Documentaries – Page 3 – Well Eye Never

BBC Earth Experience

Having enjoyed the Wild Isles series on TV recently, and inspired by an Instagram post by Shona Louise, I decided to go and see the BBC Earth Experience last week, as it sounded pretty cool and very accessible. So I bought a ticket and went along one afternoon, and I really liked it, because the visuals are incredible and the audio description was really helpful. So here’s my little review of it.

April 2023 Favourites

Well, what a busy month that was! During April I attended a couple of theatre shows, went out and about with a couple of good friends, had some lovely walks to take advantage of the nice weather, and watched a variety of things at home too.

All of which means there’s plenty to get through in this latest post and video recap. And none of it is sponsored or gifted, apart from a little press event that I’ll mention, and all opinions are my own regardless. So let’s crack on with it, and I hope you enjoy!

March 2023 Favourites

Hello again, and welcome to my next monthly roundup. Now that I’ve settled into my new job (for which I’ve had a nice gift and my hours have just increased from 22 to 25 per week), things are getting back to normal again.

So there are no major announcements about my life this time. And I haven’t been to any theatre shows or exhibitions this month, as I wasn’t able to make it to the Super Power Panto in the end. But I have used the first salary payment from my new job to book a few shows, in addition to a couple of things I already had in the diary, so the cultural side of things will pick up very soon.

All of which means this was a relatively relaxed month, but I can still mention some bits and pieces I did while out and about, and some entertainment that I watched at home. So I hope you enjoy my latest post and video update!

Christmas 2022 Favourites

Happy New Year, I hope you had a lovely Christmas! I know that various things including finances, strikes and the weather all conspired to make things difficult, and the economic woes will continue during this coming year, but I hope you were able to enjoy the festivities in whatever way your circumstances allowed.

Fortunately, despite my recent redundancy, my mother and I are in a comfortable and stable position, so we were able to enjoy Christmas in the same way we do every year. I went out to see a musical and a variety of festive displays, and at home there were plenty of things for us to eat and watch.

It hasn’t been entirely without issues though. The railway strikes and the snow in December prevented me from going down to Devon to see my ex-colleagues for a Christmas meal. And now, in early January, my mother and I have finally caught Covid, after 3 years of successfully swerving it. I’ll write more about it in a later post, once I’m sure we’re clear of it, suffice to say being fully vaccinated has clearly helped, as we’re recovering pretty quickly. Plus I’ve still been able to put together the traditional video that accompanies this post.

So let’s get into it. This is an epic bumper post, as festive roundups tend to be, and none of it’s sponsored or gifted. I hope you enjoy!

London 2012 Revisited – Sporting Celebrations

Recently I’ve been looking back in detail at the 2012 Olympics & Paralympics, with the aid of the Blu-ray sets released by the BBC and Channel 4. For the Olympics I wrote about the Opening & Closing ceremonies and highlights from Days 1-8 & 9-16, and then I made a separate post about my Paralympics highlights.

Back in 2012, however, I also had a combined hard drive and DVD recorder connected to my TV, which meant I was able to record programmes, do some very basic editing and copy them on to discs. So I ended up recording a selection of shows relating to the Olympics & Paralympics, and I stored them on several DVDs, which I still have in my collection. And I’ve therefore been rewatching them as part of my nostalgia trip. They naturally aren’t as high quality as professional DVDs or Blu-rays, but they’re still good enough.

I’ve already discussed a few recordings relating to the Olympics in previous posts, as noted in the list of contents below. But here in this final post, to conclude my trip down memory lane, I’m going to run through the other stuff I captured, including our big victory parade, the Sports Personality Of The Year, documentaries, and appearances by some of the athletes on chat shows and game shows. I’ve also created a playlist with clips from some of these programmes, and some other relevant videos. So I hope you enjoy looking through it all!

London 2012 Revisited – Olympics Highlights – Days 9-16

Welcome to the next part of my trip down memory lane to the London 2012 Olympics, following on from my detailed reviews of the Opening Ceremony and Days 1-8 of competition.

This time I’ll be looking at the second half of the Games, as I continue going through the highlights on the BBC’s Blu-ray box set. As I explained last time, my main focus is inevitably on Team GB’s performances, but there are other stars who get a mention here as well, including Usain Bolt for starters.

