Mine’s wind or water, as fire and earth are too destructive and heart is too lame. Think of the practical applications!
This conversation was preferable to me than ‘would you rather’ as a way of passing the time on a delayed coach journey the other day.
Captain Planet, he drives a Prius, he’s going to reduce emissions down marginally through considered consumerism….
The latest Apprentice was its usual action-packed self. I found it particularly enjoyable as the barrow-boy buy/sell exercise seems more in the spirit of British enterprise than some of the slightly more artificial exercises of introducing un-researched, poorly differentiated products into a crowded market. Truly, it was the Only Fools and Horses edition episode.
I was hoping for Melody’s departure. Of the remaining brands of ignorance and idiocy, hers is the most aggravating. Loud-mouthed, tedious, and almost exclusively from a place of polished, artificial superiority, her overall tone and bearing invited contempt. I’m surprised it took this long; but I guess her unfailing sales patter did protect her from the wrath of Sugar.
To me, arrogance and insecurity are flip sides of the same coin. The less confident you are, the more you crow, and the harder you push for the centre stage. And this, I think, was at the core of Melody’s failure.
Having seen the personalities in action for a few weeks, my estimation of Helen went down too – the only way to work with people like Melody is to play to their ego. She could have asked for the stock replenishment role without usurping Melody’s authority and she might have therefore had a chance of adding another task to her winning streak.
Alan (or Al, as I like to think of him) commented on the fact that it is a "cruel process." As someone fresh to the Apprentice this is becoming increasingly evident. Unlike other reality TV programmes where there seems to be something of a bond between the participants, the adversarial nature of the Apprentice seems to have resulted in higher barriers. And, indeed, when on a weekly basis they are forced from camaraderie and teamwork into blame-calling and execution, it’s unsurprising. It’s not an exercise I’d have any desire to get involved with at all.
The remaining weeks will be interesting. Natasha and Susan are probably next for the chop, owing to the former’s unpleasant ignorance and the latter’s naivety (although I really felt for Susan this week when dealing with the frankly pathetic Natasha), leaving Tom to flounder against the polished Helen and the manipulative Jim.
![[camelot001] BBC NEWS RELEASE - NEW CAMELOT TV SHOW BOOSTS CAMELOT CASTLE POPULARITY......](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5267/5814993183_5773b560d9.jpg)
We’re quite enjoying Camelot, otherwise known as home to the campest Arthur ever, as well as the butchest Merlin. Whilst the pacing has felt somewhat off over the first two episodes, the production values are very high, the filming is slick and creative, and it feels like a different, engaging take on the tale. OK, so it’s not as funny as Merlin and it doesn’t star my friend Jimbo*, but the various conflicts they’ve begun to lay out look to be great fun.
Starz, the American network that’s co-producing the show, is also co-responsible for the new series of Torchwood. Which is rather exciting, and bodes well for the quality of production there. Arvind tells me that the co-writer on the new Torchwood is the same guy that stewarded Joss and Buffy to greatness, so that bodes well for the quality of writing…
One point to note in passing though; between this and Game of Thrones, there seems to be a new genre of televised fantasy developing that relies rather heavily on random nudity. I wonder if that’s American cable TV ratings-pandering, or ‘gritty dramatic realism.’ Either way, it’s a little overdone in Camelot (why did she have to be naked to talk to that wolf?).
Ah – just noted – Camelot’s been canned, too. Damnit.
* Our little joke. Jimbo looks a little like Colin Morgan, star of Merlin.
Now, as it happens, the E4/C4 programmes we watch are generally DVR-ed, so we have had little need to lean on it to date. However, until Damian told me about it, we entirely missed the newest retelling of the Arthurian legend, Camelot, currently airing on Channel 4. So we had to catch up on the first few episodes.
Generally speaking, the overall experience is significantly less slick than iPlayer for a number of reasons.
On point 4) the mediocrity of the platform will likely keep sensible advertisers away. After all, if you know that your ad is going to end up annoying people through the frequency of play, why would you want that? Admittedly it does help with unprompted ad recall, but my affection for those brands is significantly diminished….
So, this is yet another reason I’m grateful for the BBC…
I genuinely wasn’t sure which way this one would lean, but once team BixMix got left in the boardroom both Amanda and I thought Zoe might be in the line of fire (although I thought Tom might be for it too).
