Dilemma!

A while ago, I went to a recording of the BBC Radio panel show, Dilemma, and it starred the amazing Sue Perkins, also famous for a variety of things such as being the writer of the Sitcom, Heading Out, which she also starred in, as well as being in the Great British Bake-off. 

I must admit that I’m not a massive fan of Dilemma. The thing is, when I find it funny I find it funny, but when I don’t I don’t. That sounds a bit obvious, I know, but sometimes there are large areas in which I don’t find the show very interesting. Despite this, the programme is often rather funny and when I went to watch it, I must say that I did enjoy myself (and it was great seeing Sue Perkins). During the show, there was a quick-fire round, a part discussing moral dilemmas and short section in which the panellists answered some of the audience’s dilemmas.

Whilst we were at this recording (and at the Mitchell and Webb recording and many other news-based recordings, now I think about it) I realised that I don’t really know a lot about what is going on in the world. This makes it quite confusing for me when they remain on a particular topic for a long amount of time, talking about a famous person in the news who I have never heard of – I really ought to keep up to date with the news. Sure, I know some stuff, but not a lot. Although you can guess what the person they are referring to is like, and it is funny for that reason, it’s still not very interesting.

Nevertheless, the recording was wonderful. And after the Recording, we waited outside (although it was really cold) AND I MET SUE PERKINS! Now that was great, and she’s such a nice person.

That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Recording

As my blog is new, I haven’t mentioned before that I often go to radio recordings. Not very often, but fairly frequently, whenever something interesting appears on the BBC Tickets website (this is the only website I apply for tickets from as I don’t really know what other websites for other productions are).

And I got tickets to go to That Mitchell And Webb Sound, which was rather exciting, I must admit. So, like with every Radio recording, we chose to get there hours early and just wander around for ages, waiting until we could be let in. The advantage of this, however, was that we could get our tickets stamped first; I got ticket number one. I never get ticket number one! And as exciting as that is, I manage to have LOST THE BLIMMING TICKET. How typical of me. One day I will be able to organise my stuff well, but I’m sure that it will show up eventually, somewhere in my house – I wouldn’t have thrown it away.

So whilst we were waiting, after wandering around many shops, we went down to the Radio 1 building and found people queueing outside. When we asked them what they were waiting for, they told us that some members of Little Mix were inside and they were waiting for them to come out. So, having a lot of time to waste, we chose to wait there too in the hope of meeting one of them. And after only a half hour, out they came! It was quite an interesting sight, as they passed through the Radio One doors, and one of the members (Jesy) got her high heel stuck in the grate as she was leaving, right in front of the press. Flash, flash, flash, they lapped up the amusing story, and I overheard one of them saying, “I got some great pictures.” And I found those pictures later on a website. Lovely.

As they were leaving, I managed to get the autograph of Jade and a blurry group picture with her, although not with any others. But it was pretty cool.

What a lovely blurry picture it is!

Then we could enter the BBC Radio Theatre building and wait for the show.

The recording was really quite great. Being a person who doesn’t always like comedy, I must admit that quite a few of the sketches made me laugh. So it was good. Although the credits are a bit ridiculous – no wonder it’s so good if it has so many writers. So when it comes out on BBC Radio 4 on 26th November, be sure to listen to it!

Then when it had finished, some of the cast hung around outside, and so I got a few autographs and pictures.

It was really quite a great day, and I got to meet some really cool people, so woohoo!

50th Anniversary: The Day Of The Doctor

Yesterday, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the much loved British TV series, people gathered around the world to watch the 75 minute long special, The Day Of The Doctor. This episode included many Doctors and past faces, which was rather exciting seeing them all in one place! Newly introduced was John Hurt, in the role of the ‘War Doctor,’ which, I must say, he did a good job of.

So the episode was full of humour, fun, rewriting and reliving history, accompanied by the confusing storyline and unexpected twists. A brilliant part was the Zygons (the large, rubbery shape-shifters first introduced when Tom Baker was the Fourth Doctor) as I hadn’t seen them before and so they were quite amusing, and luckily not as scary as some of the others (I am easily scared). All the same, the daleks were made to seem innocent at some points, and this never fails to amuse me. A dalek, lying helplessly on the floor, shouting, “EXPLAIN.” Argh, you can’t help but to feel a bit sorry for them; they just seem so innocent!

