AI YO YO ... ASTERO ...

IT'S BEEN A QUIET WEEK with not much to report, so I'm taking this opportunity to write about something which has been bugging me for a while ... ASTRO TV!

Whilst acknowledging that as a result of their company we now have much more choice on TV channel-wise than before, it is nevertheless really ANNOYING and IRRITATING that they repeat so many programmes that I've ended up not watching anything now. On top of that there doesn't seem to be any beginning or ending for series.

A case in point is what was a favourite - BBCE. When it was announced that at last we would get it here a few years ago, I was ecstatic - I'd had enough of Star World with its American humour and canned laughter (granted there WERE some good ones - FRIENDS is an eternal favourite. Great writing, great acting, great characters, great everything. Loved them, and soooooo sad when the series ended. However, most were pretty DUH.) At last here was a bit of KOOLCHA (culture) and good TV, bringing back memories of when I lived there, catching up on actors and programmes, and happenings in Old Blighty.

And indeed, at the start, we were able to watch many programmes that were not available before, many of them serials which I'd missed from oh so long ago. So you get engrossed in a series, and watch it for a few weeks. Only to find that there's no ending, because with no warning, the programme disappears into, literally, thin air. You don't hear anything about it again.

(The sexy Martin Shaw as the "maverick" judge - image from internet)

They've all been like that - Dalziel and Pascoe, Silent Witness, Hotel Babylon, Judge John Deed etc etc. Yet others that I cannot imagine anyone enjoying after the first viewing are repeated so often that one can practically say the words along with the actor I think - especially those that are on what seems like five times a day. Take "My Family", "Strictly Come Dancing" and others of similar ilk. Yuk.

It's got to the stage that apart from The Weakest Link (many of the programmes have been repeated COUNTLESS times - the only reason I watch it is I can't remember the answers ... however, the old brain isn't THAT far gone yet - I can however remember the faces of the participants ... well, you would, after they've been on ten times!) we more or less switch off the TV now. It reminds me of that old saying, "Television is very educational. Whenever the TV is switched on, I go to another room to read."

I'm not sure why Astro does this to its customers. After all, it's not that cheap. And surely it cannot be that difficult to have an organised serial complete with beginning and end ... ? Instead of bringing out more and more channels (and by definition more and more repeats), please get your existing ones up to scratch first.

AI YO YO

ASTERO

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

NO REPEATS

Can you try and bring us complete serials and let's not have so many repeats.