Humour in Hebburn
Having spent some years living in Hebburn, it’s cheering for me to hear that Jason Cook’s sitcom, Hebburn, has been commissioned by BBC2 for a series. Often seen as the poor tip of South Tyneside, Hebburn has it’s own culture and local legends and it’s nice to see the town put on the TV map. Inevitably it will be compared to The Likely Lads, but with it’s share of real life characters and locations, and with a rich seam of North East humour on every Metro platform, bar stool and street corner as inspiration, I’m sure Hebburn will provide no shortage of plots to keep the show fresh and modern.
It’s long overdue for Hebburn to get it’s chance to shine, and on the national TV stage. In these troubled economic times it’s refreshing that it’ll be something from South Tyneside that will make people laugh rather than add to their misery.
Madrassa England beckons
I should give up watching Question Time. It’s not good for my health. Tonight’s show featured five ignorant guests wedded to religion. Nigel Farage, Liam Fox, Janet Street-Porter, Peter Hain and Elfyn Llwyd were eager to prostrate themselves and children before religion. I’ve decided that they have nothing of value to say, filling airtime gaps with their own vanity.
Not one of them was capable of mustering a thought independent from the interests of the various religions to poison sex, health and relationship education with ignorance, bigotry and hate speech. Then, blind to the irony, they criticised the teaching of creationism. Apart from Liam Fox that is, he thought teaching creationist nonsense was rather a spiffing idea. Dimwit. So that’s Labour, UKIP, the Tories and Plaid Cymru putting their religion firmly on their sleeves, and well ahead of equality and rational thought, and the educational needs of children. Not one of them is fit to govern.
But let’s not forget the ‘loathsome’ rent-a-gob Janet Street-Porter. I suppose you’ve got to admire the narcissistic gall of someone who can criticise John Terry’s private sexual antics only moments after cheering that children be made victim to the sick, moralising sexual spin that MPs allow state funded religious schools to spew. Shameless. Of course, this is the same Janet Street-Porter who tried to smear police brutality victim Ian Tomlinson, so what do you expect from an establishment figure?
2010: Looking forward to
I don’t think world peace is coming anytime soon, but for a media monkey like me…
Films
The Road
The A-Team
Invictus
Alice in Wonderland
Iron Man 2
Tron: Legacy
Games
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – Xbox 360
MAG – PS3
Gadgets
Xbox – Project Natal
Real motion gaming without wands.
iSlate/Win 7 tablet
The iSlate’s a rumour, the Win 7 tablet is a reality. What would you want with an e-book if you had a truely portable tablet – especially if it looks like a gadget from Star Trek?
iPhone 4
Rumours again – it’s an iPhone, but with likely a better camera.
Nokia N900
It’s not an iPhone, it has a real keyboard, 5Mp camera – and it runs a Linux-based OS. Okay, technically not a 2010 object of desire as it’s been out since December, but with it’s beefy specification which challenges some netbooks (and is essentially a mini tablet pc) I can see this one getting the geek vote in 2010.
2009: media favourites
A totally subjective list of my most enjoyed media in 2009…
Top five games
The Saboteur – Xbox 360
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Xbox 360
Battlefield 1943 – PS3 & Xbox 360 (download)
Singstar Queen – PS3
Operation Flashpoint – Xbox 360
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Top five films
Star Trek
Inglourious Basterds
The Hangover
Watchmen
District 9
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Top five TV
Fringe – Sky One
Lie to Me – Sky One
Day of the Triffids – BBC1
The Thick of It – BBC3
Mock the Week – BBC2
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Top 5 podcasts
BBC Radio 4 Friday Night Comedy (The Now Show/News Quiz)
Adam & Joe (Radio 6 Music)
Brian Paget 