I’m finding it increasingly uncomfortable watching a few of the candidates in action; Melody for her general overbearing ignorance, Susan for her idiocy, and Jim for his total BS-talent. But I guess that’s what makes the show compelling…
No sign of Bix Mix or Special Stars on eBay this time… I guess those had a shorter shelf life than the magazines…
I was surprised and caught up in the success of the the Apprentices this week. I honestly thought (being a man with no sense of style) that they’d struggle to sell ANY lamps, and in honesty – those universal grips – always offend me as pieces of pointless, expensive wire and plastic. But they did a pretty good job, all in, and both teams managed to make some reasonable sales – although I do note that La Redoute doesn’t currently stock a transforming car seat – in the UK, anyway – so I’m doubtful as to the honesty of the process.
The losing team suffered on all sorts of counts, but I have two key lessons for Melody, in particular:
"Mr. Woolley, are you worried about the rise in crime among teenagers?"
"Yes"
"Do you think there is lack of discipline and vigorous training in our Comprehensive Schools?"
"Yes"
"Do you think young people welcome some structure and leadership in their lives?"
"Yes"
"Do they respond to a challenge?"
"Yes"
"Might you be in favour of reintroducing National Service?"
"Yes"Now onto Survey 2
"Mr. Woolley are you worried about the danger of war?"
"Yes"
"Are you unhappy about the growth of armaments?"
"Yes"
"Do you think there’s a danger in giving young people guns and teaching them how to kill?"
"Yes"
"Do you think its wrong to force people to take up arms against their will?"
"Yes"
"Would you oppose the reintroduction of National Service?""Yes"
Stuart Baggs on the BBC Blog has a fantastic perspective on Melody’s delivery of the primary market research too:
Her linguistic skills are applaudable, although I’m 97% certain her "selective translation" skills may cause a global war at the UN one day. She should seek treatment for what I call Internal Chinese Whispers, whereby a statement in French such as "Yes I think its a good idea" becomes "She said it’s OK".
A final note: Susan, seriously. "Do French people love their families…?" – that is a whole new level of idiocy that even I didn’t expect to see demonstrated. Just goes to show – given her sales impact – you really don’t need to be clever to get ahead in business.
We cringed our way through another hour of entertaining, ridiculous television last night, having missed the scrap episode. Spoilers herein; alongside some of the prime examples of the Apprentice’s idiocy this week (always easier to give and assess from the outside, I know, but that’s my privilege as a member of the license-fee paying public):
A bonus lesson: ‘agreeance’ is not a word. Jim is an idiot, and should have been out. Don’t get me wrong – they’re all idiots – but Jim’s silver-tongued, mind-numbingly inept handling of the chief role won him the big wooden finger point this week.
Amanda asked why they hugged after the firing – but after this week’s boardroom backstabbery and the fact two of them have to go back and work on the next task together, it seemed like a necessary step. Alan Sugar’s boardroom is not an easy place to be, that last time.
Sidebar: in an act of genuine entrepreneurship, some clever people are auctioning off the magazines they produced in the show. Copies of both ‘Covered’ and ‘HIP replacement’ are currently running at £56 and counting on eBay…
I’m not much of a documentary person. I generally get enough of reality… well, in reality, and enough non-fiction on my various and well-dispersed readings on the Internet. My leisure time entertainment tends to be somewhat more… fantastical, as regular readers will have noted.
Yesterday, I read a write-up on the BBC blog of the documentary “Choosing to die” – about Terry Pratchett’s investigations of assisted suicide.
Now, Sir Terry Pratchett is not just one of the best-loved fantasy authors in the world, he’s also the man, alongside Douglas Adams, Arthur C Clarke, PG Wodehouse and Isaac Asimov, to provide me with the reading material that weaned me off a steady diet of comics and books-on-tape into the realm of the written word. His humour and love of absurd metaphor has been influencing me since I was 11 years old. One of the first ‘adult’ works of fiction I read was a dog-eared, mis-printed copy of ‘Pyramids’ my brother gave me, and Sir Terry’s latest book, Snuff, is on my Amazon wishlist so I can buy it the second its published.
And so my curiosity was engaged and we iPlayered it last night.
It’s an amazingly sensitive and well crafted piece of filmmaking. Apparently honest and without emotional manipulation (the content is gut wrenching enough without the need for that, I imagine), amazing access, incredible people being unbelievably open about what must have been a remarkably difficult process.
The programme follows Terry Pratchett’s investigations of the practicalities of assisted suicide – illegal in the UK and only manageable for British citizens in Switzerland (despite the fact it is legal elsewhere in Europe, non-locals have to go to Switzerland). He looks in particular at the not-for-profit organisation Dignitas and interacts with two British families going through the process – an MS sufferer and a man suffering from Motor Neurone Diseases. Both in tremendous pain at the end of their tether.
