Category: Television

Posted on

Moon coverage

It’s great to see the proposed coverage on space events on TV. I can’t speak for all countries, but I know that Discovery in the USA is giving a lot of broadcast hours over to it.

Here in the UK, both BBC 4 and Channel 4 have very many programmes. As well as the films like For All Mankind, there are the old documentaries and some new ones. It seems there is still plenty to be said about the space race and the events of 1968, 69 and onwards.

As a television event at the time it was somewhat lacking. Black and white fuzzy pictures. But who cared. The excitement of the event was more than enough.

I remember Patrick Moore, James Burke and others covering the events so well.

I once had a holiday in Orlando. We spent three days in Disney, one in Cypress Gardens and one at Cape Kennedy.

Disney had a daily parade, and one car on that particular day contained Walter Cronkite and family.

In many ways, Mr Cronkite was the American face of space reporting. he knew the astronauts personally.

Posted on

It’s a great dane

In the 1960s and 70s I became a little interested in politics. I thought Edward Heath and George Brown were the old fuddy duddy type of politician, but liked Harold Wilson (he gave the Beatles MBEs after all). I also liked Jeremy Thorpe, of the Liberals. He seemed young and trendy. Looking at newsreel clips of him now, I have no idea why I thought that.

There’s a complicated story surrounding Thorpe. Here is a brief summary:

It appears that Thorpe had a homosexual affair with a man named Norman Scott in the early 1960s at a time when homosexuality was illegal. Scott continued to pester Thorpe for money over a period of time. He wouldn’t go away, and then one day someone tried to ill him. Scott’s dog was shot and killed, but the gun failed and Scott was not killed.

He was tried for conspiracy, and acquitted, but it ended Thorpe’s career.

A new tv series (only 3 episodes) with, for once, a rather excellent Hugh Grant has stirred interest in the whole thing again. I suppose it was rather brushed under the carpet at the time.

This is from the BBC only a few days ago: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44336859 

 

Posted on

Monaco

I rarely watch any sport, and have no interest in it, but found myself watching the F1 race in Monaco yesterday. This is always hyped up as being the best race of the year, as they drive through the streets rather than on a track.

Now, I’m not a driver of anything. I don’t much understand cars. I have no interest in tyre strategy. And it seems to be that a course where it is almost impossible to overtake does not make a good race.

For various reasons I did not understand, restrictions and rules about what was allowed I think, this was as uncompetitive a race as you could see. It was basically a procession around a course. I think they finished in the same order they qualified (sorry if I am wrong, but it was something like that). I fell asleep for a good while, woke up and nothing had happened.

I was not the only person who thought that. Even Lewis Hamilton thought it was pretty boring: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/44274950

There’s another kind of car racing where they use cars with electric engines. The batteries don’t last half the race, so I think they swap cars half way through.

I knew someone who went to the British grand prix every year. Years ago she was paying upwards of £100 ticket. Current prices seem to go into the thousands. Sitting in a stand, she said, you could watch the cars zoom by once every couple of minutes, but it was hard to tell who was who. They have big tv screens, she said, so we watch it on that.

Boring stuff.