| Author | Message | ||
     Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Does anyone else here draw Dark Truths from this TV programme? http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/deal_or_no_deal.htm | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
In a similar way Dark Truths were harvested from another game show - Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 'Slumdog Millionaire' 'Sewerrat Deal-meister' | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Des - I hope you don't mind me saying this but you really do like some strange telly programmes! Big Brother. Deal or No Deal. Both seem to me to show human nature at its most obnoxious. Is that what attracts you to them - as an observer of humankind, and as a writer of Dark Truths? (I wish I'd thought of asking you that in our Pantechnicon interview now  ) | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
I can see exactly what you mean, Caroline. I have to say that I 'enjoy' both 'Big Brother' and 'Deal or No Deal' on superficial as well as what I see as deeper levels. There are indeed obnoxious elements of greed in finance-induced TV quizzes and games (and celebrity-greed in BB). But there are also - dare I be 'pretentious'? - Synchronised Shards of Random Truth and Fiction, role-playing and/or reality, theatrics and/or mundanity - with weak-points in the human character that indeed do open up in such scenarios to reveal more things-about-themselves than possibly intended. All valuable evidence for the writer, such as us, writers of imaginative or dark fiction who want to avoid Didacticism but, equally, want to show moral as well as dark truths from the observational (disguised?) vantage point of the 'dumpster-truck' of modern culture. Horror-orientated. This could continue to become a very long answer to your question, combining my many beliefs embodied in Nemonymity and in the way that I write my own fiction and review other fiction and debate on the internet. Perhaps I shall expand further on another day - if invited to do so. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Just as a backdrop to the above discussion - The 'Deal or No Deal' studio is commonly called the 'dream factory' and the audience are 'pilgrims' and there are religious-like obeisances by the contestants in set bowing sequences... And there is a subtle or instinctive or deliberate interchange between all 21 future contestants, the 'pilgrims', the actual single contestant on the day, Noel Edmunds and Noel's real-time interpretations of the Banker's phone calls. All blatantly based on greed yet complexly including many other things of intention and mis-intention. Quite different each day. Nobody who is already rich seems to be allowed to be a contestant (presumably becuase they migh tame too many potentially lucrative risks.) Emotional and heart-felt as well as cynical. A simple game of hance. But also a complex game where 'it is written'. A bit like 'Slumdog Millionnaire' and its particular game template. The synchronised random dancing at the end being highly significant...perhaps. | ||
| Nathaniel Tapley (Natt) Username: Natt Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 89.240.59.35 |
What's most interesting to me about Deal Or No Deal is how different it is to the American version. It shows a completely different approach to the same problem: how to camouflage the fact that the game's key mechanism is entirely random, and to impart some sort of meaning to it. In the US version they attempt this with set dressing: models hold the boxes, the highest red amount is $1 million, the whole thing is as slick as it can be. It's got a lot of flashing light to distract you from the fact that this is essentially a coin-flipping game. In Britain (although this might have changed, I haven't had the chance to watch a lot since our children started arriving) the mechanism was covered by the creation of a weird, all-encompassing, apparently-improvised narrative. The core of this was, essentially, a fictional contest between two powerful supernatural entities: The Banker, and the player's ability to influence the values contained in the boxes they opened. An overarching story was created at the beginning of each episode (as in many game shows) by an exploration of the player. However, having had each person involved for about 21 shows before they ended up as the core player meant that little stories could be woven about each, even in their capacities as box-opener. Some people were known as terribly unlucky, mystics who couldn't help but hold high-numbered boxes. The contestant was then sent on a quasi-spiritual quest, with Noel Edmonds as their Gandalf, their Obi-Wan, during which they must learn to use their psychic abilities to affect what boxes were opened. About the time I stopped watching they were adding yet more layers of specious meaning, with the division of the box-holders into The East Wing, and The West Wing, and attempting to find meaning in that. It's a situation in which any event (or non-event) can be ascribed a causality, as Noel weaves a fiction that we are in control of an ultimately random universe. It's a great example of B.F. Skinner's magical thinking, and it accrues new superstitions, sacrifices to the gods of this new, strangely small, universe. But no, I don't watch it any more... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
I think our two posts crossed, Natt. But you give a brilliant (much better!) summation of the current British version of the 'game', a summation which I am wholly in tune. I'd add that the Banker -- (as reported by Noel from the phon calls but who also sometimes talks direct to the contestant (but not very often)) -- is becoming more and more of a Horror character in the fullest sense. Hence today's rat army he is threatening to bring though the sewers. He has also been guilty in the past of much scatology as well as eschatology! | ||
