THE BRITISH THREAD II

Okay fair enough. I should learn not to try to play with the big boys like you and Spendy.
Since it was a genuine request for information, sorry I got that wrong, we only had about four inches here, but unusually it has been very cold and the snow and ice is still hanging around. Elsewhere in the country they had up to two feet deep snow.
My new snow shovel coped very well with that.

Best of luck with your parole hearing.

It was not a genuine request for information Mac. fm doesn't give a rat's arse how much snow you have on your patch. He was bored. He had been watching the news and it had covered the extreme weather here, probably ironically, not that fm would have noticed mind you, and he was sat at his computer trying to think up a reason to remind us all of his existence. With the news being fresh in his mind asking one of us how much snow we had was the first thing he thought of. And he could hardly ask me. Queenie is tied to a pole in a Mongol warlord's tent. smorgsie is busy getting the unemployed back to the grindstone. So you are "it". He couldn't rely on me to post back an equally innocuous response of the type so many close friendships have blossomed from.

Puhleeze! Spendi is in his own universe. And, from all the information Ive been able to glean,I think it is long ago and far away.

Thanks for the info, weve been getting snow reports from our own West and from UK and the eather Channel often conflates the information by rapid machine gun deliveries without suitable segment demarcation.

Smorgs is deeply stressed, I feel. She would love to tell us about the actual situation in the JC, together with many amusing anecdotes and apercus, and she can't, on pain of death.
So we just have to imagine.

American TV seems deeply crap, in the main.

But I've enjoyed Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Not possible.

there are better offerings elsewhere? I know it's not in Europe, so where is the good TV programming?

It is a truth universally acknowledged, is it not, that in Her Majesty's realm the television programmes and schedules, particularly but not exclusively those produced by the BBC, are infinitely to be preferred to those served up elsewhere.

Heaven help them in that case.

You consider "The Big Breakfast" as quality TV?
There are some shows that weve actually adopted and gone beyond UK's abilities. However "TOP GEAR" US style is definitely of a lower quality than the original.

Daily SHow is a NAtional Treasure, MAddow? Im not too sure that I acknowledge that this is even mediocre. All of Fox is pretty much swill, MYTHBUSTERS has gone commercial and should return to its roots.
There are several reality shows that have piqued my interest . Shows l.ike "The Pawn STars" "Storage Box",American Pickers" "Oddities" and "Auction House". These are obviously only of interest to folks who are pack rats and collectors of ****.

Our PBS channels have gotten on an interminable loop of fund raising so that when one fund raiser ends, another soon begins a few weeks later. I think PBS ,as a purveyor of good information TV is dying rapidly.

I sometimes watch the BBC in AMerica and the programs are just as lame as ours .

You're watching the wrong programmes fm.

I bet you're looking forward to David Attenborough's computer simulations of our early ancestors.



How much is down to fossil records and how much to special effects you will have to gauge yourself.

It's worth considering though, you get the programmes your suppliers think you (on average) will like. They buy for their target market.
Some American once said no-one ever went bust underestimating the intelligence of their audience, or words to that effect.
I suppose most, by a big majority, of your programmes are profit-driven? That's the problem. There's little incentive to show quality products if the expected audience is small.
That's not to say we don't have crap over here, we do. Although the BBC is a public-service broadcaster, it still chases audience figures, with dire results many a time.

Don't look at us - we get both US and UK crap!

McTag still believes in Plato's philosopher kings .... as long as they are British. Unfortunately many of those so ruled did and do not always view them as either wise or benevolent.

Im serious here.
Please give us some idea of those BBC programs that you consider to be top drawer stuff, and what % of the total broadcast day do "GOOD" programs occupy

Okay.
I've got to go out now, so I'll do this tomorrow.
Not all of the programmes I like (and think of as "good") are put out by the BBC, by the way.
I saw a very good documentary programme last night, by Sky Arts, about Frank Zappa.

Have you heard about the doctors getting £180 an hour for working over Christmas Mac? Your life in their hands.

Our TV is shite. It is run by the Grauniad/Independent coalition of thrumming feminists and henpecked husbands. With a few musical instrument players to add "bite".

Edit error.

That's rather a jaundiced view.

That's not my fault Mac. I'm only reporting what I see. When a "licence to print money" has been operating for fifty years it gets very expert at it. I watch the process. Anything live is okay. If it can be trusted to be live.

Remember when Mr Voight was simulating banging the slag and her backside was changing the channels on the TV. And what to make of "High Definition" I'm not yet sure about.

If it wasn't for sport I would do without TV.