 Did anyone else enjoy the nice Bear Grylls playing about in Patagonia thing on the other day then? Part two on Sunday night I think!
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| Edited: 22/05/08 21:40 |
I sat up to watch the early morning repeat of the Ray Mears appearance I had missed recently. He was a guest alongside Dame Edna on the often very funny Graham Norton television chat show. This was Ray dressed in his standard green bushcraft outdoors clothing here, and not the smartly suited Mears of many a tv chat show of late. He tried unsuccessfully, did Ray, to light a fire by 'playing the fiddle' as it is sometimes termed, the Bow-Drill method. It is though a fire starting method best left to the extreme dry conditions found in much of the tropics ideally really. It is a useless technique most often in the wet here in Europe. And the studio set provided for Ray Mears there was apparently quite water covered, probably to prevent any fires he might light from spreding to the studio maybe!A roaringly funny Ray tv appearance though, with Dame Edna making him roar with laughter a good few times on the subject of him choosing using dried Kangeroo poo for his bush fire tinder, in his tv show travelling through outback Australia recently! Graham Norton too had a good worthwhile contribution to make there in this survival bit. He asked Ray Mears why he would take the snazzy fire starting parabolic mirror kit with him outdoors and not just some matches! Ray replied that his Australian show was all about the use of lightweight fire starting kit for long periods of travel outdoors in the bush. Much lighter and easier than carrying hundreds and hundreds of boxes of matches to supply the fire needs of a trip of many months into the outback interior. But then again, he should too have stated that this method of fire from the sun is only good for the day alone! Come darkness time, making fire in a camp it would be back to matches, lighters or other means of fire then again still! His bow-drill sure would work ok out there though, ideal situation for it out there in fact!
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| Edited: 01/06/08 02:54 |
Sunday June 1st BBC2 8pm sees the second episode of the new Ray Mears Goes Walkabout tv show. I shall be watching most avidly as usual, if not all the more so this particular week perhaps! As on his outback travels this time Ray is joined by another of my outdoors survival heroes of all time, the great Bushtucker Man Les Hiddins! Great stuff! I have not seen him on tv here since his little appearance in the travel through the old British Empire tv show, that Victoria Wood did a couple of years back ago!
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| Edited: 01/06/08 02:59 |
Wednesday, 4th June. BBC 2. Mountain at 7pm - A repeat of the final show of the series with Griff Rhys Jones in Snowdonia.
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| Edited: 01/06/08 03:02 |
I do wonder what Ray Mears thinks of the tv programme descriptions in many newspaper tv listings now, like the ones in the Saturday Express tv supplement, that list his show as a 'survivalist' one! Their reviewer recently said of the new show - 'Can you honestly think of anywhere more wonderful to sleep than the middle of the Australian desert? Yep, so can I. You'd have to be off your trolley. But that's Ray Mears all over, really, isn't it? With the greatest of respect.' Obviously written by somebody that doesn't much like to get outdoors there then!
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| Edited: 01/06/08 03:46 |
 The Adventure Show Wednesday 04 June 7:00pm - 8:00pm BBC2 Scotland VIDEO Plus+: 1181
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Friday this week, for those of you with Channel 5, has a good outdoors survival film on then. It is on at the slightly bonkers time of 3.10 pm in the afternoon though, so is maybe one to set the recorder for. It is the great 1997 film 'Survival On The Mountain'. I have the dvd of this film which is quite good really. It tells the story, based on true life events, of a couple trekking in the Himalayas who fall victim to a freak typhoon! This in turn sets off a devastating avalanche. Which then leaves them both together facing a very desperate battle for survival in the trecherous mountain peaks. It is a good if unusual fact-based adventure film.
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| Edited: 03/06/08 01:37 |
About time that DW's excellent thread here on tv entertainment came out for another airing I feel! Sunday 15th June 2008. BBC2 8.00pm - Ray Mears Goes Walkabout. Last episode of this very short four part series today. This time up in Kimberley looking at Aboriginal rock art etc. Repeated BBC 2 7.00pm on monday 16th June too as well. A good hour of telly I reckon. Why? Because whether you're a Ray fan or not, this is a great set of geographical interest programmes featuring art, culture, travel, history, archaeology, ethnography; in fact the full works. This is what educational tv was always meant to be like really! That is why the Royal Geographical Society gave Ray all those awards after all, just the other year! Not just because he talks about bushcraft and survival; which he does do too, actually equally rather well of course. Edit - And don't worry, the new shorter Ray Mears series are indeed like London Busses. Miss it and there will be another one along in a minute! The next two soon to be aired new Ray Mears follow-up series are apparently already in the can as we speak!
