Articles Tagged with "Bbc"

30/11/2008: Wallander

I meant to post this article a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve been very bad at updating my blog recently. The BBC is showing an adaptation of one of Henning Mankell’s Wallander novels tonight. Mankell is one of my favourite crime fiction writers, so here are a few random thoughts (no spoilers!):

They’ve started with Sidetracked, the fifth novel in the series. Probably a good choice — it’s the most critically acclaimed. The first in the series, Faceless Killers, is arguably the weakest Wallander novel so would not be a good choice if the production company is hoping to have a series commissioned.
Rather than try to compress the whole novel into a 90 minute show, the BBC has wisely made it into a mini-series. This is an excellant choice as it’s quite a twisty, turny story, and needs a bit of time devoted to it.
Kenneth Brannagh will probably turn out to be an excellant choice of actor to play Kurt Wallander.
I wonder if they relocate the novels from Sweden to the UK? I hope not. But if not, I…

31/07/2008: Olympics Monkey

Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett and the BBC have reworked 1970s TV classic Monkey for the Beijing Olympics.

Awesome!

13/04/2008: Dr Who Goes To Pompeii

OK, so Doctor Who has gone to Pompeii and saved Caecilius and his family. Now the entire Cambridge Latin Course will need to be rewitten!

18/02/2008: Bottled Water

Panorama has just run an exposé on bottled water — you can still watch it on iPlayer. As a rule, I tend not to buy bottled water, initially this was because it’s a waste of money, but in the last couple of years, having considered the environmental cost of bottled water, that is now a big justification too.

The obvious (to me) environmental problem with bottled water is that bottled water is transported hundreds, and sometimes thousands of miles, using carbon-hungry transport methods — ships and trucks mostly. By contrast, tap water is transported from a relatively local source (i.e. the reservoir)

But Panorama brought up another few environmental and moral reasons to avoid it:

The plastic that makes the bottles needs to be produced from a large quantity of crude oil, both directly as a raw material for the polymers, and…

18/02/2008: Insane

Mohamed Al Fayed has gone beyond the improbable to the truly insane.

07/01/2008: New BBC Home Page

So the BBC has redesigned its home page. OK, so normally I’m against the “let’s be a portal” philosophy, but for the Beeb, I think it works. They produce such a colossal volume of content — and in areas that make sense for a portal site (news, weather, sports, listings info) — that they can get away with it. It sports togglable, movable widgets a la iGoogle, thus allowing the user to customise their “BBC experience” to their own tastes.

Overall, I’d say it’s an improvement. There’s still work to be done, but it’s only in beta, so that is to be expected.

But why the animated clock in the upper right-hand corner? (No, unlike most of the content on the page, it can’t be removed.) Virtually every operating system includes a clock somewhere on the screen by default — which the user can generally customise to their heart’s content — not only in terms of fonts and colours, but also more important stuff like whether to use 24-hour or…

16/04/2007: BoJo on MySpace

The BBC on Politicians with MySpace pages:

In the UK, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell has registered on MySpace — and has an unofficial fan club page, “Proud to be a Minger”, with 161 members.

Meanwhile, the Boris Johnson Appreciation Society, which recognises the shadow higher education minister as “the vital free agent of British politics”, has stacked up a very respectable 7,751 members.

13/04/2007: BBC News Roundup

Scientists produce sperm from bone (no sniggering at the back) and teen trashes house.

11/04/2007: Life on Mars

Well, the Life on Mars finale was last night, and I thought it came to a brilliant conclusion. Sentimental without being too cheesy. It seemed to make sense of the whole series, but upon reflection, the big question, “am I mad, in a coma or back in time?” was left open.

The BBC has news of a sequel, Ashes to Ashes that should see Gene Hunt return to our screens next year.

David E Kelly is planning an American remake. You’ve got to wonder whether it will end up as another Coupling or achieving the rare accomplishment that The Office: An American Workplace managed. (The latter is even shown on British television, although not achieving anything close to the ratings of the original series.)

Farewell Sam Tyler!