Entertainment

Apparently, despite the entertainment industry having been hit very hard by the pandemic globally, TV streaming services are doing a roaring trade. 

I have no idea how other countries (ie outside UK), except New Zealand, pay for their television channels but I assume that most are financed either by personal subscription, though advertisements or political donations or a combination of those.

In the UK it used to be the public service broadcaster (BBC) financed by a license fee without which it is illegal to watch a television so, in effect, everyone with a TV has to have a license. Then along came Independent Television (ITV and it's offshoots) financed by advertising. That was how it carried on for a number of decades. 

In 1989 SKY came along and charged for satellite television with 4 channels. Now it includes most mainstream channels together with SKY channels. 

As the number of 'free to view' channels proliferated Freeview was established in 2002 to control the potential chaos on the airwaves.

However it is now so complicated that I doubt many people have a clue about the vast range of services available unless they happen to want to watch something in particular when they find it's no longer available on a free-to-view channel.

The first thing that I noticed was when the Formula 1 Grand Prix ceased to be available live on the BBC and went to SKY who outbid the BBC for the rights knowing that many people would join SKY so that they could see it. There was such an outcry that a BBC channel was granted a few years of an edited version later in the day and a live UK GP. I can live without the GP.

I don't know who has all the major football matches but I assume that it's SKY and BT between them because they have a great deal of the UK's sport now.

The only thing that will really annoy me is if Wimbledon deserts the BBC.

Several years ago I wanted to watch something that was on Netflix so I got the trial package for a month or whatever it was and, because I wanted to continue with the series I just carried on with the subscription. I suspect many people do that.

Now there are many subscription channels including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Britbox (A joint BBC/ITV venture with old box sets), Disney Plus and Now TV. I have no idea, apart from Britbox, what they offer but apparently they all have at least something 'everyone wants'. 

I am fortunate that I don't want anything more that the standard BBC and ITV and existing free-to-view channels although I haven't cancelled my Netflix subscription (which is silly because I've only watched The Crown).

Obviously there are people who spend a fortune to get their football or whatever else on TV or all these subscription channels wouldn't exist. Personally I shall just bumble along paying my license fee and enjoying what's on offer or switching off and listening to music. Which reminds me that YouTube also has a subscription service which, so far, I've avoided.

Tuesday

The title has no relevance whatsoever apart from the fact that I'm writing this post today and today is, you guessed it, Tuesday.

I am now guestless. Anna left for Glasgow on the 1400 ferry and as I write this should be just about home in the burbs of Glasgae.

This evening I was watching The News whilst having dinner and then The One Show which I sometimes watch whilst clearing up was about the death of Barbara Windsor in EastEnders. Now, whilst I have watched various episodes of Coronation Street in the days of Ena Sharples and in New Zealand because Wendy was a true Corrie fan, I have never watched an episode of EastEnders. I did tonight.

Then, for some reason I cannot explain, I decided to watch The Railway Children.

Now some of you will not have read my blogs of times past when I described the effect the cancer medication had on me in the early days. In short I could be walking through the supermarket and suddenly burst into floods of tears for no apparent reason. Well this evening's choice of viewing had the same effect. 

I am now trying to recover my composure and to that end I'm watching QI and writing a blog post just to prove that I, despite being a male of the species, can multi-task. 

It's All In The News

One of the things that struck me when I first went to New Zealand in 2005 was that there was to some extent no such thing as local television news in the way that news is local in the UK.  There are no regional TV News programmes.  On the other hand there is another way of looking at it: that all news in New Zealand is local - regardless of where it happens.  So having been back in Scotland for half a year this email from TVNZ struck me as peculiar.

Am I the only one to feel this?

In case, by the way, you are wondering to what I am referring it is the item about a woman refusing to pay her rates.

Ignorance is, well, Ignorance.

Am I the only person in the world who didn't know until tonight what happened at the end of the third series of Downton Abbey aired in the 2012 Christmas Day Special when I was in New Zealand?  Because I hadn't seen the full second series I decided that I wouldn't seek any information so that I could watch everything at my leisure back here in the UK.  Until tonight that is when after the 6 O'clock News, Dan Stevens, was on The One Show.  He played Mathew Crawley in Downton although his real name meant absolutely nothing to me.  The Show started off with the clip from the Christmas Show giving the whole game away.  Despite the fact that many (including Frances Garrood) have nothing but robust contempt for Downton it is one of the most widely watched television programmes in the world! 

