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Toby Inkster

Poi in State of Play

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I’ve recently been rewatching the wonderful BBC TV serial State of Play.
I was surprised that Poi Fan Lee of Show Me, Show Me and Teletubbies fame has a small part in it, in a couple of episodes. She’s quite good.

Mike the Knight Voices

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I recently discovered Jessica Hann’s website – she does the voice of Mike the Knight’s sister Evie (who is, incidentally my favourite Mike the Knight character). And from her website I found out who did the dragons’ voices – each of which had been bugging me for a while as being semi-familiar.
Sparky is played by […]

Dinosaur, Grrr!

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OK, so Squiglet today was about a dinosaur. (Incidentally, what is Squiglet supposed to be? A piglet? Too orange and woolly. A lion or other ally of the cat? Who knows?) CBeebies doesn’t seem to have a regular show about dinosaurs. Why not? Kids love dinosaurs, don’t they? Mine do. Seems like such an obvious […]

Be Your Own Big Brother

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Many modern browsers (including recent versions of Firefox and Opera) support the W3C's geolocation API. This is a standardised mechanism for Javascript to ask your browser where it geographically is in the world. Typically the browser will then pop up…

Be Your Own Big Brother

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Many modern browsers (including recent versions of Firefox and Opera) support the W3C’s geolocation API. This is a standardised mechanism for Javascript to ask your browser where it geographically is in the world. Typically the browser will then pop up a message asking you if you wish to reveal this information, giving you the opportunity … Continued

Call off the DOGs!

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Something Special is the only CBeebies program not to feature a digital on-screen graphic (DOG). You know – those station logos that plague the corners of our screens on many (particularly digital) television channels. In the case of CBeebies the DOG is a CBeebies logo that occasionally flips over to reveal a CBeebies blob festooned […]

Mike the Knight’s Dad

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In Mike the Knight, Mike’s father, the King, is often referenced but never seen. He is off fighting in some crusades or something.
If they ever do introduce him for a Christmas special or somesuch, then I do so hope they manage to get Brian Blessed to voice him.

Dave Lamb narrates Waybuloo

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I must have missed this. Back in January CBeebies apparently changed the format of Waybuloo to include a voiceover from Dave Lamb (of Big Barn Farm). It was so unpopular that the format was changed back the next day – easy to miss then!
The single episode which was broadcast can now be found on YouTube…

Mini-Beasts on “It’s Our Planet”

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I learnt today on It’s Our Planet that animals without a backbone are called “mini-beasts”. And here I was calling them invertebrates!
So the 14 metre long Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni (a.k.a. the colossal squid) is a “mini-beast”. You learn something new every day.

We want more Woolly & Tig

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I am a big fan of Woolly & Tig. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a five minute show that works on a very simple formula:

The narrator (a slightly older Tig, looking back to when she was younger) explains “when I was very little…” and introduces something interesting she did.
Young Tig gets angry, anxious […]

New ZingZillas started on Monday

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There’s a new series of ZingZillas started on Monday, and it uses the same shortened episode format as series 3.
The first couple of series of ZingZillas were more than tolerable. The 22-minute episodes followed the formula of:

ZingZillas do some stuff.
Coconut clock strikes one.
ZingZillas try writing a song, but need more inspiration.
Coconut clock strikes two.
ZingZillas get […]

Meteor Shower!

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So the cat was meowing outside the bedroom door this morning, so I got up to let him in. He loves to sit on the window sill and look out at the birds on the roofs of the houses across the street, but the sill is so high that he can’t easily jump up there. … Continued

Christmas Dinner 2008

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Christmas dinner in the Inkster household this year consisted of: Roast boneless rib of beef Pigs in blankets with thyme Roast potatoes with horseradish Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s roasted red onions Sophie Grigson’s roast celeriac with marsala Mrs Beeton’s Yorkshire puddings Baby carrots Mange tout Gravy Followed by Chocolate Yule Log.

The Mother of All Demos

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It was 40 years ago today that Douglas Engelbart gave a demonstration that introduced the public to an impressive list of technologies which would in the following years become established in the mainstream. On the 9th of December, 1968, he demonstrated: a mouse; hypertext (i.e. text with links that can be followed — a precursor … Continued

A Case for the Inspector…

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In the news today: robbers dressed in drag steal €80 million worth of jewelry from a shop in Paris. As covered by: The Times Reuters etc… Also in the news today is that it's the 50th anniversary of two firsts The first STD call in the UK, dialled by the Queen; and The opening of … Continued

Wallander

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I meant to post this article a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve been very bad at updating my blog recently. The BBC is showing an adaptation of one of Henning Mankell’s Wallander novels tonight. Mankell is one of my favourite crime fiction writers, so here are a few random thoughts (no spoilers!): They’ve started … Continued

Wild Mushroom, Pancetta & Truffle Risotto

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Wild Mushroom, Pancetta & Truffle Risotto Ingredients 200 g arborio rice (or other short grained, high starch rice) 850 mL ham stock (or chicken/vegetable stock) 150 mL white wine 250 g mixed mushrooms (such as button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, porcini, etc) 50 g chopped pancetta (or unsmoked streaky bacon) 1 small onion, finely chopped 2 … Continued

54 Percent

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BBC News has an article claiming that: The new projections suggestion that by 2050, minorities will account for 54% of the [US] population. Ummm… wouldn’t that be 100% then? Minorities set to be US majority