Thoughts from the Shelf

Whitehaven in Cumbria became the first place in England to have its analogue television signal switched off early this morning, marking the start of the national switch over to digital that will take place by 2012. The rest of the country will be switched to digital at different periods of time between 2008 and the 2012.

By the deadline all analogue television transmitters will be turned off and replaced by digital, offering extra television channels as standard, improved picture and sound quality, new interactive menus and features as well as several access services.

For homes that currently only receive the five UK channels either a new digital TV will need to be purchased or the signal to an analogue one converted through a set top box. Most new TVs come with a built in digital turner now.

With the first switch over happing last night, it was reported that 500 homes had not properly prepared themselves, and around 1200 people woke up with TVs not working. That figure accouted for two percent of the population of Whitehaven, and if the same proportion of people remain unprepared over the next five years it is estimated that 1.2 million will find themselves in a similar situation.

Digital UK is the body responsible for the switch over and are offering support to anyone with problems. Digital UK said the results in Whitehaven were promising and compared figures to the ten percent of people who were unprepared for the switch over in Sweeden and Finalnd.

There was however cause for concern as these figures could easily rise as the campaign stretches further across the country, as the level of advertising and support for Whitehaven would be unsustainable on a national level. £1 million was spent on the campaign and four support centres out of a total budget of £600 million. At the same spending rate £1billion would be needed for the entire countries switch over to digital.

So there it is, check out when your area switches over and be prepared.

We have all done it, for some it is soap operas such as Coronation Street or Emmerdale, for others crime dramas like silent witness. The programmes that we have never shown an interest in before, but thanks to a partner of loved one we find ourselves sitting down actually enjoying something that we would otherwise have loathed.

For me, my pet hate was that batch of American high school programmes such as Dawsons Creek, the OC and a catalogue of others that unfortunately keeps growing. It was the false ideologies that they were founded on, where everyone was beautiful, white, and healthy that I hated so much. The fact that the 16/ 17year olds these shows were based upon were being played by people in their mid to late twenties summed up everything that I believed to be wrong with popular culture.

I have never watched a huge amount of television myself, but have recently found that if a loved one is engrossed in a show, watching it is often a nice way to relax with them and spend a lazy afternoon.

It was this attitude that led me to thoroughly enjoy a programme out of a batch I have come to hate. The programme is One Tree Hill, and the levels of engrossment reached have lead to box set purchasing and a complete viewing of all episodes released to date.

I even want to slap myself for saying it, but although I have hated these programmes in the past I actually love this show. I have for years wondered how boyfriends and husbands have come to love shows not aimed at them, but I am now a first hand case study of it, and one which has lost all place to tell people what shows are and are not good.

I think that sometimes you just have to accept that although you don’t completely understand why, you get immense enjoyment out of something’s in life, and that in itself is perhaps reason alone to continue doing them.

There is a TV show that I have really got into recently and I was wondering what others thought of it. The programme is Heroes and is currently shown on BBC2 on Wednesday nights at 9pm.

The show originated in the states and is about people who find out they have a range of extraordinary abilities. It is based around 11 heroes who each have different supernatural abilities ranging from reading peoples minds to painting the future to freezing time.

I must admit I was sceptical when I first watched it, the idea people flying and being invincible didn’t appeal to me. That said the programme is extremely well made and a high emphasis is put on building up credible characters. The supernatural powers act as a bit of added fun, but the story revolves around the responsibility that comes with great power.

The show is quite dark and did not live up to the comic book bill I had created for it. More than miraculous things happening time and time again, each episode of the series focuses more on how every day people cope when they find they are not quite ‘normal’.

On a more light-hearted note it also helps you revisit the childhood question, if you were a super hero, what super power you would you have? I would be interested to know your answers. They cannot be worse than a friends answer, stating proudly one night,

“If I was a superhero I would be able to see round corners!”

I am really enjoying the series, currently on series 6 (as of this week), and would thoroughly recommend it.

It has been a while since I last went to the cinema, and in fact this year Next with Nicolas Cage has been the only film that I have been to see. This is mainly due to the fact I don’t have the free time, coupled with an unhealthy of buying DVDs on their release date instead.

It is not that I don’t enjoy the cinema, on the contrary, but the crazy logic here is that if I save the cost a cinema ticket, I am only paying half the cost of the film when bought on DVD.

This logic was however swiftly thrown out of the window for my latest cinema outing to watch a film I had been dying to see since rumours emerged that it was to be made. As if that wasn’t enough to wet my appetite, the trailers were themselves some of the best I had ever seen. The film was of course Transformers.

Although Transformers was not the first film based on a childhood cartoon to have been released in recent years, it was the one film that had really appealed to me. The special effects themselves were reason alone to see it, but for me it was something else. As with millions of others it was the childhood nostalgia that Transformers provided that was the selling point.

Because of this it was no surprise that I loved the movie. I would revisit the cinema to watch it again given the chance, and the DVD will be purchased upon day of release too.

How much I wanted to see this particular film surprised me. I have always been an avid film fan but it made me realise first hand how clever the latest crop of cartoon film remakes has been. The making of Spiderman, X-men and the like, with their subsequent box office success, shows that these films do not only appeal to children, but already have a committed fan base in adults who themselves were brought up on the comics or cartoons that the films themselves are based upon.

It is therefore no coincidence that these types of films have ended up dominating the box office over the past decade, followed up with equally successful sequels. After all there is plenty of opportunity for sequels, being that they are based upon super hero characters in worlds where anything can happen to keep the story going.

I just hope that we are not entering the age that consists soley of sequels, where a guaranteed box office success replaces creative new film. Yes they are fun, but it just got me thinking whether the increasing presence of sequels on box office bill boards already reflects a growing lack of creativity throughout the movie industry?