UK TV review issue 26 by Lorraine Fencer

"Testosterone Boys" (BBC1, wed 10.35) Ewwwwwwwww, yuck! Now, I love World's Strongest Man & the like, but there's some purpose to that, there's all round fitness & strength, as well as large concrete balls to be hefted onto a wall. This? Teenage boys smothered in gravy browning & cooking oil, strutting around in posing pouches trying to look like Robocop. No! They should be sitting in a darkened bedroom, listening to Linkin Park, spending hours "reading" Playboy, and obsessing over the fact they'll never get a
girlfriend. That would be normal, not this.

There are too many nostalgic twenty/thirty-somethings working in TV these days. That would explain the rumour I've heard about bringing back Rainbow as an adult chat show. And the current revivial of "The Basil Brush Show" (BBC1, Fri, 4.15) The kids don't get it, it's not as good as you remember, and it's not even the same Basil! Leave the past in the past, and let me watch my Willo The Wisp video in peace.

"A Life Of Grime Special: Mr Trebus" (BBC1, Sun 9pm) Bless 'im. The elderly Polish man with a passion for hoarding junk and arguing with Haringey Council, who died in September. (Mr Trebus that is, Haringey Council is still alive and kicking) There are times when we all want to tell people to "Stick it up your jumper", so you can't help but admire
someone who had the bottle to say it. It's still a mystery exactly why he felt the need to surround himself with "possessions", and why he couldn't see that some of them needed to be removed to allow him to live an easier and safer life, but he added personality to the smelliest show on TV. The world is a slightly less colourful place - albeit with a few less rats.

I don't normally touch regional programmes, they're dull enough if they're your own region, but if they're not, then you're just going to give them an extremely wide berth. But trust me. Get yourself digital, move to Aberystwyth, do whatever it takes to get either BBC2W (digi) or BBC 1 Wales. "High Hopes" (BBC1 Wales, Weds 10pm) By far the best comedy the BBC have made in years. Kind of a Welsh League of Gentlemen, only better (Please don't lynch me) By the quality of it, it's likely to be repeated across the country by this time next year, but don't you just love to be first with the Next Big Thing? You read it here first!

Bit short this week? Maybe, but there's this problem, you see. The snooker season started up with the LG Cup (BBC 2, all week), and so it shunted a lot of other programmes, and to be honest, was most of what I watched. Full of shocks, a well deserved win, and the Beeb STILL haven't sorted out the theme tune. You don't want to know how many emails I sent them last season about the remixed version of Drag Racer, but evidently it wasn't enough. So my campaign restarts. People kicked off about the Eastenders theme tune, so they changed it back. We can do the same for the snooker. Email snooker@bbc.co.uk and ask them to revert to the original version of Drag Racer for the theme tune. And I'll love you forever!

Lorraine

mailto:lorraine@scribeweekly.com

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