The joys of unemployment

[Peter Stirling]

What a terrific telly time I am having my latest bout of unemployment.

11 am ..The Avengers on True Entertainment - full of nutters but that 60s sense of optimism, love and humour all the way through.
12pm ..Star Trek the original series on CBS action
1pm .. The Professionals/ and or Alias Smith and Jones if I +1hour it
2pm ..catch a bit of Doctors if I remember the Professionals episode
2.15pm Dr Blake or Father Brown all quality series for the afternoon
3.oopm The Link great little quiz show


stuff the world while the telly is like this

[Richard Marple]

BBC 2 in the afternoon had 3 oldies in a row.

[Rob Moss]

Can we leave the careers advice please..? I've had to delete two unpleasant posts already - this isn't the Daily Mail website, thank you.

[Greg H]

Back to the original post, I haven't been unemployed in many a year, but I do remember a glorious summer in the 90s when I thoroughly enjoyed a few months of 'me time' on the savings I had in my bank account, watching double bills of black and white films on BBC2 every day, the pub in the evening and doctor who on VHS when I got in from the pub. It was a happy summer. There isn't quite as much retro coolness on British TV though sadly as Peter has to choose from

[johnpater]

I note that my post was a deleted one. Maybe phrased bluntly but my point was valid. I was saying that with the political and social climate being as bad as it is in 2015, I can't take refuge in gorging myself on retro tv in a way I used to. The problems of the country are too pressing to bury my head in the sand in the way the original poster is able to.

[John Green]

Feb 4, 2015 9:23:26 GMT johnpater said:

I note that my post was a deleted one. Maybe phrased bluntly but my point was valid. I was saying that with the political and social climate being as bad as it is in 2015, I can't take refuge in gorging myself on retro tv in a way I used to. The problems of the country are too pressing to bury my head in the sand in the way the original poster is able to.

But generally,the Guardian world-view is that it's bloated plutocrats who make people's lives a misery.Granted that said toffs have a role,in my experience,it's the Guardians themselves,as local-government workers who misery people's lives.
In my town,so many disabled kids were removed from their families by the council on the grounds that "mother and father may at some future date show a lack of deference to social services thus posing a risk of significant harm" that Ofsted put the Children's department into Special Measures for two years.Ten years later,I'm still involved in supporting these families in trying to get their sons and daughters,now adults and held under full-life Deprivation of Liberty Orders-released.
One young man,aged 25,is autistic,and loves classic TV-Fireman Sam,Duckula,Dr,Snuggles...After 5 years of pleading,staff finally allowed him to have a VCR ,though he's restricted to owning 7 tapes.Since the unit only has one PC,which has never worked,he can't go on Youtube.(He's become adept at using his family's laptop on the three days a week he's allowed to reside at home).As far as I know "the 1%" have never harmed him.

[johnpater]

Your reply supposes though that if I am not a Daily Mail supporter then I fall in behind The Guardian, John. It's a tired assumption and I don't read newspapers generally as a lot of what is really happening is simply not reported in the mainstream media. The papers and tv news tend to bog us down with specifics, smaller issues and editorial torch bearing topics. Often it is only the symptoms of a problem that are reported without going into the underlying causes. The effect of this is that the broader view is not often clear. All news reporting agencies are biased or censored to one degree or another but I don't think people still realise how much this is so.

[John Green]

Feb 4, 2015 10:45:51 GMT johnpater said:

Your reply supposes though that if I am not a Daily Mail supporter then I fall in behind The Guardian, John. It's a tired assumption and I don't read newspapers generally as a lot of what is really happening is simply not reported in the mainstream media. The papers and tv news tend to bog us down with specifics, smaller issues and editorial torch bearing topics. Often it is only the symptoms of a problem that are reported without going into the underlying causes. The effect of this is that the broader view is not often clear. All news reporting agencies are biased or censored to one degree or another but I don't think people still realise how much this is so.

Sorry John.I should have made it clear that I was referring to the dominant worldview.I defer to the work which the Mail has done on council-sponsored child-abuse,something the Guardian was unwilling to recognise.I often read the Guardian online,though I can no longer contribute,having questioned United Nations statistics on rape (true!).Many,many comments are just abusive,violent,condemnations of "the toffs".Never removed.
The young man I've been trying to help was not allowed a light in his room for seven years-a local-government worker took pity on him before Christmas.I do get fairly fed-up about such small-scale abuse.I doubt if most of the staff read the Guardian,even the basic-English current version,but it's the dominant mindset.

[johnpater]

I'd disagree though. Sadly the hardline, reactionary Daily Mail style attitude is becoming more and more the norm in all aspects of everyday life, encouraging intolerance and public apathy. I can see you may have specific and justifiable issues with the Guardian style outlook but believe me there are far more dangerous and irresponsible reporting agencies out there. I'll leave it there though as we will probably go way off of the original topic. JP has left the building!

[Rob Moss]

OK, this started off as a thread about what television is around during the daytime, it wasn't a cue for people to start getting all outraged about people who are unfortunate enough to be out of work, and certainly not for people to start aiming snidey comments at other members here.

The second point in the Forum Rules states:

POLITENESS: Civility costs nothing so do NOT insult or abuse other members.

So, please feel free to engage with Peter on the subject of the old telly available - comments about unemployment and other socio-economic point scoring posts will be deleted. Starting now.

Other threads are available.

[Stuart Douglas]

I've deleted a few more posts which arrived after Rob's warning, and which were linked to or quoted Mr Beckwith, who did seem to be going out of his way to antagonise needlessly. To be clear, not every deleted post breached any rules, but some made no sense once I'd deleted the others, so I removed them as well.

[Peter Stirling]

IMHO the BBC have certainly got their act together in afternoon telly,Father Brown/Dr Blake are excellent bits of fluff (I say fluff as apparently a lot of people are complaining on the IMDB about historical inaccuracies) but who cares as long as they entertain and have strong characters (which they do)?

I caught The Indian Doctor a while back with time off in my working days and also thought it was quite brilliant and considering the restraints of an afternoon budget, these shows are often very involved prop wise and you wonder how they achieve what they do.

It would be a shame I reckon if these shows were to cross over to say the vacuous and crap filled Saturday night schedule, where they would have more money thrown at them so they would become bloated and too pleased with themselves.

[richardwoods]

Have deleted my Alistair Crowley joke as it now makes no sense at all, some might argue it never did!

[johnpater]

Feb 5, 2015 17:15:48 GMT Stuart Douglas said:

I've deleted a few more posts which arrived after Rob's warning, and which were linked to or quoted Mr Beckwith, who did seem to be going out of his way to antagonise needlessly. To be clear, not every deleted post breached any rules, but some made no sense once I'd deleted the others, so I removed them as well.

Thanks for clarifying matters, Stuart.

[Stuart Douglas]

Feb 6, 2015 17:19:30 GMT richardwoods said:

Have deleted my Alistair Crowley joke as it now makes no sense at all, some might argue it never did!

Oops - sorry Richard, missed that one!

Stuart