If anyone has been wondering if there's anything worth watching on telly recently (a question that seems to arise with some frequency both here and in the pages of the Daily Mail, among many other forums), may I heartily recommend two superlative programmes still running, though about to finish. Last night we watched the final episode of the three part documentary The Normans, which was as good as any history programme I've seen in the last decade or more. Robert Bartlett tells a story of a people who had an influence on the world that was far greater than I'd ever imagined, an influence that endures today. It's a great presentation of an enthralling story. Last episode will be available on the iplayer for another week, and here it is.

The other programme is Britain By Bike, which gained some unexpected publicity owing to the review of it by that vile reptile AA Gill. If a few people have watched it because of that, then it hasn't been all bad, because it's a superb series. Clare Balding cycles around various parts of the country using a series of guides written about 60 years ago by one Harold Briercliff, visiting some of the places along the route, talking to interesting people, and providing some social history. One of the interviewees as a delightful 92-year-old lady who is the last surviving founder member of Briercliff's cycling club. There's some stuff about cycling, like visits to bike factories which were among Europe's biggest after the war - but you don't have to be interested in cycling to enjoy it. I heartily recommend Britain By Bike, all five episodes (one more to come) of which are still available on the iplayer for another couple of weeks.

End of Public Service Broadcast Announcement.

What with this weeks anniversary I thought this was interesting documentary. Its Interviews with RAF Battle of Britain pilots from 1969. It's fascinating to see them in the prime of life with families and business etc. Also the way they don't sign up to the interviewers thesis etc. and just seeing how films like this have changed. In one scene one of the pilots breaks off to answer the phone and film stock being expensive they have to leave it in. There's more films in this archive so fill ya boots.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/battleofbritain/11401.shtml

Just caught up with this excellent documentary about how American culture in general and its films in specific have portrayed the south. It has the wonderful quality of being an authored piece so Rich Hall doesn't equivocate in telling us what he thinks. His take on musical biopics is for instance wonderfully blunt but he gives the impression of having seen the films he's discussing more than once and has enough background in critical theory and writing etc to explain why certain films work and others don't. Oh and at 1hr.30 the film gives enough time to this fascinating subject.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t26zf/Rich_Halls_The_Dirty_South...

we've commented before on Chris Packham and his Smiths/Cure quotes. But one thing I noticed tonight was the absolute quality of the incidental music (Bittersweet Symphony excepted). When was the last time you heard "Hercules" by the Neville Brothers or "Lonesome Suzie" by The Band on mainstream TV? Reason enough to keep watching to see what else they slip in in future episodes...

As the 36th seres of Later with Jools Holland draws to a close, I was wondering which performances from this show have wowed the Word massive?

My favourite ever performance was Roddy Frame playing 'On The Avenue' which i remember just being sublime. I have been searching youtube for this but cant find it anywhere!

Some other favourites are;

The yeasayer one just blew me away! I also love the 'what the frig' expressions on the audiences faces.

I rather enjoyed the Boy George drama 'Worried About The Boy' on BBC2 last night.

Douglas Booth did a grand job of portraying the many faces of Boy George (although a few extra pies could have been eaten). Mark Gatiss did a remarkable cameo as a waspish Malcolm Mclaren and best of all was Marc Warren with his wonderful portrayal of Steve Strange.

A few bits of artistic licence (pretty sure Kirk Brandon never got near the TOTP studio) and the band rehearsal scenes required some suspension of belief but otherwise most rock-biopic cliches were sidestepped by concentrating on the young O'Dowd and the men in his life. The action veering between the 'Young Ones' style squat and the Blitz Club, jump-cutting to the end of the 80s and his Hamstead home, with the Boy staked out by the Tabloids and strung out on smack.

And lo and behold, the scene where Boy George auditions for Mclaren in would appear to be shot in the very same hairdressers in Manchester where I get my barnet trimmed. Crown Barbers of Deansgate.

What did strike me though was how much drama there is left in this story, which is still ongoing. You could easily have filled another 90 mins of gripping drama with George, Marilyn and Steve Strange.

Still available on iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sh5lt/b00sh5kx/Worried_About_the...

BBC4 Schedule tonight is Word-friendly

9pm - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Running Down The Dream - "Peter Bogdanovich's epic portrait of one of America's great heartland rock 'n' roll bands."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00scr6s

1am - Stevie Wonder Live At Last

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ljy1w

1:50am - Randy Newman at LSO Luke's

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fd1q1

Did anyone happen to catch this a few weeks ago? I read an interview with Julia Davis in the Observer and had meant to watch this when it was on, or at least iplayer it, but missed it, so ended up downloading it through iTunes.

Anyway, good god. It's hilarious. I won't give too much away, but if you like Jessica Hynes (Spaced) or Julia Davis (Nighty Night / Human Remains), you owe this to yourself. Deeply sick, actually pretty horrifying in parts, but one of the best half hours of comedy I've seen in some time.

Treat yourselves.

