The Daily Record - Webeditor Blog

Six of the best: TV themes and titles

2009-07-06T19:02:39Z

With the Bill set for a glossy, post-watershed makeover, out goes the famous theme tune that's served it well for a quarter of a century, and in comes a whole new ident for the show.

And it got us thinking here at Central Quay. So via the Daily Record's Twitter feed, we asked for your favourite themes. You answered, and here's a few of the nominations...

Dad's Army
(nominated by Gavin Mories

The High Life
(nominated by Inside Line)
'a classic Scottish production...' they said. Who are we to disagree?

The Equaliser
(nominated by, well, me)

Supergran
(nominated by Martin Mills)
'Billy Connolly singing Supergran was a brilliant opening theme tune', says Martin. And do you know what? He's right!

The A Team
(Nominated by Jon Brady)
'Unforgettable cheesetastic theme, and Mr. T in the title sequence. Need I say more?'

The Rockford Files
(Nominated by Jags Forum)
Rockford Files Season 1 intro

So that's our pick - but if you disagree, add your nominations below...

Six of the best: Neighbours stars turned pop stars

2009-07-02T18:31:29Z

Welcome to a very special six of the ~~best~~ worst, inspired by the Daily Record's interview this week with Stefan Dennis.

Now poor Stefan's had a career trajectory that went from Neighbours (imperial era) to Dream Team to River City to Neighbours (contemporary). But nestled in among all that TV gold is a shining nugget of music terror.

So in tribute to Stef, and the rest of the Stock Aitken and Waterman hits factory (am sure that's an anagram), here's six of the best of the worst to make the jump from Ramsay Street to Top 40...

6: Stefan Dennis - Don't It Make You Feel Good?(1989)
Because nothing says an 80s SAW pop video like synths, plastic sheeting, chain link fences and a man with a sensible haircut wearing a leather jacket.

5: Bruce Samazan - One Of A Kind (1993)
Bruce played Mark Gottlieb - no, we didn't immediately remember him either - in the 90s, but also was the first actor to appear in all three 'big' Australian soaps - Neighbours, Home and Away, and E Street, where he played a werewolf apparently. Famously, this was actually cited in a court case as 'particulary bad' and a blessing that it got little airplay...

4: Dan Falzon - Walkaway (2006)
The former Rick Alessi, Dan Falzon, originally released Seventeen with his brother as Milk in 1997. He's now a paramedic, eco warrior and a UFO hunter, but they're still churning out the songs. To be fair to Dan, he's doing it to promote awareness of climate change.

3: Natalie Bassingthwaite (Rogue Traders) - Voodoo Child (2006)
Um. Well. Yes. Look, it's just bloomin' annoying, ok? And performed live, as it is below, it's rubbish AND annoying. Song hit number 3 in the charts. Album, however, currently missing presumed dead.

2: Craig McLaughlan - Mona (1990)
I'll be fair to Craig McLaughlan. He's actually not that bad a singer. He's a fairly decent actor - indeed, he was the best thing about god-awful tv series Bugs. Doesn't mean he didn't murder Mona when he covered it though.

1: Gayle and Gillian - All Mixed Up (1991)
But for true horror, nothing can top the cash-in pop nightmare that was the Twins. Anyone with long memories might remember David Baddiel on The Mary Whitehouse Experience talking about the twins, and how one of them's got a wonky mouth. He's right you know. After this monstrosity, they ended up co-hosting Take Your Pick with Des O'Connor. Unfortunately, he'd left his pick at home, so they escaped to fight another day.

and the one that got away...

Kylie and Jason obviously had good careers - Kylie's a bit more notable than Jase's to be honest. But for me, nothing can top Natalie Imbruglia's 1997 pop debut, Torn...

I defy anyone to watch this video and not say aww...

2009-06-29T20:05:39Z

My girlfriend, knowing how much I love (a) cute japanese things and (b) coffee, found this little video on YouTube.

So, like the title says. Watch it. And if you don't go awww, you've a swinging brick for a heart.

Chip off the old block

2009-06-15T09:10:31Z

Saddened to see the story kicking about today of the Bervie Chipper in Stonehaven being badly damaged in a fire at the weekend.

