Posted by Robert Hill on February 02, 1998 at 12:06:39:
In Reply to: STOP PRESS JUST ARRIVED BY PIGEON POST PLEASE READ! posted by James Aldred on February 01, 1998 at 15:31:03:
I presume this is one of the series on children's writers which
started on Saturday (31 Jan) with a programme about E. Nesbit.
I, alas, noticed that it was on about ten minutes after it ended.
Since many people interested in Ransome will also be interested
in other featured writers, if you are anywhere where you can receive
British television, keep your eyes open, unlike me. If I remember
correctly it's on at 1800 GMT on Saturdays on BBC2. I have read
either on this board or somewhwere else that writers covered will
include Tolkien, Kenneth Grahame and Roald Dahl as well as Ransome
and Edith Nesbit.
Also of interest on British television over the weekend was Time Team
on Channel 4 at 1825 on Sunday. For those of you not familiar with
this series, a group of archaeologists and related specialists
(fronted by Tony Robinson, also currently appearing as Baldrick in
the Friday night re-re-re-runs of the first series of Blackadder)
descend on a site where there is some archaeological question to be
answered, and discover what they can in three days (Dick would
love it but might feel hurried). This is condensed into an hour's TV.
As a sideline to the surveying, digging and (where relevant)
examination of archives, they often try their hand at some craft
practised by the people they are investigating. It's usually in
Britain but on Sunday they were at a site in Mallorca where the
beaker people, often found in England, lived. The craft was
copper smelting and very reminiscent of Pigeon Post. They used
ready-made charcoal but the blast furnace was very like Dick's and
required long use of the bellows (of a larger and more suitable
type than the domestic ones borrowed in PP). They ended up with a
tiny piece of copper.