The Trumptonshire Web

http://www.t-web.co.uk/trumpgo.htm

“Here is the clock, the Trumpton clock.
Telling the time steadily, sensibly,
never too quickly, never too slowly.

Telling the time for Trumpton.”

Update: The site looks rather dated now but it’s still up which is great. For aficionados of 1960s/70s Children’s TV there is a lot to read though. My update includes a complete Trumpton episode for to watch on YouTube.

Downfall Der Untergang

Downfall (2004) – Der Untergang

http://www.downfallthefilm.com/

Downfall (2004) follows the dying days of the third Reich mostly from the viewpoint of Traudl Junge, Hitler’s personal secretary. I watched this last night on Channel 4, definitely not for the faint hearted, the scene where Magda Goebels kills her children is harrowing in the extreme.

Update: the original site I linked is now some kind of clickbait slimming website and the wayback machine doesn’t work properly for embedded videos. So good old Youtube has the trailer here:

Trailer in HD but no subtitles

Since my original post the film has generated a kind of momentum of its own. It has spawned many memes in the form of parodies normally based around the scene in the bunker where Hitler is flies into a rage.

Blackadder – Wikiquote

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Blackadder

From the page: “

“I’m as happy as a Frenchman who’s invented a pair of self-removing trousers.”

…and

Baldrick: I have a plan, sir.
Blackadder: Really, Baldrick, a cunning and subtle one?
Baldrick: Yes, sir.
Blackadder: As cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed
Professor of Cunning at Oxford University?”

The one they missed…

“Baldrick, you wouldn’t know a cunning plan if it stripped naked, painted itself purple and danced on top of a harpsichord singing ‘Cunning plans are here again’…”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackadder_the_Third

BBC – Cult Television – to close 15 July

The BBC is to close their hugely popular Cult Television site on July 15

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/cult/2005/06/24/20186.shtml


The BBC has decided – as part of its “restructuring of the BBC’s online activities” – to pull the plug on its hugely popular Cult website.

Those not familiar with Cult should mosey on down and have shufti. Readers who already enjoy its eclectic mix should read the following with horror:

This site shuts next month. Bye, then!

Sadly, as part of the restructuring of the BBC’s online activities, this site is closing at the end of the month.

We’re trying to find alternative bbc.co.uk homes for some sites, but much of the content will be removed from the servers, and that which remains will not be maintained.

We’d like to thank all our users (700,000 of you last month!), and to everyone who expressed an opinion of us in the BBC’s Online Audience survey (we nearly came top – beaten only by those pesky News people).

The team have had a wonderful six years looking after the site, and hope you continue to enjoy the BBC’s online offerings.

PS: Don’t worry about the Doctor Who site. It’s safe.

That’s right – 700,000 people a month, so obviously it has to go. What’s more, much of the material faces deletion. Marvellous. As one irate punter puts it: “Who’s the bozo who made this decision?”

Daleks are not for kids?

Too scary apparently

http://www.megastar.co.uk/world/news/2005/05/16/sMEG01MTExNjI0MDM3MjI.html


‘Exterminate! Oh why do I bother?’
The nanny state is wagging its finger again – this time wrapping the nippers in cotton wool over Dr Who and the Daleks.

An episode from the current, excellent series of the Time Lord caper – called ‘Dalek’, confusingly – had scenes where Dr Who’s pepper-pot shaped sworn enemy was shown being tortured.

The ‘torture’ scene has proven enough to see the great and good at the British Board of Film Classification refuse to give the new DVD release of the hit BBC drama a PG certificate.

So Daleks are not for kids then – got it.

BBC Monsoon Railway

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/monsoon-railway.shtml

Update: – No longer on iPlayer , but it is on Youtube (resolution 480 so just about watchable)

Information is still present on the BBC website though

BBC4 Monsoon Railway

Fascinating BBC television documentary about the Indian Railways which brought back memories of my trek across India and Nepal many years ago.

Channel 4 – Religion and Belief, Derren Brown, Messiah

http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/B/believeitornot/derrenbrown.html

Update: now available as an ‘on demand’ show

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown-the-specials/on-demand/38958-001

This show was amazing, Mr Brown is a very clever man.

“Nietzsche made the point well that we equate truth with what we merely want to believe.

Science moves forward by changing its views based on observation. A learning machine, it wants to be shown to be wrong, so that it can dispassionately correct itself and advance. It looks for what’s reliable, what holds up, searches for the bit that makes something work and shakes off unhelpful clutter.”

-Derren Brown