Category - Movies & TV

Thin Lizzy Documentary

22/01/2011
DOAADI
Movies & TV, Music

Thin Lizzy Bad Reputation on BBC 4I caught the tail-end of a BBC 4 documentary last night, looking at Thin Lizzy. You can catch it for a limited time on iPlayer.

I must admit that I didn’t realise what a complete and utter mess they got themselves into through drugs.

I went to see the current line-up a few weeks ago at Leeds, and although the music was great, the crowd was a little boisterous. I didn’t mention it in my original post, but I nearly (only nearly, I stress) got into a fight with some leather-clad jackass who decided to come in 2 minutes before Lizzy came on, barge his way to the front, and try to stand directly in front of me (I shoved him out of the way). But one of the other dickheads in his entourage was smoking pot – and I mean huge spliffs – all through the gig. I hate the smell of the stuff. The Leeds O2 Academy staff doesn’t give a toss about people smoking whatever they want in there – when I saw Gary Moore there not long back you could smell cigarettes all the time, and it wasn’t from outside.

But back to the crowd… bearing in mind I’ve been to all sorts of gigs over the last few years (including Bullet For My Valentine, recently, where I narrowly avoided getting slung in the middle of the mosh pit), this was a complete throwback to the bad old days. It was such a dramatic change for a band which is essentially living out its final days by basking in its past glories (nothing wrong with that at all, I hasten to add), that it’s had me wondering for a few weeks.

But now I understand.

I suspect that much of Lizzy’s reputation is built solely upon their drug-ridden past, and Phil Lynott’s untimely (though, after seeing the documentary, not as unexpected as you’d have thought) demise prevented any further reputation building. I suspect quite a large portion of those present were attracted to what reputation had been built up to and including Lynott’s death.

Phil Lynott was a nice bloke, but he just destroyed himself. The others were lucky. He wasn’t.

Annoying Adverts (Revisited)

04/01/2011
DOAADI
Food, General, Movies & TV

It’s back!

The most annoying TV ad in the world (at the moment). That damned Heinz Tomato Soup one where they are all spitting (sorry: blowing) on to spoons of soup to some idiotic tune you cannot make out.

[flv:/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/soup_ad.flv 480 360]

I must admit I thought they’d responded to customer complaints – I got a lot of hits when I posted it back in October, so it’s obvious I wasn’t the only one who hated it. And it hasn’t been shown since then… until just now. But no doubt someone at Heinz has stubbornly decided they can’t just waste all the money they spent on advertising it and resurrected it.

It’s in a different guise (they will have had several made all at once), but it’s still annoying from the first microsecond onwards. It is a surefire guarantee I won’t be buying any Heinz Tomato Soup anytime soon.

EDIT 2/10/2011: I was going to write another article about this damned advert – which has made a very unwelcome return to our TV screens – but the number of hits I’m suddenly getting speaks for itself.

Heinz is staffed by idiots if it think this is going to sell more soup. I lunge for the remote control mute button the second it comes on.

It’s obvious they have grave doubts, because they took it off around the time I first mentioned it, put it back on again, then took it off once more. At no time did it get the usual wall-to-wall showings. They were obviously testing the water.

Look, Heinz people. The advert stinks. You’ve wasted money on it. You will not increase sales of Tomato Soup by showing it (I, for one, will never buy Heinz Tomato Soup again as a result of the damned thing). Get rid of it and make a decent one that doesn’t involve the sound of bodily functions.

EDIT 10/10/2011: Someone said to me yesterday “have you seen that advert where they’re blowing on soup? I have to turn the TV off when it comes on”.

Get wise, Heinz. You’re damaging your sales while you keep showing it. It’s the most annoying ad ever.

Rip Off Britain: Trainee Instructors

03/12/2010
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DSA, DVSA, General, Movies & TV

This is a very old story from 2010.

I caught an episode of Rip Off Britain on BBC One this morning, and it was laying into trainee driving instructors. You can watch the episode in question on BBC iPlayer for a limited time.

This episode focuses on transport, though it is worth bearing in mind that Rip Off Britain is one of those BBC shows aimed at old(er) people who fancy a moan about something.

At 2:00 into the programme there is a segment about the average comprehensive insurance quote being over £1,000, and then it homes in on an old couple who contacted the show about “their grandson, Josh”. They say “he’s a good boy”, so it must be the insurance companies who have it wrong, eh? Just as a reality check, my insurance is less than £300 a year on my private car, and has been for many years.

