Rhysey's posts, page 11

Blue Peter cut back to 2 shows a week

There was that great interview with Biddy Baxter on BBC Four the other evening, and she seems to be quite praising of current-Blue Peter, but you did get the impression she found some of the "modern" stuff hard to watch.

I'm glad they're cutting back the screenings, most of the programmes these days do feel like they're struggling for content and a huge chunk of the 20 minute show is taken up telling us what's happening over the next week or so.

BBC squashing all credits still more

Although it's likely that when the BBC use this new ECP format for Neighbours they won't have sorted out the right-aligned credits scroll, even with a larger, centrally aligned text roller it is still going to be very difficult to read. For the sake of the last few months of the show on the BBC I'd rather they adopt the generic background used on Network Ten.

http://www.janruss.com/neigh_ecp.jpg

"Sad" Neighbours theme

That video on YouTube is one I captured for PerfectBlend.net - the audio is a little fuzzy because my sound card was b*ggered when I captured it a few years ago.

The full sad theme is very long - and portions of it have been used on and off for years. Original episodes in series one of Neighbours used little bits of it here and there as incidental music. In the 1980s and occasionally in the 90s (e.g. during Todd's post-death episodes) they used other portions of it in the background.

Todd and Jim's deaths in 1992 and 1993 had one 70 second edit of the sad theme accompanying the closing credits. Helen's death in 1997 and Madge's in 2000 had a very slightly different edit, again 70 seconds long (although the BBC edited down the credits for Madge's death to 40 seconds and used the arrangement available on PerfectBlend - which is another portion of the full sad theme that has been used in the background occasionally.

Can I ask why it was played on Buzzcocks?

Reporter 2 font or similar

Does anyone know of anywhere that may offer a free version of a font similar to the "Reporter Two" typeface, as used for the official Home and Away logo? Cheers

Big Brother

Having read and studied Nineteen Eighty Four in depth, I would love a new BB series that drew more inspiration and ideas from the novel and whole concept.

My ideal house would be much starker, more intimidating and would use to greater effect the idea of the "video walls" through which Big Brother speaks to the inhabitants of the real Orwellian land in the book.

Big Brother 5 succeeded so much because it took a totally new look at the concept and in being "evil" it took one of the prominent underlying themes of Orwell's work and exploited it in the house - whereas the succeeding series' have tried to emulate this and not succeeded as much. When those two girls - the Geordie one with the stud and the bolshie one - got sent to the secret flat it caused genuine surprise and anticipation - we'd never seen anything like that before. Now it's expected every season for them to copy that, and the whole splitting up the house thing really didn't work in BB3 so why they think doing equal 50:50 splits will work now is beyond me.

They need to stand back and think of a totally new method of using the whole housemate/Big Brother relationship. I'm pleased there's likely to be a new house because it at least is forcing them to make certain changes that will ultimately mean they have to plot out the whole series more carefully than last year which just seemed to be a rehash of the same "twists" as BBCs 5 & 6.

Wogan paid for hosting 'Children In Need'

Exactly, he is a television and radio presenter and his "brand image" is worth a lot to all generations. I'm sure that, like Eurovision, Terry's appearance is one of the key features to the success of the telethon. Charity or not, it's a long spell hosting a live all-nighter.

Welsh TV Programming

LOL, it's actually gors a f , but close enough.

I was going to say.... Welsh is one of the oldest languages still in existence and pre-dates the majority of what is spoken around the world, including English, by a long way.

Incidentally, the post made earlier with the Welsh "translations" are there purely for irony's sake and are not representative of real Welsh. They are examples of a few more modern words where the most common usage is a slight "Welsh-i-fying" of the word used in English... but there are occasionally "proper" Welsh words to replace these, but in the South especially where few people speak Welsh, they are not used in favour of more English translations.

Ambiwlans - Ambulance
Plant - Children
Miwsig - Music - Cerddoriaeth
Sied - Shed - Penty
Rygbi - Rugby
Stadiwm - Stadium
Bocs - Box - Blwch
Tri - Three
Gem - Game - the plural is far different: chwaraeon and could possibly be used singularly, as chwarae - i.e. to play a game
Trenau - Trains

Welsh is a very difficult language to master if you've not been brought up speaking it... I heard a great quote the other day comparing learning it to something almost impossible... I wish I could remember what it was! My English father has lived in Wales since long before I was born 23 years ago, and despite the rest of us all speaking Welsh, he can still only understand a very very small amount, barely a few words.

Welsh TV Programming

Ahh yeh, I kinda get it.. Sorry! Thought for a minute you were trying to give a correct dictionary translation there

Welsh TV Programming

Yes indeed, lol. Actually, he came to give a talk to us in school about the series not long before he died. I was never a massive fan of PFD, I think it must have clashed with something else that I liked. My parents (including my non-Welsh speaking Father) used to like it quite a lot.

C'mon Midffild, made by Ffilmiau'r Nant, is another first class S4C programme - really makes me howl at times!

Welsh TV Programming

Firstly, 623058 , I think you mean gaelic ? As a Welshman who lives in Scotland, I feel very proud and thankful that the Welsh language is as prominent as it is in Wales, unlike Scotland where the Scottish Gaelic output is almost insignificant in its quantity, and is only broadcast in lieu of some English programmes on BBC2.

And Alexia , "Music" is Cerddoriaeth or Cerdd , depending on the context. Miwsig is a South Welsh "Welsh-i-fying" of the English word, but is not standard Welsh and would never be used as such.

Rownd a Rownd actually has very high production standards, considering its budget, as does Pobol y Cwm. It's a shame so few people understand Welsh because the output available in the language is very often first class and rivals other British productions for creativity and quality, despite its far smaller budget.

GMTV: Mark II

Not so much spelling mistake as American domination of the world

Nice mocks - agree the text is too lurid, but the overall idea (especially the floral one) is good.

Home & Away

Hardly! Neighbours was much more upmarket in its heyday - all the families were pretty much middle class, business and multinational corporations dominated much of the story as did the yuppie culture of the eighties. Likewise, there weren't any "bogan" characters like there are now (i.e. chav families) and the whole appearance of the show was much slicker and classier.