| Nathaniel Tapley (Natt) Username: Natt Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 89.240.59.35 |
Yes, I think they crossed, too. I had forgotten about the 'pilgrims', and 'the dream factory'... I wonder whether, given his fondness for 'cosmic ordering', and his boast about how good at DOND he was when testing the game, how much Noel actually believes of what he is saying. When I initially watched, with my performer's hat on, I was amazed at his being able to improvise a 45-minute narrative out of random events that built to a climax almost every time. Now I suspect that I wasn't watching a master of long-form improvisation, but someone who truly believes that the universe rewards those who demand rewards. Perhaps these are all elements we shall see int he religion he eventually founds. (The clip from Noel's HQ in which he berates council official VandenBose suggests that he would not be uncomfortable founding a cult. One of my highlights of the last television year was seeing Noel rant about not being an entertainment show, eliciting siegheils from row after row of oversized, red, foam hands... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAo-xyIEEkI ) Deal Or No Deal is, in Noel's mind, the universe as it was meant to be... | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
Good grief, you two! I thought it was just a coin-flipping game! Honestly, when I tried watching it I thought it was so boring - no skill, nothing to interest me, nothing happening at all. I've obviously not approached it with the right frame of mind!  | ||
| Nathaniel Tapley (Natt) Username: Natt Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 89.240.59.35 |
You should hear me on Family Fortunes... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
I suppose I should not be surprised that commenting on 'Big Brother' and 'Deal or No Deal' etc produces the most vehement, illiberal counter-comments from otherwise liberal people. I feel, sometimes, that I'm defending aspects of interpretation and proclivity in certain forms of 'entertainment' in the same way some of us defend, in other contexts, anti-censorship, Horror literature, certain forms of politics or whatever it is we defend or show the inner subtleties of. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
That link to Noel's Sky show, Natt, has confirmed me in some of my thoughts about him as an 'actor' and performer. Not all positive thoughts, however positive the cause. On DOND, he is the right man for that job, almost against the grain. Indeed, it needs to be against the grain, so as to work. Incidentally, in the comments in my previous post, I was not referring to any posts on this thread above. It's just remarkable the significant vehemence created by reference to BB or DOND - more than any other subjects. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
We have sunk a level below DOND now. Justin Lee Collins recently hosted a big cash prize game show where all the contestants had to do was guess heads or tails when JLC flipped his coin. It was worse than it sounds. | ||
| Nathaniel Tapley (Natt) Username: Natt Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 89.240.59.35 |
I shall pitch a show in which Chris Tarrant holds a cheque for £10 million behind his back, and you have to guess which hand it's in while he probes you as to your reasoning. "The left? Why did you go for the left? To be honest, I had you down as a left-man, and, as you know, I only want you to win this money. I really want you to win this money. Is left your final answer? Absolutely sure? Please make triply sure that you want to go for the left..." I reckon you could get a whole hour out of it. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Yes, there is a paradox here. Negative things - as I hinted - like 'religious-like obeisances' etc etc. Positive things, too. Yes, it is a 'dream factory' and, on one interpretation, a Ligottian factory! In similar ways, my own parents felt that the Football Pools were a 'dream factory' if not in those words - and this helped to underpin their lives from the Nineteen Forties onward. DOND is essentially a 'working-class' programme, perhaps. BTW, 'vehement' is not meant to be a derogatory word - nor is 'illiberality' if one believes that too much 'liberality' can have unwelcome results. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
>>Incidentally, in the comments in my previous post, I was not referring to any posts on this thread above. It's just remarkable the significant vehemence created by reference to BB or DOND - more than any other subjects.<< I'm glad you added that, Des - I thought you were referring to me for one horrible minute!  >>In similar ways, my own parents felt that the Football Pools were a 'dream factory' if not in those words - and this helped to underpin their lives from the Nineteen Forties onward.<< I can relate to that. I remember well the sense of tension and excitement as my dad checked the scores each Saturday teatime, and then the disappointment which followed when we realised we were still on the bottom rung of the wealth ladder. I guess these are the emotions which programmes like DOND and that awful Heads or Tails thing tap into? Perhaps that's why I find it hard to watch them? That isn't a time in my life which I look back on with fondness, so maybe I'm trying not to relive it? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
I can relate to that. I remember well the sense of tension and excitement as my dad checked the scores each Saturday teatime, and then the disappointment which followed when we realised we were still on the bottom rung of the wealth ladder. ===================== I was in that place, too. But the disappointment was soon dissipated by renewed hope... Ever renewed hope, and they never won the Football Pools. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 82.38.75.85 |
