Barry Cryer - Twitter Titters with Colin Sell

Not long been back from a great evening out at The Castle theater in Wellingborough to see Barry Cryer who (amongst other things) is famous for writing for some of the greatest people of all time from the likes of Tommy Cooper to Morecambe and Wise and you don't get more famous than them!

I have to admit I've not really followed Mr Cryers radio career so I had no idea who Colin Sell is and to be honest when I sat down and took a look at the stage and saw a grand piano standing there, I was a little confused as to what was going on.  When a pianist came on stage (who I later learned was in fact Colin Sell) and started playing background music I was beginning to wonder what sort of show I had come to see as it was beginning to look like a piano recital and when Colin started singing, I really began to wonder what I had let myself in for...

To make my concerns even worse, when Barry Cryer came on to the stage he too started singing which really made me wonder what on earth was going on!

It wasn't long before the singing stopped and the show turned in to what I had hoped, lots of funny tales and jokes about people Barry Cryer had met (and sometimes written for) over his many years in show business.  There were lots of 'old' jokes that we'd all pretty much heard before, time and time again and it was these jokes and stories I had come to hear, as a lot of them are jokes we've all taken for granted and forget that someone wrote them in the first place, and in many cases it was Barry Cryer who was part of a team of people that wrote them.  :)

All the singing wasn't my cup of tea, but it was soon explained that Barry and Colin have been working together on the radio in this way for many, many years and a lot of the audience members were familiar with their work together and seemed to enjoy it.

All-in-all I have to say it was a very different and mostly enjoyable night out - the last of a dying breed you might say as modern comedians use observational comedy which when I was growing up was called Alternative Comedy but it's now so widespread that it's the norm so is just, well, comedy.

Although he's from the same era as Ken Dodd, he wasn't quite up to that standard for me, but it was still a good night out so I've given this show a well deserved 3 stars.

Rolson Battery Operated Precision Screwdriver

I've been looking for an electric screwdriver for a while now as although a lot of desktop/tower computers these days come without any screws that need undoing to get inside, all laptops are still held together with screws so I was looking for something to get things done a bit quicker.

The only problem with an electric screwdriver is you've got to make sure it's charged up and if you're out in the field you need to make sure you have your charger with you (and not left it back at base) in case it runs out of power.

The other day I was browsing around my local Maplin Electronics store and found a battery operated screwdriver!

OK, it's more correctly called a precision screwdriver as the 'bits' are smaller than those you would find on a 'normal' sized screwdriver, but as I was after one for working on laptops with this was a perfect choice.

It takes three AAA batteries which means I can carry some spares with me should I go off-site to and run out of power.  It comes with eight double-ended bits including, slot, cross and torx heads.

There is a switch that you slide to make it rotate in which direction you require and you operate the screwdriver by holding down the power button on the bottom black part of the screwdriver.

The only thing I don't like about it is the fact that the spare screwdriver bits are not stored on or inside the screwdriver itself so there is a risk (certainly for me) that the tube containing the bits may get lost or left behind by mistake.

I paid around £15 in Maplin for this screwdriver which was a bit more than I was originally intending to pay, but after a quick search online I found this exact same screwdriver on sale with a starting price of £20 going on up to just over £32.

If it was £20 in Maplin then I don't think I would have purchased it and I certainly wouldn't pay £32 for it, it's good, but not that good.

Overall I would give it 3 stars out of 5, if only the screwdriver bits were stored in or on the screwdriver then it probably would have scored a 4.

Cor Blimey! - DVD Review

If you're a fan of the Carry On films, Barbara Windsor or the great man himself (Sid James) then you're bound to want to see this DVD.

It's a drama based on the lives of Sid James and Barabara Windsor through the Carry On years.

Sid James had his own dressing room in the forum of a caravan that came complete with its own toilet, shower and bedroom, it may not sound much but his fellow cast members dressing rooms were nowhere near as glamorous.

The Carry On films were made incredibly cheaply, especially by today's standards and the actors didn't exactly earn a fortune from them but it's certainly what made quite a few of them famous and they must have been great fun to do!

The Conduit - First Person Shoot 'em Up On The Nintendo Wii

Right on the front of the box is a quote from IGN claiming that this is "the best shooting game on the Wii" so I had no choice but to buy it and give it a go!  Two and a half hours later and I was still playing it so I guess they could be right!

You take the role of Agent Michael Ford, working for a Government Department known as The Trust.  Your in a bunker and your fellow Agents seem to have been taken over by some sort of Alien technology so you have no choice but to kill them with the weapons and munitions you find around the underground bunker.

I've played games such as Call of Duty on the Wii (I still own one of them) but to be honest, for me their too realistic as the wars they are set in are still in 'recent' history so I find them a little bit disrespectful/distasteful and that puts me off playing them.

The Conduit reminds of the good old days before such COD type games existed and you have missions to go on that involve blowing the brains out of aliens and such like as you progress through the many different levels - a 'Doom Style' game (as I call them) and it's absolutely fantastic!  The graphics and gameplay are brilliant and there's plenty of different weapons to get to grips with, but be careful if you have an itch as when I scratched my head with my hand that had the nun-chuck in a inadvertently threw a grenade and blew myself up!

Wii Mans Game Rating

Fun Factor: 8/10 – First person shoot 'em ups don't come much finer than this!
Playability: 9/10 – Wii Controller & Nun-chuck required - don't scratch you head else you might throw a grenade though...
Gameplay: 8/10 – The first time I put in the disk I spent hours playing this game so it must be good!
Graphics: 6/10 – The graphics are just as good as any other Wii game out there with nothing outstanding to give it a higher rating
Sound/Music: 8/10 – Atmospheric sound(s) in this game increase the overall gaming experience and help make this game fantastic!

All-in-all a great game, but there's still something missing that I cant quite put my finger on as yet that would make this game so much better.

Overall 39/50

Get Some In!

Written by the people who also wrote The Good Life & Please Sir! and starring Tony Selby and Robert Lindsay, Get Some In! is a fantastic TV Sit-Com that was set in the 1950's.  Jakey (Robert Lindsay) goes to the RAF to do his National Service and meets the Drill Instructor from hell, Corporal Marsh (Tony Selby).

The show ran for 5 series and was originally broadcast between 1975 and 1978 and you can now get all five series of the show in a singe DVD 'Box Set' available from all good stockists (I got mine on special offer from Amazon for a bargain price of £14.97 when others were selling for £49.99 - a bargain if you ask me)!