Grandad became Josh’s driving instructor (they are seen moving off and driving around without any L plates at all on display). And Grandad’s logic about how those who have never had a claim (his learner grandson) shouldn’t be penalised, when the statistics show that 17 year old males (like his learner grandson) are a major risk is seriously flawed. And keep showing said grandson on the Go-kart track racing around is just further reason why 17 year old males ARE such a risk. Attitude.

I wish old people would get it through their heads: just because he/she is YOUR grandson (or granddaughter) doesn’t mean he/she is different to anyone else’s grandson (or granddaughter). He or she is more likely to be the same as most other people of the same age group.

At 22:00 into the programme, they have a segment on “scam” theory test websites (they have a thing about scam sites, and educating older people to use the Internet wisely). I’ve mentioned these sites on this blog previously.

In a nutshell, don’t book your theory (or practical) test through anything other than the official DSA (now, DVSA) website. There’s not much more you can say – and it doesn’t matter how “unfair” it is (according to one of the interviewees). What those websites are doing is not illegal, although it is morally questionable.

The segment on trainee instructors/PDIs is at 29:56 into the programme. Apparently, 1 in 10 learner drivers in the UK is being taught by a PDI, and it costs “most people around £1,600” to learn to drive. The show then homes in on a young girl who signed up with “a well known school” (I note that her offside wing mirror was gaffer-taped on) to learn.

Her tale centres on her instructor not being professional, using his mobile phone, and not turning up sometimes. She claims she didn’t learn much and her confidence was low (as you will see, it turns out her instructor was a PDI).

Now, I don’t want to take anything away from what she says, but all those things can happen with a fully-qualified instructor. And they do happen.

The programme’s main thrust, though, is the fact that learners pay full lesson prices to train with PDIs. There is also the claim made that PDIs are told to try and conceal the “pink” badge from their pupils with one large school, at least.

It is made clear that charging full price is not against any rules or laws, and it appears that all schools who use PDIs do charge full price. The AA, who only uses qualified ADIs, claims that you’re 25% less likely to pass your driving test if you’ve been taught by a PDI. BSM reckons that pupils taught by its PDIs have a pass rate 10% above the “DSA national average”.

The young girl “reckons” that schools are responsible for letting people know they are being trained by a PDI and for charging appropriately.

What puzzles me is how much they should charge. Half price keeps being mentioned, but why? Why “half price”? If you get taught by someone who turns out to be crap just because they are a PDI, why stop at half price? Why not totally free? After all, over 70% of them won’t make it to become ADIs anyway, so they will always be substandard in the end.

At 35:20 they carry out an interview with the DIA. Basically:

  • ask to see the badge of your instructor: if it’s green, he’s qualified; if it’s pink, he’s a trainee
  • ask his grade: 5 or 6 is good
  • there is nothing wrong with the PDI system as such
  • it isn’t properly supervised. THAT’S the problem
  • driving schools shouldn’t be charging the full rate for lessons with a PDI

I have my own views. I didn’t go via the PDI route, but I know a lot of people who did and who became ADIs using it. I find that a lot of ADIs change their tune once they qualify – they might do the PDI route, or use the hated Red Driving School, and yet even before the examiner’s signature has dried on their Part 3 pass certificate they’re at Red’s throat and vehemently anti-PDI or anti-anyone else wanting to become ADIs.

I have always been wary of the PDI route, because as I mentioned earlier, with only around 10% of people who set out to become ADIs making it (less than 30% of those who get to Part 3 pass that), PDIs teaching learners just doesn’t make sense. And yes, it isn’t supervised properly, so many PDIs end up using the pink badge as a way of making money and not learning – which is totally against what it is supposed to be for.

Edit: I notice this is cropping up on various forums now. Some ADIs are wetting themselves over it – but they all fail to appreciate that what the programme was trying to show (i.e. charging full price for trainee instructors) is not what they want to believe (i.e. that all PDIs are bad and any company who uses them is also bad). It’s another example of ADIs twisting every detail to fit in with their own biased opinions.

The programme didn’t specifically state that any of the learners mentioned were using BSM, but the self-styled “experts” are making all sorts of stupid claims and statements on the forums. One says:

That the first time i had seen BSM pointing out that it majority instructors are not fully qualify (sic).

I didn’t hear any of that when I watched it. Another – who apparently went down the PDI route with BSM – says:

Anyway, lets hope that the long awaited reform on pink licences is just around the corner. I guess then we will see the demise of B$M.

