Six months after we last watched anything (Jools Holland’s Hootenanny, if I recall correctly) and five months after we noticed we were no longer getting any sort of reception and four months after we first thought to mention it to the landlord – having noticed the aerial dangling loosely off the chimney – and about three months after they decided to do something about it and a mere two months since we were told the aerial people would be coming to have a look within the next ten days, and less than a month since the aerial man did actually come and have a look and a mere two weeks since he was supposed to come and fix it having pronounced the aerial, cable, post, fixtures and fittings as being in the second worst condition of any aerial he’d ever seen, we now have television again.
I feel that, having gone to all that effort, we might want to try and watch the thing occasionally (other than the Tour de France, of course, and the other half has been known to tune in to Wimblebore). Given that prior to its sad demise we basically watched Grand Designs and then only to watch Kevin fret photogenically about the lateness of the hand-carved Italian staircase*, is there anything actually on that’s worth watching? What do you watch? Confessions in the comments please.
*Actually, that may just have been me.
June 19, 2009 at 4:32 pm |
Beechgrove Garden (BBC1 Scotland) – Like Gardener’s World but filmed in Aberdeenshire, so the plants they are talking about will actually grow in Scotland.
And making a vast and sweeping assumption that you access to freeview…
Flight of the Conchords (BBC4) – NZ comedy singers in NY. Hard to describe without making it sound rubbish – it’s not.
Highland Emergency (5) – like all the other rescue programmes but with an added “I’ve been there” and slightly more climbers.
June 19, 2009 at 4:55 pm |
You missed Springwatch but there’ll be Autumnwatch later in the year.
Gardeners’ World which I have to admit I’ve all but given up on.
I confess to watching repeats of Agatha Christie’s Poirot on Sunday afternoons and, sometimes, Midsomer Murders on weekday afternoons!
June 19, 2009 at 5:19 pm |
We got rid of our TV two years ago and don’t miss it. We’re addicted to The Apprentice and Springwatch/ Autumm Watch when they’re on though – thank goodness for iplayer!
June 19, 2009 at 5:27 pm |
When she is able to prise the zapper from me, especially in the winter months, I find my gardener seems to watch a lot of ice skating on Eurosport.
June 19, 2009 at 6:10 pm |
We have freeview but not any of the paid for channels (it would be poor value if we did…). We don’t get good enough broadband for the iPlayer
June 19, 2009 at 7:13 pm |
I’ve not watched TV since August, other than the occasional Top Gear repeat on Dave at a friend’s house. Grand Designs and the other property programmes were always firm favourites though
June 19, 2009 at 7:20 pm |
I’m with you on kevin and his fetching concern. Other half has a crush on Kirstie, so anything with ‘location’ in the name for him.
And we both like shouting ‘listen to Beanie’.Watching other people create vast pristine echoing spaces that make us shudder as we happy subside further into the woodworm.
June 19, 2009 at 7:29 pm |
I am an HGTV girl myself.
June 19, 2009 at 7:47 pm |
tennis, you poor thing.
John
June 19, 2009 at 8:09 pm |
Oh dear, what don’t I watch (or at least have burbling on in the background while I’m on the net). I’m not usually one to gush, but I am now a devotee of The Wire – Dickensian in its range and depth (sorry, you’ve missed the first two series on the BBC, but the third is starting late on Monday night on BBC2 – I couldn’t cope without my PVR and “series record”). I’ve gorn orff Kevin and the Grand Designs; all those bespoke taps, not to mention the people. The only thing that redeems it is his way of intimating how barking some of them are, while still remaining polite and not actually punching them.
June 19, 2009 at 9:43 pm |
Hate to be cold comfort, especially mid-june, but you’ve just missed a good three parter on the Beeb bout the boyz in Iraq, with James Nesbitt “Occupation”. Thursdays are good for night-owls: – Question time (gone down hill since pre-recorded) followed by This Week.
Midday – Working Lunch.
Both Beeb2 and C4 do good films in the afternoon.
The kids are addicted to Robin Hood, and I enjoy coming to with Mr Marr on a Sunday. Countryfile.
And having a flick through the listings realise that I’ve missed Days of Glory, broadcast Wed on Beeb4, had been looking forward to it, growl!
(If any of your dear readers know how to e-mail an i-player programme…mille et un bisous les attend)
j
June 20, 2009 at 1:24 am |
BBC 4 is worth the license fee alone…but BBC 3 makes me want to ask for a refund on principle!
Channel 4 News is by far the best viewing of the evening…Jon Snow is easily worth his weight in TV licenses.
June 20, 2009 at 6:37 am |
Television has a remarkable way of wearing down any discerning neurons you may have. As you’ve discovered, a couple of months without TV and they grow back. But switch the TV on and little by little it destroys your judgement and you’ll end up watching all sorts of crap. Keep it switched off – except for Bargain Hunt obviously, and celebrity Masterchef, and Gardeners World, and the odd documentary, and the news of course, and Newsnight if the news is exciting, and the weather forecast….AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHHH
June 20, 2009 at 8:44 am |
Have cable. Watch ‘House’ including repeats. And Formula 1 (this year anyway).
June 20, 2009 at 10:37 am |
Don’t recall the last time I turned a television on…
Aaron
June 20, 2009 at 11:11 am |
The Life and Times of Tim on Virgin 1 and House on Sky.
Any chance of you being in London on 18 July for the Blog BQ? And do you tweet?
June 20, 2009 at 12:53 pm |
I second the merits of “Occupation” – draining, but gripping and shaming at the same time.
Oh, and I forgot, the BBC poetry season (catch up as much as possible on their website – plus, they might repeat some, like perhaps Owen Sheers’s series and “My Life in Verse”, so keep an eye out).
June 21, 2009 at 6:13 pm |
thanks for all the suggestions. Unfortunately we’ve just come back from a weekend away to find it’s buggered again so I may have posted too soon
June 22, 2009 at 2:46 am |
I find the Culture Show (BBC2) lets me see what I could be enjoying if I lived within spitting distance of London.