Friday Five: TV Programmes

After the excitement of the World Cup, Tour de France and Commonwealth Games, my television viewing has hit a barren patch. There are, however, a few programmes that I will make an effort to watch.

Neil Stuke, Maxine Peake and Rupert Penry-Jones in Silk

Five Programmes I'm Watching:

1. Silk - created by Peter Moffat and starring Maxine Peake, Rupert Penry-Jones and Neil Stuke, this is season three of the adventures of the barristers and clerks of Shoe Lane Chambers. Each episode is a self-contained piece of drama with some fine acting and larger themes of justice and morality.
2. Dr Who - He's back and he's Peter Capaldi. I'm still not impressed with Jenna Coleman's Clara companion, and the signs show no indication that she might fade back into the role of assistant rather than trying to take over. The Doctor, however, has a little more of the edgy madness and less of the cuddly doofus aspect that was threatening to spoil the franchise, so I'm prepared to give it time. (Do you see what I did there?)
3. Utopia - a sort of Australian version of The Thick of It. It's not quite as classy, but office politics and government departments are such rich comedy seams to mine that there are still plenty of nuggets to polish.
4. The Book Club / At the Movies  - personable people having intelligent discussions and reviewing stuff that interests me (i.e. books and films).
5. The Project / Have You Been Paying Attention? - information and questions about current affairs both portrayed in a lighthearted manner, or, as they say themselves, 'It's news delivered differently'.

Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who

Random Dialogue: Theology Debate

The Temptation by William Strang

At home with the Blackhursts. This week: theology.

Me: I read recently that the word Paradise comes from the Old Persian, pairidaeza meaning 'walled garden' and the writer questioned whether the wall was to keep people in or out. But I think the question should be why a wall is required at all.
Him: To keep the bad stuff out.
Me: What bad stuff? It's Paradise!
Him: The snakes.
Me: The snake wasn't necessarily bad.
Him: Yes, he was. He bit them.
Me: No he didn't.
Him: He bit the apple.
Me: No he didn't.
Him: Well, there was a snake and there was an apple. And someone bit the apple, and they all got kicked out.
Me: Eve bit the apple.
Him: That's right, and the snake made her.
Me: Well, the snake suggested it, but she chose to do it.
Him: Well, there you are then. It was a bad snake and so there was a wall to keep it out.
Me: Snakes can slither up walls, can't they?
Him: No, they can only do trees, because they can wrap themselves around the trunk.
Me: What if it's just a small wall?
Him: What, like Hadrian's Wall?
Me: Yes, ok, if you like.
Him: No, I don't like, because Hadrian wasn't in Paradise, so he wouldn't have built a wall.
Me: Well, someone did; if Paradise means 'walled garden', there must have been a wall, so who built it, and why?
Him: God knows.
Me: Quite.