Foodie Heaven

I had an excited Gail on the phone this afternoon whilst I was at work. She said that whilst she was arriving back home from work, she saw a film crew down the road. With cameras and everything. I said get her camera out and start taking photos, as something special might be happening.

So a little while later, she rang again and described what was happening. I said that I would put a message on Facebook to see if anyone knew what was going on. A few messages appeared saying that they might be making an episode of the tv cooking show Come Dine With Me.

Fortunately they were still there when I got home, so I was poised with my camera too. I chatted to a couple of the crew who told me that it was a cooking show being made, but not Come Dine With Me, but a new show called The Kitchen Rules, based on the Australian show of the same name. It's where a well known chef eats a meal at different people's houses and decides who cooked the best food. In this case it is Michael Caines. Sadly not the actor from the Italian Job and Alfie. Now that would be a scoop, but a very well known chef. Sadly not with me, as I've not heard of him before.

Similarly to Come Dine With Me, the other contestants also join the chef in eating the meal. The winner gets £10,000. I popped down a bit later and chatted to the lady who was doing the catering for the production team. She said that they were filmed an episode yesterday in Chesterfield.

Apparently it's a very popular show in Australia, and so Channel Four have bought the rights to it, and are making their own version. Also involved is tv presenter and cookery writer Prue Leith. The show will be screened later in the year. So it will be interesting to see what Beeston looks like through their camera lens.

It's A Knock Out

When I was growing up in the 1970s, every Saturday afternoon I would sit with my dad and watch the wrestling on the TV.

Names like Pat Roach, Mick McManus, Kendo Nagasaki, and of course Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy. Besides the staged fights, which everyone knew about, I remember seeing old ladies hitting some of the 'bad' guys with their handbags and umbrellas.

I  went to the Victory Club, a local working men's club tonight to take some photos of some wresting matches that were taking place. I was taking them for a magazine called The Beestonian that I write and take photographs for.

After watching one match, I realised that things hadn't really changed much over the past forty years, and that the matches were still rigged. But tonight there didn't seem that many old ladies in the audience, it was mainly children for some reason. They seemed to enjoy the five scraps that took place over the course of the evening.

Musical Youth

My good friend Emma Baldon-Jones, together with Christine Palethorpe were guests on Notts TV tonight.

Besides being musicians in their own right, that also make up the folk duo Paper Doves. Besides playing keyboards, Christine plays the harp. Emma of course is a singer/songwriter, who I have featured many times on here, as I always like to go to her gigs, or see her busking along Beeston's high road.

Hopefully now that they have been on TV, they will get a few more gigs and hopefully a recording contract.

Special Guest Appearance

Had an interesting bit of action on Twitter yesterday. I took a photo of the Wheel in the Old Market Square with my iPhone and Tweeted it. One of the producers at Notts TV contacted me and asked if they could use it as part of their news programme.

Of course I said yes, as long as they credited me. No problem they said.  So as you can see, my name's proudly displayed for the world, well Nottingham for all to see.

Ey Up!

In about two weeks time Nottingham will have its own television station.

NottsTV goes on air for the first time on the 27th May at 8pm. But the promotion for it started late last week with some posters going up around the city centre.

But today, something special happened. Loads of little blue toy ducks appeared in the most oddest of places. I found one sitting on the top of a tree stump!

On it's base it says 'if found, take a pic and share it'. Being a photographer, I just had to take up the challenge. So I picked up my new friend and we went for a walk around the city centre, stopping at various places and tweeting photos of him posing in the sunshine using the hashtag #BlueDuck.

A White Christmas

As I was looking for some freezer bags in the kitchen, I stumbled upon this Christmas goodie that Gail had stashed away until next week.

She had tried copying me, as I sometimes hide bars of chocolate around the house; sometimes in the most unusual of places.

I think we are both chocoholics, and I try to limit the supply, by only making so much available at a time. Sometimes of course Gail just happens to come across a bar or two on her travels around the house, then of course we just have to finish the lot!

By the time that I had taken this photo, my darling wifey had already decapitated him. She offered me some, but I sad no, as I had already had two blubbery muffins and thought that should be my limit for the day.

The Snowman and the Snowdog premiered on television last Christmas, and it was a lovely, heartwarming story of a little boy who was missing his own pooch, as it had died and so wrote to Santa for a new one. Hopefully they will show it again next week. Of course by which time, this snowman would have melted away in our mouths.

Notts On TV

Less than six months to go before Nottingham gets its own television channel.

Having looked on their website they say they are making local programmes for local people. I wonder if they want to make a programme about this blog?

During the 1980s and 90s Nottingham used to have a television studio that belonged to the ITV network. Central TV on Lenton Lane produced some great shows like Auf Weidersehen Pet, Boon, Harry's Mad and Woof. Not forgetting Supermarket Sweep and Bob's Full House.

But when Central lost the broadcasting franchise, the studios closed and everything was sadly sold off. The building is now used by the university.

It will be interesting to see if Notts TV takes off and what sort of programmes they end up making. Of course I will be watching developments with interest and of course any future photo opportunities.

