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Blackadder II: Extended Theme

Published 8th February 2013

Music / TV Comedy

Every so often, a DVD release gives you a lovely surprise. Sometimes, that surprise may be quickly skipped, with most people not even noticing it.

Take, for instance, Blackadder II – and specifically, the opening title music:

Delightfully, the DVD menu of The Complete Blackadder has a clean, extended version used for the main menu of the Blackadder II disc, giving you a good 15 seconds or so extra. Anyone want to have a listen? Of course you do.

[mejsaudio src=”https://dirtyfeed.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/BlackadderII-Extended.mp3″]

Download Blackadder II: Extended Theme (1.7MB MP3, 0:52)

AWESOME EXTRA ELECTRIC GUITAR NONSENSE. Somebody, somewhere, went to the effort of tracking down Howard Goodall’s original recording, rather than just lazily ripping it from one of the episodes. Whoever you are: I love you.

(Incidentally, the Blackadder Remastered boxset does not have the extended version of the theme – just a slightly awkward looped version, with sound effects clearly indicating it was ripped from the episode Beer. One of many, many sloppy things about that boxset, but don’t get me started on that one.)

So, my question: anyone got any other examples of extended versions of music only showing up in the DVD menus of film or television releases?

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Self-Righteous Twitter Rant #782332

Published 7th February 2013

Internet

Robert’s Web. Safely one of the worst television programmes I have ever seen. Not that that’s my main point here, but I’ll take any chance I can get to slag off that wretched show. No, my point here is to do with the show’s Twitter account.

Let’s ignore the fact that the last tweet there is advertising the third show of the series, despite there being four episodes – a sure sign the team had given up by the last one. More importantly: there’s no goodbye message. No “thanks for watching, hope you enjoyed it”. Nowt. Zilch. Abandoned. Production office wound up, nobody there to even tweet a farewell.

Which altogether gives the impression that the account meant nothing to the makers of the show than what they could get out of it. Nobody could spare a minute to even pretend they gave a fuck, and post a goodbye. There is little more transparent than an account just abandoned like that. They never really engaged; it was all a front to try and whip up interest, then abandoned when the show failed.

In comparison, when the online game Glitch had to wind up, their Twitter feed was full of updates, proper goodbyes and fun stuff. The absolute right way to go about ending a project. Engaging with your audience to the last, not running away with your tail between your legs. It was obvious that the people running that site cared about their audience.

It’s not a hard and fast rule, obviously. I’ve seen excellent Twitter accounts run by TV people, and I’ve seen awful ones run by web companies. But it happens enough to spot a pattern, and it’s not a pleasant one when it comes to television shows.

Which makes me sad. Telly can benefit hugely from social media, done right. Done wrong, it exposes some rather uncomfortable truths.

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BEST. ADVERT. EVER.

Published 21st January 2013

Adverts

I have posted this on Twitter. I have posted this on Tumblr. But I will not rest until I have forced as many people as possible to watch this.

Stay right to the very end for the best bit.

Sitcom Recording Leaflets: New Yes, Prime Minister

Published 16th January 2013

TV Comedy

As regular readers of this site will know, I have lots of little obsessions – and one of the more obscure ones is the leaflets that used to be handed out to the audience at sitcom recordings. I’ve already detailed such little leaflets for episodes of The Brittas Empire and Every Silver Lining, but sadly these just doesn’t seem to be made any more – I have certainly never been given any since I started attending audience recordings in 1999.

Up until last year, that is. Imagine my delight when I went to see the first episode of the new Yes, Prime Minister series recorded, and a good old-fashioned leaflet was waiting on each audience member’s chair. Whether this was a holdover from the series’s roots as a stage production, or simply because Gareth Gwenlan and Jonathan Lynn like doing things the old way, it was a lovely little souvenir to take home to remember the recording.

Anyone care for a scan?

Yes Prime Minister Episode 1 leaflet - Cover
Yes Prime Minister Episode 1 leaflet - Inside


Lovely stuff. I wish every sitcom recording still did this. I’m still on the lookout for more of these, by the way – if you have any hidden away in drawers, why not hunt them out and scan them in?

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“Stupidly, I very nearly cried…”

Published 13th December 2012

Internet / Life

I take great – if possibly misguided – pride in being pretty much the same person now as I always was. Me when I was nine and when I’m 31 are rather too close to being the same person. When people tell me they used to love certain TV shows and then grew out of them, it always puzzles me – with the odd exception, if I loved a show when I was younger, I still love it now. Sure, my tastes have widened since I was younger – I used to dislike Press Gang for fuck’s sake – but very, very rarely have they shrunk. I’m the same person – why would I suddenly decide I disliked something?

Yet, there is one exception to recognising myself as the same person, one piece of history which I look back on with absolute horror: my old blog, which I ran around 2004-2005. It makes bizarre reading now in one sense, in that a lot of what I say is ideally suited these days to Twitter but feels a bit batshit insane on a blog – but hey, it’s still recognisably the same person.

