My Kind of Television

 

I’m going to a Society of Author’s meeting in Manchester this evening.

“What time will it finish?’ my husband asked.

“Well, I’ll be leaving about 8.00.”

“So, you’ll be home to watch some TV just after 9.00 then?”

We have a Sky box and several series recorded. We tend to binge watch them, starting with oldest first. We have less than 20% of the disk free. We don’t have Netflix.  Other half protests. I’d quite like to, but for sure we’d probably never get through it all.

Last night we finished Father Brown. Cosy crimes and English village life with a good dose of the Catholic Church.  Grantchester has parallels yet we have still to watch that; it is definitely C of E. Call the Midwife is there too.  Some find it too sentimental? It’s uplifting though there is some sadness. We need uplifting sometimes.  

Fun too are Death in Paradise and After Paradise. Amazing how the jolly music always comes after the murder had been committed.

Never go to Oxford or Midsommer –they too are full of murders.   

Well, we make up for that with some gritty Walter Presents crime / police procedurals / thrillers in other languages. Though that woman who keeps losing her keys and the baby that keeps threatening to cry get a little tedious after a while.

Then there are the more serious programme like the drama about the Post Office scandal and the documentary about the miners’ strike.

Casualty has been around forever, hasn’t it? Charlie arrived as a young man and now he is gone. Rumour has it that it has saved lives. I couldn’t quite bring myself to watch it just before a stay in hospital, though.

And what of soaps? I don’t know why quite – I think it may be to do with sunshine and a well-to-do environment - but my soap is Neighbours. And another one, if radio is allowed here, The Archers.

We mustn’t forget all of those excellent dramas on the terrestrial channels. They are usually British produced. I think we do drama rather well.  

Watching TV is an easy way of absorbing story. Could I ever write for it? I’d like to give it a go one day. But if nothing else, these programmes help further develop my sense of story.

There is a disadvantage, though, being a writer: I can usually work out what’s going to happen and whodunit.