Peter Aspden & Bettany Hughes debate luxury & culture at the V&A Museum

 Thursday 6th September, 3.45pm
 V&A Museum
What does it take to create something of note? 

That is what Frost went to find out.  Arts & culture commentator Peter Aspden and award-winning historian Bettany Hughes were a great match together. The bounced off each other perfectly. Peter noted iconic moments in history – Elvis Presley singing Hound-dog to an actual hound dog, Michael Jackson – and Bettany, just back from a trip to Albania funded by Lord Rothschild,  certainly knows her stuff. Things I found out from her during the debate: it took 18 years to build the pyramids and they were made not by slaves as is popularly thought, but by citizens of Egypt for the gods.

While Peter said we should not be beholden to the past, Bettany said: “we live with the past, it is in everything we think and do”.

It was a lively debate with lots of good questions being asked. Chivas Brothers hosted the event at the beautiful Victoria & Albert museum. Chivas Brothers certainly know about good things taking time. Their whiskey takes 20 odd years to make. I saw one bottle which was thirty years old. They started making whiskey in the 1800s. They are now in the top 3 whiskey makers in the world.

The debate also raised the point that one of the reasons a 21-year-old whiskey is such a luxury is that the moment you drink it 21-years is gone.

If whiskey does not have an age statement then it is three years old, as whiskey has to be at least three years old.

Other things I learnt:

“Did you know that most of us only live for 800 months?” A.C Grayling.

The Taj Mahal took 25 years to build

Alcohol is an Arabic word.

Symposium  means “drinking together”.

What do you think?

Stefans TV Picks; 31st May

Monday 31st – BBC 2, 21:00
I’m not a big fan of period dramas, I would rather read Pride and Prejudice, Cranford annoyed me and I keep expecting Mark Heap to do a pratfall or start juggling in Lark Rise to Candleford. However, I’m expecting more than just stuffy women in bonnets and bile rising oh so polite kids in todays ‘The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister’. Anne Lister lived from 1791 to 1840, was a Yorkshire Landowner, rural gentlewoman and diarist, she also courted huge amounts of controversy due to being a lesbian and living with her lover. Based on Lister’s coded diary, this is one costume drama that promises to be more compelling than most others.

Tuesday 1st – ITV 1, 22:35
I tried, I really tried, I wanted to find a TV show better than my selection, but I really couldn’t, so…Shaun of The Dead it is. This brilliant zom-rom-com by the guys who bought us Spaced and Hot Fuzz shows what most of us would probably do in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Immensely funny and full of brilliant references and homage’s to the zombie genre (Shaun works at Foree Electronics, Ken Foree starred in Dawn of the Dead and I think his mother was purposely named Barbara just so they could utter line ‘We’re coming to get you Barbara’ a play on the line ‘They’re coming to get you Barbara’ from Night of the Living Dead) if I had a pick of the week, this would be it.

Wednesday 2nd – BBC 2, 21:00
Myths and Legends intrigue me, not the magical and mystical aspect of them, but how and why they started. One of the most well known myths is that of Atlantis. Tonight we shall join historian Bettany Hughes in Atlantis: A Timewatch Special, as she uses geology, archaeology and historic events to examine the natural disaster that inspired the legend of this island.

Thursday 3rd – Sky Movies Premier, 17:00
Stop motion animation films have come a long way sing King Kong terrorised New York back in 1933 and through Peter and The Wolf, Wallace and Gromit and Jack Skellington we come to Coraline. Based on the book by Neil Gaimen, Coraline is the story of a young girl bored with her life who, after finding a hidden door in her new house, makes nightly excursions into a fantastical parallel world that mimics her own life but changes things so all is perfect for her. A brilliant slightly nightmarish movie that everyone can watch and everyone will enjoy.

Friday 4th – Sky Movies Premier, 20:00
Johnny Depp is known for his wacky outlandish roles, in Public Enemies we get to see him be sensible for a change. Starring Depp as notorious gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale as hard-nosed FBI agent Melvin Purvis charged with tracking him down and capturing him, Public Enemies brings all the action you’d expect from a gangster movie, but also shows the relationships between Dillinger and his crew, his moll and most importantly the game (in his eyes) between him and Purvis. A nice change for anyone like me who is sick of Depp prancing about in make up.

Saturday 5th – BBC 2, 22:00
The series I’m in a Rock and Roll Band has been a good look at all the elements of a rock band (I’ll jus ignore that they lumped us bassist’s in with saxophonists and backing dancers as ‘the other one’ in a band *grumblegrumble*!) and will be ending with a studio discussion presented by old punk Jonathon Ross, rock fan Lauren Laverne, Police drummer Stewart Copeland and DJ Mark Radcliff discuss theirs and the nations favourite rock’n’rollers and debate all things rock live in front of a studio audience. After a nation wide poll they also be revealing the countries dream band! I’m hopin for Thom Yorke on vocals, Slash on guitar (just for his sweeeet solos), Travis Barker on drums, Flea on bass, the Gogol Bordello girls for backing vocals/hi-jinks and Billy Corgan as song writer!

Sunday 6th – BBC1, 20:00
I like telly. And I like to see things I like get awards for being good, which is why the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA without the F) will be on in my house today. Honouring all thing’s telly and giving out those shiny one eyed faces the only bad thing is it’s being presented by the BBC’s flavour of the month Graham Norton, he should stick to annoying reality gameshows and shouting innuendo’s on his chatshow! Other than that sit back and watch the pretty people get pretty awards.