Sunday evenings have been prety damn good TV evenings recently. With Sherlock and Downtown (which I still haven't seen!) loads of people have been talking about what they're watching at the end of the weekend. For me though the last couple of weeks have been a particular highlight as BBC has been showing Call the Midwife, based on based on Jennifer Worth's memoirs of the same name. Jennifer Worth was a midwife in the east end of London in the 1950s and I understand that she worthed with the BBC production team on the TV adaptation before her death last year. I have to admit ... read more
Childhood TV memories
It may be seen as being controversial by some but we do allow Little Miss C to watch television. We try to manage what she watches quite carefully and it's certainly not on all the time, but we do find that sometimes she needs something to calm her down and 20 minutes of watching something she likes seems to do that. She can be running round like a loon and getting all frustrated because it's chucking it down with rain outside and I won't let her out into the garden, but just switching on Mr Tumble or similar can calm her down and when it's finished she's quite happy ... read more
Proud of the BBC
I've seen the #potbbc hashtag in use on twitter for a while now, but have to admit that until tonight I had no idea what it was all about. Oh boy have I been missing out. In short, the fabulous Mitch Benn has written this wonderful song all in praise of Auntie! I'm a softie who has been deprived of sleep these last few nights, but even without that I still felt a lump in my throat when I heard this tonight. The original video's pretty good, but this version created with pictures brings it all to life a bit more. At times like his I'm proud to be British, and a TV ... read more
Escape to River Cottage
Somehow, and I'm not entirely sure how, I realised a while back that I'd never actually seen the original series of River Cottage. I also recently had a birthday - cue a very unsubtle hint to Mr C for a birthday present. Escape To River Cottage covers Hugh's original move to Dorset and his first attempts at self-suficiency. It's amusing looking back and seeing him tackle things in a slightly naive manner when he would do exactly the same things today very confidently. In a way I found that there was actually a lack of information about some of the things ... read more
Mastercrafts: Weaving
I've been trying to catch up with the wonderful Mastercrafts that has been on BBC 2 recently and watched the latest episode on the BBC iPlayer just last night. This week's craft was weaving - something that I've often wanted to try, but not known much about. It's up on iPlayer for a week or so more and I really recommend that you go and watch it if you haven't done so already (direct link here) as it was a fab programme. Great to see the craft in more detail and to understand more the mechanics behind it. Also wonderful to see what can be created, ... read more
Mo
My television watching is often a few days behind when things are actually broadcast, so it was only yesterday when I caught up with Channel 4's drama Mo, which told of the life of the late Mo Mowlem. The film covers not only her time in Northern Ireland, but also her own personal battle against the illness that finally took her life. The acting was fantastic, with Julie Walter's portrayal of Mo as incredibly accurate. The way in which the story was told was beautiful in the way that it combined tender moments of Mo's life as well as the challenges that she went ... read more
Food for thought
Although we didn't get any snow, yesterday was a very grey day. Even by nine o'clock in the morning the skies still looked very heavy and made it see much earlier than it was. A day that needed to be spend inside the house. A fresh batch of scone (from a tried and tested Delia recipe) enjoyed with a cup of tea and catching up with the BBC Cranford series (how did I miss this when it was originally on TV?). Lovely. It also gave me time to make great progress with a second bootee, this time to match the version 2 one that I completed earlier in the week. The other thing ... read more
Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas
I was thrilled to see that as a follow up to Kirstie's Handmade Home there is now her Handmade Christmas too! I love Christmas and just wish I had more time to be able to do more myself, so I thought some inspiration for things that I might be able to fit in would be good.Having had a nice trip round Liberty with my mum lately it was lovely to see Kirstie also enjoying a wander round the Christmas store. There were some lovely decorations, including some that I could never justify the price of, but it would be very difficult to go round there without starting to get into the festive ... read more
Tales from the Green Valley
If you enjoyed Victorian Farm like I did then make sure you catch Tales From The Green Valley as well. I have to admit that I'd not heard of this series before and it was pure fluke that I turned on the TV tonight and caught the last ten minutes of what was unfortunately the penultimate in the series. Very much in the same vein as Victorian Farm, Tales from The Green Valley the team worked on a farm for a year as they would have had to have done in the times of James I (i.e. the 17th Century for those of you whose history isn't up to scratch!) This ... read more
Housewife, 49
A day off work sick gave me the opportunity to pamper myself and catch up with a few things off our magic TV box. Quite a few people I know are currently enjoying Nella Last's War and it reminded me that I had the TV adaptation, Housewife 49, which I still hadn't got round to watching. I had thoroughly enjoyed both Nella Last's War and Nella Last's Peace, so I was a tad worried that the film version would not live up to how I had pictured everything in my head. I shouldn't have worried though as Victoria Wood had done a fantastic job with the script and playing ... read more