They’re on a different planet! And they call themselves “experts”.

Leslie Nielsen Dies

29/11/2010
DOAADI
Movies & TV

I was saddened today to hear that Leslie Nielsen had died. He was one of the funniest men on the planet. There’s more here.

Leslie Nielsen Dies

Leslie Nielsen Dies

He’s probably most famous for his roles in Police Squad, and the subsequent Naked Gun films, and also the Airplane films. But he also did some serious acting – one of my favourites was Forbidden Planet, even if it was always difficult to watch that with a straight face after all the Naked Gun stuff.

He was 84, and died as a result of pneumonia.

On the news tonight, I was also surprised to see that he auditioned for the lead in Ben Hur – subsequently taken up by Charlton Heston.

I remember coming across the Police Squad show in the 80s. It was shown without fanfare in the early evening and it cracked me up. It was one of those things you didn’t realise was a comedy to start with, and then it just hit you. Leslie really had a gift, yet he was nearly 60 when his comedy genius was first noticed.

The sad thing is: you don’t replace people like him.


BSM On BBC’s Watchdog: Review

12/11/2010
DOAADI
ADI, Movies & TV, News, Training

For the cerebrally out there, this is an old, old, OLD story from 2010. BSM is now owned by the AA.

Well, I watched the segment which dealt with the BSM complaints – and I should also point out that the hits to the stories on this blog concerning BSM have gone into orbit!

It was a total non-event in the end. It was simply three complaints by three people about the service they’d received from BSM (with the distinct impression that certain details had been suppressed to keep the story as juicy as possible). Of course, those people had valid points on the surface of it all, but if BSM is teaching around 10,000 to 20,000 people at any single time (or 120,000 a year, as BSM claims) then three complaints is absolutely insignificant.

You can watch the segment by clicking the Watchdog image above, then by viewing the latest programme (11/11/2010, available for 7 days). The BSM bit starts at 27:53 into the show. [The video expired years ago.]

It begins by introducing BSM as the largest driving school in the country, nearly 100 years old, 120,000 pupils a year, higher-than-average pass rates, and so on. Then it does some contrived stuff about hill starts and parking. Finally, it starts on the complaints:

  • one guy paid £1,700 for 70 hours of lessons and absolutely wanted and needed to pass.

So, you immediately think that this is going to be about people not being trained properly. However, at no point is his training questioned. It turns out that the car’s tax was out of date when he turned up at the test centre and the test couldn’t go ahead. Cue: a didactic lecture from the presenter about the law regarding road tax, and indignation (“shock and disbelief”) from the candidate for the camera about how you don’t expect this.

At the end of that complaint the presenter makes the comment about BSM “at least sending a car to the test centre on the day” (i.e. everything got sorted out). This led on to the next complaint, where the candidate apparently had to turn up at the test centre on their own.

  • A young lad had a test booked (by his mum) and when he turned up there was no instructor or car.

The guy called his girlfriend, took the test in her car, and passed. BSM said that the instructor had texted to say he couldn’t make it and that another car would be there instead. The programme does not pursue this in any way whatsoever. Instead, it goes on about his mum, who apparently “had a hard time” getting her money back (she did get it back, albeit with an administration fee charged).

After a few wise words from his mum about BSM not caring and being arrogant, we are then informed that “many drivers don’t actually work for [BSM]” and that maybe this is why BSM “refuse to take responsibility”.

They suggest this may be why they have received other complaints – like the next one.

  • A woman had had three instructors.

She argued that this was a problem because “he needed to understand her, and she needed to understand him” and that there were “breaks in her learning”. Her husband sits alongside nodding sagely as she talks about styles of learning.

This then leads on to the claim BSM made on its website that someone passes “every 6 seconds” with them – something they have already admitted was a mistake and is not correct. That doesn’t prevent Watchdog from calling in a fully qualified mathematician and whiteboard to prove that this claim is impossible (I say again: BSM had already acknowledged that fact). In any case, the mathematics the “expert” used was flawed on a number of fronts – not least because BSM might be the biggest single school, but it only represents about 6% (at best) of the total number of ADIs out there. Pushing that to one side though, even if BSM represented 100% of all ADIs then the claim was shown to be impossible (one more time: BSM had already admitted that this claim was in error).

