Music, Books, Films & Telly 'n' Shit

Forgot all about it!

Yes, that was a suggested watch, presumably as we have just finished the latest of the Expanse.

From the previews I have seen, they learned quite a bit from the Expanse.  Much better plot and character development than of old.

I've renewed watching World at War. Some of it is exceedingly uncomfortable viewing.

Just watched TG on iPlayer and agree with everything said. The bit where Harris got out of the car on the driving range and started scurrying around in the dinosaur suit was comedy gold and had me in absolute stitches of laughter. And the “bungee a Metro off the dam” bit with Flintoff was just gobsmackingly bonkers.

I can't be the only person who was thinking, "it's not a Metro it's a Rover 100".

I'm not even sure it was much of a Rover 100. No engine, I suspect, and it appeared to be a shell on a bespoke chassis to take the loadings.

I don't think even Rover ever managed to stop people referring to the 100 as a Metro (aside from maybe those who owned one).

Aruba blue isn't it?

It was one of the free colours on a Rover 200 around 1997. It may have had a different name for that model.

I was fond of mine. I bought it approved used from our local Rover dealership for the princely sum of £4,500 when it was a year old with 10k on the clock. It had a Longbridge registration (M170POP so was always known as Pop) and I was told it was from Rover's own staff fleet. They'd had two for sale but the other was white, so I went for the bright blue which I liked because it was very similar to Audi's iconic Nogaro Blue.

You might wonder why on earth a Rover 100, but my father (who agreed to go halves on the car + first year's insurance up to a maximum all-in of £5k) had insisted it be British (he thought that would be cheaper to fix and insure), diesel (cheaper to run) and still under manufacturer's warranty. And that, at the time, ruled out pretty much everything else.

I put 20k miles on it in two years, which quite apart from regular schlepps to and from university in Scotland, also included a two month tour of Europe in 1997 that took it and me to Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France (including Monaco and then Paris on the day that Princess Diana died - I drove it past the scene of the accident as I was staying with an aunt who lived barely a stone's throw away). I got it to an indicated 110mph (where the speedo ended) on a downhill section of autobahn in the Eifel - surely a record for any diesel Rover 100.

Its tenure with me came to an abrupt end in 1998 after the first set of NCAP tests were published and the Rover 100 famously got just one star after basically crumpling completely. That made the evening news, and it didn't help matters that the one they crash-tested was the exact same shade of blue as mine. That freaked my mother out completely and I shamelessly exploited that in order to get financial assistance to chop the 100 in for a Mk2 Golf 1.8. Whether that was actually any sturdier is debatable but as a 22yr old, I was rather more interested in its considerably higher streetcred!

www.euroncap.com/en/results/rover/100/15472

I used to deliver milk to Mrs Thatcher on weekends. That's about it.

To get from Bognor Regis to Essex, I wouldn't have gone anywhere near Thruxton

Gary clarke Jnr. Album ‘this land ‘ is very very good