The animated map is quite wonderful, in a grotesque sort of way -- based (sort of) on raw materials which I provided them with. I asked them to let me check it before it went out -- but they only had 3 days from filming to transmission, so there it is......
Two days of my time, and 3 hours of filming last week -- and they cut down all my careful explanations of the theories and their pros and cons into a sound-bite of a few seconds. This is after all a family show -- mustn't be too taxing. What they wanted was some wacky stuff from two eccentric engineers (Garry and Bruce) and a party pooper (me) to entertain the viewers while they tucked in to their suppers......
What the hell -- it's all quite entertaining -- and at least some people will now know that maybe glaciers have something to do with Stonehenge!
Here is the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016k0vn/The_One_Show_25_10_2011/
The Stonehenge piece lasts about 5 mins, and starts a couple of minutes into the show. Enjoy!!
Never mind, Brian, Norton probably still believes in the Irish Stonehenge connection! Pity Terry Wogan, a much classier wit, wasn't the One Show guest, he was very good on Radio 4's "Midweek" this morning.
ReplyDeleteWell you can see why they have Dan Snow on the show - he supports the sensible boat theory and so is allowed to look after Graham's dogs.
ReplyDeleteRJL
Yes, I noticed Dan Snow's bit of pontification. Yet another media personality who doesn't know what he is talking about. When you are a presenter you just have to PRETEND to be an expert.....
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Brian
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoyed your 15 minutes (well at least 2 minutes) of fame? - your theory was the most plausible by a long way in my mind.
As chairman of the British 'eccentric theory' club I wish to offer you a life membership and access to our lavish facilities which include spa, showers and padded cells in the Big Brother (I'm a 'c' celebrity) House.
I'm sure this is just the first step in your meteoric success story.
Regards
David Icke
PS love the 'stonehenge layer' idea!!
I suggest you send a 'Twitter' straight away to Alex Jones, co-presenter of The One Show and with Welsh Allegiances of course, tell her how much you admire her current dancing performances on Strictly, and offer to vote for her at least a thousand-fold, PROVIDED she has a quick word with Sir David Attenborough [did you notice he was on the One Show as guest the night after that Graham Norton, pity you didn't have him the night before!] and he can use his good influences so that you get a BBC Documentary devoted to your hypothesis on the BBC SOON!! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteSir Bruce Forsyth
And get back to me later and we'll discuss plans for your future knighthood. Alright?('cause your my favourite!) Do you play golf??
Dear Brucie
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions. This all sounds like bribery and corruption on a vast scale. Is that how MPP, GW and TD get all those flashy programmes on the telly? Voting on "Strictly" for those who have influence in certain quarters? Well, we Welsh are not into such things, and stand aloof while the rest of the world grovels in the mire.
Mind you, it might have been helpful, as you say, if Sir David had been on the previous evening -- and he did show some fantastic time lapse images of glaciers doing spectacular things......
Its a start though Brian. Congratulations!!!. Just a few pointers to help your budding career as a Media expert. Your appearance let you down. If you want to get your views aired on the BBC's serious Archeological programmes. Get yourself a stupid looking hat,and buy yourself some new age clobber and some sandals.
ReplyDeleteBasically start dressing like a tw*t. You'll have to coarsen your Welsh accent as well, your pronunciation/diction was far too clear; try mumbling a bit, a bit of profanity and a few colloquialisms won't hurt your prospects either.
The advice is for free this time,But I'm willing to act as your media consultant/Agent for a reasonable fee :0
Regards
Alex
Brian
ReplyDeleteOnly joking! All I meant was, just have a word with Alex Jones, she's likely to be sympathetic with your hypothesis, in fact, she was only telling me as much the other day....
But you could try tapping that Celtic Robbie Savage up, and he might dye his hair BLUE (GET IT?)and mention your Theory after his dance instead of answering back the judges.That would stun them.
Then there's always Len...........
And you're still MY FAVOURITE (out of you, TD, MPP and GW)!!
You are too kind, Alex. Actually, I do have a Ned Kelly T-shirt and a fine Aussie hat -- should I add the dangling corks? I can do sandals too. And I knew I shouldn't have had that haircut the other day.
ReplyDeleteI agree, The glacier footage was excellent.
ReplyDeleteIf you want a Knighthood though, you're going to have to find the killer fact.
Although thanks to Dan Snow's bit of revisionist history. Its too late to spare her Maj from having to go to Spain to apologise for Evil old El Draco scaring all their children 400years ago; perhaps he thinks we'd have been better off under Spanish rule?.
There's still time to spare her the indignity of having to go to Wales to apologise for our evil neolithic ancestors, stealing bluestones from Preselli.
I'm sure she'd be very grateful
( a Knighthoods a cert)
Tell me, Brian, are you any good at "Leaping Lintels"? I'm thinking of using this technique on the Stonehenge trilithons in the near future. But I do have quite a good natural stride, and I recommend an intense stare to the novice presenters I coach up in Glasgow. Goes down a treat with the armchair viewers, or so I'm told. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteNeil Oliver
I used to be a Welsh pole vault champion, if that helps. A bit past it now, though.....
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the sideways glance while walking on the edge of teetering cliffs seems to be a fine technique. Maybe I could try walking backwards while talking out of the back of my head?
As your media consultant? I advise against adopting the walking backwards on teetering cliff edges affectation, as part of your repatoire. The subsequent flailing limbs, bog eyed look of terror technique, tends to upset the younger viewers and their parents, detrimentally affects programme ratings, and could bring your promising media career to an abrupt and messy halt;Talking out of the back of your head/arse is generally expected.
ReplyDeleteP.s. The contract's in the post.
