What are you watching tonight?

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

All praise to Michael Portillo - despite his right wing politics he displayed his comitment to democracy, was absolutely fair in his explictaion of the history and issues, and summarised it at the end in a very humane way...

I wonder what his dad would have made of him becoming a standard bearer of the tory right? still, he's obviously grown out of that now...

He's one of my favourite broadcasters, and yes, now that he has grown out of his ambitious and harsher younger days, he has a very well adjusted political compass - I rarely disagree with him on anything.

[Dujon]

William the White, we in Australia have similar programmes aired. The latest that I have come across was one relating to the battle at Fromelles in WWI. It was an interesting compilation of facts and figures but concentrated on where the dead might be and the search for their remains. To be honest, should I die in battle (hopefully I will not), I will care little about my corporeal being and would certainly not wish for my children or any other descendant, or even historians, to exert their collective energies in searching for my remains. Should I die and some twit, a hundred years younger than I was at the time of that apocalyptic moment, then come a-searching for my remains as some sort of 'closure' (don't you just love the word as used?) then he or she has a twisted sense of reality.

I'm dead, you know I'm dead, whether through bad luck or bravery - now f*ck off.

[William the White]

William the White, we in Australia have similar programmes aired. The latest that I have come across was one relating to the battle at Fromelles in WWI. It was an interesting compilation of facts and figures but concentrated on where the dead might be and the search for their remains. To be honest, should I die in battle (hopefully I will not), I will care little about my corporeal being and would certainly not wish for my children or any other descendant, or even historians, to exert their collective energies in searching for my remains. Should I die and some twit, a hundred years younger than I was at the time of that apocalyptic moment, then come a-searching for my remains as some sort of 'closure' (don't you just love the word as used?) then he or she has a twisted sense of reality.

I'm dead, you know I'm dead, whether through bad luck or bravery - now f*ck off.

The dead are the dead - they are beyond caring.

But it's important to me that i have a place that I can recognise my mother's existence - and she died when I was very young. It's a stone at Overdale. But it has her name on it, when she was born, when she died. And i've been at the Menin gate in Ypres to see the Last Post ceremony twice and been intensely moved both times... And pretty much every culture has its funeral ceremony, its ways of parting, so i understand the urge of Spanish people, all these years on to 'unite' the bodies with the dead of others in the families... The story of Pedro, now an old man, who in 72 hours in 1937 loses his father (shot), his mother (imprisoned) and his two brothers (conscripted into franco's army and then beaten to death when they try to desert) who carries his father's photograph with him as he visits the place where, somewhere, his father's bones lie, and he wants/needs to know where is understandable, and nothing much to do with the young woman assisting in that search (if that's the person you're criticising).

[TANGODANCER]

I thought it a bit sad that Lorca's relatives didn't want his resting place disturbed; someone else did because of their own family and now, it's going to be dug up. Why, I ask? It can only bring more sorrow. Trouble is, there's really no right or wrong way to do these things, only how individual pople see it. Lorca wasn't a soldier, and he didn't die in any battle. He was
assassinated because, A: He was accused of Communist tendencies, B: Was a homosexual, and C: because he was an academic, an intelligent man considered dangerous because he had a brain. To die for any reason is bad enough, in war it's accepted fatalities will occur, but Lorca's demise was ludicrous and proved nothing except the mindless brutality of people.

I know many examples of this in the Spanish Civil War, proving how out of character war can make people, or perhaps show their true characters, but has there ever been a useful war? It's only real use is to bring peace, and all too often it fails in that.

[Lord Kangana]

Dujon, I think the important ditinction that needs to be made over the dead in Spain is that they did not fall in battle, but were murdered. Much as we search for the bodies of the victims of serial killers, it seems to be the wish of the relatives to bring their bodies home.

[General Mannerheim]

Never seen either before but I picked up both series of Flight of the conchords and thee 3 series of The IT Crowd.

Watched a couple episodes of both, The It crowd was ok but I cant see me watching anymore until ive finished Flight of the Conchords – that is fookin brilliant!!!

Totally wasn’t expecting them to break into song, but was pissing my sides when they did! Not laughed so much since Curb!! Quality!

[jimbo]

Never seen either before but I picked up both series of Flight of the conchords and thee 3 series of The IT Crowd.

Watched a couple episodes of both, The It crowd was ok but I cant see me watching anymore until ive finished Flight of the Conchords – that is fookin brilliant!!!

Totally wasn’t expecting them to break into song, but was pissing my sides when they did! Not laughed so much since Curb!! Quality!

Wise choice in Flight of the Conchords. One of my all time favourites.

[CAPSLOCK]

Afraid I watch stuff in English, so clearly I'm not worthy of cloggiong up this therad

But, Collision...first of five

Promising

[ratbert]

Afraid I watch stuff in English, so clearly I'm not worthy of cloggiong up this therad

But, Collision...first of five

Promising

A lot of story threads to pull together, and I'll be amazed if they all link, but it could be good

[Dujon]

Dujon, I think the important ditinction that needs to be made over the dead in Spain is that they did not fall in battle, but were murdered. Much as we search for the bodies of the victims of serial killers, it seems to be the wish of the relatives to bring their bodies home.

Perhaps you are right, Lord Kangana, and I'm some sort of cretin with a heart of flint? I think not though. Perhaps if I had experienced the brutality, savagery and bloodiness that the survivors of victims of, in this case, the Spanish mess, did I might think differently. Quite obviously I am not competent to comment and should probably keep my fingers off the keyboard.

The closest that I can come is the cruel and unexpected death of my father some 32 years ago. No, he wasn't tortured or anything like that as he died of a heart attack whilst sitting at his desk. My father I loved dearly and, probably undeservedly, he was a man who to me had earned the right to be on the pedestal I created for him many years before his death. What has all this waffle to do with the subject?

Well, unlike others who have posted, I have never visited his 'grave' (he was cremated) other than a desultory trawl around the grounds of the crematorium where he was charred, on the occasion of his mother's similar fate some eleven years later. I don't feel guilty as my father lives within my mind (and a few years after his death he popped up within my dreams - although he's been missing for a while).

[Bruno]

NO, NOT STRINGER!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[General Mannerheim]

NO, NOT STRINGER!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

nice one

[Athers]

Don't ruin it bruno, though it's usually a safe position to assume they all die and be surprised when they manage to survive

[Bruno]

I got carried away, apologies

[P.O.S.]

Generation Kill for me tonight; quality series so far, dread to think how much it cost to make though! (possibly explains the adverts every 10 minutes)

[Bruce Rioja]

How on earth did they find an audience for Donny and bloody Marie? Good grief!

Anyway, I'm just wasting a bit of time until Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain comes on at 9.

[Lord Kangana]

Great minds think alike Bruce. Cracking stuff so far.

[Bruno]

Put on Kevin McClouds Grand Tour, watching the Vicenza one, lovely stuff - then it's South Park followed by Seinfeld.

[William the White]

I got carried away, apologies

All these bereavements, it gets to you...

I'm still not reconciled to D' angelo...

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Put on Kevin McClouds Grand Tour, watching the Vicenza one, lovely stuff - then it's South Park followed by Seinfeld.

Kevin McCloud

It's a brilliant little series, and it gets better. I know you (or your brother ) will enjoy 2 & 3 when KM goes to Rome.

Andrew Marr for me now too.