Light from the Idiot's Lantern

The Twelfth of August Two Thousand and Eleven. Friday.

Another telly based one today - I used to spend all my time in front of the box. What's the joke? Third parent. Surprised to find how much time I waste on this internet thing these days. Gone is the time when you would settle down and spend an entire night (oh God, an entire day on a wet summer holiday) in front of the television. Now you go looking for the programmes - the 'content' - that you want (or some idiot recommends on his blog) and you can watch them whenever you desire. Goodness me that feels like hard work.

So for now I write in celebration of the couple of hours around tea time when I switch off my brain and just sail through a couple of hours of mental chewing gum. I wouldn't call any of these Telly Recommendations (well one of them would be if they weren't 10 years out of date - although ironically they would be if they were 15 years out of date) but they form a reassuring balm after a day of frying my brain at work.

Ah, Alexander Armstrong, you computer voice in a top children's sci-fi programme you. I've only really started watching Pointless as it's moved on to BBC1 but despite you having been there since day one you look a little ill at ease.

I've nothing against Pointless. When I'm on a middle shift and finish around five o'clock I usually get home about half way through an episode. It's a great format - a quiz where you have to come up with the most obscure correct answer you can think of, hopefully the 'pointless' one of the title that none of the surveyed members of the public have come up with. I like it when Richard Osman, Mr Armstrong's sidekick (but clearly the true seat of power. A little googling reveals he's something of a big noise at Endemol) turns to the camera after listing the possible pointless answers and says 'well done to you at home if you got one of them. On a Kate Bush round I successfully identified her 1986 'hit' Experiment IV  as a pointless answer and felt particularly chuffed when Richard congratulated me through the screen. (Actually, that was a weird song - I remember my sister saying the video for it was disturbing. I've just looked at it for the first time on You Tube. Blimey she wasn't wrong. Apparently it was banned from Top of the Pops.

Dawn French and Hugh Laurie in their younger days, though, eh?)

Anyway, it's all highly enjoyable and just the thing to have on in the background while making tea (hah! 'Making?' Setting the timer on the microwave you mean.) It just that it seems just short of flowing naturally. The banter between Armstrong and Osman seems a little forced, but it's amiable enough to overcome me being picky about its near-invisible shortcomings.

I may have been eulogising the pre-digital age, but when Pointless finishes here's where all this multi-channel nonsense comes into its own. We switch over to catch The Chase on ITV1+1! What a genius idea these +1 channels have turned out to be. I'm always late for everything so the concept of channels that are late to begin with is outstanding. And a punnish tip of the hat to whoever came up with Dave ja vu as the name for Dave+1.

The Chase is another one of these slightly confrontational quiz shows that seemed to come in vogue around the time The Weakest Link hit its stride. It's the usual win money with general knowledge stuff, but the twist is you're up against a quiz expert - the Chaser - who if they 'catch' you by answering more questions than you, take all the money you've earned up to that point. Apparently there are four chasers this series, but I've only seen three so far: Anne Hegerty ('The Governess'), Mark Labbett ('The Beast') and Shaun Wallace ('The Barrister'), pictured here with host Bradley Walsh.

Funnily enough, I have seen the fourth chaser, Paul Sinha, elsewhere.

As well as being a doctor he's a stand up comedian who appeared on the last series of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle.

Bradley Walsh does the host thing pretty well (hey, there's a connection with Pointless. Both hosts have featured in a certain popular children's sci-fi programme) (and while I'm at it, isn't he surprisingly good in Law and Order UK? Alongside that bloke out of Battlestar Galactica (I know!)). And let's be honest, anyone who finds sausages amusing can't be all bad.

Which neatly leads us up to seven o'clock where we can turn over and catch The Simpsons on Channel 4+1. I know, they do seem to be on a loop, and like I said stuck with anything up to ten years in the past (and that's what I meant about 15 years old eps being better - them's probably The Simpson's best seasons. Man, 'And Maggie Makes Three' from 1995 has my favourite ending ever. No, I'm not going to tell you what it was, you'll just have to watch it next time it comes round. Oh, that and Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie from 1994. That has a good ending too) but come on, it's The Simpsons.

There's a variation on this pattern if I feel I want to be done by seven and that's watching The Simpsons at six on Channel 4 and then only the second half of The Chase on ITV1+1. Brilliant, eh? The Chase only really gets going in the second half anyway, so that works quite well.

Then I go back to my user-defined world and get all picky and choosy instead. But for a couple of hours it's relaxing not to have to think about the telly or the internet too much and just let stuff wash over you. Brainwash over you, I guess. Excuse me, I think my brain has just this instant turned to mush. Better get to bed.

Have a great weekend - see you on the other side.

More soonliest.