WARNING: If you are married to a blonde woman from South Wales who's lived in London for a while and has lost her accent and started talking like an English person, you might find that after exposing her to this DVD for two or more episodes, she exhibits certain behaviours. Her accent might return; she might start saying "lush", "by here" instead of "here" or "whereto" instead of "where"; and she might start calling you with "Oh! Rob!" These effects can last anything up to three days or more, during which SHE WILL BE UNAWARE SHE IS DOING ANY OF THIS. It'll be very endearing though.
The thing about award-winning comedy shows is that no one's going to watch them if you stick them on a network primarily devoted to Two Pints of Lager and shows like Can Fat Teens Hunt?.
Had we known there was a show called Gavin and Stacey in which a blonde woman from South Wales meets, falls in love with and marries a dark-haired guy from SE England, we'd have watched every single episode and repeat from the very first moment – it'll be the closest we get to a biopic on Hallmark. Instead, it's not until the second series (which is brilliant) that we found out about it. Heaven knows how those awards people came across it.
Although BBC3 will no doubt be repeating the first series again approximately five times a day (seven times a day if it wins any more awards) once the second series finishes, we decided – as might you, gentle reader – to give that first series a go by buying it on DVD. If you are considering it, here's a handily timed reviewed to help you decide whether to spend your hard-earned money or not. Although it's only £8 on Amazon – bar-gain!
I find it hard to express my extreme joy at discovering you can download all of Stephen Fry's magnificent late 80s radio series, Saturday Night Fry, from this web site here. Instead, I thought I'd just write this blog post to let you know of my discovery.
If you've never heard the series, head there right now to download and listen to these works of comedy genius. If you have, you've already stopped reading and have left the site to download the episodes so you can listen to them again.
Pay close attention, gentle reader. At the end of this, there's going to be a competition – a first for this 'ere blog – in which you're going to be able to win an actual real thing that you can own and that will arrive through the post, rather than through a Superpoke on Facebook.
But first, a question. Who do you think a novel based on Primeval would be aimed at? I ask this because I have a copy of the first in Titan's new range of Primeval novels and I'm slightly curious as to the thinking process behind it.
Primeval is something of a family show, going out on Saturdays, nice 'n' early in the evening. Yet, Shadow of the Jaguar is definitely not something you should be giving to the kiddies.
FYI, in case you don't listen to Simon Mayo's excellent daily show on Radio Five live, David Tennant was his guest yesterday. They spoke for about 27 minutes on various matters Whoey (including a few, known spoilers), DT's ambitions for the future, etc. If you missed it, you can download it from the Daily Mayo podcast page or directly from this link as an MP3 about 13MB in size.
Do you sometimes feel like you don't understand the world anymore? Like everything you knew has been turned upside down? No? Then you obviously haven't seen this trailer for Ricky and Bianca's return to EastEnders.
I do feel like Jesus has deserted me in this moment, leaving the world harsh and cold behind him. Then come back and stuck a candy cane in my ear for no readily apparent reason.
WTF! Not just one but four Horatio Caines in a crime lab doing girly science stuff! What can be going on? He hasn't stepped foot in a lab full of chemicals in seven seasons - and CSI: Miami has only been on for six. How can this be? Well, it was continuity week this week and as well as bringing back a whole load of old plot threads and guest characters, they've clearly decided to remind us all that David Caruso can face other inanimate objects square on - and that Horatio's supposed to have a degree in chemistry or something normally only fit for liberal nerds, not real conservative American heroes.
Actually quite an interesting episode this week I thought, not just for that cartload of continuity, but for having the most obviously deconstructable feminist/anti-feminist sub-text featuring ex-Showgirls star Elizabeth Berkley.
Read more on What have you been watching this week? (w/e 3 July)