]

Not me Gloria.... I am still locked into my Youtube and repair shop repeats....

[Wendyf]

We caught up with the final episode last night Gloria. It definitely got a bit complex at the end!

[Gloria]

We caught up with the final episode last night Gloria. It definitely got a bit complex at the end!

I thought they had the end completely wrong.

[Tripps]

Helen Shapiro is singing on "Wheeltappers and Shunters" on Talking pictures TV.

Those were the days. . . . .

[Stanley]

That was a blast from the past David.... She was so good so young and yet faded early..... I always thought there was a story behind that.

[Whyperion]

From memory Helen got involved in the Christian Music scene in the 1980s/90s popping up with her story on Songs Of Praise from time to time.

[Stanley]

I'm finding some really good informative programmes on YouTube,most of them with high production standards.... Filling my early evenings nicely thank you....

[Stanley]

I fell into a seam of information films made by a German Museum on archaic crafts like lime-burning, Nail making, making grind-stones and mill-stones for corn mills. I find that despite them being in German, I can understand enough stray words in the commentary to follow the film.

[Stanley]

Last night I watched a very good documentary looking back at the Aberfan disaster of 1966 and once more I was enraged by the attitude of Alf Robens and the National Coal Board.
One thing in particular. The NCB made a paltry offer of £50 to the 'close parents' of each dead child and when they were attacked because of this niggardly offer tried to argue that 'ordinary working people' weren't capable of handing sums of money larger than this.....

[Gloria]

It beggars belief doesn’t it Stanley? It carries on today with the post office scandal. You can’t put a price on these things, but there’s no need to insult people either.

[Stanley]