Morning all, welcome to the blog.

Well, I've done the Facebook connect thingy so we'll see what happens! I'm also glad that some of the site fixes are starting to filter through such as the missing TC emblems and so on. I'm about to do some cast submissions so hopefully the promised easier checkboxes will be in operation as they are so fiddly on the current form. It seems to have taken months and months to get these things done. I can't help feeling that time spent doing these things would have been more worthwhile than some of the redesign fiascos that have gone on in the last years. [End Rant].

As for what's going on here, the Under 9s cricket team my son plays for are going from strength to strength. They had a great match on Saturday, thrashing their archrivals in a thrilling local derby that ended with them winning by 134 runs - a record winning margin for the team. :D The great thing is that they will be meeting them in the quarter finals of the Cup this Friday so if they play as well again they should sail through to the semis.

I have also been enjoying using Facebook, making contact with friends old and new. I probably won't publish my comments from this site over there but am happy to meet tv.com friends over there for a chat/status update. Talking of chat, it comes to a pretty pass when I found myself using Facebook chat the other night to tell my daughter to go to bed when she was on the laptop in the next room! Good grief this must be taking web technology a step too far. ;)

I'm a bit behind on my TV watching commitments (Big Brother is suffering at the hands of the Facebook distractions at the moment) but I will be making a concerted effort to catch up over the next day or so. I'm also behind schedule with sorting out GMTV Today but that's on the To Do List as well. I have also acquired the editorship for the current GMTV and GMTV with Lorraine show guides too, though I've been a TC on those two for a while.

Helen

Good morning to you. I'm just about conscious though the hay fever season is well and truly upon me. I'd been feeling pretty bad for a few days but have only just really cottoned on as to what it was. It's been pretty warm recently too so the pollen count has gone into overdrive. The hall was warm at my son's school yesterday afternoon as well. His year (Year 3) joined forces with Year 6 to produce a very moving half hour on heroes, which culminated in some beautiful singing and some very poignant slides of military heroes. He was a football hero during the performance, kicking a football across to his mate. Regular readers of this blog may well remember that he's a cricketer but he's just taken up football (i.e. soccer) and is now talking about starting rugby in the autumn.

Talking of cricket, the Under 9s comprehensively thrashed their opponents in the local cup last night, which means they are now in the quarterfinals. As they lost in the 3rd round last year they are very happy! Let's hope they can go all the way. As his dad is away in Croatia at the moment, I had to keep texting highlights to him throughout the game, which really amused some friends of mine sitting next to me! He got his highest ever batting scores last night (7 off his first 2 overs including a 6 and 24 off the second 2, including 3 6s and NOT OUT for both innings! And he took a wicket. Next match is a league game on Saturday morning against their closest rivals. Both clubs are in the same small town so most of the boys go to school together from both teams and this particular fixture is always a grudge match.

As for TV, I watched the live nominations for Big Brother last night and as it was against the clock it meant they really cut out the drivel and got straight to the point for once. The nominees were not a great surprise. Halfwit, the really annoying posh boy got nominated yet again (that's all 3 weeks so far - yet he's survived the previous 2) and Angel the wacky Russian who likes skinny dipping and telling her fellow housemates they're fat- guaranteed to get you nominated that one). In the highlights show I loved the fact that they failed absolutely everything in the Tudor task - useless or what?

On TV.com I got sidetracked by other things so GMTV Today didn't get much done to it over the last 2 days but it is getting there slowly. Submitting the daft things that the housemates on Big Brother have been saying has kept me busy instead ;) I'm hoping to watch a bit of Wimbledon too though I haven't had a chance to see much of it so far this year.

Morning all, welcome to Monday. Hope you all had a nice weekend. Apart from dropping off my other half at the station to catch his flight to Croatia and watching the Under 9s play cricket (they beat their archrivals by 68 runs!) I mainly spent time doing chores, mucking around with Facebook and continuing the mammoth task of updating the GMTV Today guide. Now that I've done all the episode pages and about 75% of the cast I'm finally starting to feel I'm getting there. I'm determined to get it finished by the end of the week. I also got The One Show fully up to date - the first time that's been the case for a long, long time.

I forgot to watch episode 2 of Chuck last Tuesday so I'll have to watch the repeat (think that's tonight). I did watch another episode from the season 2 DVD of Pushing Daisies though. Watching TV live just seems such a struggle these days. It's so much easier to watch things On Demand or on DVD or downloaded or whatever. It seems the only live TV we watch nowadays is sport. Talking of sport, I hope the rain stays away from Wimbledon, it's looking a bit grey out there.

