Foghorn

It was hot weather for the pigs and all the other animals at the Royal Welsh Show this week. Went up to Builth Wells on Tuesday, where it topped out at 91F (33C for all you metric people – back off Brussels).

Visited all of the animal areas and saw the pigs being judged. How exactly can you tell how good a pig it is unless it’s converted into bacon butties?

In the bird hall where more different varieties of chicken, ducks and geese that you could wish to meet. Did you know that there is a breed of chicken called a leghorn? I say, I say boy - Foghorn Leghorn is for real.

Theatre Notes

Went to see Rodney Bewes on Wednesday in his one-man show The Dairy of a Nobody. Straight out of the same drawer as his Three Men in a Boat show last year. Wonderfully quirky and with a very gentle humour, it was perfect entertainment for a warm summer evening.

TV Notes

Tommy Lee’s Rockstar Supernova is the second series of the reality TV show to find singers for bands. Last year INXS found a new lead singer in JD Fortune and have been touring.

This year’s project is to find a frontman (-person) for Supernova, a newly formed “supergroup” – Tommy Lee on drums, Gilby Clark of Guns ‘N Roses on guitar and Jason Newstead of Metallica on bass. Pop music it ain’t. But it is one of the few occasions on TV nowadays to actually hear someone sing live, rather than mime. It’s on Sky One.

Top of the Pops has been cancelled, and after 42 years this week sees the last ever show. If you can find it, that is. It was a staple of my youth, and it was always 7pm on Thursday, BBC1. In recent years it’s been left to die in the backwater of BBC2 on Sunday evenings, but actually it’s been dying ever since the emergence of MTV. Music videos replaced mimed performances a long time ago.

Jimmy Saville presented the first show and now presents the last show. Altogether – “now then, now then…ow’s about that then?”