Everyone likes a freebie but I get fed up with slebs enjoying free holidays thinly disguised as TV travel shows. Mostly they’re presenters/actors/whatever offering brief spells of fluffy box-ticking sandwiched between prefluff and postfluff.
One recent example was in Crete, an island I know well and love. The show offered nothing you couldn’t find on a tourist board website or Google search.
These shows are shallow, cheap and a huge snub to proper travel writers who put in the miles.
It turns on whether the star of the show is the destination or the presenter.
But it’s not all bad. Michael Palin was a ledg and Simon Reeve can be riveting. Even Michael Portillo has grown into the role of colourful train buff.
And I can’t help laughing at Bradley Walsh in Breaking Dad. The guy deserves some compo for Dr Who.
Now I’ve got that off my chest, if anyone is looking for a show about a grumpy crimewriter and his cute Toddler Grandson touring the pubs and cheese shops of Sussex we’re available.
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I’m not sure naming storms is a good idea. When they’re a cluster of isobars they’re just weather. If they’re named it’s personal.
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And then there’s my Work In Progress… don’t get me started! I love music but when the WiP’s putting up a fight it makes twelve-bar blues feel like an unsuccessful pub crawl
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Lego is the new therapy and it reminds me of when I Interrailed around Europe in the 70s. 
From the UK to Morocco, Finland and points between I always had a box of Lego bricks to counter the risk of ‘Wimbledon neck’ from watching the scenery pass hour after hour.
I still treasure the passport with all those European border stamps. And I have an envelope of old, dead currencies.
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Toddler Grandson dressed up as a doctor at playgroup and was fascinated with his stethoscope. There’s a three-week wait for an appointment with my GP so I might see if the kid can fit me in.
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Don’t forget! My seven DANNY LANCASTER crime thrillers are available as ebooks and paperbacks. The ebook of the first – THE WRECK OF THE MARGHERITA – is FREE. The other titles are just 99p/99c each on Amazon Kindle. Find them here… https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bill-Todd/e/B008SA121U