To expect decent television

I have recently bought a catnip cat scratcher, and since then all the neighbours' cats stroll in when the back door is open to rub around it. There are never any fights, but once they are in their outdoor territories it is another story, the boys are always scrapping-very noisy but few injuries.

There was a cattery near to where I live where all the cats could meet up in a communal area and there was never any fighting; in facts the cats that went there loved the place. With all sorts of cat diseases springing up they had to stop the communal living but it was interesting to see how they all got on together.

The Secret life of Cats and the BBC build up! Nothing new there. Its all in my book 'Your Cat' from WHSmith, which i bought 20 years ago.
I watched this dull programme just to learn that my ginger tom spends his outside hours walking round the block. I knew that already, I knew he has other ladies who adore him. I invite them round for coffee on his birthday.

Any scientist knows that a cat wearing a camera will not behave 100% naturally which is why there was so little hunting and fighting going in.

My Tom would not have worn such a camera. it is beneath his dignity.

Unfortunately this was not an exception. The telly is not worth putting on anymore and it is getting worse. I heard about the cat programme on Radio4

BAnanas We loved Six Dinner Sid!!! My daughter and I read it at a time when we had just discovered that our (very well fed ) cat Sweetie was spending half his life several doors away masquerading as Smokey
I do love NCIS JessM We only discovered it quite recently and my husband downloaded the first seven series and we pretty much watched them back to back!

You think UK tv is rubbish, you should try public broadcasting in NZ, US or Australia. I turned on the public channels once in NZ and one of them was transmitting a weather diagram, in total silence, at peak evening viewing time. The Maori channel sometimes entertains a bit more with hunting and fishing.
We just watched most of Springwatch and it was wonderful to see things like Ospreys and Water Rails close up in HD. Generally BBC wildlife produce a wonderful selection of programmes, not all of them slick Attenborough presented. Also great science documentaries - there is a series about the development of the continents at the moment, volcanoes, the continental drift etc. And what about Gardeners World folks? And the athletics coverage?
Not to mention the Six Nations (anyone noticed how bad the camera work when it is held in Italy...?)
I do have one weeny gripe - most of the presenters seem to have been trained in the same over emphatic style. Carol in Gardener's World exemplifies - maybe she is the trainer. You have to emphasise at least 3 words per sentence.
Oh and I am sick of the sight of Snow's jaw (the younger, the ex rower)
We also have The White Queen starting this weekend, for those of us who like historical novels.
Have to confess though that if we are flopping in front of the TV for that hour , favourite relaxations are recordins of the best of US TV drama: NCIS, The Mentalist and the wonderful The Good Wife (rationing our recordings of this) . All on free-sat so we don't get Sky.

I see that there is a follow-up cat programme tonight, Little Cat Diaries, taking a further look at a few of the cats. I hope it will be more to my liking.

'Vicious' was so OTT it was very funny and Frances De LaTour was a key element.
As for the cats - mine looked at me with a "put one of those cameras around my neck and you get a handful of claw" expression.

I meant cat....

I found the car programme incredibly dull. Felt they'd put a lot of effort into producing the programme and then had to go ahead and make it regradless of the fact that there wan't much to show. The only bit I did find interesting was how important the first 8 weeks of a kittens life is which, given that a kitten shouldn't leave it's mother till 12 weks means that it's imporatnt to get a kitten from someone that has socialised it from a very young age.

I recorded the Secret Life of Cats because I was watching the Lifesavers documentary about the up-to-date procedures for dealing with very serious injuries, mainly from motor vehicle crashes. Although the presentation was deliberately matter-of-fact, I found it far more dramatic and moving than any fictitious hospital series.

I thought the Secret Life of Cats quite good for the time of night when we were gently dozing with our hot chocolate (I know, it shouldn't be hot chocolate at this time of year. But that's another thread)

Oh don't spoil it for me, I was out last night and have recorded The Secret Life of Cats, I adore cats, can't wait to see what they get up to and if they live up to a much loved book I used to read to my children when they were young called "Six Dinner Sid"

Printmiss, I am in agreement with you over the second Love and Marriage and the cat programme, which I also found dull and repetitive. If they had tracked my Bengal (Saffron) they would have followed her to the neighbouring village, at least 2 miles away across farmland (they were saying 300 metres was a long way for a cat to go). I did buy a tracking device once, attached to a harness, but being a tiny cat she worked away at it until it came off, nor could I get it to find and keep the GPS signal, so it now sits at the back of a cupboard.
I have to admit that Big Brother is one of my guilty pleasures,although I know it is rubbish, have not watched the launch yet. It is nice to talk about it with the GCs.

We caught up with Love and Marriage last night, not overly impressed really, and not sure that we shall watch any more - depends what else is on, or what we have recorded. Thought the Secret Life of Cats was a little dull. We love cats and don't really know what we expected of the programme, but found we got rather bored with it. I thought the house with six cats was probably the most interesting, and don't you just love the way cats just wander off when they feel like it, then come come and stretch themselves out and totally relax?

I'm afraid I did rather enjoy Vicious, it was worth watching just to see Derek Jacobi flouncing into the kitchen whenever it all got too much. It reminded me of several people I have known.
Thoroughly enjoyed The Secret Life of Cats tonight although it was nearly ruined by the background music. Why do they have people talking over the music? If you were listening to someone talking in your house the first thing you would do would be turn off the TV or radio so you could concentrate on what they were saying - wouldn't you?

I've never watched half of these programmes. What is celebrity juice? What channel is it on?

My pet hate,apart from all the reality shows,are the shows like celebrity juice where the humour never gets out of the gutter,and we have a panel of celebs who think that if they swear often enough they will be funny.News for them it won't happen!!!As my granddad told me a person who swears is too ignorant to express themselves properly and they haven't the brains to think of a word that fulfils the task without being obscene.And this from some one who spent 10 yrs in the royal navy!!!

I agree with you when, The Job Lot was hilarious. I thought the characterisations were brilliant, many of us will know an Angela or a Trish. Loved the security guard with his carpet business on the side. I was a bit ambivalent about Vicious, yes, a send up but I just didn't think the lines were funny A heck of a concentration of acting talent but without good lines..

No, don't worry annsixty you've probably given back an hour of my time! I didn't mean to criticise

annsixty Don't take on. We all like different things!

I like anything with a good murder in it. I suppose we are all so different that it's impossible to please us all - I hate soaps and reality shows, love documentaries as long as they aren't dumbed down, films of most genres as long as there aren't gratuitous violence scenes, but what I am most enjoying currently is the wave of subtitled series from Europe. Arne Dahl, Wallander, Spiral, The Returned, The Bridge, The Fortress, Montelbano. I loved Lewis and Morse, I also liked Endeavour. The Fall has been good. So was Broadchurch.

However, around this time of year the programmes are rubbish. Every single year. I think they assume we will all be away on holiday for the whole summer, or sunning ourselves outside at 8.30pm every night.

Gosh,I really will keep my opinions to myself until I think all who have recorded it have watched.

Oh dear, I've recorded Love and Marriage too shysal - not sure now after annsixty's comment

I saw Frances de la Tour in Alan Bennetts 'People' at the cinema and she was brilliant. I only saw a bit of Vicious once and didn't like it I'm afraid. Much too 'inyerface' for me.

I gave up watching TV many years ago, but I`m always asked what do I do without a TV. I read, listen to audio books and I have my radio.