Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Blogger seems to have taken a real downturn recently. Longer times to post entries and now I find I have to copy all my entries before I post them, in case Blogger feels like eating them instead.
Had the NTL engineer come to look at my box (filthy!) this afternoon. After fiddling about he decided the reason behind my intermittant loss of signal was due to the signal being too weak to my box. I was a bit dubious about this as I never had any problem receiving BBCs 1, 2, 3, 4 and News. Anyway, he went away and, sure enough, come the evening, my box was dropping the signal again. So now I don't have any choice but to wait a week, again, for someone to come and take another look next wednesday morning. Like with my computer. This is certainly a downside to living alone. Maybe I should advertise, 'weirdo seeks M or F, no sex but will be expected to open the door when engineers come to fix Loz's stuff'.
Little Britain last night was disappointing. They've got rid of the quick jokes between each of the main sketches, which was a shame, their absence did make the show look noticeably lighter on jokes. There's also the Fast Show factor, keeping in characters that have run their course because they are the catchphrases that people associate the show with. Vicky Pollard was back, with her "yeah but no"'s, and Lou and Andy "yeah I know". But their sketches were, I think, the worst of the episode, Matt Lucas and David Walliams don't seem to have any idea for new situations for them so are retracing their steps. Vicky, shoplifting again! The Fast Show did much the same and, after the first episode of each season, you knew who the new characters were and what they were going to say. Of course, it was easy money, but it's a shame that Lucas and Walliams appear to be going down that route rather than coming up with new stuff. My tastes in comedy aren't towards waiting for the catchphrase, to me that's like Dido in comedy form. Marjory Dawes, the tyrannical leader of 'Fatfighters' is another old joke that you can't reinvigorate just by getting Vanessa Feltz to guest on the show, especially as the style of character was already done as Pauline the Restart Officer in League of Gentlemen. I was disappointed by the copying of sketches from the charity concert but maybe that's been because I'm watching the first series DVD and saw them only yesterday.
I can't actually remember that much of the rest of the show, all I can bring to mind are the old ladies running the fete, one of whom is copiously sick whenever someone mentions things like the poor, immigrants, gays, etc. And Sebastian and the PM, another character that came to a natural end at the end of the first season (although it was joyous to see the strangely tiny Nigel Havers playing the Leader of the Opposition). I'm crossing my fingers that the rest of the series improves on last night, else it'll become another Smack the Pony, a great first series that falls apart subsequently.
Had the NTL engineer come to look at my box (filthy!) this afternoon. After fiddling about he decided the reason behind my intermittant loss of signal was due to the signal being too weak to my box. I was a bit dubious about this as I never had any problem receiving BBCs 1, 2, 3, 4 and News. Anyway, he went away and, sure enough, come the evening, my box was dropping the signal again. So now I don't have any choice but to wait a week, again, for someone to come and take another look next wednesday morning. Like with my computer. This is certainly a downside to living alone. Maybe I should advertise, 'weirdo seeks M or F, no sex but will be expected to open the door when engineers come to fix Loz's stuff'.
Little Britain last night was disappointing. They've got rid of the quick jokes between each of the main sketches, which was a shame, their absence did make the show look noticeably lighter on jokes. There's also the Fast Show factor, keeping in characters that have run their course because they are the catchphrases that people associate the show with. Vicky Pollard was back, with her "yeah but no"'s, and Lou and Andy "yeah I know". But their sketches were, I think, the worst of the episode, Matt Lucas and David Walliams don't seem to have any idea for new situations for them so are retracing their steps. Vicky, shoplifting again! The Fast Show did much the same and, after the first episode of each season, you knew who the new characters were and what they were going to say. Of course, it was easy money, but it's a shame that Lucas and Walliams appear to be going down that route rather than coming up with new stuff. My tastes in comedy aren't towards waiting for the catchphrase, to me that's like Dido in comedy form. Marjory Dawes, the tyrannical leader of 'Fatfighters' is another old joke that you can't reinvigorate just by getting Vanessa Feltz to guest on the show, especially as the style of character was already done as Pauline the Restart Officer in League of Gentlemen. I was disappointed by the copying of sketches from the charity concert but maybe that's been because I'm watching the first series DVD and saw them only yesterday.
I can't actually remember that much of the rest of the show, all I can bring to mind are the old ladies running the fete, one of whom is copiously sick whenever someone mentions things like the poor, immigrants, gays, etc. And Sebastian and the PM, another character that came to a natural end at the end of the first season (although it was joyous to see the strangely tiny Nigel Havers playing the Leader of the Opposition). I'm crossing my fingers that the rest of the series improves on last night, else it'll become another Smack the Pony, a great first series that falls apart subsequently.
