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Comments by TheDiamondDave


1. Charles Brooker's screen burn

Comment #62739 by TheDiamondDave on August 11, 2007 at 4:53 am

Oliver Postgate, the eccentric genius behind 'Bagpuss' and other classics of British children's programming such as 'The Clangers' and 'Ivor The Engine', lived in my home town (a small, Kentish seaside town called Whitstable). But that's not why I mention him. He has said that the character of Professor Yaffle was based on none other than Bertrand Russell, who was a regular visitor to his childhood home. I'm sure Dawkins would raise a wry smirk at drawing such comparisons!

As for Charlie Brooker, for those who don't know him, he not only pens the wonderfully acerbic TV column from which this piece is taken (The Guardian newspaper's 'Screen burn'), but is one of the brains behind the cult series 'Nathan Barley' (along with that other satiric envelope-pusher Chris Morris). He also presents a TV spin-off from his newspaper column: 'Screen Wipe'. Check out this clip, where he lays into the rash of con-men masquerading as 'psychics' that have appeared in the wake of the digital floodgates being opened on our tiny island: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTGgxQCcvqY


When I first saw it I pissed myself. He is, as my brother says, the funniest man on TV.

2. Richard Dawkins on Hardtalk

Comment #60128 by TheDiamondDave on August 1, 2007 at 4:40 am

Good interview, despite some of the same old arguments coming up. Is it just me or is the whole atheist debate starting to resemble a circular argument? We go round and round and round. Shame the quality was, as my mother would say, as rough as a badgers arse...