so, another month and another post about Bullseye. or, indeed, Bullseye, look you see, if you are keen on all things italics. i know that Dan Brown is really enthusiastic about italics, as he peppers his books with them, regardless of whether or not they are required.
if you are all upset about italics, then, just ignore them here. assume that i have added them on the off chance that Dan Brown is interested in the answer to the question posed by the title, i have accommodated him with because of this and, well, you can get on with your life.
to let you get on with your life even more, a quickfire answer to the question is, indeed, yes you can, so long as you have a TV what is able to receive them "Freeview" digital channels - the one what shows Bullseye in particular - and, of course, that Bullseye repeats happen to be being broadcast.
and there, ladies and gentlemen, or anyone else, is picture proof of this. not conclusive, of course, but i shall indeed get to that. but, for now, indulge yourself as you gaze upon pre-Papal appointment Jim Bowen looking somewhat interested, maybe perplexed, by either a question he has posed or an answer what a contestant has humbly presented for consideration.
frame, or if you like frames, of reference. at this stage all you have as evidence in terms of me saying yes, you can indeed watch Bullseye on the tele in Nottingham (provided it is being broadcast, etc) is my word that the above was taken there.
well, the best i can do at this stage to assure, if not quite convince, you that the above image of Jim Bowen presenting Bullseye is to present you with this picture of me, or if you like moi, shortly after arriving at the train station there. as it was.
indeed, yes, this was pre-fire, but still of this year. so early January, then. i am uncertain if the part or area of the train station what i was at was affected by the fire. nor do i have any idea how, at this stage, reconstruction work is going. so perhaps, or maybe, it doesn't look like that no more. but this was how Nottingham looked when i arrived.
my thoughts and feelings on Nottingham? we shall probably look at these as we go, really. but, for now, i think it would be of a fair level to say mixed. the place was not as excellent or as splendid as i had quite hoped it would be, but this is not to say that it was all entirely bad.
for now, then, the matter at hand. just how is it that i have somehow become the ipso facto, by default or inadvertent design consequence. go to resource for Bullseye, exactly? not sure. i just have a healthy appreciation for the show; one which i had assumed that every living soul who had witnessed it would share. maybe some had lost sight of the magnificence of it all, and seek reaffirmation here.
yeah, that's the contestants who were on the episode of Bullseye what i had on, with little or no trouble, whilst i was in Nottingham. no, so far as i am aware, none of the contestants in this episode were members of the landed gentry or other such celebrities. just because Bullseye was known to attract the elite of society did not mean that every episode featured them. they just had some "commoners days", quite like that Wimbledon thing with the tennis. which is not as interesting as darts.
for what reason might Bullseye not have been available to the members of the public who live in Nottingham? that is a good question. people what plan television broadcasts are, at once, bright but not the brightest. in seeking to gain maximum viewership assurances across demographics, they can lose sight of the specifics. which is, of course, that all love Bullseye, except them what don't, and them what don't wouldn't have the tele on anyway, so they are of no relevance or consequence.
i would like to think that tele programmers did not consider a "blanket ban" on Bullseye because they did not trust the people of Nottingham to contextualize it all. had it been blocked - which i would again like to point out it was not - i hope it was not for some unfounded idea that it might make the people of the place think that playing any form of darts was the doorway what led to taking ownership of a speedboat, or a stereo with a "laser record player" on it.
yes, that is indeed a picture of me. there are a couple more to come too, so be warned if you do not like seeing pictures of me. this is the risk you have when you elect to visit my blog, though. indeed i am in an elevator in the above picture.
now, as is with all things, is a good time to use Australian cricket as a point of reference. in Australia, right, when they have a Test match on, coverage on the tele is limited if not entirely blocked in the particular State where it is being played. this is done so as to encourage all possible to go along to the cricket ground - the SCG, for instance, or the GABBA - and watch it for real rather than via whatever takes the fancy of the cameraman.
perhaps a ban on Bullseye and similar yet obviously inferior, games of chance might have been considered by them what do the tele broadcasting as a means of encouraging the people of Nottingham to get up and go appear on game shows themselves. going on the large, indeed alarming, number of casinos i observed as being available in the place, i do not believe that the people of the city require all that much encouragement to participate or otherwise engage in games of chance.