At the end of the segment, it appeared that the first guy took his test – with BSM – and he passed. BSM said that they do dispute some of the details of the other claims made. I’ll bet they do. What with Watchdog geeing people up for the cameras.

BSM certainly isn’t perfect, but no one else is either. It is not uncommon for ADIs (whether they are independent or franchised) to screw up. The car breaks down, they have an accident, a family member is ill or dies, they wrote something incorrectly into their diary… it happens to anyone and everyone at some stage.

Car tax out of date? It was a mistake, and one I’m sure BSM doesn’t do deliberately – or regularly.

Having pupils turn up to test separately is unforgiveable – unless that’s what the pupil wanted, or if the pupil booked the test against the instructor’s wishes. I had one once who wanted to turn up at the test centre because he couldn’t afford the extra hour before his test! And more than once I have had pupils book tests against my advice, and then find themselves looking for another instructor. I wonder what they’d say if Watchdog got on to them?

Pupils having more than one instructor? Well, the woman in the Watchdog showobviously considered herself an expert in the training field and wasn’t ashamed to say so. It is common to find serial instructor-hopping pupils who fail to see that the problem is with them, not the ADI. Occasionally, a pupil just won’t gel with you and they’ll go elsewhere – they often can’t handle not being perfect and look to blame their instructor for their own weaknesses. You wouldn’t believe some of the tales you hear from them about “my last instructor”, but very few identify themselves as the issue. The woman in that clip would probably find herself looking for instructor #4 if she was one of mine. She’d have driven me mad. I reserve the right not to have to put up with complete arseholes, and if I get a pupil who repeatedly thinks they know better than me, and if I can’t stop them doing it (and believe me, I can be blunt), then they’ll find themselves looking for another instructor!

I think the “6 second” claim was pathetic. BSM admitted it was wrong before the show aired, and Watchdog gloated “but it took us to point it out”.

None of the complaints were absolutely specific to BSM. They could (and do) potentially happen to any ADI. Mistakes, mistaken claims, lying pupils, know-it-alls… all of them.

Annoying Adverts

15/10/2010
DOAADI
Movies & TV

I’ve mentioned annoying TV ads before. There was the Alfa Romeo one, then the Audi one (and we all know how Audi drivers make you want to puke before they even get up in the morning, because the only reason they have an Audi is to go fast and drive dangerously), and the one for The Natural Confectionery Company.

This one from Heinz (for Tomato Soup) has just taken pole position. It consists of 30 seconds of sickening people (including kids) blowing with wet lips on spoonfuls of tomato soup.


I really cannot believe that people actually get off on seeing children playing with food (or even eating). But any advertisement to do with irritating noises – especially ones associated with food and involving kids – leaves me completely cold. How the hell is seeing a bunch of posers spitting on to tomato soup – a food which is right on the edge of palatability in the first place – going to make it sell more?

I just edited this to ad a new video player, and I had truly forgotten how annoying it really is. Heinz must have been crazy to approve it.

Norman Wisdom Dies Aged 95

05/10/2010
DOAADI
Movies & TV

This is a bit of bad news – comic Norman Wisdom has died at the age of 95 after a series of strokes.

Norman Wisdom

Norman Wisdom

This is one of those times when phrases like “comic genius” and “legend” cease to have any real meaning. Wisdom really was a comic genius and he will easily take on legendary status now he’s gone.

I remember watching his films during the summer holidays, and I never miss a chance to watch them now. He still cracks me up whenever I see him.

His style was slapstick, but never crude or vulgar. His most famous character was Pitkin, the downtrodden nobody who was always at odds with the establishment. Along with his accidental trip (which he apparently did in front of the Queen when he was awarded his Knighthood), he made millions laugh from the 60s onwards.

He was a national superstar in Albania, of all places, and he is being mourned over there. Albania showed his films at a time when all other western movies were banned.

As an update to this story, I saw an advertisement in today’s press for a boxed set of his films. Mine’s on order.

Knowing The Numbers

30/08/2010
DOAADI
Movies & TV

Knowing - PosterI saw a great film last night on one of the movie channels.

It’s from 2009, and it is called Knowing – starring Nicholas Cage. To be honest, the only reason I started watching it is because it had him in it. I’m not particularly “into” any specific modern actor or actress, but I do admire some of Mr Cage’s films – 8MM in particular, though most definitely NOT The Wicker Man (it was sacrilege to even think about improving on the original of that).

