Category Archives: Stuff I’ve watched
Glastonbury 2014
I know, Glastonbury is so long ago you can’t even remember it happened. I’ve been planning for over a week to write my traditional Glastonbury-as-experienced-on-the-BBC post, but I found I was just feeling too uninspired. Partly that was down to … Continue reading
Some belated comments on Eurovision
A Eurovision post, a whole week late? That’s s-l-o-w blogging, even for you, Aethel. I know, I know. It’s a function of the way I like to experience the contest – which is to watch the grand final first, then … Continue reading
It’s not really surprising that most things in films are faked
Last Friday, The Guardian ran a blog post about the programming code that appears on-screen in films and TV programmes when the creators are trying to make a scene involving “computer stuff” visually interesting. You know the kind of thing … Continue reading
Graham Norton’s Aids ribbon
On the 29th November edition of his chat show – the edition that aired closest to World Aids Day, December 1st – Graham Norton wore an Aids ribbon, as did all his guests. Another BBC employee noticed this, and found … Continue reading
John Cole: what his death reveals about present-day political reporting
John Cole, sadly, has died. He became the BBC’s political editor when I was eight, and retired when I was nineteen; his was thus the face and voice of political reporting during the period of time when my interest in … Continue reading
In case you thought I was over-egging the TV cruelty thing…
In my last post, in the course of wondering why people are so horrible about The Great British Bake Off, I expressed dismay at the ubiquity of cruelty in TV. It occurs to me that might have seemed slightly over-egged: … Continue reading
Oh, just bake off
I am not remotely embarrassed to tell anyone who wants to know that I am a long standing fan of The Great British Bake Off. I was there, bright-eyed and expectant-looking, for episode one, series one – not, I hasten … Continue reading
Extreme OCD. Oh.
I try to avoid self-diagnosis, I really do. In my most recent post I tied myself in lexical knots in order not to suggest that I had received a diagnosis other than the one I received ~10 years ago now: … Continue reading
Aethelread the Unread 
Today, the UK government have confirmed Alan Turing’s “guilt”
Alan Turing – one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century; developer in the 1930s of the mathematical concept of a Universal Machine, the theoretical blueprint for the device on which you are reading this – has been … Continue reading →