I Rant, Therefore I Am

Does as it says on the tin.

Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

My Meeting with Williamton Orphingson-Smyth

Posted by VK-Legget on 21 January, 2008

I take time off from my usual satirical writings to tell you of one of the most memorable moment of my life. I am talking of course, of last Thursday, where, by great fortitude, I happened to meet the famed actor of stage and screen, Williamton Orphingson-Smyth.

Famed, of course, for his appearance in the war epic ‘We Went Over Sea To Bloody Well Show Jerry A Thing Or Two’, and the now world famous romantic comedy, ‘Cor Blimey Matron, Up For A Bit Of ‘Ow’s Yer Father?’, Orphingson-Smyth is a world famous actor in the South-west England region, whose name has reached the far-flung regions of the South London Commuter Belt, due to his superb season as Mr. Dave in the RSPCA’s version of ‘The Two-Hundred and Ninety-Forth Man!’. Williamton’s selfless act, of going on strike during filming of the short lived TV series ’Wiggie Mylandoner’s Birthday Bash’, in protest of his measly fees, which only amounted to a couple of thousand pounds per working day, allowed people in such important professions as the stage and screen to earn well into the mi££ions. Despite protest from the Union of Underpaid Cameramen, all of whom were left unemployed and broke by Orphingson-Smyth’s coordinated strike, Williamton came through with flying colours, and his name is now synonymous with his home town of Tiverton, where he has become nothing short of a cult hero.

Williamton grew up during the depression, and times were tough. Times were so tough, that his father had to sell off one of their Glouchestershire estates, and had to seriously consider working for a time. No Orphingson-Smyth had ever done such a degrading act, and for Jameson, Williamton’s father, to consider such an act brought great shame upon the family, so much so that they came to be known as ‘Working Class’ throughout the West Country area. Jameson, who could not deal with such great shame, had to think the unthinkable, and killed himself 2 years later, by chocking on a Ferrero Roche. Williamton, fortuitously as coming from such humble roots, with such a troubled childhood, managed to get himself into the school of Eton, and the university of Oxford, at a time when entrance requirements were much, much higher, and it is only due to the supreme wealth of Williamton’s great-uncle’s 2nd cousin, who, not wishing to bring further shame to the family, paid the £4 remainder of his tuition fees that could not be covered by the Orphingson-Smyths.

Now, I met Williamton last Thursday. I was sitting in a sandwich shop in Tooting, eating a ploughman’s, when Williamton, who I gather had had perhaps one too many sherries, came up to my table and was sick in my hat. Amazed and taken aback by such a famous star coming up to me and announcing himself in such a manner, I was immediately dumbstruck, and quite unable to speak for approximately 3.7 seconds, at which point I held out a hand and introduced myself. He muttered something incomprehensible, before biting off my ear. Astounded that such a celebrity should pay such attention to me, I vowed never to wash my ear again. I have so far been true to this, as I have been unable to find it.

However, so shortly after these happy events, tragedy struck. For, no sooner had this event finished, that Williamton walked across the busy street, in the best attempt at a straight line, broke the window of a lime-green Fiat 500, reached in, pulled the handle to opened the door, and hot-wired the car, an event that caused a man sitting near me to suddenly jump up from his table and shout ‘Stop! Come back with my car!’ before shouting some profanity I that daren’t repeat here. However, Williamton was too preoccupied driving the car the wrong way down Tooting Broadway tube station to pay attention. As his vehicle disappeared from view down an escalator, I could only imagine what horrible events would transpire once the 16 police officers, 37 community support officers, 26 transport police officers, 7 armed police officers, 8 police dogs, 19 plain-clothed police officers and 57 vigilantes had caught up with the motor vehicle.

Shock, horror readers, for the constabulary then dared to arrest a beloved actor of stage and screen, and put him on a show trial. He was sent down to serve 14 days in an open prison. Now, any G__-fearing Englishman such as myself must baulk at the prospect of having one of our national treasures of the south-west imprisoned, and I have as such started a riot to free this clearly innocent man. You can join the cause too! Just show up in the Wandsworth area between 6pm-7am Mon-Thurs, and make your voice heard in the name of justice!