Stoney's always been a great town for it's fish and chips. Sitting where it does, on the Mearns coast, and surrounded by farms, you got the best fish and the best spuds for chipping, and the large number of award-winning chippers around Kincardineshire can be attributed, in part to that.

As well I know.

Back in the dim and distant, when I was just starting out as a cub reporter, I had the pleasure of working in Stoney at the Press and Journal's district office.

Now, another chip shop in the town - the Haven - laid claim to the dubious but internationally recognised honour of having invented the deep fried Mars Bar, a delicacy (for want of a better word) that probably contravenes several chemical and biological weapons treaties, not to mention single-handedly keeps the defibrilator industry in business.

It became a badge of honour, in a bizarre way, for the town. And thus, whenever there was a story to be done about some whacky foodstuff, about health experts criticising Scots dietary habits or just that mentioned Mars Bars, I got lumbered with the honours.

I even ate one once. I guess it could be regarded as an initiation, a passage of rites, when I joined the district office in Stoney for the first time.

Or, in other words, I got royally stitched up.

April 1997, it was. I remember it well. Judith, the senior reporter in the office, had urged me to get one and try one, to become part of the local culture. So I did, wandering along to the Haven to order one for lunch. Clearly used to dealing with newbies and out-of-towners, the chip shop staff had a well-rehearsed schtick over the fryer.

One which ended with the phrase: "Salt and vinegar with that?"

Now, common sense and hindsight might suggest that the answer to that should have been a resounding no, but being a young and daft lad keen to impress, I presumed that was the way you should eat them.

Trust me. It really isn't. In fact, there's no surer way to kill the flavour of an already batter-coated slab of chocolate than to drench it in salt and vinegar.

Oddly enough, not touched them again since then.

Playing for Change: Stand By Me

2009-06-12T16:56:58Z

It's not often I'll find something that on the internet that really moves me.

But occasionally, just occasionaly, among all the virals and LOLcats and chaff, the odd absolute nugget turns up that's makes you grin like a fool for the rest of the day.

This is a video by the people behind the remarkable Playing for Change movement, a multimedia project designed to bring people from all sorts of backgrounds and attitudes together in the name of music.

You can find full details of their remarkable project here, but in the meantime just sit back, relax and enjoy this - Stand By Me, performed by street musicians, singers and artists from around the world.

Brought to Boyle around the world

2009-05-07T09:20:51Z

This week, I've been haggling with NBC in the States and TV Asahi in Japan, speaking to the Oprah show and seeing the Record's logo splattered across TV screens across the globe. Yes, it's been an interesting couple of weeks at DailyRecord.co.uk, and largely thanks to one wee woman from West Lothian.

Susan Boyle fever's been more infectious than H1N1, and the whole world's caught a dose - with the Daily Record at the forefront.

You've probably seen the coverage it's been getting, but the world and its mother has latched onto the phenomenon that is Susan Boyle since her first appearance on Britain's Got Talent.

The tracking tools we use to see where our visitors have come from has made for interesting viewing this week. Normally, most of our audience is right here in Blighty, with pockets in the US, Canada and Down Under among the exiles and ex-pats living overseas.

But this week it's been Japan and Finland that's been lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree on our map. Quite how Finland caught the Susan Boyle bug I'm not sure, but acumsi to all our new readers over there.

It's stories like these where you get a sense of the real scale of the internet. Countries tens of thousands of miles away from Blackburn suddenly tuning into Susan's incredible performance on YouTube, sparking a hunger to hear more of her impressive vocal performances.

And as it snowballs, we've seen more and more people visiting the site to see our great range of Susan Boyle exclusive stories and videos. To the point where the digital desk is getting calls from The Today Show, Super Morning News and TV New Zealand all looking for clips from her audition for My Kind of People or her 1984 Motherwell performance.

My Japanese isn't great, and my American probably worse (!) but we've managed to muddle through. Just seeing these clips on the telly, with the rampant lion and the Daily Record logo... it doesn't have send a shiver down your spine.

And the ultimate culmination of all this - seeing our Youtube channel ranked as the number one in the world this week. We didn't have one a year ago - now it's number one. Blimey.

I'm not sure I'll ever see a story like it again - although our wise old editor points out you should never say never. And if we don't, well - it's been a hell of a rollercoaster.

