fast and dangerous
Richard Hammond, the 36 year old presenter of Top Gear and Brainiac, is critically ill in a Leeds neurosurgery unit with serious injuries after crashing at over 200 mph in a high-speed jet powered car, Vampire.
Let's hope he pulls through.
Dragon's Den
'Dad - please can I have 5 pounds ?' 'If I were to give you the 5 pounds, what exactly would you spend the money on ?' 'I'm going into town to buy Emma a CD for her birthday.' '...but surely 5 pounds won't be enough.' 'Well Mum gave me 15 pounds but I can get the CD for 8 pounds from Tesco' 'Oh I see. Now you've got me interested. You have already secured seed funding from an angel investor. Net margin close to 100%. What will your turnover be in years 2 and 3 ?' 'Oh just forget it. I'll use some of my babysitting money.' [In a amazing development, the entrepreneur reveals she has a second business which she hasn't even disclosed] 'What babysitting money ?' 'I got 20 pounds for babysitting for the Barnstormworths last Saturday night' 'Why the Barnstormworths ?' 'Well they pay the most and I always babysit when Mrs Barnstormworth is driving' 'What do you mean ?' 'Well - it's 3.75 pound an hour but if Mr Barnstormworth has been drinking, he can't do the sums for quarters of an hour so he just rounds up to 5 pound an hour.' 'Any plans to grow the business ?' 'Well Mum said next year, I could babysit in mid-week if my homework was finished and after midnight the rate doubles'. 'OK. Let me tell you where I stand...' 'Dad - please can I just have 5 pounds or I'll miss the bus ?' 'I like the sound of the business model but the valuation is simply ridiculous so I am prepared to make you an offer of 4 pounds for 10% equity in the CD racketeering business and 40% equity in the babysitting company. ' [After this astounding and unexpected turnaround, this young person looks to have secured the funding] 'However there is one important fact that you have completely overlooked - a fatal flaw...' 'What's that, Dad ?' 'You won't have any time for babysitting as you'll be staying in looking after Norman Junior while me and your mum go out and enjoy ourselves. This service will be completely free of charge. Therefore, I am withdrawing my offer. You didn't pitch well. You don't have a viable business plan. You don't know anything about CRM. You're young and inexperienced. You don't listen to advice. So that's it. I'm not interested in working with you and I'm certainly not interested in investing so I'm out.' 'Mum - can I have 5 pounds ?'Saxondale
I really enjoyed this comedy co-written by Steve Coogan. The opening sequence features Coogan struggling to keep his calm in an 'Anger Management' course and is always hilarious. Unfortunately, the final episode of the series was on Monday night but, no doubt, it will be endlessly repeated on BBC3 in the near future.9/11 - The Falling Man
A Channel 4 documentary about 9/11 and the controversial photographs capturing the final seconds of people who jumped to their deaths. Harrowing and yet compulsive viewing. Not for everyone and the sort of program you might expect a warning about the content (21:00-22:30) which some may find disturbing, upsetting or offensive. Instead, Channel 4 announce 'This program contains images and video footage featuring repetitive patterns that may cause problems for people with photosensitive epilepsy'. Bizarre. Truly bizarre. May the 2,967 innocent people who lost their lives that day rest in peace.probably the funniest TV show ever
The Armstrongs is a BBC2 fly on the wall documentary about a small, family owned double glazing company in Coventry. While this subject doesn't sound too inspiring, the program is absolutely hilarious. Last week, the husband and wife owners travelled to France in an attempt to diversify and increase dwindling sales. Amazingly, they chose to translate their business proposition using Babelfish which may be adequate for children's homework but resulted in an unfortunate translation of 'conservatory' to 'music academy'. Consequently, the subtitles revealed that couple asked their French prospects:'Are there a lot of music academies in France ?'A van driver crashed into the bosses' expensive, prized Jaguar and then wisely chose to resign on the spot. And we await with baited breath, the update on the young man who joined the company and immediately asked for time off to participate in the World Championships of Othello.