No, neither did mine.  | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.156.233.165 |
I work with a chap who interminably watches Murder She Wrote and the like. I have to watch it for three hours now my time with him has been upped. I wonder that my time with this job is done. That said I don't mind these programmes THAT much. I think I've trained my mind to see subtle qualities in them as a twitcher (twitterer?) might find joy waiting for hours trying to see the lesser spotted nutcatcher or some such. Oddly, I do find them, and it is actually quite rewarding. I spotted one guy playing a janitor once who would have made a much better Capote than Seymour Hoffman. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.156.233.165 |
My mum and dad always pinned their hopes on a pools win. I hated it for that, the pools. It was like a hymn - 'When we win the pools'. We once won a trip to Butlins with it though, and a new table and stuff. (best holiday ever though - 1976 it was.) Sigh. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
It was like a hymn - 'When we win the pools'. ============================ Indeed. X = draw 1 = home win 2 = away win In those days (Fifties and Sixties), I recall X was any old draw, with no differentiation between a score and no-score draw. The possible permutation schemes available of these Xs, 1s and 2s were frighteningly complicated. As a child (or youth?) I did the Pop Pools run by Kent Walton, where you had to predict, in a similar way as the football pools, what record would go up, go down or stay in the same place in the NME chart. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
The week that the pools first paid out a million pound win, it was my Granddad's regular numbers. Unfortunately, my Gran - who normally put the numbers on for him - had had an argument with the woman she always gave the money to. As a result she wasn't talking to her for any reason and hadn't put the numbers on. For some reason, my Granddad didn't talk to my gran for about a month... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
In the old days, each day was indeed so old it could not recall anything with its failing memory. The people who lived during those old days – like me – tried to help each day as it dawned by calling up for it our own memories that we believed led to the existence of a past. Of days even older. But each new old day would have none of it. “That is the start of everything,” it claimed – pointing to the sunrise. “Without a previous sunset to recall, there can be no sunrise to forget,” we said. “This is the first sunrise – deal or no deal?” the day replied. We all shrugged and said ‘deal’. We were realistic, if not real. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Currently in the first advert break of today's edition of DOND. When I wrote the above, I genuinely didn't know that today's contestant was to be a lady called Dawn!! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
Well, I obviously don't intend to keep up a running commentary on DOND on this thread, but, tonight, just as an example, it wasn't a classic DOND. But I was pleased Dawn went away with her 'sunshine money' even though it wasn't strictly a 'banker spanking'. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.159.146.233 |
That prose poem above is now, in hindsight, called 'Dawn's Game'. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.156.233.165 |
It's nice, Des. We all just watched the film Happy Go Lucky. It was really good, and in the way of really good things was chock full of coincidences that apply to us. I'll not go on about them all but there were a lot - it was like the film was set decorated with our lives. Lovely film, btw. It's funny but the other year a friend told us our numbers had come up on the lottery (she recognised all our birthdays). We hadn't done it for years though. What shocked me was that I wasn't remotely bothered. We had a neighbour once who won on the pools, too. Apparently he was in the papers for having sought out a guy from years back he'd made a joint promise with to share the money with. The bloke had apparently forgotten about it. 'The most honest man in Britain' it said on the front of the Sun, apparently. Last I heard of him he'd kept moving house all the time. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
NATT SAID: Deal Or No Deal is, in Noel's mind, the universe as it was meant to be... ======================= This week, Noel is dressed up as an angel. Quite apt, as Noel believes in angels: http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/61685 | ||
| Colin Leslie (Blackabyss) Username: Blackabyss Registered: 02-2010 Posted From: 86.164.67.73 |
I can remember the days when people would lose the ability to speak when shoved in front of the TV cameras, now the issue seems to be stopping them and why is it that all the contestants have a tragic life story? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
Colin, that is, for me, a very relevant observation. If you watch the public involved in programmes in the Sixties and Seventies they are tongue-tied and look as if they are about twenty years older than they really are, plucked out of a black and white edition of Juke Box Jury in 1961, in heavy threadbare coats, with glum looks and bashful glances. Almost as if they have tears in their eyes in sorrow they haven't got a really tragic past they can remember or even concoct! | ||
| Colin Leslie (Blackabyss) Username: Blackabyss Registered: 02-2010 Posted From: 86.164.67.73 |
The arrogance of many of the contestants almost seems to work against them. Is it wrong to sometimes hope they don't win, if only so it wipes that smug grin off their faces...why if I had an axe etc etc... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
