SEEING as my accent means I cannot even say “Tatler” properly – it comes out as “Taatla” – I was probably never going to enjoy Posh People (BBC2, Mondays, 9pm), the three-part documentary about the rather resilient upper-class magazine.
However, 15 minutes was quite enough of the chinless world of the Plumtrees and the Bumwhistles and the Caviarhoovers and I switched over in rather desperate fashion to Wild Weather with Richard Hammond (BBC1, Mondays, 9pm); a kind of Coxian, globetrotting, science show fronted by the gradual Cliff Richard lookalike and renowned weather expert Hammond.
The first episode was about wind and – despite the 'Hamster’s’ lack of weather knowledge – in fairness he does get a lot of experience of hot air on Top Gear (can I get an ey-oh?!).
The crossover factor with Top Gear was actually quite pronounced with the phrase “biggest/fastest/longest/hardest in the world” being used regularly and footage of freakishly tall things falling over a lot, though trees and buildings in this case rather than Clarkson.
Wild Weather is basically a Channel 5 programme of shakily-shot footage of hairy weather fused together with Blue Peter-style experiments conducted using CERN-esque technology (throwing ping-pong balls into a machine that creates tornado, for example).
However, unlike Channel 5’s vacuous vintage, you learn something rather than waiting to see a shot of a man who had a fence post protruding from his midriff in the wake of a twister. For example, I kind of always knew it was more windy at the top of a hill, but now I know why and that is information I’ll use literally once (right here in this article).
Just hopefully next week there will not be a woefully odd diversion into sketch comedy territory. The cringe was so horrific I put my fist in my mouth.
What I’m Looking Forward To This Week BBC4 on Thursday night is looking nerdily tasty with Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey (8pm) followed up by Castles – Britain’s Fortified History (9pm) to provide two hours of nerd-vana best enjoyed with a glass of red wine.
The latter had me at the description of castles being the 'Death Stars of the Middle Ages’. Utterly glorious.
SEEING as my accent means I cannot even say “Tatler” properly – it comes out as “Taatla” – I was probably never going to enjoy Posh People (BBC2, Mondays, 9pm), the three-part documentary about the rather resilient upper-class magazine.
However, 15 minutes was quite enough of the chinless world of the Plumtrees and the Bumwhistles and the Caviarhoovers and I switched over in rather desperate fashion to Wild Weather with Richard Hammond (BBC1, Mondays, 9pm); a kind of Coxian, globetrotting, science show fronted by the gradual Cliff Richard lookalike and renowned weather expert Hammond.
The first episode was about wind and – despite the 'Hamster’s’ lack of weather knowledge – in fairness he does get a lot of experience of hot air on Top Gear (can I get an ey-oh?!).
The crossover factor with Top Gear was actually quite pronounced with the phrase “biggest/fastest/longest/hardest in the world” being used regularly and footage of freakishly tall things falling over a lot, though trees and buildings in this case rather than Clarkson.
Wild Weather is basically a Channel 5 programme of shakily-shot footage of hairy weather fused together with Blue Peter-style experiments conducted using CERN-esque technology (throwing ping-pong balls into a machine that creates tornado, for example).
However, unlike Channel 5’s vacuous vintage, you learn something rather than waiting to see a shot of a man who had a fence post protruding from his midriff in the wake of a twister. For example, I kind of always knew it was more windy at the top of a hill, but now I know why and that is information I’ll use literally once (right here in this article).
Just hopefully next week there will not be a woefully odd diversion into sketch comedy territory. The cringe was so horrific I put my fist in my mouth.
What I’m Looking Forward To This Week BBC4 on Thursday night is looking nerdily tasty with Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey (8pm) followed up by Castles – Britain’s Fortified History (9pm) to provide two hours of nerd-vana best enjoyed with a glass of red wine.
The latter had me at the description of castles being the 'Death Stars of the Middle Ages’. Utterly glorious.
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