anorak alerts

Anorak Alert No.55: Really enjoyed seeing whimsical Scrapper at the cinema but when 12 year old Georgie's estranged dad tells her to scrape the frame numbers off the stolen bikes ...  Frame numbers are usually stamped into a lug and need filing off.

Anorak Alert No.54:  A trope or maybe urban myth that white blues type guitarists like Jeff Beck got that rough sound by slitting their speaker cones but Dear BBC the Kinks' Dave Davies cut up his amplifier and stuck it back together with drawing pins? ♫

Anorak Alert No.53: ♫ On Radio 3's In Tune last night both presenter Sean Rafferty and The Kings Singers thought Walpole just outside Aldeburgh ... from the moon it is.

Anorak Alert No.52:  Sarah Beeny's New Life In The Country might want to tell their sub-titles that it's signet as in her husband's signet ring and not cygnet which is a young swan.

Anorak Alert No.51:  We like Eric Ravilious' careful and faintly other worldly watercolours.  Last week we enjoyed the feature documentary film Eric Ravilious Drawn to War but were slightly irritated by a hand shown using an open bottle of Quink and a fountain pen as a dip pen.

Anorak Alert No.38:  The blurb write on the back of this Maigret DVD seems to think the iconic French detective was Belgian, perhaps they're confusing him with Poirot or that author George Simenon was a Belgian.

Anorak Alert No.37:  Sir Clive Sinclair invented the pocket calculator ... we don't think so.

Anorak Alert No.36:  We've always thought that the self satisfied, smug entitlement of failed Tory MP Gyles Brandreth justifies the return of the death penalty.  So unsurprisingly we noted when on Inheritance Tracks like others he thought Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear was 'by' Alan Price, it was written by Randy Newman. ♫

Anorak Alert No.35:  In 1951 eminent author and antiquarian Patrick Nightingale couldn't have requested Stranger on the Shore as it wasn't released until 1961.  Perhaps the stunningly creative and original John Finnemore understandably wasn't going to let a fact get in the way of a joke. ♫

Anorak Alert No.34:  It's an urban myth that Rod Stewart played harmonica on My Boy Lollipop, it was probably Pete Hogman or possibly Jimmy Powell.  Pauline Black of The Selecter credits Stevie Wonder, he would have been 14 ... but then he was a child prodigy. ♫

Anorak Alert No.32:  In the Alfred Hitchcock/Robert Donat The 39 Steps when the man with some of his little finger missing threatens Richard Hannay with a pistol he calls it a revolver when it's clearly an automatic.  Re-watching the film we were surprised how impressively nasty John Laurie (Private Frazer Dad's Army) was.

Anorak Alert No.31:  Dodie Smith's novel I Capture The Castle is set in Suffolk but the film adaptation has a beach scene that doesn't look like Suffolk to us.

Anorak Alert No.28:  A bit picky considering the hours of filler Ned Boulting has to generate commentating on the Tour de France but Geraint Thomas was 32 when he won last year not 36 ... and here's why the Le Tour is unlikely to visit Framlingham, it would exceed local authority imposed fun limits.

Anorak Alert No.27:  Salvage Hunters: The Restorers voice over man Ralph Ineson that's pva glue not epoxy resin that Alex Webster is using on the dowels in the 300 year old chest.

Anorak Alert No.26:  Lovely Olivia Coleman voice overing Secret Life of the Zoo says the newly born vampire crabs (Geosesarma) are 5cm in size.  The babies are absolutely tiny, they may not even be 5mm.

Anorak Alert No.22:  On Would I lie To You Gabby Logan and Danny Wallace if it's a bloke then he's a masseur not a masseuse.

Anorak Alert No.16:  On Radio 4 Mitch Benn reckoned original Elvis' bass player Bill Black was part of the 1968 comeback tv special, would have been quite a trick as Bill Black had died three years earlier.

Anorak Alert No.15:  If you're going to make a Camp coffee joke on Radio 4 Russell Grant you should know that it comes in bottles not jars.

Anorak Alert No.14:  A Purdey is a gun but not a rifle OAPs Behaving Badly voice over man.

Anorak Alert No.13:  It's pronounced Criterium du Dophinay ITV4 continuity announcer not Criterium du Dopheen.

Anorak Alert No.12:  The cover of Bob Dylan's Freewheelin' was in colour not black and white self declared clever person Professor Lisa Jardine on Desert Island Discs. ♫

Anorak Alert No.11:  LED stands for Light EMITTING DIODE How It's Made voice over man not Light Electronic Device.

Anorak Alert No.10:  In an episode of the Father Brown tv adaptation with Mark Williams this oily rag was never going inflate a bicycle tyre with a car pump.

Anorak Alert No.9: The Eagle was a comic not a magazine Radio 4extra continuity announcer.

Anorak Alert No.1:  Telstar: The Joe Meek Story on BBC2 last night didn't use the actual 304 Holloway Road. ♫