soldiers' stories on history

On August 14th 1969 the first of the British Army troops arrived in Northern Ireland, deployed by the Wilson government as law and order had broken down in the province.

Over the next three decades some 300,000 British troops would serve in what became a war in all but name.  Occasionally they were welcomed, more often, they were spat at, pelted with missiles or shot.

Operation Banner ended at midnight on 31 July 2007 making it the longest continuous deployment in the British Army’s history; but the memories of the soldiers who had served here would last a lot longer…This year marks the 40th anniversary of the British Army’s arrival in Northern Ireland and Sodiers’ Stories tells the story from the frontline in a powerful and unforgettable documentary from HISTORY.

Soldiers’ Stories is presented by former soldier Ken Hames and based on the in-depth interviews conducted by Northern Ireland veteran Ken Wharton for his books on The Troubles, provides a new and unique insight into the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Soldiers have never before given such personal interviews and reveal stories of bombings, humour in the face of adversity, of strong comradeship and of heartache, from their own personal perspective.

During The Troubles over 1300 British Military personnel were killed, 6000 were wounded and over 3000 civilians were killed. There were no parades and no hero’s welcome for the 300,000 soldiers who served in Northern Ireland and for those who came home their memories will last a lifetime.  This is their story.

Using first-hand accounts and personal memories, brought to life with archive footage and some dramatic reconstruction, this powerful documentary will paint a vivid, unforgettable and personal picture of the lives of the soldiers during the last forty years in Northern Ireland.

Soldiers ‘ Stories can be seen on Monday 26 October at 9pm on HISTORY™ and HISTORY™ HD

It was good to see a more grown-up Micah return to Heroes in this episode. I had my suspicions that he was Rebel, considering his powers, but thought maybe he was another character that had just disapeared without explanation like his cousin Monica or Molly.

We also saw the end of another of the Ali Larter triplets when a frozen Tracey Strauss got blasted into ice cubes by Danko. Wonder when Barbara will make an appearance – and will she be good or bad (and sleep with Nathan Petrelli)? Speaking of whom, I wonder where Nathan has taken refuge now that Danko has discovered his ability? Does this mean he will be forced back into the hero’s gang with his brother Peter?

It’s strange seeing Angela forced into exile and great to see Peter rescuing her at the end. I am still wondering what Angela’s role in the current series is, and if Noah is actually working with her or against her. As usual Noah’s character is very grey, is he good/bad, is his behaviour just a cover for his true intentions etc etc…

I wonder if Peter will retrieve his powers by touching Sylar or by being touched by ‘baby touch and go’ Matt Parkman? I’m still hoping the writers will allow Sylar to save the day and become a hero at last. He is definitely one of my favourite characters and I love the ticking that accompanies him on screen. Will we still get to see the future Sylar with his son Noah? I hope so….

Has the whole series now become an open book? Unlikely, but this episode gave us a whole lot of answers that we didn’t even know we had questions to…!

Set 18 months, then 12 months in the past we discover how chief meglamaniac, Arthur Petrelli, controlled The Company and all those associated with it, including his wife Angela.

How Angela discovered the extent of her husbands ruthlessness with the help of Linderman and tried to dispose of Arthur…unfortunately an untimely appearance by Nathan allowed Arthur to save himself by manipulating the mind of the doctor who was treating him.

We also saw Sylars insatiable thirst for powers develop and it looked like Elle developed some kind of empathy with him.

So how will this all affect the development of the future storyline? Does it mean that Angela isn’t so evil after all?

Is Arthur going to eclipse Sylar, Adam Monroe, Angela, Linderman etc, etc as the greatest baddie of them all and if so will the season finale show him being conquered or will he continue to reign as the Big Daddy for however many seasons of Heroes we have left?

