Red Arrows: Inside the Bubble
 

As the pinko, lentilista ecofundamentalists at the BBC have suspended Top Gear for tonight, instead they will be showing Red Arrows: Inside the Bubble again.

Which is an excellent documentary, although I and (currently) 905105 other Clarkson supporters would doubtless have preferred to see Top Gear....:mad:

Or there's always 'Great Canal Journeys' on Channel 4....

Thanks for the reminder ... Although I thought the title was familiar. Worth seeing again, I guess.

Anyway, I would rather watch a static aircraft than Clarkson/Top Gear ;)

Mmm, Great Canal Journeys sounds like a poor exchange. What's with cancelling the programme anyway? If I was to be (allegedly) involved in a fracas, they wouldn't cancel the holidays of everyone I was due to fly. We've paid for this episode. Why can't we see it? Bloody Communists!

Shot

The reason we can't see it is because it's not being made.

A good chunk of TG is filmed very close to the broadcast date (the studio stuff) and since JC has been suspended that has not been done. I suppose that they could have done it without him but they decided not to for whatever reasons. It's not a case of them having the episode in the can and just deciding not to show it - which would indeed be most churlish.

I hope they sort this out soon and either reinstate him or let him go so that he can go off somewhere else and start "son of Top gear". :O

OH

Maybe call it second gear?:O

I'm gettin fed up with all this Clerckson hoo ha.
I mean....the front page of a national newspaper this morning going on about it with links to the Prime Minister !!!!!!

Is it me or shouldn't the PM be a bit busy with other things of national import???
And the media to try and remember that the bloke is just a tele programme presenter for :mad: sake.

victor tango,

Amen !

D.

Who has raised considerable amounts of money for Help For Heroes and is also a patron of the charity.

:hmm:

He is also an employee of the BBC who has been accused of -indeed, even reported himself for- physical violence against another employee of the BBC, resulting in suspension pending an inquiry. By my definition that qualifies as gross misconduct if proven, whatever his outside interests.

I watched the canal programme on Channel 4 tonight and actually enjoyed it. Quite a good piece on the late Mr Tom and Mrs Sonia Rolt's vision of keeping the UK canal system as something for people to enjoy in the future. Sonia Rolt was interviewed (she died the same year this programme was recorded) and it was interesting to note the role the canals played during WWII and the fact that many women, including her, had to take over canal boat operations due to menfolk being called up. I tend to regard the late Tom Rolt as a bit of a hero as he did much to start what is now a mega-tourist economy of heritage steam railways, starting with the Welsh Narrow Gauge, as well as altering public perception on canals.

However, I've never really thought of Jeremy Clarkson as a hero although I've always had a sneaking admiration for his demolition of political correctness/good manners. I personally recall the Top Gear Team visit to HERRICK in late 07 when I was out there on Media Ops. MOD Press Office weren't too keen on Clarkson's piece on it when he got back to the UK but as the Army spokesman said at the time, he's a journalist, what do they expect? Ironic really that in today's papers JC is being compared to JS, who also did a lot for charity including Stoke Mandeville. Not an accurate, fair, good or accurate comparison but, hey, that's journalism for you.:\

TG is for the terminally inept immature authority figure types who are somewhat past the time to grow a set and grow up. Money for worthy causes can always be raised by psychopaths. Sir Jimmy ( and others named and yet to be ) proved that to be sadly true. Cut TG now, it serves no useful purpose. Not the only thing which awaits a timely yet merciful execution.

I think you're being a bit hard on yourself there, cvg2lin...

To return to the thread, thoroughly enjoyed the rerun of The Bubble. Paints a very positive picture of the RAF's skill, professionalism and informal formality of teamwork which really gets things done. Feeling proud again.

Like Jimmy Saville eh

sorry BEagle, don't mean Clarkson is the same, but same argument.


P S Great Canal Journeys was a good watch, thanks.