The rolling theory seems the most likely method the rocks were moved by me. Surely a glacier would have moved enough material to be able to be definitively proven if that was what moved the blue stones.
ReplyDeleteHi Tom -- which rolling theory? The wicker basket cylinder theory, or the railway line and ballbearing theory? I have examined both of these on the blog in the past (use the search facility and you'll find the posts) -- but I find both of them very unconvincing. Maybe OK for short distances on nice firm chalk downs, but not OK at all for the Neolithic terrain of West Wales. If I had to go for any "human transport" technique, I would probably go for the good old-fashioned sledge and log rollers method -- but as we discovered in 2000 with the Millennium Stone Project, even that was nightmarishly difficult -- with just one stone being hauled, low-friction netting, and asphalt road surfaces.
ReplyDeleteNo -- I'll stick with glacier transport -- trawl back through the blog for all the arguments.
Blimey, we'll be here all weekend if this carries on, with all the comments, still it's good for the Ratings!
ReplyDeleteSBF
Brian
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking, suppose we get Sir Tom Jones on Strictly, and he could sing "Blue Suede Shoes", and, instead of a curvaceous dancer or three, INSTEAD we had images of blue stones at Stonehenge alternating with glaciation footage from Sir David's Frozen Planet?? Might bring a bit of class o the show!
Only, instead of singing 'Blue Suede Shoes', Tom could sing 'Blue Stone Shoes'.......perhaps we'd have him made up to look like Fred Flintstone. What'd'yer think, like it? Too cheap?
Bruce
The wacky, Scottish, ball-bearing idea had, in actual fact, been shown PREVIOUSLY, AGAIN INTERMINGLED with more prosaic explanations, only that time, instead of having you and your Glacial Theory on it,they had a great deal about Parker Pearson's Riverside Project on. This was a North American, possibly Canadian, hour-long show, which was screened possibly on Channel Five, earlier this year. So the moral is: BBC1 lacks braveness in some of its mainstream offerings.
ReplyDeleteDear Brucie
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity Elvis is dead (or is he?). The thing is, he was a Welshman really, from good Welsh stock. His grandfather, so I believe, emigrated to the good ol' US of A from Pembrokeshire. His name was Dafydd Preseli, but when Elvis started to make it into the big time they changed the family name from Preseli to Presley since that sounded more American. The rest is history.
There was a film about all of this some years back, on S4C, so therefore it must be true.
So it would be more impressive to have "Blue Suede Shoes" done by an Elvis impersonator. Unless, of course, Tom does a good Elvis impersonation himself? Do you think he would be up for it?
Rolling in the basket/tyre made of wicker seems like the best theory. I wonder if the stone was cocooned in large enough wicker basket/tyre if it would float?
ReplyDeleteDick Strawbridge (who did the interviews for the One Show) talked to Garry Lavin at length, and says that Garry claims to have calculated that a big enough wickerwork cylinder would have enough buoyancy to keep a 4 tonne pillar afloat. I would like to see its dimensions!
ReplyDeleteA major problem with this theory, as I see it, is that not all the bluestones are pillars -- some are slab-like in shape, and the Altar Stone is a very strange shape, and may weigh 9 tonnes. How on earth do you fit that into a wickerwork cylinder?
So we have - selective rock pushing glaciers, rolling stones and a train that runs on ball bearings.
ReplyDeleteComical television but poor science!!
At least anon floated he's rolling stone, good news for mick and the boys!
RJL
Robert -- we all await your better science with interest.......
ReplyDeleteSir Tom Jones and Elvis Presley WERE friends, fact, and got on well, Tom visiting "Graceland" several times; so I'm sure Tom would be delighted to do a tribute to Elvis by singing Blue S#### Shoes, but, as it would be Tom singing it, there would be no doubt that it was his tribute version [ now we're back to tribute stones, MPP, are you listening?], rather than yet another Elvis karaoke impersonation.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Karaoke is not a place in Madagascar, as far as I am aware, but "Graceland" IS a place of The Ancestor, Presley or Preseli. GW should sit up and note..... time for another revelation?
We, who enjoy reading and contributing to Brian's (B)Log, should petition the BBC and/or Presenter Dick Strawbridge to show us, as members of the Great TV Licence-Paying Public, a decent, full-length documentary on Brian John's Glacial Hypothesis, with or without the crackpot theories that went with that "blink-and- you-missed-it", bite-sized and unpalatable version on the Flagship (!) One Show.
ReplyDeleteDick Strawbridge has done longer documentaries of his own on, for instance, WW2 inventions, after all. Dick, are you listening? Where are you now, Lord Reith, what a man! Education and information first.
Sir Tom doing a tribute to Elvis Preseli up among the bluestone crags .... I like it. The film would be irresistible. Good music, high culture, and many layers of symbolism.
ReplyDeleteIf the produce insists, I'll put in a cameo appearance, wearing my Aussie hat (with corks), my Ned Kelly Tshirt, and a Scottish kilt (if I can find the right one for the McJohn clan....) and will talk about glaciers for a few seconds.
Sir Tom, are you reading this? Everybody else seems to be following the blog, including Dr Who, Max Boyce, David Icke and countless other experts on Stonehenge and the bluestones.
Look, Brian, of COURSE I'll do it! I'll do it for Elvis, and I'll do it for you, and I'll do it for that WONDERFUL feller that helped propel me to Stardom, Jimmy Saville, who helped get my career started back in the '60s, and who's just died, and I have to say he was not only a great man, but a great Yorkshireman (but aren't they all?). If Jim fixed it for me, Brian, I'llfix it for you.
ReplyDelete