Then, occasionally, there are posts like this one. Yes, that would be me giving personal details about exactly how badly my job was going on the internet, to anyone who cared to drop by, almost LIVE AS IT HAPPENED. There are a few more if you root round for long enough.

Now, I happen to utterly love my current job – and I’m far enough removed from my life working at makro not to worry about linking to that piece now. But even if I didn’t love my job, I wouldn’t even vaguely contemplate complaining about it on the internet these days. What the hell was I thinking? Why, in the name of holy fuck did I think that that was a good idea in any way whatsoever? Did I think the internet was my own little private place where nobody but me and a few close friends hung out?

Reading this stuff makes me feel completely distanced to myself. I just don’t recognise the mindset that made me put that kind of thing online. For someone who still makes the same excited noises as they did when they were nine, it’s an incredibly odd feeling.

Oh, a magic door! Well, why didn’t you say?

Published 6th December 2012

Computing / TV Comedy

Kryten uses a BBC Micro

It is a truism that fandom has hugely changed over the last twenty years. My favourite example of this is Red Dwarf Series 1: it was only released on VHS in 1993, five years after broadcast. Before then, it was only passed around as grotty nth-generation off-airs. Meanwhile, Red Dwarf X was released on DVD a week-and-a-half after the final episode – and on iTunes throughout the run.

Another thing changed from that time is public domain software libraries. Gone are the days where you could order floppy disc upon floppy disc full of fascinating stuff, and have to wait excitedly for it to arrive. I distinctly remember wanting to order nearly every disc from that BBC Micro public domain library; I could only afford a handful. Now, everything is just a click away.

Out of the whiz-bang demos and, erm, mouse drivers, one disc in particular I did manage to order sticks in the memory. That was BBC PD Disc #165 (formerly a Mad Rabbit PD disc), Red Dwarf Documents – “Answers to ‘Frequently asked’ questions about Red Dwarf, a complete episode guide and other text files of interest to the Red Dwarf fan.” (Proper Red Dwarf fans will realise that the disc number should clearly have been #169.)

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Dirty Feed: Now Available With 100% Less Attention To Detail

Published 26th November 2012

Meta

It’s no secret that this site isn’t the most updated place in the world. This is partly due to me wanting to – vaguely – think about the stuff I post on here. And I find thinking hard.

If then, you would like your fix of Dirty Feed without the benefit of a coherent thought process, I’ve just started a companion Dirty Feed Tumblr. Hopefully some of the stuff I post over there will develop into bigger articles over here; others will just be me posting a DVD grab because someone pulled a funny face. The latter will be the better posts, I would wager.

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“This is 5NG calling…”

Published 15th November 2012

Life / Radio

I had a strange telephone call from my mother yesterday. She woke up that morning, bleary-eyed, to hear a rather strange voice over the radio – me, when I was nine…

Sure enough, BBC Radio Nottingham in its BBC at 90 celebrations had a lovely little report on Andy Whittaker’s breakfast show about the history of the station – and they used an extract from my latest podcast for an aircheck of wonderful local broadcaster Dennis McCarthy.

You can hear it 22 minutes into Andy’s show, or take a listen below; it’s a lovely little piece of radio.

[mejsaudio src=”https://dirtyfeed.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/bbcnottingham90.mp3″]

Download “This is 5NG calling…” (8MB MP3, 3:59)

Thanks to reporter Kevin Stanley (and Paul Robey, who was credited in a repeat later in the day for the archive clips). I’m proud – in whatever small way – of being part of Radio Nottingham’s celebrations.

Got a tear in my eye. Must go.

Weird Edits Part #8274232

Published 10th November 2012

TV Comedy

Beware: this post is at the extreme end of television geekery. If you object to that, pop off to Digital Spy, now.

Back? Good. Here then, is something I guarantee you haven’t noticed before about Father Ted, brought to my attention by the not-literally eagle-eyed Danny Stephenson. The episode in question is Are You Right There, Father Ted? – take a look at the beginning of the bedroom scene between Ted and Dougal. (Ignore the ad break that’s been cut out there for the DVD release – that’s a whole separate issue…)

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DWARD.

Published 28th October 2012

TV Comedy

It’s been a bit of a quiet time recently on Dirty Feed, as I’ve been busy… doing something very complicated. In the meantime (if you haven’t already) check out my review of Lemons, the third episode of Red Dwarf X – which serves as a handy sequel to this Dirty Feed post from last year. Bearing in mind how I felt about the first two episodes this series, it was a pleasant surprise that I rather enjoyed this one. SPOILERS.

I’ll also be taking part in LIVE DWARFCASTS immediately after Episodes 5 and 6 analysing the fuck out of the show, on from 10pm on Thursday 1st and 8th November. A link to the STREAM will appear on the front page of Ganymede and Titan and on the site’s Twitter feed shortly before broadcast; previous episodes happily not featuring me can be downloaded here.

I do hope my squealing fangirls will be in attendance.

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