Month: August 2018

Uncle Davey’s Herts Content, #4 “The Last Highwayman”

Original playout date: 23 February 2008
Duration: 11:48

This visit to Boxmoor features reminiscences of Hemel Hempstead School, a rant-on-the-hoof about trends in education in Britain today, and a look at the story of the death of James Snook or Robert Snooks, as he called himself, the last highwayman to be sentenced to death in England just over 200 years ago in this place, for the theft of 500 pounds from His Majesty’s mails.

If they did that to modern-day spammers and phishers and identity fraudsters that would soon put the fear of God into them, but standards appear to have slipped irretrievably since good old Snooks’es day.
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Uncle Davey’s Herts Content, #3 “Grand Union Canal”

Original playout date: 23 February 2008
Duration: 9:17

Here is a mainly gallery piece following my recent walk from home to Kings Langley along the towpath of the historic Grand Union Canal, which has linked London and Birmingham since the days of the Industrial Revolution.

New developments seen on most of this, such as the Apsley marina, are all new and in my youth much of this part of the canal was derelict. Not everything in the UK has gone downhill – most of what I’ve photographed in this film is actually evidence of renewal and improvement, and we see how the prestigious canalside homes in some less known Hertfordshire places like Belswains Lane have lifestyles akin to such places as Grantchester or Henley, with prices to match, no doubt.
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Huliganov’s Turkish Experience #11 – Fun with Fasil

Original playout date: 22 February 2008
Duration: 16:22

“Suyu gibi asiz ol!” This is another of my all time faves. With my good friends and colleagues from Istanbul. One of the evenings it would be so nice to go back and repeat.
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Russian Fun on the Train

Original playout date: 21 February 2008
Duration: 0:40

This is another of the times when I basically only provided a translation of some clip not available in English to give it a new lease of life. There were not such stringent copyright issues then as there are now, but still in the main owners of these things haven’t been that bothered unless they really wanted to to their own English versions, which for these sketches isn’t that likely as one cannot always guage the humour. Only very visual, almost slapstick styles of humour like Benny Hill, Mr Bean and Just for Laughs have really managed the world circuit. Jokes per se are often simply untranslateable, and at best they create a challenge to the translator, which is exactly why I like to play around with them.
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Huliganov’s Turkish Experience #10 – Live at the Hippodrome

Original playout date: 18 February 2008
Duration: 10:53

It’s Sunday night live at the Hippodrome, but in this case the original hippodrome from Constantinople, along with other sights such as more of the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the “New mosque” which is new at 400 years old.
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