Let's get the week started!

Helen

Morning all! I can't believe Friday's here again. Though I suppose it was a short week for me being away on Monday and all. Actually I haven't had time to do much for the site this week other than submit a few summaries for the shows I am trying to update regularly. I've mainly been watching sport, Big Brother and Big Brother's Little Brother - in the name of research, naturally ;) The latter 2 have been difficult to keep up with - I still haven't seen the ones from Sunday and Monday when I was away. Virgin Media annoys me because they are so slow to put the episodes on Catch up TV and the 4oD site seems to stall all the time.

Now that tv.com has a Facebook group I've been checking things out over there from time to time. My daughter can't believe I'm on there. 13 year olds are so sceptical aren't they? They seem to think that anyone over 21 can't possibly be interested in computers, the Web, technology etc. I've been interested in computing for a loooong time now - though I have to confess the one thing that really does nothing for me is video games. Now I know they're really popular and I read plenty of your blogs that talk about them but I'm just not into them. I occasionally play tennis on the Wii with the kids but that's as far as it goes. Just as well really as I spend so much time on this site (and now Facebook!) as well as watching TV, films and listening to music that I just don't have the time for them. What do you think?

My lad's playing cricket tomorrow morning - a must win game against the archrivals in the Under 9s league so I'm hoping the weather stays dry. As for my other half, he's off to do field work in Croatia for 2 weeks, which is all right for some. The kids and I will still be here, though. I may get to catch-up on some of the season finales that I still haven't seen!

Helen

Good morning all! How are you? I wasn't on the site yesterday as I was up in the north-east visiting my Geordie in-laws and taking my husband up to Howick on the Northumberland coast where BBC Radio 4 were recording an episode of Open Country all about Doggerland and The North Sea - perfect timing as his book was launched last Wednesday. The presenter and producer were brilliant and we had lunch afterwards in Craster - home of the world famous Craster kippers! My son and daughter had a great time on the beach - him scamperting around the rock pools getting soaked and covered in sand, her listening to Radio 1 and reading Twilight (oh how times have changed!) The show will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 6:05 a.m. on Saturday 25th July if you're interested with a repeat at the more civilised time of 3:00 p.m. the following Thursday. It will also be on 'Listen Again' on the BBC site after the first broadcast for about 6 weeks. Listen out for the Geordie with the Gaffney surname.

As to sport - England are out of the World 20:20 Cup :cry: thanks to the dreaded Duckworth Lewis (sp?) rule for recalculating the overs when the time is reduced because of pouring rain. Always a problem with our summers. West Indies had to get 80 off 9 overs, England had 161 off their 20. West Indies won with 4 balls to spare. Oh well, time to concentrate on The Ashes nesxt month. As for tennis - Andy Murray won at Queens - first Briton for over 70 years! I hope he can keep thisup for Wimbledon. England did manage to beat Andorra in the World Cup Qualifier (football/soccer) 6-0 last week so that was pretty good for us. Hopefully that's sealed the place for 2010.

I've watched almost nothing else except Cricket highlights as I have just been too busy doing everything else. I watched Hope Springs on BBC1 on Sunday out of the corner of my eye but didn't take much in. It has a good cast though. And of course Big Brother carries on. I saw the eviction show on Friday but haven't yet caught up on the more recent ones.

Helen

Hi everyone - how are you? I haven't had time to do much here today as I have been down to The University of Birmingham (England not Alabama!) for the launch of my husband's latest book. Not a bestseller sadly but an academic book. Still I did enjoy the do and met up with a lot of old friends I'd not seen in a while which is always good. I got to dress up smart for once and wore my heels for the first time in ages which I had forgotten how uncomfortable they could be especially when the Vice Chancellor's speech was going on. Luckily the food was nice but I had to get away early to pick the kids up from school as the traffic on the M6 north of Brum can be appaling. I got to school just in time which is just as well as my son tells me off if I'm late. He would have is arms crossed and say things "Why are you late? Where were you? Disgraceful!" and so on. He really hates it if I'm late for whatever reason. Now I need to carry out various domestic duties, get him ready for Cubs and sew my daughter's Guide badges on her uniform. Normal service should be resumed tomorrow as far as this site is concerned.

