Monthly Archives: January 2010

Of Magic and Medicine

Posted on by David Lloyd

a spoonful of sugar

I’m not a scientist. But I’m fairly certain that water doesn’t have a memory. At least, no more than a first generation iMac. I’ve been acquainted with water all my life and it still forgets to send me a birthday card. So it’s odd, isn’t it, that Homeopathy took this premise as its starting point and has been running (rather successfully) with it ever since.

If water did have a memory, imagine the stories it could tell. Imagine the techniques it would have developed to stop us having a little wee in municipal swimming baths. Seventy percent of the Earth – all water. All that memory. Water should be cleverer than Steven Fry. It should follow Yvette Fielding around derelict Roman Baths saying ‘I sense there was great lewdness here between off-duty Centurions.’ Continue reading →

A Supposedly Fun Thing We’ll All Be Doing Soon

Posted on by David Lloyd

Hey, Martha, is this Liverpool or Dublin? I used my itinerary as a Tena Lady.

Ten years ago, you could still find a cove or a harbour of some sunkissed isle that wasn’t crammed with luxury liners from April to October. No more. Now, they’re so crowded with cruise ships that, from Google Earth, they look less ‘idyllic horseshoe lagoons’, more ‘Ken Dodd’s teeth’. Continue reading →

Flirting with the Evil Empire

Posted on by David Lloyd
Baltimore Tourist Authority's favourite show?

Baltimore Tourist Authority's favourite show?

I find myself with a moral dilemma. But let’s come back to that later. First, a bit of context.

No-one, seriously, can deny that the last ten years was the decade that television finally came good on its promise. It grew up. Sure, it had some middle-youth issues with I’m a Celebrity, Ready Steady Cook Me while I’m Dancing-type shit. But, then, I’ve had some middle-youth issues this decade with a period spent wearing short sleeved t-shirts over long sleeved ones. Good God. So we’ll draw a hoodie over all that nasty business.

No. This decade, if you wanted to watch gripping, intelligent, long-form drama – it was, increasingly, the TV you’d turn to, rather than the multiplex. Continue reading →