Stranded in the SnowSunday 03 February <!-- END titleInfo -->
4:45pm - 5:50pm Channel 4
VIDEO Plus+: 3506135
This is the return of Alive, the series that re-creates stunning feats of survival and, in the process, makes you hug your sofa cushions in relief that you're safe and sound and not, say, stuck miles from civilisation in a howling blizzard. Which is the scenario Jim and Jennifer Stolpa got into when they became lost in Nevada in December 1992. But the worst of it, the part that makes this even more nerve-racking than most films in this series, is that Jim and Jennifer had their four-month-old baby with them.
Wowie! One of my favourite programs is the Channel four Alive true life survival tales series! Thanks for the heads up tip there Cunning! Is this season/series three of the show then ,or a re-run of season 2? I sure must have missed this episode story if it is a repeat. I haven't seen that one before at all I'm sure!
Yup, Kinley. Keeps them out of the way when I don't need them. Seems natural to me. And generates a few tales. "Stranded in the Snow" on C4 after ad break.
--
Wainwright's Walks Wednesday 06 February 7:30pm - 8:00pm BBC2 1/6 - Helvellyn VIDEO Plus+: 821
I can't say that I was much impressed just now with tonights new beginning of yet another week of Ben Fogle's Extreme Dreams, this time set in PNG. It was full of the usual overkill rubbish on the dangers of poisonous killer leeches and tarantulas and snakes and scorpions to be found there in the jungles of Papua New Guinea of course. But I did feel it rather silly of Fogle telling people there to beware getting stung by the Tarantula spiders! Stung, indeed!!!
And then they all went off tripping into the shade of the jungle from their hill trail walk, to spend a first night, of a week in the rain forest there; and I am watching them and thinking, "Where on earth is the bulk of their kit then, following on with local porters or something?"
Really honestly, I don't think it very honest of the makers of this program showing a group of novice jungle trekking people going into the bush with next to no kit on their backs. All anyone was pictured there with was but a small bit of belt order pouches and little red daysacks on their backs only! Hardly enough of the right kit for a weeks stay trekking in the jungles is it! Later on a whole load of portered in kit was shown with largish group size cooking pots-and I wonder if the head hunters get to them if Fogle will be in the pot before the weeks end is out-which were definitely not going to be carried anyplace by the little adventure group along for this weeks adventure activities ride with Fogle!
Indeed again, certainly not for the first time on these shows, some of the selected people in this weeks show are just so out of place there seemingly, really! One of the younger girls seems to be Bi-Polar disorder too which should give Fogle some group control problems. One minute the poor lady is hysterically laughing and very up beat in mood, and the next she is simply out of control feeling very down, thinking all about her dislike her intensely, and wailing and crying in hysterical panic about it all! How did she ever make it through the selection process to get on this trip in the first place at all? Exploitative dealings by the tv production company perhaps? Did they not think that her personal troubles would make for good interesting viewing? Even Fogle says of her on the program that he cannot figure her out! As one minute she is, he says, on a high laughing and the next moment on a huge low and crying her eyes out! That definitely sounds like the symptoms of Bipolar disorder to me, to a t! Perhaps she should sue them, not thank them following her trip there maybe!
I am currently much enjoying what is apparently to be the last ever wildlife series outing-humph, he's said that before more than once-for our wonderful David Attenborough. And this latest offering is indeed a real cracker of a series indeed! Unless of course you hate lizards etc
It is of course called LIFE IN COLD BLOOD and is all about reptiles and amphibians! Tonight the Australian Lungfish and the Japanese Salamander! I just bet that Ken Livingstone is recording this for future reference, as he is such a big lizards fan, with about twelve of his own; a passion for which he is also quite famous for, after of course being first famous for the obvious political career positions held!
Not sure how I feel about this new series by the guy who did the other travel series of journeys along the Equator etc
This time round it is the Tropic of Capricorn he is travelling along, using various means of transport. Along the way he does of course find out many interesting things in his adventures. Of particular interest to myself are the Argentina and Australia bits. In Argentina he does the tried and tested Ray Mears approach also followed by Tribe, of staying with and hunting along with the traditional hunter-gatherer indigenous indians, here the Wichi in the north of the country.
"We went out hunting with them for wild honey and found a hive in a rotten old tree trunk,"explains Simon. "They cut it down and thousands of bees came out of the nest and I was waving my arms and it wasn't until after I got stung three times that somebody said, 'Stand very still!'
He seems to have not thought of asking beforehand what to do if he gets stung by a wild bee on a wild bees honey hunt now does he! What a very silly billy!
For Wainwright fans there is the repeat of the last set of shows walking some of his more famous trail routes on again presently! Part two this week in the series of six sees the route exploring the fell Catbells. I am slightly put off watching this show myself though by the Watchdog bird that presents these walks here, I must say. I have heard though that she doesn't much like me either apparently, so so, such is life! On BBC2 WEDNESDAY 13TH FEB.
Immediately followed by Bill Oddie's Wild Side-another repeat-part 6 of 10, this one set in bonny Scotland, with cameraman John Aitchison filming "four seasons in one day" like in the famous song lyrics!
Friday BBC2 8PM TO 8.50PM sees a very good Badger wildlife program on again! Natural World, with lots of great nightime and daytime Badger footage giving key new insights to badger behaviour in the wild.
