Impartial Media?

 Saturday. 6.05 a.m. It's a completely different sort of day, on the weather front, compared with yesterday morning. It is mild and snow free. It hardly seems possible things could change so drastically, but that is what the weather in this country is like changing virtually hourly.

6.35 p.m. After the row caused by Gary Lineker, the BBC football pundit who made some comment about the Government's immigration proposals, which contravened BBC impartiality rules, many of the usual football programmes on BBC1 have either been cancelled or cut short. As someone who isn't a football fan, I find the fact that virtually all of BBC1 on a Saturday is taken over by football totally unacceptable. It has to be the most boring sport ever invented and when they have any sort of programme on the subject, they have talking heads who waffle on and on endlessly about the game. So, as far as I am concerned, they can keep him off our screens for as long as possible.

Sport seems to get more than its a fair share of screen time on television, on all channels. Whenever there's a big football game, it can often displace other programmes and it's not just the actual game which takes over, but we have to endure hour after hour of droning 'so-called' pundits rambling on and on and on. So, while we have all this sports stuff, why is there nothing about the arts? We used to have a raft of art magazines on television, Omnibus and Arena on BBC channels and on ITV, 'The South Bank Show.' You could hardly move for adaptations of stage plays on television on BBC1 during the 1960s and 1970s. On a Sunday evening on BBC1, 'Play of The Month' showed adaptations of world theatre, such as Ibsen, Shaw, Shakespeare and many more. No doubt they didn't get very high audience ratings, but at least the BBC wasn't churning out endless soaps, game shows and reality television shows. Or shows with 'so-called celebrities in them. 

The arts seem to be sidelined in many areas of life. The government treats the arts as something that shouldn't be taken seriously, particularly in education. It should cover a wide range of pursuits, not just fine arts, but also music and drama. But it most definitely should be taken seriously, because drama and music particularly lead to jobs which are important to the economy of the country. You only have to consider theatre, with big West End productions drawing sizeable audiences. Then there are the subsidiary employment activities which are important to the theatre, such as costume design and making, set design and building, lighting, and management, both backstage and front of house. This then leads on to cinema, with similar subsidiary employment in front of and behind the camera. Photography, set design, editing and so on. This, too, with television. Never more so, with the growth of streaming services such as Netflix, Disney + and Britbox. And, of course, traditional television services such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5, all producing not just drama but other genres of programming.

As regards the arts on television, why are art programmes hidden in the schedules? If BBC1 or BBC2 has an arts magazine, it's almost always aired in a late-night slot. Very rarely would it be shown earlier in the evening, say, 7p.m. Even when ITV had 'The South Bank Show', it would be shown around 10.30 p.m. on a Sunday.

The Cold(er) Blasts of Wintery Weather

Thursday12.00 p.m. It's a good deal colder this morning. I thought there was ice on my car before I drove off to the Oaktree Centre at around 8.50 a.m. to help set up the playgroup, but it wasn't ice, just moisture, so that was a relief.

Friday. 9.15 a.m. The washing is in the dryer. It will take around 45 minutes before it is dry enough to remove and for me to hang my shirts in the wardrobe and the rest in the drawer unit. Then, with my shopping list in my hand, I will be off to Sainsbury's.

Yet another relatively mild morning. Totally unseasonal.

Saturday. 6.55 a.m. It's dark. Well, that's a surprise? No, well, it is usually at this time of the morning in early December. 

Sunday. 8.10 a.m. My posts on here are getting thinner and thinner. 

The weather is getting considerably colder as the days go by. What do you expect in December?

The World Cup is dominating everything at the moment. I am no fan of football, so it's something to avoid. It's not necessarily the football that I find annoying, but all the waffle they dole out, the constant chatter which is more like padding between the games and the fact that all three main television channels have games on at the same time. You get highly-paid, so-called pundits, such as Gary Lineker, rambling on incessantly, and then they have what I think you call 'vox-pops', where they go out into the streets and ask members of the public for their views. Totally irrelevant and meaningless. Not journalism at all. Crazy. 

12.30 p.m. We had café church at SCF this morning. In fact, I have just got back. The idea is to attract non-church-goers into the Oaktree Centre and there's free cake, coffee, tea and other goodies and games for the children to play and a time to chat with anyone and everyone and make friendships. I have spoken to several people I haven't met or even spoken to before and a good sense of community.

3.35 p.m. I have resubscribed to Britbox, the streaming service which is owned by all the major British television providers, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5. There is a lot of classic drama on there, Doctor Who, Keeping Up Appearances, Fawlty Towers and more and quite a lot of original content. I was interested in watching the new series of 'Staged' the comedy starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen, which is set during the pandemic and imagines them staging a play via Zoom. The new series is exclusive to Britbox. At £5.99 a month it seems excellent value and the content is constantly changing, with stuff being taken off and new stuff being added.

