What are you watching on TV right now?

[Harry Bloomfield]

The Great Escape. What else would I be watching on Christmas Day?

I first saw that, at the Odeon, Leicester Square.

 

[Odds]

Lawrence of Arabia: the full restored version on N'flix. Three hours and forty seven minutes - with a proper intermission halfway through. Outstanding. A huge plate of sausage rolls, 'Trucklements' sweet mustard for dipping and two bottles of Thatcher's to wash down the porky fella's. Feet up; covered in flaky crumbs; swig from the bottle...chomp-chomp. Movie heaven.

The restored version has a lot more desert and riding of camels but who wouldn't want to charge down Johnny Turk, waving his weapon wildly in the air? "Alaaaaahu Akhbaaaaar"

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

That's got to be one of the most overrated and boring films ever, most of the film is fiction anyway, which to be fair was the directors intention, if they did a cut to less than two hours I'd give a whirl.

 

[Mottie]

Escape to Athena.

 

[JonathanM]

One of the consequences of having so much choice, is that the Christmas TV schedules are no longer exciting. So far, there hasn't been a decent film scheduled that hasn't been shown ten times somewhere in the last year. I am not complaining! Merely observing.

 

[JP_]

Lawrence of Arabia: the full restored version on N'flix. Three hours and forty seven minutes - with a proper intermission halfway through. Outstanding. A huge plate of sausage rolls, 'Trucklements' sweet mustard for dipping and two bottles of Thatcher's to wash down the porky fella's. Feet up; covered in flaky crumbs; swig from the bottle...chomp-chomp. Movie heaven.

The restored version has a lot more desert and riding of camels but who wouldn't want to charge down Johnny Turk, waving his weapon wildly in the air? "Alaaaaahu Akhbaaaaar"

Must give that a go. Was one of the first dvds i bought after buying my first home song with a widescreen tv (massive philips crt) and dvd player in 1999. Think I've only watched it I've since, when i upgraded my tv.

 

[JonathanM]

I've just watched the Torvill and Dean film on ITV3, which was great fun. My favourite routine of theirs was the Barnum one (from the year before the famous Bolero). I've not seen it for almost 40 years, but the last minute, starting at the three minute point, is so uplifting and enormous fun.

 

[Vinty]

Watched a documentary about the Vietnam War.
A war based on lies and propaganda.
The Vietnamese people only wanted independence from the French imperialists.
The media and the right wing tapped into American paranoia about the threat from communism to justify killing millions of peasant folk.
Interesting statistic.
By the time the United States ended its Southeast Asian bombing campaigns, the total tonnage of ordnance dropped approximately tripled the totals for World War II. The Indochinese bombings amounted to 7,662,000 tons of explosives, compared to 2,150,000 tons in the world conflict.
Just goes to show, you can't win a war with airpower alone.
It takes boots on the ground and that is where the gooks had the Americans at a disadvantage, in that sort of environment and the atmosphere it created, it was inevitable that some American troops would resort to atrocities against innocent civilians.

 

[Odds]

Watched a documentary about the Vietnam War.
A war based on lies and propaganda.
The Vietnamese people only wanted independence from the French imperialists.
The media and the right wing tapped into American paranoia about the threat from communism to justify killing millions of peasant folk.
Interesting statistic.
By the time the United States ended its Southeast Asian bombing campaigns, the total tonnage of ordnance dropped approximately tripled the totals for World War II. The Indochinese bombings amounted to 7,662,000 tons of explosives, compared to 2,150,000 tons in the world conflict.
Just goes to show, you can't win a war with airpower alone.
It takes boots on the ground and that is where the gooks had the Americans at a disadvantage, in that sort of environment and the atmosphere it created, it was inevitable that some American troops would resort to atrocities against innocent civilians.

That would be the Ken Burns' documentary. It's on so many times a year i rarely watch it now. They also showed his series on Country Music and also my favourite, on Jazz...

If you haven't seen that i highly recommend it.
The series on Baseball is very good, too, although i haven't seen it advertised for ages. I almost understood why Americans get so excited about the game after watching the show. I went to a Yankees game once, at Shea Stadium. A baffling afternoon where they ran around and beat the Baltimore Orioles but i've no idea to this day how. The hot dogs were tasty, though.

Maybe he'll do a series on the development of American Football one day - although there's already a series out on every Superbowl winner called America's Game where selected players from the winning team are interviewed and highlights of key games shown.

 

[JonathanM]

A baffling afternoon where they ran around and beat the Baltimore Orioles but i've no idea to this day how.

I know just what you mean.

I almost understood why Americans get so excited about the game after watching the show.

I did eventually get into it though. The key to liking it, I think, is to understand just how difficult it is to even hit the baseball, let alone control it. I would say more than 95% of the time, the ball just whizzes past the batter.

 

[Odds]

I know just what you mean.



I did eventually get into it though. The key to liking it, I think, is to understand just how difficult it is to even hit the baseball, let alone control it. I would say more than 95% of the time, the ball just whizzes past the batter.

That's why i can only get into highlights of the World Series; like the time the Chicago White Sox won and laid to rest the curse of Shoeless Joe, or when the Cubs finally won after 108 years of trying.
I still prefer Am-Foot' though, and hope to see either the Lions or the Browns finally reach a Superbowl, just for the madness from fans if ever that happens. Some teams just find ways to cock-up opportunities while others find a way to succeed time after time, like the Patriots over the last 20 years.

 

[kingandy2nd]

Not right now, but I watched the latest Grand Tour adventure last night - A Scani Flick.

We both enjoyed it

 

[Odds]

Shackleton's Cabin on BBC4 last night took an interesting look into the great man's final hours and the project to restore the ship's cabin after it was moved from a back garden, where it had been used as a garden shed, to a museum in Eire where people can see just how he lived and worked aboard the Quest on its voyage to Antarctica in 1922. Catch-up on Iplayer if you missed it.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Shackleton's Cabin on BBC4 last night took an interesting look into the great man's final hours and the project to restore the ship's cabin after it was moved from a back garden, where it had been used as a garden shed, to a museum in Eire where people can see just how he lived and worked aboard the Quest on its voyage to Antarctica in 1922. Catch-up on Iplayer if you missed it.

Ta! Watching that now..

 

[ReganAndCarter]

I first saw that, at the Odeon, Leicester Square.

I watched Sudden Impact that is one of the Eastwood Dirty Harry series of films over Xmas. TV guide said it was released in 1983 - 40 years ago. I can remember seeing it at the cinema when it came out - being an 18 cert I just managed to get in under the wire as I was 17 at the time. Scary how quickly time flies!