GOOD TV

[Stanley]

Really enjoyed the BBC2 programme on Harvest last night. Just the sort of informative information the public needs to make them aware where our food comes from. Loved the bearded professor experimenting with different coloured LEDs to influence growth.....

[PanBiker]

Wipers Times, excellent and fascinating true story.

[Pluggy]

I'm with Ian on this one. Excellent

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0 ... ers_Times/

[Stanley]

I was torn but reckon there's more chance of Wipers Times being repeated than Harvest.

[PanBiker]

You can get it on the BBC iPlayer link that Pluggy put up anyway Stanley, worth a watch.

Liked the first episode of "Peaky Blinders" last night. looks like the makings of a good tale based on the gangs in Birmingham just after the First World War. BBC do make some good stuff!

[Stanley]

I enjoyed the last Harvest programme last night. You have to admire someone like the cherry farmer for his attention to detail. Loved the way he is experimenting with the bees and the effects it has on his crop.

[Big Kev]

Watched episode 1 of Peaky Blinders yesterday, it was recorded on Thursday evening on BBC2. Very "arty" camera work, I think I'm going to like it.

[Stanley]

I'm enjoying Simon Schama on the Jews at the moment 2 to come out of five episodes.

[Stanley]

Watched the BBC 4 programme about the Antikythera Mechanism again last night. Amazing story of what was probably the world's first computer. Almost certainly stemming from scientific work in 2nd century BC. Nice thing is that the bloke who built the replica, Michael Wright, was one of my old collaborators at the Science Museum. (LINK) Well worth watching if you believe in science!



My old friend Michael Wright with the replica he built of the Antikythera Mechanism. I met Michael when he was keeper of steam at the science museum in London. We collaborated on the installation of the Siberia engine in the East Hall and if the powers that be (or were) had listened to us they would have saved themselves a lot of grief. Ah well, all water under the bridge now....

[Stanley]

I recorded Das Boot again and watched it last night. Will I ever get fed up with it?

[Stanley]

Watched the last of The Story of the Jews last night. Good thought provoking series.....

[Stanley]

Brian Cox was good again last night..... Some fascinating insights.

[PanBiker]

Agreed Stanley, his enthusiasm always helps his presentations along. John Harrisons solution for the accurate plotting of longitude included last night with his super accurate timekeeping device. Shafted by the establishment he stuck at it for years enhancing his designs. Finally awarded a reduced cash payout from the prize pot put up for a solution to the problem. No need to look for an answer in the stars which was the supposed thinking of the time. Just note the time difference from where you are compared to Greenwich and look it up in a printed table. Still used by mariners until the late 1970's, only surpassed by the the advent of GPS systems.

Also liking "Peaky Blinders", plot, counter plot and subterfuge building nicely in that one.

[Stanley]

I watched Michael Moseley on BBC4 on Pain, Pus and Poison. Well worth catching it......

[Stanley]

World Service repeated this episode of 'Life Scientific' this morning. Fascinating.... LINK

[David Whipp]

I'm looking forward to the new series of Homeland tonight.

Tonight's film at the Rainhall Centre (The Place Beyond The Pines) is well over two hours long though, so it'll have to be a pleasure postponed.

[Nolic]

I'll give Homeland a try. It was excellent at first but the last few episodes got a bit far fetched. Nolic

[Stanley]

I watched Rageh Omar on Ottoman Empire on BBC2. Amazing how little we know about it in the west....

[David Whipp]

Homeland: It was almost 10pm when I got home after putting the cinema away last night. As I pushed the front room door open, Alison shouted "Don't come in here!" (I don't think she had a fella - she didn't want me catching the climax of Homeland's first episode.

Ended up finishing off my book instead of watching Homeland; still a pleasure postponed.

Agree about farfetched.

[Stanley]

Enjoyed Lucy Worsley on BBC4 on murder. Recorded Doc Martin for today.....

[David Whipp]

Got home in time for (most of) University Challenge. My kids were bemused at my gesture of putting my thumb to my tongue and giving myself a 'stripe' on my shoulder/chest when I got answers right... where does that come from?

[LizG]

My kids were bemused at my gesture of putting my thumb to my tongue and giving myself a 'stripe' on my shoulder/chest when I got answers right... where does that come from?

I would be interested to know that too. We do something similar but more a thumb up knuckles rubbed on chest action. A bit hard to describe, easy to do.

[Stanley]

In the army it was done to put a stripe on the arm, in other words, promotion.....

[David Whipp]

In the army it was done to put a stripe on the arm, in other words, promotion.....

That makes sense, although I've got to go back to grandad Herbert Whipp in the First World War navy for a military forebear. Suspect it was a gesture learned from my dad.

[Stanley]

Getting an extra stripe was known as "putting one up" and doing it with your finger on your mates sleeve was a recognition he had done good.