6.25 p.m. I'm watching the BBC's 1970s serialization of 'I Claudius' on Britbox. This was one of the BBC's hits in its day. Derek Jacobi was Claudius, with a stammer. It is somewhat stagey by modern standards. No exteriors and definitely studio-bound, but that was the way television drama was made in the mid-1970s. It has stood the test of time remarkably well. They must have spent a lot on sets and costumes. Also made on tape rather than film. It's more like a filmed stage play. Derek Jacobi's makeup is a bit ropey. I don't know what age he was when he played the part of Claudius, but he's made to appear as an old man, who is telling the story. Other actors who appear are Sian Phillips as Claudius's mother, Brian Blessed, (here far more restrained than his usual 'shouty' acting in later programmes and films.) and John Hurt as Caligula. 

Another Visit to Whipsnade

The thought of just sitting indoors all day today because of the awful weather we are currently experiencing was not going to be repeated. Daytime television is so awful. We wanted to get out, at whatever cost. Anywhere was preferable to being in the house. It seems unfair to Carol in particular, that you look forward to your summer holiday and plan things to do and then the weather turns nasty, wet and cold. Infact, too cold for the month of July. So, regardless of the weather (and when we set out mid-morning, it was cloudy and definitely threatening rain.) we decided on another visit to Whipsnade. We put together some items of food so that we didn't have to buy stuff to eat when we got there and went to Tesco's in Oldbrook to buy sandwiches and drink. We actually had a £3 Tesco Clubcard voucher which needed using before it expired. And once we'd been to buy our picnic we drove off out of Milton Keynes on the A5 south towards Dunstable and across the Downs to Whipsnade Zoo. For the first time ever we drove into the zoo, using Carol's new Z.S.L. Fellowship to not only get our entry free but also avoid paying to take the car in (all told about £75.) It was great to be able to drive around and park in the various spaces around the site. We saw a lot of the animals in action due to the fact that the weather was cooler, in particular the lions (took some great pictures of them.) as well as hippos wallowing in their pool, rhinos as well as very close-up views of cheetahs. We ate our picnic sitting on benches near the elephant enclosure.

We couldn't believe how cold it was, considering it was July. We took coats with us and I really didn't think we'd need them. I have recently bought a hooded fleece off Amazon and imagined that I'd not be wearing it until the winter months, but I was really glad I'd taken it to Whipsnade as it was really warm and cozy as we walked around the zoo.

As we were walking through the 'Africa' section of the zoo, having been to see the cheetahs (and, goodness, how close we got to them. I don't think I've ever seen them that close, or, if it comes to that, so active. We also saw a red kite flying overhead. Quite exciting to see these amazing birds as well as the zoo animals.) Carol said she saw Brendan Cole, one of the professional dancers from the B.B.C. Saturday evening show "Strictly Come Dancing." With his wife and children, although I didn't notice as there were so many other families. Apart from that, I'm not a particular fan of this show. Just over-rated, personally, and I don't go for television 'reality' shows stuffed full of 'celebrities.' Several years ago we were on holiday in and around Northumberland and Hadrian's Wall. We drove up to Gretna Green, as we had joked when we were about to get married that we could go there to get married. We were disappointed in how naff and contrived the place was, expecting there to be only one of these places where you got married, something about a blacksmith's forge or something. It turned out that there are numerous places, all making money out of the 'marriage' industry. Anyway, we didn't stay long and then drove away and went to an outlet shopping centre just outside Gretna Green, a bit like the Bicester Village outlet we visit often. As we were walking around the shopping centre, Carol said she saw someone famous sitting and having coffee outside somewhere like a Costa or Starbucks. She said it was Elton John. I wasn't sure and we didn't stand and stare, as most people would do. We could, I suppose, have gone up to him and asked for an autograph and probably a photo, a 'selfie' with him. I wasn't sure whether she had seen him or not, but when we got back to the cottage we were staying at for the week, we turned on the television and apparently Elton John was about to do a concert somewhere in or around Carlisle or a near-by town. So, it was very likely it was him we'd seen, although he had made every effort to not be recognised. Who would imagine he'd have gone to somewhere like the shopping outlet centre for coffee, as a superstar and famous person?  I think he must have been relieved that we didn't break his cover by going and speaking to him or acknowledging him because I reckon we must have been the only people to recognise him as he was dressed in such a way, with a cap on and a scarf around his neck, that without looking closely you wouldn't have known that was who it was and also it was an unlikely place for him to be. Anyway, whatever the reason, it certainly made Carol's day!

A few years ago we managed to get free tickets for a recording of the B.B.C. Television comedy show "Dead Ringers." It was quite an event, not only getting the tickets, but going to Television Centre in Shepherd's Bush in London and being a member of the audience. As we were queued up to go into the studio, who should walk past but Gary Lineker, the former footballer and sports presenter. Carol got quite excited, but to me it was just another bod off the television. I'm not that keen on football, but I suppose he would have been working there on some show such as "A Question Of Sport."