Or… will all this get turned around so Arthur turns out to be a Hero? I can’t wait to find out…

So now we know where Peter got his ability to absorb powers from…his dear old dad. Only Arthur Petrelli doesn’t just absorb powers, he quite selfishly takes the lot, which in the case of 850 year old (yes I know that ’s not right!) Adam Monroe, leaves him dead!

What I want to know is – is he doing Peter a favour by taking his powers away or is he as bad as Angela? And, how did the Petrelli boys grow up to be such nice guys with parents like that?

Meanwhile Peter has had that tricky problem of ‘how to stop himself slicing people’s heads open’ resolved, but is now completely powerless to save both the world from destruction and, once again…yawn, his brother Nathan whose own artificially induced power doesn’t seem to help him at all any more!

How, I ask in desperation, are the writers going to give us back the lovely, gentle Mohinder? He is obviously a key player in all of this what with his father’s original study of the ability phenomena and his sister Shanti producing the virus. So surely his current spider-type-you-wouldn’t-like-me-when-I’m-angry situation has got to be resolved? Hasn’t it…..?

Just to finish…I’m so glad that the Hiro killing Ando thing was explained straight away, we can’t have all of our good guys becoming villains!

Sony and Sky launch new Go!View

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO ENTERED THIS COMPETITION.

WE WILL CONTACT THE WINNERS SHORTLY.

Sony and Sky launch new Go!View Portable Service

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Sky have launched a portable video-on-demand service for PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) games consoles.  The new service allows you to watch some of the best tv shows such as Heroes, Lost and Desperate Housewives while away from your television and computer!

Currently, everyone who registers for the service at www.GoView.tv receive one month’s free subscription.

The content available will continue to grow, but already this new service includes tv shows, movies and sport.

You can choose from Comedy, Sport and Entertainment packs that are available by monthly subscription, whilst selected movies and TV series can be transferred via the rental service on Go!View.

Subscription packs are priced at £5 for 1 pack, £8 for 2 packs and £10 for all three packs.  Rental TV is available from £1.50 per episode and a range of movies is available from £2.50 each.

Programming will range from US dramas such as Heroes, Lost and Desperate Housewives to hit UK shows such as Doctor Who and Top Gear through to FA Premier League football action and blockbuster movies.

Free Heroes Competition

To celebrate the launch we have a selection of Heroes goodies to give away to 3 lucky winners.

FREE competition to win Heroes Goodies

Enter our FREE competition to win Heroes Goodies – Heroes clock, 2x Heroes t-shirts, a special limited edition comic and a Heroes puzzle cube.

To enter the competition all you need to do is correctly answer the following question:

What is the name of Sandra Bennett’s dog?

Send your entries to freecompetition@buzzinmedia.co.uk with Buzzin TV Heroes Competition in the subject line with your answer and your full address and contact telephone number.

The Buzzin TV Free Competition ends on 30 November, 2008. The editor will randomly choose 3 winners. Each will receive a set of Heroes Goodies comprising of a Heroes clock, 2x Heroes t-shirts, a special limited edition Heroes comic and a Heroes puzzle cube.

The editor’s choice is final.

Okay….I have no idea what the title means, I’m hoping it will become slightly more obvious when I watch Heroes Unmasked! The story lines are becoming more and more convuluted, shooting off into the future, coming back to present time, future and present characters pairing up – surely that’s a paradox? Or is that just on Doctor Who?

So the future is filled with the rich and privileged buying themselves abilities and it looks like one of them somehow manages to rip the world apart….not good!

On the plus side, the blame is no longer shouldered by Sylar who appears to be a reformed character, complete with a cute son going by the name of Noah! So it looks like (in this timeline anyway) Sylar and HRG have ironed out their differences. All very nice until cute little Noah gets murdered by a very wayward future Claire and her gang and Sylar goes nuclear and obliterates Costa Verde….and this is the least of future mankinds worries!!

Unfortunately Present Peter aquires Sylar’s ability before he explodes and arrives back in current time with a ‘hunger for knowledge’ so it appears we now have two brain disectors on the loose.

