Theres nothing worse than yet another lockdown Netflix list.

Sons Of Anarchy

Heard about this series from Linux Outlaws many years ago. Jax Teller is a very handsome man. I am convinced he is the bastard son of Kurt Cobain and Brad Pitt.

A decent series about biker gangs in California that inevitably features gratuitous violence and goes through peaks and troughs (the season when they went to Ireland was very weak).

Tiger King

A slow burner. Almost gave up on it after one episode but this turned out to be worth the hype. A truly bizarre story.

The Innocence Files

Recommended by rpcutts. A sobering reminder of man's inhumanity to man. Prosecutors who steadfastly refuse to admit defeat in the face of scientific DNA evidence. Innocent men locked up for years (sometimes on Death Row) and yet emerge with unbelievable grace and humility.

Fear The Walking Dead

My wife's choice. Eerily, I knew what was coming. Catastrophic event. Zombie apocalypse. Society breaks down.

A group of people find a settlement, encounter zombies on the march, spear zombies with sharp implement, find another settlement, zombies on the march, spear zombies with sharp implement, find another settlement. Rinse and repeat.

One of the most enjoyable elements was Alicia. This actress was just stunning. I don't know if the distance between her eyes, nose, ears, cheekbones and chin all match the perfect ratio but she was strangely compelling.

After Life

It's Ricky Gervais. If you've seen 'Derek', you've seen 'After Life'. Why, he even uses the same actors so you get that comforting sense of familiarity.

Take Us Home

I'm a sucker for football documentaries. I've watched the City one which revealed Pep Guardiola to be a rather intense manager. I hugely enjoyed the Sunderland one with the idiotic, pretentious, self-important marketing manager. This series felt more like a 'David Brent' spinoff than a true David Brent spinoff. And now we move onto the Leeds one. Only two episodes in but, disappointingly, there's little insight into the coaching methods of Marco Biesla.

Is this Grimm ?

No

'Adventures of New Grimm ?'

'No'

'New adventures of Grimm ?'

'No'

'New: Adventures of New Grimm ?'

'Yes'

'Is this a repeat ?'

'No'

I really enjoyed this comedy co-written by Steve Coogan.

The opening sequence features Coogan struggling to keep his calm in an 'Anger Management' course and is always hilarious.

Unfortunately, the final episode of the series was on Monday night but, no doubt, it will be endlessly repeated on BBC3 in the near future.

On message boards and blogs around the interweb, fans of the TV series Lost are discussing the many, different storylines speculating about what is actually going on and proposing far fetched theories.

One such undercurrent is the periodic entry of a secret code '4 8 15 16 23 42' into a computer located in an underground bunker. People want to know what will happen if the code is not entered.

Warning: Spoiler ahead. I know this because yesterday I failed to get there in time...

A corporate screensaver appears displaying perplexing, enigmatic, dark, cryptic words which, in turn, only fuels more mystery and suspense...

We lead by example We work together We respect the individual We seek the facts and provide insight We are open and honest in our communication We are committed to our communities Above all, we act with integrity

The Armstrongs is a BBC2 fly on the wall documentary about a small, family owned double glazing company in Coventry.

While this subject doesn't sound too inspiring, the program is absolutely hilarious. Last week, the husband and wife owners travelled to France in an attempt to diversify and increase dwindling sales.

Amazingly, they chose to translate their business proposition using Babelfish which may be adequate for children's homework but resulted in an unfortunate translation of 'conservatory' to 'music academy'. Consequently, the subtitles revealed that couple asked their French prospects:

'Are there a lot of music academies in France ?'

A van driver crashed into the bosses' expensive, prized Jaguar and then wisely chose to resign on the spot.

And we await with baited breath, the update on the young man who joined the company and immediately asked for time off to participate in the World Championships of Othello.

One of the candidates on BBC2s The Apprentice is a management consultant. He was very keen and virtually begged to be allowed to do the sales pitch on this week's show.

'Please, let me do the pitch. This is what I do. I am world class. There is no-one better.'

And then, in his sharp suit and with his short haircut, he opened his stilted, stuttering, unrehearsed, nerve-ridden pitch to various hard nosed businessmen (about a charity calendar for Great Ormond Street Hospital) with the immortal words.

'Now, please, forgive me if I get a little emotional...'

And all over Britain, the viewing audience cringed with the exception of management consultants everywhere, who exclaimed:

'Oh my God. This guy is simply appalling. I could do so much better. He's not even using Powerpoint. And another thing, just look at that tie.'