Then came the line said by John Hurt, as seen in the adverts,
“I’m looking for the Doctor.”
To which David Tennant and Matt Smith exchanged glances, and in response came the reply “Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place.” as the three doctors came face to face. Aaaah, you’ve got to love it.
There were also many other references to previous episodes, such as the “I don’t want to go.” said by David Tennant, the 10th Doctor, the last words he had said in his moving regeneration scene. THAT WAS GREAT.

A worrying part of the episode was when I thought that Moffat might have rewritten the history, meaning that the previous episodes didn’t make sense if Gallifrey hadn’t been destroyed. However, all ended out well, really, and y’know what? It did make sense. So hooray Steven Moffat! The episode concluded with the real meaning of the piece ‘Gallifrey Falls No More,’ which although was expected, was quite cool anyway. And there was the line-up of the Doctors, where you can just imagine the excitement of all the fans watching it as the doctors are shown standing together. Great!

So even if you’re not a great fan of Doctor Who, I would advise you watch it – I’ve watched it twice, and it’s still all rather exciting.

Doctor Who

I personally do really like Doctor Who. I mean, the television programme is often great, clever and well executed, and it has been with me as I have grown up – the first Doctor I watched was Christopher Eccleston and I have watched it ever since – but I’m not sure whether I’d really call myself a ‘Whovian‘ as such, just a person that likes Doctor Who.

Why? Well, because my interest in Doctor Who seems to waver sometimes, from peaks where I am really excited (such as now with the 5oth anniversary) to troughs where I completely forget about it (when it’s not on the television) and I won’t re-watch any episode in this time. Maybe that doesn’t mean I’m a bad fan, but I’m not entirely sure. I have a friend who has gone back to watch pretty much all of the series, and as much as I know that I probably should and would perhaps like to, I seem to never get the time nor have the dedication. He seems to be at the point where he can refer to the episodes by numbers – Series 5, episode 3, etc, which I must admit I find a bit sad.

Also, I dislike when people are in fandoms and boast about this fact, ending up boasting about how much better a fan they are than others, but this is a totally different topic, so I will not pursue this train of thought. I suppose I am really a ‘Whovian,’ as it were, but I’m just not freakishly obsessed, which is perfectly healthy and fine, so go me!

Today, the Google Homepage includes a ‘Google doodle’ which is actually really cool. It is an interactive game in which you can play as the eleven different doctors and collect the letters of Google, whilst escaping daleks, cyberman and other obstacles which have the potential to kill you. This is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who! Woohoo. I managed to complete it in only 37 minutes and 31 seconds, which is a really long time and you should probably be able to complete it in under 10 minutes. All the same, it is brilliant fun, and this experience has reminded me that I need to learn how to use a keypad – I kept selecting to move in the wrong direction. 🙂

The much anticipated 75-minute 50th Anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor,” will be shown tomorrow in almost 80 countries, and there are 3-D screenings in cinemas around the world; It’s quite a big thing. Whovians have been waiting for months, and the wait is almost over. Just one more day.

 

Chances are that I’ll end up reviewing it later.

The first post

I have finally decided to create a blog in order to keep myself amused and give me somewhere to write about anything I feel the need to. I know I’m not a great writer (hence why I’ve never started a proper blog before) but I’m going to give it a go.

For the past few years, I have had blogs, but they have been centred around various toys or objects – it feels a bit strange writing about life publicly on the internet.

The first blog I ever created was Fruits With Faces, where from my perspective I wrote about my fruit friends. It wasn’t sad at all, of course not. It sounds a lot stranger writing it down here, but at the time it was just a bit of fun (I mean, who doesn’t like finding out about how fruit with drawn-on faces are getting on?!). Ah, the fun of a website filled with a load of badly photoshopped images of fruits. What’s not to love? Unfortunately when the fruit died and I had nursed their rotting remains, I had to say good bye, and that was the end of Fruits with Faces.

Next, I moved on to Life Of Cowie, where I “assisted Cowie” with the writing of a blog about my toy cow’s life. I have enjoyed helping with Cowie’s blog, but we never write it any more; it’s one of those things that I keep meaning to but never get around to doing.

And that’s all, I believe.