Love those photos of Michelle Obama meeting the new princess of our hearts, Kate Middleton and the caption given by the excellent blogger Fleet Street Fox who pointed out that one looked like a normal sized woman and the other resembled a lollipop.
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I think we get the better end of the special relationship. We give them Piers Morgan, they give us Kevin Spacey. We give them David Beckham, Jason Statham, Simon Cowell and, for large chunks of the year, Gordon Ramsay and they give us Madonna but then do us a favour and take her back.
We also manage to temporarily offload the likes of Kelly Brook, Martine McCutcheon, Cheryl Cole and every other useless bit of fluff who thinks she's got what it takes to 'break into Hollywood' only to come back with their tails between their legs when they find out Americans are, to their surprise, much more discerning and sophisticated in their tastes than we give them credit for.
Though I guess they probably feel they have enough publicity shitehawks with no talent of their own without having to import ours. Particularly some toilet-attendant-attacking Geordie bint who looks like a broomstick handle with nylon hair stuck on top (because she's worth it), who they can't understand and who has an autotune addiction when she's not lip synching to crap pop songs.
No, I think we've done well. We've welcomed Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos and The Wire while they get Ricky Gervais, Benny Hill and Hugh Grant.
Admittedly they've given us Maccy Ds, KFC, Loyd Grossman and Miller Lite but every relationship has its baggage.
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On my second honeymoon - by which I mean the honeymoon to my second marriage, not an extra curricular romantic break to put back the spark in our relationship - we met a very prim and proper elderly American couple over breakfast in our hotel.
We were in Eilat to catch some sun and they were doing the Holy Land bit because of their deeply held Christianity.
They were very upstanding and respectable, even a bit dull, as they told us of their desire to see where the Lord did his work and all that. I didn't argue, it didn't seem polite.
So I did what I always do when I can't have a conversation about football, I try and steer the chat on to television. It's the next lowest common denominator.
I told them how much I liked US television and they told me how much they liked British TV, particularly comedy. Oh, I wondered, which ones? 'Are You Being Served?' they replied, with the straightest of straight faces.
Sue and I looked at each other, looked at them, looked at each other again - like they do in badly made sitcoms from the 1970s for instance.
'Oh yes,' said the Christians, 'your humour is very subtle. Much more so than our comedies. We love the characters and their funny ways.'
And Mrs Slocombe with her pussy and John Inman's homosexuality? Surely that's all going against the word of the Lord? 'Oh, Mrs Slocombe is very funny, we know people just like her. And Mr Humphries always saying 'I'm free', it's hilarious.'
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However, The Sopranos remains the only series currently around that I will watch every week, right the way through to the end of the series and straight into the next one the week after (hooray for Sky Atlantic). And this despite the fact I did exactly the same when it was first on Channel 4 at what seemed like a different time every week.
There is something reassuring about tuning in the same time every week to sit down and enjoy a programme - different to the boxset experience where you cram in three episodes at once, leave it a few weeks, do the same again and so on.
The weekly commitment is a dedication, a way of showing you really, really, want to watch it as an event rather than as a justification for buying the boxset.
No extras, no director's interview, no bloopers, or behind the scenes clips. Just pure unadulterated 'sit back and enjoy the ride' fun. It really is THAT good.
Too many shows with 15 or 20 or 26 episodes require too much dedication to get into. Lost? I was after three goes and as for 24, I never even started.
The Wire was an exception. I watched and loved it even thought the BBC put it on ridiculously late. Channel 4 also spoiled Curb by sending it to the nether regions of the schedules.
I can't bear soaps any more. Used to love Brookside and have tried the others but to no avail. And now I don't work on The Sun, there's no editorial requirement for me to know what's going on.
So until the same time, same channel, some time soon, it's goodnight...Solly
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