Really enjoyed David's article about John Peel and the changing role of the DJ in the new issue. But, although I used to enjoy listening to Peel occasionally, the music he played didn't have a great impact on my own musical choices (I got into HMHB, The Fall and Laura Cantrell by different routes)

My teenage music years were dominated by the wonderful Annie Nightingale, whom I used to listen to on a Sunday afternoon while doing my homework, and the different but equally wonderful Alexis Korner. Because it was a request show, in 77/78 you'd hear Annie play The Eagles followed by The Clash, The Kinks then Joni Mitchell, The Members and then Eric Satie. Can't imagine a show that would have that range of acts now! Equally the Alexis Korner show was not only the home of the Blues, but I was first put on to Little Feat, Ry Cooder and many others by his show. And his musical knowledge was second to none.

So who from the radio had a big impact on your musical taste?

...and Lazy Cliche of The Week in a two-for-one deal.

This from the BBC website:

"Watch: Walking on Sunshine
Katrina (of the Waves fame) sang on Wogan Weekend, performing the catchiest pop song of the eighties - 'Walking on Sunshine'. How fitting was that for the first day of spring?"

As part of the "save 6 Music" campaign, there's a campaign to get the incomparably wonderful "Joy Division Oven Gloves" to number one in a couple of weeks - full details here: http://www.joydivisionovengloves.com/

Seems well worth 79p! I guess if it was bought via the Word download site the magazine would get a cut, so it's definitely a win-win.

For those who've never had the pleasure, here's a surprisingly literal video:

Am I the only one that fails to grasp the excessive hyperbole that surrounds Dr.Who? With the new Dr coming in, Matt Smith seems to be everywhere, not least being paraded as some kind of kooky fashion icon by the increasingly smug Guardian newspaper.

I loved Queer As Folk, but via Dr Who, Russell T Davies seemed to get swiftly elevated to the level of genius, which put me right off him.
Equally David Tennant seemed to get elevated to level of a Shakespearean actor (literally via his much-hyped role in Hamlet, and figuratively, via the amount of attention he received, and the parts he was offered over winter 2009), and I can't honestly see the appeal; I didn't even think he was that good at playing the Doctor for a start: all knowing looks and purposefully raised eyebrows, lacking any sense of subtlety, and a bit too heavy on the camp.

Am I missing something or have the BBC just done a fine job of rolling the proverbial snowball of hype down the media mountain, and the Dr.Who franchise is now an unstoppable, self-propelled wrecking ball, crashing all the headlines? Is the series really that good, or even that popular? I tried watching it and was quite disappointed. Granted, as I'm in my late 30s and without kids I know I'm not the show's target demographic, but I was actually quite disappointed at how very average it was, in terms of look, feel and content.

Imagine a comedy show that's a bit like Little Britain. Only (much) funnier.

Imagine a show that has hints of Absolutely and League of Gentlemen.

Then imagine that it was written by a couple of Scottish blokes. And that they wrote Empty, which had the always good Gregor Fisher and Billy Boyle in it. Then imagine these same guys had written a cult internet comedy show about computer games called Consolevania. Now imagine that they star in this show too, and that it knocks everything on BBC3 into a cocked hat.

Now, can you imagine why the only bloody place the BBC are showing it is in Scotland (unless you do a manual search on iPlayer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=Burnistoun)?

Get it on the network, now!

I’ve spent too much time in the past week reading comment boxes below 6Music stories across the Web. Two things have struck me: one a small point about perceptions, the other larger about the BBC’s future.

1) There are supporters of 6 who will suggest ditching Radio 3: after all, aren’t they catered for by Classic FM? This is the mindset you’re more accustomed to seeing from some classical devotees, for whom ‘pop’ is one great amorphous mass, indistinguishable. I’d thought this group was shrinking, at least partly for demographic reasons. But maybe the numbers are simply being added to the other side of the cultural canyon. Can most listeners to pop music no longer tell the difference between the outputs of Radio 3 and Classic FM? (As a side issue, many comments suggest that these people can’t tell the difference between BBC3 and BBC4.)

2) Leave aside for a moment the merits—or otherwise—of 6. The programmes that seem to crop up most often in defences are the likes of Maconie’s Freakzone. Despite the fact that it runs against the grain of my Larkin-influenced view of art, this is about as clear-cut an example of Reithian principles in action as it is possible to imagine in the area of pop—even if Reith himself would have hated every minute of it. But there is no big audience out there for it, even if it is the fanciful notion of avant-gardists everywhere that, y’know, if only people got to hear this stuff, they’d really love it. And radio is, relatively, cheap. The BBC is established on a contradiction of sorts, and one that for the last fifty years they managed to make work. But a poll tax/licence fee that is demanded from everyone coupled with a mandate to provide certain types of programming will, I feel, be the downfall of it soon.

I’d like a BBC. Probably, we all would. So we have to think about what we give it, and what we want from it, a little harder than we are at the moment.

Members of the Massive may enjoy this short film about the iconic opening titles to the BBC Arena series, inspired by their recent show on Brian Eno.

I've written a bit more about it on the BBC Music blog