Sitting Tennant

Today’s Sitting Tennants: GQ, Rab C Nesbitt and The BAFTAs

Got the tingles? Full of excitement? Yes, you have that Friday feeling, otherwise known as “anticipation of a forthcoming Sitting Tennant”.

First of all, I’ll start you off with this bonus “ultimate” Sitting Tennant, which I’ve had sitting around for ages and that no one else has submitted yet but I thought you’d all enjoy – no need to caption.

David Tennant in GQ

Thought you’d like it. But moving on, time for the contributions from the regular Sitting Tennanters. Ms Jaradel’s fallen over and is too far away from her keyboard to send us something this week, but Ms Rullsenberg and Sister Chastity have served you all with a couple of treats:

Scottish David Tennant

David Tennant behind the scenes at the BAFTAs

Must. Avoid. Making. Obvious. Jokes. Too. Much. Effort.

So I’ll leave that up to you (you can make less obvious jokes as well, if you’d like).

Last week’s suggestion of a scavenger hunt won approval from Sister Chastity, but unfortunately no one else so that wasn’t a goer. But then I came up with, IMHO, an even better idea: inspiration points. Whichever picture gets the most captions (or even the best captions) that week, will get two bonus points for having inspired others. How does that sound? To me it sounds like an incentive to come up with really provocative Sitting Tennants, that’s what.

Anyway, the picture leaderboard now stands as follows:

  1. Rullsenberg: 20.5
  2. Jaradel: 16.5
  3. Sister Chastity: 15.5
  4. Rosby: 2.5
  5. Persephone: 1

Witty captions looked in a dire state for most of the week, with only two dedicated captioners feeling their creative juices flowing. But a flurry of activity at the last minute, from the holidaying Marie among others, saw life once more breathed into an otherwise prone Sitting Tennant.

The first stab at a bonus points option saw three people trying their luck, with Marie eventually proving she had what it took to combine David Tennant and swine flu. Meanwhile, witty points went to Rullsenberg for picture one; Electric Dragon for picture two and picture three, which if not the best use of Carol Ann Duffy in a caption was at least the most random and amusing.

Ten bonus points will be awarded this week to the best caption involving expenses claims, Marks & Spencers bras and/or the world’s smallest pigs.

  1. Toby: 109.5
  2. Marie: 102
  3. Rullsenberg: 61.5
  4. Jane Henry: 60.5
  5. Persephone: 45.5
  6. Jaradel: 38.5
  7. Electric Dragon: 25
  8. Rev/Views 16
  9. Scott: 3
  10. Aaron: 2
  11. almostwitty.com: 1

As always, captions and new submissions for the gallery, please. Remember, you can submit as many (witty) captions as you like for each and every picture, with topical captions (and pictures of David Tennant in current productions) getting extra marks. The wittiest caption for each picture will get double points. And there’s a bonus point for using Gary Numan lyrics appropriately.

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery. You can also enter the witting and amusing captions league table by commenting on existing photos in the gallery.

What have you been watching this week (w/e 8 May)?

Seen anything good? Seen anything bad? Let your fellow blog readers know, so they can spend their viewing time wisely.

We’ve caught up with House in the US. Last week’s episode about the deaf community nearly caused my wife to turn into She Hulk and start to smash things – particularly the bits about cochlea implants – but this week’s seemed better, and head Amber’s as fun as the original so it’s been nice to see her again.

Life’s a bit duller without Heroes though, 24 has fallen right through the floor and David Caruso trying to interact with children on CSI: Miami was one of the scariest things on television since Ghostwatch. I think I almost fell asleep during The Mentalist, at times, but nice to see a female near-rival to Jane’s talents – will she become his Irene Adler for season two?

The Unit managed to mess up what had been a previously promising story arc with a dumb twist. Stupid Unit.

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please? Ta!

Friday’s Dr Jekyll, Mr Woah! news

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

  • Paula Milne writing drama about therapist accused of murder
  • Dawn French to star in married life comedy for BBC2

US TV

Classic TV

Lost Gems: The Aphrodite Inheritance (1979)

After Christianity became the dominant religion in the West, the Greek gods could have taken it easy and had a rest. Some suggest they did; others, however, tell a different story.

Modern US television suggests that right now, they’re off running their own companies in Valentine, trying to matchmake mortals in Cupid, or both. Back in the 90s in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, they were either trying to make television shows while trying to rescue innocent mortals or sabotaging their relative’s TV show so they could sit back and watch Millennium and Cop Rock in peace:

But if we go back to the late 70s, back when they were still in Greece (or Cyprus at least), they were busily helping to solve crimes – in their own inimitable way.

When David Collier arrives on Cyprus following the death of his brother, Barry, in what Collier believes was an accident, he meets the beautiful Helene and her mysterious companions, Basileos and Charalambous, who appear to know a great deal more about his brother’s death than anyone is admitting. Slowly Collier is drawn deep into a complex conspiracy until neither he, nor the viewer, know who he can trust, particularly when it becomes apparent that someone is trying to kill him. The police, in the form of Inspector Dimas, don’t believe a word Collier says, since every time he finds something, or someone, that could substantiate his story they inexplicably vanish.

When all is revealed and Barry’s murder is solved, there’s one last mystery: Collier discovers that rumours of the deaths of the gods Aphrodite (Alexandra Bastedo from The Champions), Pan (Stefan Gryff) and Dionysus (Brian Blessed in full Brian Blessed mode) have been greatly exaggerated.

It’s not been repeated since UK Gold showed it a decade ago, it’s never been released on DVD, although you can find it on YouTube (playlists later): it’s The Aphrodite Inheritance and it’s a Lost Gem. Here’s the title sequence and for those who want to cut to the chase, the final ten minutes of the final episode in which the gods’ game with the poor mortals is finally uncovered.

Continue reading “Lost Gems: The Aphrodite Inheritance (1979)”