Have you had your weekly FX?

Do you or have you at any time watched television? Yes. Good because I think, and therefore it is right, that The Wire is the greatest TV show ever made. Yes, that is what I believe and surprisingly it may seem that some people actually agree with me. The Wire has been acclaimed as the most accomplished TV series ever. It started as a cop show set in Baltimore projects with drugs, gangs, poverty, crime and alcoholic police as the cast, but it quickly grew into an epic piece of television drama. Stuck out on Channel FX, you might not have even heard of the show, may I make a suggestion of Series 1 DVD box set my good friends.

Channel FX has been showing a new series from the writers of The Wire called Generation Kill; we’re up to episode 5 of 7 at the moment. Generation Kill from HBO tells the story of the first 40 days of the 2003 Iraq war through the eyes of a group of young US marines. The drama is based on a book by Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright, who was assigned to a US marine unit during the second Iraq war. The series is mind blowing – it has quick humour, intense set pieces, great cinematography and a script that’s sharper then a marine’s knife.

Could The Wire or Generation Kill been British productions? Never in a million years, never could they have been made in Britain by the BBC, ITV or Channel 4. For those of you that have seen either show, just imagine it being broadcast as a new BBC series on BBC 2 on a Sunday night at 10pm –no me neither. Future series such as The Listener, The Shield and Mad Men are going to be out there, it’s just can you be arsed to find them?

So my advice is to hunt around, most people spend hours watching TV but stick to the same old format of a handful of channels. Channel FX is just one of many, but without it I would have never seen the shows without risking a DVD purchase. Use your remote; you can refuse to watch crap TV if you want to.

Finally hands up who’s watching The Oscars ® tonight.........just me then. Here’s my list of winners, check back tomorrow to see how right I am.

Best Film, Slumdog Millionaire - Best Director, Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) – Best Actor, Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) – Best Actress, Kate Winslet (The Reader) – Best Supporting Actor, Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) – Best Supporting Actress, Taraji P Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button): Slumdog to win at least 5 Oscars ®.

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Cheerio

Selby

Ticket 108, you are the greatest!

Sorry non sport fans but im sure you’ll find something in here for you. Did you watch England’s footballing lesson in Spain on Wednesday? History will not remember the game itself, but only for the moment when David Beckham equalled Bobby Moore’s record of 108 caps. The press seem to be obsessed with the amount of caps a player receives, especially a player of Beckham’s stature. Comparisons between the two former England captains have been made, is Beckham worthy of passing Moore’s record? Has he won a number of meaningless caps recently by coming on as a late substitute?

My own view is that directly comparing the two is pointless as the eras and positions in which both played are vastly different, but by highlighting a few career facts we can make a better judgment.

The image of Moore lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1966 rates as the greatest achievement by any Englishman in the history of football. In fact Moore was excellent during his three World Cups; the great Pele swapped his shirt with Moore at the end of their group match in Mexico ’70 as a mark of respect for his performance.

Beckham has never really performed in an equalling 3 World Cups, mainly due to injury, red cards or individual mistakes. His inclusion in the 2002 World Cup does question the then manager Sven Goren Erickson who picked a clearly unfit Beckham which contributed to England’s exit. In the sweltering heat of Shizuoka, a suffering Beckham jumped out of a tackle to save his recovering metatarsal injury which led to Rivaldo’s equaliser. During Euro 2004 Beckham’s normal dead ball expertise let him down when missing crucial penalties against France and in the shoot-out defeat with Portugal.

Beckham did provide Moore-esc moments to his career, especially his dignified resignation of the England captaincy and the way he has set about trying to regain his England place there-on after. Beckham’s exemplary behaviour off the field both personally and as England captain has to be respected as is Beckham by football fans around the world. He was treated like a pop star during the 2002 World Cup in Japan and was given a standing ovation when being substituted when winning his 100^th cap in a friendly defeat in the hostile Stade de France.

The two can never be compared, but they both should be equally admired as great England captains. The late Bobby Moore; the gentleman of football. David Beckham; the great ambassador under the spotlight. Oh and the argument that Beckham is winning caps for nothing by coming on late as a substitute, for the record, Beckham started 99 times out of his 108 caps.

Shit hair, thick and too slow though...

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Cheerio

Selby

I had a Golly-blog once

If anyone mentions the trouble they have had with / can’t get to because of / hates the / loves the snow, I will punch them in the face, man, women, disabled child, it doesn’t matter, just enjoy it in any way you like while it’s here.

Battling with the awesome weather for our attention this week is the story of Carol Thatcher getting sacked from the BBC show ‘The One Show’ – one of my TV secret shames. She was sacked because whilst backstage amongst co-presenters, charity workers, journalists and randomly Jo Brand, she referred to tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as a Gollywog.

Please bear with me those of you who, like me, are suffering from a bit of BBCHSOF – BBC or Heath and Safety Outrage Fatigue.

Carol Thatcher, daughter of Margret and former ‘Queen of the Jungle’ has at the time of writing this, received 2500 votes of support, by means of complaints to the BBC over the sacking. Many of the complains, including Thatcher’s agent, have mentioned that the comment was made in private and shouldn’t have been leaked – you need to be an idiot to believe that a room of journalists and famously Labour biased Jo Brand is classed as private. Football pundit Ron Atkinson believed he was talking in private when he was broadcasted to the armed forces network calling a black footballer a racial name, and look what happened to him – is he still alive?

Do the people who say that the term Gollywog or the child’s toy they once had is not offensive, also think that the Spanish Formula 1 fans who mocked Lewis Hamilton by wearing black face paint and wigs were having innocent light-hearted banter?

My view is that another ill-informed bandwagon has been jumped upon by idiots, but may I make my point quite clear, you call someone a Gollywog - you are being racist. The equation is quite simple. To turn away from the facts by highlighting this case as another PC brigade goes mad story is turning a blind eye to racism – which from the age of the people doing that is no surprise because that is what happened in the world up to the 1990’s.

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Cheerio

Selby