Yes, I often hope certain contestants win very little money. As with the internet, everyone is now a performer. Everyone has a voice. Previously, in the live audience of, say, Juke Box Jury in 1961, they had a burden that even the enjoyment of the show barely lifted from their old-fashioned faces. Today, on DEAL OR NO DEAL (as one example), the constestants are just as tragic - indeed they impose tragedy upoin their lives, as you observed - but they seem able today to 'act' tears as well as joy almost within a space of a few secobnds. | ||
| Colin Leslie (Blackabyss) Username: Blackabyss Registered: 02-2010 Posted From: 86.164.67.73 |
And Noel Edmonds preys on it like some demonic circus ringmaster and to think I used to like him on Swap Shop. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.157.25.236 |
Well, today he was an angelic usher in Heaven. But the results are the same. I think some people when they reach their sixties turn slightly strange. And Noel is a good example. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.56 |
My favourite thing I ever saw on DOND was when a cocky contestant had either 50p or £100,000 in the last two boxes and was offered the swap. He took it and won the 50p. I snortled my drink straight out of my nose. It had me laughing for a good 5 minutes. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 81.155.23.121 |
Tonight's edition was truly Shakesperean - Othello pacing up and down, the banker as Iago, the other players as a sort of Greek chorus, and Desdemona the luck that jilted him. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.169.217.52 |
Another classic game tonight. Will they have Deal or No deal on in the bar at WHC? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
Anyone else watching DEAL's fifth birthday shows? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
Rick Cadger of Dusksite and of the stories in the small press etc etc? Well, he's written a short appraisal of DOND on the Wall of my Facebook, that I found fascinating and very true. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
Oh, I thought this might be a reference to this. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11834518 It hasn't gone away, you know... | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
"If you watch the public involved in programmes in the Sixties and Seventies they are tongue-tied and look as if they are about twenty years older than they really are, plucked out of a black and white edition of Juke Box Jury in 1961, in heavy threadbare coats, with glum looks and bashful glances." Yes. Those raw, saturnine people were like something from a nature documentary - shyness coupled with a lack of self-awareness. 1970s people seem similar to today's in that they don't feel they can be themselves when attention is on them, but they haven't been given off-the-peg personae to use like. So they hide behind themselves (shyness) rather than a mask (bravado). | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 147.252.230.148 |
Ack, ignore "like" in the second last paragraph. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.221.108 |
That's wonderful, Proto. We're hitting on some sort of TV age truth here. And isn't Kirsty tonight delicious? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.143.98.68 |
A contestant - in sexy black tights - has tonight used the verb 'to catastrophize' in conversation witn Noel. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.145.100.125 |
What an amazing DEAL today for January 18 - wonderful Tracy from Essex. And Three sets of little boxes, | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.169.219.237 |
The best deal or no deal today - ever. I feel I,ve been through the emotional wringer. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.165.39.90 |
The pessimist may be proved right in the end, but the optimist has a better journey. Someone said this on DOND today | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.165.39.90 |
It was Dolly's game finished just this minute. The web is alive with this quote now. Never been said before? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.87.170 |
Churchill said something to this effect, I think. | ||
| Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus) Username: Rhysaurus Registered: 01-2010 Posted From: 212.219.233.223 |
What is this goddam Deal or no Deal? It's just a daytime gameshow, isn't it? My favourite Churchill quote is possibly, "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping that it will eat him last!" I typed in the words "Churchill quotes" into Google and guess what came up? Matches for a bloody insurance company! No deal... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.23.87.170 |
Same as when the tourist types in 'Paris' and get Ms Hilton's vacuous face. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.155.31.11 |
The dark banker was 'grifted' this evening. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.174.204 |
Does anyone else find it strange that John Prescott (now Lord Prescott) is advertising moneysupermarket.com in the middle of 'Deal or No Deal'? PS: Today's episode has a contestant nicknamed The Gunslinger (apt as I'm currently reading Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER). | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.158.236.228 |
SF / Fantasy writer - Gordon - wrenched by emotions today. Noel called him a Geek. But Gordon was far more than that. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
I know a SF/fantasy writer of that name - I wonder if it was him? A nice chap. I just can't imagine him being on DOND though - but you never know ... (Des - I bet you're going to tell me I should've watched it now, aren't you?  ) | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.158.236.228 |
