tv

th 2 Jul 2026	Tour de France highlights start 7pm Saturday on Channel 5.
fr 13 Feb 2026	Mackenzie Crook's new comedy Small Prophets like Detectorists is gentle (so far), charming, whimsical and clever. We love the main character Michael Sleep working in a DIY Superstore amusing himself by talking total bollo to the customers. Streamable or old school BBC2 10pm Monday nights ... it's something to look forward to.
sa 11 Oct 2025	The wonderful Magda from Lead Balloon moonlighting as Dr Marion Boyle in Alan Partridge last night (05:34).
we 18 Jun 2025	Life Skills No. 65: It often surprises people that hot dry weather is the poorest for tv and radio reception. If your DAB portable is blipping and burping try moving the aerial to an inconvenient position, it may help it may not. Sometimes turning the radio a little helps.
we 27Nov 2024	The Beeb is not being helpful with the red button, today the market info has gone away to make it nicer for us ... don't think so.
fr 1 Nov 2024 red button	1974 the BBC started the world's first teletext service Ceefax. It didn't survive the 2012 digital switchover but a similar text service is available on the red button if the tv is not connected to the Internet and despite a threat to end it in 2020. Journalistic standards are slipping with clumsy copy and pastes from the web but it does make a less brutal way to get the news.
fr 18 Oct 2024	Even allowing for it's always longer than you think we're still surprised that Detectorists is ten years old! It's gentle humour is still endearing and tonight Radio 4s Screenshot will be celebrating the anniversary.
we 2 Oct 2024	Custom made for David Mitchell (he's one of the six! executive producers) the second episode of Ludwig on BBC1 tonight like episodes one and three criminally under employs Sophie Willan in a wig and glasses. Thankfully Alma's Not Normal returns for series two Monday BBC2.
we 26 Jan 2022	A bit surprised that today's channel moves on Freeview have included the return of BBC 3 though it won't be doing anything useful until Tuesday 1 February.
su 29 May 2022	Recently BBC 4 has broadcast documentaries that are minimalist, charming and don't have a celebrity(ish) presenter mouthing like they know about the subject plus by happenstance are Scottish, try Prince of Muck and/or The Hermit of Treig,. The Hermit opens with Ken Smith (the hermit) walking 54 miles round trip to post a letter. Surely we thought their must be a post box closer than twenty seven miles but perhaps pillar boxes are joining telephone kiosks and one day will be as redundant as the Tardis' police box.
mo 11 Apr 2022	To match Gentleman Jack striding about in a manly manner the drama matches with a straight ahead pace that we like. As far as we can see the Beeb don't yet have a broadcast date for series two ... turns out it was last night.
sa 23 Apr 2022	We were pretty sniffy about new Freeview channel W but it is repeating sitcom My Family though seemingly the ones without Nick. Don't expect any better from Talk TV going live Monday on channel 237, ironically just about where Russia Today was. Judging by the promo they reckon we're all gagging to hear Piers Morgan's views about the royal family ... sadly they might be right.
tu 29 Mar 2022 Channel W	Freeview tv channels seem to continually change. Yesterday channel 25 which was once ITV4 (for Le Tour and now on channel 26) became W. Despite the promo W seems to be mostly some progs off of ITV and the same mix of emergency service and property shows just like most of the other channels.
tu 8 Feb 2022	We'd forgotten that BBC 3 returned at the beginning of the month but stumbled across it last night. Not surprisingly it's very dayglo but not last night's prog The Instagram Effect.
fr 18 Sep 2020	New to Freeview Sky Arts is on channel 11 which was Pick. Pick is now on channel 34 and no, we don't know what was on channel 34 before.
th 30 Jan 2020 red button	The BBC red button text service didn't switch off today. After a petition from the National Federation of the Blind the decision will be reviewed in the spring ... though the red button itself doesn't seem to know this yet.