Anyway, Knowing seems to be one of a rush of films trying to capitalise on The Da Vinci Code principle (find some sort of code from the past, decipher it, make a movie around it). I haven’t watched The Da Vinci Code all the way through – it’s rubbish, and the original story by Dan Brown plagiarises a book I read years ago called The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail. What with 2012, and morons all over the world accepting it as fact (like they did with the Brown story), these “Code” films don’t do a lot for me.

In a nutshell, Knowing starts 50 years in the past. A group of schoolkids is asked to write letters to seal in a time capsule, and one troubled young girl just writes two sides full of numbers. When the capsule is opened in the modern day, the letters are passed out to kids at the school – and the one written by the girl ends up with Cage’s son (who is also troubled). Anyway, Cage sees it and recognises a particular date and incident (an event, and the number of people killed). He then goes on to identify a whole series of other dates, and recognises the accuracy of the death toll in each case… but then it moves into future dates, which also turn out to accurately predict various events and death tolls. He realises that other coded data reveals the locations of the events. Then there is the final date…

Mixed in with the events Cage is investigating are the mysterious strangers, who are not of this world… but precisely which type of “world” they are from is kept ambiguous.

There is not a happy ending.

It’s a great film, in my opinion – by “great” I mean great to watch. Good acting (by most), good special effects, and suspenseful storyline. Definitely worth a look.

I downloaded an HD copy from my favourite video download site for a very reasonable $3.00, and I was amused by some of the comments people had left (spelling as written by them):

“This movie really scared me. I believed in their thoery which there is a possible the can to do that. I’m not sure the terms they’re using but totally I believe in this one… theres one part of this movie it is so fictional, and made me laugh a little. I think the writter want to show that still despite of this big tragedy in our world we need to believe there are still hope on something because thats what we are we believe and hold on something to survive. But it is great. nice one.”

And:

“Overall this movie is one big invitation to open your mind and consider a very different view on reality. The ending reminded me very much of the deeply inspiring channelings from Operation Terra. Please google this if you are prepared to challange your views on reality and if you want to discover the deeper dimensions of this filmographic masterpiece.”

If extraterrestrials (or deities) ever did decide to save some seeds of life from this planet and put them somewhere else, it is very clear which weeds they would probably not bother with!

Victorian Pharmacy

12/08/2010
DOAADI
Movies & TV

BBC 2 has a show called ‘Victorian Pharmacy’ (available on iPlayer), where they look into medicines of the Victorian era. I watched it last week for the first time, and have been unfortunate enough to turn it on again now while I wait for something decent to start (The Matrix is on at 10, so I’ll watch that for the hundredth time).

Victorian Pharmacy On The BBCI should point out that my direct experience of pharmacists over the years has been that they often believe they are only one step removed from being doctors, they look down on non-pharmacists (and aren’t ashamed to show it), and they think they’re a lot smarter than they actually are. That last one is the most enduring memory of them from my many years working in industry.

Several stick in my mind, due to their complete lack of any form of technical understanding. When I did my degree in Chemistry I had to do a module on pharmaceutics, and it was so boring. There was very little technical content, and much of it was about having to remember things. OK, I admit that the definition of pharmaceutics does imply knowledge of pharmacokinetics and the like, but it isn’t very detailed. I suspect that some pharmacists who really are up to it go on to specialise in these things, but that doesn’t appear to apply to any that I’ve worked with.

All credit to them: it gets them jobs (some high street stores won’t appoint a shop manager who isn’t a pharmacist if the store contains a pharmacy – even though being a good pharmacist and being a good shop manager are poles apart). They are very much a closed shop – I suspect Masonic influences in there somewhere.

But I digress. The BBC has decided that science of any kind can only be presented in semi-dramatic form. That means dressing up and pretending you are something else – in this case, Victorian. Even if those dressing up are real people and not just actors, those chosen have to be photogenic in the BBC sense of the word. They also have to be overtly extrovert, and up for anything. So this programme has a grinning gargoyle pretending to be a Victorian Pharmacist, a clucking old hen pretending to be… well, I don’t know what, and a spindly youth pretending to be a Victorian spindly youth. I believe that they are all pharmacists.

I just turned it off because the old hen is one of those people who laughs with that annoying old-person-appearing-on-TV laugh after every comment. The programme seems to be half-serious (in its own eyes) and half-taking the piss out of the Victorians for daring not to know what we know now.

Oh, for the days of the old Horizon or Open University shows – when scientific content was information based.