CoS Calander and This Morning

[GulPlum]

Felicia Rickmann wrote:
> Thanks Gail for the calendar resume, I would very much like to know 
if
> this clendar is readily available (I have not seen it in the UK yet,
> is what I mean) I can't wait to see Snape's wand.......anguished
> gnashing of fingernails by teeth......

I've seen a calendar which sounds suspiciously like the one Gail 
described (it was boxed and sealed, so I couldn't inspect the actual 
pages, but some of the pictures were on the back of the box). There 
are several "cult"/"sci-fi" shops here in Birmingham so "our" kind of 
market is well served. 

I've also seen at least three different wall calendars and although I 
won't be buying any for myself, I'll probably one of each for my 
sister and her family of Potterholics (her sons are 6 and 3). :-) 

> Secondly, for those UK listers who can bear to watch the programme
> This Morning, which recently features the lovely Hedwig and Fang, 
and
> Leslie Philips a.k.a. The Sorting Hat, Daniel Radcliffe will be on
> next Friday as what I assume is their usual 12.00 - 12.30 time slot.

Err... This Morning's usual time slot is 10.30-12.30 and guests can 
be slotted in at any time. The last couple of days were "special" 
because the show devoted the last half-hour on both Thursday and 
yesterday to Halloween/Harry Potter. I've just seen next week's TV 
schedules, and the last half-hour of Friday's show is not split off 
in the schedules the way it was this week. If you tune in/start 
recording at 12.00, you may well miss Daniel's slot. 

> Be warned though, the programme is of such toe curling and 
cringingely
> awful quality I could hardly bear to watch.  My heart goes out to 
the
> cast and crew for having to endure such inane and pointless people
> interviewing them.  

To be fair to the show's producers, they've had a tough time over the 
week as the main presenter (John Leslie) was sacked over allegations 
about him in the tabloid press (he wasn't sacked directly beause of 
the allegations, but because he refused to explain himself to his 
bosses; it is unclear whether criminal proceedings will be brought 
against him). His (temporary?) replacement, Philip Schofield, has 
interviewing experience only on kids' programmes and clearly has 
found the adjustment difficult.

> No wonder as GulPlum mentioned, Rupert Grint
> looked bored to death when interviewed on Blue Peter, which sounded
> just as bad.  

Again, I've been thinking about this: Rupert is just past Blue 
Peter's target age range (9-12), and his spot came towards the end of 
the (live) programme. He therefore probably spent a long time waiting 
around watching people doing things he'd consider quite silly (do I 
need to remind anyone that 14 year-old boys are very touchy about 
this kind of thing?) :-) and was more embarassed than bored. The 
questions he was asked were unsurprisingly shallow, so he wasn't 
really stretched. 

(BTW just to tie things together, John Leslie's big career break was 
Blue Peter...) 

Oh, and for those who may have missed the announcement on the Leaky 
Cauldron, the entire junior Weasley clan (Chris Rankin, the Phelps 
twins, Rupert and Bonnie Wright) were on another kids' show this 
morning, SM:TV. I was out, but recorded the lot. 

Felicia, if you thought This Morning was cringeworthy, SM:TV was 
utterly dire. OK, it's aimed at kids even younger than Blue Peter's 
audience (6-10) but I found it *so* patronising and the main 
presenter (who got the job on the strength of winning UK's Big 
Brother last year!) is a really irritating git. One of the segments 
had him pitted against Rupert in a quiz about CoS; the guy (in his 
mid-20s) is so abnormally thick that despite having been given all of 
last week to read the book, he'd not managed to finish it!

Even Bonnie Wright looked embarassed to be there! (Incidentally, I 
was a little susprised to learn that the twins aren't natural carrot-
heads: they're blond.)

I'm dreading next week: Daniel's the star attraction for the entire 
show! Set your VCR: 9.30-11.30 on ITV1 next Saturday!