In praise of a great team

2009-04-24T10:09:16Z

Last night, at the Scottish Press Awards, we grabbed a double whammy on the digital desk, on a week when we brought you Susan Boyle's first musical recording, kicking off a groundbreakingly successful period here at the site and taking the Daily Record's name arond the world.

As webeditor, I'm delighted to say I won the first Multimedia Journalist of the Year award, with the Record's Razz Girl and blogger extraordinaire Bev Lyons as runner up in the category.

So you'll have to forgive me feeling a little bit chuffed this morning - albeit struggling after the world's hottest curry.

It's a tremendous honour for the site, and comes as the paper also picked up Journalist Team of the Year for it's coverage of the Peter Tobin trial and News Photographer of the Year for our brilliant snapper Tony Nicoletti.

Over at the Sunday Mail, Charles Lavery deservedly picked up the Reporter of the Year award - and if you haven't seen his tremendous videos from Afghanistan, where he came under fire from the Taliban, you should go do so now.

But if you'll excuse a moment of self-indulgence, and in the best tradition of gushing luvvie award types, I want to say a huge thank you to the fantastic digital team who work here with me at DailyRecord.co.uk, and to introduce you to the team here.

Dave Bohill (you'll recognise him from the blog), my cat-hating, Sunderland loving deputy editor.

Content editors Bryan Quinn, who's responsible for so much of the great video and audio clips you'll find on the site, and Scott Marley, our technical guru who helps keep the site working.

Fraser Wilson, our online reporter who's also doing wonders over with The Glaswegian. And our weekend team of Garry McConnachie and Nick Hanlon, whose rantings and ravings on the big and wee screen you'll find over on our TV and Film blog.

But it's not just the digital team who share the award - because to have a great website you need a great newspaper, which we've definitely got. So everyone on the paper, from Bev and John and Mickey to the Sports Podcast regulars to Joan and Julie, the guys on the games blog and everyone - too numerous to mention, even here on the web - who've helped make the website the success it's been share in our gong.

At the risk of sounding like a really gushing luvvie, I've got a need in my heart to thank Steve Purcell, my old boss without whom I genuinely wouldn't be here - in fact, I'd be in the desert somewhere. Literally.

And, of course, thank you to you, the readers. Because you are the reason we do the website. You tell us what you like and don't like, what works and what doesn't, and hopefully we give you the website that you, as Daily Record readers, want and deserve.

Farewell to Fern, but will hubby go too?

2009-03-26T10:56:37Z

SO Fern Britton has decided to quit This Morning.

OK, she was a bit economical with the truth about her dramatic weight loss - how did that gastric band get there? - but she seemed genuinely warm and likeable.

The public have forgiven her and she will be missed from our morning telly.

There may be, I hope, one good thing to come from her quitting however. No more Phil Vickery.

Did the fact his wife was the host help him to get the job as the resident chef? Just a little bit, perhaps? Just a soupcon?

Apparently he's a prize pudding maker - prize dumpling, more like - but his skills don't translate onto the box.

For the first couple of years I couldn't follow a thing he said as he mumbled his way through his slot, promising to explain things later, and never doing it.

Phil, sorry, but you have all the charisma of a wet dishcloth. You won't be missed.

Let's hope This Morning's bosses do the right thing and get a proper chef back on. John Torode, are you available?

Heston Blumenthal: The unpalatable truth

2009-03-25T10:14:41Z

WATCHED Heston Blumenthal's Roman Feast last night.

I was feeling a bit nervous from the start when Hest announced he was going to create a meal in the style of the "deviant" emperor Caligula.

Hold on, wasn't he the bloke who impregnated his sister, then cut out the foetus and ate it? Yummy, are we getting that as a starter or main course?

But this doesn't deter our Hest. Unusual tastes are just one thing the boffin chef seems to share with the Romans. Although, to hear Hest, you would think it was more a case of they shared with HIM.

"The Romans liked to amaze their guests with stunning dishes... just like me!" opines modest Heston. "The Romans liked to keep their houses warm with central heating... which I invented," he went on. "And they were also keen on straight roads, the principles of which I laid down three weeks ago last Tuesday."

