GOOD TV

[Stanley]

Loved Lucy Worsley's programme last night on Dorothy Hartley. I've ordered Hartley's book and am going to read her 'Made in England' again. One thing that struck me was her description of the use of a goose wing feather as a duster. I remember during the war seeing a whole goose wing used as a hand brush at Poole's Farm near Congleton. BBC 4 are doing a series of programmes on food and if they are as good as this one they will be worth following.

[Stanley]

Watched a prog I had recorded on the rise of Food Banks. Disturbing stuff and raised a lot of questions.

[Stanley]

The Xmas advertising is upon us and I watched the last part of Polar Express last night. Don't worry, I'm not regressing! It's simply that whoever made that film had a deep understanding of steam locomotives and it's incredibly accurate when it comes to the operation and depiction of the locomotive. Such a pleasure when you come across something you have experience of which has been competently rendered onto the screen.

[Stanley]

BBC2 had a good programme (first of three episodes) on the charisma of Hitler and how he used it to gain power. Some good archival footage of Germany in the 1930s.

[Stanley]

Second Hitler programme last night. Some repetition of images from the first prog but still good and accurate. Did anyome watch the Panorama prog on the IPCC last night. Raised some disturbing questions.

[Stanley]

I've been enjoying the 'Wild Wood' series on BBC4. Nice progs and that lad is certainly one of the world's workers!

[Tripps]

If the snooker is a bit too exciting for you, why not try as an alternative, a bit of chess.

http://www.livestream.com/LondonChessClassic

[Stanley]

Never played chess David, Snooker fascinates me, I've watched it for so long that I understand some of the tactics now.....

[Stanley]

Watched 'Remains of the Day' last night. Still a great film. At the moment we are in the drought period before the Xmas schedules kick in.......

[Stanley]

There isn't any at the moment! (Unless you like Come Dancing and the X Factor)

[Wendyf]

I've enjoyed watching Last Tango in Halifax.

[PanBiker]

We enjoyed that as well Wendy, another series next year.

[Tripps]

Sorry to disagree, but I thought it was poor. Just dipped in from time to time, but classed it as one of those programmes made more for the benefit of the cast than the viewers. Sort of middle class Emmerdale, with all the usual soap cliches. I gave up when Paul Copley ( a cliche in his own right), insisted on the "doctor" looking at his feet even atfer she had explained that she was not a medical doctor.

[Wendyf]

I know what you mean Tripps. Its Last of the Summer Wine crossed with a bit of Emmerdale and everything else in between...ridiculous but completely charming!

[PanBiker]

Anything with "Ruth" in from "Spooks" ticks all my boxes, worth a watch. I have a soft spot for the Weeks girls (Honeysuckle and Perdita) as well.

[Tripps]

"ridiculous but completely charming!" - Nicely put.

Though on reflection - something like myself.

[Nolic]

I agree with you panny, though she was a bit quick inviting all and sundry to her bed in this caper. Nolic

[Stanley]

Really enjoyed the old Morecambe and Wise progs and last night's episode of 'Open All Hours'.

[Stanley]

I've been enjoying the Swedish trilogy on C4. 'The girl with the dragon tattoo', 'The girl who played with fire' and I recorded 'The girl who stirred the hornet's nest' last night. Violent, dark stuff but good plots and very well acted. The subtitles are a bit distracting but well worth the effort.

[Nolic]

Lots of good quality Scandinavian made stuff on TV recently.
"The Bridge" has one of the best police partnerships I've ever come across in Saga Norén, the lead homicide detective in Malmö and Martin Rohde, the lead homicide detective in Copenhagen. A body is found midway across the bridge linking Sweden and Denmark and the two have to work together. Saga Noren is "quirky" to say the least.
The second series of Borgen, about political power in Denmark is due in the new year and again is well worth watching. The subtitles don't bother me too much and in some ways they make me concentrate more than I otherwise would. Nolic

[Stanley]

I'll take note of them Comrade. Haven't seen any of them.

[Tizer]

Watched a recording of the first of the Royal Institution Christmas lectures on chemistry...a brilliant presentation with lots of fire and bangs! Details here:
http://www.rigb.org/contentControl?acti ... 0000006393
There are videos of some of the experiments here:
http://www.richannel.org/christmas-lectures

[Stanley]

I watched it as well. They are fascinating expositions, Michael Faraday would approve I think.

[Tizer]

I liked his demonstration of the increasing density of the noble gases by using balloons. I don't know if they were really filled with those gases or whether he cheated - the more rare ones are very expensive, but it didn't matter, he got the point over. A shame he didn't have the time to point out that it's the increasing density which makes us now wish to use krypton to fill double glazed units instead of argon, and then xenon if it ever becomes affordable. The higher the density of the gas in the window gap the better it insulates, partly because there is a greater mass for the same volume but also because the denser gas doesn't convect so easily (and convection currents within the unit speed up transfer of heat from the inner to outer pane).

The demonstration that materials combust easily in an oxygen enriched atmosphere was also good. His apparently self-combusting `sausage man' probably frightened some of the younger children but it does show what might happen to us if we were in pure oxygen! I expected his rice crispies in oxygen to self-combust but he had to light them with a taper first - perhaps the use of liquid oxygen chilled the crispies so much that they wouldn't ignite without the flame. I think that if you could drop crispies into a pure oxygen atmosphere at room temperature they would burst into flame. It was interesting too on one of the other TV programmes to see proof that you can't strike matches in a 15% O2 atmosphere, compared to the ease of striking in the normal 21% O2. They took a flaming torch soaked in petrol into the room with the 15% atmosphere and it instantly went out, yet the two men doing the experiment could breathe OK. Fascinating! The Earth's atmosphere originally had zero O2 until photosynthesis evolved but there wasn't much to burn anyway - no trees or grass to ignite from lightning strikes. The planet became a dangerous place once the atmosphere began to enrich in O2 but it made the evolution of higher plants and animals possible. Houses burning down, rusting cars and aging skin are the price we pay for being able to breathe!

[Stanley]

I once saw a demonstration of a gas dump fire suppression system and it was magic. Fire out instantly and biggest problem was waiting for the heat to disperse without ventilation which would of course have triggered the flame again.
Started watching Ripper on BBC last night but it was so cliché ridden I switched over to Earthflight......