TV Does A&E

My local hospital, and the one where Gail works has been the subject of a television programme for Sky News.

For the last 24 hours, a couple of reporters have been doing live broadcasts from the QMC Hospital's Accident & Emergency department. Following the patients as they arrive after receiving all sorts of different injuries. Besides all the usual cuts and bruises, one woman was kicked in the face by a horse. I've always thought horses were evil creatures and then a man appeared from a wedding party who had cut his hand somehow while cutting the wedding cake. Could he not tell the difference?

We had to go into Nottingham today, so on our travels back, we stopped off at the hospital to see if we could see any of the filming going on. Alas not, but I did capture the mobile studio, which was parked near the entrance.

Construction work is continuing on the new tram line which includes a bridge through the hospital. Unfortunately it means the destruction of another bridge which links the main hospital block with the newer Treatment Centre.

I've never really studied this bridge before, as it's something that you think is going to be there forever, so as it's probably only got a few days of life left, I thought that I would do some close up shots. I think the outside has quite a sci fi look to it; like it is one of those airlock tubes that connect spaceships with space stations

Going For A Take

The city centre has become Hollywood again, as a film crew have moved in to make a new TV series called Truckers.

It's written by local writer William Ivory, whose last big work was the screenplay for the film 'Made in Dagenham'.

As the title suggests, the story is about the staff that work at a local haulage company, and what they are like as people.

I've read that they are using a number of locations across the city, and so was quite pleased to see them doing a few scenes in the Old Market Square.

Anticipation

As it was warm and sunny this afternoon, I went out to the front garden and started to tidy it up and begin a job that I meaning to start for a while now.

At the moment, it has an open front, but I have been wanting to build a low wall, but have never motivated myself enough to start it. I have acquired what I think will be enough stone to do it with; I just needed that first push to get going. And so I guess the sunshine was the spurt I required.

So I got to work removing dead plants, pruning and clearing away the general rubbish that builds up in a garden. I then dug out a shallow trench, as I haven't worked out yet how I am going to put this wall together yet. But do know that I do need to give it a solid base of some kind.

I stayed out as long as possible before the light began to fade and it got quite chilly. I did manage to last till gone half six, which is good, as this means that the light nights are getting closer and closer. I think there's only another two weeks before the clocks go on, and we can all enjoy coming home in the light.

Feeling my back hurting a little bit from the exercise, I sat down, switched on the TV and found that an episode of Dad's Army was on. I had also treated myself to a real ale this morning, and so I decided to have it whilst watching one of my favourite comedy shows.

Exterminate!

Grrr, somehow I forgot to set up a post for Saturday. And I really hate missing a day, as I like to blog everyday, and so try to generate a page, even if I am not able to blog at the time.

Most of Saturday was spent at the National Media Museum. What a fantastic place. Eight floors of film, television and photographic memories. It was almost like all my boyhood memories had come to life for everyone to see. From Rainbow's Zippy and George, to Captain Scarlet and Thunderbird 2 via a bit of Rhubarb and Custard.

There was of course one character that is part of most people's childhood, and that is of a Dalek. Whether you hid behind the sofa, or sat glued to the action, as the good Doctor, whether it was Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee (my first) or Baker (the best) fought them with cunning and ingenuity and saved the day. Only you knew, just knew that they would return to have another go next year.

TV Or Not TV

There are 5 main television channels in the UK, as well as numerous satellite & cable stations, but only 2 produce local news; BBC Midlands, whose studios I've shown before & ITV for the Midlands. Central Television, as it used to be known, had quite a big studio complex on Lenton Lane & produced a number of well known programmes, like Woof!, Bullseye & Celebrity Squares. But ITV closed it down a couple of years ago & so the news team moved to a small studio in Toton. But now that's threatened with closure, so some of the journalists were promoting their cause yesterday in the Old Market Square.

Anyone For Tennis?

Every June for the past few years, Nottingham hosts a mens tennis tournament as a warm up for Wimbledon. It's normally televised by Sky TV. I must try to pop along after work, to see if there's any shots worth taking.

This gigantic poster was appearing on the side of the Park Plaza Hotel on Maid Marian Way.

3rd June update. As you can see, I've managed to put a photo on. It's not as good as the one I originally wanted to show you, but Blogger is just refusing to publish it.

Lights, Camera, Action

Yesterday I told you about the BBC being in the Market Square. Well I popped along at lunchtime & took some photos. It was interesting to watch, but was a bit disappointed to find out that it was mainly aimed at schools and not the licence paying public. I would have liked to have seen some history about the channel and perhaps have a tape running with some highlights over the last 80 years of broadcasting.

Broadcast News

For the past few days, engineers from the BBC have been setting up a mobile television studio in the Market Square. The aim is to demonstrate how the news & weather are put together, ready for transmitting to the nation.

It's open to the public today. So I'll be going along at lunchtime, to see what is on offer, and of course take some photos. Come back tomorrow for the results.

Tele-vision

I think this is about the biggest TV that I've ever seen. It was on display in the nearly completed Market Square. There was nobody around to explain why it was there and what it was all about. So I am completely in the dark as to what the film was publicising.