OK, he didn't say that, but you get the point. With Heston, it's all me, me, me, I, I, I. What an ego he has. Ego, of course, appropriately enough, being a latin word.

It all sounded a bit like Monty Python doing their "What have the Romans ever done for us?" routine. All that was missing was John Cleese offering otters noses and jaguar ear lobes as snacks.

Although that would have been an improvement on what was to follow.

What did Emperor Heston choose to serve up? For starters - I kid you not - pigs' nipples. Next course, calves' brain custard - accompanied by a sauce made with fish guts. Mmmm, just like mum didn't used to make.

For main course, sausage. Hurray, something that sounds normal, I hear you cry. Er, no, this sausage, it turns out, is cut out of a roast pig's belly to look like a load of intestines spilling out. Coming soon to a dinner table near you soon... butchery.

And for afters? An ejaculating cake. I swear I have not heard the word "ejaculating" so many times nor suffered so much puerile humour and sniggering since the class had to watch a sex education video when I was 12.

Heston Blumenthal: He came, he saw, he made me want to puke...

Bohill's weekly, trendy blog*

2009-03-18T11:53:31Z

HELLO there once more. The world's laziest blogger is back on the block.

Not since my cousin, Rip Van Bohill, became the world's first blogger when he reported on the invention of the world wide web 20 years ago - and was never heard from again - has there been such a hiatus in blog entries.

So what could have happened to prompt me from my slumbers and set fingers to keyboard? Well, it's only George Dubya Bush is going to write a book!

Remember this is a man who had enough trouble colouring books in, never mind writing them.

And what subject is the former leader of the free world going to tackle? The answer is his 12 toughest decisions.

If ever there was an occasion for "insert own gag here" this is it.

So what momentous decisions will Dubya write about, do you think?

I reckon the first one will be: Who should I ask to tie my shoelaces, Laura or the cat?

Number two could be: What's the best way to fill time when you're bored? (a) Have a snooze. (b) Press that big red button Don Rumsfeld says I'm not to touch EVER? Or (c) Invade another sovereign nation without the backing of the UN.

And number three could be: What do you do when your country is in the middle of the biggest terrorist attack in history? Should you prove your worth as a world statesman by taking immediate and decisive action? Or sit in a school classroom chewing on your lip and looking like a total divvy? The choice is yours.

Forward planning, you may realise, was never one of Dubya's strong points. But a chimp in a Swedish zoo has proved he can do it just swell. (Apologies for the weak segue).

Santino hated the visitors pointing and laughing at him so every morning, BEFORE the zoo opened, he would collect piles of stones and place them at suitable points where he could throw them at visitors. Clever monkey.

This behaviour was the first time any animal - other than a human - had demonstrated the ability to plan ahead. A momentous event in biology.

And what was Santino's reward for this? They castrated him. The head zookeeper must be a woman.

A few random thoughts before I go.

The horrendous racket that was Pink's So What? has finally faded from my eardrums. Good. But a quick memo to Pink: You're a pop star, love, not a rock star. Big difference.

Sky TV's Hollywood Greats series. A whole week devoted to Nicolas Cage? Approximately six days and 24 hours too long, I reckon.

And finally, that daft washing up liquid ad where the boy tries to put his scooter in the dishwasher. What self-respecting kid wants a clean scooter?

Enough for now, back later (who knows when).

*This headline could be construed as misleading and inaccurate on the grounds this blog is neither weekly nor trendy.

Send a message out across the sky...

2009-02-27T10:03:59Z

There are days when you end up feeling very old, even when everyone you work with is round about your age.

Today is one of those days.

It turns out I'm the only person on the digital team who's ever heard of Star Fleet. (Or X-Bomber, to give it it's Japanese name).

Now, I loved Star Fleet when I was a kid, and I was living up here when it was on, so the rest of my team would have had the same access to STV as me at the time. Yet the wonders of this not-quite-Gerry Anderson show, with it's creepy space pirates, big robots and a theme song so great it was covered by Bryan May, seems to have passed everyone else by.

So, largely to cheer myself up and prove that I'm not, in fact, mad, here's the classic opening titles. See.I'm not imagining it!

What more can we do for you? Tell us!

2009-02-26T12:36:24Z

It's been a fairly dramatic year here at DailyRecord.co.uk. But we want to hear from you as we go forward into the 2009 on what you want from the site.