Going back to the future (ha ha!) it seems like most of the Heroes have happily settled down – Nathan and Tracey, Matt, Daphne and Molly with new baby Daniella, but we haven’t seen anything of Noah and Angela yet and considering Claire has gone into terminator mode and partnered up with Knox, who wanted Noah dead last week (4years ago!), things don’t look good.

Finally, just to squeeze in another character storyline, Hiro is told by Angela to let Adam out of his grave. Talk about put the cat among the pidgeons!!

Is the person who has hired Daphne to steal the formula for him responsible, or is it down to Mohinder and his discovery? Either way, Peter definitely needs to go back in time and stop Mohinder turning himself into whatever freaky monster he has become – I’m guessing giant mutant spider! Any suggestions?

Lastly….Caitlin ever be found/returned?

I’m actually starting to feel quite sorry for Sylar – he has been usurped as the most evil character on the show by his own Mother! He really can’t be blamed for his actions when his own Mother is feeding him new brains to disect! What the heck was that all about?

I do think, however, that HRG and Sylar and going to be the greatest ‘crimefighting’ partnership since Starsky and Hutch. Loved the ‘hands of the buffet’ comment ha! ha!

Hiro and Ando are still on Daphne’s trail altough she has proved herself smarter each time they confront eachother. We still don’t know who she is working for though – I still haven’t decided if it is going to be an old adversary or a new character.

Nikki’s sad story continues with Tracey Strauss meeting up with Mica, who helps her trace a Dr Zimmerman, who is apparantly Tracey’s/Nikki’s/whoever else’s creator. Looks like an exciting new twist could be opening up…..

butterfly

Heroes – Episode 2, BBC2, Wednesday 9pm

Whoa……someone get me a chair!  Give whoever wrote this episode a BIG(ger) paycheck. 

Watching mild-mannered Mohinder ripping off his shirt and specs Superman stylee to reveal a body so buff it must have been CGI’d certainly made my day!!  Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays Mohinder, must have spent his break locked in the gym. 

Unfortunately ladies, it looks like this vision of gorgeousness will be short lived as the show ended with the power enhanced Mohinder sprouting unsightly growths on his body.  Motherflippers!

Elsewhere, following Bob’s death, mother-from-hell, Angela Petrelli, steps in as Head of the Company. We discover not only that Peter’s first power – dreaming the future – came from her, but that she is Sylar’s real mother!  Now we should have seen that coming. 

We have also found out where Bob got all his money from to fund The Company – he had the Midas touch.  I wonder what will happen to his poor orphaned daughter, Elle, now?  It doesn’t look like Angela holds any maternal sympathy for her.

Volume 3 has definitely started well, revealing the answers to many of our question from the past two seasons and giving us loads more such as ‘Where did the powers originate from?‘, ‘Who is new character Daphne working for?‘ and most importantly ‘Is future Peter really a baddie?‘  – of course not…he can’t be….can he?

So the summer that never was is officially over, the kids have gone back to school and, hurah!, we have some decent programmes on our tv’s again.

I’m glad the Desperate Housewives have returned, but it’s been so long since the writers strike severed the show mid-season that I had trouble remebering what exactly had happened at the beginning of this series.  Another thing that struck me was that the dialogue seemed a bit stilted, especially noticable in the conversation between Gaby and Edie.  Did anyone else think that or was it just me?  Are they using new writers?

Anyway, it was still great to be able to watch something that didn’t involve reality tv or sport again.  I stared in envy at Gaby’s perfect figure and wondered how they are going to write Eva Longoria Parker’s rumoured pregnancy into the show considering Gaby can’t have children…and I have started to ponder what little plot twist will eventually explain Katherine Mayfair’s husband’s disappearance.

I know all clues are pointing to her murdering him in self defence…but it can’t be that obvious….can it?

Take a look at this fab trailer for the much anticipated third series of Heroes.  OMG has Claire turned to the dark side!!