As for TV, well I've been enjoying the highlights of the World 20:20 Cricket Cup on BBC2. I just wish it wasn't on so late though. I have to record them and watch them next day. The England vs Pakistan game was great (from our point of view because we won!) :D I wish England had played better against The Netherlands though. Hopefully England will get through to the next stage. I'm also looking forward to Wimbledon later this month. Oh and we'll be watching England vs Andorra in the Football (Soccer) World Cup qualifier this evening provided the Tube strike doesn't prevent the spectators from going to Wembley. Fabio Capello says it will still go ahead no matter what so here's hoping.

In non-sport TV, I'll just gloss over Big Brother and say I'm hoping to catch Hope Springs, the new BBC drama on BBC I-player before the end of the week as well as Have I Got News For You. I also watched the first episode of season 2 of Chuck on Virgin1 which I enjoyed although I found all the extended trailers for Life of Tim very irritating, not to mention all the ones for Virgin1's relaunch. I could have done with less of them and then Chuck would have finished on time. Oh well.

That's all for now.

Helen

Happy afternoon people, how are you? Child number 2 managed to play in an under 11s cricket match on Friday evening despite the fact the rain was pouring in places less than 5 miles away in all directions, it stayed dry at the cricket club. Saturday's under 9s game was rained off though. Mixed fortunes for England in the World 20:20 cup too. Somehow they managed to lose against The Netherlands (not normally one of the recognised first class cricketing nations) and then win against Pakistan who are one of the top nations in the game. I just don't know what's happening to our team these days! Well done to Roger Federer too for winning the French Open, it should mean that Wimbledon's going to be a close fought thing again and not a 1 horse race by any means.

Despite everything I said about not getting sucked into Big Brother UK this year, child number 1 persuaded me to watch the launch show with her and now I can see myself losing half my life this summer watching it. We've already seen Friday, Saturday and Sunday night's shows as well - including the live eviction on Sunday night which was the weirdest one ever. Davina spent a couple of minutes talking to the evictee (Beinazir?) on a double-decker bus. Beinazir hardly said anything though and so Davina said goodbye and the bus drove off with the evictee. No real interview, no Best Bits, nothing.

As for other TV, I watched the most recent episode of Robin Hood and actually quite enjoyed it this week as it explained the ties between Robin and Guy of Gisborne. For once they didn't use the samey plotlines of late where Robin has to break into the castle and escape which was getting a tad boring.

I still haven't caught up with this week's Have I Got News For You - so I'll be hitting BBC I-Player at the earliest opportunity. I also saw a greatBBC4 documentary about 50 Years of Island Records.

What else is happening? The Primary School is holding their Sports Day on Thursday (weather permitting) so I'll have to go along to that. Otherwise, not too much.

Enjoy your week.

Helen

Hi and welcome to blog 101. First of all, I'd like to thank all my friends for all their lovely comments on my Centenary blog! I certainly have met some great people here. Secondly, I just got to level 50 so that's 2 major tv.com milestones for me this week. :D

I was very entertained by the fact that Jodie (winterbehaviour) has assumed that I am a man all this time! Actually, I thought she was a man at first before I knew her real name because of her earlier icon of Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies. I tend to find myself picturing people as their icons. Silly of me really as I see so many boys have girls as icons and vice versa. Still, it got me thinking.

I have spent the last couple of days working on People Guides for UK TV people that are virtually empty. I hate adding cast members to shows and seeing there's absolutely no detailed information about so many of them, even relatively well known personalities (in this country anyway). It actually doesn't take long to write a 50 word bio about people and track down trivia and quotes for them (thank you IMDB, Wikipedia etc.). Before you know it you've gained some more editorships.

The World 20:20 Cricket cup starts on Friday (yay!) so I'm looking forward to that although the highlights aren't on TV until really late at night so I'll have to record it and we'll watch it on Saturday. England vs Holland is the opening match. Go England! My son has cricket training tomorrow evening, an Under 11s match on Friday and Under 9s game on Saturday morning so I'll be out taking him up to the club 3 times this week and he's got cubs tonight. Sometime's I think my main role in life is as a chauffeur. Not that I mind really.

It's not long until Wimbledon, my favourite tennis tournament which I have followed every year since I was about 9 or 10. I haven't always managed to watch the earlier coverage but I have managed to see just about every Singles final since I started watching it. I think the only one I missed was the Men's final in 1988 (I think) which was heldon the monday after the competition had officially finished because the rain had been so bad that year. I had to go to work but we still listened to the coverage on the radio!

