Day Six: Favourite TV shows
I love watching the television.
There is nothing better than settling down after a hard day to watch a few
hours of quality and at times a bit naff television.
By a mile my favourite thing to
watch is Doctor Who. It’s something that has always been there, even if it was
cancelled in November of the year that I was born. There’s a video of me
somewhere, about 5 years old dancing around the room singing the Doctor Who theme
tune, talking about the Daleks, even though at that point I’m sure that I had
never actually seen an episode.
The first episode that I ever saw
was ‘Warriors of the Deep’, a 5th Doctor story from 1984 which I saw
on UK TV Gold one Saturday morning when I was about 10. The part that stuck in
my memory was the episodes monster trying to get through a metal door, and by
metal I mean foam. The metal/foam door then fell on the leg of the companion,
and I fell about laughing as the Doctor tries his very best to life the door
from her leg. I’ve been a fan since then.
I rejoiced when the series was
revived in 2005, but I had to watch upstairs on a tiny portable television on
26th March, because heaven forbid the rest of my family missed an
episode of Ant and Dec! The revival only made me love it more. My favourite
episode of the series so far has been ‘Blink’ which aired on my birthday in
2007, and my Doctor is David Tennant, though Matt Smith grows closer and closer
to stealing it with every passing episode.
My love of Doctor Who has led to
a love of both of its spin offs, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Torchwood began in 2006 and was more adult than Doctor Who, but if followed a
similar formula, and the lead character was Captain Jack, he had too little
time in Doctor Who and it was great to see more of his development. With more
Torchwood looking unlikely, it would be great to see him in Doctor Who again. A
the other end of the spectrum, ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ aired on CBBC and
stared Elisabeth Sladen reprising the role of seventies companion Sarah Jane
Smith. The show was crafted with just as much quality as any other show, despite
it being classed as a children’s TV show. I was upset by Elisabeth Sladen’s
death, in early 2011 it came as such a shock as no one had known that she was
ill, but it made watching the final three episodes even more poignant, and I’m
glad that the series ended on a high and the character of Sarah Jane will live
on for a long time.
Moving away from Doctor Who another
of my favourite television shows may only have lasted for 14 episodes, but each
one of them in a corker. Afterlife created by Stephen Volk who also gave the
world the infamous Ghost Watch aired on ITV in 2006 and 2007 and centred
around psychic Alison Mundy played by Lesley Sharp and a psychology lecturer
who decides to write a book about her played by Andrew Lincoln. I was the first
adult drama that I have really watched and I became enthralled by the relationship
between Alison and Robert. It ended in 2007, and the series finale is still on
that never fails to bring a tear to my eye. I won’t spoil it here, but if you
haven’t seen it, I really recommend a watch.
I like my Sci Fi and Drama. I
watched the first series of Heroes when it was on the Sci Fi channel, I
watched it before many of my friends and raved about it, no one else caught
onto it for months, but it slowly went downhill and I’ve only seen half of
series 3 and none of the fourth series, but that doesn’t take away from the
first series being fantastic, I still watch it. Being Human is another Sci Fi
favourite, a show about a ghost, werewolf and vampire sharing a house in
Bristol doesn’t sound great on paper, but it is fantastic. The second series,
not so good, it seemed to get a bit bogged down with religion and a cult, but
it was back on form in series three and although series four saw it loose three
established characters, it was still just as good and I eagerly await series
five I am also a fan of Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, old and new, which has
been somewhat overshadowed by the ITV juggernaut. Sherlock is another classic in the making, just when you think there is no more that can be done with the great detective, two of the greatest minds behind Doctor Who come up with this television gold. A third series really can't come quickly enough.
Then of course, there is the more
unusual television. The guilty pleasures. One of my current guilty pleasures is
Embarrassing Bodies where people too afraid to see a doctor in private, go on
the television for millions of people to see their problems instead. There are the gypsy weddings. I think it’s fascinating
that they can have such high morals, no sex before marriage, first communion,
and yet they are more than happy to have young girls dressed in next to nothing
dancing provocatively. Yet, it’s compulsive viewing, and once I start to watch,
I really can’t stop. The same goes for Horrible Histories, which returns tomorrow, it's daft, but it makes history fun and I wish that it had been around years ago!
There’s the television that
you can watch and you don’t have to think about watching. Things like Snog,marry, avoid. Half an hour of orange madness, a make under show where
tan-tastics are turned into natural beauties, again, something that I don’t
think I should like, but once you get started, it gets harder and harder to
stop. Celebrity Big Brother is another one, seeing celebrities fight with
each other and make utter fools of themselves is always funny, though I draw
the line at watching the regular Big Brother, I couldn’t care less about a
bunch of nobodies wanting a fast track to fame, though you could say the same about Celebrity Big Brother!.
I do draw the line at some things
though. I can’t stand the new breed of reality television, the scripted
reality. The Only Way is Essex started the trend and it really has gotten out
of hand, culminating in the abysmal Desperate Scousewives. Thank goodness there
won’t be any more of that! Then there are things like Glee, something that I
should love, all the cheese and singing, but I really can’t stand it at all, I
find it too cheesy and the characters just the wrong side of annoying, with the
exception of Sue, maybe if it was just about her it would be watchable. One Born Every Minute is another turn off, I don’t get why people would watch it,
I don’t want to see a bunch of random women giving birth, people say the cry
watching it and that it’s heart-warming, but it’s really not something that I
would watch, and that is saying something!
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