Category Archives: TV

The last George Gently

This is becoming a habit; an addiction. So, in the 60s, pavements were paved with paving stones. At that time, tarmac was a road thing.

And the wall in the picture is pure 80s.

And did I mention PVU windows and doors?

More George Gently

This is becoming addictive. The metal sheeting with holes simply didn’t exist in the 60s.

1990s I think.

UPVC windows weren’t really a thing then either.

George Gently

While feeling tired after a shift a few days ago, and not wanting to put any real effort to find something on TV, I defaulted to Netflix.

I randomly picked George Gently, about which I knew absolutely nothing, it having passed me by when it was aired on whatever channel it was aired.

I’d not previously known that the series was set in the Northeast, in the 60s. It’s not particularly good, or indeed bad, but I’ve continued to watch now and then because it’s easy viewing. And, perhaps, there’s the northern nostalgia.

It must be pretty difficult creating 1960s scenes sixty years after the fact.

Here’s an example. From memory, plastic drainpipes didn’t exist in 1964; at least not in the Northeast. And those boxed-in external meter cupboards didn’t start appearing until the 70s. The house door’s not very clear in the picture, but I’m pretty sure that’s an 80-90s door. I could be wrong.

And now an Italian army surplus jacket from the 80s. They were quite fashionable, being more modern than most surplus in the 80s.

Carpet

Almost at the end of a film on Netflix and I see my old bathroom carpet.

We’ll, it’s actually on a boat, or on a set that resembles a boat.

No not the ear, the carpet.

Yes, the carpet.

I had to pause the film to take a picture, so there’s a huge title on that last picture.

I was newly divorced at the time. Of my divorce, not the film. The carpet was free, leftover from an office refurb. Who was I to refuse free bathroom carpet.

The Quatermass Xperiment

I’m currently watching the Quatermass Xperiment (1955) on TV.

AKA the creeping unknown.

As a young child, I found this film pretty scary. Following the return of a space ship to Earth, with its nose buried deep in the ground, the experts arrived at the crash site.

As a young child, I wouldn’t have known what a VW T2 was, even though I had one of those German police VW car and van models.

So I wouldn’t have noticed that the experts had arrived in a T2 split screen.

One unusual thing about the van was the radio set in the engine compartment!

Inside Out

Well, the past couple of days were pretty unusual. The BBC’s Inside Out team were filming in the pub for a programme about how hard it is to run an independent bar.

The team (Chris, Andrew and Phil) we’re great, particularly presenter Chris Jackson who kept on working behind the bar when he was no longer being filmed.

The day was so busy, there was little time to take pictures.

What we’d not expected was that the team would be such a nice bunch of people.

There was obviously a serious theme to their visit; running a pub isn’t easy, particularly one that that wasn’t surviving when we bought in. However, after a few months, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

The programme will be shown on BBC1, on 10th February.

Filming

Walking to a bus stop in town the other night, I noticed bright lights to the side of the high level bridge. On investigation, I found that a film crew were at work.

Film 4

I quite like Film 4’s Christmas commercial. Well, perhaps not the commercial itself; the soundtrack’s great. Eels’ Everything’s gonna be cool this Christmas.