Just a normal afternoon really where I've still been listening to the latest records by Chipmunk and Calvin Harris. The sort of records that should be on the Smoke daytime playlist but probably won't be for another six months.
Then again I don't really like any radio station enforcing certain songs upon me constantly whether I like it or not so I'd best take the advantage whilst I've still got it to only have the radio switched on when it want it to be.
Whilst things are being rather tricky with regards to the dissertation, I've decided to continue what I do best, i.e. trawling through television from the last decade.
Starting off with another edition of Pop Idol from 2003 and the final show with the auditions. As in all cases this was everyone's favourite part of the series, I was disappointed that there were only four audition shows as opposed to six in the last series which were stripped over Saturday and Sunday nights for the first three weeks of the series.
However there were plenty of amusing moments including a contestant who claimed he had a twin brother but was lying so sheepishly, and Tarek, a loud mouthed fella who turned up at the London auditions and wouldn't shut his mouth so the judges were forced into putting him through where he would continue to show off at the elimination stages.
He ended up getting as far as the first studio heats where they performed to the judges accompanied by only a piano.
One part of the show involved Ant & Dec explaining the steps of how not to audtion for Pop Idol and one of them was not to suck up to the judges.
This was illustrated by a clip of a man saying that he admired Simon greatly and he was a fan of Wallsall FC who Pete Waterman is a supporter of.
Oddly enough the man happened to be Mark Rhodes who ended up in the final alongside Charlie McManus but then ended up becoming a duo with Sam Nixon who just lost out on the final.
The rest was, well I don't think you could classify Sam and Mark's career as "history" to that extent.
Another familiar face in the auditions was Andy Scott Lee who was Lisa Scott Lee's brother and was in a band himself the previous year by the name of "3SL".
Andy made it into the final 10 although a long term solo singing career wasn't
to be.
I liked the use of music throughout the show with one of the songs being "Real Things" by Javine, who ended up beating Andy Scott Lee, as well as Jordan and a second attempt from Gina G to represent the UK in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest.
Even if Javine did get into Girls Aloud she would have had nothing on Nadine and Cheryl in terms of looks.
Following on from the programme, there was a documentary also transmitted around late August 2003 called "Snorting Coke With The BBC" as transmitted on Channel 4.
This looked at four key figures who's careers were affected after the tabloids revealed secret shames within their private lives and included contributions from Paul Ross, Rod Liddle, journalist Jane Moore, Janet Street Porter, and Mark Thompson who at the time was Chief Executive of Channel 4.
The first of the actual subjects was Frank Bough who in 1988 was sacked from the BBC after he was caught taking cocaine.
By now Frank had left Breakfast Time and was presenting Holiday 88 full time, but it was shocking to see a man who was well established within the corporation and respected their values to be caught in such a scenario.
Being my age, I've never associated Frank as a BBC man as the earliest I can remember him on TV was when he was presenting 6 O'Clock Live on LWT on Friday evenings in 1990 but came across as an authorative but likeable figure.
Obviously I was completely oblivious, dare I say ignorant to what drugs were all about.
Unsurprisingly a lot of TV producers and executives took drugs but as they weren't really key public figures it didn't affect their positions. Times were changing however and with rave culture in full flow drug awareness became even more apparent in early 90s society.
In 1992 things got even worse when Frank was caught taking more drugs and involved in dressing up in woman's clothing, which resulted in him from being sacked by LWT and he ended up giving an interview about the affair alongside his wife to Sky Television where he was interviewed by noneother than Nick Owen.
Frank's days as a presenter were more or less numbered with subsequent TV appearances being on comedy panel shows such as Shooting Stars and Have I Got News For You.
It was on the latter where a memorable moment involved a photo of a girl in tight stockings was shown and guest Jo Brand had to identify who the woman was;
Jo Brand: "Well I'm not sure who that is, possibly Cindy Crawford, it could have been you Frank at one time"
(Audience laughs)
Frank : "Just a small libel but I'll let it pass!"
Ian Hislop: "My reading of libel was that it had to be untrue"
(Heavy laughter)
10 years after Frank was sacked from the BBC, another incident arose this time with Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon who's sacking came at a bad time as the show had just celebrated it's 40th anniversary.
Lorraine Heggessy, then controller of Children's Programmes for the BBC was interviewed explaining why she appeared on screen to tell viewers about his sacking, but others thought the whole incident was not the right thing to do in response and the Blue Peter presenters should have explained what happened themselves to the viewers.
However this was more of a promotion as a few months later Richard was hired as the O/B reporter for the Big Breakfast where he came into his own and by 2003 when the documentary was shown he was now presenting Top Of The Pops and was one of their better presenters around the time.
The third example used in the programme was Radio 2 DJ Johnnie Walker who was suspended in April 1999 after a Sunday Newspaper used two undercover reporters dressed as sheiks to film him taking white lines.
The dismissal resulted in a huge outcry from Radio 2 listeners and keen to continue their success in repostitioning themselves as a station, they reinstated Johnnie by the end of the year.
The final subject was Angus Deayton who was probably the most high profile example included in the documentary around the time of transmission.
What I didn't like was when Janet Street Porter said that the BBC shouldn't have sacked Angus as none of the viewers would even care about what he did in his private life.
There was more too it than that as he had been caught out twice despite promising after the first episode that it wouldn't happen again, and because the viewers weren't interested in his private life, they would get fed up with guests on the programme constantly going on about it, and it was also evident that Ian and Paul were actually very angry about with Angus and what he was up to.
This line from Ian Hislop being a prime example;
"It's been a week where you sit there thinking 'Is there anything else going on in this country going on apart from a bunch of Z-list celebrities having sex with each other?'"
The comment got a cheer from the audience although the story they were looking at in that round was about Ulrika Jonnson and at the time of transmission the BBC were not allowed to mention John Leslie's name as the man who had been identified by Ulrika following her autobiography.
It was rather appropriate that Angus was wearing a brown suit on that final show in October 2002 as ten years earlier he was subject to a series of jokes related to wearing a suit of that colour on the show.
The jokes continued for quite a while, as previously untransmitted footage from a show in 1994 revealed Ian asking if the programme's lawyers were going to leave in a joke made by Angus about the Maxwell brothers being "heartless scheming bastards".
Ian then pointed out that as it the Maxwell Brothers hadn't yet gone to trial it could have resulted in Angus getting at least 2 years in prison for contempt of court, and he was pretty serious about it, although Paul saw the excuse to make jokes about the consequences with the line
"you'll know what a brown suit is in there!"
In 1996 the BBC and Hat Trick Productions were fined £10,000 for contempt of court after broadcasting the joke as part of the programme.
Back to the original topic and my personal opinion is that journalists are just lazy if they resort exposing celebrities taking illegal drugs, as while I don't necessarily condone them, they are widely available than ever and if those taking them suffer the consequences, then it's their problem.
It's safe to say that in the last couple of years on my media course I've realised even more that a lot of journalists are a right load of lazy and spiteful bastards.
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