Anyway, I was looking at the Series DVD and debating whether to spring for Series 2 at 27 quid (ouch!). While my first thought is to spring for it given that I get loads of traffic from fans of the show. That price is still a bit of a bite with the state of the economy–maybe when I feel much more flush. I will admit to putting it into my basket.

Anyway, it turns out that my other question:

Why doesn’t someone come out with a good facsimile of the Guide used in the show?

After all, the guide is next to impossible to find.

In fact, I have been tempted to say that I completely trust Michael Portillo given that he is walking around with an incredibly rare book. In fact, the rarity of the book makes me think that Michael Portillo has the bravery of an SAS (SBS?) trooper since I’d hate to think what length a crazed anorak would go to for a copy of that guide!

Seriously, walking around with something which is rarer than a first folio Shakespeare takes serious bottle.

But, Bradshaw and railway fans rejoice, for there is a really good facsimile out there for you to own. The nice bit is that the price is only £5 at Amazon!

I can see these going like hotcakes

Actually, there are a couple of copies of this out there. The one I mention and another which sells for £21.94. Since I’ve downloaded the PDF version, the more expensive one seems out of my league.

And I’m not going to debate the merits of both versions since there are enough reviews on Amazon which get into that.

Actually, I won’t, but Robert Humm, the bookseller who sold Mr. Portillo the original book did make a comment about the facsimiles:

So much for originals. Now for the good news : not one but two reprints of the Portillo set have been produced and both are on offer in our New Books section. You can use the Search Box to find them quickly by entering the reference codes.

Reference : A2855 . Title : Bradshaw’s Guide. Hand Book 1. 2. 3. 4. A complete year set of the four regional parts for 1866. Paperback, with an enlarged page size for easier reading. £24.95

Reference : A2893 . Cover title : Bradshaw’s Hand Book 1. 2. 3. 4. (from title page : Bradshaw’s Descriptive Railway Hand-Book Of Great Britain And Ireland.) A reprint of the actual volume used on the TV programmes. £9.99

So, there are two choices for where to get a facsimile of this book. Or you can download a copy for free from the hathi trust site I mention in my post.

Give Mr. Humm the business since you can say you bought your Bradshaw’s Guide from the same source who sold it to Michael Portillo.

No one need know that you have a facsimile!

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae let the Lord be thankit.

Anyway, this poem came up and I thought I would add it to my commonplace book and put it out there for others to appreciate:

The Slave’s Lament

1792

It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,
For the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more;
And alas! I am weary, weary O.

All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:

The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,
In the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O;
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O:

He’s hosting a Burns’ Night celebration on the radio.  They are piping in the Haggis, and I have yet to finish the tatties ‘n neeps and boil the cabbage.

But they started at 18.10, and our guests have just arrived!

In this case, Gardeners Sauce for Haggis which was made by Edinburgh Preserves who decided to stop making the stuff for some odd reason. I’m not sure why since it was really good.

And Edinburgh Preserves is still in business, which I found out whilst walking in my local market.  I believe they still use the name Gardeners as well.

For all of those who want to buy this sauce and have been trying to buy this sauce, you may want to contact Edinburgh Preserves to say that it was a mistake to take this product off the market.

While you are at it, you may want to sample some of Edinburgh Preserves other products.

For example, the British Antarctic Territory flag is next to impossible to find even though the buggers exist.

Another one which is hard to find is the old British Indian Colonial Flag, aka the Star of India Flag.There are no cheapies on the market.  The real deal is hard as heck to find since the Indians deBritishised the country after the Raj, which means a full sized one is prohibitive if you can find it in the first place.

It seems that CRW Flags in Glen Burnie, Maryland (USA) carries quite a few of these.  Impressively, they carry both the Red and Blue Colonial Indian Ensigns!  And the British Antarctic Territory flag as well!

Flagsonline (Italy) carries quite a few interesting flags.  They have the Indian Viceroy’s flag and the flags of all the Sienna Contrade, who are the folk who run the Palio.  Although, Flagsonline isn’t very good about listing that option.  You can write them for info on that one.

I guess any post on this topic wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Flag Guys who are a customer oriented flag dealer with a pretty good selection.