Posted in Film, Funny, News, TV | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Series Review: The IT Crowd Version 2.0

Posted by VK-Legget on 12 December, 2007

So, apparently I’ve decided to start reviewing various TV shows that I’ve seen in the past few months.

I’m going to start with The IT Crowd’s second series. For those not in the know, it is a comedy that focuses on 2 IT tech support, for want of a better word, nerds, and a woman with little knowledge of what this thing they call ‘technology’ is. And yet it is still amusing. This is probably down to the fact that it comes from the same guys who did Father Ted. And so onto the review itself;

It could have been so much more. I’m not saying it’s bad, as the season’s start was what testified this. The first half of the season was brilliant, and probably some of the funniest things to have been on our screens at the time. However, after that it went, to quote the ex-boss Denholm (RIP), “Aaaaaall the way to the bottom.” The second season didn’t go out with a bang, more a damp squelch. I was actually quite dissapointed, that the show went from the hilarity of the first episode to the quite frankly, well, just poor last episode. I couldn’t help but think that they were running out of ideas, which isn’t really that good considering that it focused on a new character. My friend said that the only reason that I found the first few episodes funny was, and I quote, as they “Got out of that goddamn basement.” I appreciate that the novelty of being in a cramped, dirty, bottom-of-the-pile underroom gets old after a while, but this simple wasn’t it. I mean, they left the basement in all of the episodes, to go to a play, a funeral, a cannible’s house (also Roy and Douglas’ houses), a dinner party, a television studio, and Douglas’ office. The problem wasn’t the setting, it could be funny if all the action just took place in some sort of white room, it was the quality of material which let it down by the end. As I said before, I think that they were running out of ideas, simply as there was such a difference in the quality of material between the start and end of the season, I think they used it all up there and then, and were rather stuck when they discovered they still had half a season to write. Onto the episodes themselves;

As this is a British style show, with 6 episodes a season, I will rate each episode and make a couple of comments on it. Don’t expect this when I come to review an American season (only 24 episodes!)

Episode 1: ☆☆☆☆
Our heroes go on a work outing! How hilarious! Well… actually… it was. They went out to see the aptly-named gay play, ‘Gay!’, and Roy pretends to be disabled. It’s a rather cliched concept (the outing that is), but this was definatly an original twist to said cliched concept.

Episode 2:☆☆☆☆
Denholm dies. WHAT. This episode made me incredibly angry, as, although Denholm died, I was unable to feel sad or ‘write to my MP’ as it was so damn funny (more so than any TV episode dealing with someone’s death has any right to be).Douglas is introduced, who, although very funny in his own right, can’t really compare to Denholm. Very good, but Denholm’s death prevented me from adding a fifth star

Episode 3: ☆☆☆☆☆
Moss tries internet dating and winds up with a cannible. Roy tries watching a DVD but everyone keeps spoiling the ending. Jen has a fag in a Kafka novel. Like the previous 2 episodes, these are all funnier than they have any right to be, and due to the 3 subplots, I think it is the funniest in the season, and also the series. Deserves 5 stars.

Episode 4: ☆☆☆
Our heroes go to a dinner party! How hilarious! Well… not as much as the first few episodes. It’s a bit of a cliche, but is lacking the dressing that the first 2 episodes used to spice up their cliches of work outings (play and funeral). Still a decent episode, but doesn’t measure up to the strong start the season made. Richmond became a (temporary) main character in this episode, and as much as I like the character, it doesn’t work. I much prefer his walk on cameos (which were done to perfection in the 2nd episode).

