Freeview Play and a whole new world of rather sedenatary lockdown TV...

 

We have been devotees of Netflix and Amazon Prime for a few years now but have always been a bit blase about Freeview.

That's probably because we've gotten so used to watching 'on-demand' that we can't be doing with watching programmes when they're 'on'.

However, there are a lot of programmes that are on the Freeview channels that we want to watch but are on at inconvenient times for us.

We were talking about it the other day and thought about buying a new TV that had Freeview Play so that we could record the programmes we'd like to see but I didn't want to spend £300+ on a new TV when ours is perfectly fine.

We were in our local supermarket the other day and I needed to buy some contact glue, however, they've changed everything around in the store and so I couldn't find any.

What I did find, however, was a set-top hard disc recorder for well over a third of the price of a new TV,  And with a second lockdown starting this week, I decided to splash out and buy one.

And it's like a whole new world of programmes I like, have now become available. As you can see from the photo, my interests include re-runs of old telly series and food programmes! I've already got 36 different shows recorded and none of them are the big hitter shows - you won't find Coronation Street or Eastenders on it. You won't find Pointless and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and most definitely won't see X factor and I'm a Celebrity type show there either.

What you will find is plenty of documentaries like The South Bank Show or Daytime telly such as Antiques Road Trip and American Pickers.

There will be plenty of music-based shows - already recorded are Frank Sinatra's Main Event, The Sammy Davis Jr Story and Long Hot Summers ( The style Council story).

Add a healthy dose of shows like Who Do You Think You Are, How Do They Do That?  Heir Hunters and a few Murder and Crime documentaries and it's the perfect mix of shows for us.

I think that just about proves how boring we are!

And whilst we're on this next lockdown, I think I'll be spending more time in front of that box in the corner than I normally would.

What are your lockdown plans?

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A nostalgic 'Look at Life' in the 1960s

 

Back in the 1960s, when you went to the pictures you'd usually get two films for your money. The main picture would be supported with a shorter accompanying film.

And there was a series of films, that although I never really took much notice of them then, have become well-loved by me.

They were the 'Look at Life' films which detailed life in the 60s. When you see them now, they're a great social history document, and luckily, many of them have been uploaded to youtube.

Here's a link to a playlist of the films.

And here's an example programme from the collection.

If you can't see the video, click here

We've watched all of these films and often said to ourselves, "Do you remember that?" 

We love these programmes. We hope you do too.

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About my 'little things'...

I’ve been thinking about what I want this blog to be and to explain the name of it to you.

‘James Murphy’s Little Things’ is actually a name I gave to my Instagram account just after I’d had my kidney removed prior to Christmas 2016.

Some of you will recall that in November that year, after having a scan for something totally different, doctors spotted a lump the size of a large lemon on my left kidney. There was a period of 8-10 days when I didn’t know what the lump was, what my situation would be, or even if I was going to be around long enough to see my next birthday.

It was, without doubt, the scariest situation of my life and it turned my world upside down. The upshot of it was that the ‘lodger’ was removed along with my kidney and I have since made a full recovery.

However, it did change my whole outlook on life, and I realised that I should, perhaps, pay more attention to the little things in life. As Kitty Kallen sang in her chart-topping, 1954 hit song, ‘Little Things Mean A Lot.’

And so, my Instagram became the place where I’d post the ‘little things’ that made a difference in my life.

As much as I love Instagram, it’s not really the ideal place for someone like me who can’t get over what I want to say in a few words, and even though it’s one of my favourite social media platforms, it needs a little bit more in the way of wordage!

And when I thought about doing this blog, the name seemed ideal for me, because here, I’ll share little things: moments that happen during my day, pieces of information that I come across that I feel are worthy of sharing and anything else that springs to mind.

But just because my name is at the top of it, I don’t want it to be all about me, it’ll be about the community of people who take the time to read it and hopefully reply to what I’m waffling on about. I want the conversation to flow both ways.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you have to say. Along the way, I’ll be asking you for ideas – things we can talk about. I want the blog to be an ongoing conversation between myself and our little community.

After all, me just yabbering on and on isn’t going to be too compelling is it? The fact is, I spark off of other people as much as I come up with my own thoughts.

I have plenty of thoughts about different things I’d like to talk about, but you can be sure I’ll want your input. I’ll also want you to be letting me know different things you come across, that we can share with each other. I’ll be asking you for your participation.

For those that sign up to the weekly newsletter, I’ll be hunting around for stuff to give away in competitions – some may be new, some may be second-hand goodies that I come across that I may think worthy of raffling. But I’ll be keeping those for the people who are signed up. 

Don’t get me wrong, it won’t be every week, more likely. as and when.

There are going to be times when I ask you to use the hashtag #jmlt when you post something on social media that you think I may be interested in. I can then just search #jmlt and your posts will be easily findable.

I don’t do Twitter so that will be confined to Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for now.

I have lots of little ongoing ideas that we can come back to on a regular basis: some regular features of the blog if you like.

I’m hoping it’ll be informative and entertaining but never boring!

I can pretty much say that there’s going to be music, and TV/Movie trivia – at times there will be stories from my life, I’ll curate some of the things I’ve written about over the years on Facebook and bring it all under the one roof so to speak. I’ll cover lots of subjects I think are interesting and maybe the same for you.

Oh yes, and more than likely, you’ll hear the occasional rant  as well – after all, it wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t would it? However, as I said in the last blog, I doubt you’ll find me chatting politics or religion and I certainly won’t be debating either.

And so that’s where we are – I’m pretty much done with explaining what this blog is about – I think it will be ever-evolving (with your support).

All I can say I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to emerge from this tiny brain of mine hahaha!

Don’t worry, I’m not giving up on Facebook – I’ll still be there. But I’m going to be paying more attention to this blog.

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