I’ve also created an Olympics playlist on Youtube with lots of highlights, often from the official Olympics Youtube channel with their American commentators, along with interview footage and other related videos. There was certainly plenty going on, and I hope you enjoy this latest instalment of sporting memories!

London 2012 Revisited – Olympics Highlights – Days 1-8

Following on from my in-depth review of our spectacular opening ceremony, I’m now going to take an extensive look back at the big sporting moments from the London 2012 Olympics, as I continue to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

I’ve been rewatching the highlights on the BBC’s Blu-ray box set of the Games, which splits the coverage across the middle 3 discs, hosted by Sue Barker and featuring lots of other presenters and commentators from the original broadcasts. Considering they had so much to choose from, I think they did a very good job picking out a lot of the most important and memorable achievements, as it is a very extensive compilation. There will always be a few things that people are disappointed that they missed out, it would be impossible to please everyone.

The BBC’s animated title sequence, showing lots of different sports in action, is a wonderful introduction to it all, accompanied by a fantastic tune called First Steps by Elbow (with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and NovaVox Gospel Choir), that gets increasingly epic as it progresses. It was released as a charity single in aid of Children In Need & Sport Relief, and there’s an interesting video online about the making of the tune and the title sequence, which gives a nice insight into how it all came together.

Naturally the focus of the BBC’s Blu-ray set, and my personal interest, is on Team GB, who did exceptionally well. They were clearly driven on to great success by virtue of being in front of hugely supportive home crowds, which enhanced their already amazing talents. But there are several big names from other nations who get a mentionalong the way as well.

So, for this post, here are the many athletes and results that stand out for me from the first 8 days of the Games, finishing on the now legendary Super Saturday. I’ve linked to various BBC articles throughout, some of which include clips from their TV coverage (which are only available to UK viewers), along with some items of interest from other sites. I’ve also created an Olympics playlist on Youtube that’s full of highlights, including a lot of footage from the official Olympics Youtube channel with their own commentators, along with interview footage and other random but relevant clips, so feel free to look through that as well. I hope you enjoy!

June 2022 Favourites

Hello again, and welcome to my roundup for another busy month. Apart from having nice walks to enjoy the sunshine as usual, I’ve also been to a few theatre shows, watched the Jubilee celebrations at home, and enjoyed various other programmes on TV and online.

However, they’re not the only things keeping me occupied. I recently revealed that I’m being made redundant, after 17 years in a role that was created specifically to harness my IT skills in a local authority print unit. My entire department is being closed, with all the work being outsourced, and therefore I’m on the lookout for a new challenge. I don’t have to rush into anything, as I’m in a fortunate position where I can take my time to find what feels right for me, so I feel quite calm about it all so far. And it might even be that my mother and I move to another part of London, as that’s something else we’re tempted by and are considering given the circumstances, although that’s by no means definite at this point.

But if you have any advice for job hunting or moving, or know of any paid work or volunteering or nice properties that might interest me, please do feel free to get in touch by social media or email. Career opportunities can be related to my current line of work (variable data and print production) or in other areas I enjoy (IT, accessibility, assistive technology, sight loss, disability, museums, theatres, research projects, blogging, Youtube, etc). There’s lots of options to consider, and I will of course keep you posted of any developments!

But anyway, here I’m going to focus on the happier side of recent events, and there’s plenty to get through. So let’s get straight to it, and I hope you enjoy!

Parties At The Palace – Part 2

I’m delighted that the Platinum Jubilee was such a success this weekend, with lots of events taking place all over the country, and the weather holding out for the central celebrations in London. If you attended any events during the holiday, I hope you had a good time!

In my previous post I reviewed the Golden & Diamond Jubilee Concerts from 2002 and 2012 respectively. So in this post I’m going to discuss my highlights from this year’s concert, after briefly mentioning some of the other coverage that my mother and I have been tuning into. So I hope you enjoy!

May 2022 Favourites

From high in the sky to deep underground, including my first time riding 2 different modes of transport and my first London museum visit in ages, plus stand-up comedy, TV shows and music, there’s been a lot going on this month. London really is feeling alive and back to normal again, which is wonderful. So I’ve got a lot to get through here as usual, none of which is sponsored or gifted, and I hope you enjoy this latest roundup!

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