that's one of the contestants on the episode i happened to photograph. he is 16.6% of the contestants on the show, but of course 33%, or one third, of the dart playing contestants. so far as i know he is not a celebrity. also, from what i remember, he was not from Liverpool. that last bit is peculiar, as he has a Scouse 'tache, Scouse perm, Scouse earring and Scouse shell suit on. i failed to catch where he was from, but in his heart it is clear that where he is going is of importance, and that place would seem to be Liverpool.
my hopes for my visit to Nottingham were high. please note that this was not a pleasure trip, but rather a business concern that i cannot really discuss in any great detail. anyway, that's relevant in terms of understanding my comments.
overall, and with a heavy heart, i have to say that my experience of Nottingham was that it was edging towards unwelcoming if not downright hostile. it was, frankly, the only place i have been in the UK where i felt uneasy or insecure when walking the streets, day or night. yes, there are danger spots in places such as London and Manchester, but i never got any sense of being threatened in any way in either of those places. not so in Nottingham, where everything and everyone appeared to carry an edge to them, or it.
Nottingham, being of the Midlands, holds a peculiar place in the minds of those above it and below. to us from the north it is effectively "the south"; if not London and so forth then close enough. but then to those of the south, such as London, Margate, Southampton, Devon and what have you, Nottingham and the Midlands is in effect to them "the north". for that group, i certainly hope that they do not wander Nottingham, think "this is bad, surely anyone further north will be worse", for we are most certainly not.
i'd really like to understand the reasons behind why i felt as i did in Nottingham. it was not at all what i expected. the homeless were far more visible and prominent there than in any other place i had been to in England of late. also, people clearly with issues related to the use of alcohol and drugs were of their most visible. but there was a good deal more to the tension. perhaps this pertains to the often well documented immigrant / asylum seeker situation in the area, but it is not my place to say such as statement with no knowledge or insight to substantiate.
my hopes for Nottingham were not particularly romantic or over glorified, i think. a city where Brian Clough made his home, and his name, could not be at all bad, i thought. also, i was surprised by the lack of highlighting or marketing the connection to the myth, legend or if you believe so reality of Robin Hood. i think i saw a public transport company named after him in passing, and that was it.
yes, indeed, there is Tony Green, doing his thing. i note his stance is so that he can gaze at the audience, so perhaps an aristocrat or similar was indeed in the audience. and yes, that 41 was the score achieved by that lad in the picture earlier; the one what seemed to have his heart set on being the personification of the Liverpool look.
would i consider a return to Nottingham? it is highly likely that such has already happened in between the time i wrote this and when it appears here on my blog. sorry, i have developed quite a passion for this "scheduling" posts business now that i have found the button.
at this stage, going on my experience thus far, i would not visit Nottingham for pleasure or social reasons. it is rather more that i would go there because i had or needed to, rather than wished to do so. this is a shame. after all, above all other stuff, it is where Bad News got arrested for taking on the whole of the Nottingham Constabulary; a battle they lost no matter how plucky they were.
but also, there were things what i liked. the staff in stores i went to were friendly, at the least, as were the staff of the hotel where i was. you could argue, though, that this is precisely what they are paid to do. even then, when i went in to Tesco to address a small, personal matter (cigarettes), the staff on the till had an edge; maybe that tremor of intent with instinct telling them that any customer is a potential problem.
our country is in disarray. there is a massive divide which has always been, but the friction of it has been increased a great deal. many point out that the EU referendum takes the blame for that, along with the elevation of an entirely unsuitable and unqualified person to be PM, with them subsequently winning on paper only an election that no one had a wish for. if all of this is what is coming to the boil and making feeling like i did in Nottingham, well, there are testing days ahead of each of us, no matter what we thought of the result of any election or related vote.
so, yes, then. in my experience it is perfectly possible to watch Bullseye whilst in Nottingham, so long as there is a tele capable of receiving the transmissions of the Challenge channel. again, to qualify this, i saw it in a hotel. no one in Nottingham invited me into their home, so i am unsure on a residential side.
anyway, that will do for now. yes, i suppose or suspect, but not at this stage expect, that Bullseye will feature on this blog again. maybe not next month, but one never knows.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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