Dimbleby on telly

[Nemesis]

If you knew Yorkshire you would appreciate the horrors of which he spake... with a refeened shudder.

PS did they get as far as watching in Dudley?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The Meades progs on Wednesdays (now ended) were so much better...

I still have Sir Alec Clifton-Taylor on video. Must dig them out and watch again.

His horror of ribbon pointing...

I'm not certain that Alec Clifton-Taylor was ever knighted, but anyway:

http://www.78rpm.co.uk/tvn.htm - the item at the bottom is an accurate review of what made his shows so special (and even though they wouldn't be commissioned today, they were shown in prime-time back in an age that was happy to have stimulating, intelligent TV).

Ian Nairn was even better as he usually recorded his pieces to camera just after his morning bottle whisky (to take away the taste of the breakfast bottle of gin)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1661611,00.html

 

[Nemesis]

No - I think I got carried away!

Sainted poss:


http://podtours.co.uk/podtours-recommends.htm

Agree about the other books too...


My electricity keeps going off in the storm

WHITBY - Woolworths gets the Taylor condemnation but a 1980 supermarket surprisingly gets the thumbs up. After a tour of the church he finds some gems in the town: "a truly ghastly example of what is known as ribbon pointing." His interrogatory style is exemplified in - "did you ever see such a brutal way of treating stone?"

 

[Penners]

back in an age that was happy to have stimulating, intelligent TV.

Ah - happy days. And so long gone.

 

[Nemesis]

Well... Mr Meades on Wednesdays has been quite good...

 

[Penners]

Your private life is no concern of ours. We're talking about TV.

 

[Nemesis]

Tut Penners - you can be such a Philistine at times.

 

[Penners]

Well I can only say that I'm bl**dy glad I'm not in Philistia right now. Not a pleasant place to be.

 

[Nemesis]

http://www.godsrudewireless.co.uk/contributorsguide.htm


Who is the ideal GRW writer?
Jonathon Meades. He features out and out eclecticism; a kind of snobbishness only ever about snobbishness; an unashamed intellect; a fantastic joy of language; a sense of humour both whimsical and serious. Whenever he informs the reader he informs both knowledge and opinion simultaneously, and most of all he is adamant about those opinions and proud of them.



http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/community/index.cfm?n=3&parentid=338


I've got to agree with the vote for Jonathan Meades. Everytime I see one of his visually rich, information overloaded programmes I wonder why no one else ever learns from his approach. Why do we endure such obvious, dull and static approaches to documentary and factual programmes. Anyone with an average IQ is bored to tears by most of them, nevermind stretched. And he even won Celebrity Mastermind, not that there was much competition.

Paul Wright,

----

Jonathan Meades? Self-regarding pompous pseud of the worst order.And just why does he need to wear sunglasses at all times?

Bryan Kirby,

And far too much here to copy:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/yoursay/abroad.shtml

 

[Nemesis]

Anyhow - back to ribbon pointing- a few pics here and some useful advice which it's a great pity more in Yorkshire don't seem to know about:


http://www.bradford.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/78842480-8614-4D04-8ABE-F21315D3713E/0/StoneElevations.pdf

However, profoundly disagree that sand and cement mortar is the stuff to use!

 

[Penners]

ribbon pointing- a few pics here and some useful advice which it's a great pity more in Yorkshire don't seem to know about:
http://www.bradford.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/78842480-8614-4D04-8ABE-F21315D3713E/0/StoneElevations.pdf

That's rather a good leaflet (except that local authorities never seem to know how to compress pictures to save PDF download times!).

I'm not at all surprised that they express disapproval of ribbon pointing, but I am mildly puzzled that they also dislike weatherstruck. I thought this was generally approved of, as it deflects rain away from the brick or stone below. Is theirs purely an aesthetic disapproval?

 

[Nemesis]

Ooohhh... off the top of my head - it's a modern pointing type associated with and more suited to cement... huge generalisation and there is some historic precedent...

http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/brick/brickwork.html


http://www.bricksandbrass.co.uk/diyelem/extwalls/pointing/pointprobs.htm

Historically it's wrong, in many cases, and could be damaging.

 

[charlie-ia]

Im a bit confused,
the pamphlet says

Do not paint or render stonework.

the book i'm reading says the opposite. now i know that you should go with local traditions, and clearly the buildings in the pamphlet havent been rendered, but why not? is that kind of sandstone paticularly weatherproof?

 

[Nemesis]

In Yorkshire buildings were not usually rendered. Go with the local tradition... yes it's good strong northern stuff!!! Dressed for show not hiding.

 

[Nemesis]

Another useful link with good pics:

http://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/pointing-2.pdf



Enjoyed the Dimbleby prog tonight - best one so far IMO.

 

[shelli]

very good programme last night - I do take on board everyones comments about it being a bit dumbed down for TV (it felt like he was reading out the Tourist information centre brochure for Bristol!) - but visually stunning. He looked suitably impressed and overawed in all the right places.

- I would have liked to know more about Henrietta Street in Dublin - ie more history and what's happening to it now - looks like a museum of dereliction - Cue Nemesis !!!

 

[Nemesis]

I don't at the moment know a great deal - strangely enough the Republic and its historic building probs I was doing a bit of investigating into last week! Although I do know certain parts of Dublin are still in the same state of negelect Spitalfields was not so long ago. But as with all these things money is the key... and making areas desirable again.

http://www.footprintguides.com/Dublin/Georgian-north-Dublin.php


http://www.igs.ie/

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Hugh Pearman on Dimbleby, and as the series has progressed I have to say I have some sympathy with his point of view, and he's nowhere near as interesting as John Grundy who does architecture programmes oop north:

http://www.hughpearman.com/2007/09.html

'It is chronically unambitious. You can imagine how much better this series - and this book - might have been in the hands of a knowledgeable iconoclast such as Jonathan Meades, or even a gesticulating historian of the Simon Schama or Dan Cruickshank variety. Those people may have their ghastly mannerisms but they start from a basis of knowledge. Dimbleby, in contrast, is a blank page with researchers at his disposal. It shows. The wry smile and the pink shirt, the mellifluous manner, are not enough. Besides, he seems bored, most of the time. This is popular history by numbers.'


However - better than no architecture at all.

Dimblebum seems to have been poorly served by his editors too – I was talking to someone locally “in the know” the other day who reports that, for the first programme, they also recorded a lot of stuff in Norwich about mediaeval population, illness and care of the sick and elderly, with nearly a day’s worth of filming in Elm Hill and The Great Hospital, none of which (IIRC) made it to the final cut.

 

[Nemesis]

He seemed so much more enthusiastic last night - and I liked the broader sweep (and of course the industrial archaeology stuff).

Fred Dibnah really did that so well...

No, it's good that the programmes are on, great that this isn't relegated to an 'enthusiasts' time slot, but I would like to have seen those bits about Narch too...

 

[Nemesis]

Anyhow - hope people watched on Sunday as he arrived at Newcastle Central. one of my all-time favourite buildings.