I have loved Badgers since I was a little kid me! I once saw one as a young-un on a trip to Southampton Zoo. The caged enclosure label said something like "Venezuelan Rock Oricx". My mum and I were sure it was actually a common British Badger in reality. So we went and asked a nearby zoo keeper on duty there. "Oh no, he says it's not a Badger!"
I insisted, as kids do, sure of themselves! "It is a Badger!", I said defiantly, "Admit it!"
"OK, OK!", agreed the keeper, "It is just that we are not actually allowed to say that as your'e not allowed by law to keep Badgers here in captivity!"
Mislabeling one to the viewing paying general public, to get around the legality issue, I always have thought from that day on, is not very fair, is it!
Once I got woken in the night by a very big and especially noisy Badger while bivvying on Ashdown forest training area with the TA. That was the biggest Badger I have ever seen in my entire life! It had been making a hell of a lot of noise just outside the bivvy area, and the sentries on stag had actually challenged it not knowing what it was making all of the noise! So I got up and shone a torch on it to show them all it was a Badger. But it was a really big one and standing up on its hind legs there was certainly showing it was not afraid of us weekend infantry warriors gathered there all about!
I always think back to that sentry challenging that Badger with a frightened sounding shout of, "Halt who goes there!", as being really most funny indeed! The Badger though was not in slightest bit amused at all, simply looking back at us all gathered there, as if to say, "what the hell are you idiots all doing wandering about here in my woods at nightime!"
This week again sees some quite good outdoors telly on!
I missed seeing Cliffhanger on tv the other day so will be getting it from Play.com who seem to permanently have the dvd of that fab movie on offer for just £3.99 now!
I greatly enjoyed tonights Channel 4 show Alive just now! A great Utah set American Canyoning survival story of two brothers Canyoneering in a massively deep wilderness desert box canyon area in deep mid-winter; who both together get trapped, and one too also badly injured in a climbing fall, whilst rappeling down a sheer rock face drop; the elder brother here is not only just injured though from the result of his bad fall, for both brothers having fallen into pools of ice cold water are in danger immediately too of getting badly frostbitten to their limbs and extremities, as nightime falls swiftly upon the freezing desert canyon!
Life in Cold Blood continues on this week with the Attenborough! The repeat tonight of last weeks program episode, BBC1 at 6pm; while the next program in the series, on tomorrow Monday the 18th Feb on BBC1 at a later 9pm, looks at South Africa, and Australia, for their bush dwelling reptiles like the wonderful monitor lizard!
Tonight 7-8pm, BBC2, Ski Sunday. For a few minutes somewhere in it Graham Bell's summer trip across the Alps sees him in the Dolomites around Cinque Torre and Lagazuoi - it's fantastic scenery and full of WW1 remnants and history, so maybe worth a look.
Sunday night at 8pm again sees another episode of the journey along the Tropic of Capricorn on BBC2. This time the series is focussing on Simon Reeves travels to trace the origin of the Southern Tropic. He travels now from South Africa to Madagascar. In Zimbabwe and Mozambique difficult and disturbing geo-political problems are looked at as our intepid traveller encounters them on his way.
I am hoping that for others like myself, who have missed bits of the current new Channel four tv series of Alive, that it will this summer be repeated again, as many of the shows are really excellent outdoors survival stories well worthy of a good watching! Some even too for a seciond time around watch as well! As such was indeed today's great offering of the excellent Utah, USA story of "Terror in Frostbite Canyon".
Ben Fogle's last in the present series trip adventure offering begins this week on BBC2 at 6pm on monday 18th Feb as well. The best of the bunch of Ben's recruits from this series are selected to once more travel with him on an adventure trip. Here this time to the vast jungle lands of Venezuela in South America. They are in fact heading to the amazing Mount Roraima of Lost World novel and film fame, as it was here that the creator of the famous Sherlock Holmes character, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, set his victorian dinosaur aventure thriller story. The inspiration for every single Jurassic Park type story since that time!They are set for strong team arguements along the way as they struggle to overcome the dizzying heights of the slime filled climb, and encounters with scorpions and tarantulas too; as they ascend high up to the plateau top of the thickly jungle clad mount! A place Ben tells us he has longed to see for real, and wanted to climb since his early childhood!The best thing about this program for me is that it illustrates well the stresses and strains that occur amongst fellow expeditioners, as they have to rub shoulders so closely, day to day in cramped conditions. Such that allow little or no individual freedom of privacy and relaxation solitude. Quarrels and little fights are fairly inevitable on such trips within any team of travellers, seasoned or otherwise they might be. It is how one deals with it all that counts! I think from what I see here that Fogle deals with it all very well indeed! He is definitely good at the job that he undertakes in these travel programms, as both guide, mentor, and team leader too. He has been pretty inspirational for a lot of people in doing this really, when you think about it! All credit to him for taking up the challenges, and in seeing them all right through to their ends!
The best thing about this program for me is that it illustrates well the stresses and strains that occur amongst fellow expeditioners, as they have to rub shoulders so closely, day to day in cramped conditions. Such that allow little or no individual freedom of privacy and relaxation solitude. Quarrels and little fights are fairly inevitable on such trips within any team of travellers, seasoned or otherwise they might be. It is how one deals with it all that counts! I think from what I see here that Fogle deals with it all very well indeed! He is definitely good at the job that he undertakes in these travel programms, as both guide, mentor, and team leader too. He has been pretty inspirational for a lot of people in doing this really, when you think about it! All credit to him for taking up the challenges, and in seeing them all right through to their ends!