As I'd already seen the RAFAT programme, I too watched the Canal Journeys programme on Ch4 - it was very enjoyable.

I find that I'm watching the BBC's output less and less these days.....:rolleyes:

I concur about Canal Journeys - a good watch!

Yep, went off Clarkson years ago. Met him once and he was an arrogant tw*t. May was a bit aloof but Hamster was very friendly. Canals are much more cerebral!

At last! There was something decent to watch on the Beeb after supper. TG has gone downhill since Raymond Baxter and William Willard were there to talk about the next car you were thinking of buying and not about themselves!

Clarkson,Johnathan Ross, Russell Brand etc - talentless idiots who aren't fit to lace the boots of the lowest squaddie - and don't even get me started on Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell! Rant over!

Anyway, thanks Beags for the tip about the Reds programme.

Watched the canal prog, nice.

Best holidays ever, friends, fun, beer, outdoors, practical, history, tea & cake, wake up to ducks level with window...

Once appointed the "Boss" as "Navigation Officer", lots of puffing of chest until she realised......all the bridges are numbered and you know your heading!

lsh
:E

They did precisely that with an episode of QI which featured Clarkson following his appearance on 'The One Show' when he joked that strikers should be shot.

Basically it was crap. I don't need any help choosing a car, far more fun to watch people like myself: middle aged blokes arsing about. It's like being on detachment. Well, it was before the fun police got properly established.

Back to OP, didn't see it before, I think they were using our old Sqn HQ, lasted well, New paint, but the trees ain't half grown.

Viewing figures:

Inside the Bubble: 1.3 million

TG Season 22 avg.: 6.3 million

Admittedly repeats seldom garner viewing figures as impressive as new materiel, but still...

(Next Sunday, rugby repeats. Oh joy.)

I was quite impressed by their visit - they sat in the EFI till quite late until everyone who wanted an autograph had got one, and had a free question and answer knockabout in one of the hangars. James May did politely decline a charity haircut, but I believe made a handsome donation in lieu. Jeremy did get quite excited over the Minigun on the MERT cab though. One of our nurses had looked after Richard Hammond after his crash, so it was nice to engineer a meeting between them. All this with no cameras following them around, so it wasn't just a photo opportunity, unlike some of the other visitors - I think we could all name a few!

Met May in Ridgecrest....2 things struck me.

Never meet your heroes, and two, on his wedge surely he could afford his own smokes rather than mine and everyone elses...:confused:

Also worth pointing out Clarkson has a significant input to the script for the studio sections - another possible reason it wasn't recorded.

If you want advice on buying a car there's always Fifth Gear, although the fact this program has been demoted from Channel 4, to Channel 5 and now to History (possibly what the show will shortly become) suggests it really isn't what most people want.

Good job the RAF don't sack people who use violence in the workplace. Lost count of the number of times I've seen people decked (generally justified though).

Watched it last night...total quality. Made you proud of them.

The poor Beeb has a dilemma. Exhibit A:

Not all of the music here is pleasant to listen to; much of it is distinctively challenging, both aesthetically and intellectually. Even for those who are normally at home in classical music or at least have a grasp of its basic tenets – harmony, counterpoint, key and time signatures – the experience of hearing Schoenberg, Messiaen, Cage, Stockhausen et al can seem as disorientating as waking up one morning and discovering that you must suddenly learn an entirely new language – a mad, jangling vocabulary composed of letters and words you thought you’d understood since childhood but now find mystifyingly incomprehensible.

Translated: Most of you oiks are far too stupid to understand this :mad:.

Much as the artsy-fratsies and luvvies may hate Clarkson, the dosh from Top Gear funds hundreds of hours of this horrible noise, not to mention performance poetry and paeans to Tate Modern daubery.

Serious question. What are the implications for the Cyprus work-up if this agreement between Cyprus and Russia goes ahead - such as a couple of Bears arriving unannounced mid-PDA?

