Thursday, June 30, 2011

Tv Of The Month

It's not been a bad month for tv really. The Apprentice has been in full swing on BBC1, Wednesday 9pm. The thing is, I feel the Apprentice is becoming tired and formulaic. There's only so many times panoramic camera views of London (especially the Gherkin building) can have appeal. The tasks on the show remain the same with little change. The contestants are as usual mostly loathsome ego maniacs yet I still watch the show, mainly because I love Sir Alan's aide 'Nick Hewer' who has me rolling with laughter with his facial gesticulations and quips. Karen Brady is also a great asset to the team and I really like her blunt honesty. The show does need some changes though, maybe longer tasks or more trips abroad BBC?

Second up is the back to back programs of Four In A Bed and Come Dine With Me on Channel 4 5-6pm respectively. Great irreverent virtual reality shows with plenty of typical Brit humour, I never take the shows seriously but then that is the general idea - an ideal bit of teatime nonsense with laughs.

Lastly my favourite program of the month. This was a documentary presented by the award winning fantasy author Terry Pratchett, a thoroughly lovely man. The documentary called 'Choosing to Die' was aired on BBC2 on June 13th an was about assisted suicide. I really find words hard to find to describe the impact this program had on me. It was a reminder of my mother that died several years ago when I consented to her life support machine being switched off. All the memories came flooding back but the way Terry Pratchett presented this sensitive subject was objective in general context (not subjectively about Mr Pratchett), balanced and very touching. As he rightly quotes in my opinion 'The timing of his death should be his choice and not the governments'. Of course Terry Pratchett's thoughts and feelings were evident but I felt as a viewer the program looked beyond his personal views and looked at the subject matter from different perspectives.

It was a compelling piece of powerful television and I haven't seen anything that has evoked that much raw emotion in me for some time. I feel strongly for assisted suicide if of course there is no doubt in peoples minds that because of disease, pain and declining health issues that their quality of life is no longer there. It's a contentious subject for sure but one I feel the government needs to address and the church needs to stay out of. Great television from the BBC. You can find a review of the program here.

No comments: