saturday tv its family thing

Saturday TV - it's a family thing....

Thanks to Dr Who, Saturday evenings in our house have become a family

watching tv time. Which is of course a bit of a problem when the

series ends.

However in the absence of the good doctor, we had Robin Hood in the

autumn, which the children (who let's face it lack discernment) love.

Although the last series got so silly I have to fess up I left the

bosom of the family a fair few times as I couldn't cope with the

stupidity of Marian not shagging Guy, the really crap way they

depicted Elinor of Aquitaine as some lecherous old bint, and the

nonsense of all of them ending up in the Holy Land in the last couple

of episodes. Still they did have the sense to finish Marian off for

good this time, and I can't imagine that even Jack can a) bring her

back from the dead again and b) resurrect her from the tomb she's

incarcerated in in the desert. But you never know I suppose....

With Robin Hood over we were facing a bit of a vacuum, and were all

wondering what had happened to Primeval, which comfortably filled the

Family Viewing slot till Dr Who was back, last year. To our delight it

returned to our screens few weeks ago, complete with weird anomalies,

strange creatures, and Dougie Henshall's evil missis. Hurrah, hurrah.

Saturday evenings are fun again.

Primeval is of course a load of old tosh. But such enjoyable old tosh

that it doesn't really matter. The kids get a bit fed up with us

saying but what about X? and look behind you you idiot! when the

characters are particularly dumb. And there always seems to be some

confusion about whether to kill the creatures that come through the

anomaly - at the beginning of the series it was a no no, because you

might change time (fans of Primeval will know that poor old Nick

Cutter, the hero, came back from an anomaly to discover that things

had altered so much his putative girlfriend had disappeared, only for

her to reappear as someone completely different) - but now they seem

to be killing prehistoric animals with gusto, and zipping in and out

of anomalies with not so much as a by your leave, and NOTHING much

happens....

That carping aside though, last night's episode was a real roller

coaster, and I had two sprogs on my lap for most of it as we wondered

whether Abby was going to get eaten by a predecessor of the shark (who

looked more walrus like then anything, but never mind), and whether

Conor was going to stop being so wet and useless for once and actually

save her (which he did of course).

We also had the fun of wondering which hero Spouse resembles. In one

scene Stephen (the metrosexual foil to Cutter's maverick lead) stood

facing Cutter in a bit of a stand off (there is TENSION between them

you see on account of Stephen having shagged Mrs Evil ) . Which one am

I most like? Asked Spouse. Given that Stephen sports as much hair on

his chest as my husband does, but Cutter was wearing the exact same

jacket he possesses. The children pondered this dilemma before Spouse

asked which of them had his tummy - er neither I think is the answer

to that. I rather suspect he resembles the walrus most....

Another enjoyable thing about it though is the intrigue - so far we

know that the guy who played Martin Dear in Green Wing isn't all he

seems, and is in cahoots with the woman who is trying to worm her way

into Conor's affections for what nefarious purpose remains to be seen.

But judging from the end of last night's episode, it's going to

involve Mrs Evil.

The best thing about Saturday Family TV is that it allows you to be a

kid again. So like a five year old, I really really can't wait for