We want to know what you think of the changes we've made to the look of the site - and whether or not you approve. Do you like the new design for our columnists? What do you think of the new look panels on the front page, highlighting the best of the site each day?

Do you like our podcasts and vodcasts? If not - why not.

Because ultimately, it's your site, and we want you to be more involved in shaping what we do. It's easy to bang on about social media and interactivity - god knows everybody does, but there's no point unless we ask you what YOU think.

So get in touch with us and tell us what you think of the Daily Record website, both good and bad. You can either leave a comment below, email us at webeditor@dailyrecord.co.uk or send us a message via twitter (we can be found at @daily_record).

And if you want to just write or phone us instead, we'll even take your comments the old fashioned way!

So now they can charge you for it, mobile phone use on a plane's acceptable? We've been had

2009-02-19T13:58:02Z

It's always been one of those great unbreakable rules - that using your mobile phone could send the plane you're on to it's doom should you start texting your pals from 30,000 ft.

Except, of course, everyone knows that's absolute guff.

We've all done it. Left the mobile in the bag and forgotten to switch it off. First time I flew after getting a mobile I did it. Got into the terminal and found I'd four missed calls. Yet I hadn't plummeted into oblivion.

And now Ryanair have proved the point by offering punters the chance to make calls and texts during the flight.

So all these years we've been told it's a nono, and now it's help yourself since one of the airline operators can make a quick buck? I think we've been had.

Kitted up

2009-02-09T13:40:40Z

With the Celtic v Rangers game approaching, we're putting together all the supplemental bits and bobs for our Old Firm channel.

You can see today's piece here - our guide to the best of the worst kits sported by either half of the Old Firm over the last few years.

But the good thing with all those kind of features is they spark lots of reminiscing from the team over the rest of the football kit horror shows we've suffered.

Our Digitial Director Ewan Watt nominated this particular nightmare from Dundee United.

Whereas I chanced upon this attrocity, sported by Morton between 1991 and 1993...

Although, for my Hull City supporting pals, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this one...:

But we all know there's worse, far far worse, than those out there. So what ones are particularly scoured into your brains? Let us know in the comments box below, or email webeditor@dailyrecord.co.uk, and we'll put the worse ones up at a future date.

Cold comfort

2009-02-09T13:37:07Z

I had to laugh at all the bleating on down south about the snow.

After so many years living down south, I know from bitter experience how little of a dusting it takes before everywhere south of the Watford Gap grinds to a frozen halt.

I remember the first time I saw a real, proper snowfall - it was about 17 years ago, and I'd not long moved back to Scotland from down south (the first time). I was living in Kirriemuir at the time, and the flakes battered down against the school windows with a ferocity I'd never seen before.

Having come up from Cambridgeshire, where a layer of icing sugar was enough to shut down schools and roads across the Fens, my immediate reaction was 'a blizzard'.

'That's not a blizzard,' my mate Craig remarked offhandedly. A couple of minutes later,as the lights briefly flickered, he nodded towards the window. 'Now THAT's a blizzard'.

Could I see outside? Could I heck. The snow fell so high that day the drifts buried our garden shed. And the dog, who threw himself into this unknown mass of white stuff with gusto, then came slinking, frozen, in a few minutes later, having left a cartoon-esque dog-shaped hole in the top of one snow pile.

So to this day it still amuses me when I watch on Sky News as they complain about four or five inches of snow falling, as if this were an English recreation of The Day After Tomorrow instead of being a reasonably cold snap hitting the country. After eight years of hearing them grumble when a centimeter falls on the capital, seeing them put up with what we've enjoyed for years is cold comfort indeed.

On Facebook, there's quite the north/south divide emerging too. My pals from Hull, Manchester and all points north are delighting in making pointed comments at the southern softies moaning about being snowed in, when all they really need is a pair of sturdy wellies and a bigger coat.

I'm just enjoying the view. Scotland looks beautiful in the snow - well, more beautiful, anyway - and it adds a proper wintery feel to the landscape that's so rare these days. In fact, the only pain in the neck about the whole thing is that I've got to move house in the midst of it.

Lugging boxes up and down a hill covered in frozen slush? Now that's snow joke.