Strictly Champion

Well it has been an amazing series of Strictly Come Dancing, with probably the closest final ever (Although any one of the last five couples could have won in previous series).I was very pleased to see Mark Ramprakash and Karen Hardy win in the end, not least because Mark and Karen were one of my first week picks to do well. I was pretty sure after their Argentine Tango last week that they would go on to win – it was spine-tingelingly good. For the final, their revived tango was good, their salsa was outstanding and deserved the top marks from the judges, but their showdance was the crowning glory – a proper dance, with dance content and not all show, which began with the most amazing standing lift and got even better as it progressed.

Both Mark, for his dance ability and great enjoyment of dancing, and Karen, with the most infectious smile and fantastic choreography, really deserved to win. I only wish I had put money on them after the first week!

Too many clues?

I think I’ve been overdosing on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue! (Is it possible to listen to too many?)

Last week BBC7 ran a programme a day as a tribute to Willie Rushton who died 10 years ago last week. (Was it really 10 years ago? Where does the time go). It was a lovely set of programmes, each one a highlight for Willie’s performance, and each was wonderfully introduced by one of the team – Jon Naismith (the producer) on Monday, followed by Barry, Graeme, Tim and Humph on successive days.

On Saturday, as part of the Christmas Comedy Stocking there was another chance to hear I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Christmas Carol which made me feel very Christmassy, as well as laughing a lot. It was also good to hear the late Linda Smith again.

Today it was more back to usual, with the BBC7 Monday repeat and the last from the new series on Radio 4. It was a cracking end to the series, with I think the highlight being Graeme’s rendition of the Scissor Sisters‘ I Don’t Feel Like Dancing, which really shouldn’t be as funny as it was. I think it might even be the best pick-up song ever – not only did it make me laugh a lot, but it was also spot on with timing and key so it even beats Rob Brydon’s Tom Jones efforts!

So that’s nine programmes in a week (including last week’s on Radio 4) – is that too much?

Daa-da-da-da-da-da-da-daaa!

I watched a great programme the other night on BBC4 called The Cult of … Blake’s 7. It’s part of the Science Fiction Britannia season they’ve been doing, and each week The Cult of …looks at a different programme. I’ve seen a couple of the others, but this one was definitely my cup of tea.

I do remember watching Blake’s 7as a child, but only very vaguely. What I do remember of it I liked and I did enjoy watching some repeats of the first series (which I’d not seen before) a few years ago. But it was the final series which I had clearest memories of, with Avon and Servilan and all the fantastic stories which the series told. [thinking about it, I must remember earlier series because I remember Orac ...] I don’t think I was aware at the time I was originally watching these that there had ever been a Blake for the show to be named after, so I never wondered what happened to him at the time. However the Cult of … programme cleared up who everyone was and how they got killed off and featured some great talking heads with all the key players – Gareth Thomas (Blake), Paul Darrow (Avon), Jacqueline Pearce(Servilan) and a scriptwriter and director whose names I forget. They all looked fabulous, especially Jacqueline Pearce, considering it was 25 years since the show was on. So what did I learn from the programme? Well that Blake and Avon had first names (that weren’t Blake and Avon!), the Liberator got blown up - so they had a new ship, Servilan hadn’t always been in it and wasn’t the big boss of the Federation as I’d always thought. It’s amazing how your memory, especially of stuff as a child, can make things seem so different to how they were.

Since watching the programme I’ve been having a dig around on t’internet to see what I could find out about Blake’s 7. I’ve discovered there are DVDs of all the series, but they’re a bit pricey for something I’d just like to see. I’ll have to see if I can borrow them instead. I was pointed towards a great clip on YouTube by a fellow poster on Outpost Gallifrey, which is very well put together and really made me laugh! Oh, and the most interesting (to me) piece of information I found is that Paul Darrow and I share a birthday. If ever I get to meet him I have a great talking point!

Missing Clues …

Well, now the episodes of Clue that I went to see have been broadcast, I can write about them without spoiling the surprise. They were both as good as I had hoped they’d be.

The first episode had the delights of the WI health & safety conversation which had the very surreal moment of discussion about a bran tub. I think the best thing was the look on both Tim & Graeme’s faces when Rob Brydon said that the bran tub would be contain “little goodies”! Then there was the science fiction drama with the immortal line about the time machine, “well it was working tomorrow”.

It’s the second episode which I felt had more missing, but it was still a great programme if you didn’t know what had been lost. The highlight was definitely Rob Brydon’s Sexbomb for the pick-up song round – it was spot on and I think it even topped his performance of Delilah last time! There were a couple of visual moments which obviously didn’t transfer. One was at the end of his pick-up song Tim was so off that he put his head on the table in despair and then during a round of song relay (which wasn’t broadcast) he was eliminated, so started walking around the stage milking the audience for sympathy! But the best bit not in the broadcast was the sound charades round. Tim and Rob did a great one for You and Yours, which involved something belonging to a scots bloke. But the best was Graeme and Barry’s one for Parkinson, in which they were and Lancashire father and son debating over a cake/biscuit thing. I thought it was really clever and quickly cottoned on to what they were talking about, but I don’t think anyone else around me got it. Southerners!

Missing Believed Wiped

On Saturday I went to the National Film Theatre for the Missing Believed Wipedevent, along with two fellow GROKers. It was mainly to see the recently found Goodies clip from  Engelbert with the Young Generation, but there were one or two other things I was looking forward to seeing too.

We were a little late arriving for the first session, Nuclear Threats, due to signal failure on the tube, so missed the introductions and the first couple of minutes of the first programme – a drama called Level 7, but we soon settled in. I had no idea what to expect from this first programme, and I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to be as funny as we found it, but I enjoyed it. The second programme was Nigel (creator of Quatermass) Kneal’s The Crunch, which was also good and a lot less funny than Level 7. It’s amazing how much scarier old black and white television can be, with it’s much slower pace and unashamed use of silences. We commented during the break that they could both be remade today and still be just as relevant, with their themes of nuclear threats and terrorism.

But it was the second session we were really there for. It began with Out of the Trees, the pilot for a comedy sketch show written by Graham Chapman and Douglas Adams. As you would expect, it was somewhere between Monty Python and Hitchhiker’s Guide. So kind of the absurdity of Python, but with a more logical spiralling of the steam of consciousness. I really liked it, but I’m not sure everyone did. I particularly liked the clever use of the television voice over and link man to hold the whole thing together. There was also a sketch about the theft of a peony which while watching I suddenly realised I’d seen that clip before and I’d never realised that Graham Chapman was one of the policemen!

Then it was time for The Goodies clip!  Fivewhole minutes of shiny, brand new Goodies to savour and enjoy. Ok, I realise it wasn’t new, and it wasn’t that shiny either – more like a very bad video copy of a copy, but it was still up there on the big screen. As I mentioned, the clip was one of the film sequences from Engelbert and the Young Generation, entitled (I think) ‘Bodyguards’. From what I gathered (not having seen the preamble in the office) the Goodies had been asked to protect Engelbert from his hordes of fans, so they practice various ways of doing this – boxing, fencing, shooting – with the usual hilarious consequences. It was wonderful to see, and I think I must have laughed almost continuously for the full 5 minutes! My only complaint would be that it was all over far too quickly. I’d love to see it again sometime …