Short of going to a custom flag maker the three flag dealers above are pretty good sources for hard to find flags.

I’m still looking for a post 1801 British East India Company flag.  Wish me luck!

It seems that students brought sex toys to school wrapped as presents for the Christmas gift exchange.  The teacher didn’t know about the X-rated toys ahead of the exchange.  It wasn’t until the toys were unwrapped that the gifts were realised to be less than innocent. Mattawan Superintendent Patrick Bird says the teacher was suspended because she didn’t take immediate action after the wrappings were removed.

The unidentified teacher is now back on the job at Mattawan High School. The superintendent says she’s a “great teacher” who’s made a “positive difference for kids over the years.” The students were not disciplined.

Although, they might have enjoyed that!

Likewise, US commercial broadcasting mostly runs along cable or other providers such that most of the programming is commercials of some sort.  That is tremendously annoying if one is paying for cable or satellite to have to sit through what is mostly commercials.

So, I have no problem with the TV licence fee or paying for the services if my contribution will keep the programming non-commercial.

OK, I’ve said that the Beeb should begin charging for BBC iPlayer, not totally in jest. The major problem is that people are already paying for this service by their Television Licence fees–in theory. Perhaps, the BBC should require that one’s iPlayer profile also include the TV licence information.

Although, I have also pointed out that a loophole exists if one time shifts BBC programming via iPlayer downloads, as the licence fee only covers live broadcast reception. We come into carious other policy problems with this. The major one is that the BBC tries to have as large an audience for its programmes as it can. That said, charging for this material begins to run against ths policy. Additionally, this is a regressive charge which will hit the poor. The BBC could charge a lower fee for an “iPlayer” specific licence.

Also, if the BBC is going to start charging for this material, then they need to make more of it accessible. The big case in point to me is News (e.e., News at Six and News at Ten). I would be willing to pay for access to news programmes if they are downloadable via iPlayer.

Another problem, many of the iPlayer downloaders can access this material from outside the UK. I’m not going to get into this, but this also has some ramifications for the debate. If the BBC is going to start charging for this material, are they going to turn a blind eye to where the view is accessing the material? One can buy the DVDs and watch them in another region using a region free DVD player. I know that the BBC’s response is that there are other digital rights holders, but if someone is waving money at them.

Of course, I have this vision of people applying for TV licences from Effing Sodbury and Chipping Wedgewood if the only criteria is a TV licence!  How many people would get TV licences with the address  10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA?  Some addresses could have more TV licences leading one to conclude that more people lived there than a Calcutta tenement!

Then, this gets to another issue I have with the BBC. They have a revenue stream which they do not expolit, which is some of their unissued material. The big case in point would be issuing DVDs of the Goodies TV show. That is a tremedenously popular series, yet the BBC has not issued any of the shows in a serious manner. I think we can blame a couple of things here, which is the old archival policy which has trashed as signifant amount of British Television history (e.g., Take Three Girls, The Borderers, etcetera).

The final problem is that popular British TV programmes end up in the download community, which I doubt will be something that will stop if the BBC begins to charge for iPlayer material. In fact, I think that would become more of a problem for the BBC if iplayer material is subject to a fee. So, unless the BBC is going to begin to put more of its material out on DVD, I don’t think they will come up with a fool proof way of making money from the iPlayer downloads.

As I said, I think the best way would be to introduce a reduced iPlayer fee and not loot at where the person is accessing the material from which would allow for better access to the BBC material. But, I don’t think the BBC chiefs are going jump at this. That means they are left with people using iPlayer on the honour system.

See also:

• BBC global iPlayer subscription will be cheaper than licence fee
• BBC TV licence fee may extend to iPlayer
• BBC iPlayer launches in Europe … and costs half the price of the licence fee

I’m not sure how or why the Beeb is coming out with series 4 of Being Human since Mitchell (Aidan Turner) was killed off in series 3. Unless he did a Herrick, I’m not sure he will be replaced–or wanted to be revived. Of course, I ignored that the Beeb announced this back in March of last year. Maybe I should say I didn’t care about a remake after Series 3′s ending. Not to mention it sounds as if Russell Tovey won’t be in the new series, which means most of the interesting characters are gone.

