The Barsley Brief

I was looking on the BBC iPlayer yesterday to see what I missed and discovered that BBC 4 is showing The Chaser’s War on Everything.  TCWOE is a ABC (Australia Broadcasting Corporation) comedy show which has a set of satirical comedians discussing and performing odd stunts / public interactions in a cross between Bremner Bird and Fortune and the Daily show with Jon Stewart (hard to describe what the Chaser is!)

I was lucky enough to hear about The Chaser the first time round and view it on ITunes where the first two series are available as free podcasts and on Youtube.  I strongly recommend the Chaser and to get you started here are a few of my favourite clips (if you only watch one watch the last!)

The Ad road test, The Chaser ran a series of Ad road tests, this one is for the Lynx effect.  The cast member sprays them self up and then looks for women who are attracted by the Lynx Effect!  Listen out for the ringing endorsement from Lynx employees at the end!

In their segment what have we learnt from history they attempt to take a Trojan horse into various “secure areas” and see if they can leave it there for the night.  Locations include the Sydney Opera House, Turkish Consulate and the Army Headquarters Land Command.

Perhaps my favourite segment, Open mic.  You don’t have to go to a pub for an open mic night, there are Open Mics everywhere!

And finally the Apec invasion!  When the APEC conference was held in Sydney attended by world leaders such as George Bush, Tony Blair etc security was tight.  But the Chaser felt you can’t have a conference on terroism without inviting terrorists so they dressed up as Osama and attempted to get in, I think you can see the look in their faces when they get much further than they thought possible and it turns from a joke to a serious incident!

I haven’t posted much lately so this post is a catch up to mention several things that have caught my attention lately.

Facebook introduces usernames

Facebook have now introduced usernames.  This doesn’t make a huge difference to the site itself but does mean that if you want to link people to your page you now can have an easy permalink such as www.facebook.com/CharlesBarsley.  It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next few months and if the site evolves more.  Get your  username here http://www.facebook.com/username/

TV Licencing

June is going to be an expensive month!  It seems most of my quarterly bills have come through plus my TV licence (which means I have physically lived in my house for a year) and car insurance.

I seriously considered not renewing my TV Licence.  I would not be a license evader I would just not have a TV.  The TV licence only covers live broadcast TV (Source MoneySavingExpert) and not prerecorded TV available on the BBC iPlayer.  I find I very rarely sit down in the lounge and watch TV.  Usually I watch most of my TV on my PC while checking my emails / surfing the net etc.  For example as I write this I am watching last nights “Have I got news for you” on the BBC iPlayer which doesn’t require a TV licence.

The only times I actually watch the TV in my living room are occasionally when I have breakfast / supper, I’ll watch BBC News or something on Dave.

However I will renew my licence for two reasons.

• Reason One – The hassle of trying to convince TV licencing that you don’t have a TV.
• Reason Two – I want a TV in my living room for the Xbox and DVD player which I am sure I use more than the TV channels!

I do like the fact that the BBC are advert free – especially for sports.  But I think it is a little unfair that it doesn’t cover the iPlayer.  Surely it should cover all BBC media outlets or none?

New TV?

On a related note I am soooo tempted by this Samsung TV.  40″ with a stand and 5 year guarantee all for £699.  If it was £599 I would snap it up but £699 is still a great deal for the TV just slightly more than I would want to spend on one.  I may wait and see what happens in the sales.

Competition time

As you may know I run the website www.brawngpnews.co.uk, a Brawn F1 fan site.  I was delighted to be contacted by Vodafone this week to create a competition on the site for it’s readers to win 3 day tickets to the British Grand Prix.  I am giving away a pair of tickets.  Its a fantastic prize and a great year to go with Jenson Button doing so well and the fact it may be / is the last time the race will be held at Silverstone.  Competition closes midday 14th June

The BBC have released more details of the new series of the Apprentice which starts tomorrow (25th March 2009) at 9pm on BBC1 (or online with the BBC iPlayer).

Here’s the story so far…

One Apprentice quits

The new series of the Apprentice is a man down before filming even begun.  The unnamed man took the decision to quit late into the night before filming begun.   This meant that there was no time to find a replacement and the “boys” team will start with only seven team members to the girls eight. Sir Alan said the departure “makes my job easier, doesn’t it?” (Source BBC News)

The Penthouse is revealed

The BBC have released images of the luxury Penthouse where the candidates will live between tasks.

This is a change from previous seasons where candidates have enjoyed a large traditional house.  Their Penthouse will give amazing views across West London. (Source Daily Mail)

Tackling the Credit Crunch.

Sir Alan is determined that this series of the Apprentice will reflect the current economic situation.  Budgets for the series have been cut and there will be no foreign tasks.  More tasks will reflect a buy British approach or working to improve a local area – such as a task to improve the fortunes of Margate a Seaside village (which I never thought there was anything wrong with!) (Source Guardian)

Apprentice Romance

Two of the would be Apprentice’s have fallen for each other.  Phillip Taylor, 29, and Kate Walsh “had the hots for each other from the start.”  Sir Alan went mad when he found out.  “He hates it when there’s any kind of ‘funny business’ going on, as he calls it.” (Source Digital Spy)

Task One

The BBC have released a promo clip from task one showing the girls team offering a car cleaning service and wanting £300 to clean three Humvees.  It normally cost the dealership £60 for this (done by professionals!).  Rather than accept this the girls just push on blindly telling him that he is wrong.  See the full clip here.  So it seems like I was wrong and it isn’t a Market stall task.  Again with large teams of cadidates who all want to lead and be noticed I predict the team leader will be fired for lack of control!.

The Apprentice Starts 25th March at 9pm on BBC 1 and is followed by The Apprentice Your Fired on BBC 2