AE on Telly News (NEW CONCEPTS)

[Hatty]

The unnamed Newsnight presenter is refreshingly irreverent towards his guests. The other night the pundits musing about US election tactics and Kamala's big speech to the Democrats were evergreen Bonnie Greer and Gabriel 'Newsnight royalty' Gatehouse, or Princess Leia and Darth Vader as he dubbed them. Very apt I thought, Gabriel Gatehouse looked like an ageing biker.

[Mick Harper]

So did Bonnie Greer.

[Mick Harper]

I thought you had given up watching Newsnight. Though I sympathise. I keep meaning to but the day is not complete until you've watched it the next morning for ideas about what to post up on Medium.

[Hatty]

I watched the Newsnight programme on iPlayer because Gabriel Gatehouse had posted a clip from it on Twitter/X and found the format has changed to a three-sided discussion with one or two contributions from in-situ commentators, not too dissimilar to Al-J's Inside Story set-up but less analytical.

[Wile E. Coyote]

It's good that Newsnight is still setting the agenda for one household.

However, is it really any different to any other.... say Owen Jones v Tim Mongomery featuring on multiple other programmes, in multiple formats? You can get new talking heads to discuss the issues of the day, but they will quickly feature everywhere else if any good.

It's arguably in the national interest to have a public broadcaster fearlessly uncovering wrong doing. I can't see that listening to Owen and Tim pontificating is really benefiting the public. It is basically water cooler gossip, light entertainment.

[Mick Harper]

Costco vs Supermarkets: Who Does it Cheaper? (Channel 5)

I settled down for an hour to find out. There was one comparison, toilet paper, and it wasn't 'supermarkets', it was Aldi and Lidl. They used three old biddies feeling the texture to judge quality and a young lady with a calculator to work out the difference between twenty four rolls and forty rolls. They couldn't decide which to recommend.

So I'm not sure I did find out.

[Mick Harper]

I've just been listening to a feature on an Argentinian basketball player and later a WWE wrestler who had gigantism from birth. All very interesting except I didn't know how gigantic. Everybody kept saying he was two and a half metres tall and two hundred kilogrammes in weight but such is the ineffability of the BBC they refused to let the vast majority of their audience know what that meant in pounds, shillings and pence. Why do such people exist? And I don't mean people with gigantism.

[Mick Harper]

I turned on Newsnight and saw Mick Lynch's ugly mug staring back at me. "Oh no, not that gobshite," I thought to myself. But it wasn't! Victoria Derbyshire informed me it was Ian Dale 'LBC presenter and conservative commentator.' What a relief, I thought. My sunny mood departed when it was revealed Mick Lynch was sitting next to him. True story!

[Wile E. Coyote]

Nightsleeper BBC1

This was excellent, Abby is the only one trying not to make a drama out of crisis, whilst every other cast member is doing the exact opposite.

It's a runaway sleeper train or asteroid due to hit the world, take your pick, that she is up against. Thankfully, on the other end of the satellite phone, is old-fashioned action hero Joe.

[Mick Harper]

My sister, who's a good judge of these things, was visiting and insisted we watched the first episode rather than Arsenal. I had to agree it was better. She then demanded we watched the second episode! After I pointed out whose flat we were in, we did. Not quite so good and I fell asleep before the end. However she is due back next week on her way back to America or somesuch and good manners dictate I allow her to watch the next two, so I will report more then.

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Mick Harper]

I don't want to miss anything while I'm in the loo, or queuing up outside the only one that's working.

PS Probably one of these new ones when you're never quite sure whether you've locked it or not. But I find that generally helps.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Tipping Point Itv

This was my first viewing. They appear to have reinvented shove ha'peny by leaving out the skill element (the shoving) and the fun elememt, (the getting merry). It was a tad depressing, truth be told. Even when I got the question right, the machine spewed out its counter-coins in the wrong direction. Ben Shepherd analysed the random results, like it was a missed 7 move checkmate. Nala was pretty unhappy when I threw her Purrlicious biscuits at the TV.

Bad Loser. I know.

[Mick Harper]

CNN is back on Virgin for free! Hooray. (They went subscription a year or two back.) Just in time to watch their peerless coverage of Presidential Election Nite.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Helpul suggestion number 335 (Don't trick a trickster)

Dear Director General

You appear to be trying to cut costs as you have snipped a bit off Newsnight and are ending Doctors.

You are also trying to boost income, and sell profitable shows.

Now I know that Death in Paradise is highly successful and profitable, but how many times can you remake it?

You now have the west country version, Beyond Paradise, the Aussie version, Return to Paradise, and err you now actually have Ludwig.

Yep, I noticed your cunning deception, just by taking out the word Paradise doesn't actually change the premise, ie the fish out of water detective, the team (the boss, the black sidekick, the thick sidekick, etc, or sometimes the black boss, the woman sidekick, the thick one etc), the puzzling crime, the calling together of suspects at the end for the inevitable big reveal.

It's just the same show again and again. Isn't it?

Good try, but you can't trick a trickster.