Tag: Television

In The Night Garden live

When my Mr suggested we take the boy to see his favourite thing in the world my heart sank a little. It’s not that I want to deny him fun, but thanks to BBC iplayer I get “treated” to about four episodes a day and I cannot bear it.

So many months ago I reluctantly agreed, took out a small mortgage and bought some tickets. We refused the horrifyingly expensive add-ones. £15 to meet Daisy. No thanks, if she was going to come back to ours and get cracking with the ironing maybe. But no. £20 for a goodie bag? No! He’s 2 he doesn’t really care.

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So we arrived early and we were ushered through the massive inflatable theatre in the car park of the Trafford Centre. The boy didn’t really understand what was going on but did get excited each time he saw a picture of a character. We found what were excellent seats and settled down. As I said, we arrived early and we waited half an hour for it to start. But no worries, they had fabulous projections on the walls which kept the little ones entertained as well as In The Night Garden (ITNG) sound effects. The half hour passed quickly, punctuated only by being mugged for £6 for a twirly light with Iggle Piggle on it, admittedly it kept him entertained for the rest of the evening and beyond. But tat all the same.

The show started much to the boys delight, it was colourful, entertaining and true to the TV version. Both husband and I were horribly bored after about 20 minutes but we were both enchanted by the delight on our sons face. He loved it, every second, every song, everything about it.

It lasted about 50 minutes and much to the boys disappointment we had to leave. In the car on the way home he was shouting “Again, Daisy, again!” Bless him.

Would I go again? Yes. But I do feel like I’ve been spanked for cash, but pretty much anything you do with your kids feels like that these days.

You can find out more about the show here – http://www.nightgardenlive.com/

Disclaimer: I wasn’t paid or asked to write this post, I went of my own accord and paid for the tickets and everything else myself.

The Royle Family – Baby David v Prince George

I’m a big comedy fan and to me the ultimate royal birth was the beautiful arrival of baby David in the Christmas 1999 episode of the Royle Family. If there’s one thing the Royle Family did well it’s pathos and that episode was full of it. I remember sitting with my family watching it and every one of us had a tear in our eye. For me that was the last truly great episode and none that followed, have lived up to those dizzy heights.

The scene where Denise goes into labour and her Dad is there makes me all emotional. Jim Royle is in many ways an utterly abhorrent character. He loves his family and really cares about them, regardless of how many insults he hurls in their direction.

The Royle Family - Baby David v Prince George

I loved the early episodes of the Royle Family. Coming from Manchester I was already a big fan of Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne. Their writing was absolutely top notch and every single word, pause and breath from the script of the Royle Family was obviously lovingly crafted and slaved over.

I think Craig Cash is incredibly underrated both as a writer and performer and for my money his follow up series “Early Doors” was just as good if not at times better than the Royle Family. If you’ve not seen it then you should, fantastic writing and acting from all involved.

I sometimes wonder what baby David would be up to now. He’d be a hulking great teenager, getting up to mischief, his life would not be full of options and opportunities. Baby David’s life would be the exact polar opposite of the life of opportunity and privilege of baby George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. I know which life I’d rather live.

This post was spawned from a blog prompt inspired by the birth of Prince George in 2013.