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 »

I got the distinct impression during this show last night that someone in the commissioning unit at the BBC might have been ploughing through a whole mailbag full of programme suggestions and, in despair of ever finding anything by his/her deadline, decided this idea about revisiting ex-University Challenge winners would do.

It’s not that it was totally un-entertaining; there were many amusing moments, but I just kept coming back to the question of, why? It could probably have worked on winners from any popular game show from way-back-when, such as Sale of the Century. Actually, it would’ve been quite interesting to see if Jean from Cheshire ended up keeping hold of her canteen of cutlery or vacuum cleaner.

I guess the one thing that gave this show any relevance at all is that everyone on it was of superior intellect, and in that regard, it was quite interesting to note that having a super computer for a brain doesn’t necessarily mean you’re automatically going to qualify for a life less ordinary. Read more & comment »

The return of another well loved series was on our screens last night in the form of Spooks, which to be honest, I’ve never been that big a fan of. I can’t seem to get ‘into’ it, but last night’s new series opener did, I must admit, have me on the edge of my seat a few times.

It’s been nearly a year since it was last on our screens so die hard fans will have been wondering all that time what was to become of Harry, played lovingly by Peter Firth. And it was obviously a bit of a downer that the head of MI5 had been bundled into a Russian’s boot…

Leading me to ask, what chance the rest of us if the man largely responsible for our security is so compromised? It’s a sticky wicket… Read more & comment »

So it’s back, and with a new family to gawk it, it all got off to a rather impressive start. I’m unashamedly a fan of fly-on-the-wall; I can’t help myself, though oddly, I do no curtain twitching in my own home. I don’t even know what most of my near neighbours are called, but show me a house full of people I don’t even know being filmed, and I’m there.

This time around, the family we’re spying on are the Grewals, who, judging by first impressions are analogous to the Garnetts in Til Death Us Do Part. There was stubbornness, curmudgeonliness and obstreperous moaning, and that was just from mum and dad Sarbjit and Arvinder. And like Alf and Elsie Garnett, their apparent animosity towards each other belies a deep affection that you might have to dig deep to see, but know is there.

And like Alf Garnett’s daughter Rita, the Grewals are not strangers to having parents disapprove of a choice of partner. For Rita, Alf’s daughter, it was “that lazy scouse git” her dad objected to, but for women in the Grewal family, their marrying a man from a Sikh caste who’s considered “below” them has caused seemingly irrevocable and very sad family divides. Read more & comment »

So Gordon returns for a fifth series of the F Word, and what’s changed? Well, his mission in this series is to find Britain’s best restaurant – and one assumes he’s disqualified due to the potential for self-nepotism, if such a thing exists…

Anywho, last night we met chefs from Leeds and Bristol who had to do the good old telly fave, a cook-off. One of those chefs was Diego De Re, and he was more than a match for Gordon, which made his segments rather entertaining.

It was fun to watch Diego berating Gordon for his dearth of black bristled pastry brushes – so you can easily spot if a few fell out in your ravioli – and the irascible Gordon trying to keep a lid on his famous temper.

The major downside for me on last night’s new series opener was the presence of Katie Price, the world’s most non-biodegradable woman. Granted, she would go to the opening of an envelope, but I felt it devalued the show somewhat that Gordon and Katie felt behoved to resort to seriously unsubtle double entendre concerning breasts, of the chicken and silicone kind… Read more & comment »

This film was an odd assortment of fact, rumour and frankly, sensationalism, all of which have been added to an already bubbling pot of accusation and finger pointing at 76 year old Betty Neumar, the ‘granny’ of the title.

Made by acclaimed filmmaker Norman Hull, this documentary purported to question the suspected guilt of Neumar who’s had five husbands, all of whom have died. However, rather than pick holes in what is already a somewhat flimsy case – albeit one fairly steeped in circumstantial evidence and or coincidence – Hull’s film seemed to me to err more on the side of adding fuel to the fire.

And it’s a fire that was started by Al Gentry whose brother Harold was one of those five husbands; he believes that Betty hired a hitman to kill Harold, and it’s taken him 22 years to get someone to take his accusation seriously. Read more & comment »

The BBC are of course supposed to use our money wisely and invest in things like good, solid, entertaining drama, and to give it its due, Into the Storm was very good value for our money.

Brendan Gleeson as Churchill was utterly convincing, and he’d clearly studied his subject closely; his portrayal encompassed the vocal inflections, the obstinacy and the tenacity of a man who was made “lonely” by peacetime.

Similarly, Bill Paterson as Clement Attlee did a marvellous job, though I felt he struggled at times to keep a lid on his heavy Scottish brogue, but perhaps that’s more because I expected throaty vowel sounds to issue forth from him. Read more & comment »

“Looking back now, when we and the Germans are great mates, it just seems stupid…”

That one sentence, uttered by a survivor of ‘The Great Escape’ sums up for me the post-war emotion succinctly. It really does all seem such a waste and, yes, stupid. Our men died, their men died, and ultimately, all these years on, it’s hard to imagine that the world could’ve been so radically altered by what boils down to the actions of one mad man.