Most Haunted is a fantastic TV program hosted by Yvette Fielding, where a Liverpudlian psychic medium, Derek Acorah, visits haunted properties resurrecting the spirits of dear, dead departed souls.

The program is notable for absolutely superb acting by Acorah who can fulfil a variety of roles, effortlessly adopting the voice of tortured, Victorian ladies, in pitch darkness, without the aid of a script.

The supporting actors (Fielding and the camera crew) are also superb. They are simply wasted on Living TV. A career in Hollywood surely beckons.

I was fortunate enough to catch a 'Best of Most Haunted' over Christmas. It was simply the most riveting, compulsive, hilarious viewing.

The BBC have a program called Pay off your mortgage in 2 years. Tonights episode featured a couple from Cornwall with a mortgage of 90,000 GBP.

The program is moderately interesting for the various ideas people come up with to earn extra income (not for the scrimping, living off baked beans and giving up alcohol).

However, the program is spoiled by some very basic flaws.

Firstly, any extra income seems to be tax-free. If they did raise 45,000 GBP in one year, the Inland Revenue would demand a significant element. It's a shame but it's the law, you see.

The mentor repeatedly refers to his very clever 'accumulator principle' which involves simply multiplying a weekly income of 'X' by 104 to determine the additional income over two years. He (and the participants) seems to view this basic mathematics as some startling revelation.

Secondly, the mentor also dangles the thought of all the mortgage interest payments saved as an incentive to realise a livelong dream.

For example, he told tonight's couple that if (surely when) they eventually do achieve their goal and pay off their mortgage of 90,000 GBP, this would free them from the shackles of 22 years of interest payments totalling 76,000 GBP.

The couple could then use this 'money' to buy a large, light, airy studio for painting and a home office.

The couple looked genuinely astounded and delighted. They did not have the basic common sense to understand that the very intelligent mentor had neglected to point out one important fact; to obtain this dream studio, they will either have to raise a further 76,000 GBP (which might take a while) or take out another mortgage.

Oh, the del.icio.us irony of it all.

What would you do with 1 million GBP ?

Would you buy a mansion, a yacht and a Ferrari, give up your job, go on holiday, donate it all to charity, buy your parents a new house, take over your local football club or get U2 to play at your son's birthday party ?

Don't worry - I haven't succumbed to the lure of '1001 subjects to blog about' for people with vacuous brains.

This was precisely the quandary facing Patrick Gibson in 2004 when he scooped the top prize of 1 million pounds on the ITV show 'Who wants to be a Millionaire'.

Anyway, Patrick chose to buy the complete Iain Banks' books catalogue together with DVD's of Quentin Tarantino's films and every single episode of Channel 4's hilarious TV comedy 'Father Ted'. The reason was that these were to be Patrick's specialist subjects for BBC's Mastermind quiz.

Don't laugh - Patrick was crowned Mastermind of Great Britain on last night's enthralling show ! Even better, the narrow victory for the Irish software developer prevented an Australian gentleman hoisting the impressive, crystal glass fruit bowl aloft.

Another crushing defeat for the Aussies - oh dear.

There was an interesting program on ITV last night called The Shot That Shook The World about photographs of historic moments.

9/11¶

Mesmeric, tragic, horrific and yet somehow those images are always compelling. I guess this was the JFK moment for my generation where everyone can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing.

I was working for a small Internet company and a colleague was idly surfing and memorably announced 'A plane has just hit the World Trade Centre'. The internet soon ground to a halt and we watched the tragedy unfold on portable TV in disbelief.

I remember early editions of an English newspaper carried photographs of two people holding hands jumping to their deaths that were subsequently pulled when they realised that this was real people in real life with real mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters.

Sport¶

The Brazil goal against Italy in the 1970 World Cup. My favourite goal of all time. The way Pele flicks the ball to Carlos Alberto. Pure art.

Moon Landing (1969)¶

I remember the whole school being assembled in the hall to watch these grainy images on a black and white TV.

Challenger disaster¶

I visited the Kennedy Centre a few years ago and there is a nice, simple, understated black memorial to all the astronauts who have lost their lives during the space program. Ironically, one was killed in a car crash.

Concorde crash¶

Interesting as this footage was shot by a member of the public from a moving car. This is much more prevalent now with the widespread use camera phones which provided almost immediate access to photos of the London bombings in July 2005.

Hillsborough¶

This wasn't actually featured but those photographs on the front page of The Independent newspaper of ordinary people dying, squashed against the railings in the Leppings Lane terrace at a football match in Sheffield had a big effect on me.