TV Programmes

[Jack400]

I'm curious to know the products that were advertised, Bertie. Personally, I find some to have irritating scripts, over blown "acting" - the over the top look of delight on a gold selling advert comes to mind- to be particularly irritating.

[Barnard]

The ‘best’ of all the bad adverts, in my opinion, is ‘Shake ‘n’ Vac’.

[Boatbuilder]

I rarely watch 'live' TV these days and record most of what I want to watch. I then just fast-forward through the ad breaks, unless I want to take advantage of the 3-4 minutes whilst they're showing to do something else, like a loo visit.

[Bertie]

Yes, that's what I tend to do as well when I'm watching on my own, Boatbuilder. Though when I'm watching with others, or at someone else's house, I unfortunately get stuck sitting through some appalling sets of adverts.

Truthfully, I couldn't tell you what the products were for, Jack, as I don't really 'watch' them and they're very much just a background nuisance. I see and hear some appalling and annoying stuff interrupting the show I'm actually trying to watch, but rarely take note or remember which was advertising what.

[Fiona1986]

I noticed Samuel L Jackson in a Warburton's advert the other week. I don't watch a lot of TV 'live' so I tend not to see a lot of regular TV adverts.

Usually you see actors whose careers have nose dived, or former footballers etc in adverts. I wonder what has driven someone with a reported worth of £250 million to appear in a bread advert? Apparently Sylvester Stallone is doing them too and he's worth £400 million.

Maybe terrible adverts is where the real money is??

[Boatbuilder]

Maybe terrible adverts is where the real money is??

With the likes of you and me paying for them in the cost of the goods being advertised.

[Katharine]

The ‘best’ of all the bad adverts, in my opinion, is ‘Shake ‘n’ Vac’.

Ha ha - that's an old one.

I don't want much live TV, and if there is an ad break, I usually use the time productively to make a cuppa etc. or maybe just chat to my family. If it's the latter then I'd normally mute the sound as I hate trying to talk over the background noise.

Those adverts I do see tend to be during the day, advertising stairlifts or funeral plans! I do hate the ones where they have neighbours/friends chatting about the life cover they've just taken out on the other's recommendation - the acting sounds so stilted. I do occasionally recognise a 'celebrity', but most of the time, such as the example of the bread advert, the 'big' name is wasted on me, as I probably wouldn't recognise them.

I did spot a familiar face in an advert for fabric conditioner - it was a woman holding a dog, standing at a bus stop, and someone walks past her and gives her a 'whoosh' of fragrance from their freshly laundered clothes. I'm sure she was on TV many years ago, but I can't remember where from. I've tried Googling the advert, but couldn't find the answer.

[Boatbuilder]

This must be your ad, Katharine, but I can't say I recognise the woman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F_aJYVt1qc

[Courtenay]

I can't remember if I've shared it before, but this low fat milk ad (from the early 1990s) is, in my opinion, one of THE best ones we ever had on Australian TV and they definitely don't make them like they used to. (And those of you who were around in 1960s Britain may recognise the song and may never be able to think of it in quite the same way again. )

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

Last night I watched the Pride of Britain awards.

Given the ghastly state of the world, it was genuinely heartening stuff.

[Stephen]

I can only think of two television adverts that have actually prompted me to go out and buy the product in question. The first was the juice drink Um Bongo (which if I remember was a bit of an acquired taste). The second, bizarrely, was Smash - nearly fifty years late! I just happened to be discussing the Smash Martians with a friend some years ago, subsequently watched all the adverts from over the years, and thought I might like to try it out. And I still eat it regularly to this day. Come to think of it, why DO you Earthlings still peel potatoes with your metal knives...?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Earlier today, I picked up a 4-DVD set of the BBC To Serve Them All My Days for £1.50 in a charity shop. It's a Dutch set so the blurb on the box is all in Dutch, but it seemed safe to assume that "Taal: Engels" and "Nederlands ondertiteld" meant something like "Language: English" and "Dutch subtitles"! I remember watching that serial when it was first broadcast in the early 1980s, and I've always wanted to see it again. I enjoyed the book too - and several other books by R. F. Delderfield. I've just watched Episode 1 and it's every bit as engaging as I remember, telling the story of a First World War soldier from a South Wales mining community (played by John Duttine). Suffering from a leg injury and shell-shock, he goes to teach at a Devonshire boarding school towards the end of the war. It was a nice surprise to see Nicholas Lyndhurst as one of the older boys, Dobson.

As far as current TV programmes are concerned, I'm loving All Creatures Great and Small (Channel 5) as always, and I'm finding the BBC prison drama Time gripping - even though it's a harrowing watch! Series 2 of The Gilded Age has also got off to a great start, being a lavish and witty look at New York society of the 1880s, though I'm watching that at a friend's house as it's only available on Sky.

What programmes are other people watching?

[Bertie]

I don't really watch too many current TV programmes. Certainly not modern dramas or comedies. I tend to mostly watch modern TV for quiz / panel shows - so things like Only Connect, University Challenge, House of Games, Taskmaster, Would I Lie To You? ...
I do watch plenty of sitcoms, but mostly the older ones from the 70's-90's - either repeats on channels like BBC4 and Yesterday or, mostly, on my DVD collections.
And over the last few months I've been in one of my very rare spells of watching plenty of films - but I've been updating those on the Film thread.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I was flicking through the TV channels a couple of weeks ago and ended up watching an episode of Sykes followed by an episode of Sorry. I hadn't seen either of them for decades but I enjoyed them, particularly Sykes. In Sorry, Timothy's mother thought he needed cheering up and she recommended that he have a nice cup of cocoa while watching Jim'll Fix It!

[Bertie]

Yeah, you get some unfortunate mentions on the older shows - especially related to the celebrities of the 70's.

The older sitcoms I still tend to love watching are those I was brought up with watching with my parents and older brothers - so shows like Ever Decreasing Circles, Porridge, Fools & Horses, Likely Lads, Rising Damp, George & Mildred. From the latter, since getting the DVD box sets of them I now also really love Man About The House (the original show that G & M span off from), and the other spin off, Robin's Nest. I mostly enjoyed Robin's Nest for Tony Britton's performance - who I also loved in another sitcom I regularly re-watch, Don't Wait Up. His performance in that, as the haughty Toby Latimer, is wonderful.