TV Watching in Lockdown

It's a long time since I had a rant about the television, and I'm not going to rant now. I said a few days ago that I hadn't managed to find the time to watch box sets, even though at the start of this it seemed like a golden opportunity to start watching and then culling our DVD collection. However I've still only managed Studio 60 and the first 90 minutes of Jewel in the Crown, nether of which were charity shop candidates so obviously that's a project that's not happening! 

Anyway, to the tv. There's not a lot of new drama about, but there's some other stuff. Plenty of property porn, where people buy houses in the UK (Location Location). or abroad (A Place in the Sun) or decide not to buy anywhere new at home or abroad but just improve what they've got (Renovate Don't Relocate, Your Home Made Perfect). Your Home Made Perfect has to be my current favourite, where people with 'non-functioning houses' and usually quite hunungous amounts of money get to choose between two architects who come up with solutions to their problems. The two architects are terrbly practical ,slightly Mumsy Laura, who to be fair the home owners usually go for, and mad Irishman Robert who has a bun, ear-rings a lovely accent and an inexplicable fondness for bench seating built of concrete. The gimmick is that the homeownes get to see both architect's schemes in VR before deciding which to choose. Personally if I had a non functioning house and a humungous amount of money I would nearly always choose Robert but you need to be brave. It's good fun though. I still enjoy Location Location,  but I'm a bit off APITS, basically because ten minutes in I usually remember that I have seen it before. I am 100% convinced that I could give a five minute presentation on the Olive Press in Oliva, so often have people on the show been dragged off to see, and be told, about it. 

Apart from the property shows there's The Great British Sewing Bee, bits of which get sillier every year. What is the point of trying to get people to make 'wearable garments' from a selection of plastic laundry bags? Those things are naff as laundry bags, let alone when they've been ripped up, re-cobbled together and presented as something wildly creative that no-one would be seen dead in. I've also found this year that most of the contestants, as well as the presenter, get on my nerves, but that could be a side effect of lockdown. And I still love watching them choose their fabrics, tussle with their machines and then create something wonderful. 

Some things bear almost endless repeats and Victoria Wood's Dinnerladies is one of them. I've really enjoyed watching the reruns of this. Is it the greatest British sit-com ever written? Must be in the top ten. Something else I'm watching as a catch up, which I avoided like the plague when it was on 'properly' is Doc Martin. Some channel is showing double episodes of this on Friday evenings right  from the beginning and I am enjoying them very much. Yes it's pure escapism but somehow, lovable if slightly odd characters, beautiful scenery, sunshine and the knowledge that however bad something is, it will all turn out right in the end makes for perfect lockdown viewing. I avoided it before because I was definitely not a fan of either of its leads, Martin Clunes and Caroline Catz, but in fact they are both very good in this and maybe my prejudice against them is wearing away. 

One drama series that did get its new season onto the box was The A Word, the fourth season of which finished last evening. It sounds downbeat, following as it does the trials and tribulations, as well as the occasional joys, of a family living with an autistic son, and I don't know why I started to watch it. But I'm glad I did because as well as lovely scenery (see above) and a fantastic ensemble cast, it's positive and heart warming and however awful things sometimes get, at bottom it's about  a group of people all trying to do the right thing in sometimes challenging circumstanes. That makes it sound very worthy but its also very funny and my Tuesday evenings will be slightly bereft now that the latest series s over. 

So there you have it. TV in Lockdown. Dire but with Bright Spots.