Category Archives: Music

Give the Aussies back their Masterchef and give the UK back it’s own!

Posted by Wendy on February 27, 2011 No comments

It is not often that I criticise anything Australian but I feel I have to on this occasion. I was one of the masses who enjoyed the original UK-version of Masterchef on TV – that is until the BBC decided to faff around with the format and in doing so ruined it. I never liked the Australian format of the show; it is more soap opera stuff than kitchen stuff.  It is too focused on the contestants who, in turn, become headlines each day in the newspapers – faux celebrities – when the show should be about the food rather than so much the people cooking it. To host George Calombaris - tone it down mate, tone it down.

Aussie Masterchef

And then we have Matt Preston – who the heck was Matt Preston before he strode onto this show like Ole King Cole…? this guy gets a bloody fanfare for an introduction – who IS he? too pompous, too serious – lighten up, it’s only food guys! the British format was relaxed, laid back and enjoyable in comparison. If you could tolerate unusually creepy Greg Wallace and John Torode shoving forkfuls of food into their mouths in glorious close-up each  time that is. I have seen enough of their molars for a lifetime. The format now is changed for the worst; and why does any TV contest involving more than one judge these days have to feature the X-Factor-style  ‘judges sitting in a row at a table in front of contestant waiting 30 seconds for dramatic effect before announcing decision’…? these people are cooking not juggling squirrels or singing a song. Drop the pomposity that features in the Australian version – we want to see food being cooked and people learning to cook it better, not hear boring sob stories from desperate relatives hoping for a dash of the spotlight when they can get it.

My opinion of Australian Masterchef has been zero since I watched Julie Goodwin in 2009 being awarded the winners trophy after she failed successive trials and on two occasion in the finals did not even manage to compete her courses. What a joke. How does a person be called a Masterchef when they burn, drop and fail to even cook something in the allotted time…? but it made good headlines for the show. Note to the BBC: we want our old Masterchef back, change is not always for the better.

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

The King’s Speech: special insight into a King we barely knew

Posted by Wendy on January 24, 2011 No comments

The adorable little boy pictured at left would one day grow up to be a King of the British Empire, the father of our present Queen Elizabeth II. As Prince Albert of Wales he looks like most little boys of the era which was the early 20th century, dressed in a sailor suit for the photographer as was the trend at the time. We all think he led a charmed life – as would assume all Royals do – but sadly his childhood was not the happy childhood it could have been. He was habitually abused as a toddler by a spiteful nanny and terrorised throughout his teens by an authoritative, demanding father and teased by his brothers – no wonder he was plagued by nervous problems and a crippling stammer into adulthood. I saw The King’s Speech at the weekend which details the years in which this little boy went from being the newly married Prince Albert, Duke of York, to King George VI and how he found a man who was able to help him ultimately control the stammer that made public speaking for him such a nightmare. Lionel Logue, an Australian speech therapist, became a significant part of ‘Bertie’s’ life giving him the skills and confidence he needed to deliver the many speeches that rallied a nation during wartime and marked his reign as so successful. Through the film you discover the traumas that caused the young prince to start stammering as five year old child and you really deeply for the young man who was living a relatively uncomplicated life as a Naval Officer when the biggest role of all was conferred upon him.

What comes across very strongly is the sense of vulnerability in a man who had not enjoyed a happy childhood or doting parents, but rather isolation and dominance. His love of his quiet family life with his wife and two daughters was interrupted by the Abdication but the rest, as we know, is history and if you ever wondered where the Queen gets her strength and resilience from then look no further – go see this brilliant film about a man who overcame so many personal problems and issues that we experience in our own lives today and see why he certainly was born to be King.

If Colin Firth (The King) and Geoffrey Rush (Lionel Logue) don’t both win Oscars for their roles in this film then I will eat my keyboard!

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.

Bucks Fizz still in a tizz

Posted by Wendy on January 15, 2011 No comments

There are some things which are in the very least tiresome and the eternal battle being waged over the name ‘Bucks Fizz’ has to rank as one of them. Maybe it’s me but I have lost track over who exactly Bucks Fizz is today and who they were thirty years ago…is it really that long?

As I understand it you have ‘Bucks Fizz’, ‘The Original Bucks Fizz’, ‘Bobby G’s Bucks Fizz’…then you have people who are the ‘original’ members, people who are ‘original’ members of the second version of the ‘original’ band and new members who are mad enough to step into the shoes of the ‘original’ members and get caught up in all this hoo-haa. The thing is none of them seem to like each other. There was Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Aston on he makeover show Pop Goes the Band in 2009 which was uncomfortable viewing at times as bad feeling still clearly existed between Jay and her later replacement Shelley Preston. Then you had that awful scene when Cheryl turned on past ex-bandmate David Van Day quite viciously when they faced each other on Celebrity Coach Trip recently.

With their 30th anniversary coming up they are at it again arguing over who owns the name and who doesn’t – why don’t the four authentic, original, first version members simply shake hands and reform as they were when pictured here in the photograph. I am sure they are as tired off dragging out this issue after all this time as people are of reading about their battles, their bad feelings towards each other and the bitterness that comes from over-inflated ego’s and hard-to-swallow pride. None of you are getting any younger so just get on with it eh?

Copyright © 2007-2012 Cultured Views. All rights reserved.