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Possible Sale of Channel 5
In recent days it has been fairly widely reported that Richard Desmond, owner of Channel 5, Express Newspapers and other more “specialist” TV services, is looking to sell Channel 5. Desmond bought Channel 5 for a knockdown price of £103.5m in 2008, and he’s run it pretty shrewdly, keeping costs down and turning a profit.…
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Logo Lolly
“Logo Lolly” is, or was, the practice of paying radio news reporters a bonus if they managed to get their radio microphone muffs (ie. covers) or collars into shot on the TV news. I’ve heard of at least two places where this certainly used to be the case. You’d get more money if you made…
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American Hustle
The new David O Russell film, American Hustle is immensely enjoyable. We’re dropped in at the deep end, with some kind of con or undercover operation going on. And not going well. But we get quickly get into flashback as our narrator and main character Irving Rosenfield (Christian Bale), sets out in a life –…
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Aldwych on Exposure
I’m continuing to play around with the best way of displaying photos online, and a new kid on the block is Exposure. They use high resolution photos that fully utilise screen real estate to make pleasingly simple photo layouts. Interestingly, although they’re free for your first three sets of photos, you need to pay after…
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Is There Room for Horror on UK TV?
I mentioned that I’d enjoyed Mark Gatiss’ version of The Tractate Middoth over Christmas. And although that is certainly more of a ghost story than a horror story, it made me wonder why we don’t get more horror series on British television. Series like American Horror Story, and arguably The Walking Dead, prove that there’s…
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Radio and TV Favourites
I think my favourite TV programmes over the Christmas and New Year period were a series of films that I didn’t spot at all when I was going through the Radio Times. Endeavour: Everest was a series of three films made by Leo Dickinson shot in and around Mount Everest between 1976 and 1991. They…
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A Norfolk Sunset
Posted mainly because the last two posts were a bit moany!
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Down The Line
Since the BBC moved large parts of their new output – notably Five Live and BBC Breakfast – up to Salford, one inevitability is an increased number of “down the lines” from London. It’s almost inevitable in the case of politicians, but other experts or guests, who cannot make it up to Salford the night…
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Radio Design – A Moan
I spent Christmas with my family – as many other folk do. But the room I was staying in didn’t have a radio! Now this is a calamitous state of affairs in my book. There wasn’t a spare kicking around. And while I carry a portable, it doesn’t have a speaker. No problem – I…
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The Cathedral of the Marshes
Blythburgh Church – the Cathedral of the Marshes – overlooking the River Blyth, near Southwold. I think this is my favourite shot from the series of photos I made recently in Suffolk.
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Radio Times – 26 December 2013
The worst sitcom on British television somehow managed to achieve the unthinkable yesterday, becoming the most watched programme of Christmas Day. We can but hope that once PVR and on demand is added in, something else knocks it off the top. Anything! If you’re the sort of person who watches Mrs Brown’s Boys, then at…
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Kite Aerial Photography #3 – Christmas Success
What better day than Christmas Day to have a third attempt at some kite aerial photography? My first couple of attempts were disappointing to say the least. I’ve found it tricky to find both a location and enough wind to get the kite up supporting the camera, but not too much wind to cause me…
Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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Yellowface/All The Lovers In The Night
Yellowface by R F Kuang I first came across R F Kuang with last year’s very enjoyable Babel, an alternate history of the British Empire told in a world where magic exists and is controlled by an elite group of individuals. Yellowface is very different, but no less enjoyable. It’s a book about books, and…
Hadrian’s Wall
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