October 22, 2014 update: So much of what’s mentioned below has gone. ATI’s All-In-Wonder TV card was phased out years ago and Nebula Electronics’ DigiTV card survives via unofficial support only. And The Bill left our screens on 31 August 2010, but the link below now leads to a YouTube channel with full episodes! Taken from LiveJournal before my spleen exploded I left it.

My analogue TV card is on the blink at the moment (the digital one is working well thankfully) and lets out a noisy buzz instead of the sound you would expect from the televisual material concerned. What to do? Well, slap on the subtitles and stick on some instrumental music in the background….which is how I found myself watching some bone-crunching action in The Bill and listening to the ambient and sublime Cathedral Oceans III by John Foxx at the same time. Reminds me of the time I was studying Music & The Moving Image and the lecturer showed the title sequence to Emmerdale Farm but played some Deep Purple as an accompaniment. Now that was weird….

October 22, 2014 update: Years ago, I used to have a blog on LiveJournal before common sense prevailed I decided to switch. Some of the more choice entries will be uploaded here for your reading pleasure. Here’s what I was thinking in April 2005. My opinion of Billie Piper is a bit more complimentary these days….

So here I was, thinking 2005 would be great – some old shows returning and some new ones to look forward to. Well, Nathan Barley was all hype and no trousers; the new, extended Look Around You thought it was more funny than it actually was – and don’t get me started on the new Doctor Who.

Well, do actually. The new version of the theme tune is rotten. Billie Piper should stick to what she does best (i.e. hang out with blokes old enough to be her dad and booze herself under the table on a daily basis). The TARDIS interior itself looks like an abandoned warehouse and takes the “bigger on the inside than it is on the outside” principle a bit too far….I’m going to come back to this later when I don’t feel like doing myself a mischief with my Tom Baker scarf.

…and I never did return to this one.