But history of course often repeats itself and here we are again, the world’s reacting to, and trying to rid us of one mad man. And thousands of lives have been lost as a result. Again.

This terribly moving documentary was about the real-life story behind the classic film, The Great Escape, which – to my shame – I’ve only hazy memories of when it was shown at Christmas. My parents always watched it but I was usually too busy with Lego or some new toy to be overly interested in wartime antics. Read more & comment »

Until I watched this show last night, I didn’t realise it was based on the true life tales of both Garrow and some of his clients, and it made an already very good drama excellent.

Andrew Buchan as the pioneering, genuinely caring lawyer – which is why I at first thought it was all a fiction – understatedly and utterly convincingly wandered the corridors of the Old Bailey doing his best for the wrongly accused innocents.

His associate and mentor Southouse was similarly nobly portrayed by Alun Armstrong, and together with a cast of genuinely convincing 18th century folk – well done costume and make-up department – we were transported back to a time when the accused’s solicitor couldn’t speak to the jury, were not privy to the deposition against their client, weren’t permitted to visit their client or to deliver an opening statement or closing speech in court. Read more & comment »

I’m not entirely sure that I came away from this programme with the correct impressions. I’m not even sure that any impression could be correct; maybe it’s all subjective. And by all, I mean not only the content of this programme but the subject it toyed with – that of racism.

And toy with it it did, for while it was billed as an “event” and therefore one expected something rather more conclusive and shocking than the actual result, what the entire thing came down to was a very simple experiment. Too simple in fact.

The result wasn’t a result at all and it all rather petered out to nothing, but that’s not to say it didn’t yield some discoveries, but again, I think calling it an ‘event’ was overreaching. Read more & comment »

Channel 4’s Cutting Edge is of course renowned for bringing to our screens moving, emotive and thought provoking films, but this must be one of the most alternately desperately sad and incredibly inspiring that I’ve ever seen.

Katie Piper’s life changed when she was attacked; sulphuric acid was thrown in her face by way of revenge from a jilted boyfriend. He determined that he would ruin her life, and he tried, but ultimately, he hasn’t succeeded because for as much as Katie’s life is now very different, the surgeon, Mohammad Ali Jawad, who was hailed as a “medical miracle” is helping her piece back together her beautiful face. Read more & comment »

I’ve always liked Andrew Marr; he’s personable, he’s intelligent, he’s witty and self-deprecating, and he’s far more enjoyable serving up slices of history than he is presenting some political show that makes the viewer – notably, me – lose the will to live.

And we should see more of him in this role if last night’s televisual expedition into Britain’s history was anything to go by.

This is what the BBC’s press release had to say about the show…

“Marr takes viewers from the imperial power of the late-Victorian age to the dawning of modern democracy; from Charlie Chaplin to Gracie Fields; and from the trenches and sea battles of the First World War to Britain’s triumphant victory over fascism in 1945… Read more & comment »

This is without doubt one of the most truly beautiful natural history films I’ve ever seen. Documenting and observing the unique relationship that Dr Lynn Rogers has with black bears in the Minnesotan Northwoods, this remarkable film invoked many conflicting emotions for me.

First, it was uplifting and inspiring to see how dedicated Dr Rogers, his wife Donna and his research assistant Sue are to these astoundingly dignified and beautiful animals, and their devotion has been rewarded by gaining the trust of the bears, thus enabling the study of them.

However, the joy of the magnificent bears, the beyond-cute cubs and the breathtaking scenery was marred, as it so tragically often is, by the interjection into this wilderness for six weeks a year by hunters, intent on taking home a bear carcass. Read more & comment »

This was one of those ‘ahhhhhh’ shows, and how nice to see one in amidst a TV line-up of surgeries and ‘deep’ issues.

And nobody could’ve been better placed to present this meander back into childhood and unearth those rosy-tinted memories, bringing them squinting into the light of present day. Albeit that the kids he hoped to wow with Airfix quite obviously were only humouring him – because there was a camera around – his affection for his subject made me want to go out and buy a kit.

The group of children he enlisted to help him build a life-size Airfix model probably all hoped to be the next ‘big thing’ to come out of having been on telly, and if not, well, they’ve got it on DVD to show their own kids in years to come. For them, one got the distinct feeling that Airfix was not going to be one of their cherished childhood pastimes. Read more & comment »

This programme was quite shocking and revelatory for me; shocking because of the hideous surgical procedures we saw and revelatory because it seems no matter what your race, skin colour or genetics, we all want to change ourselves, or at least some part of ourselves.

It’s quite a leveller really to know that the majority of us would change something about ourselves if we could miraculously wish it so, but this film dealt with those who had gone past just hoping they’d wake up one day and look different. Many of the people featured last night had something done about it, such was their unhappiness with themselves.

And though this documentary dealt with the ‘cosmetic’ concerns of primarily ethnic minorities – in this country that is – it certainly did underscore the fact that as a race, we humans always want what we can’t have and few of us are entirely happy with how we look. Read more & comment »