Tell Me Something............Anything!

[tapid]

No-one would go to see them, either.

I am profoundly uninterested in the Royal Family. I wish them no harm, don't want them abolished, but avoid reading or watching about their doings as much as possible. This is easy enough as I only watch an hour's worth of television per week.

Speaking of which, there was a good one-liner on Have I Got News For You about the most recent wedding: 'The only thing you need to know about the Royal Wedding: do I get a day off work? The answer is no'.

A day off NOW your talking !

[Macca]

until she got too old for it the queen has several hundred engagements per year. That mostly means going somewhere boring and meeting boring people doing boring things which she has to pretend to be interested in. Spending an hour and a half sat watching some tribal dance, or someone doing flower arraignments or something. That's my idea of hell; it certainly is a job and not one I would take on. All the royals who get taxpayer money have to do that stuff, and that's in addition to all the charity work. Added to that you can't live a normal life, can't just go down to the pub or the shops.


And on the plus side you get a big house and a butler. It isn't really worth the trade off I don't think. And they don't even get a choice about it. Sure you can abdicate but that won't take you out of the spotlight, you still will never be anonymous and left alone. Everything you do will still be all over the media until the day you die.

[Joe]

life's to short to be wasting energy being bothered about this stuff.

I'm always amazed by the things people get worked up about, and the amount of time/energy it must take up. Mind you, I've always been a lazy sod.

Obviously some people think there's too much coverage of sport on TV, others that there's too much coverage of the Royal Family, or slebs, or politics. These days, with the multiplicity of TV channels, movies on demand etc etc, there's no need to watch anything that doesn't interest you. It's not like when I was a lad, when the TV was in the only warm room in the house, and there were only three channels to choose from. The amount of utter shite I must have sat through over, say, ten years from when we got a TV until I found more interesting ways of spending my evenings, beggars belief. On the plus side, it immunised me against ever wanting to watch shite TV again.

[Marco]

Obviously some people think there's too much coverage of sport on TV, others that there's too much coverage of the Royal Family, or slebs, or politics. These days, with the multiplicity of TV channels, movies on demand etc etc, there's no need to watch anything that doesn't interest you. It's not like when I was a lad, when the TV was in the only warm room in the house, and there were only three channels to choose from. The amount of utter shite I must have sat through over, say, ten years from when we got a TV until I found more interesting ways of spending my evenings, beggars belief. On the plus side, it immunised me against ever wanting to watch shite TV again.

I completely agree.

However, the thing that irks is (whatever subject it may be, celebs, sport, royal family, or whatever) being rammed down our throats, simply by being given blanket coverage across many different TV channels and programmes, day and night, some of which we may wish to watch, free from any mention of the subjects concerned - and the worst for being rammed down our throats, IME, are topics involving major sporting events and pish about the queen/royal family.

The TV companies/organisations concerned shouldn't automatically presume, when these events are on, that *everyone* watching will be interested in hearing about them at length or in great detail, especially during programmes that have no obvious connection with the subjects concerned. This happened to me during a food programme, where the presenter made the statement: 'We're obviously all excited about the royal wedding...blah, blah,' and then went onto make some reference about Meghan Markle’s favourite food, which was completely off-topic.

Well no, I wasn't "obviously excited" about the fucking royal wedding (why should I have been?) Actually, as I'd already been bombarded to death about that subject elsewhere, I'd liked to have watched the fucking programme without having to hear about the fucking royal wedding, yet AGAIN!!!

And I'm sure non-football fans felt exactly the same this summer, when the World Cup was on. *That* is the point: restrict mention of these subjects SOLELY to areas where one would naturally expect to find it, such as during the national news and/or on sports programmes. It simply doesn't need to be rammed down our throats anywhere else!

Marco.

[Macca]

These days, with the multiplicity of TV channels, movies on demand etc etc, there's no need to watch anything that doesn't interest you. It's not like when I was a lad, when the TV was in the only warm room in the house, and there were only three channels to choose from.

True. Back then if it was cold or raining out there were 3 tv channels or the radio. Or you could read a book. And that was it. And you probably wouldn't get a choice as to what radio or tv channel you watched, unless you were one of the adults, in which case you also had the option of going down the pub. Which was only open from midday until 1440. Or 1400 on a Sunday or Good Friday.