I’m still undecided as to whether Lenora Crichlow is hot or not. Although, I do tend toward hot. I’d watch it for her. There was someone who used to work in my local gorcers who reminded me of Sinead Keenan. I always wanted to ask her if she was a werewolf!

OK, the why question could be answered with this was a popular series, which included the inevitable US attempt at remaking it.

The other issue is that there was a pilot to the Series, which featured Andrea Riseborough as Annie. The other important thing about the Pilot is that is supposedly explained what exactly is going on in the series. According to the Being Human affeciandos, and the series creator, the Pilot was pretty important, yet the Beeb has only broadcast it six times as of the time this was written. All the broadcasts were made in 2008 as well.

I should add that the Pilot actually sounds quite interesting since it not only explains what is going on, but also had some interesting cast changes (e.g. Andrea Riseborough as Annie and Adrian Lester as Herrick). I have to admit an interest in seeing Adrian Lester playing the Herrick character since I think he would put a different spin on it from Jason Watkins. Would Lester be as affable as Herrick as he was as Micky Bricks in Hustle?

Not only that, the Series one DVD didn’t contain the pilot. That wasn’t the only omission in the Series one DVD since the fans say that the original music was changed due to licensing BS. The music might be an affront to fans, but the Pilot would be useful to those of us who are wondering what is going on here.

That said, I would have preferred that the Beeb rerun the Pilot than rebroadcast Series 3. They could always have come up with a short recap of the previous 3 series for those of us who would want that. I don’t think my curiousity is that piqued by a fourth series to want to catch it. Although, I do know that the fans will want another fix.

She's taken off the Gloves. Now, someone needs to photoshop some brass knucks on her.

I was lucky enough to catch a preview of the Weinstein Brother’s Film “Iron Lady” about Margaret Thatcher.  One thing I can say about Margaret Thatcher is that I do admire the woman even if I disagree with her politics and the way she ran the country.  That said, the film was a bit of a let down.

Lady Thatcher is well portrayed by Meryl Streep as a senile and demented old dear.  She is haunted by the ghost of Dennis, portrayed by Jim Broadbent. I’m not sure if that is an accurate depiction of Lady Thatcher.  If it is, it is a sad statement.  But, I still feel that between Reagan and Thatcher–Thatcher is far more the person who is the one to be admired and remembered as a real leader. I say real leader, because, like her or hate her, Thatcher was indeed a leader. It’s where she took Britain that is up to debate.

They didn’t get into the dissent which Thatcher caused other than a quick squiz at Michael Heseltine’s (Richard E. Grant) bid for the Tory Leadership.  But, the events were presented in more of a demented stream of consciousness than any chronological order.   But, that was the way the whole film went.

The one thing that really stuck in my mind was Nicholas Farrell’s Airey Neave. I knew of Airey Neave as one of the people who escaped from Colditz and then as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. One Colditz site describes Neave well:

This man needs more than a page, he needs a site. Please click here for our sister site www.aireyneave.com – please be patient while it is under construction.

Even though he was a cameo in this film, his importance seemed to be signified in his contribution to Thatcher’s rise. What would the Thatcher regime have been had Neave not been assassinated by the INLA? CIA? It has been hinted that Neave would have shaken up the UK’s security services and that the INLA was not really behind his assassination, but that the CIA was the real culprit.  One can only guess how history would have shaken out if there had been a Neave-Thatcher tory regime!

That might even make me a tory!

Anyway, I think there are a lot better films about Margaret Thatcher’s life such as The Long Walk to Finchley and Margaret. Maybe a real Thatcher fan might want to see this, but I think they would be even more upset by this portrayal of her.

It would be a better idea if the Weinsteins scrapped this film and made something about Airey Neave using Farrell. The only good thing about this film was Meryl Streep’s imitation of Margaret Thatcher, but there have been a lot of those. How much money does one want to put that Streep stands a good chance of an Academy Award when they could just as well give the award to the person who portrayed Thatcher in Spitting Image.

Give this film a pass to go learn about Airey Neave if you don’t know about him already.