57 channels and there IS something on

I've just seen QUATERMASS on ITV4 - the late seventies version starring John Mills.

Among the bastard sons of ITV on Freeview (the UK's digital television service) , ITV4 is the strangest of all. It simply serves up good and bad in equal measure, as if the people in charge don't know the difference. Adverts are added clumsily to old programmes (commercial breaks are more frequent now than they used to be) and bookended with tacky endorsements for some online casino. But, as I'm quite a one for cult TV of the 60s and 70s, it does unearth some goodies - Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), UFO, The Champions, etc.

Quatermass itself is something I'm chuffed to see again - I watched repeats of it sometime in the 80s and haven't seen it since. It does suffer from bargain-bucket channel cack-handedness; the sound quality on three out of the four episodes was bloody awful, as was the ham-fisted chopping in of advert breaks in places where they weren't meant to be.

But once I'm passed all this, I really enjoyed it. If you do watch it yourself, here are a few things to look out for:
the Planet People - aren't they the most hygenic hippies ever?
the Ringstone Round rhyme has the same tune as "In My Liverpool Home"
great spotting ground for up-and-coming actors like David Yip, Brenda Fricker, Toyah Willcox, er.... Chris Quinten