[Marco]

True. Back then if it was cold or raining out there were 3 tv channels or the radio. Or you could read a book. And that was it. And you probably wouldn't get a choice as to what radio or tv channel you watched, unless you were one of the adults, in which case you also had the option of going down the pub. Which was only open from midday until 1440. Or 1400 on a Sunday or Good Friday.

I used to play games, with friends, on my computer (either VIC-20, Commodore 64 or BBC Micro B), or (shock, horror) listen to music. That was an option too, on said rainy days

Marco.

[Joe]

True. Back then if it was cold or raining out there were 3 tv channels or the radio. Or you could read a book.

Books weren't really an option in our house. We owned about ten, which included my sisters' copies of Little Women, Treasure Island and Black Beauty, a Famous Five book from a church jumble sale, and some books my uncle had won as school prizes back in the 1920s. Then our next-door neighbour gave us a set of Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia (pre-WWII vintage) which was OK to leaf through if desperate.

[Pigmy Pony]

I completely agree.

However, the thing that irks is (whatever subject it may be, celebs, sport, royal family, or whatever) being rammed down your throat, simply by being given blanket coverage across many different TV channels and programmes, day and night, some of which you may wish to watch, free from any mention of the subjects concerned - and the worst for being rammed down your throat, IME, are topics involving major sporting events and pish about the queen/royal family.

The TV companies/organisations concerned shouldn't automatically presume, when these events are on, that *everyone* watching will be interested in hearing about them at length or in great detail, especially during programmes that have no obvious connection with the subjects concerned. This happened to me during a food programme, where the presenter made the statement: 'We're obviously all excited about the royal wedding...blah, blah,' and then went onto make some reference about Meghan Markle’s favourite food, which was completely off-topic.

Well no, I wasn't "obviously excited" about the fucking royal wedding (why should I have been?) Actually, as I'd already been bombarded to death about that subject elsewhere, I'd actually have liked to have watched the fucking programme without having to hear about the fucking royal wedding yet AGAIN!!!

Truth be told Marco, I've spent more time reading about your objections to Royal wedding television coverage (which I'm sure has nothing to do with your invite being "lost in the post") than I have the actual coverage (which isn't difficult as I have manged to see NO royal Wedding stuff on the TV).

Now I know I could just move to another part of the forum if I really needed to avoid seeing previously interesting topics being hi jacked by anti-royal rants (by people who assume we're all interested by people's disinterest in this stuff). But being the laid-back sort I am, I'll read just about anything. Sometimes when sat on the bog, I'll read the fine print on the shampoo bottles (helps get things moving).

This isn't an anti-rant rant, as I have no more interested in the Royal Wedding backlash than I do the wedding itself.

ps. I've just read a fascinating bit of Royal Family gossip. Apparently blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah… Who would have guessed?

[Macca]

I used to play games, with friends, on my computer (either VIC-20, Commodore 64 or BBC Micro B), or (shock, horror) listen to music. That was an option too, on said rainy days

Marco.

No stereo in our house just a big Ferguson transistor radio. And I didn't get a computer until 1984. And I couldn't afford to buy games for it anyway, had to write my own. Although that did give me something to do.


Tell you what would be funny, a reality show where they take current day 14 year olds and recreate a Sunday from the 1970s which they have to spend the day in. A Sunday in winter where it is cold and pissing down. See how well they cope with no internet, computer games, telephones etc.


IIRC:


0930 get up, have breakfast, get ready for church

1045-1230 Church


1300-1400 'U.F.O' or maybe 'Space 1999' - the highlight of the day.

1430 Sunday dinner


1500-1600 - 'The Big Match' football highlights and punditry show.


1600-1700 - 'The Love Boat' or possibly 'Columbo'


1700-1900 total dead zone, religious programming and news on telly, time to do your homework.


1900-1930 'Dad's Army' or possibly 'Porridge'.


1930-2000 Some BBC serial, made on the cheap, one of those things that engaged you as a child but when you watch it now you are shocked at how amateur it all is.


2000-2100 'That's Life'


2100-1000 'The Professionals'


1000 Bedtime

[Pigmy Pony]

I watched "The Walking Dead" the other day, and there was absolutely no mention of the Royal Wedding, although one of them did look a bit like Prince Phillip. If you watch stuff like this, or "American Horror Story", you're probably safe.

But if you prefer home-grown cack like "British Bakeoff" or "The One Show, well you deserve everything you get.