Episode 5: ☆☆☆
Not as good as the 4 before it. Still not bad, but… Well, in it’s defense, it still had it’s moments (Moss accidentally joining a live televised disscussion of the war in Iraq springs to mind), but it was by far the worst episode of the season. At least I thought so, untill;

Episode 6: ☆☆
Oh dear. What can I say? Very poor episode, maybe the worst of the entire series (although I may be wrong, as I haven’t seen the first season for a while, but nothing springs to mind). There was so much more that could have been made of this episode, especially with Moss and Roy alone in the basement (also Douglas!), but ultimatly…

All in all, not a bad season. It did trail off a bit towards the end, and the less said about the actual season final the better, but this is more than compensated by the strong start. Perhaps the last few episodes weren’t really that bad, and I’m just comparing them to the incredibly good first episodes. Well, whether the writers have run out of ideas or not, there will be a third season, and I can only hope it’s more consistant than this one (well, consistantly good). Thats actually not true, as I also hope for some Chris Morris. But that may be in vain. Oh well, at least his final episode was a good one.

Next time I will be reviewing some other show. I’ve not decided what yet. It probably won’t be something really bad to rip the piss out of as I probably won’t have stayed to see the whole season.

Posted in TV | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Eels

Posted by VK-Legget on 1 December, 2007

Posted in Funny, TV, Youtube | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

How British Officers SHOULD Behave in the Event of Capture

Posted by VK-Legget on 1 December, 2007

Posted in Funny, TV, Youtube | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Talking of Alan Partridge

Posted by VK-Legget on 19 November, 2007

As I have done in my previous post, heres one of my favorite TV moments from the show

Alan has just been arrested for stealing a traffic cone…

Posted in Funny, TV, Youtube | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Aunty Beeb

Posted by VK-Legget on 19 November, 2007

Ah, the good old state television and radio coperation, the BBC.

I’ve recently seen I’m Alan Partridge, the hilarious Steve Coogan comedy about a ‘failed chat-show host turned late-night radio presenter’, and there was one scene where he tries to get the head of programming at the BBC to accept various quickly thougt up ideas, such as ‘Youth Hostelling with (ex-boxer) Chris Eubank’ or ‘Fat People…in…prison?’.

I’m sure this was very funny at the time.

Which was before BBC3.

Now programs either as silly, or siller, are being made for the BBC, such as the gems that are Help! My Dogs as Fat as Me! and Can Fat Teens Hunt? .

And this brings me to my point. The licensing fee, which British houses with a TV have to pay, and in turn pays for the BBC.

So the BBC has decided, in all it’s wisdom, to cut the things that actually justifies the fee, ie journalism.

Now, for some reason the BBC has got a reputation outside the UK for being the pinnacle in journalistic impartiality and quality. No idea where they got this from, possibly because it’s a well known brand that isn’t American.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh. The BBC does offer excellent world radio programming, in the form of the World Service, and their international TV isn’t so bad either. Their website is one of the top news sites on the web.

Yet us in Britain, who pay the aforementioned fee, are paying for this, and in return getting, well, Freaky Eaters.

I am aware that Jeremy Paxman, the man who likes to think of himself as Britain’s top journalist, has already brought up this exact topic, but when he earns more than £1 mil a year from the BBC, it’s easy to call him a hypocrite.

But I won’t, as he got where he is by being a good journalist, and wants to see the Beeb’s journalistic integrity maintained.

Now, all that ranting over old news aside, anyone who has been following the news in Britain knows of the many scandals it’s been in in the past few month, theres the rigged competitions (fair play, the BBC did act on them as soon as it came out, but why not before), the controversy with the Queen (maybe I can understand, as our country has a somewhat unhealthy obsession with the royals), erm, calling a cat on children’s show Blue Peter Socks, as opposed to Cookie, which came first in a poll of viewers (Socks came second, one hell of a fuss about what is really nothing this one), and, finally, dubbing sound of babies crying over a short video about a woman who had quintuplets. Why is that last one even news?

