Hold on to your britches! Here comes Judge John Deed

“Judge John Deed” is one of the best shows on TV at the moment. Not that that is saying very much since television programmes are pretty abysmal. I should know because I was a TV critic for our main newspaper; so I was exposed to quite a lot of rubbish. Since I was in the enviable position of choosing what I wanted to review, however, I usually chose British programmes. But even British programmes have declined in quality nowadays. Continue reading

Advertisement

“Planet of the Apes” Spanish style.

Now that we have solved all of the world’s problems, namely, Famine, War, Terrorism, Disease, Genocide, and, of course, the big C, Climate Change, it’s time we turned our thoughts to our kissing cousins, the great apes.

There is a movement which started with the Great Ape Project or Gap for short, where else but in Seattle, a city that’s soaked in caffeine and rain, which wants to give human rights to all of the primates. All sorts of primates would be included in this bill of rights, from lemurs, to gibbons, to orangutans, chimps and gorillas. If I have omitted any other primates, please excuse me. The reason for this movement is a biological one because apes and man share all but 2% of DNA.

I think this is a marvellous idea though it is hardly a novelty since I’ve been a pioneer of the Gap movement without even realising it. Continue reading

Douglas Kennedy leads us into Temptation

I had never heard of Douglas Kennedy the author, but that’s not so surprising when I have already confessed to being a literary snob. I like books that make me laugh or make me think or both at once, if possible. Kennedy’s “Temptation” offers neither humour nor thought, but the Book Club chose it for this month’s selection and since I am nothing if not compliant I read it. The best thing about it is that it makes no demands on the reader. “Temptation” is very, very, very, easy to read. That probably accounts for its popularity. Continue reading