Tony Hart dies

I was really sad to read that children's TV presenter Tony Hart died.

Anyone of my generation will remember Vision On, Take Hart, and all sorts of other things that he was involved with ranging from Morph to "The Gallery". I was never a good artist, but he gave people like me the confidence to take on things at art and have a go.

What's wrong with tradition ? The new Postman Pat is lecturing and patronising

Postman Pat (and his black and white Cat) have been updated. He no longer drives his van, he has to have a fruit smoothie before he starts his work, he has to deliver wind turbines (very "Right On"), he has a Blackberry, he flies a helicopter (like all postmen do) and as usual with so many new series or updated versions of old shows, the opening music seems to go on for 2 minutes in order to make the actual show that much shorter cheaper to produce (just watch Thomas the tank engine as an example of this).

The episode I watched today with my son (he is only one) was actually rather patronising in its tone and nothing like the original. It lectured about wind power, wasting electricity, litter and probably a good number of other things that passed me by.

What was wrong with him driving his van around remote countryside helping people with real life everyday problems ?

Spoiling the ending of "Life On Mars"

Am I the only person left feeling disappointed by the final episode of the BBC's Life On Mars ? I skillfully avoided hearing how it ended for 5 days and finally caught up with it on my Sky+ box last night, and although gripping, it also left me feeling a bit let down.

I understand that he could have picked up his "modern" policing techniques from Hyde CID, but there were too many questions left unanswered. For example :

1) If he isn't Sam Tyler and is undercover from Hyde and suffering amnesia, won't his memory come back and he return to Hyde ?

2) If he imagined the future, how could he know all the technological advances (Virgin mobile phones, stingers, CD's, etc, etc ?

3) If he imagined the future, how could he know about future events (The Birmingham Six, Starsky and Hutch, Semtex, modern names for heroin, etc, etc)

To me it just seemed like the ending was tacked on as an after thought.

Shame, as it was a great series, just let down right at the very end.

I feel cheated and misled - Was "The A Team" a con ?

When I was a child, my favourite TV program was "The A Team". In "The A Team", every other week they would find themselves locked in a compound or shed or warehouse or building of some sort and create some sort of improvised machine from the bits of equipment they had to hand.

Now using this machine, they would make good their escape in a show of wood splinters, screaming tyres and a trail of smoke, then evade capture and complete their mission.

So why do I feel cheated ?

For over two week now Dirk Benedict, the actor who played Templeton "Face" Peck in "The A Team" has been locked inside the Celebrity Big Brother House. At no point has he made any form of improvised machine from the food mixer or barbecue, he has not cut up the table to create a chassis and the wheels remain firmly attached to all the furniture.

Come on Dirk, you are spoiling all my illusions and ruining my childhood memories. Perhaps the best chance now is for Mr T and Dwight Schultz (B.A. or "Bad Attitude" Baracas and 'Howling Mad' Murdoch) to join the house, then together I am sure they could come up with a plan or perhaps it shows that George Peppard (Hannibal) was the real brains !