Archive for Television

Space and Time with Sam Neill

Posted in Biographical, R.I.P., Television, The Universe and Stuff with tags , , , , on July 13, 2026 by telescoper

I was very sad this morning to read the news that Sam Neill has passed away at the age of 78. He was a very fine and exceptionally versatile actor. Among many other roles I remember him well as the sadistic and corrupt Chief Inspector Chester Campbell in Peaky Blinders. I was impressed by his convincing Ulster accent but then found out he was actually born in Omagh, County Tyrone.

About 25 years ago (!) I made a very brief appearance in a BBC documentary series called Space for which Sam Neill (left) was the narrator. Apparently he only agreed to do the job on condition that they would film his segments at his home in New Zealand. I remember talking to the production team about Sam Neill and they all said he was not only very professional in his work but also a very nice man. These things don’t always go together…

After the episode I was in – the last of six – was broadcast, my Mam rang me. She didn’t mention my part at all, but asked “That Sam Neill, is he nice?”. I had to explain that I never met him, as they filmed his segments after all the other location sequences. “Oh well,” she said. “At least he knows your name”.

The following clip shows the item I took part in. Originally we were going to demonstrate wormholes using a snooker table, clever editing and reversed video. The producer, Jeremy Turner,  decided that wouldn’t look spectacular enough so instead we went to St Anton in Austria: I was flown over the Alps in a helicopter and then driven through the Arlberg tunnel in an impressively fast car. Well worth the cost to license fee payers, I’m sure, even if the three-day trip to Austria by me and a crew of six as well as the hire of the helicopter ended up as a mere three minutes of screen time.

The item is daft, I know, and I don’t really believe any of that stuff about wormholes. It was great fun doing it, but hard work. I remember after the shoot we had a few drinks to wrap it up then left on a very early flight the next morning to the UK. I got back to Nottingham University just in time for a 10am lecture.

Anyway, the episode I was in was called To Boldly Go. I remember suggesting to the producer that the only way to travel faster than light in the manner required was with a split infinitive drive, but they didn’t use that in the final script.

Notice how, in the helicopter sequence, I give the appearance of being completely terrified. A fine piece of acting by me, I thought. *Cough*

R.I.P. Sam Neill (1947-2026)

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R.I.P. Patricia Routledge (1929-2025)

Posted in R.I.P., Television with tags , , , on October 3, 2025 by telescoper

Very sad news arrived today of the death at the age of 96 of the wonderful Patricia Routledge. I guess she is best known for her portrayal of Hyacinth Bucket of Keeping Up Appearances, but to me she will always be Kitty in Victoria Wood: As Seen on TV back in the 1980s. She did many other things besides, but here by way of a tribute is an example of Kitty holding forth as was her wont (although usually not in inebriated fashion). Cheadle just won’t be the same without her.

R.I.P. Patricia Routledge (1929-2025)

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The Angelus

Posted in Television with tags , , on February 10, 2021 by telescoper

It’s been a tradition in Ireland since 1950 for the main TV station (RTÉ One) to broadcast The Angelus at 6pm just before the main news . Initially this involved the Angelus, a Catholic prayer along with religious imagery and the sound of the bells of St Mark’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin (originally live, but then later recorded). Nowadays the bells are still heard, but there is no explicitly religious content. Instead, there are short films of everyday life lasting about 70 seconds.

Here’s an example of one of the Angelus films. I think it’s rather lovely.

I know many Irish people think the Angelus should be ditched on the grounds that it is foisting religion on people. Although I am not religious I find it a wonderful haven of tranquility in the one minute and ten seconds of the Angelus broadcast each evening, especially in these days of Covid-19. It’s good to pause and contemplate the simple pleasures of life before heading into the news. The secretary of the Clonskeagh Mosque in Dublin and the Chief Rabbi of Ireland have supported keeping the Angelus. As an atheist I agree with them. Long may the Angelus continue. It’s one of the very few things I watch regularly!

