As part of BBC’s Wonderland series, this odd little film was idiosyncratic and edifying to watch. And I must say, I hadn’t expected to like it much, but I did…

It seemed an odd concept, having couples talk about their lives together while sitting in their beds, but what it unearthed was a plethora of deeply moving emotion and revelation, as well as gratifyingly sweet and loving relationships.

And with hindsight, perhaps various beds were in fact a good setting for this film, even though it was often perhaps more of a Jeremy Kyle-esque show in some ways. For instance, young Tariro couldn’t tell his partner Khadijah that he loves her, even though this terribly young couple are expecting twins.

If it had been a Jeremy Kyle show, the programme’s title might’ve been ‘You’re Having My Babies But I Don’t Know If I Love You’. However, I think his admission was refreshingly truthful; teenagers mostly don’t truly understand the meaning of the word ‘love’ in relationship terms, and at least Tariro was honest enough to admit that. Read more & comment »

Having missed the final episode of this excellent show earlier in the week, I caught up with it on 4oD, and within seconds of the show starting, I was mentally yelling at my laptop, “Ed! For the love of Pete, go home! Just ring someone and go home!”

Poor Ed was weeping most of the way through this episode; starving, emaciated and with a frighteningly low heartbeat, his strength was all but gone and his thoughts turning increasingly to his loved ones.

I cried right along with him when he opened and read a letter from his girlfriend Amanda which also contained photos of herself and members of Ed’s family. It was a very touching scene, one of many in this last episode, but for a while there, I thought Ed was – literally and metaphorically – going out of his tree. Read more & comment »

I cannot believe Danielle won the round the world trip and by default, was deemed to have been the person who’d most changed their attitude and who’d “grown up” more than the others.

There was absolutely no evidence of Danielle having done either of those things, either in the final show or indeed, the preceding shows. In the final show, she was still pretty much incapable of anything, still swearing her head off at anyone or anything that wouldn’t do what she wanted and still had a total inability to accept responsibility.

The parents in the last show were annoying too. During the segment where we saw them discussing the final task – which had been making-over three flats with the ‘kids’ as project managers – pretty much everyone agreed that making teenagers project managers was too tall an order. So why do it then? Read more & comment »

Friday’s First Cut offering was Molly Clark’s engaging documentary about Frank Evans, a 66 year old man from Salford whose love of bullfighting made him return to Spain to indulge his passion, despite having had quadruple heart bypass surgery and a knee made of titanium.

I must first point out though that, despite the story having the appearance of being an inspirational one of triumph over adversity and willpower winning the day, I abhor bullfighting, so I was prejudiced towards Frank from the get go.

It’s not just bullfighting that I find repellent, it’s any sport which engages an animal to the death of that animal. It’s not an equal fight and therefore, it’s not a fair sport, however, I guess that’s a whole ‘nother issue and one perhaps ill suited to be aired in this forum. Read more & comment »

I missed the latest episode of this positively addictive show when it was originally on BBC, so I’ve caught up with it on BBC iPlayer, and I’m so glad I did, because the latest offering was every bit as entertaining as they’ve all been.

Last week, Nicky got the boot – thankfully – so this week, just four remained in the House of Large Lazy Gits. They are, Dogan, Dina, Sean and Danielle. And a bombshell was dropped on them within minutes of the show opening; this week, they were only given the equivalent of dole money to live on.

The news was greeted with mostly stunned silence as the four began to realise just how little they had to live on, in fact, it equated to about £7 a day. Oh dear. So, they set off looking for job, somewhat half-heartedly, as of course we’ve come to expect from them. If they’d put in any actual effort, I think we’d have all dropped down dead. Read more & comment »