Hats off to Len Goodman. Much as I hate reality TV shows and much as I dislike Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing on Ice and shows of that ilk, I have to say that Mr Goodman has a panache about him. For a start he doesn’t make me angry like Craig double barrelled Horwood or Bruno Tonioli who are both just so nauseating.
No good old Len comes over as a regular chap and now he has done the impossible in making the Titanic sound interesting. Yes I know the Titanic is interesting but haven’t we really had enough of it? Programme after programme after programme. There’s only so much you can take on any one subject before it moves into the realms of overkill. Last week the new Julian Fellowes drama was aired and I thought it was pretty dreadful. I also thought I had had enough of the whole Titanic thing.
Then a few nights ago I caught the new documentary on the Titanic presented by Len and it was hugely interesting. He focused on specific departments on the ship such as the waiters and staff in the first class restaurant and the musicians who played on as the vessel sank. It made the whole thing feel more human and real.
Len himself is a class act – a man that manages to look classy despite a cockney accent. This guy has class in spades as they say and I actually look forward to subsequent episodes.
As for the Titanic drama. Well it was slightly more palatable last night but still appears to go nowhere. The problem is each episode features on different areas and characters, but you just know the characters won’t be clearly defined simply because the drama always ends up in the same fashion with the ship sinking! So next week we will return to other stories before it sinks again!!! Perhaps we could have a science fiction story where the Titanic doesn't sink and actually reached New York. Perhaps it could all have been a dream. Somehow I think not.
It might have escaped your notice that yesterday was April Fools Day – the day when everyone tries their best to be zany but usually end up being ever so slightly ridiculous. The problem is that everyone tries so hard to be weird that it’s become all too easy to detect the April Fool prank. Take an example on Twitter. The local newspaper had a story about Johnny Depp buying a property in Norwich’s Golden Triangle – that’s an area of Norwich mainly made up of terraced houses that are reasonably exclusive but also provide homes for numerous students i.e not exactly the place that Mr Depp would buy.
The best April Fool came many years ago in a cover disc in the magazine Classic FM (I believe that is correct). One of the tracks was a simply appalling rendition of some totally unknown work by a supposed Australian Soprano. It was unbelievably bad as was the story inside the mag. Everyone rumbled that this was an April Fools joke and wrote in accordingly along the usual lines of “you don’t get me with that one.” Thing is the magazine was so clever as this was a genuine recording by a genuinely bad artist who apparently was well known in her day for her total inability to sing but her total ability to record music by paying for it herself. The real April Fool was hidden away in the magazine and a lot less obvious.
Finally back to television. I have been recording the series of Luck on Sky Atlantic and looking forward to watching it. Primary reasons being 1/ it’s about horse racing and 2/ it stars Dustin Hoffman. I got halfway through the first episode before giving up on it. It was full of American sporting slang, unreal characters and virtually impossible to follow what was going on.
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