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If Dick van Dyke tried a Geordie accent…

Posted in Television with tags , , on March 8, 2016 by telescoper

…it couldn’t be any less accurate than this effort from the US TV series The Castle:

 

Could this be the worst attempt at a regional accent ever recorded?

 

 

 

 

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Goodbye Virgin Media, and good riddance…

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , , on January 5, 2013 by telescoper

Virgin-Media-logo

With my move to Brighton imminent, I decided before Christmas to sort out a few things that I’ve been putting off for a while. One of them was to cancel the contract with Virgin Media at my house in Cardiff. Having made the decision to ditch them, I then received a letter from said company announcing that their “broadband” service would go up in price in February 2013 by almost 10%. That’s on top of a similar rise earlier in 2012. A price hike of 20% in a year is nothing short of a rip-off. I wouldn’t mind if the service was decent, but the broadband is particularly poor; I’m supposed to have a 20MB service but I rarely get even a tenth of that. I assume Virgin Media simply doesn’t have enough bandwith to deliver what it promises. And that’s not counting when the connection falls over completely, which is far from uncommon…

In 2012 Virgin Media announced that I was getting a “free” upgrade to 20MB – previously I had the cheapo 10MB service – which sounded great. Then, just over a month later, the cost of my broadband package went up by about 10%. That’s a clear misrepresentation, and I should have cancelled my account right away then. But for some reason I didn’t.

I also get a cable TV package from Virgin Media (which I very rarely watch). Cancelling that will probably mean I spend just a bit more time reading or listening to music, which is a good thing. The woeful state of TV generally, and the dire offerings available at Christmas in particular, make me confident that I can live quite happily without it. And I’ll save the license fee too. I also have a telephone land line which I hardly use either. So scrap it all, I thought.

Anyway, I picked up the phone and called Virgin Media on 8th December with the intention of cancelling my service. A very frustrating experience with automated responses followed. “You now have five options”, you know the sort of thing. After several sets of five options (none of which were to cancel my account), I got through to a vaguely humanoid life-form. Even that wasn’t the end of the story as instead of just following my request she asked dozens of irrelevant questions and tried to persuade me not to quit. In the end I got fed up and said “I’m not going to change my mind, please just cut the crap and cancel the account”. Finally I was told the account would close on 8th January and some packaging would be sent so I could return the box and modem to Virgin Media. Fair enough, I thought.

I was travelling before Christmas, but noticed when I got back that Virgin Media had made a number of attempt to phone me while I was away. Eventually they phoned when I was in. An operative told me he wanted to discuss “changes to my account” and asked for my password. I said there was nothing to discuss as I had cancelled it. He persisted. I put the phone down. When I got back from a Christmas break in Newcastle the same thing happened again, with the same response. Then again the same day. Then again. The third time it happened in the same morning, I’m afraid I lost my temper and told the Virgin Media representative to fuck off. That did the trick.

Yesterday I received a bill from Virgin Media including a charge for the period 8th January to 7th February 2013, being the month after my account was supposed to be cancelled. I picked up the phone and called Virgin Media, assuming that somehow the instruction to close the account had been lost. In fact it hadn’t. The person I spoke to said “yes, your account is to be closed on 8th January”. “Then why have you billed me for the following month?”, I asked. “That’s our standard practice.” was the reply.

Standard practice? Sounds to me like theft! Assuming it would be very difficult to get money back once Virgin Media had purloined it, I immediately cancelled my Direct Debit to stop them taking the funds from my bank account. If they send me a correct bill for what I actually owe, I’ll pay it of course. But I’m never having anything to do with Virgin Media ever again.

P.S. I won’t have internet at home for a while from 8th January, so probably won’t be doing much blogging at weekends. On the other hand, I will have a lot of other things to be getting on with as I gradually relocate to Brighton by the sea…

P.P.S. Just received an email from Virgin Media with the following header…

medialogo

…which is of course exactly what I did.

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