You’d want to have your head stuck in a bucket of treacle not to have heard about the TV Series ‘Downton Abbey’.

It’s been wildly successful since it first hit the screen back in September 2010. According to the well known online encyclopedia website ‘Wikipedia’, in 2011 :

‘it entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most critically acclaimed English-language television show” for the year, becoming the first British show to be so recognised’

It’s not the sort of programme I’d watch normally, but my chance to see what the fuss was about came via DVD recently.

I didn’t want to like it. I tried not to like it. I picked holes in the very first episode. “This isn’t how aristocrats behaved back then. They were complete and utter bastards and wouldn’t be so friendly with the servants. People are watching this & getting a distorted view of history.” I was told to cop on, and that it’s just a drama – no on thinks this was how life was back then. I’m not convinced of that but secretly I couldn’t wait for the next episode.

Roll forward 2 weeks and 15 episodes later and it’s safe to say that I think it’s a well crafted series and very enjoyable to watch. I don’t think Series 2 was quite as good as the first one (for a variety of reasons), but still very watchable all the same.

Series 3 is due in September and it will be interesting to see how the storyline will develop and whether or not the viewing public will suffer from Downton fatigue.

I do know that if I watch it on broadcast TV this time, I won’t be Twitter hashtagging my way through it using the #dowton tag. I saw a huge amount of this hashtag on Sunday evenings (during my non Downton watching days) and thought to myself it’s an odd thing to do.

I can understand hashtagging a light entertainment show like X Factor or the Late Late, but a drama series? Surely the point of a programme like this is for pure escapism & relaxation. It doesn’t require any brain power. It’s an hour of putting your feet up at the end of the week and shutting out the world for a little while and going back in time to the imaginary world of benevolent aristocracy that Downton portrays so well.

If you’re sitting there constantly tweeting during a show like this, I think a Twitter intervention is needed. It’s impossible to really enjoy it with one eye on a computer screen. I’m quite sure the Countess wouldn’t approve. Although I reckon she’d be a great one for the Twitter if it was around back then.

I remember this guy on the Late Late Show in 1987. Thought it was a great idea. Simple ideas (or so they seem) are always the best ones.

Gaybo took the piss out of him, even saying “he looks like a gom” at one point (full video is on YouTube as well). The gom has come a long way since then.

He was interviewed in the Irish Times magazine on Saturday and told how he got on the Late Late Show.

“I needed publicity. At the time, they reckoned if you got on to the Late Late you were set. I happened to be in Dublin one day, so I dropped in to RTE and asked to speak to Gay Byrne.

They said he wasn’t available. But every time I was in Dublin after that, I’d leave a triple bucket in for him. He must have had 10 of them before I got a call to say they wanted to put me on the show. That was December 18th, 1987

…. the appearance on the Late Late was the starting point. Everything that followed came from that one appearance”

25 years on, he’s kicking off the new RTE series “The Secret Millionaire” tonight (Monday 19th September 2011) as head of a business with factories in Ireland, UK, Poland and South Africa.

It’s a great story for anyone starting up in business. Believe in your product. Be passionate about it. Be determined. Break the rules. If at first you don’t succeed….

Will be interesting to see who he helps tonight at 9.35 on RTE1.

Something to do with a Comic Book. I’m there.

In their midweek documentary tomorrow night (Wed 26th Jan) at 10pm.

Coming soon from TV3:

Am I better off dead?

Am I better off single?

Could I be magic?

How much is that doggy in the window?

Where can I find Chuck Norris?

All inspired by google searches.

Thanks TV3 – looking forward to all of these.

Trocaire’s Lenten campaign this year has a clear message :

“A hungry child cannot learn. A hungry aduly cannot work. But it does not have to be this way. Over the years, we have seen first hand how a little can make a huge difference.”

Don’t know about anyone else, but the above ad running on Television at the moment has to be one of the most powerful I’ve seen in a long while.  It is a simple, unexpected, concrete, credible and emotional story. That’s the SUCCESs Chip and Dan Heath talk about in their book, Made to Stick. (PDF of the SUCCESs model here )

The TV ad is backed up by equally effective online banner ads such as this one on the Irish Independent website.

One user left a reply on the TV ad on YouTube saying :

This ad has to be one? of the best ads not only Trócaire has ever made, but of any Irish charity. The reason I say this is because it was the first of these ads that actually made me give a donation.

Can there be any higher praise for a campaign than that?

Looking forward to this new TV programme with Feargal Quinn starting next week on RTE1.

More info over on Rate The Telly

Just setup RateTheTelly.ie – a place to rate and review tv programmes.

Check it out and spread the word.

Cross posted this from my posterous account where you can see the graphic a bit bigger and also the TV programmes from 11 to 20.

UPDATE : Friday 26th March 2010 –

I have received many enquiries about the keyring this evening following John Joe’s appearance on the Late Late Show. They aren’t for sale. I just made one up for myself and (as you can see below) for 3 visitors to this site back in December. Thank you.

————————————————————–

The Late Late Toy Show this year will always be remembered for the appearance of JohnJoe. An 8 year old kid with a great head on his shoulders. He’s developing quite the following on the Facebook group “I want JohnJoe from the Late Late Toy Show to fix my clocks”.  As of writing he has over 12,000 members.

I’m a big fan too and finally found a use for a big bag of talking keyrings I had gathering dust in the corner. Now I’ve got a portable John Joe to carry with me everywhere. I’ll have his photo on it come Monday when I get a chance to print it out.

I’ll make a couple of extras as well. Like one? Leave a comment and I’ll pick 3 randomers and stick one in the post to you.

Update : Sunday 6th December

Put out a call on Twitter for 3 random numbers between 1 and 24. 3,7 and 23 were the first set back.

Comment number 3 was from Anthony. Comment 7 from Colm Flynn and comment 23 from Rachel. Keyrings a go go for ye… Will email you for address to send them out.

I tweeted the above towards the end of John and Edward’s performance on the X Factor on Saturday night. They sang the Wham song “I’m your man”. I say sang, but we all know they aren’t great singers. This doesn’t make them the ideal contestants for a singing competition.

What they lacked in voice, they made up for in pure entertainment value. You just couldn’t help raise a smile when they performed and danced around like a pair of Max Headroom’s stuffed to the gills with red bull. Two young lads have the time of their lives, sowing the seeds of a TV Career. Fair play to them. The fact they are from Dublin has nothing to do with that opinion. If it was two lads from London I’d say the same thing.

The Jedward “journey” was fun up to the performance on Saturday night. The Wham song they sang and the performance in general just wasn’t fun. Once that fun factor had gone, there was nothing left. And so it was on Sunday night the two boys found themselves in the sing off  with Olly Murs. There wasn’t any doubt after that they were going home.

And yet, on Twitter and elsewhere people were still hoping and wishing they would stay in the competition. Grown adults with fully developed brains had become such loyal devotees of the spikey haired duo that all reason and sense had left them.

Was this loyalty inspired by nationality? Just because John and Edward are Irish they would rather see a better singer get dumped out of the competition? That’s something I just don’t understand. They’d have got my vote in previous weeks because they were entertaining and deserved to get through based on the performances. Irishness wouldn’t even enter into the equation for me. For a lot of people, the mere fact they were Irish was the primary reason for supporting them.

To me, this just shows that despite all the strides Ireland and her people have taken since independence, deep down in our psyche we still have a peasant mentality that believes we’re not worthy or good enough.