#098 Wildlife Special: Serpent - How to eat a springbok

Now while I will dedicate some more time and words to some other BBC nature programmes later in the countdown but this is one of the rare times where I will let the clip (and Sir David Attenborough) do the talking.

#099 Paxman Vs. the world

Unlike the previous entry, on the more sober nights in when found myself in control of the remote The BBC's flagship news analysis, current affairs and politics show Newsnight did (and still does) end up being the last thing that I watch before retiring to bed. It's certainly a better choice than watching ITV News at 10:30 (more on them later) While on Fridays the arts segment Newsnight review can either be a light relief or as charged as the more serious section. The most entertaining parts of the show usually revolve around Jeremy Paxman. One of his most famous moment, one that established him as a household name outside of the usual Newsnight audience, (Probably what got him his cameo role in Bridget Jones II: The Edge of Reason) is when he interviewed Michael Howard, mere days after he was the Home Secretary. Unfortunately this just falls outside of my time-frame but from the following week's Have I Got News For You "Did you threaten to overrule him?"

But he didn't rest there this is him taking on his own editors, 'Gorgeous' George Galloway, Martin McGuinness, Ann Coulter, Tony Blair, Alex Salmond and John Bolton

But best of all was the occasion when Newsnight editors decided that the market updates would better be replaced with a weather forecast again from HIGNFY

#100 Flipside TV

Above is a clip for the pilot episode of Flipside TV, which first appeared on our screens in 2003. The format is from the web-site Idea A Day (People come up with an idea and send it in like "Invent an alarm clock that scans local weather and traffic and adjusts your wake up time accordingly") The idea was quite simple; a presenter and three guest are given remote controls and their own television equipped with Sky Digital and let the presenter know if they discover anything interesting. They would then go on to comment / take the piss out of the show as it was broadcast live. It only managed to survive a two week run on Channel 4 and an extended run on Paramount the following year after first being broadcast on the defunct Nation 217.

Now on paper this might sound like an awful excuse for a television programme and a list of regular presenters / guests (Iain Lee, Richard Bacon, Justin Lee Collins, Alan Carr, Karl Pilikington and Victor from Big Brother 4) might also fill you with dread and may smack of the "We're so good at telly" executives from The Armando Iannucci Shows. Worry not, it's post-pub timing (it's actual starting time varied throughout it's run) meant it served the purpose that all students / wasters etc. need on returning from a few drinks and that is to mindlessly flip around looking for the very worst of late night drivel and dreck that Sky and their 500+ channels can muster. I'm sure we all know that feeling. It even once reminded me that The Sopranos was on E4, I'd seen it before but that didn't matter.

Here are some more random clips from the show (WARNING contains a clip of Iain Lee gyrating to Dr. and The Medics "Spirit In The Sky" in front of John McCririck.)



I've read a few rumours that it could be coming back on our screens soon and I, for one, welcome it with open arms. Especially if it retains more of the spirit of the original pilots and it's time slot of 8pm, which enabled the guests to talk about more interesting shows and get away with some things that a larger channel couldn't.

and if they let me go on.

Where it all started

One of the first things I ever recorded on my second hand VCR was the first episode of the aforementioned I'm Alan Partridge. For the uninitiated we start the series (which I will come back to in greater detail during the countdown full) with Alan living, alone, in a motel equidistantly positioned between London and Norwich after the events of Knowing Me, Knowing Yule, the Christmas Special from 1995, (obviously I can't include later) in which he punches Tony Hares, the Chief Commissioning Editor of BBC Television and is told he will never work on the BBC again. After coming up with some of the worst pitches ever, that ironically wouldn't seem out of place on TV nowadays ( Arm Wrestling With Chas & Dave, Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank, Inner-City Sumo, Cooking in Prison and finally Monkey Tennis.) Alan turns the conversation to food and drink.

Think of this as #101.

Introduction

This November is my 24^th birthday; it will be on the same day as the tenth anniversary of the first episode of I’m Alan Partridge which will also be the tenth anniversary of me owning a VCR in my room and having the ability to watch shows like Seinfeld the day after BBC2 put them on as late as possible. By means of a double celebration, for roughly fifty days before (Sept 14^th ish) and fifty days after I will be counting down 100 of my favourite moments from the shows which I have loved either sporadically or those I love without question from that time frame. There will be spoilers, you have been warned.