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| Edited: 14/06/08 22:12 |
Also this sunday 15th June 2008. ITV 1 1.00 pm - Film - Jeremiah Johnson. The great 1972 western adventure, following the life of a mountainman in the frontier country of early America. A really wonderful outdoors film that is one of my all time favourites. Great scenery and authentic adventure feel in the American backcountry. Robert Redford shines as the main star trying his best to survive as a greenhorn mountainman, and reputedly playing a character based upon real true life old frontier lands heroes from American history. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_JohnsonMore detail upon this great film here at the wikipedia link.
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| Edited: 14/06/08 22:11 |
 Trev, I have to agree with you on the value of Ray Mears programmes. In my opinion more interesting that Bear Grylls due to the fact he talks about the areas and history as well. Can't remember the name of the lady but watched the one last week about the Scottish lady shipwrecked on an island and she integrated with the locals for a few years until rescued finally. Very interesting. Unfortunately I can only watch them when in as I work shifts but I try my best to see them.
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Always available on the BBC I-player through your computer as 'repeats' though Simon, you know! Plus expect innumerous repeats on terrestrial tv too in the future!
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Ian Hislop's Scouting for Boys Wednesday 25 June 11:20pm - 12:20am BBC2 Scotland BBC FOUR on BBC TWO. Ian Hislop uncovers the story behind the book which kick-started the Scout movement VIDEO Plus+: 676729 source: RadioTimes.com
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| Edited: 19/06/08 09:50 |
Muir Is Tir - Wild Islands Wednesday 25 June 11:35pm - 12:05am
STV (was Grampian/Scottish) Na Feidh - Clann a Cheo (The Red Deer - Children of the Mist) <!-- END review --> Wildlife documentary on the red deer of the Highlands. VIDEO Plus+: 230651 source: RadioTimes.com
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| Edited: 19/06/08 09:50 |
 Britain's Lost World <!-- END titleInfo --> Thursday 19 June
9:00pm - 10:00pm
BBC1 London & South East 1/3 There's something for everyone here. For lovers of scenery-rich Coast, this brings us the extraordinary landscape of St Kilda, the wildest, most remote spot in the British Isles (a six hour boat ride into the North Atlantic from Scotland). For wildlife lovers there's an incredible wealth of seabirds - fulmars, gannets and puffins, even the fluffy baby ones called "pufflings". For history buffs there are bizarre stories of the islands' population, who lived for centuries on boiled and dried seabirds for breakfast, lunch and supper, but abandoned the islands in 1930, probably fed up with the food. And for adventure fans there are dramatic sequences as Kate Humble, Dan Snow and Steve Backshall attempt daredevil antics on clifftops and waves in their exploration of the island. It's engaging stuff and one sequence where Snow and Backshall attempt to row between islands, busily calling each other "dude" and "buddy" as their boat sinks, is a joy all on its own.
RT reviewer - David Butcher <!-- END review --> VIDEO Plus+: 4109
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 Will there ever be another series of the Gaelic prog Tir is Teanga? This show was brilliant. More to the point will the first two series ever be released on DVD. I loved the music on it especially when they got to a difficult or exposed bit on a climb and the tune turned all sinister
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 Gagfax I'm sure there was some comment about Tir is Teanga when it finished last time on this forum and that it would be too expensive to produce the programme on DVD when someone enquired. I doubt if a search would find this item as it could possibly have been in the early days of the Bennachie thread.
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 Gagfax I'm sure there was some comment about Tir is Teanga when it finished last time on this forum and that it would be too expensive to produce the programme on DVD when someone enquired. I doubt if a search would find this item as it could possibly have been in the early days of the Bennachie thread.
It's on a thread started by a certain Lindsay Boyd Here it is. Check out page 2, near the bottom.
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| Edited: 19/06/08 15:52 |
Well Dave B at least my memory wasn't failing me although I didn't recall starting the thread. Thanks for finding it, now I await series 3.
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Series 4, Lindsay. Series 3 was the one televised last year.
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Of course you are correct Duncan it is series 4 next.
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