89 Not Out: Day 51, Discovering Daytime TV

S&C contributor and Pompey Politics Podcast host Ian Morris shares his experience of the lockdown, as someone with diabetes. It’s Day 51, Ian has a day off and discovers the many, sometimes wooden, wonders of daytime TV.

Wednesday 6th May, Day 51 of 89.

Drive through and splinters.

We started our day with a cheeky drivethrough. Of course, the questionable breakfast or the vastly inflated cup of Coster’ Coffee was a non-starter.

No, this was a local farm shop, Stokes Fruit Farm on Hayling Island. The deal is you download your PDF produce list, drive up in your car and read your order aloud, tap your card to pay, drive around the corner, pop the boot and they pile your chosen offerings straight in. You close the boot and drive away.

This yielded one of the best by far bacon and free range egg sandwiches I have tasted in a good, long time and if you are vegetably-minded, their asparagus was something properly delicious roasted in a touch of butter. We paired this with a steak from our local butcher, Shepperds in Drayton. It was a two and a half pound rump steak, expertly cooked by our eldest, but panic ye not, we did share it between four. One of my resolves when all this is over is to keep patronising the local shops that have made this situation workable. 

I also entered the fascinating world of daytime TV yesterday, and if you haven’t before, then you have to treat yourself.

Those of us who work from home know that it’s Bargain Hunt and then the One o’clock News, where you grab the headlines before heading back to the keyboard. But, if you can stay with it, first comes Doctors, which seems to be loosely based around an imaginary surgery. The acting in it is extraordinary, it ranges from so wooden you might get splinters to so spectacularly over-egged you can hear the Director’s teeth grinding in the background. The show clearly has a budget that could fit into a crab’s eye socket, so there is no chance of the much needed ‘Take 2!’

You should then make a hot beverage of your choosing and settle down with Father Brown. The lead is played by Mark Williams, formerly of the Fast Show, playing a sleuthing Catholic priest. It is set in the 1950s I think, and again the acting may not win too many Oscars, but Mark is excellent. Having seen only two episodes, I think I am hooked.

You do have to suspend your disbelief that a quiet country parish in the Cotswolds seems to have a higher murder rate than the meanest inner city neighbourhood, but I urge you to give it a go…

 

Don’t miss Ian’s diary each day, keep an eye out for new entries here, along with past editions of the Pompey Politics Podcast. How are you managing the lockdown at the moment? Get in touch with us over on Facebook or Twitter and let us know your experiences and any hints and tips you’re finding helpful right now.

Image by Pavlofox from Pixabay

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