Stuart Maddison 🇺🇦

As my 84-year-old Dad points out, anyone who’s been to Reykjavik or Rotorua (in NZ), to name just a couple of cities, isn’t thinking this is all that innovative! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewzg77k721o?app-referrer=deep-link

I’m going to say it: #007RoadtoaMillion is the greatest TV show of the C21st 😉 I’d say “you don’t even need to be a bat-shit crazy #JamesBond fan to enjoy it”… but WHAT WOULD I KNOW ABOUT THAT!? 😆 Seriously, it’s just a joy from start to finish. The huge format changes made for the second series meant an already great show has taken Reality TV to a whole new level 😏 #TheTraitors? Schmaitors! These are my people 🅾️🅾️7️⃣

A multiple-times draft dodger pissing on the graves of brave soldiers who answered his nation’s call to arms is beneath contempt.
Americans, I was already thinking that forgiving you for electing this embodiment of vileness was going to take a very, very long time.
I’m no longer sure it’s even possible.
#Trump

Why not just get it correct @BBCNewsUK@mastodon-uk.net?
• grammar rules matter
• there are no issues with limited space in this headline
• it sets the wrong example
• it just reads badly — “fewer new plays” flows better

@DekaBlack@mastodon.social love that they did keep all the sandwich scoffing stuff! And the Master enjoying an episode of The Clangers 😆

And @DekaBlack@mastodon.social there’s a new edit of a classic adventure on BBC4, showing ahead of the new spinoff!

A paced-up version of 1972’s The Sea Devils (what else?) starts at 7pm. With updated SFX maybe?! No need to mess with that iconic music / soundscape though!

I think I’m slightly more excited about seeing #JonPertwee and #RogerDelgado in action again than I am about the #TheWarBetweenTheLandAndTheSea 😆

Are we expecting some #missingepisodes news tomorrow for the #DoctorWho anniversary? One or two recovered films have been teased for weeks now…

Is the #BBCiPlayer really the best #algorithm available to Auntie!?
How come it doesn’t know when you’ve watched stuff via #BBC streaming, live or as a restart? Unless you did so after the fact?!
I’m always being offered as ‘Next episode’ the one I just watched.
‘Recommended for you’ is usually VERY wide of the mark — while omitting programmes related closely to things I watch religiously🤦‍♂️
I had to search for #JoolsHolland Walking to New Orleans🥰 despite having watched every ep EVER of his, inclu ofc the #Hootenanny and catching up the latest Later… just the day before!

Watched 1967 #DoctorWho serial The Underwater Menace. Did #TheDoctor EVER leave such an unholy MESS?!

Directly responsible for the renewed flooding of #Atlantis — & dialogue clearly indicates many deaths — #TheSecondDoctor and co are reunited and depart in the #TARDIS without a thought! The Earth is saved, but the cost…

Their instrumental friends, two shipwrecked slaves and the locals — people to whom they owe their lives — are abandoned to a highly uncertain fate without a goodbye, when they’ve lost EVERYTHING. It’s been established as a plot point they’re likely to starve to death!

The whole story disappoints, with character motivation all over the place. Guest star Colin Jeavons plays a villain who, in his final scene, indicates a damascene conversion despite NO prior scenes showing him the error of his ways. The director, Julia Smith, worked wonders with TINY sets — but should have demanded script rewrites! (She went on to create #EastEnders, though, so did alright for herself!)

I’m a bit miffed with #NcutiGatwa — though it might not be his fault?! Two seasons is ridiculously brief for a #DoctorWho tenure, even by today’s cough-and-a-spit standards. I mean… was it really time to go already? Whose call was that?

Salt in the wound: there wasn’t just a Doctor-lite episode in his 1st run, necessitated by prior commitments. His 2nd, final year was similarly blighted. Was he even hired full-time?! Worse, in an era where a run is only 8 measly episodes anyway (with all that #Disney $£$!) for a 3rd whole ep this time he wasn’t even playing the Doctor. (I really, really hate a wasted, all-setup ep!) GAH!

P.S. No offence at all to the amazing #MillieGibson, who carried 2 episodes virtually solo, brilliantly… but it does feel like Gatwa barely got going in the role.

Right, I’m going in for the season finale of #DoctorWho, only partly (majorly) spoilt ofc, as I’ve left it this late 😒

Given the tsunami of baggage that’s built up, I’m fully expecting the Daleks and Cybermen to rock up, Ace and Teagan again, and quite probably Aggedor, a Quark and Scaroth of flippin’ Jagaroth! 🤪

The season was going pretty well until episode 7, I thought. A definite improvement on the last run. Eight eps is really too few though (with all that Disney £$ too!?) — certainly too few to have Gatwa barely in one, or else not actually playing the Doctor 🙄

Anyway, here goes…

Another one of those infuriating days when you put on a #news channel and find it’s not fit for purpose, because of a hijacking by one event deemed of overriding importance. And likewise one’s other rolling news options.

I value and enjoy the political coverage with #TrevorPhillips on #SkyNews on a Sunday morning, but no — a bloke in Rome is getting a new hat this morning.

Brave of #Ukraine to go #progrock in their #Eurovision entry!

If you can’t dance to it, I can’t help but like it 😜

Great to see the small troop of soldiers from #Ukraine getting rousing support from all spectators and HM the King et al. at the #VEDay 80th anniversary commemorations.
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Fascism was defeated once. It must be again.

#Superman III + #FlashGordon in the 1st episode, #WhoFramedRogerRabbit + #SapphireAndSteel in the 2nd…

This latest series of #DoctorWho is bringing the 80s genre references thick & fast — and between the homages & #wokeness (let’s own it!) there’s still room for that key mix of high adventure, horror, humour & heart.

A better start than the last season, hopefully it can keep up the quality, avoiding the issues there with repetition of its own ideas + pat resolutions. No magic rope, purr-lease!

My effort for #WorldPoetryDay is inspired by recent events/news about #toxicmasculinity, #misogyny & the lack of a good #malerolemodel in too many young lives.

See also #Adolescence on Netflix & #GarethSouthgate's BBC lecture last week. Anyway – I hope you like my #poem #poetry attempt to be a #poet!