What else in the world of TV? Oh yes, Big Brother (UK) starts tomorrow. I was going to try not to watch it this year as it's such a huge commitment of time but I know I'll be drawn into it once again! I can't resist watching to see what fools the contestants will make of themselves in those stupid tasks and see how soon they'll start arguing over really really stupid things. Of course, the eviction nights are just irrestible, mainly because I think Davina MacCall is so good.

Well, enough rambling for today.

Helen

Hello and welcome to my 100th blog on this fine sunny monday morning. :D

This is a special day for me as I have now written 100 blogs and have thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments as well as reading your blogs - the first thing I do when I log on to tv.com along with reading PMs and dealing with anything in my submission queue. I'm also just 35% or so off level 50 which will be another landmark for me on the site. I spent the weekend out in my garden - in this country you have to make the most of sunny hot days like this. I had a load of compost to shift onto my soft fruit garden. I've been making the compost since we moved into the house 6 years ago so there was a lot of it (good stuff though). Now my back is killing me but I have a lot to get done on the computer today so I need to ignore that and get going.

My lad had a cricket match on Saturday morning which they won by 88 runs (a big margin in the Under 9s game). Next game is on friday against one of the top teams in the league - fingers crossed for that one, then.

As far as TV is concerned, I watched the rest of Big Bang Theory's season 1 as well as The Inbetweeners season 1 which is a very funny British comedy. The second season was recently shown on E4 I think but I doubt it's being shown in the US. Pity because it is absolutely hilarious. I've always felt we do well at comedies and this goes back years to things like Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder etc. all of which are still being aired even now. I really enjoyed The Big Bang Theory, don't get me wrong, but I didn't laugh out loud quite as much as I did when watching The Inbetweeners, The IT Crowd, FM or Free Agents. Must be because these shows really tickle my senmse of humour.

Now, boom-moo asked me some questions:

What is your favourite childhood memory?

Now my childhood is rather a long way off, but I would have to say it was my dad teaching me to swim when I was 4 in an outdoor pool in Singapore. It's probably my earliest memory too.

If there was a fire in your house and you could only save one personal belonging, what would that be?

Assuming that my family were safe and we're referring to objects, I would say that one of the few things I have that is not replaceable is my USB hard drive with all the digital photos we have taken since 1997 with photos of my children as they've grown up, my grandfather who died in 2002, my mother's 70th birthday party and many many more. I have backed up the photos on a DVD too, just in case but it doesn't have the most recent ones on.

Do you keep any kind of amulet?

Not really. I'm not big on symbols. Does a photo of my family on my desk count?

Now I need to get on with my regular submissions, finish updating The One Show which is starting to take shape at last, then watch some TV (or maybe read my book for a bit - Kathy Reichs 'Devil Bones' - in the garden).

Enjoy your day.

Helen

Morning all, here I am at blog 99. Only one more to the big 100 which I will probably write on Monday. If you want to ask me any questions I'll try and answer some of them then. You can PM your questions or leave them in the comments for this one.

Meanwhile, I've managed to fit some submitting in this week despite it being half term and having to take my children to the cinema (saw Coraline), the swimming baths and cricket. Tuesdays cricket match was on, our team lost quite heavily but my lad did a fine job batting at No 10 - he managed to get the 3rd highest score. Sadly he didn't get asked to bowl as bowlings really his thing (left arm spinner). Wednesday's game was rained off. The next match is tomorrow morning so fingers crossed.

As for TV, we discovered that Season 1 of Chuck is being shown 8pm on Bravo at the moment. This is a cable channel that we almost never watch as it seems to mainly show wrestling, police car chases and (after 10pm) naked women. All of which is not popular/not suitable in our house. However, I may have to take the channel into consideration in future if they're going to show Chuck which is a top 5 favourite show for me. Virgin1 will be airing Chuck season 2 fairly soon as well tjhough I'm not sure of the start date. My daughter (aged 13) is trying to catch up something like 4 seasons of Waterloo Road at the moment as this is huge amongst her classmates. It seems strange to me that they spend all day at school talking about a show set in a school. Oh well. I've also seen most of season 1 of The Big Bang Theory as it is currently on TV choice thanks to Virgin Media. I'm hoping to watch season 2 after that and then I'll be caught up ready for the new season in the autumn.

I've also been busy with submissions. I still haven't finished adding all the cast info for GMTV today so I will try and get on with that. I've also been made a TU for Have I Got News For You which I am very happy about as it has been one of my favourite quiz shows for years now. I have been watching it since the early days when Angus Deayton was the host and he got kicked out in 2002!

Have a lovely weekend - see you Monday.

H.