What's on the box tonight?: telly the old fashioned way

[DanaC]

Like the title says, what's on the box tonight? What's in the listings that you will, or may watch as it airs?

I'm tempted by two programmes, both documentaries:

Michael Grade and the World's Oldest Joke

About:

The broadcast executive traces the history of the joke with a little help from a host of historians, academics, comedy experts and stand-ups including Ken Dodd, Tim Vine and Barry Cryer. Along the way he discovers what tickled the Tudors, ribbed the Romans and made Renaissance wits roar as he sets out to discover whether jokes come and go with the rise and fall of civilisations, or whether people are still laughing at the same things their ancestors did.

Review:

A jape, a jest, a gag, even a jewel or trinket in Old English. There are many ways to describe a joke, but pinning down why a joke works is about as easy as nailing jelly to the wall.

Here the jovial Michael Grade does a pretty good job of getting that jelly on the wall – with the help of esteemed gagmeisters Ken Dodd, Barry Cryer and Tim Vine.

His scholastic peregrinations in search of the world’s oldest known joke prove we’ve always laughed at the same things – except we’re not so fond of lettuce and herniated eunuch gags nowadays – while the scholarly analysis is tempered by a barrage of one-liners.

http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/vk...ds-oldest-joke


This World: America's Poor Kids

Child poverty has reached record levels in the US, with more than 16 million children now affected, food banks facing unprecedented demand and homeless shelters dealing with long waiting lists. This documentary offers a unique insight into the impact of the country's economic crisis, as three children affected by the downturn reveal how life in modern America is viewed from their perspective.

Review:

Ten-year-old Kayleigh totters along railway tracks, looking for discarded cans to recycle. It’s dangerous, of course, but she can earn up to five cents per can, and her family – her mum and brother – need all the money they can get. Kayleigh is just one of the small casualties of America’s biting recession, a sparky little girl who dreams of being a dancer and who lives in poverty, moving from cheap motel to cheap motel.

Jezza Neumann’s quietly passionate film will leave you feeling both angry and helpless, because this shouldn’t be happening anywhere. The kids are only too well aware of their plight. In San Francisco, 11-year-old Sera lives with her mum and sister in a one-roomed flat, their belongings in piles. “This is not the great American dream,” she says with a wisdom that is heartbreakingly beyond her years.

http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/vk...icas-poor-kids


About as far apart as it is possible for two documentaries to be...and both on at the same time. Not sure which one I'll watch tonight. Probably the one about jokes :P

[DanaC]

It occurs to me that there's no mention of Jimmy Carr. I'll be interested to see if he appears at all. It would be a little odd if he didn't, given that he co-wrote a history of jokes and presented a late night programme analysing jokes and jests.