BBC Comedy Triumphs

So I've been watching the second series of Detectorists on Netflix with a view to catching the third series before it disappears from iPlayer. I'm very much enjoying it so far - seems like the sort of gentle and charitable comedy that has largely been replaced on mainstream TV by brasher and meaner shows.

I'm  up to episode three and I'm not entirely sold yet. It's shaping up nicely in terms of the main search for the WW2 bomber and the Mayor's ceremonial chain but the little details and dialogue are always going to be what makes it in the end. "Nostalgia conventions aren't what they used to be" was a gem however. I laughed for a long time.

My other recent foray into BBC comedy was the first series of Upstart Crow. It was definitely a mixed bag. Some of the jokes worked and I liked both David Mitchell as Shakespeare and Tim Downie as a foppish Marlowe. The nods to Blackadder were also funny especially in the finale. However, there are also some markedly dull bits, especially in any scenes involving Harry Enfield or Spencer Jones' Kemp. It also really needs some new material, a lot of the jokes saw much exposure with no variation.     

The Dark Ages revisited

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00zbtmr/The_Dark_Ages_An_Age_of_Light_The_Clash_of_the_Gods/

If you've got access to BBC iPlayer you really should give this a watch. It is everything that History television should be; engaging and thought provoking with a very charismatic presenter who definitely tries to do things differently.

It sometimes seems a bit non-specific and I can't really speak for its historical accuracy (I'm more of a modern historian) but at least Waldemar Januszczak does not look like he is being held hostage, as some academics tend to when they get in front of the cameras.

Tory Whip resigns in shame

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22727903

Tory skeletons are really tumbling out of various closets at the moment, aren't they?

Although in my opinion it is not the racism or business links of individuals that we should be worrying about. Mercer's earlier racist comments are only a shade worse than Mayor Johnson's comic bumbling about minorities and political correctness, which only serves to endear him to the Conservative grass roots support.

Similarly one can't come down too hard on an individual who lobbies for his paying sponsors when his own party simultaneously lowers taxes for the rich and turns a blind eye to multinational's tax evasion while bringing in bedroom taxes for the poorest in society.

However, such scandals can only weaken the Coalition in the next election and they are a welcome triumph for the investigative journalists at the BBC and Panorama.

Hours and hours of 'In our time'!

The full 'In our time' archives are available to download as podcasts!

Go there now. If you don't learn something you are probably omniscient already.

My favourite episode is ' Industrial Revolution I' as Melvyn Bragg completely loses his temper when a guest indirectly calls him racist. He has a massive strop but unfortunately by the next installment they had obviously agreed to play nicely again.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-our-time/podcasts/