Gordon had very long curly hair and glasses. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Hmmm. Do they repeat it again some time? I could do with watching this. I don't have many friends who appear on telly. I know one person who's been a contestant on Fifteen-to-One (knocked out in first round) and who's been in the audience sitting behind the judges in Dancing on Ice, or Britain's Got Talent, or one of those kinds of shows. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.232.199.129 |
Ah, no, it isn't the same Gordon I know. I just found the DOND website (can't believe you've got me looking at the DOND website, Des!  ) and found this guy's pic - no, it's not him. False alarm! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.165.36.129 |
I'm *not* going to watch DOND again now that Noel has just ridiculed Clacton! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Des - I'll be down in Clacton (well, Jaywick) for a week in the summer, if you fancy meeting up for a coffee. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.24.131 |
Don't go, Des. He plans to kill you. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.165.36.129 |
Jaywick is part of Clacton, Zed, indeed. You sure you want to go to Jaywick! Jaywick is well... I've explored Jaywick, but I mean to say.... Are you sure? But if you do come down this way, it'd be great to meet up. (Not sure about Jaywick, though. But, on the other hand, for Horror writers, it may be just the thing.). des | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.31.24.131 |
I tried. Bye, Des. Been a pleasure. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.165.36.129 |
Everything seems suddenly very ... precarious. Is that the word? I'm surprised anyone outside of Clacton has even heard about Jaywick. Hmmm. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.165.36.129 |
here | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Des, my wife's family are originally from Barnet. Because of idyllic childhood memories of summers spoent in jaywick, they've all moved down there! Crazy - one of them's millionare, yet he chooses to live on the dodgy Brookfields estate! We spent last weekend down there, before having a couple of days in London, and to be honest it was okay. My mother-in-law lives ina decent part, far enough away from the rough bit that it's quiet and peaceful. It's not somewhere I'd choose to live, but it was nowhere near as bad as I expected from the recent media reports... I'll email you closer to the time, and we can meet in Clacton for a coffee and a chat. Be good to see you again, mate. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.165.36.129 |
The whole concept seemed so bizarre, Zed, I thought you were joking originally. Now that I see you are serious, I still find what you tell me bizarre - but indeed it would be great to meet up; can't we have something stronger than a coffee? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.253.77 |
Why is it so bizarre, Des? I get about a bit, me, you know. Yeah, we can go for a pint or two - even better, sir! (It is rather bizarre that my wife's family are all slowly accumulating down there, though. Very odd.) | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.165.36.129 |
Well, without knowing the people involved, I am intrigued by a Millionnaire wanting to live at the place called here (linked above) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Ah, yes...I find that very strange, too. He's an interesting man, is Uncle Mick. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.143.99.210 |
Abbey's Game is on at this very moment. An archetypal Clacton-on-Sea Essex-Girl, but one who brings along an abstract painting called 'Chaotic Movement'. How post-modern! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.143.99.210 |
...and isn't Abbey simply DELIGHTFUL? | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.143.98.239 |
Tegan's Game - that's made my day if not my year - And it has made my elderly mother's day - A morality tale. | ||
| Matthew Fryer (Matthew_fryer) Username: Matthew_fryer Registered: 08-2009 Posted From: 90.195.182.194 |
Caught the last ten minutes and it blew me away. A good-hearted girl with such spirit and nerve. I never wanted a happy ending so much, and she's donating some of her winnings to charity. Apparently since recording, her lymphoma has sadly returned, but is in remission. I really hope her bravery rewards her in life, as it did in the show. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.143.98.239 |
Caught the last ten minutes and it blew me away. =============== Indeed, Matthew. Did you know that for the next fortnight, starting this afternoon, DOND is being done live! Lima Fox, Juliet Bravo, Roger and Out! | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.228 |
Where's my phone charger? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.19.77 |
Where you left it. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.147.136.178 |
If it's not there, try somewhere else? maybe box 22 | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.228 |
I left it with the TV Remote Control. (Box 22 is the 'Death Box', btw, Weber) | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
That's why your phone's atopped working... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.131.175.228 |
I've written about death today: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2011/10/shifting-vigils.html | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 81.154.251.221 |
Gambling Commission in pursuit of DEAL OR NO DEAL! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113217/Deal-No-Deal-faces-Gambling-Comm ission-probe-TV-gameshows-face-crackdown.html | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 86.177.161.230 |
Life can be very cruel. | ||
| Carolinec (Carolinec) Username: Carolinec Registered: 06-2009 Posted From: 92.237.187.186 |
Not a fan myself - I prefer proper quiz shows - but this Gambling Commission thing does sound a bit ridiculous. I reckon they should bring back The Golden Shot. I used to enjoy that when I was a kid!  |