After only a week of retirement, Paul O’Grady’s pet dog Buster has died.
The 14 year old shih tzu and bichon frise cross, was put down after being diagnosed with incurable cancer.
A source told The Sun: “It all happened suddenly. Buster had been suffering and in a lot of pain. Putting him down was the kind thing to do.”
A spokesman for O’Grady told The Mirror that O’Grady is “absolutely gutted”.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so ashamed to be British as I did while watching this documentary by Olly Lambert.
It primarily followed a gentle, kind and intelligent man who was embarking on a career as a traffic warden, and from the abuse he and his colleagues got, you might have assumed they were in fact murderers or something equally as heinous. But no, they were just traffic wardens doing a job.
Durga Pokrehl from Nepal left behind his wife and child to try to build a life for his family here in the UK, and despite having two masters degrees, being multi-lingual and having an inexhaustible knowledge of the works of Shakespeare, the best he could find here was a job as Public Enemy Number One – a traffic warden. Read more & comment »
This is a film that’s going to haunt me for a long time. There’s only ever been one other film that had such a profound effect on me and that was Sophie’s Choice. And like Sophie in that film, the parents of children trying to escape the lives they were born into know that when they say goodbye to their kids, it literally could mean they’ll never see them again, nor ever learn of their fate.
Then there were the many, many children who didn’t have parents, or if they did, were horribly abused by them. But all those young, naïve and innocent kids were trying to get across the border to the US, and filmmaker/director Rebecca Camisa followed just a handful of them on their journey.
And it was one fraught with dangers that most adults wouldn’t make it alive through, never mind waif like, poverty stricken children. Clinging desperately to the tops of freight trains, these children are full of dreams of what cities like Manhattan can offer them, and of course, most often, they don’t even make it across the border.
I’m not sure there was really any point to this film, other than having the rather novel experience of sitting in my living room wearing 3D glasses – and being sniggered at by my family – where previously, I’d only worn them in a cinema.
And to be honest, the 3D effect wasn’t that remarkable; I’ve seen better. However, that said, it’s worth bearing in mind that this film footage was shot in the 1950s by Bob Angell and Arthur Wooster – who both recalled their experiences charmingly for this film – so it was actually no mean feat.
In fact, the majority of the film’s charm was in these two lovely gentlemen and the very formal way in which they spoke. All very English and very tea-and-cucumber-sandwiches. I especially liked it when they implored us to put on our “3D viewing spectacles.” Bless. Read more & comment »
Channel 4 are planning to buy a 300 seater airplane, then crash it for a new TV show.
The plane will be full of crash test dummies and two real life pilots, who will parachute out when the course has been set. The experiment will be used to improve airborne passenger safety.
Oh my… 14 kids and 8 of them delivered all at once. Nadya Suleman might’ve been better in a box under the stairs than in hospital, but I think even more weird than her being the – much vilified – mother to 14 kids, and nary a dad in sight, is that she’s turning her kids’ lives into a real life Truman Show.
And I’m not sure how to feel about that; on the one hand, at least she’s found a way to support her children, but on the other, it didn’t turn out to be the best thing in the world for Truman to be the subject of a lifetime TV series. And it must be a developmental psychologist’s wet dream of a programme.
Unlike Truman though, Nadya’s older children are fully aware that their lives are being played out in front of a TV audience, and some of them really don’t like it. One child, Elijah, even decided to lob a screwdriver at his mother in his frustration as he screamed “stop filming!” Read more & comment »
Numbed by tragedy, Sookie looks for refuge from the cacophony of her friends and neighbours’ inner voices. After lashing out at his sister and decking Andy, Jason wrestles with withdrawal symptoms from his V-juice habit. Tara resists the overtures of her mother, Lettie Mae, who’s trying to rid herself of a demon and needs her daughter’s help. Sam and Tara make a connection in their mutual search for “something real.”
What a bizarre film this was, and one that left me with a rather unpleasant taste in my mouth, metaphorically speaking.
First, I was uncomfortable watching anything that Gadd – aka Gary Glitter – might profit from, even if that profit was only some kind of vicarious pride in the fact that his repugnant story was being given attention.
Secondly, I am an advocate of the death penalty, and though this isn’t the right forum in which to go into an in-depth discussion of that point, it was of course the point of this film. But in making the point, I suspect the portrayal of a blood thirsty Britain was OTT. Read more & comment »
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s back for a brand new series, and with autumn in full swing and winter on its way it’s time to stock the larder and enjoy everything these seasons have in store. Hugh lives in Devon – cider country – and is keen to make perry, as pear cider is known.
Nadya Suleman became the focus of the world’s media when she gave birth to eight children in January 2009, who have since gone on to be the only octuplets to survive for as long as they have. She provoked a huge backlash when it emerged that she was a single mother who conceived the octuplets following IVF procedures, despite already having six children. This film tells the inside story of what life is like for an unemployed parent, with 14 demanding children under the age of eight, who faces the constant presence of dedicated paparazzi as well as ceaseless scrutiny by both the press and public.
Thursday 12 November 2009
9:00pm, Channel 4
It’s been a year since renowned businesswoman Ruth Watson advised the owners of stately homes how to diversify and raise revenue to secure the future of their unique properties. Now she’s back, checking up on some familiar faces to see if they took her advice or carried on regardless. Last year Ruth met Mary-Anne and Alastair Robb, the owners of Cothay, a medieval manor house in Somerset. Ruth was keen to turn Cothay into a professional enterprise, but met with resistance from Mary-Anne. Did they work together to transform Cothay into a sculpture park, in time for a special garden party?
Gordon Ramsay’s F Word returns to Channel 4 this autumn with an exciting new mission: the nationwide search for The F Word’s Best Local Restaurant .
The nation’s favourite food show will celebrate the very best of Britain’s independent local restaurants and seek out the highest quality food at affordable prices with the help of nominations from 10,000 restaurant-goers across the country.
Check out the interview with Gordon below:
Michael Perham, the ‘Schoolboy’ of the title, did a remarkable thing; at the age of just 16, he sailed 30,000 miles all by himself. Most 16 year old boys can’t be left in the familiar waters of their own home at 16 without some catastrophe happening.
But while most lads his age are still trying to work out how a washer works – and failing – and can’t get out of bed before the crack of lunchtime, Michael became one of very exclusive group of just 200 people who mastered all the technology and sailing wizardry necessary to go around the world single-handed.
He endured 15 metre waves, winds in excess of 55 knots – not that I know what a ‘knot’ equates to, but I’m guessing it’s pretty windy – and his autopilot conking out with regular monotony. He ended up dealing with it all like a seasoned sea-salt, but there were some tears and panic along the way, and understandably and justifiably so. I suspect if Michael had been cockily over confident, things might not have had such a happy ending. Read more & comment »
Set in an imaginary Britain in which the death penalty has been re-introduced, this feature-length drama confronts viewers with the possible consequences of capital punishment in the UK. The first person to be tried under the new Capital Crimes Against Children legislation is Paul Gadd, aka 1970s glam rock star Gary Glitter.
Ian Hislop explores the compelling and poignant stories of soldiers from across the British Empire during the First World War. Ian meets descendents of soldiers from diverse parts of the Empire: from India, Jamaica, Ireland and Canada. He discovers the soldiers’ reasons for joining up, how they were treated by their comrades and superiors, and how their service affected the Empire and even helped shape emerging national identities. Some were shamefully exploited, some celebrated and honoured, many nearly forgotten. Of all of these Soldiers of Empire , Ian asks whether they should have fought for us, and reveals that, in fact, they were “us”.
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