"There They Are, And Here We Go"

I've just woken up from another lie down where I ended up dreaming that things could be worse than they are now, to the point of actually physically hurting people as a result of a mental condition.

I'm still a bit tired now but I'll try and soldier on for the rest of today.

Earlier on I stumbled over a tape that had another edition of TOTP, this time from late August 2004 with Fearne, Reggie, and Tim Kash. It was actually Tim's final show but no one really felt sorry about seeing him go.

Amongst the bands performing were Franz Ferdinand with "Michael" which wasn't the best single from their debut album, an "exclusive" appearance by Rooster, coincidentally enough, and an equally forgettable performance by Kristian Leontiou (however you spell his name) and a VT package going behind the scenes of a tour with the even more wooden Maroon 5.

Give me Ian Levine over Adam Levine any day, he may not be that good looking but at least he knew how to write a decent pop song.

There was also a performance by Stonebridge and "Put 'Em High" which was one of the memorable dance records of the year and put Hed Kandi on the mainstream map.
The only problem was that I was starting to go off their compilations as they were starting to lean more towards melodic dance than soulful house.

And this week's number 1 was the rather impressive Natasha Bedingfield and "These Words" which managed to knock down the ever dreadful Three Of A Kind and "Babycakes" to Number 2.

Thankfully there wasn't a performance of that on the show.

Possibly the most toe curling part was a "high impact" promo for the brand new Robbie Williams single "Radio" on the following week's show. I can remember hearing it on Chris Moyles that morning and it was more than evident that him and Comedy Dave thought that without Guy Chambers, he was shite.

The song itself was co-composed by Stephen Tin Tin Duffy who was actually the last ever artist to be played on Radio 1's AM frequencies in 1994 with the song "Kiss Me" from the mid 80s. It proved that even back then, the station wasn't exactly in touch with it's younger audience it was aiming for.

Moving onwards, the tape also had a documentary celebrating 25 years of what has to be one of the most original, and simplest (in terms of it's format) television programmes, that being Question Time.

Originally scheduled just for one series, it was first broadcast from the Greenwood Theatre, London in 1979 and viewers caught onto the premise of a team of politicians quizzed by ordinary members of the public which ensured it's status as one of the BBC's longest running series.

It featured clips from all three presenters including original host Sir Robin Day who presented for 10 years from 1979 until he decided to move to BSB at the end of the 80s. He was replaced by Peter Sissons for 5 years, before current host David Dimbleby took over.

I can't remember who it was, but one of the politicians interviewed in the documentary comapred all the hosts to different James Bonds, with Dimbleby being Pierce Brosnan, Peter Sissons being Roger Moore, and Sir Robin being Sean Connery. He described stand in Ludovic Kennedy as "the George Lazenby".

He wasn't the only stand in as Sue Lawley had a few goes at it, as well as being the main stand in on Terry Wogan's chat show.

Other interviewees included Diane Abbot MP, Michael Heseltine, Roy Hattersley and Ian Hislop.

Ian provided one of the shows many confrontations between two opposing panellists where in 2002 he vented his spleen towards Mary Archer who was on the same show.

There were also other similar duels, two of which involved John Prescott who had argued with both Cecil Parkinson, and two years later Michael Heseltine.
Even the host ended up on the wrong side of an argument where in 2004 Ann Widdecombe wouldn't let David Dimbleby get a word in edgeways.

It's worth mentioning the programme's theme tune which has more or less remained the same since the beginning although they re-arranged it in the late 90s to the one that's used now which instead of being played on guitars and strings is now slightly faster and played on a synthetic sounding piano.

I preferred the original one as it had that slightly nostalgic and possibly sinister edge.

The sort of music that in the same way as the old News At Ten theme is threatening to send you to bed if you happen to be still up as a child, and can hear it in the hallway.

Anyway, my favourite part of the programme involved a selection of clips involving politicians making bullshit statements, or comments that would come back to haunt them later in their career. Sometimes to the point of putting their political career kaput.

Examples included future Tory Leader Michael Howard and future Lib Dem Leader Ming Campbell condeming the minimum wage in 1992, and 12 years later they both ended up accepting it.

On a more humourous level there was a clip of Edwina Currie on Peter Sissons first series as chairman in Autumn 1989, where she was speaking very highly of John Major being the next leader of the Conservative Party.

And of course it turned out 13 years later that the reason was because she was in the middle of a 4 year affair with him at the time.

Even Tony Blair was included from 1994 where at the time he was the Labour Party Shadow Home Secretary where he said that the power and actions of the UN should never be subverted to that of just two countries.

And we all know what happened in 2003 when that statement took a 180 degree turn.

But my favourite example of a ill challenged slip of the tounge came from Jonathan Aitken in 1995 where he said he wouldn't resign as a Tory MP after getting an Arab business man to pay for him to stay in the Paris Ritz.

A month after his appearance he did resign, and 4 years later he was jailed for perjury, following a court case where he got his now ex wife to lie about paying his hotel bill whilst in Paris.

I seem to remember one of the presenters on TLR in Thanet (now KMFM) referring to Aitken as a liar whilst the trial was still pending.
Of course it turned out to be right in the end but the said presenter had moved to Invicta FM by the end of the year as a presenter and Flying Eye pilot for a couple of years.

I won't mention the name of course but he's a very lovely fella and was one of the better jocks in the area.

Back to Question Time and the programme ended with a selection of some of the slip ups from over the years including David Dimbleby accidentally referring to the recently resigned Home Secretary as "Robin Cock" in 2003, and Hariet Harman's slip of the tounge from the following year;
"Since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister...".

Three years later she ended up being deputy Labour leader when Gordon in fact did take on the role.

Overall it's a great documentary that gives a good insight into a programme which I presume is one of those on television that allows a wider audience, especially University students to have a active interest in politics, even if they don't base their whole lives around it.