I have no idea what I was trying to achive with this post, but overall I think it was ‘BBC can do good things but don’t. And people give them stick for all the wrong reasons.’
Yes, there are plenty of good reasons to complain. That they dubbed sound over a news item that really wasn’t much of a news item isn’t one of them.

Posted in News, TV | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Posted by VK-Legget on 19 November, 2007

The Writers Guild of America has gone on strike!

May I be one of the first to say, whoopee-shit.

Actually, I may be too late for that.

Anyway,  the Writers Guild of America has gone on strike. This means that no new TV programs are being made in America as no one will write them (besides scab labour).
I know what you’re thinking ‘But V-K Legget, why are you going on about this when you live in Britain and hate American TV programs?’
Well, first of all thats not entirely true as I do like Heroes, House and a few others that I’ve seen over the years, including the Daily Show which I sometimes see one day later on C4 (although not anymore) and secondly, it all seems a bit… well, trivial. As television is. Obviously going on strike puts pressure on TV companies to pay them more as otherwise they’ll have no programs to show/sell, but at the end of the day, it’s an entertainment industry, it doesn’t really inconvinience anyone like a public transport or power strike would. It reminds me (or doesn’t, as I wasn’t born back then) of the British Miners Strike in the mid-80s.
To simplify it;

Margaret Thatcher: I shall close down the mines as they are unprofitable.
Miners: We shall strike as we do not like that idea.
Margaret Thatcher: … Then I shall close down the mines as they are unprofitable and no ones working in them.

Well, maybe thats oversimplifying it.

Margaret Thatcher: I shall close down the mines BECAUSE I AM THE EVIL INCARNATE.
Miners: We shall strike BECAUSE WE ARE DANGEROUS COMMUNISTS.
Margaret Thatcher: … Then I shall close down the mines as they are unprofitable and no ones working in them AND I AM THE EVIL INCARNATE.

Of course, thats still oversimplifying it, because miners who worked in mines that wern’t going to be shut down also went on strike, and this also arguably caused the left-wing of British politics to implode in on itself, which caused a downward spiral thats left us today in the situation where the next election will see Centralists A stand against the ruling Centralists B, each of who have stolen each other’s policies 500 times over, and where Centralists A will probably be the victor, as they have a young, charismatic leader, while Centralists B have a dull, old Scotsman who is paying for the mistakes of their ex-young, charismatic leader, and is constanly being told to resign in favour of a new young, charismatic leader. Meanwhile the Liberal-Centralists C have jumped on the bandwagon by putting their 66-year old leader out of his misery and are now trying to select between young, charismatic leader X and young, charismatic leader Y.
But I digress.
But my point stands that this won’t have a severe effect on the country as a whole (as much as you may think, the American economy does not lean entirely on TV (it leans entirely on selling weapons to 3rd world dictators)). Although that wasn’t the point I was making. And the previous point doesn’t mean much as America won’t shut down it’s TV industry (it’s America, for christ’s sake).

But overall, this is all rather trivial. To think it’s taken me this long to make this relativly simple point…

Posted in News, Politics, TV | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Tuesday

Posted by VK-Legget on 17 November, 2007

Why has no one told me about this earlier?

For those that don’t know, such as myself before this afternoon, this is a film that is currently in post production and stars (wait for it) John Simm and Philip Glenister! Yes, the 2 protaganists (well,  1 protaganist and 1 proantaganistic anti-heroic anti-villain) of the best TV drama to come out of Britain for the past… Well, it’s been a while, anyway. Well, from what I can make out, they have changed sides, and now play bank robbers in the 80s (not cops in the 70s).  I don’t have much information on this, and I’m not sure I want much, I’ll just wait to be suprised when it comes out. Life on Mars is, at last count, one of the few TV Drama series in my DVD collection, the rest comprising of mainly of TV comedies or films. Because of this, I am looking forward to this only slightly less than Ashes to Ashes, the sequel to Life on Mars the begins filming later this year and will air early next.

Why oh why do I feel I will be dissapointed?

Posted in Film, TV | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »