The End of Badminton?

Really real, and on set.

I'm very conflicted about what to say here. I'm not an industry insider per se, but I have information from the inside of the industry. I can certainly say that I'm a big fan of the show, but does that give me the right to speculate on an online forum where my words could be interpreted correctly, or worse?

I think it's fair to say that I can say that I can say that Badminton's shooting schedule has been shot by Covid. I think we could all've figured that out when the last episode (of a supposedly six-part pilot series) was published in June 2020. I suppose it's a little ironic, since it was born out of lockdown, but is that reason to want it gone? Clearly the community has been going full Kubler Ross over the lack of announcements. To say speculation has been rife would be accurate. To say that is has been rifle would probably be an autocorrect error.

I just don't know how we can move forward from here. I hope I won't put myself in the frame here by telling you that a friend of mine, who has access to the lot they film Badminton on, recently let me loose on set one night, with one of the old dummy racquets and a rubber shuttlecock. I mean, honestly, it felt awesome to be able to hit the shuttle against the wall, like the protagonist does in the series. It was also pretty bittersweet, when one considers that the buzz wasn't there: the chatter of the radio, the tweeting of the birds, the alphaity of nobheads using the garage over the road... It was like a ghost town, but it wasn't a town. Maybe it was a town, but located in my heart, and the population was one - me. And maybe I don't like my own company...

Anyway, I suppose I wanted to use the meagre platform I have to just say, hey, can't we just appreciate what a great show this, I dunno, is? Was? Will be? It certainly could be... I mean, if it's just a money thing, can't they realise the demand over here?

I did hear on a message board the our glorious creator is trying to move on to other things. Again, I know that's speculation, so take it with a melon-baller of salt, but I really think that artists should start what they finish, you know. Where do they get off, tantalising us poor public people? Haven't you ever thought?

Well, my sponsor reminds me to be grateful for what we have, and I must say that I am. Four great episodes so far.

 

Check them out here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxdRkKm7E7mua-G7mPXTpreVatbYLpxsG

This Should Be A Happy Day

You're probably too young to remember, but I can recall the day when the launch of a new YouTube channel and its videos was a glorious thing, greeted with tumultuous applause, a veritable orgasm of emotional outpouring. Officials from the towns and cities would break a bottle of special reserve Champagne over the channel title - drips and drops of the drink dribbling down onto the sidebars and the videos themselves - and they'd have, oh, at least three cheers, but sometimes more. Maybe that was more a regional thing... My point is that they used to love it. Oh, yes, telegrams were sent, guns fired into the air, bunting put up, flags waved, you get the picture.

As the years passed, though, there were warning signs. Some of the officials that came to cut the tape and Champerschristen the budding vlog saplings started turning up late to the launches. Some of them yawned. Some of them, in remarkable displays of disrespect, drank the Champagne and smashed the empty bottle over the channel. All of a sudden, the police were "too overstretched" to clamp down on such breaches, and, little by little, our fine, upstanding traditions were whittled down to the attendance of a few die-hard fans, who might still bring a party-popper or two along, just to try and hark back to the grandeur of those halcyon days. Which brings us to

TODAY. You are now more likely to be punched in the nose, shot, or blacklisted from your local Screwfix for daring to impugn the sovereign nature of the internet with a new, upstart channel. Such besmirchments are clamped down on with a kind of 'negative vigour' that is the direct opposite of the joyous exulatations we used to see in support. 'Those were days', says this writer in a grim and ultimately pointless muttering into the void.

This writer is also launching his own channel. There's a video, anyway. Come what may, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54IJdgWlM8A