AE on Telly News (NEW CONCEPTS)

[Mick Harper]

We all know the Coyote household's TV viewing is dictated by 'women 22-64' so I don't think we'll be taking any lessons from you.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Yep, I can retreat to the man cave, assured I won't be bothered, and it keeps the licence fee down. What is not to like?

[Mick Harper]

Car Pound Cops: Give Me My Car Back! (Channel 5)

"I've come to get a car back."
"Is it your car?"
"No."
"Do you have a letter of authorisation from the owner?"
"Yes, here."
"The signature is different from the signature on their licence held by the DVLA."
"Oh, I'll go and get the right one."
"If it's after 3 p.m. it will be another day's storage charge."

I can't help thinking they've missed the important point here.

[Mick Harper]

The King (Netflix)

This compresses Henry IV Parts I & II and Henry V into a (very watchable) feature film but why I'm drawing it to your attention is that finally someone has broken away from Shakespeare and done something with the material.

I've been droning on for aeons about the need for History Plays that aren't Shakespeare but nobody listens. Instead we get endless history programmes where talking heads are interspersed with 'live' action of soldiers soldiering, plotters plotting and churls churling. The past can be fictionalised, chaps! Just like the present day can.

This Netflix offering goes some of the way. The dialogue is, thank God, all new and in comprehensible English, and the plot goes its own way. Falstaff, for instance, isn't rejected by King Hal for being a drunken bum. He's made knight-commander of the Harfleur/ Agincourt expeditionary force. And in case anyone's gets hoity-toity about that, the historical Sir John Fastolf was a successful condottiere. Not a drunken bum.

Henry V himself is... wait for it... complex. Idealised but not lionised. Not one for making speeches or striking poses. Far from going once more unto the breach, he starved the castle out. Well done, Laurence the Third.

More, please.

[Mick Harper]

I was watching Shaun the Sheep episodes back to back but when I spotted there were a hundred and seventy-two of them I decided not to.