Category: Television

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Fort Boyard

We first got cable tv in the late 1990s. It was called Cable London then, but now it’s Virgin.

We had three foreign channels: a German one, an Italian one and the French TV5.

One of our favourite shows had started in 1990 and was Fort Boyard, the French version. TV5 showed episodes a year out of date but it made no difference to us.

There have been many foreign versions of FB, including in the UK, and we also did a studio version called The Crystal Maze.

If you don’t know, teams come to the fort to play games and win money for a charity.

The show has changed over the years, got longer or shorter, had follow up shows and the like, but is still on.

Brexit meant we lost our foreign channels and watching FB became impossible. Fortunately, some kind people have posted them on YouTube until they were told not to.

FB is on again, in its 37th year, and it is great to see both new and old episodes appearing here: https://www.youtube.com/@FortBoyard_Replay

There’s a new presenter, many of the old characters and games are still there, the running times have been shortened and the show seems lass flabby than it had been. And it’s still enjoyable.

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Happy 70th birthday

It’s Eurovisoon Song Contest time again, the 70th anniversary of the first. Here in the UK, the BBC put yesterday’s first semi-final on BBC1 (it is popular, but presumably it’s also an easy option).

As ever, there were some duff songs and some good ones. Israel was included and progressed to the final. Some countries have withdrawn because they are included, and we could hear some chants in the audience. So sad that people have to spoil an otherwise jolly event.

The BBC commentators, you know, those who talk through the songs, said that we can only vote on-line. I’m not sure if that is true for other countries, but the impression I got was that they could use phones. You would ring a specific number for a song and register a vote. It cost 15p or something, though I don’t know why. Anyway, it would be added to your phone bill. Easy peasy.

Now you go on-line. You need a credit card. I have not tried this, nor will I. Presumably you give them all your personal details, card details including security code then goodness what happens after that. It’s not even clear who “them” are, or if it’s in any way secure. Maybe you have to agree to marketing and advertising and crap.

It sounds like the kind of things scammers do, especially on porn sites. Give us your details, thanks, we’re selling it to goodness-knows-who. No thanks.

Another nice thing spoilt.