mo 30 Dec 2019 red button	We find in the morning the BBC red button text service a succinct way of checking that the world is still going to hell in a handcart. Regrettably the text service is closing 30 January. We've tried the Beeb's news app but it's a bit tabloid for our taste ... Nine things you didn't know about that there Ed Sheraton. ♫
tu 24 Sep 2019	Oh poo, flickr have started putting adverts in when flicking through a free account photostream and in the Martlesham Tesco a couple of weeks back there was a £20 personal cassette/radio with built in speaker and mike ... cassettes eh?
th 19 Sep 2019 red button	The BBC is considering phasing out info on the red button . That's a very great pity because for a tv not connected to the Internet it's news, sport, and information on demand and in a concise format. Should it happen we will regret the passing of a service that started 45 years ago as Ceefax.
we 7 Feb 2018	TODAY around near the coast Freeview will need re-scanning if it doesn't do it for itself. No advantage to near the coast, the great and the good are moving some frequencies because they think they can make some money out of it.
th 27 Jul 2017	Although there's no mention of it on their web site Freeviews's channel on Freeview (100) says Wednesday the children's, news, text and streamed channels are moving. If like us you have some older tellys you may have to manually retune and delete all those bloody shopping channels all over again.
th 9 Oct 2014	New tv channel ITVBe on Freeview channel 26 launched yesterday and is the new home of TOWIE ... you don't really need to know anything else do you?
th 4 Sep 2014	Our Freeview tuner didn't need us to tell it about the channel changes yesterday afternoon, perhaps the the most significant is BBC News has moved from 80 to 130.
su 27 Apr 2014	Freeview tv station True Entertainment has found the version of MASH* without the bloody awful laugh track and though a marked improvement we'd forgotten how mawkish, in that American way, the series could be ... maybe someone will think to bring back Hill Street Blues?
sa 21 Dec 2013	New channel to us Freeview 61 True Entertainment is showing MAS*H ... but the US version with a laugh track.
sa 13 Jul 2013	If your Freeview isn't clever enough to do it on its own a good idea would be a channel scan because new station Drama on 20 launched this week and it's showing Rumpole of the Bailey. (Remember Leo McKern as a Number Two in The Prisoner?) We also found three BT Sport channels, two are scrambled and the third keeps telling you it's going to launch this summer ... they'd better get on with it then.
fr 27 Apr 2012	The Sinclair ZX Speccy was 30 on Monday. We never had one having already gone BBC but we did have have a ZX81 which to save a few bob run off a car battery charger we'd dodged up. Once when fiddling with the ZX81 a mature visitor advised us to get an outside aerial (you used your telly as the monitor). 'It's a computer Pete.' 'Oh, dirty videos.' 'No Pete, it's a computer.' 'Yes ... have you got an outside aerial?''
fr 30 Apr 2010	Coastal Suffolk Conservative candidate Therese (it's French) Coffey lives in Westleton so she can't get Channel 5 or Freeview and no doubt rubbish broadband. When she asked BT why near the coast broadband is so rubbish so close to BT's research centre they said Oh, our broadband is rubbish too. We found out yesterday at the Martlesham Black Tiles that Therese has stood as an mp once before, her rescued dog Rizzo is very patient, when she ordered the panini she hadn't realised it came with chips, and is very aware this time round she's not a shoo in. More pix on Facebook
we 30 Sep 2009	We've just checked Freeview and as predicted by Fat Ginge Channel 5 had gone missing, it didn't reappear after a channel scan but reception's rubbish here in Stately Terrace, worse during the day and even worserer in this dry weather. Hopefully night time and perhaps some rain will improve the situation.
mo 16 jl 2007	If you're finding Freeview rubbish at the mo it's the hot sultry weather affecting reception and if, like us, you can't get Five US (we're suffering NASCAR deprivation) but can get BBC Asian Network try The Bhanghra Mixtape, even if it would be better with more bhangra and less mix.

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