Coo-ee!

Do you remember those ‘information’ adverts that used to be on tv in the 70s and 80s!? Charley Says, Green Cross Code Man (he was Darth Vader you know!?) and Joe and Petunia – remember them?

Well, Joe and Petunia have risen from the grave (they were killed off in back in the 70s). The Central Office of Information (how very 1984 that sounds) are using the same ‘lifeguard’ episode to try and get a message across for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

As you will see, the couple have been updated for the new version – edition of iPod, Hello magazine and mobile phone to call for help; and of course Joe has swapped his knotted hanky for a Burberry cap!

What is really interesting is that they felt the need to add a car to the background and to remove the Union Flag on Petunia’s bag.

Is that allowed??

Who gave permission? surely that’s just wrong?

I’ve just seen a television advert (I’m in a hotel room so have the tv on as there isn’t a radio available) for Heinz’s new ‘Farmers’ Market’ soup with The Archers theme tune!!

It can’t be right, does it mean that characters from the Archers will soon be seen advertising all kinds of products? Actually that throws up some great possibilities:-

Lilian Bellamy advertising a new brand of Gin, Matt Crawford selling executive housing, Lynda Snell (as Dylan Nells) recommending restaurants, Clarrie Grundy’s ‘homemade’ ready meals……and of course Tom Archer sausages.

Actually I’ve been waiting for the sausages to be available for some time now.

Full circle – backwards.

As many of you will know, I’m not a big fan of the ‘googlebox’ and don’t often make an effort to watch (I’ve even lost track of Heroes, which I was actually really enjoying), I much prefer the radio.

So it’s interesting that the excellent programme I watched last night is a sort of ‘full circle’ for me.

I first heard bits of ‘Stuart: a life backwards’, a true story by Alexander Masters as a book of the week on Radio Four; I didn’t hear the whole thing so decided to read the book. It was sad, funny, fascinating and well written; I enjoyed it very much.

Last night on BBC2 (terrible scheduling as it was up against Michael Palin on BBC1 – why did they do that?), the story was shown as a dramatisation.

The actors who played Alexander and Stuart were brilliant, I already knew the story but this didn’t detract from the programme, and in a way made me want to watch more.

The difficult life of Stuart Shorter is an important one, a story that needs to be heard – there are people like him all around us – how many of us notice them? He may have been a thief, a drug addict, an alcoholic, violent and difficult; but he was also a person; a scared, hurt, confused and abused person – I like to think that Alexander Masters’ story means that we can learn from the mistakes that were made in Stuart’s life (by him and those around him).

More information can be found at the author’s website.

If you want to read the book, and you should, I recommend getting it from here where it is only £3.75 and you get to help grow trees with The Woodland Trust.

Downloadable sexy

Exciting news, Susy tells me that it is possible to download episodes of CSI – yummy, Grissom on my computer!

The end of House! (for now)

Bummer! It’s the last episode of the fantastic tv programme ‘House’ tonight and I seem to have lost Channel 5 on my television.

I only watch two programmes and both are on Ch5 – CSI and House – what a bummer!

Anyway, hopefully Mum will get someone to record it for me, looks like it will be a good episode as House will get shot.

Oh well, as the Guardian tv guide puts it “Cheerio for now, Dr H. Come back soon, you sexy, limping, stubbly love god.”

The picture above comes from the Fox Television website – here