The ordinariness of the proceedings at Dignitas is jaw-dropping. Cups of tea (the secretary general of Dignitas describes himself as a [sic] tea-o-logian), a peaceful garden (in an industrial estate as that’s where the gov’t requires them to be), chats with the empathetic Dignitas workers, the acceptance of the families of the two people going through the process. It was evident that – for those families at least – they’d experienced enough of life that there was some certainty about going through the process.
Terry remains set about his desire to choose a dignified death for himself when his Alzheimer’s – diagnosed three or so years ago – has progressed to the point where he can no longer pursue his passion, his writing. He picks out two critical limitations for himself – for Alzheimer’s patients, once the disease has progressed too far – it may not be possible to make the choice of assisted suicide for yourself. And if you do make that choice earlier – it takes tremendous determination to carry it through. The Dignitas Secretary General observed that the vast majority of people that make contact with Dignitas do it once to get on the books and then don’t get in contact again – the knowledge that the option is there is enough to give many the strength to go on.
I don’t have a well-formulated view on the issue. I can see the rationale for people in vast amounts of pain and suffering, for whom their quality of life has deteriorated to such a point where they just can’t bear to go on. I struggle a little more with the people, as Dignitas puts it, who are just “weary of living,” who they would also support through the process as part of their fundamental view that all people have a right to ‘self-determination.’ But I can understand where Terry is coming from – when he has to go, if one outcome is with his brain addled and his life completely dependent on others, he’d rather choose the time – and preferably the place. He’d like to see it legal in the UK so the end isn’t contingent on a blue house on an industrial estate in Zurich.
The show’s still on iPlayer for those curious. It is heart wrenching and well made, thought provoking and saddening, and worth a watch, despite the debate it’s kicking up and the complaints being submitted.
Postscript. I’ve just noticed the extent of the furore over this programme. It’s not my intent to get drawn into the debate of whether assisted dying is a good thing or not. For what it’s worth, I wasn’t ‘converted’ by the programme and didn’t really consider its agenda – if anything, to me it underlined the importance of the choice of the individual – and I didn’t feel that the programme trivialised, oversimplified or proselytised a specific choice despite Terry’s own agenda. To me it was clear this is a – difficult – personal journey for him.
One of the particularly inspiring moments was Terry’s visit to a hospice where he met someone who had chosen to live with his disease. But that was the impact it had on me – I’m aware there are other perspectives on it. I just found it to be an interesting, thought-provoking and well-made piece of television, and yet another reason I’m glad the BBC exists…
I’ve never been massively interested in the Royal Family as a matter of course, but have become a bit more curious about them given recent happenings (Royal Wedding, King’s Speech etc).
The Duke at 90 was a brave bit of programming by the BBC. Sending Fiona Bruce – not quite your typical royal correspondent – to interview the Duke on the occasion of his 90th birthday – was risky. And I’m not sure it quite paid off; Fiona’s interview with the Duke of Edinburgh, whilst it does convey some key qualities about the man, doesn’t successfully uncover a great deal about the Prince’s life that isn’t told through the historical documentary drawn from the BBC archives and some researcher’s hard work (which is a lovely bit of television, interview notwithstanding). In the interview itself, he comes across as cantankerous, impatient, and anything but loquacious. Poor Fiona! That said, he’s hardly as grumpy as you’d expect a non-retired 90-year-old man to be!
Some of the key qualities of the man did come across in abundance – his no-nonsense, uncomplaining (except about having to do interviews), get-things-done attitude; the manner and mechanisms by which he carved himself out a (non-constitutional) role in the monarchy, his love and loyalty to his wife… His much reported "racism" seems to have been little more than a mis-interpreted, dry, dated sense of humour. So perhaps it was in what Fiona Bruce didn’t make him say, as much as what she did, that made it an interesting and watchable bit of television (sidebar: watched a Fawlty Towers the other day in which an extra calls Manuel a "dago twit" – this sort of casual racism or national stereotyping was a much greater characteristic of Britain in past decades than it is today…).
I met the Duke once, briefly, on a trip he made to my school. I didn’t have any time with him (a handshake) but did get an impression of him as a man of incredible presence.
I’ll need to brush up on my Royal Family general knowledge, though, if I’m to become a British citizen at any point. I wouldn’t recognise the Earl of Wessex if he was selling me a takeaway.
We’re continuing to enjoy HBO’s Game of Thrones series. The opening sequence is an exceptional piece of work – a highly stylized animation that not only serves to deliver the necessary opening titles but also gives a sense of the scale and setting of the story. Absolutely amazing: