Plastic Swans

Morning.

Or Happy Birthday Mum if you're reading this.

Last night's "You Have Been Watching" with Charlie Brooker provided the laughs once again and it has firmly become a staple in my viewing schedule in the otherwise depressing summer months.

This week was a Weird TV special where the shows looked at included
Terry Nutkin's "My Life As An Animal" from BBC Three earlier in the year, one of Brooker's favourites "The Jeremy Kyle Show", and an absolutely appalling show from Sky 3 called "The Swan" where otherwise ugly looking women were given plastic surgery.

The latter happened to be hosted by Amanda Byram and further proof that any programme that she presents is guaranteed to be utter rubbish.

Charlie Brooker summed it up spot on when saying that the people who made the programme were c***s.

One of the panellists this week used to work with Amanda many years ago, that being Richard Bacon whilst the other panellists were the rather attractive Josie Long and a welcome return for Frankie Boyle two weeks running.

I really think Frankie should become a regular on the show as whilst he may get the most time on air, what he says is hilarious and the chemistry between him and Charlie Brooker works really well, especially if they don't agree with each other.

I wouldn't see it as a problem as Jason Manford happens to be a captain on both 8 Out Of 10 Cats, and BBC 1's light hearted equivalent to YHBW
"As Seen On TV" and I don't think it's done him any harm at all.

Just a shame that the latter has a weak host in the form of Steve Jones.

Good to play along with though, whereas YHBW is essentially a weekly rant giving television the ribbing it deserves.

Chris Moyles is on good form this morning, ranting against the fact the August may be unsettled as opposed to being a heatwave as previously predicted.

He then suggested that they should move to Portugual and change the name to "England 2" which I think they should do, just to piss Len Groat off even more.

The Jinglemad contributor who used to be a PD at Trent FM for 15 years who now lives in Portugal and does nothing but moan about the current state of radio in an ever repetitive manner, the miserable sod.

Throughout this week, Chris and the team have been urging listeners to download John Barrowman's version of the Barry Manilow tune "I Made It Through The Rain" which lyric wise could be this year's answer to Rihanna's "Umbrella".

I doubt it will get to number 1 but it's been doing really well in the iTunes top 10 currently at number 7.

With Scott Mills sucessfully getting the Hoff to number 3 a few years ago it's proof that radio presenters have a knack for getting annoying tosspots into the greater public eye.

I could say I never caught onto the Hoff as I barely saw an episode of Baywatch in full, although at an early age John Barrowman was a familiar sight on
Live & Kicking and The Movie Game.

And I still thought he was irritating.

In just over an hour I'll make my way over to the Job Centre for my Back To Work Meeting which I'm dreading. It's meant to last just an hour but it will probably seem longer.

I'm a reluctant bastard at this time and unlike Barrowman I doubt I'll survive the wet weather.