Although it has nothing at all to do with this post I thought that you might like to see a young Sparrow which posed this evening on a branch I have set up near the bird table so that I can get better photos of the birds that inhabit it.  She hasn't yet learned how to be elegant!  Apart from that I'm not quite sure how she managed to land like that.

The Eternal Question: The Definitive Answer

OK.  Don’t worry.  Nothing too esoteric.

I was reading someone’s Facebook the other day when I came across a website entitled: Theme songs/lyrics/intros of UK TV programmes 1955–1990.  It’s the sort of information that you can Google any time but it’s all in one place.  

“Ah”  I thought as I noticed the Trumpton introductory song “That reminds me.  Someone asked the names of the firemen in Trumpton the other day?”  Now I knew the answer to that.  It was first broadcast in 1967 when I was rather too old for it.  I assume that the boys did because it seems to have been repeated ad nauseam ever since.  So it was not because I watched Trumpton.  It was because it has cropped up so many times in conversations over the years.

I duly pronounced.  Hugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb.  Or was it Pugh, Pugh?  Oh dear. My certainty evaporated.  So I’ve just looked it up.  It will now for ever be etched on my mind:  Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb.  Am I sure ?  Yes.  I quote from the official Trumptonshire Website:  “The sound track can be a little unclear, and the names have been misquoted many times in the press and in TV trivia books, but Gordon Murray who created them insists that the Pughs were twin brothers - and he should know. “

So there we have it.  The definitive answer.

The First Night of The Proms 2010

The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) is one of the largest choral works in the classical concert repertory. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", though Mahler did not acknowledge the name. The work was composed in a single inspired burst, at Maiernigg in southern Austria in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the symphony was a critical and popular success when he conducted its first performance in Munich on 12 September 1910.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the first performance it was this year’s opening work for the BBC promenade Concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall.  Eight soloists and six choirs and the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek undertook the mammoth task.

The Orchestra

The singers

The conductor

The audience

Moments In Sport

I am not a great watcher of sports apart from some motor racing. 

In 1975 I was a member of the Lancashire County Cricket Club and one lunchtime (my office was just opposite the ground)  I went to see an hour of a Test Match.  It was, so far as I can remember, between England and Pakistan.  I do recall that there was a wonderful over in which (and this was exceptionally rare in a Test Match in those days) I think I am correct in saying three sixes were struck.  I wish I had a Wisden at this moment.

I haven’t watched a snooker match on television for probably something like 17 years.  This afternoon I turned on the box to see what time the News is (unlike NZ where the One News is always at 6pm the news in the UK varies at the weekend and it’s a bit of a lottery).  The final of the World Championship is being played between Robertson and Dott – two players of whom I have never heard.  The seventh game was just starting and I became transfixed by the safety play.  I have no idea whether that is a usual start to a game these days or not but it was beautiful to watch.  In fact I watched the whole game and I have to admit that whilst it is unlikely that I’ll watch another game it was a game I’ll remember for quite a while.  And then I saw that Hazel Irvine was presenting and Steve Davis and John Parrot were commenting.  I was almost trapped.  But then reality set in.

The Radio Times

The Radio Times is an institution in the UK. It was started in 1923 to carry details of radio programmes. When BBC television started it carried details of those programmes too. Now it carries comprehensive details of radio and television programmes in the UK together with relevant magazine content.

For years it was my habit at breakfast to see what was on television that day and to mark any programmes I might want to watch or record. Of course I always marked programmes many of which I would never manage to watch nor record.

Since I've been living in two countries I've not generally bothered with the Radio Times (using the digital guides available on the TV) but last week I decided to treat myself. On one day I managed to find two programmes I wanted to watch. Not a great total really.

One of them was a Promenade Concert. I discovered that the BBC appear to be televising them all this season. Whoopee. I decided to watch. I had already watched one when I was at Gaz's in Glasgow but that was easy because I just paused the live TV if I was interrupted. Here I would have to record it or watch it live. I plumped for the latter taking Samantha into the living room and settling down for an evening with visual live music and emailing at the same time.

It was most enjoyable. I've not had the opportunity to do it again.

However I will post on the Promenade Concerts in general and that one in particular, later.