My Sad TV Life

I am, I’m sad to say, a TV addict. Well, everyone has some sort of addiction, especially at our time of life, so, mine is TV. I realize it is probably not the healthiest addiction around but what the heck, it’s my life. Living with the Blogger, however restricts the time I watch TV. She, who likes to blog, doesn’t particularly like watching TV, unless some great shows are on that aren’t repeats.

I do have pet hate though, when it comes to television and that is advertising. I won’t watch a 1 hour show on commercial TV that ends up taking 1 ½ hours of air time, 7 minute show, 4 minute ads for an hour and a half. So on the rare occasion, I watch commercial TV, I record it thanks to Foxtel IQ, then I can fast forward through the ads. Luckily we have the ABC, here in Australia that broadcasts shows without ads, only station promos but never in the show.

On Foxtel, I watch UK-TV, which broadcasts most of the great British shows. They do have ad breaks in the shows but only 1 every 15 minutes with only 4 ads per break, rather than 7 or 8 ads every 7 minutes, over at the commercial stations.

Then there is the choice of television shows. I personally think in the UK they produce superior shows than in the US. Don’t let my son-in-law hear me say that, though, he is an Australian actor in Hollywood. He wouldn’t agree with my statement, I’m sure. However TV, like everything else in life is a matter of choice.

With age, the memory starts to fade somehow, so watching repeats is not too bad as every show looks new again. We have a friend, our age, who says her family give her a book for Christmas, then take it back after she’s read it only to wrap it up again before the next Christmas ready to be a present again. She’s happy!

So what are my favourite TV show?

I love British crime dramas such as Lewis, Taggart, Cracker, Life on Mars when they came to any of the Foxtel channels. Lately I’ve been hooked again on Heartbeat, which I used to watch many years ago with Nick Berry and Niamh Cusack as PC Rowan and his wife Dr. Kate Rowan. But after they left the show, so did I.

PC Nick Rowan (Nick Berry) and Dr Kate Rowan (Niamh Cusack)

Now, I am watching the last few episodes, knowing that the show has been axed. It has some great characters in it and I’m afraid the village Bobbies always get their man (or woman), how clever are they. The show also has a variety of rogues in it, starting from Claude Greengrass (Bill Maynard) in the early episodes, to Vernon Scripps (Geoffrey Hughes, who said ‘Good Morning’ to me at the New Farm Deli a few years ago, when he was on at the Twelfth Night Theatre, here in Brisbane). Now in it’s dying days, it’s Peggy Armstrong (Gwen Taylor) who is creating mischief in Aidensfield.

Vernon Scripps (Geoffrey Hughes) with
David Stockwell (David Lonsdale)

About 20 episodes to go here in Oz. What am I going to do?

I’ll miss them all – How sad is that, maybe I should get a life.