Mmmm. With respect, LO, there are various code words in there which say 'I loathe this music with a passion that consumes my whole being, and it is nonsense of the first order' - it's review language akin to those code words/phrases in obituaries ('He was a bon viveur' = he was a raging alcoholic; 'he was very much a ladies man' = he was a nasty groper who was extremely lucky not to be prosecuted for sexual assault; 'he was a noted raconteur' = he was a crushing bore. And so on).

Based on my recollection of the code as explained to me by a musician, the above loosely translates as:

'Not all of the music here is pleasant to listen to' = The composer sometimes inadvertently uses a conventional harmony and creates a briefly melodic moment.

'...much of it is distinctively challenging, both aesthetically and intellectually' = It is hard to understand how anyone with half a brain can consider this to be music.

'Even for those who are normally at home in classical music or at least have a grasp of its basic tenets – harmony, counterpoint, key and time signatures – the experience of hearing Schoenberg, Messiaen, Cage, Stockhausen et al can seem as disorientating as waking up one morning and discovering that you must suddenly learn an entirely new language' = If you like classical music, your ears will hurt and you will be utterly confused as to how anyone can think this is music.

'a mad, jangling vocabulary composed of letters and words you thought you’d understood since childhood but now find mystifyingly incomprehensible' = 'there are no recognisable melodies, the harmony is all out, and you are left wondering if the composer has gone mad, or deaf or both, and cannot understand how anyone can listen to this tosh'.

And all of that is necessary because someone in the organisation who commissioned the review/commentary isthe sort of person who pretentiously believes that 'oiks' don't get it and who won't publish a review that questions the brilliance of what is pretentious tosh - but they're also not bright enough to recognise the damning criticism which says to any switched - on music lover: 'This is utterly, utterly dire. Avoid it at all costs'...

(I accept that I may be wrong about Ms Burton-Hill's intent, but the phrasing is alarmingly close to the alternative interpretation explained to me some 20 years ago...)

[with apologies for the wild thread diversion]

4mastacker

They are off this week for Springhawk. Presumably because of the operational tempo at Akrotiri they are not going to Cyprus this year, but to Greece instead. Not sure where but probably Andravida.

I still think "in the bubble" sounds like something you would shoot your ....... into..


As to Top Gear, one of the main attractions in the show is the three main characters and how they play against and bounce off each other, they and the show are a refreshing change in this PC world of television sycophants.

What annoys me is the BBC's attitude, I still cannot fathom why they are punishing the viewer by cancelling the show, when the viewer as in the licence fee payer are paying their wages from the DG down, not only that, but they will lose revenue from the show in not honouring contracts the world over in producing a full series. I realise they need to take some action, but I feel this was not it.
I do wonder if Clarkson is sacked, will May and Hammond would not renew their contracts and move on, I would imagine Murdock and his Sky empire would be rubbing their hands gleefully at the prospect of poaching the main cast from under the BBC's nose and producing their own show.

NutLoose +1 ... agree with your summary, saved me writing!

Clearly the show can't go on, at least at the moment due to the production points raised previously. But, as much as I have enjoyed 'New Top Gear' over the last 10 years or so, the show is running out of puff. Perhaps it's demise is not hastened, but its evolution certainly is. Perhaps in musical terms its time for an unexpected key change.

I'd drifted away from Top Gear over the past few years, but I found myself watching this series and thought it was a definite return to form.

Indeed!

I'm enjoying this Top Gear thread. What a shame people keep spoiling it by mentioning aviation related stuff.

The cockpit flying footage from Inside the bubble was pretty amazing I thought.

Re: Hammond, was he actually right? I don't see any others signs to override priorité a droite?

downsizer,

To slightly miss-quote Mitch Benn on BBC Radio 4 - Did Douglas Get It Right? about Douglas Adams last Saturday:

Those people who say "never meet your heroes", have the wrong heroes!