Retro Yakking

I only really started watching Bo’ Selecta in what would transpire to be its dying embers, namely at the back end of the final series and a couple of subsequent spin offs, neither of which I would term must-watch televisual treats.

One character that stood out from the sea of Leigh Francis’s over-the-top, rubber-faced creations, however, was his wildly caricatured yet infinitely funny Michael Jackson impression (though I’d guess Jackson himself wouldn’t approve). Some might say Jacko is by far the easiest celebrity to perform a somewhat plausible impersonation of, what with his variety of recognisable outfits and vocal ad-libs through his career as a pop star.

But this MJ character, in my opinion, carried the show for a long, long time. Sure, there were memorable appearances from ‘Davina McCall’ and ‘Mel B’ — both in Francis’s inimitable style — along the way, but it was the hee hees and chamones that big kids were imitating in school playgrounds and offices the length and breadth of the country (often to the ire of colleagues).

He is, for me, what makes the show funny. Even during the largely unremarkable Bo’ in the USA the character continued to provide much mirth amongst a cast of new and old faces that, on the whole, failed to make a lasting impression.

Warning: Spoilers after the ‘more’ link, chamone.

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In my opinion, QI’s been off the general public radar for an unfashionably long time now. Well, that’s technically incorrect, as there’ve been endless repeats of all six series up until this point on Dave, which is quite surprising considering that 98.4% of the channel’s programming consists of Top Gear ‘mashups’. For the uninitiated, they’re mutilated versions of the BBC broadcasts cut down to fit into 47 minutes of programming per hour, a bit like the syndicated versions in Oz and North America.

There are, however, no such cost-cutting measures in place on BBC1, Quite Interesting’s established home on the Beeb since, well, last series, actually. For the secret QI maniac such as I,  it’s refreshing to finally see some new programming and obtain fresh fodder for idle chats down the pub, train station or wherever one feels the need to spout pointless yet irritatingly intriguing facts. You just hope your mates didn’t see the same episode, else you might have to resort to the ‘no cheese in cheese slices’ backup plan once again (stupid ‘Britain’s Most Disgusting Foods‘).

We’re now up to the seventh series, which can only mean one thing: a whole season of letter G-themed fact-based nuggets to tickle our geeky fancy. In the coming weeks we shall be treated to a veritable Pandora’s Box of interesting stuff to do with geometry, gadgets, gravity and the colour green amongst others. Last night, though, was the turn of both gardeners and grocers to take their place on the alphabetical merry go round that is QI.

Warning: Spoilers from this point onwards.

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If you think about it, video game fans have been somewhat starved of televisual content recently. Following the technology-obsessed 80s, games went mainstream with the release of the fourth generation (that’s the period 1992-1995 for the non-geeks out there) home consoles, and there were always television shows to suit the attitude of the time; we had BBC Micro Live for the techies out there, and stuff like GamesMaster and Games World for the ‘kiddie’ audience.

Since then, games shows have come and gone quicker than the Virtual Boy, with no really popular ones to speak of in the last ten years or so. Why is it that, even though video games are arguably more popular than ever, there is no mainstream television programme dedicated to the genre?

This is one subject dealt with in Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe, a one-off BBC4 special showing as part of the station’s retro electronics season. Said protagonist attributes this puzzling situation to the fact producers have never really nailed down a suitable, functional format for the 21st century. For example, how do you cater for both the mainstream, namely your casual gamer that likes to dust off his Wii once in a while, and the enthusiast, who could tell you how to beat each of the Halo games within an hour?

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I was hoping that Derren Brown would admit to his ‘prediction’ of Wednesday’s lottery draw being some sort of camera trick, or at least that the relative ‘balls-up’ outlined in yesterday’s post was all part of a much larger deception, or as he likes to call his stunts, a ‘misdirection’.

Let’s be honest: he was never going to be revealing his ’solution’ until the very end of the show, otherwise Channel 4’s viewing figures might have suffered something of a drop as people switch over to BBC for the latest episode of ‘New Tricks’.

Spoilers follow this point, so if you still haven’t seen Friday’s show and don’t want to know what happened, don’t hit the continue reading link.

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To get myself in the mood (as if I wasn’t already psyched enough) for the forthcoming Ashes decider, I decided to treat myself to some televisual entertainment from eBay.

After a couple of days scouting the ‘ending soonest’ section of the site (which, being the cheapskate I am, is where you’ll usually find me), I plumped for Tuffers’ Ashes for £2.75 from Pause&Play Entertainment (who, by the way, I thoroughly recommend). A very good price considering its relatively recent release - well, in my eyes anyway - in 2006.

 ”Now, lads, can’t we settle this over a pint?”

A reasonable price, too, in terms of content. Cheeky Chappie and dressing room kipster (he isn’t called The Cat for nothing, you know) Phil Tufnell has roped Henry ‘Blowers’ Blofeld into the piece and together they whizz through over fifty years of Ashes history from Bodyline through to Botham and 2005 in the space of an hour.

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